[KS] Star Schlock - Battle Game (Pulp 70‘s-80‘s sci-fi inspired game and miniatures)

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**Grumpy Gnome**

From the folks that brought you the Star Schlock Astroguards in their first KS campaign now things really kick off with their second KS campaign…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/star-schlock-astros/star-schlock-battle-game-miniatures-and-skirmish-rules/description

Some fun sculpts. The first Kickstarter campaign seemed to go well.

**Tabletop_Magpie**

Good lord this looks fun. Can I justify another starter set I'll never convince anyone else to play? Only time will tell...

**Grumpy Gnome**

Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Good lord this looks fun. Can I justify another starter set I'll never convince anyone else to play? Only time will tell...

Game aside, the minis should be fun in a number of other games.

For size comparisons here are some photos from their first Kickstarter…

**Wunkay**

Good lord this looks fun. Can I justify another starter set I'll never convince anyone else to play? Only time will tell...

Hello miniature gamers! A backer directed me here and I noticed you were worried about getting someone to play. Just thought I'd check in and give you a bit more info. We recently ran Star Schlock many, many times over a four day convention. Gamers who have familiarity with modern tabletop games (board, wargame, CCGs, or RPGS) took to Star Schlock like a duck to water. Even those who were skeptical and got roped into a game by friends were pretty quickly won over and having a blast by the climactic end game.

My God man, the feats you can pull off! Each of the games of Star Schlock we ran at a recent convention inevitably featured:

- Goofy looking but hulking MONGO-RILLA ape cyborgs leaping over buildings to come to grips with their human enemies
- A tottering Robby the Robot style retro-bot ripping apart said MONGO-RILLA in a battle of the titans fitting a Godzilla movie.
- Ape Officers signally a charge by their brutish Gorilla Grunt soldiers who fall upon the human lines like a wave, scattering them before their mighty ape fists.
- Chief Engineers of the Explorer Corps beaming out overwhelmed human soldiers being ripped apart by Apes back to an orbiting space vessel, before teleporting those same soldiers back down to capture a key location on the far side of the battlefield.
- Red shirt human landing parties absolutely disintegrating charging Gorilla Grunts, in a desperate bid to keep their poorly armed Science Team comrades alive long enough to fire captured artillery pieces against invading Space Ape dropships

I know you have a ton of rules lying around, unpainted miniatures gathering dust, projects abandoned half-finished. I know. We all do. You're worried Star Schlock will join the pile. I can't offer you any guarantees. But I can tell you that "Hey, let's play a quick game that's a bit like Planet of the Apes vs Star Trek. It should only take an hour." isn't a tough sell. And I think you'll find there's something unique in the rules that you haven't seen in other systems, the miniatures themselves are fun and endearing, and the game is designed to provide satisfying thrills consistently. "Oh, I get to roll even more dice?" is really addictive.

**Grumpy Gnome**

Wunkay wrote:
Good lord this looks fun. Can I justify another starter set I'll never convince anyone else to play? Only time will tell...

Hello miniature gamers! A backer directed me here and I noticed you were worried about getting someone to play. Just thought I'd check in and give you a bit more info. We recently ran Star Schlock many, many times over a four day convention. Gamers who have familiarity with modern tabletop games (board, wargame, CCGs, or RPGS) took to Star Schlock like a duck to water. Even those who were skeptical and got roped into a game by friends were pretty quickly won over and having a blast by the climactic end game.

My God man, the feats you can pull off! Each of the games of Star Schlock we ran at a recent convention inevitably featured:

- Goofy looking but hulking MONGO-RILLA ape cyborgs leaping over buildings to come to grips with their human enemies
- A tottering Robby the Robot style retro-bot ripping apart said MONGO-RILLA in a battle of the titans fitting a Godzilla movie.
- Ape Officers signally a charge by their brutish Gorilla Grunt soldiers who fall upon the human lines like a wave, scattering them before their mighty ape fists.
- Chief Engineers of the Explorer Corps beaming out overwhelmed human soldiers being ripped apart by Apes back to an orbiting space vessel, before teleporting those same soldiers back down to capture a key location on the far side of the battlefield.
- Red shirt human landing parties absolutely disintegrating charging Gorilla Grunts, in a desperate bid to keep their poorly armed Science Team comrades alive long enough to fire captured artillery pieces against invading Space Ape dropships

I know you have a ton of rules lying around, unpainted miniatures gathering dust, projects abandoned half-finished. I know. We all do. You're worried Star Schlock will join the pile. I can't offer you any guarantees. But I can tell you that "Hey, let's play a quick game that's a bit like Planet of the Apes vs Star Trek. It should only take an hour." isn't a tough sell. And I think you'll find there's something unique in the rules that you haven't seen in other systems, the miniatures themselves are fun and endearing, and the game is designed to provide satisfying thrills consistently. "Oh, I get to roll even more dice?" is really addictive.

Nice to see you here mate.

Do you think there may be a solo version in the future? I am all about quirky, narrative generating game play and solo gaming is my go to these days.

Either way the temptation for me really is the charming sculpts.

**Wunkay**

We have a draft A.I. system in playtesting to handle non-player controlled forces. We're hoping for something a bit more advanced than "wander randomly, but if in range of an enemy shoot at it" but it's still early in development. We're publishing first looks at rules and subsystems in our Schlocklog magazine, so it will likely appear there in some form first to gather feedback as we continue to refine it.

As for narrative, that's more likely to hit the table sooner rather than later. We've already published a small rule to cover former-classmates-now-turned-battlefield-rivals, but we've got plans for capturing and rescuing space princesses, seduction, traitors and turncoats, junior officers proving themselves to their superiors, etc.

