Star Trek: A Call To Arms

[Renny]

I guess some of you have heard of the Babylon 5 space combat game, A Call To Arms.
I wondered if anyone here played the game, and if so, had given any thought to a Trek conversion. I did some work on it but ground to a halt while trying to figure out the best way to represent shields.
I'll come back to it at some point as i'd dearly love to be able to play out Dominion War battles using the system.

Regards

Renny

[Cut]

Hey Renny

I own the Call To Arms Box and would be very much into a Star Trek conversion although I have yet to play the Bab 5 version.

I even have found a Star Trek Main Fleet Chart somewhere on the net. One could use that top looks to make markers out of it. There's everyship one would need especially for a DW scenario: DS9 and all sorts of assorted ships all roughly to scale...

If you come up with anything please share it with us. I'll be gone from Saturday on for a week-long trip to the north sea, but I'll take my box along I try to come up with some ideas myself...

[Renny]

Hi

I've come up with stats so far for the Constitution Class ship, D7, Defiant Class and Dominion Attack ship. You can read my thread on the Mongoose boards here;

Mongoose Boards Trek Thread

Any thoughts would be most welcome

Regards

Renny

[Cut]

I'll take the time and read the thread over at the boards of Mongoose publishing after my vacation. Have a nice time around here see you then...

[Renny]

Have a good vacation!

Renny

[Snake_Plissken]

ACTA's core system is loosely based on GW's BattleFleet Gothic. The system offers decent Star Trek conversion possibilities but you'de be far better served using a game like Starmada X, which has its own robust ship construction system. Sometimes I even think that the basic mechanics have been Trek-inspired; they work as follows: you roll to-hit, than if succesful you must roll against shields and then determine the damage. You can even design infinite combination of weapon atributes. The basic rules can be dowloaded for free at mj12games.com

[Cut]

Or does this mean BSG ACTA?

Over at the Mongoose boards I have read this "State of the Mongoose 2007" article about their miniture lines.

...in Babylon 5, allowing you to switch between the two settings at will.

We have also just started negotiations on another licensed setting for A Call to Arms, one that will feature some awesome space battles, spread across several different fleets. Even though it uses the same rules as the current CTA, this game will play very, very differently. The technology in this setting is. . . different to that in B5!
This is something we spotted when ‘messing around’ with WotC’s Star Wars spacecraft, converting them for the CTA rules. Even though many of the rules stayed the same (fighters, shields, Double Damage, and so on), the different emphasis they had on the game made for a very different experience. Rebel fighters were the craft delivering the knockout blows, for example. while their capital ships ground away at Star Destroyers. Imperial fighters were there simply to stop the Rebels craft, while their big ships were the ones that caused the main destruction – all very different from Babylon 5, and these experiments are what made us realise how much ground the core rules could cover.

And no, Star Wars: A Call to Arms is not something that you will find in the shops. However, if you come to one of our open days, you might just see a very limited run, not-for-sale hardback floating around the office. Another benefit of having your own printing facility.

Emergence has no solid release date planned, though we are currently looking at the end of 2008 – that said, it could easily be leapfrogged by the ‘other’ setting, which I think some gamers will be prepared to kill for. . .

What do you guys think?

BTW:

In the 'State of the Mongoose 2007 RPG' article was clearly mentioned, that the Mongoose might make a move on a new license, but that there are no plans to release yet another new RPG in 2008. Their new Traveller line as well as the strong RuneQuest and Babylon 5 settings will get the most attention...

As there has been an argument wheter or not Mongoose would be a good home for a new Trek RPG I thought this could be interesting to both sides of the argument...

[Renny]

Well, i'd love to see an official Star Trek ACTA game released and the State Of The Mongoose announcement certainly suggests that another licensed setting is on the way so...who knows?

In the meantime though there's an unofficial ACTA conversion available here

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mongoose_mods/

It's in the Files Section and is based on the 2nd Ed Acta Rules. I've played the first version of this conversion and it plays very well.

Renny

[Cut]

Well, i'd love to see an official Star Trek ACTA game released and the State Of The Mongoose announcement certainly suggests that another licensed setting is on the way so...who knows?

In the meantime though there's an unofficial ACTA conversion available here

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mongoose_mods/

It's in the Files Section and is based on the 2nd Ed Acta Rules. I've played the first version of this conversion and it plays very well.

Renny

I have not ye made the transfer to 2nd Edition ACTA. I still stick to my old 1st edition box set and might be able to purchase SFOS and Armgageddon at a bargain one of these days. Could I play with that as well, and how much do you advicve me to get 2nd Edition anyways

[Alex]

ACTA: How does it play (for Star Trek, of course) compared to systems designed just for that setting? I play FASA's Starship Combat game (actually the STIII:SCRPG version they put out). Many more play SFB. Then there are the RPG ship combat systems from each version of the RPG. Give me some points of comparison. Does the game flow? Does it feel like Star Trek battles we've seen on screen? Does it handle the technology well?

[Renny]

I have not ye made the transfer to 2nd Edition ACTA. I still stick to my old 1st edition box set and might be able to purchase SFOS and Armgageddon at a bargain one of these days. Could I play with that as well, and how much do you advicve me to get 2nd Edition anyways

There is a version of the Trek rules by phoenixhawk on the Mongoose Mods site which was written for 1st Edition ACTA and those are the only ones i've used so far. If you can't find them, let me know and i'll send them to you.
I like the 2nd Edition rules for ACTA, as they've tightened things up a bit, and introduced some useful new rules. Rules for beam weapons have changed somewhat but it's mostly the same ruleset. I don't play ACTA as much as I used to but if you play regularly, I would recommend getting the new ruleset.

Renny

[Renny]

ACTA: How does it play (for Star Trek, of course) compared to systems designed just for that setting? I play FASA's Starship Combat game (actually the STIII:SCRPG version they put out). Many more play SFB. Then there are the RPG ship combat systems from each version of the RPG. Give me some points of comparison. Does the game flow? Does it feel like Star Trek battles we've seen on screen? Does it handle the technology well?

Hmm. Good questions all.

I thought it played pretty well for Star Trek. The first game we played was a recreation of the battle from the end of the DS9 episode, "The Jem'Hadar". USS Odyssey & three runabouts vs. three jem 'Hadar attack ships. The game played out much as it did in the episode.
I personally prefer the ACTA system to SFB as it dispenses with all of the power management stuff, and no matter what anyone tells me, SFB is not Star Trek with all of it's drones, transporter bombs mines and all the rest. I like the old STSCS system but things slow down when using small fleets, and this is the kind of play ACTA excels at. Four or five ships a side is no problem.
Does it feel like Star Trek battles we've seen on screen? Well, the problem with that is that Star Trek battles change with the needs of the writers. I would say it simulates the latter DS9 type battles very well but maybe not Wrath Of Khan so well. That, though, is a problem with any ruleset you care to mention.

I'll let you know when i've had a chance to play a couple of games with the 2nd edition mod.

Renny

[Cut]

What miniatures do you use, Renny? Old MicroMachines?

I'll try to find phoenixhawk's mod in the meantime

[Renny]

What miniatures do you use, Renny? Old MicroMachines?

To be honest i've made my own counters using ACTA size counter templates and top down images grabbed from the internet. I then put the firing arc templates over the top. Worked pretty well. Obviously you could use whatever minis you have to hand.

Renny

[Cut]

To be honest i've made my own counters using ACTA size counter templates and top down images grabbed from the internet. I then put the firing arc templates over the top. Worked pretty well. Obviously you could use whatever minis you have to hand.

Renny

Sounds cool. Would you share them?