Rogue Stars

SciFi Skirmish Wargame created by Andrea Sfiligoi. Published December 15th 2016.

Description

Rogue Stars is a character-based science fiction skirmish wargame, where players command crews of bounty hunters, space pirates, merchants, prospectors, smugglers, mercenary outfits, planetary police and other such shady factions from the fringes of galactic civilisation. Crews can vary in size, typically from four to six, and the character and crew creation systems allow for practically any concept to be built. Detailed environmental rules that include options for flora, fauna, gravity, dangerous terrain and atmosphere, and scenario design rules that ensure that missions are varied and demand adaptation and cunning on the parts of the combatants, make practically any encounter possible. Run contraband tech to rebel fighters on an ocean world while hunted by an alien kill-team or hunt down a research vessel and fight zero-gravity boarding actions in the cold depths of space - whatever you can imagine, you can do.

TL;DR: Essentially a small model count game that focuses on SciFi archetypes instead of a specific setting. Want to create Cyborg Space Pirates who wear power armor? You can. Want to create Space Marines? You can. Want to create Jedi? You can. The system is very open to player customization.

Gameplay

A d20 system that focuses on low model count games, in particular 3-6 models.

Crew Creation

Themes

Themes give access to Crew Creation options such as traits, equipment, and weapons. Rarely do themes require you to take specific gear

• Bounty Hunters: Essentially your non-official police like Spike from Cowboy Bebop or Boba Fett from Star Wars.
• Cultists: Evil Psionic characters that can use more deadly attacks. Sample characters might be the Sith from Star Wars or Chaos Sorcerers from Warhammer 40k.
• Cyborgs: Part man, part machine; they are allowed access to more cybernetic enhancements early on. Sample characters might be Techpriests from Warhammer 40k or Megaman from Megaman.
• Mercenaries: The soldiers for hire theme for the game, they are allowed access to all civilian and military equipment except Heavy Power Armor. Sample characters might be the Mercs from the Riddick franchise or the Mithril from Full Metal Panic!.
• Merchants: The corporations or trade houses of the far future, their biggest boost is buying equipment at half price. Sample characters might be Rogue Traders from Warhammer 40k or Weyland Yutani from the Alien VS Predator franchise.
• Militia: These are the true soldiers of the game, they have access to all civilian and military grade equipment. Sample characters might be the Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40k or Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers.
• Miners: These characters typically represent the rebelious miners that are in so much science fiction. In particular they get access to better melee weapons and cheaper exosuits. Sample characters might be the miners from Red Faction or the crew from Red Dwarf.
• Pirates: These guys are space pirates and they are able to take special equipment such as personal teleporters and silenced weapons. Sample characters might be Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40k or Kei Pirate Guild from Outlaw Star.
• Psionics: The "magic" crew theme. These are the psychic warriors who can use mind control, clairvoyance, and telekinesis. Unlike Cultists they are not allowed any Dark Gifts. Sample characters might be the Jedi from Star Wars and Psykers from Warhammer 40k.
• Star Cops: Essentially the Space Police. They represent sheriffs, corporate security, and government agencies. Sample characters might be Adeptus Arbites from Warhammer 40k or Judge Dredd from Judge Dredd.

Designing Characters

• Robots: There is no Robot theme there are rules for designing them by taking the Artificial and Nonreactive traits. Though taking just the Artificial trait might be simple enough for a sentient robot. While the rules state that no squad can comprise of just robots you can get away with a squad of artificial characters.
• Aliens: Anything with the Vegetable or Mineral trait. For some reason this does not extend to Insectoid or Reptiloid traits.
• Cyborgs: Typically only available for the Cyborg theme. In the campaign rules if a limb is broken any crew theme can spend XP to replace the limb with a cybernetic enhancement.