From: rshipley@illuminati.io.com (Rich Shipley) Date: 6-DEC-1993 13:44:13 Description: Warp War - The Campaign Game This is reprinted with permission from Steve Jackson. I just scanned it in today, if you find any scan errors, let me know. From The Space Gamer #33: WARP WAR The Campaign Game by Joseph R. Power and Steve Jackson copyright 1980, Steve Jackson Games After playing several games of WarpWar, many people hate to give up their favorite ships. Now they don't have to. The following rules allow for a multi-player "campaign" version of the game. They work best for three to six players, though more can be handled if the referee is patient. Campaign WarpWar is a very slow game - natural, since it simulates exploration and conflict over light-years of space and decades of time. As a face-to-face game, it is best suited for club play (doing two or three turns each meeting) or tournament play (where one heroic referee, or better yet, a team, accepts one move per hour every couple of hours for many hours of play). Campaign WarpWar also lends itself well to privately run play-by-mail gaming. The basic WarpWar rules will require the following additions: I. The Referee A referee (and, possibly, assistants) will be required to create the galaxy, keep records on the ships and worlds, and give information to the players as they earn it. The best record-keeping system is simply to establish one 3 X 5 file card for each world or ship, keeping all relevant information on it and updating it turn by turn. For a world, the card should include name, hex number, owner, BP value, and accumulated BPs at that world. For a ship, the card should include ship name, configuration, missiles carried, tech level, and current location. If the referee has access to a personal computer, this record-keeping may be simplified enormously. If the game is being played by mail, the referee will also have to handle combat; see PBM Combat, below. II. Creating the Galaxy The WarpWar map is much too small for a campaign game. The referee will need to get a large sheet of hex paper (preferably numbered) with at least 400 hexes. Stars: Each hex has a 1 in 12 chance of containing a star; roll 1dl2 for each hex, or roll 2d6 and give it a star only on a roll of 11 or 12. However, do not roll for a hex adjacent to an existing star; stars are never adjacent. Warplines: Give each star a 1 in 4 chance of having a warpline to each of the 4 nearest stars. No star will ever have more than 4 warplines. Home Worlds: Players' home worlds should be assigned in one of two ways. Either spread them more or less evenly throughout the map, or distribute them around the periphery of the map with none in the center. A purely random distribution of home worlds may lead to unfair disadvantages. All home worlds have 10 BP. Other Worlds: Each star may be assumed to have one useful world. For each world, roll two 6-sided dice and subtract 1 from the total to determine BPs. Thus, each world will have a BP value of from I to 11, averaging 6. BP value of a world does not change during the game. Home Defenses: There is a 1 in 6 chance that a world will have its own defenses when discovered. If a world has home defenses, multiply its BP value by 3 and give it one Systemship of that strength. Defenses will always be hostile toward the players. It is suggested that damaged home defenses NOT repair themselves--but if the referee wants to keep track of neutral world ship repair, he can. III. Movement and Exploration Each turn, each player writes down his moves and gives them to the GM. This is why the hexes should be numbered; if a ship has a movement value of 20, its movement may be a string of 20 numbers. Since a player does not know what is in any hex until he enters it, he is likely to encounter a star in the course of any long move. He should therefore specify what the ship is to do if it finds a new star: either continue moving or end its turn there. If a ship enters a hex occupied by another player's ship, it must stop; the referee will end its turn there. However, a ship does not have to stop for a star, even if the star is owned by another player. If you pass through a star hex owned by another player, but do not stop, you will learn that there is a star there, and that the system is owned by another player. You will not know what its BP value is or who owns it. Movement is sequential. The referee determines the movement sequence randomly each turn. He moves all the ships belonging to one player before he moves any ships belonging to the next player. IV. Star Possession A player is said to own a star hex if he can keep a ship on that hex for one full turn without having any enemy ships present. If the star was previously owned by another player, he must destroy or drive off all defending ships and then keep a ship there for one full turn without combat. When a player takes possession of a star, he controls its BPs. He is told what its BP value is, and how many BPs (if any) are accumulated there. (A star does not begin to accumulate BPs until it is first owned by a player.) He is also told how many warplines that star has - but NOT necessarily where they go. Once a player has visited both ends of a warpline, he has charted the warpline itself and may use it in a normal fashion. V. Referees' Reports