... so
I've been studying the rules. The best way for me to learn a game is to make up my own quick reference sheet. By referring to every part of the rules, going back and forth through the books to tie them all together, and restating them in my own words, I end up with a pretty decent grasp of the rulebook.
I did that for
Starfleet Wars, putting most of the information needed for play onto a single 8½" x 11" piece of paper. But in doing so, I realized the game still requires players to process a lot of information for each ship, especially if you use all
the advanced rules. The ship record sheet in
the SfW rulebook is pretty sparse when it comes to giving a player everything necessary to use all the vessel's weapons, which led me to design my own. Here's an example:
This new record sheet has a list of all the options available to a starship captain, and space to designate targets and write orders for true simultaneous play. When I do get to play
Starfleet Wars, hopefully this record sheet will make the game run smoothly.
So does anyone else devise their own play aids for their wargames, or am I just waaaaaay to obsessive?
I like to design play aids for the games I play. Some games need more aids than others.
ReplyDeleteI used to make my own GM screens for RPGs, so I guess that counts. I like your sheets by the way. Playing Starfleet Wars looks like doing taxes by hand, but for some reason I find that appealing in a space game... sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, pahoota. I realize there's a resemblance to a 1040 Form, but you don't have to use every option every turn. Stacking everything vertically makes it easier to add up, which is the only math necessary (but I plan on having a calculator at hand anyway).
ReplyDeleteAs a long time SFW player,I came up with simple reference sheets, but later moved on to using wipe off cards that I could place under each model. Later, I mucked about with a BASIC program I could run on my Radio Shack TRS Personal Computer http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc1.html--you put in the values for each and it would calculate the factors for you and tell you how many PP you had to play with. I lost the PPC a long time ago, but I could probably put together a simple app if I really was motivated enough.
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