Galactic Rising Module underway
I have been working out a board game concept on vassal for awhile now (on and off, perhaps 8 years give or take), it is called Galactic Rising. It is a 4x turn based science fiction strategy board game with empire management, deck building elements, and tactical combat. It can have up to 8 players, though 4-6 is ideal. It uses 1d10 for all rolls.
Its core concepts are inspired by the 1996 “Masters of Orion II” (minus the aliens, it has none- a little more hard sci-fi for specific design and thematic reasons), and also inspired by elements of 7 ages/world in flames, freedom in the Galaxy, and twilight Imperium. As for my inspiration for the art design? Well, even if it doesn’t look like it, I had the Star Wars theme song playing in my head most of the time…Basically a 70’s sci-fi retro look.
I have done most of the art and all of the design and rules, with some things from pexels free pictures (but integrated into an existing design) and a few AI generations that have not shown up yet in the game.
I would say that it is certainly less complex than World in flames, but more than Twilight Imperium. I have about 5 booklets- Introduction (29 pages), Beginner (29 pages), Advanced (17 pages), Reference (49 pages), and an indepth setup guide (10 pages). The Introduction Booklet the player through the core concepts. The Beginner’s Manual introduces a basic 4 player game setup. Most of the concepts found in the beginner’s book may occur within the first 3 rounds of the game, the rest are found in the advanced book. I try to also add Vassal Notes for vassal players. Some of these may or may not be up to date.
The reference book is where technology, leader, card descriptions and more may be found. It is most important for Galactic and Solar events, as these cards feature News headings rather than the events themselves (in spirit of any Master of Orion games, they all had news reports), with the event meant to be read from the book.
The card count, with all cards from all decks numbers in the hundreds. But then again, so does the chit count.
There are also empire sheets to keep track of unit stats and tech, colonies owned, and tech gained.
While it is not yet complete, I believe it is playable, as I have played it 4 times already: once in cardboard, 3 times in vassal. Now I think I need to throw the rules and game out into the wild to see how its stands up and what needs to be changed. Groups of four with those experienced with strategy games, anything twilight Imperium sized or larger (although those experienced at 7 ages may not have an issue) would be preferable- “Risk” won’t cut it.
I am not a programmer, so I have gone as minimalistic as possible with the vassal module- I want it as close to a board game as possible.
I do not have a physical board at this time (save may earlierst prototype cutouts). I am possibly going to try to go through GameCrafter and also make it printable as well.
Here is a look at the game as it is in vassal:
If you are interested, PM me and I can look at sending you the booklets and the vassal file.