RAGE: 28mm Post-Apocalyptic Skirmish Wargaming

[Gailbraithe]

So anyone listening to me babble over the last month might have heard me mention I'm working on a post-apocalyptic skirmish game.  It's called RAGE.  I'm far from done with it, but the remainder of what I have to work on is the campaign system that links missions and allows survivors to become badasses.  The basic game, i.e. the rules necessary for running a mission/playing a skirmish battle, are finished (not finalized, that's what playtesting is for, but ready for playtesting).

 

I have the playtest document for the basic game ready for viewing.  I'd love feedback.  I'm going to be demoing it for Lief and Jacob on Tuesday, we'll be creating crews and running the "Ballad of Stinky Joe" scenario.

 

RAGE Playtest Document.pdf

[JMGraham]

Cool beans! I'll check it out.

[Fix]

Downloaded, reading.

[greenwood]

Downloaded, reading.

ditto

[DuskSeer]

Now that I have had time to sleep and reflect on the game here's what has stuck with me:

 

The game felt quick. A player's turn could end before it even began by blowing a willpower check or just have a few models move before that willpower check gets blown. Even if the player had the chance to activate every model every action is performed very quickly. Combat is often resolved by a roll off between the two players end of story and stuff tends to always happen. Speaking of combat the being on the receiving end of the murder machine felt like I was up against a terrifying opponent that quickly became a priority to bring down.

 

Band creation was pretty quick and surprisingly satisfying with all of the random generation. I was always excited to see a really good band member come from the random generation but no band member seemed mediocre although some combinations were hilarious (Sharpshooter equipped with a pocketknife and an axe head). The most rewarding part of the band creation is when the band is assembled and gear gets distributed to make your ragtag group of idiots become an efficient ragtag group of idiots.

 

The scenario we played was based on searching trapped caches of stuff so that I could take said stuff and use said stuff to be awesome. After quickly watching my lone scavenger die from a trap I turned my attention for gear somewhere else. The cold dead hands of my enemies. This didn't help me win the scenario at all as I ended with a single VP from the one piece of gear I got from a cache and ended up forfeiting my dead scavenger's backpack to the wastes and all the gear it could have carried. I was more focused on not having my band die from a crazy armored lady with a chainsaw. Honestly not having felt an upkeep phase and seeing the abundance of supplies that random generation can bring into the band and how many supplies I had to leave behind just to allow the band to carry all their stuff the caches didn't feel necessary to my band's success in the grand scheme of surviving in the wastes. This most likely will change once I feel the hurt of the upkeep phase and I'm honestly hoping for it to make me feel pain for focusing on killing the other band instead of gathering supplies. Also I will note that trying to kill the other band didn't go very well for me in the first place.

 

My take on the tactics are basically make a general plan with how to go about the battle and then improvise it from there. With the willpower system to generate actions there is always a chance that half your band or more might decide to stop twiddle their thumbs and drink a beer instead of deal with the task at hand. This doesn't feel like an irritation though it was actually really fun to plan for when my guy decides he doesn't want to do anything and my turn randomly ends. It also can just get downright funny when both players can't seem to generate actions. With the chance of failure to activate it makes planning turns ahead slightly difficult but there is the great feeling of something coming down to the activation roll and watching you generate the actions you needed to make your plan work.

 

On just a quick note this game seems to be mostly based on risk vs reward. Activating on 1 Die is safe as it won't end your turn but 3 Dice is quite likely to end your turn but your decked out killing machine might get 3 actions to run halfway across the map and cap some pesky buffoon. Same goes for shooting back at a model instead of dodging or searching caches. There's always the chance things could go horribly wrong. There's also the chance that things could go horribly right.

 

I'll have more to say about skills and such once I see more in use as I only really used Tactician (1) from my leader. Speaking of Tactician though it was a powerful skill and I'm glad that only the leader can carry that skill. It was a way to reduce the risk of my other models trying to act at the cost of my leader sitting around twiddling his thumbs. It might take another game or two to see if it is a significantly more powerful skill than other skills out there or if it balances out with all of the others down the road. As I said I'll have more to say when I have more experience.

 

In regard to rules or things that currently aren't covered in the rules, there are currently no rules for dropping down from high places so technically there is no fall damage as of yet. If fall damage is implemented I would be willing to scapegoat a few of my excess warriors as daredevils and cliff jumpers. Also rules for carrying a dead body off the field to loot later would be nice just because I decided to do that. When I did pick up the dead body we just treated it as carrying a shopping cart and my dude would move at half speed and he would get all of the models stuff when he took the time to loot the poor guy when he wasn't being shot at.

 

That's all for now and I can't wait to play another game. It was super fun and I'm really excited for the first upkeep phase I get to feel.

 

Thanks Miles for letting me try the game and I hope it continues to go as well as it has been.

[Gailbraithe]

Thanks Jacob!

 

I've already had some ideas to balance out Tactician a bit.  Instead of just granting automatic success, it will require the model that gets the bonus to roll for actions.  They'll still get the automatic success, but will also be able to generate failures.  That means that a Leader with Tactician (2) could generate 2 actions, sacrifice them both to give two of his crew 2 automatic actions -- but each will have to roll 2 dice to get those actions, which means the first one could generate 2 failures (for an end result of 2 actions, 2 failures).  This means the second model won't even get to activate and use his 2 free actions.