Each turn, after all movement has been finished but before combat takes place, the referee gives a written report to each player. This report includes: FOR EACH WORLD WHERE HE HAS SHIPS: ships present; their owners; number of warplines out. FOR EACH WORLD HE OWNS: all the above, plus its BP value and stockpiled BPs. FOR EACH SHIP HE HAS: its present position; any other ships in the hex; and who owns them. HEX POSITIONS for any new stars his ships discovered that turn. If the ship stopped to explore, he gets information as per (1) above. If it just passed through, all he finds out is that there's a star there. HEX POSITIONS for any allied ships whose hexes his ships passed through. WARPLINES that he has now learned about by visiting both ends. Anything else the referee feels he should know about - but treat all players equally. After reading their reports, those players having combat to resolve may do so. If the game is being played by mail, the referee's report will include an account of each combat the player's ships participated in that turn. The amount of information a referee allows a ship to report on the turn it is destroyed in combat is up to the referee. He may assume that it beamed all new data back to base before its destruction--or that NONE of the information it collected that turn, even to the combat, is relayed to the player . . . the ship simply vanishes if no allies survive to report. The latter option makes for a cloudy but interesting game. VI. Building Ships A player may build ships at any star he owns, in normal WarpWar fashion. However, BPs may never be transferred from star to star. The BPs a given system produces must be used there or not at all. You may find it expedient to use smaller, less productive systems as "repair bases" and save the more productive systems to build new ships. VII. Tech Levels and Scrapping New technological levels do not come automatically; they must be bought, traded for, or stolen. All players start at Level 0. To buy a tech level, you must have the next lower tech level, and then spend 10 BPs times the desired tech level. To get from 0 to 1 costs 10. To get from I to 2 costs 20--and so on. The BPs spent to earn a higher tech level do NOT all have to be spent at the same time, or come from the same place. To trade for a tech level, you simply have to convince another player to give it to you (see Alliances, below). Once you have a given tech level, you can give it (or any lower level) to any player you like. To steal a tech level, you must capture a world owned by a player who has a higher tech level. The greater the difference between your tech level and his, the less you will learn from the devices you find. If the difference between your levels is only 1, you get 5 BP free toward your next tech level. If the difference is 2, you get only 4 BP, and so on. If you capture more than one high-tech world, you get an extra BP toward your level each time. A player may never advance more than one tech level per turn. VIII. The Diplomacy Option; Alliances This is an added option which may be chosen on any round of combat. If, on any round, all ships in a combat choose "diplomacy," then fighting is ended there for that turn and the two players may form an alliance. As allies, they may give each other worlds and/or ships as they see fit, share technology, etc. As long as two players remain allies, their ships may travel together. A ship passing through a hex with an allied ship does not automatically stop unless its owner has given contingency orders "stop for allied ships," or unless the allied ship's owner has commanded that it stop any ship passing through its hex. Alliances may only be formed by players when they have ships in a hex to gether. Alliances may be broken at any time. If not all ships in a combat choose the diplomacy option on a given round, the ships that did choose diplomacy are considered to have chosen the "attack" option with a speed of zero. They may not fire weapons, but may have screens up. IX. Scrapping Ships A ship may be "scrapped" at any time it is at a friendly world. It turns into BPs equivalent to 1/4 of its present BP total. The BPs enter the planet's stockpile and may be used on that or any later turn. X. PBM Combat If the game is being conducted by mail, it is impractical to have players choose options each round of a long combat--it would require months to resolve each combat. Instead, the referee should recruit assistants -- one for each player -- who know the game. The assistant referees represent the ship captains of their respective players. The players may write standing orders of as much complexity as they wish, to be followed by the captains when battle is joined. Captains are free to use their own judgment on any matters not covered by the standing orders. Thus, on a turn when players A and B have a battle, the referee will meet with his assistants who captain for A and B, and work out the battle. (If the standing orders include provisions for attempting diplomacy, the battle may be unnecessary; the referee himself will be familiar with all standing orders and will know this.) Of course, no captain is familiar with the standing orders the other players have given their own captains. All in all, a complex and long-running game. The