Pen and Paper wargames/strategy games

[Balthagor]

I grew up playing a number of pen and paper RPGs but one of my favourites was always Battletech. I loved the mechs and liked the combat system on the hex maps. One of the things, I believe, that originally lead me into this project. However, I never played many of the pen and paper wargames of which I know there are hundreds.

What are some of the good ones? What made them so good?

Also, I stumbled across a website while doing some research on units that had tons of info but was for a game called Twilight 2000 so some of the info was off. The game seems to be a “Post WWIII” story line using a lot of real equipment. It’s supposedly being re-released and this site has tons of info for the game. If your interested, check it out; http://www.pmulcahy.com/ (left hand column has a Twilight 2000 section)

If anyone has seen an RPG that has lots of unit specs for current day equipment I’d LOVE to hear about it!

[tkobo]

Twilight 2000 was awesome.It was a survival rpg in which alot of the payers time was spent finding and securing those things neccesary to survive.The fights were quite good and had rules and stats for including alot of military vehicles and equipment.

Traveler was also quite good.It was a sci-fi rpg that also had alot of military equip and vehicles.

Hmm, I dont know of a single pen and paper rpg that is based on modern warfare.

The newest version of Call of Chululu(spelled wrong Im sure) was made for modern times and does have alot of modern weapons in it.But its really more detective oriented than war.In CoC when you see a monster,you should really look for a way to escape first because the monsters are truely killers compared to the characters.

Thought I'd add that the twilight 2000 rpg had a computer game made of it.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: tkobo on 2002-09-05 09:51 ]</font>

[3iff]

I really enjoyed a pen/paper game called Battleships. Although this was a super-improved version of the game. You had perhaps 150 points to spend and bought ships (the targets) and attack units. There were also reconnaisance planes that could scout the enemy territory (saves shooting blind), bombers, A-bombers (devastate a large area), AA guns to shoot down enemy recon and bombers, howitzer shots and land masses (to hold your recon/bombers). You could also put your planes on aircraft carriers if you wished. The most ship points remaining determined the winner.

Unfortunately, I no longer have all the rules/details, but it was vastly superior to regular battleships!

[XeroMan]

Starfire is a pen and paper game that really captured my imagination. Design your own ships from the keel up so to speak, combined with an extensive system for building an empire...a great game, given the limits of pen and paper. Nice thing about computer games is that you don't need a Judge/GM/DM etc.

[tkobo]

Who makes Star fire ?I never heard of it and it sounds like something I'd like.I liked traveler alot and iy also allowed the players to design their own ships.
I searched the net but couldnt find any info,knowing the company who made it would probably help me find it.

[XeroMan]

Sure! How thoughtless of me to mention it without a link. Here it is:

http://www.starfiredesign.com/starfire/index2.html

If you like LITTLE details, this game has it. Or had it. 2nd edition was complex, 3rd was much more simple, and I haven't tried 4th edition yet. It still gives you a lot of choice though.

On edit:
I'm not familiar with the Traveller's system, though a friend of mine swears by it. Hmmm, have you played Starfleet Battles?

In Starfire the ships aren't much to look at, but it's a cool system that allows you to have a large fleet battle.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: XeroMan on 2002-09-08 07:13 ]</font>

[tkobo]

Yes, I liked SfB very much.It wasnt an rpg but was a great ship to ship stratgey game.
We ran a roughly 7 month long (realtime) campaign with 5 of the major powers represented.It was great fun .We had to make some of our own rules,but it worked quite well.

One of travelers weaknesses is that there where no large fleet battle rules at the time I played it,back in the 80's.
I dont know if they added them later.

[XeroMan]

You managed to run a SFB campaign for 7 months??? My hat goes off to you. We could never settle on a series of rules in our group. Although it is worth mentioning that the computer game StarFleet Command 2 does have a cool campaign system in the Multi-verse. It's unfortunate that the table top version is pretty much gone, at least around here. Such is the way of things I guess.