The Beautiful Maps Of Dyson Dodecahedron

Dyson is a wonderful mapper of all things RPG. His maps have a flare and beauty all their own.

Mapping Continued

Michael Turney on Google Plus has shared a wonderful and brief tutorial on mapping. He uses a series of textures in his poster style tutorial.

Federation Space is back on e23

Federation Space was my introduction to the Starfleet Battle universe. My original set was partially lost between the 1980ish purchase date and today. E23 is the best service for old school gamers.

The original set featured a 16 page rule book, a map, one tactical display map, 5 organizational charts, 432 counters and two dice. The E23 version includes everything but the dice. (Hint, hint! I’d buy e23, SFB and ADB themed dice.)

When printing out my new copy, I was instantly reminded why this is my favorite Task Force Game: the dense background information to the game system. Out of sixteen pages, the first three beautifully describe the game universe. “Shields flashed electric blue” reminds me of the smell of ozone and the rattle of dice.

During the printing process, I discovered that I still had my original counters, with the exception the blue Federation.

I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent playing this game as a child, I can hardly wait to introduce this to my kids.

This game is very rich in background details while having a simple set rules. The beauty of this game is the breakdown of basic rules and scenarios that lead to more advanced rules, scenarios and optional rules. Replay away!

Additionally, Federation Space can be used to supplement Starfleet Battles.

After spending the weekend rereading the rules, I plan to print up the cards, maps and get playing again this week.

Star Smuggler

One of the my first experiences with role playing and tactical games was a little game called Star Smuggler. It came with little cardboard tokens for characters, tiles for worlds and a rich background of information on the Smuggler Mini-verse. I spent hours, days and weeks playing.

Now you can too. Dwarfstar Games has contacted the author, Dennis Sustare and made arrangements to host digital files of the game. Check it out here. Mr. Sustare was never paid for this game yet still granted permission for digital distribution to Dwarfstar. Be kind and follow the generous agreement.

Update: I like to sketch up alternate ships for this game. Here is my Buffalo Class Transport.

Pilotage: 6 cu
Turrets x2: 2 cu each with weapons, 6 cu without
Crew Quarters: 24 cu
Bay 1: 43 cu
Bay 2: 43 cu
Boat Bay 1: 40 cu
Boat Bay 2: 40 cu
Engineering: 16 cu
8 Hyperchargers, no secret compartments.