A year ago, I reviewed a game that was new to me: Starships and Spacemen. I had recently downloaded it from RPGDriveThru.com, and was enthralled by it. The publishers of the game, Goblinoid Games, also publish an “Old School” D&D retro-clone called Labyrinth Lord, a post-apocalyptic game in the mold of the old Gamma World game, and other great things, including my favorite game supplement of all time, Rangers and Rabbits.
I finally got a chance to try the game out recently. I found a “sandbox[1]” campaign for it on sale at RPGDriveThru.com, and we spent several hours generating the crew of the CSS Halsey, a destroyer starship in the Confederation Space Fleet. When fully manned, the Halsey has 32 crewmen, and was captained by a Lieutenant Commander (level 4). Our characters were all Ensigns (level 1), and most of the enlisted members of the crew are “E-1” Crewmen (level 1/enlisted). I say “was captained” … the skipper never returned from his first mission, after a teleporter mishap. He may not be dead, but we don’t know where he went, or how to get him back from… wherever. The next landing party, sent down to investigate a long-ago wrecked starship from an unknown species (they went down in a shuttle) consisted of the Navigator, the Security Officer, the Science Officer, the Chief Engineer, a medical rating (NPC) and an engineering rating (NPC). As they approached the wreckage, they were attacked by this huge animal… and it bit the unnamed, red-shirted engineering rating in half. Yes, the first casualty of this game was a nameless redshirt. The gameplay is fairly simple, and pretty smooth. As my familiarity with the system increases, I believe it will be even easier, and even better. This is a great game. General Quarters. Raise shields, load the forward torpedo tubes, ready the phased beam cannons – … Sum non Satis? [1] A “sandbox” game is one in which the players can do anything they want to do. There is no set goal – beyond (a) survive, (b) explore, and (c) have fun. Space Fleet has given the Halsey orders to explore the quadrant of space they’re in, to defend the people and interests of the Confederation of Planets. Other than that, the new captain (who started as the First Officer) just decides where we’re going and what we’re doing when we get there.
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Commodore Tank ClarkCommodore Clark has been the Team Leader of the 33rd STARFLEET Rangers for several years. His monthly articles about games (usually Role-Playing Games -- RPGs -- but sometimes about other tabletop forms of entertainment) appear regularly in the Regulator Charge!, the ship's newsletter. Archives
September 2017
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