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So, I couldn't help but notice that Warhammer 30k seems to be a really popular thing.

Which makes me wonder, how interesting would it be for players to play a scifi, or any game, with something like eras. Much like how WWII is often broken down by year, or early, middle, and late. Or how Ancients wargaming is often broken down into periods of Roman history. Or, since we're talking about scifi, there's that whole Star Trek era thing.

Heck, I think even Warmachine is about to jump forward in time.

It got me thinking that this ultimately might be a solution to endless version editions, and power creep. For as much as it might fracture the player base, at least once an era is finished, it stays stable for players to have fun. When eras advance, or jump back, you can keep some or all models, just with changes to stats and points. Eras could be revisited to add more nuance or explore the story, without disturbing the balance of other eras.

The main problem I see is that this is only feasible if a game is popular enough to support a playerbase scattered across many eras, But having a lot of cross era model reuse would help drastically with that. Also, starting with only one era if you're a new game or already established game with limited models.

One of the games for which I am working on a set of miniatures (Traveller/Striker/StrikerII) has a historical background, as well as a range of levels of technological development that allows form broad range of "periods."

You can do the early Imperium, prior to the (re)discovery of Earth/Terra.

You can go even earlier than that to the pre-Imperium.

Or, you can play during the Early/Middle/Late Imperum, right up the the assassination of the last Emperor Stephron.

And there is history even post-calamity.

There are also several huge "wars" that can be gamed in this universe:

The Solomani wars

The Frontier Wars (I - V) between the Imperium and the Zhodani

There are dozens of sector wars and sub sector wars.

There is the "Ancients" lingering colonies (or, the "Ancient," since it turned out to be one guy).

And there are wars with some of the most alien species ever created for a sci-Fi milieu.

On top of this, I have been doodling some sketches for a variant of 40k that Isn't so cartoonish, and where the technologies would produce effects more in line with what would happen in an actual battlefield.

This would lead to Sci-Fi games that spread over periods between the Napoleonic, to WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the Modern Era, to better application of advanced technologies than 40K (Since 40K treats everything as just another WWII era weapon without consideration to its actual effects and behavior on a battlefield).

But there are other games where there are distinct "periods" within the setting.

MB

It got me thinking that this ultimately might be a solution to endless version editions, and power creep.

Another one that other writers and companies use, is to write a decent ruleset, tweak and refine it with playtesting and maybe a second edition, then leave it the feth alone for a while to stand on it's own merits rather than on constant reselling.

I can't believe that no one has mentioned Battletech.

The Battletech universe has a rich backstory that covers hundreds of star systems over the course of several lifetimes. It has progressive mecha design over those years, so you can see things get better with progress.

Many playgroups will set their campaigns at a certain point in history and only use those marks of mech which are appropriate for that time period.

xraytango wrote:
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Battletech.

The Battletech universe has a rich backstory that covers hundreds of star systems over the course of several lifetimes. It has progressive mecha design over those years, so you can see things get better with progress.

Many playgroups will set their campaigns at a certain point in history and only use those marks of mech which are appropriate for that time period.

Yep, Battletech would be my best example of this also. The universe is fantastically detailed in a way that most other games could only dream of. Further, the various eras of battletech history are well defined and even given "era" names. You can see a description of the various eras and which products correspond to them.
http://bg.battletech.com/new-to-the-board-game/battletech-eras/

Battletech doesn't pretend to be as concerned with balance as other games, but within a given era you will find a fairly defined set of technological advances, new units, etc. Each era also has lots of narrative information and details about the condition of the various factions. You can still use older units in "newer" eras. They will be outclassed, but will also cost fewer points.

In my last game I had only 3025 era stuff against invading Clanners. We were on the periphery where the clan first entered and I didn't have access to any the 3025-3050 type advancements.

I took out a single clan assault mech and lost a couple of my own but in the end, the world surrendered and became slaves to the clan. My cheaper points mechs did alright against the clan until I did enough dishonourable stuff that they could disregard their rules of engagement and then they committed their elementals en masse and things went down hill.

X-wing would have one but I don't think we want to go there...

 Daba wrote:
X-wing would have one but I don't think we want to go there...

Why not, I would submit that the stories behind when and where the various ships entered service could definitely be used as historical markers.

I would say that Z-95's are one of the oldest designs in the game not to mention Y-wings (probably around the same era, Clome Wars) without bringing in Droid fighters, ARC-170's, and Jedi fighters (both marks). TIEs would be next, to which Incom designed the T-65 X-wing in response to, what with shields, hyperdrive, and an astromech; a slower/less manuverable yet durable and flexible space superiority fighter capable of working at extended ranges without a carrier vessel.

Then we see the TIE advanced, imho TIE bombers were operational concurrently with TIE fighters its just that we don't see them until ESB. The lessons from the TIE advanced were put into TIE defenders and TIE interceptors as well as the interceptor having cross linked cannon to match the x-wing in order to defeat the shields and armor of the Rebel workhorse. Also during the last few years of the Imperial era we see the B-wing emerge designed by verpine techs and whos prototype was retrieved during the Strikeforce: Shantipole operation somewhere after or concurrent with the events of ESB. Then we consider the A-wing, a speedy little fighter with shields, limited navputer for a few pre-programmed hyperspace jumps, dual cannon with a healthy amount of concussion missiles.

