Leviathan - Play by Forum rules

[Tonbo Karasu]

I can’t get as much time for playing as I’d want to, so would like to play electronically.  My ruleset is an attempt to streamline this for play on this very forum.  It also assumes that you have read and understood the Lt Rules.

Theory

The main difficulty with playing Leviathans in the forum is the amount of back-and-forth interaction between the players, particularly in the movment phase.  If you were to actually do it entirely by the rules you would need:
GM rolls initiative
Player 1 does Type 2 movement
Player 2 does Type 2 movement
Player 1 does Type 1 movement
Player 2 does Type 1 movement
Everyone does combat
For every turn.  This will only get exacerbated as the bigger Leviathans get involved, so I really wanted a smoother  way.  In the past I had managed to get one turn down to this in PBF games
Players submit turnsheet
GM posts results
And am aiming for that again.

Implementation

So, if I want to do this based on turnsheets, what would it look like?  Let’s do one for the good old HML Raven

Leviathan:  HML Raven

Weapon Slot	Target	Gun Dice	Crew Dice	Target Dice
Bow 3	Pontbriand	dGreen	dGreen	dBlack
Port 2	Pelletier	dBlue		dBlue
Port 3	Pelletier	dBlue		dBlue
Starboard 2
Starboard 3

Movement
Starting Location   0312-0313
1   Forward
2   Forward
3   Forward
4   Turn Port
5   Forward
6   Forward
7   Turn Starboard
8   NIL
9   NIL
Ending Location    0108-0109

You will notice that I have switched around combat and movement.  If I want to fit a whole turn onto a single sheet, then there needs to be a slight bit of blind orders.  Generally players are happier knowing exactly where the enemy is when they’re going to shoot them than before movement.

After both sets of orders are in the GM adjudicates them.  Currently it would be a case of trust your GM for combat, unless we get a dice-rolling program on the forum.  The most complicated part of this will be movement, there being a couple of special cases:
1:  What happens if a Leviathan takes an Engine hit during combat?  Simply go through the movement orders until running out of MP and stop there.
2:  What happens if 2 Leviathans end up in the same hex?  More complicated, one or both Leviathan needs to be moved back along its ordered path until there isn’t a stacking issue.  If one Leviathan is stationary, move the other one.  If the Leviathans are of different types, move the smaller one (If a type 1 overlaps a type 2, then move the type 1 back: 2 reasons, in tabletop play, type 2 moves first and if you were in a destroyer on a collision course with a cruiser, you’d slow down to let it past!).  If different parts of the Leviathans stack, move the one which is stacking closer to the bow (If the centre hex of a Type 2 overlaps the rear hex of a type 2, move the first one).  Otherwise, move them both 1 MP at a time until resolved

So, are there any budding Sky Captains up for a go of these prototype rules?

I think I’ll recommend going with the two Light Cruisers in a duel to see if the rules work.

[Worktroll]

Interestingly, the initial submission to CGL included simultaneous-movement written-orders as an optional rule. As an old grognard raised on games like Airforce/Dauntless, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, and of course SFB, etc, I'm happy with pre-determining lots of aspects and keeping track on pieces of paper.

However, the world's changed since then, and those rules conflicted with my primary aim of a game which could play several-a-side quickly. But I'd be interested to see how your work progresses.

One thing to think about - SFB-style "impulse" movement. This will give maneuver a very different feel from the normal initiative rules - for example, a destroyer will be able to blunder under the stem of one of its side's battleships - but that's not necessarily historically inaccurate!

[Trenchknife]

As much fun as I've had with written orders...it slows the game down too much.  It's also one reason I've only played SFB twice.  Once to see if I liked it, and the second time to make sure I didn't.

[Tonbo Karasu]

For tabletop play, written orders really do slow things down a lot, unless your being really cut-throat and doing something like playing Airforce with 10-second timers, for real-time piloting.  But, unless you're willing for it to take forever, simultaneous plotted movement is the only way to really manage non Face-to-face gaming.

In some ways I like impulsed movement (played Car Wars a lot, as well as SFB back in the day: I played in the Tourney at Gencon 94, until being knocked out by the Andromedan Fleet Captain) but it goes against the idea of replicating the game as closely as possible while limiting the number of times you have to wait for the other person to respond each turn: that's where the drag in any non-FtF game comes in.  Although, I'll think on an impulse-move variant.  Definitely 12-impulse: it matches the dice and is also a nice number.

I really don't have as much time to play wargames as I used to and do miss it, hence my efforts to enable electronic versions of games I like.  I also don't mind running things, so if there's anyone else like me who's dying to try out the game, pipe up, and I'll run it.

I have this image of a large fleet action, where each ship is captained by a different player, and everyone submits their orders to a GM/GM Team.  Not something that could actually be managed as well on tabletop, but possible in another format.

[Trenchknife]

What about some sort of program like Megamek.  Handles pretty much everything Btech through a java setup I believe.  Don't know for sure, I'm a user not a programmer.

[Worktroll]

I'm waiting for LevAssault: Lone Eagle!

W 

[pianobar]

For tabletop play, written orders really do slow things down a lot, unless your being really cut-throat and doing something like playing Airforce with 10-second timers, for real-time piloting.  But, unless you're willing for it to take forever, simultaneous plotted movement is the only way to really manage non Face-to-face gaming.

I'm watching this thread with interest, and I have to agree with this statement. I can remember running AD&D 2nd ed. and D&D 3.0 PBeM games and the only sane way to do things was set a schedule, ask everyone to submit their desired actions, and then play it all out, with the GM handling anything that didn't quite work...otherwise trying to handle a simple combat turn could take weeks. It might be really nice to include a written movement alternate ruleset for those who want that "blind" effect.

[Tonbo Karasu]

Hmm, that sounds to me like a volunteer   

Anyone want to take on Captain Pianobar of the HML Hertfordshire?

[Worktroll]

No, he'll be flying HML Courser

[pianobar]

No, he'll be flying HML Courser

Oh, you noticed my avatar did you? 

Sure, I'll sign up for this experiment...in whichever vessel would suit your goals best, Tonbo.

[Tonbo Karasu]

To be honest, which vessels is not as important as how many.  It seems reasonable to just start with one a side each, then expand if it works, and there's interest.

Also, I'm not yet familiar enough with the Leviathan pictures to be able to identify the differences between ships of the same type and faction on a picture the size of an Avatar.

All we need now is an opponent.

[pianobar]

Also, I'm not yet familiar enough with the Leviathan pictures to be able to identify the differences between ships of the same type and faction on a picture the size of an Avatar.

Well, with the image size it would be hard to tell even if you were familiar with them. I was simply ribbing Worktroll with that statement.

I saw your other post, thanks for the write-up.

[Tonbo Karasu]

Hopefully, it generates interest.  Of course, by setting it over the Channel, it means the French ship needs to be the Pontbriand: the Ardent Faucon is recorded as being on station in the Med.

I've always found a bit of background to the story makes it more interesting.

Do you want to PM me your starting location as per the Map in the Lt Manual page 10, that would be great: I'll start working on images.

[pianobar]

Do you want to PM me your starting location as per the Map in the Lt Manual page 10, that would be great: I'll start working on images.

It'll probably be around 8 hrs from now, but sure. My work day just started, effectively.

[Tonbo Karasu]

Well, with only one player, I'm going to have to put this on hold for the time being.  Of course, should anyone else be interested, I'll get the game started ASAP.

Roderick