Crater: the fledgling days

So I've written up a quick little 1:300 scale sci-fi armor rules set, borrowing from Dirtside II (Ground Zero Games) and OGRE Miniatures (Steve Jackson Games).

I still have yet to playtest it, but I'm in the process of painting up two armies. I'm using some Future Wars and Dirtside minis from GZG, and the Neo-Soviet line from Brigade Models at the moment.

The things that I like about Dirtside II are the vehicle design rules and the versatility, but I couldn't really work up enthusiasm for the chit-based damage system. I've seen house rules online that try to work around it, but they all seem more complex than they have to be.

So I decided to write up a hybrid rule set, with a strict K.I.S.S. mindset.

To me, the most boring aspect of most games is the IGOUGO system. John Q. moves all of his units, then Bill moves all of his, then John gets to blast the Hell out of Bill's stuff before he can even react. You can't really compensate for this mechanic. I've seen numerous rule sets try*, and I've seen even more players rabidly gnawing their dice in frustration as a result.

So in Crater, players take turns activating formations, until all units have either moved, fired, set to overwatch or designated targets for bombardment. Once all units have made their actions and all hits from the Activation phase are marked, the players take turns resolving them in the same order.

I liked the morale rules from Dirtside and I considered just using the default Combat Resolution Table from Steve Jackson, but I wanted targeting system and unit training quality to factor into the game as well. My solution was to add the ever-ubiquitous To-Hit roll to the mix.

I decided to use a simple attack strength/armor ratio, borrowing the CRT with a slight adjustment to account for the "To-Hit roll" element.

Anyway, I've got a skeletal website set up for the project, with a link to the rough draft of the rulebook. Once I've got some playtesting done the site will have more meat added to it.

I will also post battle reports and pictures of my finished miniatures here on this blog.

* Little additional rules that try to make the action seem simultaneous. It never works. Playing Battletech for example, had the infamous "I blew your 'Mechs leg off, but that doesn't take effect until the end of the turn" anachronism.