Wargaming with Exo-force

[SkaForHire]

Hi, for a long while a few friends and I were working on rules for a lego mecha game that we would like to play. I think there may be a couple out there, i just have never seen them, so we started making our own using mostly the mars sets (this was many years ago) which made good looking mech warrior kind of units... with the release of exo-force the few of us that are left have decided to try and get back to it again... exo-force provides alot more options then there were before, and this got our hopes up.

I was wondering if anyone has gamed in this genre using lego before? if so could you direct me towards the rulesset you were using?

second when I finish up the preliminary rules, i was wondering if any others would like to play test them for me? (probably won't be done until this fall, i am a full time student)

Also any suggestions anyone has for adding into a game based on giant robots, let me know!

-dan

oh yeah, and don't let mr phes know that I am posting away from the pirates board! lol

[xwingyoda]

oh yeah, and don't let mr phes know that I am posting away from the pirates board! lol

Loool, your secret is safe with me X-D :-P

I think it would be a good idea to strart posting what rules you have so far to encourage discussion. I am sure that way it would move smothly ;-)

*yoda*

[SuvieD]

http://www.brikwars.com

Though using the brikwars rules could be too complicated they also have an index of other LEGO battle games out there. A decent resource for ideas at least.

I would love to see what you come up with. I am looking at doing the same eventually and having a somewhat easy rule set would be great.

[Darth_Ewok]

GRAAAAAR!!! SuvieD beat me to it! I LOVE brikwars!!!

The new rules actually aren't that complicated (the 2005 edition) but the 2001 rules are more advanced. I mix both together for the perfect game.

Now mech combat...

The 2005 rules vehicle/creature system works really well and you can easily get stats for almost any vehicle just by looking and measuring. Brikwars is more a general wargame, spanning many time periods and is not jsut a vehicle game. For a fun war with mechs and infantry, use brikwars. For pure mech combat I would also reccomend BrickMech

BrickMech has good ideas and uses a modular system for the mechs themselves (seperating them into parts like arm, leg, torso etc.)

I can do playtesting too :-)

[Darkness Falls]

Yup, I've tried to make a game like that, too. If you can come up with an easy set of rules, you've got it made. If it gets too complicated, though, you might want to reconsider. Games that get way to in-depth sometimes get boring.

Still, I love brick based RPG.

Oh, and I've been working on a game that uses a lot of different themes of Lego. Does anyone know where I could post it?

[SkaForHire]

Cool... I will see if i can get something up soon

I was actually looking to detail a system more then brikwars, however hoping to keep it simple. I feel brikwars is pretty fun in itself, and allows for some totally random stuff, which is alot of fun, however, i think it could be a bit more detailed. I don't really like the vehicle system.

My hopes was to build a basic minifig system like brikwars, and then put modules into it the first being mecha based and the second being pirate based (love evil stevie, but again i have problems with it) this would allow for ground combat by figs vrs a more detailed mech... Ideally. (i had actually already started a primarily mech based system, but scraped it to start from the bottom up to make it more universal.)

I will have to check out BrickMech. I am also playing with modual design for mechs.

The biggest goal i want to achieve is to allow the game to be RPG-able. meaning you could technically keep playing missions as your character, buy better parts (perhaps train skills also) and go into missions run either by the group or by a sort of dungeon master. But i want the system to be totally built so that you could just wage a war without playing the RPG part, based on a point value system.

one question for all of you gamers, many types of dice or limited types? (like use d6s through d20s or just limit to a couple types.)

Whats cool is, i have a programmer friend that would set up a program and database that you could build your stat cards for you mech on your comp and print them before the game, keeps people from having to write out the whole stat card by hand... but thats down the road a bit.

[Darth_Ewok]

DarknessFalls: Just post it here :-)

SkaForHire: Yeah, brikwars allows for some pretty random and funny stuff :-P I think the 2001 rules are more complicated than the new ones. I think the RPG system would make a great campaign. You should have 2 people playing with each battle affecting the development of characters and the circumstances of the next fight. However, DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN D6's. It makes the game inacessable to all but serious wargamers with many varieties of dice and tend to be inflexible, detail oriented geeks. Using d6's the game can be picked up by younger or more casual players without much difficulty.

