In Development: Tabletop Airship Combat

[Islacrusez]

I don't even know where to start.

But ok. As mentioned in my other thread, I'm after a nice tabletop airship game. Not finding one, I figured it might be worth developing the ideas bouncing off the inside of my skull. So here goes, a short brainstorm on what this game should be.

A game based loosely on Guns of Icarus.
A game built on dice, miniatures, and cards.
A game that isn't a GW cash-cow.

So let's see how these criteria refine:

First up, it's a steam/diesel-punk airship combat setting. The lifting power of the balloons will be somewhat exaggerated so that we don't cover the table with just those. Airships will be defined classes with a number of hardpoints, but these can be filled with whatever fits. Customisation should be included in the design from the ground up.


Dice control the usual suspects - firing, damage and special manoeuvre tests. Miniatures represent the ships, their loadout, their position and direction.

Cards are used for special equipment, weather effects, events. They're also used to represent the crew (4 on the average ship; more on the rarer larger ships, less on smaller ones). The system should be built for smaller battles of 1-2 ships per player (but capacity for more ships and more players).

Rules will exist for casual play where all cards are drawn from common decks, competitive play where players build their decks freely, and campaign play where access to cards is restricted based on scenario.


As for not being a GW cash-cow... It's both to do with money making and feature-creep. I have ideas for various races other than human, but don't want to ruin the world. Other races could perhaps come out in separate expansions and not in the core rules, so that people could play them if they wanted to... However unlike GW, these would be developed properly and not brought out at £35 per pdf per race.



Specifics:
(Short for now, but will be expanded as things are refined and decided)

Movement and firing arcs are on a 12-point compass rose.
Turning is done by turning up to one point after x cm of movement.


Event cards
Event cards are kept in a central pile and can be played by any player at any time. They are played targeted on any airship in play as decided by the player playing it; the target must be declared before turning the card over. Events include good and bad modifiers, as well as weather effects that affect larger parts of the board.

[Islacrusez]

Crew:

An airship can have a certain number of crew, as defined by it's specific type. Generally this will be a maximum of 4.

Crew come in three types:

Ordinary - faceless, nameless, stat-less. They man their stations and not much else; they use basic stats, unless modified by an event card.
Unnamed - Effectively player characters, designed to be used for campaigns, gaining attributes over time; may gain equipment purchased between missions, or gain personal equipment (that they always have) through their levelling.
Named - Hero characters, with specific stats, attributes, and a choice of personal equipment. Generally used for one-off games, or scenario games.


Ordinary crew have no classes, and fill in as needed.

Unnamed and named crew come in the following classes:

Pilot
Gunner
Engineer
Soldier*
(Others may be added; *may be removed or renamed)

Classes give bonuses to stations that they are assigned to, and allow them to take certain types of specialist equipment, or perform certain types of action.


Pilot:
Class devoted to piloting the airship. Gains bonuses to manoeuvres. May take navigational aids and similar.

Gunner:
Shoot stuffs. Simples. Gains bonuses to aiming, shooting, hitting, hitting hard, targeting hardpoints. May take special ammunition, gun repair/buff tools.

Engineer:
Devoted to the engines. Gains bonuses to repairs, can give bonuses to movement and movement manoeuvres, can take repair gear.

Soldier/Marine: Skilled in taking shooting hand weapons; bonus to boarding actions. Can take weapons to increase his own boarding value, gain an attack against a nearby ship, or directly attack an enemy crewman.



Any class may fill any role without penalty, but they generally give no bonuses to roles they are not specially trained for.


Positions on ships:

Helm - Ship cannot make course or speed changes without someone at the helm.
Weapon Hardpoints. An unmanned weapon cannot be fired.
Engines - Used to make repairs to engines or run them above capacity.
Damage Control: Gondola - Used to make repairs, extinguish flames, and do preventative maintenance.
Damage Control: Aloft - Used to make repairs, extinguish flames, or apply modifiers to the balloon.

[Islacrusez]

Event cards:

Held in a common deck, event cards provide modifiers when played. There are three major types: Weather, Modifier, Event.

Event cards are brought into play by declaring an event, drawing a card from the top of the Event deck, and placing it next to a ship it is to be played on. Either player may do this at any time, and on any ship (within reason, specific restrictions tbc). The effects of the card are then applied to the ship, or to all affected ships if it is a weather card.


Modifier cards are events that provide a bonus until they are expended or expire. They may be positive or negative. Generally they act as items which come into effect immediately.

Event cards are resolved immediately, and may cause damage, remove items from play, or cause the ship to move, items to be gained, injury to crew.

Weather cards affect an area, either immediate effects which are centred on the target ship, or as the current weather effect across the whole board. There are no strictly positive or negative cards, as weather effects may always be useful or harmful, depending on situation and terrain.

[fracas]

Have you looked at spartan games dystopian wars?

[Islacrusez]

I have now! They have one thing that is really useful to me - a turning template. That is an awesome way of doing it.

[fracas]

There are also lots of blimps

[Islacrusez]

Ummm. There's not all that many blimps from what I can see. There's lots of random shit that flies or floats, but it's not really dirigibles or blimps most of the time.

I'm also aiming to focus more on individual airships than fleet actions.

I'm wondering if I can get away with a scale large enough to use existing figures; perhaps 10mm?

[fracas]

FSA and Prussians have blimps
French and Russians have semi-blimps

[Islacrusez]

Movement.

Movement is based on a 12-point compass rose, and a ship may turn up to one point after moving a minimum of x cm. The minimum move distance will be determined by the manoeuvrability of the ship class.

Maximum movement per turn will be determined by engine strength, generally by class and modified by cards.

Once moved (and possibly at intervals during the move), external effects can cause the airship to be moved in a given direction (this can occur with no turning). This is mostly due to weather, but can also be caused by harpoons.

[Easy e]

You might also want to look at Aeronef. 

[Malika]

By the way, did you check this?

[Justus23]

They've something which is actually useful to me personally - any converting template. That's an incredible means of carrying it out.