 April 19, 2015 - 10:18am | For those who don't know, the Marvel Super Heroes RPG (the one with the big color-coded chart) used a different style of game maps for their games. Were in Star Frontiers, maps are gridded in half-inch areas, with a counter taking up the whole area, MSH used maps with larger, less uniformed "areas." The city map in MSH looks like a normal town with streets sidewalks, rooftops, parks, parking lots, along with small, superfluous urban elements (streetlight, fire hydrants, manhole covers, and so on), and some useful elements (street names and numbers printed on the corners of rooftops to note their height in stories). But the most remarkable thing about it, is that the map is broken down into solid and dotted lines to note "areas" that vary in size and shape. Out on the streets, an "area" could be a street intersection or half-a-block of roadway, all with sidewalks included. Buildings (or part there of) and back allies can be smaller than street areas. The park areas take on all sorts of odd shapes and sizes. Inside buildings, areas can be further reduced to rooms and corridors. (Fewer bordering is required with this one.) See the basic map here. A single MHS "area" represents an sizable area were multiple characters can duke it out at fairly close range, and going out of the area means being safe form being grabbed and tossed like a human basketball by a super-powered Slim Goodbody (what a strange mental image). Multiple counters can occupy a single area without stacking, and the action within an area can be based on role-playing description instead of players moving their counters form square-to-square. Range and movement are reduced to smaller numbers, and things are kept a little more abstract, so players can focus more on the action than on the mechanics. Clutter Markers can note a lot of stuff in the area (desks, tables, boxes, trash cans, etc.), while Crowd Markers can note large crowds of people. (Crowds make fighting harder in an area, but they clear three rounds after a fight starts.) Other markers can be used to note traffic conditions and hazards. As an option, players can use arrows printed on the top corner of a counter to point where a figure is within an area. So, what do you guys think of this map setup? You can find more maps within the sorted books here, here and here. |
 April 19, 2015 - 3:13pm | Sounds cool "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 April 19, 2015 - 11:18pm | This actually reminds me of a WW2 table top war game that used 4 inch square areas that were identifiable using a grid of dots measured every 4 inches from each other. It seems tailor made for using miniatures and encouraging player creativity. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 21, 2015 - 9:12am | In MSH an area is also representive of terrian... so you would draw small areas on a map of rough terrain and larger (full sized - 44 yards) in something like the saltflats. The SF opertunity shots might make abstracting movement inside an area incompatible. ----------------------------------------------- |
 April 21, 2015 - 1:38pm | Sounds like you need to Dust off your old maps and get playing with the 4" grids Jed. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
April 25, 2015 - 2:17am | Sounds like you need to Dust off your old maps and get playing with the 4" grids Jed. Actually I keep telling myself to invest in a couple dozen 15mm sci fi miniatures based on 1/4" washers for use on the Port Loren map. Some of the vehicles and small minion monsters from Monsterpocalypse game would work on the Port Loren map as well. Even the Monsterpocalypse maps would work for SF gaming. BTW I think the WW2 game was called Poor Bloody Infantry but its been awhile. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