Also, if you need help or ideas for your wargame, PM me. *sweet*

P.S. I am also working on a wargame myself (no name yet) but it is how brikwars should be with support for numerous units from many universes (starwars, pirates) and an easy to pick up yet detailed gameplay system. (In fact, I might have to borrow my above campaign idea ;-) )

[SkaForHire]

DarknessFalls: Just post it here :-)

SkaForHire: Yeah, brikwars allows for some pretty random and funny stuff :-P I think the 2001 rules are more complicated than the new ones. I think the RPG system would make a great campaign. You should have 2 people playing with each battle affecting the development of characters and the circumstances of the next fight. However, DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN D6's. It makes the game inacessable to all but serious wargamers with many varieties of dice and tend to be inflexible, detail oriented geeks. Using d6's the game can be picked up by younger or more casual players without much difficulty.

Also, if you need help or ideas for your wargame, PM me. *sweet*

P.S. I am also working on a wargame myself (no name yet) but it is how brikwars should be with support for numerous units from many universes (starwars, pirates) and an easy to pick up yet detailed gameplay system. (In fact, I might have to borrow my above campaign idea ;-) )

cool, cant wait to see what you have! alot of gamers over here i see! See, I am from the oposite school... the school of geek, where i love multi dice. but i know what you mean about inaccessibility... I will try to limit it, or present an alternate version for the less hard core lol... though I suppose there would have to be a way to do everythign i want with just d6s. Though I think the ultimate dice are d10s, because they can act as percentage dice also! I think if a system were to have just one dice, d10s would be the way to go.

Campaigns definitely make games constantly different... So this has to go into the system.

[UltraPrime]

Sounds like a great idea. Before I was a collector, I was a gamer - played Warhammer 40k for 18 years, and dabbled in others, such as BattleTech. I'll be up for playtesting too :)

[Darth_Ewok]

DarknessFalls: Just post it here :-)

SkaForHire: Yeah, brikwars allows for some pretty random and funny stuff :-P I think the 2001 rules are more complicated than the new ones. I think the RPG system would make a great campaign. You should have 2 people playing with each battle affecting the development of characters and the circumstances of the next fight. However, DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN D6's. It makes the game inacessable to all but serious wargamers with many varieties of dice and tend to be inflexible, detail oriented geeks. Using d6's the game can be picked up by younger or more casual players without much difficulty.

Also, if you need help or ideas for your wargame, PM me. *sweet*

P.S. I am also working on a wargame myself (no name yet) but it is how brikwars should be with support for numerous units from many universes (starwars, pirates) and an easy to pick up yet detailed gameplay system. (In fact, I might have to borrow my above campaign idea ;-) )

cool, cant wait to see what you have! alot of gamers over here i see! See, I am from the oposite school... the school of geek, where i love multi dice. but i know what you mean about inaccessibility... I will try to limit it, or present an alternate version for the less hard core lol... though I suppose there would have to be a way to do everythign i want with just d6s. Though I think the ultimate dice are d10s, because they can act as percentage dice also! I think if a system were to have just one dice, d10s would be the way to go.

Campaigns definitely make games constantly different... So this has to go into the system.

Yeah, maybe I will have to buy some new dice :-P

If either of you guys want to talk about their games. I just joined this new forum I found via lugnet called "Brick Games." It's a forum dedicated to the discussion of Lego gaming! I'm also the 1st member X-D (besides the admin.)

Maybe you could find more playtesters there (or get a subforum for your in-progress game, like he did for a few other games...)

It's here: http://z3.invisionfree.com/Brick_Games_Forum/

[EXO-CHAMP]

Go for it.

I have designed a game system for the exo-force line which I call exo-dice.

So far the gametesting has been succesful. It

[ReZourceman]

This thread has inspired me to create an Exo-Force war game also.

I am currently writing up the rules, which will be found here;

http://rule3dimension.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=legoxo

Along with Templates and character stats.

