What Would WarEngine v3.0 Look Like?

There was some discussion on the WarEngine group on Yahoo about putting together  a parallel wiki for a WarEngine v3.0.  The current wiki site captures what we call v2.11, the Shock Force Second Edition ruleset with errata fixed.  A good question followed: what would be in a v3.0?  What follows is my answer.

The core proposed change discussed about a v3 is to the point system.  For example, long range weapons with high AV actually seem underpriced under the current v2.  We drew up at a GenCon (now a couple years ago) a replacement to the Range and AV tables such that their revised point values would be multiplied together instead of added.  The spread for weapon costs became wider while leaving the points for most weapons very close to the current system.

Another concept was to have baseline profiles for trooper, elite, and character, racial/species/faction modifiers that adjust base points and base stats, and a revised tweak system that would in some cases have adjustments based on the underlying related attribute.  For example, a tweak that which adds one to every die in an attack roll is more useful for a five-die weapon than a one-die weapon, so should cost more.

To make building armories for a faction a bit easier, there might also be a base AV bonus for close combat and ranged attacks built into the base profiles so you could create a single armory for weapon selection.  If a basic rifle is 2k2 AV, and the AV profile adjustments for a particular race are trooper=base AV, elite=+1k1 AV, character=+2k2 AV, then the same rifle is 2k2 in the hands of a trooper, 3k3 for an elite, and 4k4 for a character.  Of course, you might have fighter, archer, and wizard base character profiles in a fantasy setting that have different AV profile adjustments in order to add yet more variety.

These are just some examples, but it’s also worth pointing out that the basic principles would still apply: opposed die rolls of the XkY variety for resolving conflicts, keep the complicated stuff on the force building side instead of the game table side, and maximize flexibility so you can play exactly the game you want to play.

It’s no small feat to put together a new version, especially without big dollars behind the effort.  But it would certainly be exciting to see it happen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm by Overton and is filed under WarEngine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.