Some Thoughts on Skirmish Rules

Because the adventures of Kate and Kip are taking on a nice, rpg-like narrative, I decided to move their game reports to my Tales of the Templars  blog.  I recently ran a new adventure, Against the Antares, which you can access with these links:

• Part 1 - It's Terminal
• Part 2 - Kate Saves the Day!

Here is a picture to whet your appetite

And here are some thoughts on the games.

Fun!
Although the rules are simple, I am really enjoying the games. The odds are stacked in the heroes' favor but the games have created some good narratives. The second encounter was a very tense affair, with the fate of Kate and Kip hanging in the balance until the very end!

Stealth

I want to develop some rules regarding sneaking, stealthiness, and going unnoticed. At the beginning of Part 1, Kate and Kip are casually strolling through the terminal, hoping to make it past the bad guys. I was unsure how to resolve this. Initially, I used their attack dice (3) as a proxy for their stealth. The problem was that it seemed too easy; they got at least one success each turn and a fight seemed too easily avoided. I re-set and rolled only 1 die. Both characters failed miserably on their first turn, and the fight was on.

Now I am thinking I should have stuck with 3 dice but have the enemies roll a "defense" to determine their response. If they negated all the successful stealth rolls, then they would become aware and hostile to the heroes. I'll have to experiment.

Meaner Thugs

So far in my games, run-of-the-mill enemies (which I've called thugs or mooks) are rated as 2/1/1 (attack/defense/wounds). For Part 1, I intended to add a couple of harder enemies. One was supposed to have an extra attack die while another had more defense. I forgot to use them that way, so they were all 2/1/1 for this scenario.

I remembered to use the meaner thug in Part 2. Pug, Captain Mal's right-hand man fought with 3 dice. It turns out that he never managed to wound his target as Kate used cover to save her from damage.

Ammo
Another rule I've been considering is out of ammo. My idea is that a roll of 2-3 ones (depending on the figure's base attack dice) results in it being out of ammo (or perhaps a jam instead; that way I can extend the time scale and assume that figures reload during their turns as appropriate). An out of ammo or jam result forces the figure to spend an action reloading or unjamming their gun. I just forgot to use it in both sessions. Perhaps it's more trouble than it's worth?

The Virtual Board and Paper Miniatures
I've played around with virtual boards before but hadn't been satisfied . However, I am really enjoying the virtual boards for Kate and Kip's adventures. Although I ultimately want to use actual miniatures, the virtual board is a great way to get in a game when I don't have the physical components.

For my skirmishes, I am leaning towards using paper miniatures. I started following Fantalonia and I must say that I like the look of his paper mini games.