[ReZourceman]

Update ; Basic Rules are up, and I am just doing the stats now. Click on picture in sig to go direct.

[EXO-CHAMP]

It looks really cool. Very professional.

I haven't read all the rules yet, so i can't comment on them yet.

I seems to me that we have similar ideas, but slightly different rules. (mine is a action/reaction game)

I've ensured that the human mecha and pilots outclass the robots (as they should), but I find the latest developemnets in the cartoon a bit over the top. (It doesn't seem fair that a robot-player has to outnumber his opponent 10 or 20 to 1, to have a fighting chance.)

How would you rate the robots against the humans? 2:1 or 3:1

[Darth_Ewok]

Hmmmm...

It's pretty good but it lacks a few things.

1. Weapon stats - If you gave weapon stats to different weapons that lego made and made up stats for your own it would allow more customized mechs.

2. Good movement - 2" for a minifig! 4" for a mech! That's pretty darn slow...

Other than that it's pretty good!

p.s. the "brick games form" died lol. I was one of the few members for the few days while it lasted. I guess that happens when people jump into forums without preperation :-/

[ReZourceman]

Thanks for the comments.

Reason for the low movement -

A) The Exo-Force models are pretty big and, if they have big movement it would mean a larger playing area would be needed.

B) There would be bonuses from movement, from Pilots or Abilities.

As for the Weopan Stats, each weapon has different abilities, but that is definitely a valid point. I shall make Weapon Stat Cards part of the Meta-game - Like Super Novas Red Sword / Fork hybrid, as a weapon that is optional. I think this would work, as Grand Titans Blade clamp and Gattling gun are stuck on.

Thanks for the comments guys, Ill update it at the weekend. Keep an eye on it.

Edit;/ Exo-Champ, are your rules online somewhere?

Feel free to post them...on Rule 3, or here if you have them (Id like to see them)

[EXO-CHAMP]

I'll have to translate them into english which may take a while (they're in Danish right now)

I use rather large movement and range values (50-100 cm) for my game, so you can game on the livingroom floor. The models are so big that it takes furniture to represent ample cover.

[ReZourceman]

Yeah, the range is large for mine also.

[Darth_Ewok]

Well, most battles in any brick war game end up being pretty big expecially with mechs. You wouldn't see mechs in a close up environment like inside a building :-P

Having weapon stats would make for great mech customization. You should design a modular mech system for creating mech stats based on their different parts.

Good luck, if I can help in any way tell me!

[EXO-CHAMP]

In my version you can buy:

Pilots:

Attack/Defence

Skills (offensive/defensive/repair/other)

Machines:

Internal structure points (based on machine size)

Armour

Wepons (different types which you can upgrade in range and power - some are one shot)

Speed (includes a system for arial speed)

Red box modification (reduce or increase your models survivability)

The system needs a bit of tweaking but works ok for the generic Exo-Force models..

Note on game mechanics: Don't be too worried about the realisme when considering speed and weapon range comparison. It will kill the fun of the game.

[EXO-CHAMP]

You can see a bit of my work here:

http://z14.invisionfree.com/Exo_Force/inde...entry10222023

No rules though...

[Darth_Ewok]

My wargame is finished! IT"S HUGE!

It's also not completely original :-$. It follows the time honored tradition of "paying homage" (that means plagerism) to the original lego wars games :-|

Fortunately (unlike brikwars) this game is NOT meant to just be Lego wars with a different name and has undergone some DRASTIC changes. I see it as a major evolution, not a major case of copyright infringement :-D

The game structure is similar in that it provides rules for almost any unit/vehicle you can think of but the way I handle it is a bit more complex. You can see for yourselves once I put it somewhere...

[EXO-CHAMP]

Some of the game components for my Exo-Dice game:

The cards are with complete stats and you can keep record of damage on them. The dice are custom made for the game...

[ReZourceman]

Very cool! Looks very professional and awesome indeed.

[EXO-CHAMP]

Some of the guys battling, using the Exo-Dice system: