Expanded Captain's Campaign
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Expanded Captain's Campaign
A few years back I created a campaign rules' set that allows a single player or group of players to assume the roles of starship captains. The rules go beyond the traditional Captain's Game in that players keep track of things like provisions, fuel, munitions and position on a strategic map of any scale (solar system, sector, parsec, galactic and so forth). There would be a goal to be achieved, and the player or players would work to this end.
My question is this, does anyone have anykind of interest in this type of campaign?
Thanks much for any response.
I missed this when it was first posted...
Anyway, the thing with campaigns is that the amount of micromanagement needs to be minimized. Keeping track of things like provisions and fuel works well if it is done in a simple, abstract, quick & simple way. Star Fleet Accountants is not so much fun.
There should also be a way of creating battles based on some condition other than having two ships happening to wind up in the same place.
William T Wilson (Sheap); I first came up with the idea years ago after feeling frustrated by the traditional Captain's game. To me the Captain's Game always felt like a bunch of scenarios tied together; which is essentially what it was. There was no sense of movement not accomplishment in the gaming sense of the term. So a couple years later I drafted some rules that involved strategic movement and supply guidelines for a ship or group of ships. Then lo and behold Voyager hit the TV screens, stealing, I thought, some of my thunder.
Not too long ago there was another discussion on this BBS about an operational campaign variant that had some of the elements I wrote in my opening post, but I don't know whatever became of that. Although it should be noted that I had already submitted my proposal many months (nearly a year or so) before that discussion even started.
My thoughts on the creation of the rule set was to create a true voyage for a single player or group of players. A system that created the feel and situations of a science fiction space voyage. I created (after many failed attempts) a speed-distance chart, fuel consumption chart, and rules for provisioning a ship.
The two things I did not create were a map, and an encounter table. I didn't create the map because I thought something was missing from the regular F&E map, but didn't want to turn it into another project. Similarly I didn't develop the ship encounter table because it too would've involved lots of time (both projects occured when I was taking a full load at the local JC).
I submitted the first draft (and unfortunately the rough draft) to SVC. I had sent him the wrong draft. When I sent him a cleaned up version he sent me back a terse email telling me how much time he and his staff had wasted with the first draft. After which I never heard from him again on the matter. I can only assume, although I may be 1000% dead wrong, that he tossed the thing into the circular file.
Even so, I remain optimistic that my latest version might have some merit for some folks. The way I see it the rules can be applied to an open campiagn (some guy flying a ship all over the galaxy for the sake of it), or to a mission oriented campaign (a battle group sent to destroy or takeover something or somesuch), and provide a level of enjoyment on both a strategic and tactical level that doesn't involve huge fleets, nor seemingly random encounters.
Anywho, that's about the rundown of it. One of the major stumbleing blocks was trying to mitigate F&E movement with Franz Joseph's Warp formula. And after a few years of working with both sets of math I came up with a good solution.
Any piqued intersts here? 
I would find this enjoyable. Though I can't say the same for my opponents...
This sounds a good project to develop and i would be very interested
George, I would be interested. There is two lines of thinking I'd like to see adressed some how in some game someday.
A couple years ago I told tale of a set of games my group played. I was moderator and two players each had a ship. It was semi-role playing where two rogue Captains plundered the galaxy (partly on their own but still loyal to their governments). The players could make modifications to their ships but had to keep track of supply. They could go looking for ways to get supplied, try to choose scenarios and would have to play out scenarios that they couldn't avoid. Basically D&D with ships as characters. Boy oh boy it was fun.
I'm not suggesting that you copy this but adding some role playing aspect might be cool. We certainly have a role playing engine now.
The second idea is a way to conduct the campaign in a solo mode with, perhaps by choice, the ability to go in and out of multi-player mode. For instance, now and then I play out parts of the campaign on my own but once in a while I come across a part that I'd like to play against an opponant. Perhaps Icould play that scenario on SFBOL or F2F, whatever. But for the most part I could galavant around the galaxy on my own.
Anyway, just some thoughts for the till.