Stargrave: Science Fiction Wargames in the Ravaged Galaxy

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

In a galaxy torn apart by the Last War, vast pirate fleets roam from system to system, robbing, extorting, and rounding up slaves. Any attempt to form any kind of central authority larger than a city state is quickly and brutally crushed. In this dark time, the only way to survive is to stay small and inconspicuous. Amidst this chaos, however, thousands of independent crews manage to carry on their business. Smugglers, relic hunters, freedom fighters, and mercenaries roam the dead stars in small ships, scratching out a living anyway they can…

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Stargrave, a narrative wargame in which the players assemble a small crew of science-fiction adventurers, and then chart their story as they try to survive in the Ravaged Galaxy. Just by playing through the scenarios in this book, the crews will explore an abandoned research station, battle strange creatures in a dense swamp, scavenge weapons from a derelict warship, and shoot it out with gangs in a sewer-system. All of this while trying to stay one step ahead of the brutal pirate fleets.

In this book you will find all of the information you need to play the game, including rules for how to create your captain and their crew, how to set up a table, and how to fight for possession of valuable loot! While these rules might look intimidating at first, especially if you have never played a wargame before, they are generally straightforward, and most people will have a pretty firm grasp of most of the rules after playing just a few turns.

Games of Stargrave are generally quick, and once you have learned the rules you should have no problem completing a game in a couple of hours. Although one-off games can be fun, it is by combining all of your games into an ongoing campaign that you will get the most out of Stargrave. By playing through a campaign, your crew will grow in power and experience. And you can spend the loot you acquire during games to expand your crew, buy advanced technology weapons and equipment, and even upgrade your starship.

While Stargrave is designed to be a competitive game between two or more players, it is less concerned with being a tactical exercise and more interested in helping players achieve a shared sense of fun and adventure as their crews explore the dark, dangerous, and potentially profitable corners of a galaxy that has been ripped apart by war. These rules attempt to cover all of the situations that are likely to occur during play but, without a doubt, there will be times when the exact rule for a given situation is unclear. In these cases, the first question to ask is: ‘What would happen in the movie?’ Or, to put it another way, decide on the coolest, most dramatic, cinematic result and go with that. This is a game about high drama, big moments, and big explosions!

Always remember, these rules have been created for one purpose: for players to have fun. If there is any aspect of the game you want to change, any rules you want to add, or any ideas you want to incorporate that will make the game more fun for you and your gaming buddies, then please do so! Having fun is the point of playing a game, after all.

Finally, one of the best parts of wargaming is that it is a social activity. Even at home, players like to go online to talk about their games, discuss rules, show off their models and terrain, and just chat with people who have similar interests. Be sure to check out the Stargrave: Science-Fiction Wargames in the Ravaged Galaxy Facebook group, as well as places such as Board Game Geek, Reddit, and the Lead Adventure Forum. Also, to get all of the latest news and updates, take a look at my blog: therenaissancetroll.blogspot.co.uk.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO PLAY

To play Stargrave you will need several things besides this book: a table, miniature figures, a tape measure or ruler marked in inches ("), a couple of twenty-sided dice (d20s), a copy of the Crew Sheet from the back of the book, and a pencil. Ideally, you will also have a selection of terrain pieces that you can use to set up a tactically interesting table. If you are new to the world of tabletop wargaming, some of these items might not be immediately obvious and are explained below.

MINIATURES

Miniatures (or figures, or models) are the focus of the tabletop wargaming hobby, and the main reason that most of us entered into it. Essentially, they are toy soldiers made out of metal, resin or plastic, often sculpted to an extremely high level of detail. Official Stargrave miniatures are available from North Star Military Figures (www.northstarfigures.com) as well as many other dealers, and provide options for all of the different captains and crewmen in the game, as well as many of the alien creatures that might be encountered. It is not mandatory to use ‘official miniatures’ to play the game, though. There are loads of really cool science fiction miniatures on the market, representing all the facets and subgenres of sci-fi, and players should see this game as an opportunity to pick up the ones they’ve always wanted, but never previously had a use for. It is worth mentioning that most miniatures are supplied unpainted, and many wargamers find that painting miniatures is their favourite part of the hobby.

Stargrave was designed for use with 28mm miniatures, which is the most common and popular size. Larger and smaller miniatures are also available, and it is perfectly acceptable to use those instead, provided all of the players are using the same size! Players using larger or smaller miniatures may want to adjust some of the distances for movement and weapon ranges to get the correct ‘feel’, but otherwise, size makes little difference.

Players should do their best to obtain miniatures that match the characters they are designed to represent, with appropriate weapons and armour. However, this is not always possible, and as long as it is clear to all of the players which figures represent which characters, the exact appearance is not important. In fact, even the race of the character is not important. The Stargrave universe includes numerous alien species. Most of these are humanoid, but not all. If you want to make up a crew of spacefaring wolfmen, or human-sized insects, or even large amoeboids, go for it.

Most wargamers mount their miniatures on bases. These are typically metal or plastic disks between 25 and 32mm in diameter. In Stargrave, the size of a figure’s base makes very little difference, and players should feel free to use whatever base size they find most visually appealing for their miniatures.