A historical wargame may try to capture the performance of various weapons, armies, and tactics of real world armies. With Star Schlock, we're aiming to simulate the action you see in a terrible sci-fi rerun airing at 2:00 in the morning. How do you simulate the simmering undercurrent of romantic tension between the captain and his female first officer?* What game effect should the hero's shirt getting torn to expose his rippling pecs?** How many points is it worth when the villain quotes a famous literary passage from a pre-20th century text?***

If that sounds like the type of game and universe you'd like to explore, we'd love to have you aboard!

* At the beginning of the game, choose two lovers. When either lover routs, it moves towards the other lover's location rather than your home table edge. If a lover ends a rout move in base contact with the other they automatically rally.
**While this hero is wounded, draw an additional action card at the end of each round (two if an enemy villain has line of sight to your hero).
***STUDENT OF THE CLASSICS. 5 Pt Strategy. Once per game, reroll any dice from a single roll. If you do, you must recite an appropriate line from a famous pre-20th century literary text. Otherwise cancel the roll.

**Grumpy Gnome**

Wunkay wrote:
We have a draft A.I. system in playtesting to handle non-player controlled forces. We're hoping for something a bit more advanced than "wander randomly, but if in range of an enemy shoot at it" but it's still early in development. We're publishing first looks at rules and subsystems in our Schlocklog magazine, so it will likely appear there in some form first to gather feedback as we continue to refine it.

As for narrative, that's more likely to hit the table sooner rather than later. We've already published a small rule to cover former-classmates-now-turned-battlefield-rivals, but we've got plans for capturing and rescuing space princesses, seduction, traitors and turncoats, junior officers proving themselves to their superiors, etc.

A historical wargame may try to capture the performance of various weapons, armies, and tactics of real world armies. With Star Schlock, we're aiming to simulate the action you see in a terrible sci-fi rerun airing at 2:00 in the morning. How do you simulate the simmering undercurrent of romantic tension between the captain and his female first officer?* What game effect should the hero's shirt getting torn to expose his rippling pecs?** How many points is it worth when the villain quotes a famous literary passage from a pre-20th century text?***

If that sounds like the type of game and universe you'd like to explore, we'd love to have you aboard!

* At the beginning of the game, choose two lovers. When either lover routs, it moves towards the other lover's location rather than your home table edge. If a lover ends a rout move in base contact with the other they automatically rally.
**While this hero is wounded, draw an additional action card at the end of each round (two if an enemy villain has line of sight to your hero).
***STUDENT OF THE CLASSICS. 5 Pt Strategy. Once per game, reroll any dice from a single roll. If you do, you must recite an appropriate line from a famous pre-20th century literary text. Otherwise cancel the roll.

So you are thinking something along the lines of 7TV from Crooked Dice?

Truth is I have plenty of games already the suit my needs but the Star Schlock figures really appeal to me.

Lots of nostalgia but with enough little changes to give room for some freedom of expression in new settings.

**Wunkay**

7TV is an influence, I but I think Star Schlock is running in a different direction.

We'd still love to have our figures visit your table with whatever rules system you decide on. Star Schlock started because we didn't have rules that suited *us* but had plenty of sci-fi figures to play with. It only seems fair to return the favor

**Grot 6**

Looks like the Galaxy Quest game that we all knew we wanted, but never were going to see.

A couple of questions,

Are the figures done?

Is there anything for the game already available?

This KS says te figures are metals... Who is doing the sculpting?

All in all it looks neat.
Good Luck on this, it looks pretty cool.

**Wunkay**

Grot 6 wrote:
Looks like the Galaxy Quest game that we all knew we wanted, but never were going to see.

A couple of questions,

Are the figures done?

Is there anything for the game already available?

This KS says te figures are metals... Who is doing the sculpting?

All in all it looks neat.
Good Luck on this, it looks pretty cool.

Galaxy Quest is definitely the vibe we are going for.

1) Metal masters are complete for 38 figures. There about a dozen more that are sculpted but not yet mastered. We also have roughly 50 metal sculpts in production from our first Kickstarter.
2) We've been running the game at conventions and demoing it at our convention booth for years, but that's not much help for you right now

. You can check out a 16 page preview of the Training Manual. The Training Manual will be 54 pages and is designed to teach the game. There's also a 64 page Core Handbook for use to reference at the table. You can test out some of the combat rules yourself with a mini-adventure alongside our space pirate queen Barella in our magazine preview. We've also been printing some rules expansions, scenarios, and other game material in our magazine, knowing it would be useful once people get their hands on the game.
3) That would be me! And just to be clear, you can totally just pick up figures and skip the game by pledging at the scout level and picking the figures you want as add ons. (You shouldn't skip the game, it's fun!)

Thanks for the compliments! We could use the support—even a buck/quid/credit helps!

**Talking Banana**

I tried to resist this, but to no avail. I'm in. Star Trek vs. Planet of the Apes is a pretty good pitch, after all, and I have to hand it to the Wunkay design team - they absolutely nail the sci-fi 70's-80's look they're going for, from the artwork to the fonts they use. They even publish a magazine dedicated to the game entitled "Shocklog" (a reference for those of us old enough to remember those glorious Starlog magazines of yore.)

It's just too clever and impressive to pass up. I'm really looking forward to painting some Simians!

There's three days left to join, and the Mutaga mutants are on the horizon if we can reach them. Looks like they'd make great Morlocks, or mutant Sand raiders.