Posted to my downloads page is a set of solo-friendly micro-armor rules I'm calling Move, Shoot Communicate: Atomic Tank Platoon.
Really the game is fairly generic and could be used for almost any
setting or era where combatants fight in small teams using firearms.
As
the title implies, the focus is on moving, shooting and communicating,
and the basic mechanic is rolling "situational awareness dice" to see if
a unit can earn actions. The game is d6 only and the typical amount of
situational awareness dice is 4d6. Earning an action requires rolling
greater than a threshold established by the unit's quality, a`la Song of Blades and Heroes or Chain Reaction 3.0. My
game has a couple twists to hopefully set it apart from those great
games and keep the spirit of fire team operations. First, the
activating figure is randomly chosen from only among those figures which
can see the enemy (unless of course no unit on a side can see any
opponents). This represents the chaos on the battlefield that erupts
upon contact with the enemy. Second more significant is the
communication mechanic. After a side activates a unit and rolls
situational awareness dice to earn and execute actions, that side may
activate more units. Subsequent units get one less situational
awareness die each however (from 4d6 to 3d6 to 2d6 to 1d6 for example).
Spending one earned action on communication instead of moving or
shooting however prevents the dice degradation. So if each unit burns
an action on communication an entire force may be able to act, each
rolling 4d6 to determine actions. Alternately units may eschew spending
time talking on the radio, making only a small number of nonetheless
dramatic attacks or movement.
I've playtested the game
and it's decent fun. It works better with larger numbers of units (~8
to10 minimum) and the token and marker requirement is minimal. Give it a
try.
EDIT- Although I haven't playtested it with new dice, I'm convinced the game will work better with d10s vice d6s. This will allow seven different levels of armor, resulting in Defense Thresholds of 1 to 9 when coupled with a technology bonus to represent active defenses for contemporary and advanced units. Of course, this requires reducing the move increment to 4cm versus 5cm.
Sound like an interesting concept. Worth giving a try!
ReplyDeleteI might give them a try, too, though I probably modify them for modern rather than sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys. If you've looked through the rules, you'll notice they are rather bare-bones. For example there is no example of a tank's reference sheet, showing the different armor facings (I designed the game for 90 degree armor arcs). I'm building terrain and miniatures right now, but hope to get some vehicle construction rules posted soon. These will make some of the concepts more clear I think. Finally, note the edit to the post above: I think the game will work better with d10s.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, I'll give a try too.
ReplyDeleteI'm going back and updating some of my really old posts… I gave this ruleset a try and it was a stinker! No fun. Didn't work for me; just too mechanical.
ReplyDelete