Stargrave also uses a couple of varieties of loot tokens. While these can be anything from coins to bits of shiny paper, players will need to mark which ones are which type – so they may want to get specific ones to represent the different types of loot. This is explained in greater detail later in the rules.

DICE

Many of the actions your figures will attempt in Stargrave, such as using special powers or fighting, require the player to roll a die in order to determine success or failure. Stargrave uses a twenty-sided die (often just referred to as a d20) for all rolls. Each player will need one d20 to play. While d20s are rarely seen in most traditional board games, they are used in a lot of speciality games and are obtainable from most game stores or online.

THE TABLE

Once you have your miniatures and dice ready to go, you are going to need a table to play on. Games of Stargrave are normally played on square tables with sides about 3 feet long. In games with more than two players, you may want to consider increasing the table size, up to 4’ x 4’, to give everyone more room to manoeuvre. If large tables are hard to come by, as they are in my house, you can play games of Stargrave on smaller tables. 2’ x 2’ is probably the minimum you will need to play a game. Smaller tables tend to make for quicker, bloodier games, but that doesn’t mean they are less fun!

TERRAIN

The universe of Stargrave is vast and includes thousands of different planets. When setting up a table, players are limited only by their imaginations. Games can be set in run-down starports, asteroid mining complexes, steaming jungles, crowded cities, desert canyons, or any other cool setting.

The key when setting up a table for Stargrave is that it is crowded with terrain. If a crew wants to survive, it is essential that they stick to the shadows. If they come out into the open, they’ll quickly be wiped out by one of the large pirate fleets. So, when setting up, make sure to give them plenty of cover to hide behind! Besides, the more terrain, the more fun that games tend to be!

Now, it would be great if everyone owned enough terrain to set up tables for numerous different settings, but that is, of course, not the case. If most of your terrain is urban – that’s fine – your crew obviously likes working in urban environments. If you mainly have forests, maybe your crew specializes in wilderness operations. If you are just starting out in the hobby, you may not have any of this – that’s fine too. In that case, you might consider buying a cheap set of blocks. These blocks can then be used to create all kinds of different table set-ups. You can even spray-paint them a steel grey if you want, so that they look like the walls of a spaceship or the sides of buildings. Don’t worry, once you are playing the game your imagination will ‘fill in the gaps’ and turn any set-up into a dangerous shanty town or robotic factory.

So long as there is a lot of ‘stuff’ on the table for figures to hide behind, clamber over, and fight upon, the specific look of the terrain is not important.

THE CREW SHEET AND TEMPLATES

At the back of the book (see here) you will find a copy of the Crew Sheet, which is used to keep track of your captain and their crew. Each player will need a copy of this sheet. You can either photocopy the sheet from the back of the book, or you can download a copy from the Osprey Games website (www.ospreygames.co.uk). At the same time, you can copy or download the templates that are used to determine the area of effect for flamethrowers and grenades.

CHAPTER ONE

ASSEMBLING A CREW

The galaxy is a rough place. Most of the once-powerful planets have been reduced to rubble, their populations decimated. Even the smaller colonies that were left untouched by the war have seen their economies collapse as necessary trade dried up. Vast pirate fleets roam between the stars, taking what they want and enforcing their own brand of law and justice. Plagues have run unchecked through many systems. Famine has turned others into wastelands. Raiding, border skirmishes, and other low-level warfare is rife.

It is against this background that the ‘independent crews’ operate. Generally consisting of a single ship and a small crew, these small bands travel between the systems, keeping to the shadows and out-of-sight of the pirate fleets. Some crews are freedom-fighters looking to strike against the pirates or idealists looking to rebuild civilization. Others are treasure hunters, picking through the ruins for lost technology and other valuable artefacts. Still others are bounty hunters, religious crusaders, shady merchants, pirates, or criminals on the run. In truth, there are as many causes and reasons to fly between the stars as there are spaceships.

The first step in creating your independent crew is sketching out a mental picture of the crew you want to play. Is your crew the remnants of a military unit, still desperately trying to fight the Last War? A group of nearly extinct aliens desperately seeking other survivors of their race? Or a team of art experts who ‘recover’ lost artworks from ruined planets in the hope of selling them for a premium to collectors amongst the pirates? While these decisions have no specific impact on your crew in terms of rules, having a few broad outlines in mind will help with the rest of the process and give you a starting point in telling the story of your crew.

Once you’ve got your basic idea, it is time to create your captain.

CREATING A CAPTAIN

Every independent crew is led by a Captain. This is not necessarily a military rank, but simply denotes that the person commands a starship, even a small one. In game terms, the captain is your most important figure. The captain is both the leader of your independent crew and your most powerful figure. Essentially, the captain represents you on the tabletop.

To create a captain, you’ll want to have a copy of the Crew Sheet from the back of the book (see here). The sheet has space for all of the important information about your captain (and their crew) that you will need during a game.

The first decision you should make when creating a captain is their name and species. Neither of these decisions will affect the character’s in-game capabilities, but they will help establish them in your mind. Some people like to find a miniature they really love