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My friend and I got together yesterday to play a quick game. We chose to keep it simple to get the rules down. We used the exact same lists. They were very basic. They included 3 crew members with combat dress, slug pistols, and monowire blades. Then two members with combat dress, assault rifles, and monowire blades. My friend was attacker and the mission was rescue. One of his crew member, a slug pistol one, had been captured by my crew and was being held hostage. The location was an alien planet with a poisonous atmosphere. It was a good thing we all had sealed suits. LOL The complication was rebels firing at us from off the board.

The game itself ran pretty smooth. Without a quick reference sheet though, we were constantly flipping back and forth in the book. It didn't hold up the game much since it is only a 64 page book. But it was annoying looking up modifiers, critical success/failure results, and the damage tables. It played great though. We had alot of fun and those pesky rebels took out two of my guys early before finally taking out two of his. We rolled alot of 1's and 2's! LOL We didn't use any morale tests either.

There are a few basic things in the game that seem off to me though. The first is movement. The game is played on a 3'x3' area. Moving 2" when walking seems a little low. The same goes for running and sprinting. This can mean a long time to get around the table. I see no reason for three different move actions. I think the game would be just fine with run and sprint. Maybe 6" and 8" respectively.

The another issue I have is with ranges when shooting. An 8" range without a modifier seems a little low. Shooting a rifle at 14" shouldn't result in a negative modifier. I think the short range trait could just be used to identify a weapon with a lower range needing to take negative modifier when outside of optimal range.

The last issue I have is with the damage rolls. They work fine. It just felt weird rolling the dice for the damage done on my own crew member. It seems like the attacker should be rolling for the damage with a higher roll meaning better damage results. It is the one instance in the rules, where you want to roll low rather than high. I would say that the damage table and modifiers should be reversed to stay with the higher roll always being better.

In conclusion, it was fun. I hope to play more over the next few weeks. And plan to add to the depth as I progress through the rules. I look forward to supplements to this game.

Nice play review! I hope to get a game in Friday

After a read through and building 2 crews, it will let me use my infinity minis that have been sitting on a shelf for years now.

The ref sheet seems to be the biggest issue, and I hope they release an official one soon

Ive played a lot of gams on 2x2 3x3 4x4. Movement didn't seem off putting to me. 6 Inches is usually standard for this type of game size. Most of the time your going to sprint then when close, running to get to positions.

I agree with the range thing. I understand they want to put a penalty on it, since its just a 3x3 but that's a lot of extra math to remember modifiers. Dark age had the same thing, they recently removed that (well semi recently) keeping just the static modifiers for light cover and heavy cover. I might do the same for this. This is Scifi, so weapons shouldn't have a big issue being less accurate like this dictates.

Damage was a little confusing. I had to write it all down step by step in a example to understand how it worked. It is a little weird you want to roll lower. A reverse of the table might help fix it, but that's effort I don't have time to do

Glad you liked it! I hope it will run as smooth for me as it did you!

str00dles1 - don't forget the Riddle of Steel, the modifiers don't speak to the weapons themselves but rather to the hands wielding them

 Manchu wrote:
str00dles1 - don't forget the Riddle of Steel, the modifiers don't speak to the weapons themselves but rather to the hands wielding them

Well I find it a extra layer of slowing the game down. Skirmish games are meant to be fast. You already have a ton of modifiers. If it was based on character skill, it could be static -2 if civilian, -1 if green 0 if vet 1 if elite 2 if hero. Its the far future. The excuse of hitting things holds up a lot less then if you are playing a musket and tomahawk game. 28 Range modifiers seems a little much.

Many good games have a quarter or less of that in modifiers. Not saying this game is bad, I like it as its a better alternative of infinity but I feel the game should be a little more simple.

Skirmish games are meant to be fast? And Rogue Stars isn't fast? I don't agree with either of those positions.

RS is about as compicated as a "modern" RPG, which strikes me as correct given the uktra-low model count (4-6 figs per side).

For me, the modifiers aren't that bad. While there are a lot of different ones, several break down and means that only one will really be used. For example, there are 4 possible modifiers for a called shot. But only one will ever be used. IMHO, it all breaks down to a series of questions in a check list.

What is the range to the target? There are 4 possible modifiers, but you will only ever use one.
Do I have any pin markers? Add modifier if I have any.
What are my weapon qualities? Is my weapon accurate or primitive? Does it have the hail of fire ability?
Is it a called shot? There are a possible 4 modifiers, but you will only ever use one.
Am I shooting off hand, one handed, or both?
Did I aim or is there visibility issues? If there are visibility issues then they would normally apply for the entire game so IMHO are easy to remember.
Is it a surprise attack or is my target a sitting duck? I know the table says +1 for sitting duck, but the text says +2. I think +2 makes sense. It would be similar to a surprise attack IMHO.
Does my target have cover? If so, is it light, heavy, or fortified?
Is my target prone?
What size is my target?
Does my target have any traits that would impact my roll? This would be easy for opponent if they had a base defense on their character sheet. It could actually also include the size of your target. Example, my model has the big and difficult target traits so his range defense modifier is 0 for all shooting attacks against him.

I feel like a player can run through this series of questions pretty quickly and apply the appropriate modifiers as they go. For me, I think it will be remembering to apply the models individual's trait modifiers that I might forget. Most of my wargaming and rpg experience all sum up the character modifiers in a stat line on their sheet. This leaves just the situational ones to account for. RS doesn't do that. It basically asks the player to review the character's traits each roll to see if any apply. It may be easy to do with only 4 to 6 models. I am not sure since I have only played one game and read the rules through three times.

As I mentioned to you elsewhere, it's worth keeping in mind that you personally will have designed the Character's profile. Presumably, you would give a Character ranks in Marksman in order to make her a better shot. So when she takes a shot, it' spretty likely that you will think, she's a good shot and gets this bonus to her roll. As long as you can remember what you wanted out of the Character you yourself designed, the profile you wrote probably won't be too challenging to read/remember, especially to the extent that Rogue Stars is more about unique personalities - i.e., Characters - than generic "units":

galactic gambler Starr Lively is a good shot

as opposed to

Unit XYZ has the Marksman Trait

Yeah, this game is one you need to approach with a bit more of an RPG mindset to it.

It kind of straddles that grey-area that the old Inquisitor game did IMHO.

granted, i am still reading through the rules though.