Rogue Stars

Rogue Stars is a character-based science fiction skirmish wargame, where players command crews of bounty hunters, space pirates, merchants, prospectors, smugglers, mercenary outfits, planetary police and other such shady factions from the fringes of galactic civilisation. Crews can vary in size, typically from four to six, and the character and crew creation systems allow for practically any concept to be built. Detailed environmental rules that include options for flora, fauna, gravity, dangerous terrain and atmosphere, and scenario design rules that ensure that missions are varied and demand adaptation and cunning on the parts of the combatants, make practically any encounter possible. Run contraband tech to rebel fighters on an ocean world while hunted by an alien kill-team or hunt down a research vessel and fight zero-gravity boarding actions in the cold depths of space – whatever you can imagine, you can do.

Character & Crew Creation:

Players can create a vast range of character concepts, from space wizards to plant men, with systems to customize their skills and equipment through an Experience Point (XP) system.
Model Neutrality:

The game doesn’t use specific models; players can use any miniatures they choose, creating diverse and unique crews.
Mission & Environment Design:

The rules include detailed systems for generating scenarios, locations, and environmental factors like alien flora, fauna, and hazardous terrain, allowing for near-infinite mission variety.
d20-Based Activation:

Character actions, such as shooting or hacking, are performed by rolling d20s against a target number. Rolling a 1 or 20 can result in critical failures or successes, respectively.
Stress, Pin, and Wound Tokens:

Players manage their characters’ condition using tokens for stress, pins, and wounds.
RPG-Like Depth:

The system provides a deep, character-focused experience similar to tabletop role-playing games, encouraging narrative-driven play with a single crew.

Gameplay Experience

Cinematic Skirmishes:

Rogue Stars creates cinematic firefights and thrilling encounters in a lawless sci-fi underworld, where crews undertake daring missions and face dangerous challenges.
Creative Storytelling:

The game is designed for groups who enjoy creating emergent stories and unique narratives, similar to a tabletop RPG, rather than a pre-written campaign.
Scalable and Adaptable:

A 3×3 table is sufficient for small-scale skirmishes with a small number of figures per side, making the game accessible for smaller game spaces.