Small-space Sci-Fi Game

I was sitting in a meeting this morning, bored out of mind, so I pulled up Word and made a gridded battle area for a small sci-fi skirmish.

I used a 1" grid, colored in spaces for buildings, indicated doors and windows and threw on some wooded cover("explosions2" in Word). 

The final result was printed on a sheet of sand colored cardstock:

The scenario: Rescue the hostage from the enemy's clutches.

 The rules were made up quickly. Starting positions were determined by die roll:

Turns:
Roll 1d6 for initiative, high score moves first

Figures can move and fire each turn, with some exceptions(see further down)

Movement
Base rate of 4 squares, fast = 1d3 + base rate

Combat:

A close up of the good guys from the enemy's perspective

Ranges
pistols = 4 squares
smg = 6 squares
rifle = 10 squares. 

Short range = 1/2 of range or less.

To hit: 
short range/no cover = 4,5,6
short range/cover = 5,6
long range/no cover = 5/6
long range/cover = 6

smg's roll 2 dice to hit

Regulars save on a 6 on a 1d6

Characters roll 1d6 and consult the following table:
6 = Carry on
4,5 = Knocked down
2,3 = Unconscious
1 = Killed

On next activation: Unconscious becomes Knocked down, Knocked down becomes Carry on.

Unconscious and Knocked down can be auto-killed if enemy in adjacent square.

Other:
To shoot into a building through a window, if target figure is not in a square with a window, can only attack on (4-6 on a 1d6) and in LOS.
Doors can be kicked open on a 4-6 on a 1d6

If empty building (no figures on table) are there enemies in building?:

1 Yes (1d4 figures) and you can fire at them

2,3 Yes (1d4 figures) but they you can't fire this turn

4,5 No but that doesn't mean it's an empty building 

6 No and the building is actually empty

A close up of the other 2 good guys from my position.
They have bear butts. Get it? Bear butts?
 I think this joke says more about me than I'd like.

If a figure looks through a window into an empty building(no figures on table) do they see an enemy?
1 Yes (1d4 figures) and you can fire at them
2,3 Yes (1d4 figures) but you can't fire this turn
4,5 No but that doesn't mean it's an empty building 
6 No and the building is actually empty








Special rule for this scenario:
Characters can spend 1 turn searching a building - no other action may be taken

In the first building, a 6 means the hostage is there
In the 2nd building searched, hostage found on 5 or 6
In 3rd building searched, hostage found on 4-6
In 4th building searched, hostage found on 3-6.

With only four buildings, it does means it is possible hostage may not be in any building. Perhaps the intel was wrong or the hostage has been recently transferred to another location.

Added on the fly during my game:
Each turn, roll to see if a patrol enters the board 1-3 yes, 4-6 no. I used 1d4 figures for the patrol size. And rolled for which open edge square the patrol would enter from. Finally, I rolled to see which group of my players they would advance towards and at what rate (fast or regular).

I also used the Yes/YesAnd/NoBut/NoAnd method for questions about enemy tactics if I had any doubt.

The result: A fun game that ended in a TPK as wave after wave of enemy patrols finally took their course.

Small Space Gaming

This post over on SoloNexus got me thinking about gaming on a small space.

I typically game on a 3' x 3' or 2'x2' space although I'm fortunate that I can expand to 3' x 5' if I really want to. Traditionally, in a hobby of 6' x 8' tables as the heralded standard, my playing area is already pretty small.

But what if I went smaller? What about a single sheet of paper small?

If this looks vaguely familiar,
 yes you've seen it before

It may seem absurd, if you're approaching it from a figure gaming paradigm, but many map-and-counter wargames are played on a single sheet of paper (as I did with my own diy "map" - a grid-ed surface more properly speaking - and counters in this post)  and I have owned at least one that was 8.5 x 5.5" for the map (on the downside, in this case, the counters were terribly tiny).

So, yes I can play a wargame on a single sheet of paper - combined with the magnetic dry erase board idea (see the SoloNexus post, although similar products are available in the back-to-school supplies) and making the counters magnetic-  I could easily play a game on the train in the morning, using the dice app in my phone for my rolls.

From a figure perspective, obviously bases of several small figures would work for larger battles - 2mm and 6mm come to mind

But what about very small scale skirmish gaming - almost rpg-like even? I know some people do 1:1 character based games in 6mm, I don't own any 6mm to do that with. I do own a decent amount of 15mm figures though.

So, I figured, what the heck? Let's give it a go.

Admittedly, it looks like the kind of thing a GM hastily scrawls on a dry erase mat during an RPG session, but ignore that for now: what matters is, was it fun and would I do it again? Yes and yes.

I played this scenario twice: a small band of rebels are raiding a Control facility. They have to search as many rooms as possible and then get out. I used THW's CR3:FV for the first go, and home-brew set for the second.

Firearms and long range weapons were easily handled by a reducing the length of possible fire lanes - in this case, the twists and turns of the corridor, but cover of any sort would do. Indeed, I should have done more -the hallway my squad entered from was too long and put us at the mercy of the overwhelming numbers of Control troopers. Another sharp turn would have been a good idea. Ditto for the other long corridor.

Next time, I'll keep that in mind.

Since the figures are 15mm, I treated the ranges in CR3 as if the unit was centimeters instead of inches. For my home brew rules, I set base movement to 6cm and used the ranges from Use Me SciFi, but treated as cm.

In this case, the accurate range of their rifles was 10cm - but depending on the game you want, weapons ranges can be much longer than the "table". In my opinion, shorter ranges feel a little more cinematic, while longer ranges feel more realistic but will require a lot more cover to give a fun game in a small space like this.

Getting away from blasters and firearms, the dungeon makes a perfect environment in this situation. With most everything using melee weapons, the twists and turns of corridors aid escape and ambush, as much as they aid in reducing the power of those armed with range weapons.

3d objects and walls would take it to the next level - which would be great for playing at home, but not so much for the train (when I say train, I really mean subway. Hard plastic seats and a general odor of urine and sweat. Not cushy clean Amtrak cars with seats with tables and power outlets). Not as fancy, but a lot cheaper, is to spend a few minutes in a presentation app like PowerPoint or a drawing app like Google's to make a nicer looking surface to print out.

My plan is to visit this idea again for a Space Hulk / Aliens type game - rather than downloading, and being restricted by, somebody else's maps/tiles.

And in the meantime, I'll consider picking up an inexpensive magnetic dry erase board and some magnetic strips to make some counters. I look forward to the stares from the other passengers on the train.