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Hey everyone, I have been working on a starship combat wargame called Metaverse for two years now and I am finally approaching official release this spring. If anyone wants to learn about it I have started making blog posts detailing the mechanics.

http://battlespacepublishing.blogspot.ca/

Neat! Is this intended to be a ruleset for use with any miniatures / configured depending on what people want to play it with?

Yes! The intention is to allow the player to use any miniatures they desire or even counters if you want. The software we have developed allows you to design your starships, starfighters, and even the weapons on them at will, generate the play sheet and store it all server side for printing whenever you want.

It's a neat idea, my problem is always adoption - it's easier to find a game with an existing ruleset.

Well that's just it, this is the existing ruleset. You can pick up any models you want from any manufacturer and play Metaverse. You can play with models from different manufacturers, whatever!

 ManForAllSeasons wrote:
Well that's just it, this is the existing ruleset. You can pick up any models you want from any manufacturer and play Metaverse. You can play with models from different manufacturers, whatever!

I don't think that is what he means. Your ruleset is a 'new ruleset' not an existing one that has years of backing, use, tweaking and balancing. It is more about what makes this unique, different and new that it should be played over an existing system?

This is something I have to struggle with my own existing gaming system, so I can understand it. The space miniatures community isn't entirely like the normal ground miniatures community, what I mean is they have their favorite rulesets and that is what they are sticking with (Full Thrust, Battlefleet Gothic, Silent Death, Firestorm Armada, Star Fleet Battles). Unlike the fantasy and scifi ground miniatures community which have more gaming rulesets than I can count from skirmish to large scale battles. The spaceship community is a lot smaller. XWing made some inroads because of the great looking models, easy gameplay and Armada will probably do the same but other than that most people go back to the basics. It isn't that they won't necessarily try anything new per say but more they are comfortable with the generic rulesets which meet a broad standard.

It is better to focus on what makes your ruleset unique and separates it from others. How big are the fleets or ship battles for a standard game? How long does a standard game take? Is it a D6, D8, D10 system, etc?

Nice! I've posted a link to your blog over on my naval gaming forums. What exactly will your products be? There is going to be some ship creation software involved, obviously, but are there also going to be rule PDFs and/or hard copy books?

 Dark Severance wrote:
XWing made some inroads because of the great looking models, easy gameplay and Armada will probably do the same but other than that most people go back to the basics.

Well, that, and its Star Wars. Never underestimate the Star Wars factor!

 Ruckdog wrote:
Well, that, and its Star Wars. Never underestimate the Star Wars factor!

True, I figured that was a given though. When you compare to when Firestorm Armada broke into the scene which was a small splash, Star Wars was a tidal wave. LOL! But other than that most prominent systems are still the oldies and goodies.

For those still interested I have posted an overview of plotting and movement in Metaverse.

http://battlespacepublishing.blogspot.ca/

@Dark Severance and Ruckdog
I will attempt to answer you both in one go. I am not going to give an overview of the entire rules right here as that is what the blog is for but I will point out what I think makes Metaverse different. I have played most of the big starship battle games out their over the last couple of decades and even helped write and publish one of them (A Sky Full Of Ships). I am in complete agreement with you in that there isn't a whole lot of innovation in this sub genre of the hobby going on. I would like to think I have come up with a few minor ones but I think the big thing Metaverse has going for it is that the rules will be free, available for PDF download. I am considering a print run of hard covers if enough interest is generated later on but those would naturally not be free. My concept is that rules get out into the public sphere anyway and may as well serve as part of the marketing campaing (wargamers love free stuff). The major difference with Metaverse is the inclusion of modern technology into the game. Players will create an account for Metamaker (the design software for Metaverse) and gain access to its functionality. Metamaker will allow you to design your starships, starfighters, weapons, and fleets, store them on the server, and allow you to download them as a PDF at any time. Because the design process is handled server side I can include much more complex algorithms behind the design process and many more options for design. Players can design, tweak, and fiddle to their hearts content outside of the game then simply download the generated PDF file, print it, and play the game in a normal amount of time. Players will have the option of setting their designs as public. A public design can be searched for and downloaded by anyone. A player will be able to enter the search terms "star trek", "klingon", "bird of prey", etc and pull up any public design with those tags. This will actually be available to players without an account on Metamaker. The motivation to create an account will be creating designs. Naturally, creating an account on Metamaker will have a one time cost associated with it (tentatively set at $10) so that I can keep the hard drives spinning! Once you have paid for and signed up for Metamaker, you will never be charged again, you will get every update for free, and should we develop any additional features, like an app, you will get them access to them. Additionally, the game is designed to be somewhat modular. A play group can opt to nix entire portions of the game, such as starfighters or indirect weapons, and play a much simpler game. Whereas another group can play with every bell and whistle possible and play cruiser duels. I would like to think that no one mechanic of Metaverse is in itself unique but the inclusion of as many options as Metaverse has is unique. With this game nearly every play group should be able to play the kinds of games they desire, share their designs among each other, and fiddle and tweak until the cows come home.

I have long term plans for a Metaverse app that will allow the technologically inclined to have their record sheets on a tablet at the table and be interacted with dynamically. This, oddly enough, is actually more programming intensive than the PDF generating portion of Metamaker's code. Another important aspect of this model is that the game can be a much more living game than would otherwise be possible. With the rules free in PDF form and all designs happening server side, updates, revisions, and fixes can be implented much more smoothly. As an example, every record sheet has the version number (currently on Beta 0.4) printed in the corner. When a change occurs the version number will automatically update on the sheet. Depending on the type of update, earlier versions may be obsolete. If in a new version a cosmetic change occurred, such as a new weapons icon, older versions would not be invalidated. However, should a point cost calculation be updated, than older versions may be invalidated. Of course players are not bound to this system as it just stands as a recommendation.

Metaverse is only the first product I am developing. I hope to create a series of games covering different periods and genres that more closely incorporate technology from the beginning. If you have more questions fire away.