Robo wars play test

Way back in 1985 I fell in love with a cartoon that would shape my entire life and career. At the time, being fifteen, I was mocked for liking a cartoon about robots. Still, I used my love of the subject matter to study the animation frames and timing of the drawings. There was no CG back then just good draftsmanship.

Anyhow, it didn't take me long to channel this autistic knowledge into a role playing game for my friends to play. Making the characters was the best bit and we would sit for hours rolling up characters skills and attributes etc.
 

I dug out these old rules recently when I had the idea of creating a simple set of battle rules that my son and I could game with. The main reason was a list of skills and devices diligently sifted from hours of cartoon episodes. It turns out that I had them all already in my latest notes, but it was good to check.

It still makes me smile looking back on these old rules. I wanted them to be as neat as possible and used my best hand writing. I also filled it full of illustrations of battling bots.

Cut to present day in the year 2025, I am 54 now and still in love with the world a greedy toy company invented.

 The attraction was all about the characters for me and that's something I wanted to capture in my own game.

Having an excellent game like Bonny Blue Flag in my head, with it's attrition of units, rather than figure removal was a fantastic start. 

I set to work to try and use it as a foundation to build a Sci-Fi game. And it bloody worked! A special thankyou to Kevin Calder for creating the original ACW ruleset and for the inspiration.

In my game I still wanted the element of rolling a handful of dice though, so came up with five attack dice. The Bonny Blue Flag hit table was modified so the number given was the one to get on a D12. Modifiers adjusted this number and cover subtracted either one or two dice from the roll.

The real flavour that was missing from Xenos Rampant was the skills and abilities of the characters. After creating a huge list of such skills, I decided to give each unit an attack and defence ability. These can be used at the time of attack, giving extra dice to an assault, or for defense. Defending dice can be shields or the ability to teleport behind cover etc. 

They really helped  to flavour the combat with missiles being blocked by shields and energy blades being used in close combat. These abilities can only be used once in a game and there are two coloured counters that keep track of these.

The test game was set up quickly on the table just so I could run through the basics. Orange dice for the Autobots and Purple for the Decepticons. Let's have a little look into what happened.

Remix and a small unit of Autobots took cover against some low terrain. This is light cover and takes a dice from the attackers ranged shooting.

A blue mark on the energon dice stand shows this unit is experienced. A green defense and red attack chit shows that they still have their abilities. Part of the fun is deciding when to gamble on using these or not. I worked out it's best to save the defense chit until you are down to your last 2 pips of energy.

A tense moment when a group of Decepticon Seekers transformed and attacked a group of Autobots in melee. They were beaten and pushed back. 

Leader characters, as well as their own energy dice also have a leadership dice, this they can use to bolster up flagging units by transferring pips into friendly dice. This worked out well, as the Autobot leader gave all his away to strengthen battered units. Whereas, the Decepticon leader used all of his to repair himself. This was very apt for both sets of characters.

Remix ejects two cassette bots to act as skirmishers. These stop any fire from hitting the parent unit. Each cassette unit has two wounds. If they loose them both they are destroyed. However, they can be recalled after loosing one, this allows them to recharge back to two again.

The Decepticon cassette bots took out the Autobot scouts in a savage volley, Flare and Flash bang are out for good.

Side arm's unit has been battered by laser fire and is on its last legs. Maximus, the Autobot leader needs to get to them quick to bolster there energy levels. They have used their attack ability and only have their defence one left. It's do or die now, they will have to use it soon or all will be lost.

Soundwave is still at full capacity and his trusty minions have taken a wound for him. It's now he decides to use his own unique ability, disrupter waves.

Luckily for the Autobots he fails to hit. He is not happy.

Skywarp and his Seeker team use their defense ability to teleport behind cover. This is heavy cover and subtracts two from the five attack dice. The action saves them. They are still in the fight.

Thunder cracker from the Decepticon Seekers launches a heat seeking missile. This is a one shot ability, a successful hit from this warhead equals an instant lose of a health pip. As two hits from the normal five attack dice causes a wound, this one hit wonder is scary. The Seekers also have their normal attack too, so this round could be the end for Side arm and his squad.

It's now that the Autobots choose to use their defense ability, a static barrier shield.  The missile is caught and detonated.

Sixshot the maniacal Decepticon warlord closes in on Maximus. He has been injured many times and pushed back. Now, after refilling his systems with dark energon, he is fully charged and out for revenge.

Sixshot fails to close the distance on Maximus and is pushed back again. Having drunk all of the forces energy reserves for himself, he can take it. Unfortunately for Sixshot, Maximus activates an energy blades and slashes him across the chest, this damage pushes him back again!

Soundwave ejects Rumble and Frenzy again, they are now back to full strength.

Sixshot uses a burst of super speed to evade an incoming attack. This puts him next to Side arm and his battered brigade. The huge Decepticon wastes no time in obliterating the damaged heros.

Maximus now transforms and tries to roll for safety. Rumble and Frenzy catch him in the open and blast him. One more damage pip stops him in his tracks, as with one pip left he can't advance. Unfortunately for Maximus, safety was the other way.

Maximus stands damaged but defiant, with only one pip of energy left he surrenders. Although the Seekers were driven off in flames, the day still belongs to the Decepticons.

 All hail Megatron!

I'm really pleased with how it all played out, the game play is loaded with story. The dice rolls worked out much to my relief. I think I have the skeleton of a game I can play with my son here. Once again a huge thanks to Kevin Calder for creating the basis of this game, Bonny Blue Flag.