Sunday 3 April 2016

Space Fleet Box Lid

The most infamous part of Space Fleet and other games from the range, is the 'drop dice into the box lid and see where they land' method of hit determination.



As you can see, the lid was printed with a grid of 9 squares. 5 saying 'hit' and 4 saying 'miss'. While this was described repeatedly in White Dwarf as being a 'cunning' design, in reality it is awesomely bad, unless you are a young child who likes dropping small things into a larger thing. The numbers rolled had no effect unless a six was rolled in a hit square, in which case it was a critical.

So what kind of alternative is there? My first thought was to replace it with a d10 system, due to it being the closest to giving nine outcomes. 1-4 would be a miss, 5-9 a hit and 10 a critical hit. Sure, the stats might be somewhat out, but it was close enough. But then I thought that a 60% chance of a hit would be a bit high and I'd rather have 6+ being a hit. As I acquired more of the rules additions in White Dwarf, the result of the d6 roll makes more of a difference when resolving the effects of different weapons, like missiles. I concluded that it made more sense to have one roll to hit and then a second to determine any special effects from either weapon types or receiving criticals. 

The result is that I'm opting for a simple 4+ on a d6 to hit, followed by a roll of all successful dice to resolve anything that needs to know what number was rolled in a hit square. This keeps things quite simple and also seems like a Games Workshop-like system with the 4+ to hit on a d6. 

The only thing outstanding, is the scatter rule, which again uses the box lid to determine where shots scatter to, meaning it can also 'scatter' into the central square and not just the surrounding 8. The best I can think of for this is to roll a d10 and re roll 0s. 

So these are my current thoughts on the subject.  When I've had more of a chance to put them into practice I'll update this post if I think they need any amendments. 

9 comments:

  1. HA, I always loved the hit mechanics form this game!

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    1. They are certainly unique. I just don't think I could stretch to using them these days. I guess I've found my nostalgia limit there!

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  2. I've played a few games with my kids using the box lid but I might have to try your D6 method out for bigger, more complex games.

    I had been contemplating investing in some D18 as another alternative.

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    1. I think I read on another blog about the d18 method. For me, though, if you need to factor in any special effects from weapons, you may as well stick with a d6 roll as you'll need to be rerolling hits anyway. That's why I moved away from the d10 as I figured why have two different dice if I don't need to. That's my current thinking anyway!

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  3. By any chance do you have a scan of the orginal rules? I've been amassing some Space Fleet models lately and can't find a copy of the basic rules anywhere. Oddly enough I do have the WD with the advanced rules...

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    1. Unfortunately my scanner is still packed up following a recent house move. But I could email you some photos? Let me know your email address and I'll look into it for you.

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  4. Looks like the aether ate my reply. Please send whatever you have, it's Kidkyoto (at mark) hotmail.com, I'd really appreciate it!

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    1. Hey. Just sent you an email. Hope it works!

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  5. By the way thanks! And I think I'll use your method for the hit miss rolls. It's not a totally terrible idea, except that dice and easily land in 2, 3 or 4 squares and you have to reroll or argue which square they are in.

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