general system outlined above could be used with other games besides WarpWar. Any exploration-type space game - for instance, Stellar Conquest, Starfall, StarForce, et al -- could be played by mail or in a tournament with similar rules. From: str@qdot.qld.gov.au (Shaun Travers) Date: 8-DEC-1993 18:30:05 Description: WarpWar Rules (More!) WarpWar Additional Rules ======================== Warpwar PBEM would be fun [but slow]. I am willing to play. Anybody? I did like some of the rules posted previously, especially slowing down Warp Line usage based on PD and cannon. I haven't had a good look at them yet. These ideas are all tested except the fighters as the person I used to play WarpWar against has moved away. If you don't like them, well, flame me :-) Fighters -------- I always thought fighters would make a nice addition to WarpWar. Fighters are similar to a combined missile and system ship. they are denoted by an F. Launching Fighters: Fighters require a launch tube to launch or be retrieved. Up to two fighters may use a launch tube in any combat turn. Launch tubes are denoted by an L and cost 1BP. It costs one Drive point to power an L (unless using fighters as systemships - see below under alternatives). Fighters cost 1BP to build and cost nothing to store on a ship. However a ship can never carry more fighters than originally designed for. Beams and Shields cannot be used while launching or retrieving fighters (unless fighters are launched during the systemship phase). Missiles can be used. Fighters always use the Attack option and my select any Drive number greater than 0 (just like missiles). Fighters do 2 points of damage. The same fighter cannot launch and be retrieved in the same turn. However one fighter may be launched while another is retrieved though the same launch tube. Any fighters left behind after all other friendly ships with Launch tubes have left will be destroyed after 3 combat turns (life support is limited). Fighters can never be left in a system alone. They must be stored on a ship at the end of a turn. Firing at Fighters: A ship/fighter may fire a fighter or fire missiles at fighters. Any hit destroys a fighter. Normally a ship can only fire its Beam at one other target ship. to alleviate this, a ship can be built with more than one Beam Weapon. This means it can select more than one target. To build an extra Beam costs 1BP. There is nothing to stop the Beams combining to fire on a single ship. This rule simply makes it possible to defend against fighters at a slight cost. e.g. B=3 B=2 S=4 D=10. Cost is 25, not 24 (it has a Warp Generator). Or, System ship B=1 B=1 B=1 S=2 D=7. cost is 14, not 12. Alternatives for fighters: As the above rules are just ideas, I have other ones floating in my head. The above rules still have the 'missiles that hang around' feel. 1. Fighters do one point of damage and cost 1/2BP each. 2. Fighters are launched similar to Systemships (and during system ship phase) i.e. Ship must select D=0, S=0 to launch fighters. need Launch tubes but obviously they don't need power (I like this one as an alternative). with this rule, it may be better having fighters do 1 point of damage, or systemships go by the wayside. 3. Ignore the rule of Beams firing at one target if fighters are the only target. 4. Fighters cost 1BP, do one point of damage but select TWO drive numbers. Of course, this makes them easier to kill. 5. Only one fighter per launch tube. 6. Different classes of fighters: Anti-fighter fighters, Beam fighters (1 Point of damage), Missile fighters (2 points of damage, two drive numbers, one-shot only but can be retrieved and reloaded from a ship). After writing all this the ideas I like the most are: fighters like system ships. One launch tube launches two fighters during the systemship phase. F cost 1BP and do one point of damage. They select two drive numbers. Beam weapons can split their fire against fighters ONLY. Missiles can be fired at fighters. different classes of fighters may complicate the game. I wonder how well this works. Any ideas or preferences? Tech Levels ----------- At about Tech Level 4 I tended to build a 4 ships PD=2 B=1 and a carrier PD=4 SR=4 [conveniently adds up to 20 BPs - two turns worth]. With +4 on each B and the ability to select 0 or 1 as a drive number AND have four targets for the enemy seemed to be effective for a while. By this stage though the person ahead tended to win. To slow down Tech level increases we had a tech level increase every two turns. TL1 Bs only were +1. at TL2 S were also +1, TL3 M +1, TL 4 B at +2 etc. It made jumps at smaller intervals and ships were often disadvantaged by other ships only two turns older. BPs --- We used to play you required a system ship on each system to obtain BPs. The centre 'home planet' gives 3 BPs, the 2 side 'home planets' give 2 BPs each, and each other system gives 1 BP. Obviously the systems ships on outer planets did not cost much :-). A connection of Warp Lines or a hex gap of no more than a total of three hexes is required to any home planet. [resources are assumed to travel via a freighter network]. If a path was not available, BPs from that system were not collected. BPs from outer planet could not be stored. [too much paperwork] Ships still had to be built at any of the home planets. -shaun