Star Trek Showdown

I know that there are some Star Trek cardboard figures out there, so the thought occurred to me that they could be used for wargaming. There is also a Savage Star Trek conversion - all that would be required would be to point up a some figures in Showdown and play some ground based skirmish games. There are some nice sets of SF cardboard scenery out there (not just the usual bunkers, but alien ruins and more generic/non military sets). Red shirt extras and wildcard Star Fleet personnel against klingons etc.

Any takers?

You had me at star trek !!!!

absolutly..........

Myke

I was having a bit of a think about possible Star Trek Showdown rules. These are the things that I would like to see.

• In my mind this would be basically a skirmish game, not the big battles that Showdown is designed to emulate - in fact more like a traditional Savage Worlds combat - no more than 20 figures per side.

• Each side would consist of officers and crew (Wild Cards and Extras).

• There (probably) wouldn't be 'unit's of figures, though this may not apply to extras; for instance security guards/red shirts may operate in pairs.

• Officers giving bonuses to crew (bennies, or additional morale bonuses)

• Further one officer figure, probably the highest ranking would be designated as the Commanding Officer and they would be subject to this special rule. Each round, after all initiative cards have been assigned they may swap their drawn card with any other of their force. This may be too powerful...

• Make up and point cost standard, ready made characters such as captain, medical officer, engineer, red shirt, veteran red shirt. These would be costed up for humans, however alien race templates would also be costed up so if you wanted to create a vulcan science officer you would just add the points for science officer + vulcan and change the stats and point cost accordingly.

• More emphasis given to things like sneaking hiding etc.

• Finally missions should be mostly objective based; rolling for scenarios/missions/objective for each game (perhaps different for each side) so that games aren't simply kill the opposing force. This is probably the part that would require the most thought. Something flavourful and providing tactical interest without being too specific, for instance; reaching a specific point on the map, capturing an enemy officer, repairing damaged equipment, holding off the enemy for a certain number of rounds etc. Basically things that a) give it more of a Star Trek feel and b) make the games feel more like a story rather than a death match.

• Set in the original trek universe - when even diplomacy was more two-fisted.

• Call it 'Landing Party'

Thoughts?

Great Teufel wrote:I was having a bit of a think about possible Star Trek Showdown rules. These are the things that I would like to see.

In my mind this would be basically a skirmish game, not the big battles that Showdown is designed to emulate - in fact more like a traditional Savage Worlds combat - no more than 20 figures per side.?

Absolutely. Ideally you would have no more than half a dozen on a side as if you watch TOS, there was rarely more than six people in a landing party due to the transporter having six spots. That said, to allow for more tactical variation, allow up to 12?

Great Teufel wrote:Each side would consist of officers and crew (Wild Cards and Extras)..

Right on!

Great Teufel wrote:There (probably) wouldn't be 'unit's of figures, though this may not apply to extras; for instance security guards/red shirts may operate in pairs. )

Seems about right.

Great Teufel wrote:Officers giving bonuses to crew (bennies, or additional morale bonuses)

Ditto

Great Teufel wrote: Further one officer figure, probably the highest ranking would be designated as the Commanding Officer and they would be subject to this special rule. Each round, after all initiative cards have been assigned they may swap their drawn card with any other of their force. This may be too powerful)

Not sure if this is necessary. Command edges should serve just as well without going over the top.

Great Teufel wrote: Make up and point cost standard, ready made characters such as captain, medical officer, engineer, red shirt, veteran red shirt. These would be costed up for humans, however alien race templates would also be costed up so if you wanted to create a vulcan science officer you would just add the points for science officer + vulcan and change the stats and point cost accordingly.

Neat.

Great Teufel wrote:More emphasis given to things like sneaking hiding etc.

Essential when you have weapons that can freeze you, make you go red then disappear. On that note, phasers should be statted out with stun and kill only to keep things simple.

Great Teufel wrote: Finally missions should be mostly objective based; rolling for scenarios/missions/objective for each game (perhaps different for each side) so that games aren't simply kill the opposing force. This is probably the part that would require the most thought. Something flavourful and providing tactical interest without being too specific, for instance; reaching a specific point on the map, capturing an enemy officer, repairing damaged equipment, holding off the enemy for a certain number of rounds etc. Basically things that a) give it more of a Star Trek feel and b) make the games feel more like a story rather than a death match.

100% agree with this approach. I'll try and come up with a list of general scenarios.

Great Teufel wrote:Set in the original trek universe - when even diplomacy was more two-fisted.

Great Teufel wrote:Call it 'Landing Party'

Inspired.....

Well in theory any number of figures could be on each side, it depends on what type of game you want to play, but yes I was thinking of levels equal to a couple of transporter 'beams' or shuttlecraft load making sense. Of course we don't see any maor ground actions so who knows, it might be fun to have an officer, nco and a whole bunch of red-shirt in a battle.

I agree that that commanding officer/chain of command rule is not really required, but I do like giving little rule tweaks to give things more flavour - and the Showdown rules are a bit vanilla. The three reasons for maybe doing this:-

1. It seemed like a cool idea.

2. In a system where everything costs points things like rank don't really serve any purpose in a purely combat game. By making all officers (and maybe NCOs) wildcards you don't have to spend points on this as it is implied by their wildcard status - you can give them any rank you like as flavour text, but don't need to spend any points.

3. Further to the above, designating one officer the commander implies an even higher rank without the point cost (i.e. it is a bit of mechanical fluff). The main reason however is that it adds a bit depth to combat and roleplaying to proceedings; for instance a federation officer with a jack might choose to swap cards with another lower rank dealt a 3 who is exposed and in the open this turn and probably going to get killed unless he can find cover before the enemey starts shooting. A klingon might however swap his deuce with a lower rank who got the joker.

Ultimately it was just a thought however and may not fly.

I think what I meant by more sneaking etc was for figures to have (and be able to use) more skills than just fighting and shooting.

It also occured to me that it would be fun if each faction (Federation, Kingon, Romulan) had their own mission tables that emphasis their character. So the feds would be not nessecarily be about destruction or killing, whereas klingon missions would be more about that sort of thing and romulans would be about deception and sneaking etc.

Victory points could also be tweaked to match factions. So for instance federation could be penalized for losing personnel, whereas klingons would not, but may lose more points for an officer.

Also other beasts could be stated up like that white ape - there is a Onemonk figure that with a bit of Photoshoping would be perfect.

Maybe create specific scenarios based on the show. A classic one would be the Galilao episode with its Roark's Drift feel. Again the Onemonk ogres would be pretty perfect for the opposition.