Wednesday night is Master Chef night. We get together and over a tipple or two and chew the fat about wargames, work, life, the universe.Last couple of Wednesdays we've been discussing a the classic Traveller: Broadsword. At this moment in time - with us both facing a lot of pressure in the day job, conceptually simple, slick 1-2 hour games work best.
So, I propose a BROADSWORD based campaign a la Ghost Recon transposed to frontier worlds. Traveller meets Firefly, small forces, known mission environments all run from a Broadsword Class Cruiser with an Imperial 'letter of marque'! Luuverly!
The "Classic" Broadsword unit was 2 platoons of humans, a platoon of vargr, with 2 ATV (APC) and two armed shuttles. Task orientated missions allow you to pick whatever you want from that in terms of TOE!
Kit TL was ACR, PGMP and battledress - OK lets be realistic. In our verse, battledress and PGMP kit is a bit like finding a bankrobber in full osprey bodyarmour with a PKM - Unlikely. Let's think more along the lines of Critical Mass Light Recon or GZG NAC.
Rules can vary per game - our own Traveller-Crossfire house rules, ASQL, Ambush Alley, Force on Force, Mutants and Death Ray Guns, FAD. In fact the campaign elements of FAD can be used for determining the squads/platoons, recruiting and various 'grunt' campaign elements far more slicker than Traveller/Mercenary can.
New miniatures etc can be dropped in as they come on the market or are required by the scenarios. Each game provides focus for what to collect/paint in terms of miniatures, accessories and terrain for the next game or two.
For example: Mission 1 The Farm:
Experimental orbital Stealth Fighter has crashed landed in a remote farming region of planet XYZ. Local ground forces have secured the crashsite and taken the pilot/s captive. The game has 3 Acts, each of which can be played as a separate mini game.
Act 1: Infiltration: Cross the river, take out the guards/patrols, recover the 'black box' and destroy the fighter.
Act 2: Rescue: Move to the farm, secure the release of the pilot/s (there may be a counter-attack - always loved the GR1 Defend Missions!)
Act 3: Extraction: Get back to the extraction zone through converging enemy patrols!
What else to throw into the pot - Swordworlders? Fringe, dissident colonies? Fractious balkanised continents? Zod incursions?
So do-able...when do we start!
Cheers
Mark
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It's great to see the classic Traveller stuff getting some love. We set up our 5150 campaign using Traveller as the background and it would work in similar fashion, although our groups are more like adventurer groups. You can check it out if you wish at:
ReplyDeletehttp://wargodsofvalhalla.pbworks.com/5150
I have been planning to return to this for some while, and I reckon I could easily adapt Broadsword to add more campaign elements. The next thing would be to use Fifth Frontier War to provide additional background against which the players' actions can take place. Imagine their surprise when they find themselves on the receiving end of an orbital bombardment! Now getting away from that could be a scenario in its own right or a random event within a different scenario. Traveller is such a rich background that you can really build a lot out of it for any sci-fi game.
Don't forget the random monster/animal encounters, just to spice things up a bit, to blow one's cover, or to take out an enemy unit.
ReplyDeleteRandom starting points, activations, encounters, are best, just for fun.
The game could turn into a survival mission, depending upon the type(s) and numbers of creatures encountered.
Try the scenario where they escort 3 tanks down winding streets with insurgents on all sides. That mission was a killer !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA scenario twist ending with the extraction point moving further away is always good. Battle plans all gone awry !!!!!
Now if only it was available in electronic format...
ReplyDeleteYou were definitely tempting my sense of buy-fu last night...
These sorts of games are great fun to play. I am hoping to get some in, myself.
ReplyDelete