Post Galactic Empire ( after the battle of Endor) we see even newer and more efficient fighter craft emerge such as the E and V wings.

So, yes I feel that there could very well be a fairly consistent timeline in the development of Star Wars mil-tech.

In fact I am planning a Trench Run game in May, the only ships that will be on the table are x-wings, TIE's, Y-wings, 1 TIE advance, and 1 Millenium Falcon.

I would say that qualifies as a "historical" scenario.

Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5 - just three to name a few that have different eras you could play in.

Star Wars has Old Republic, Prequels, Rebellion, New Republic and Legacy eras, at the least.

Star Trek has the 23rd (Enterprise) 24th century (TOS), 25th century (Next Gen), and Dominion wars (DS9), at the least.

Bablylon 5 has the Earth-Minbari War, the Shadow War, the Earth Civil War and the Exodus eras.

I'm sure more sci-fi franchise could be put out with a bit of thought. Someone want to tackle Dune?

 Stormonu wrote:

Someone want to tackle Dune?

That's quite the can of worms, considering the mixed feelings people had about the prequel books.

ACTA: Babylon 5 had both inservice dates for the various ships and their variants and also different eras for Earth Alliance in particular.

Worked quite nicely.

 Lockark wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

Someone want to tackle Dune?

That's quite the can of worms, considering the mixed feelings people had about the prequel books.

It's probably doable, but did Dune ever really give us the details and visual reference necessary to make a wargame out of it? Could make a pretty good RPG though...

 Eilif wrote:

 Lockark wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

Someone want to tackle Dune?

That's quite the can of worms, considering the mixed feelings people had about the prequel books.

It's probably doable, but did Dune ever really give us the details and visual reference necessary to make a wargame out of it? Could make a pretty good RPG though...

If I recall the prequel books went more in depth explaining certain things, witch is sort of the reason people really disliked them. Sort of destroyed the mystery surrounding certain events.

I never could sit down and read all of it, and actually found the prequel books more enjoyable to read then the original trilogy even if saying that means you have to turn in your geek badge.

Their was a lot of open war fair in the prequels between the robots, the brains in jars, and the different human factions. I could see a war game based on that. Haven't read enough of the original trilogy to know what's their to work with.

 Lockark wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

Someone want to tackle Dune?

That's quite the can of worms, considering the mixed feelings people had about the prequel books.

Pun intended?

xraytango wrote:
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Battletech.

Hell yeah! That game is all about its eras! You can pretty much pick a point on its extraordinarily long timeline and find enough information to play any game with era-accurate forces for whatever region of space you're in.

BattleTech is a hyper-detailed game that doesn't have the narrative scope of 40K because everything is so defined, but at the same time that's not a weakness for BTech. It's a strength. The history in BTech is so deep that you can lost in it.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

BattleTech is a hyper-detailed game that doesn't have the narrative scope of 40K because everything is so defined, but at the same time that's not a weakness for BTech. It's a strength. The history in BTech is so deep that you can lost in it.

I would disagree, though perhaps we're just expressing it differently. BT has a smaller "overall scope" since the universe is much smaller. However, the "Narrative scope" is much stronger because the entire universe is tied into the same overarching narrative that affects (to various degrees) all factions. Also, the narrative progresses uniformly.

By comparison, 40k narratives tend to be self-contained and mostly affect one section of the 40k universe with no bearing on what's happening elsewhere. I like 40k fluff, but when you compare it to BT fluff, its pretty clear that BT is a true Uni(fied)verse and 40k is a loose assemblage.

Also as relates to actual history, In BT, the timelines you find in different sourcebooks line up and affect one another. In 40k timelines are generally faction specific and exist mostly to tell a specific faction's story or a particular narrative tale. They don't generally interact with each other.

Dune would make a freakishly AWESOME game.

In fact, I can see it being a replacement for WH40K, with the way that the different factions view technology, the Feudal Structure of Society, the hidden factions, the control of Interstellar Travel by the Spacing Guild (at least until the development of No-Space travel), and the dependency upon a rare commodity that supports the entire economy.

In fact, after Middle-earth, I think Frank Herbert's Dune is among the best developed universes in existence.

MB

Well, 40k did borrow ALOT from Dune. God Emperor, Navigators, etc….

My reservations were mostly that AFAIK, the visual aspect of Dune hasn't been well established beyond what appears on Arrakis and even that has sources with completing aesthetics. Still, if the estate would commission some good art books to give a "look" to the Dune universe and flesh out the visuals for all the books, it could be pretty gameable.

I think there are many more-and/or-better developed universes, ( 40k, Battletech, Star Wars, Star Trek, any of the classic D&D settings, LoTR, etc…) but I think Dune has the potential to be as-or-more compelling than most and with it's particular treatment of religions and culture, it's certainly unique.