Hello all, been a long time since I last posted here. I had mostly given up on x-wing and dove into BSG starship battles as I do prefer the gameplay there - not the point of this thread though - but star wars has so much more variety in ships.

Anyway, I had my x-wing stuff and with the announcement of Squadrons, as well as the single play rules, I got an itch to play x-wing with my son. This got me thinking about How squadrons would make an amazing basis for a co-op game - yes, I know aturi cluster exists, but the 2.0 isn't the same - it feels different, again my opinion.

But squadrons has sparked an idea.. what if there was a more advanced x-wing game variant? Squadrons has power management, angles deflectors, different upgrades. There are variants of all of this for regular x-wing.

I imagine a game where you have a dashboard, or cockpit as you were, and you can place energy tokens (charge tokens). This could also be a place to introduce new dice types - these dice could be earned by allotting power, plus your base weapon might have a different colour - anything I do will use the basic dice though.

I'm not trying to replace x-wing, but only add a new method of play. Squadrons has inspired me, and I think I'm going to start working on this - because I need yet ANOTHER project to work on, in addition to finding a new job now that My school is done.

Edit: This was originally posted in the rules forum mistakenly, so I reposted it here.

As long as there is a token assigned to a system, you will get flip over a charge. As you use abilities, or choose maneuvers, you flip your charge token in that slot.

Another thing I am trying to figure out is if I should make all maneuvers available to all ships or stick with the dial. Im going to think on how stress should be managed as well.

Also in my previous post, I gave the reinforce action when you put the two charges in shields, but I'm now leaning towards each system giving something when at full power.

Full shields will get reinforce. Full engines will give slam. Full weapons.. I may give a focus token, when fully charged. This allows for that heavy shot.

I have to figure out how close to default x-wing I want to have the ships - attack value, dial, etc.

Quick Question then; What would people prefer? Having this system use all the benefits/limitations of the base ship, or have a more generalized feel - you can do things you normally couldn't in the ship? Roll more attack dice, defence dice, etc?

It's a neat idea.

The issue is it's taking X-Wing and making it increasingly more complex than it is now. Complexity doesn't immediately translate to fun. It would also mean the number of components increases dramatically. Furthermore, you suggested giving reinforce, boost/slam to every single ship based upon its stats and not based upon a player distinction.

The current game of X-Wing took the original video game of X-Wing which had all this power management and streamlined it into an action system.

It also makes each ship more difficult to balance as now instead of just the dial, stats and actions, you now need to think about dial, stats (which can change), and balance based upon each different permutation of energy usage.

It's an interesting idea, but it just takes a game that is already simple on the surface level, but complex to master and makes it simply complex to play and nearly impossible to master.

Mechanics of the game variant explained:

3 systems: weapons, engines, shields (some ships don’t have)

Each system has 5 levels where you can put a charge token.

Each ship will have 6 charge tokens to distribute among systems.

A round of combat is divided into two phases. During each phase you will perform an Attack (if able) and maneuver. The idea is to put more emphasis on outflying an opponent by positioning. Each phase you will also get an action.

At the beginning of every phase, a ship will generate a charge for every charge token in the 1, 3, and 5 slot for that system. This entails flipping over an expended charge. So, a TIE fighter with equalized power would flip over 2 expended charges in weapons and engines. Wheras an x-wing with equalized power can only flip over 1 charge in each system

Engines:

Each active charge put into engines determines the maximum speed maneuver you can execute each phase.

The maneuvers can be any available to that ship as long as there is enough power - a tie fighter with 5 power in engines can perform

His 5 straight maneuver, but with 4 power cannot. Additionally, executing a red maneuver will not generate stress in this game

Variant, but will instead expend a charge from

Engines. Remember, you will be performing two maneuvers in a round.

Design choice: Im currently on the fence about giving the defence dice for every attack, with two maneuvers a round you can certainly have an option to outfly an opponent. Still, it is an integral part of the game. I may tie defence dice to engine power, for each active charge, up to your ships defence value, you roll that many defence dice. So, a TIE with two engine power is slightly hampered, as it only rolls two defence dice. The TIE/ln certainly has a sweet spot with equalized power in this system. As most ships have shields, and they can potentially regenerate, having lower defence is okay.

Weapons:

Each charge in weapons represents a die you can attack with - up to your ships attack value. Flip over the charge to attack with your default weapon or equipped cannon. Cannon slot weapons must expend charges equal to the weapons value.

Shields:

For ships equipped with shields, each charge can be flipped to recover a shield (up to your ships maxiumum value). This is done at the beginning of the phase.

Separating pilot and ship:

In brainstorming this variant, I figured it would be good to determine what ship actions are due to pilot capability, and what is due to the chassis being flown. In doing so, I decides the focus action is a great example of something that the ship doesn’t give you. Another is the evade action, as such, I’m likely to makw thr evade action available to every pilot. Something like the barrel roll action is certainly a combination of both, but certainly dependant on the ship being flown, so I will likely keep that as a ship option, but may experiment.

Overcharge abilities:

As The upcoming Star Wars Squadrons (and old flight sims) is an direct inspiration, I may consider the overcharge abilities that are in that game. While the abilities may change, I certainly have the mechanical concept down; basically, for each ability, when you recharge, if your system power is maxed andf your recharge (flipping over expended charge tokens) would result in all charges being full, you can flip over a special token. Example; an x-wing with max shield power and two expended charges will, next phase, gnerate three power, bringing all charges up to full, and have one point not used - this would flip the overcharge ability. In the shield example, it would likely be a shield token that you flip from expended to ready. Weapons this would be an attack die bonus (+1 die, can result in firing more than weapon value), engines, maybe a free boost.

Ion damage:

Ion weapons will function the same as per the

Attack, but instead of adding ion tokens, you will expend a charge in a system in this priority: most powered system->shields->engines->weapons.

31 minutes ago, Ebak said:

It's a neat idea.

The issue is it's taking X-Wing and making it increasingly more complex than it is now. Complexity doesn't immediately translate to fun. It would also mean the number of components increases dramatically. Furthermore, you suggested giving reinforce, boost/slam to every single ship based upon its stats and not based upon a player distinction.

The current game of X-Wing took the original video game of X-Wing which had all this power management and streamlined it into an action system.

It also makes each ship more difficult to balance as now instead of just the dial, stats and actions, you now need to think about dial, stats (which can change), and balance based upon each different permutation of energy usage.

It's an interesting idea, but it just takes a game that is already simple on the surface level, but complex to master and makes it simply complex to play and nearly impossible to master.

The thing is, for some, the x-wing system is a bit too light.
There are indeed a lot of balance play testing needed. This is all theory crafting at this point.
A thing to note is under this game variant, a player will only ever fly ONE ship. So while you may have more complexity, you won't be controlling 2-9 ships. This is meant to be a more resource management version of the co-op aturi cluster, or a team play with two squads facing off, with each player controlling a single ship. I have no intention to replace the default game, only give another option.