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View Full Version : Finding a PnP Strategy Game



GryffonDurime
2008-08-27, 06:07 PM
It's been bothering me for a while, but I can't seem to find a decent Pen-and-Paper Strategy game, preferably akin to Erfworld. Granted, that is a fairly specific thing to be looking for, and generally outside of the purview of standard RPG publishers, but in the great and ineffable whole of infinity, surely there must be something?

So, what say ye, people of the playground? Any ideas to help my players and I get out Erfworld-inspired grove on?

(If the Mass Combat rules weren't so utterly, utterly Byzantine, I'd use Exalted for this. My basic criteria are that the system models grunts and a handful of big/interesting characters well.)

Prometheus
2008-08-27, 06:40 PM
I haven't heard of anything like it, but I'm not really knowledgeable about many systems other that D&D.

The easiest way would be to replace the figurines from MageKnight or WarHammer with reference material to those stats and PnP representations of those figures. The same thing can be done with Magic the Gathering and trading cards with a similar sparing of the pocketbook. Even many board games, such as Settlers of Caton or Stratego.

I'd imagine though that one could fairly easily create one based on ideas in popular computer games. The two that come to my mind are Age of the Empires series (or in a fantasy setting, Age of Mythology) or the Civilization series. Here's what you'd need in my mind:
-A system of generating a map (either randomly, or prepared by a DM), preferably one that can be hidden from the players through some kind of fog of war (again, would require a DM). It would have various different natural resources on it (two to five different "currencies" such as gold, lumber, iron, mp, stone etc plus extra goodies like magic items). Also the terrain would add combat bonuses and penalties as well as define modes of movement.
-A system of determining ownership and harvest rate of nearby resources, presumably dictated by a number that would represent your civilian workforce, grown by investing time or natural resources into it.
-A system of buildings, improvements, and technologies that expand the domestic and military capabilities of your kingdom.
-A system of units which have a movement rate, movement type, strength value (either a static number or split into offense and defense) and if you wish, a host of special abilities. If you want to create a sort of paper-scissors-rock mechanic that is actually the baseline of the combat in a lot of computer games, be sure to either a) give the attacks of the units a type and allocate them defense bonuses against certain types of b) give them bonuses against specific units or types of units (mounted, magic, melee etc.)
-a system of combat. The type used by Axis and Allies (each unit is given a number of attack and a roll beneath that number is a hit. Count up the hits against each side and each player choses which of their own units take the hits. Some get multiple attacks, others can take multiple hits. Unless you used d100, this approach may be a little too modular) or Civilization (Read here (http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140622)) seems to work.
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