Photo by Diego Vaisberg from FreeImages
I think of this board game as the first season of a TV show. Each session the players play is an individual episode of the season. I am aiming for 10 episodes for the season. The episodes below are the ones I have at the moment, but any ideas for better ones are greatly appreciated!
Episode 1 – Rescue the Scientists on Mars
The players find themselves at the entrance of a Martian research station. The scientists inside will be useful to the effort to take back Earth. But have the Draydun got here first?
Episode 2 – Stishak Home world
The Stishak are Earth’s biggest allies. Their strength in space combat is unmatched, but that may just be because they are quite picky about what fights to join. The payers will need to persuade the Stishak Generals to help Earth in their fight with the Draydun.
Episode 3 – Obligatory Ghost Ship ep
How I can I make this board game without paying homage to one of my favourite films of all time – Alien? This episode is the obligatory exploration-of-an-abandoned-spaceship episode. But is the ship entirely empty of life?
Episode 4 – Destroy Draydun base
Spaceship 47 learns of a Draydun base that houses the next wave of ships that will head to Earth after being resupplied at the space station. If the players can destroy the space station, then this would go a long way to helping Earth survive.
Episode 5 – Planet of Peace
Another trope of TV (particularly Star Trek), Spaceship 47 heads to an inhabited planet to hopefully gain a new ally. While there, the players find that the planet is a perfect utopia, but is it hiding a dark secret? Once the player discover the secret, should they free the people? Or should the players leave the populace in peace?
Episode 6 – Exploring the Ruins of Garrolene
The crew of Spaceship 47 visit Garrolene. A planet that has already been attacked by the Draydun.
Episode 7 – Rescue the Chent Ambassador
The Chent are friendly with Earth but are not willing to get involved with another war with the Draydun. However, the Chent ambassador to the Draydun has been arrested and is now imprisoned on a Prison Asteroid. If the players rescue the Chent ambassador this would go a long way to getting the Chent on board in the invasion.
Episode 8 – Mutagenic Incursion
Spaceship 47 suddenly starts losing pressure. Players find out that a Space-faring pathogen that eats spaceships has attacked them. The payer must fight it off and try and contain it to use against the Draydun.
Episode 9 – Psi-War
Spaceship 47 visit another inhabited planet where two psychic species are having a war that is at a stalemate as they can read each other’s thoughts. However a third species is non-psychic and has been enslaved as soldiers as their thoughts cannot be read. Free this non-psychic race and Earth would have a battle-ready ally.
Episode 10 – The Fight for Earth
The final mission. This is what the previous nine weeks have been building toward. Can the players take back Earth? Can the players vanquish the Draydun threat? Can the players complete their character’s personal stories?
I may replace one of the episodes so that episode 1 is a “pilot” episode expressly designed to introduce the rules as slowly as possible.
I need a gaming system that will be able to handle all of this. Minis on a map with a book containing the maps is still my preferred method. But I want to make sure that it is the best system. The Adventure games (The Dungeon and Monochrome Inc.) I’ve been playing would be good for some of the themes, so I would ho[e to bring some of the feelings those games inspire inn playing into Spaceship 47. I am also a bit worried that the Ghost Ship episode will be a bit boring with minis on a map as there won’t be an alien to fight for most of the game.
But hey that’s why I get paid the big bu–, oh yeah this is just a hobby 🙂