 

That will make Tactician more balanced, and bring it closer to how I originally envisioned it working i.e. the Leader shouting out a clear order that the crew member responds to.

[greenwood]

Damm dude, that was fast turn around:

 

So his AAR was good here are my thoughts:

 

I like the fast pace of play, it never feels like your sitting around with your thumb up your ass. Weapon ranges are short, but long enough to make sure you can't just walk around unimpeded (shotgun blast from max range anyone!). This combination seems to guarantee a little mix it up. The way wounding works, means survival is common, if the weapons aren't gruesome.

 

I like the will power rules, and I would say this though, something to consider is a failure rule, something like if the model fails by 2x they must move max speed towards the edge with the failed action, so that models that are wounded (and severely) might just start running the hell away. Otherwise, I love the concept that as you take wounds you are much more reluctant to keep advancing, as you said these people aren't necessarily soldiers, just survivors. 

 

The upkeep system is important, it puts a premium on survival and scenario goals, perhaps even in a one off, some sort of victory system for post game survival could be implemented, but the game certainly has a great feel for a good campaign. 

 

Falling rules would be nice, as well as carrying dead/unconscious ones, or even rules for over encumbering your models. 

Scenarios certainly need to take into account that from sheer damn randomness a number of player turns can go by with out much happening, so that the end trigger should be something not just length of games. Cache's being opened, people getting hurt, etc...

 

Tactician I agree needs a fix, maybe not as much as you seem to be suggesting, maybe just more limited.

 

The random generation of a gang was fun, you could consider making a point build if people want, but I don't know, it seems kinda contrary to the game.

 

While combat was fun, it did have a wide range, and I would say that it had some random amount to it, with wild swings of fortune, not necessarily a bad thing if that is what you are going for, if so, then its perfect, because half the time, the higher skill/value did make the difference. 

 

I like that attacker wins ties: [big bad swear word] this defender wins ties bull crap

 

Other rules possibly needed:

Passing gear between members: We just sort of improvised, but a give order would be nice

Almost every scenario should have at least one cache (for survival!)

rules for pre-game cache

attempts are looting it (moving off that players side and making search rolls perhaps.)

Being able to overload your model, at some penalty, think they are dragging stuff, but can't fire or move fast.

Ummm otherwise its good, just needs the campaign rules really, to get the full feel of the game, and make you more likely to fight for survival vs DEATH!

[Gailbraithe]

Thanks Lief!

[greenwood]

Hey, I had an idea for a scenario?

[Gailbraithe]

Hey, I had an idea for a scenario?

 

...and that idea was ...?

[DuskSeer]

On the note of Leader Skills we should try various changes to Tactician to fine tune how it works mechanically and thematically. I do think Tactician is a powerful skill but the leader is basically taken out of the fight if Tactician is being used. Inspiration really came up to one less on the die roll to make an activation and the leader could still take actions so I don't think Tactician needs a significant change but maybe some tweaking as we see it play out. It's all about how different skills alter play styles. A leader with tactician might not do much but his band will steal the show and the player will most likely be found using his normal band members to get jobs done even though they have lesser stats. Inspiration will allow everyone in the band to act more provided they stick together and maintain that 8in radius of the leader and the leader still gets to act meaning the player will most likely try to move his band as a tight group to get the most out of it. We have yet to see other leader skills so maybe test everything as is and then talk about it after so we know how the leader skills relate to play styles.

 

We could quickly make this work by pairing a resurrected Lief's band and my band and just change out the leader skills to see if play style is different. Set up would be quick and we should be able to test a few leader skills at a time. We could also video record, photo record, or just take good notes and observe the differences between how we play with various skills and how the skills seem to make a difference on the board.

[Gailbraithe]

So after Brad and Jim's game I'm going to be making some major revision to crew creation.  I'm going to take some steps to streamline the process, like rolling for total Crew goodies rather than having each survivor roll their own goodies.  I'm also going to remove Murder Machines from the starting equipment, as they're clearly unbalancing in the early game.  I'll post the revised rules in a day or two.

 

I also just learned that Andrew May, one of my favorite sculptors, is available and I'm going to commission a few miniatures for the game. 

[JMGraham]

You can have my (dual) murder machines when you pry them from my cold dead hands. Try them some more. They're characterful and might not be that bad if Brad had any decent equipment. Or if he played worth a hoot.

[Fix]

I'd say that on the whole I probably performed just as many actions as you did.  Probably attacked just as much as well.

[Gailbraithe]

I'm definitely going to limit them to one per starting crew.

[JMGraham]

I'd say that on the whole I probably performed just as many actions as you did.  Probably attacked just as much as well.

 

The number of activations is certainly trackable. I'd say I had more, though, as there were at least 2 turns where you got to activate nothing. Still, it felt like I was choosing when and where combats happened (for the close combat, at least - you were doing more shooting).

[Fix]

You having the advantages on ties worked in your favor a couple of times, that's for sure.  That you had armor was the bigger difference maker, though.  I had, I want to say, four shots (CC or otherwise) bounce off of you.

[JMGraham]

Yup. +3 Toughness from the armour was pretty huge.