Anyone play Crimson Skies?, The non-Clicky version. Options

[Frag-o Delux]

I am just sitting here bored and thinking about playing Crimson Skies next week with a few friends. We used to play a few games while everyone gathered and settled down to our SR session. Well we haven't had a lot of Crimson Skies sessions lately, but a friend called me a few weeks ago after he moved and found all my Crimson Skies junk I forgot I left at his place.

I had high hopes for that game when it came out, I seen some promo shots before it was released and thought they were going to have a altittude system and everything, a more 3D system if you will, instead of a flat 2D system which makes it feel like a car chase more then dog fighting. Even though it was 2D it was, I feel a very interesting game with simultanious turns. I just like planes, dog fights and the 30's with the big bands and swing music. I thought the whole flavor of the game was really cool. In fact I liked it so much I thought it would be an awsome RPG, sort of like Mechwarrior for Battletech. But the crash of FASA ment I was not going to get it. In fact I was very disapointed when I heard nothing would be done with it, heart broken even, then when I heard it was going to become a clicky I had a panic attack of sorts. I like Hero clicks but despise Mage Knight, so I was curious as to how Crimson Skies was going to be handled. Well to my dismay I feel it is not a very good game. Personal preferrence and I guess my non-Clicky experience has jaded me. A friend that doesn't have a lot of money to buy the metals that are still floating around and a sever lack of talent in the painting department came up with what I thought was a novel idea, buy the clickies and use them with the non-Clicky system, which I think I'll do also because I really don't have the time to paint up a bunch of squadrons.

So to cut my ramblings down a bit. Does anyone still play the non-Clicky version, and do you think the Crimson Skies universe would make an interesting RPG? I think it would be very interesting. I might one day try to through it together, not as a purposal or anything just as a lark. Something my gaming circle would play, well at least the 3 or 4 of us that enjoyed Crimson Skies. Really it would probably be something I would really enjoy, but the rest of the group probably wouldn't. Like I said I am a fan of the 30's the big bands, swing, the movies like Maltese Falcon and Indiana Jones, the pre WWII Cloak and Dagger type feel, and fluff that filled Crimson Skies Material. With the skill based system in the mini game I feel a skill based character system like Shadowrun would be the way to go, with a damage location chart that mimics the plane damage sheet, just a try to tie the RPG into the Minigame. So any thoughts, good idea or has the chesse fallen off my cracker?

[Buzzed]

After 9/11, OfficeMax recalled Crimson Skies. (the video game) :please: Perhaps the software company ditched the 3d plans and turned it into a clicky to try and not press any soft 9/11 buttons. That is exactly what the terrorists want us to do, fold up our tents and surrender. :please: Then they will still continue to terrorize us. I would hate to think what would happen to this world if the corporations controlled the militaries. Oh wait, it looks like all I have to do is pick up a Shadowrun book to find out. Another interresting thing was HP had a picture of an airliner flying over the Twin Towers skyline to show the quality of a printer's capability for business presentations. Of course that ad was replaced promptly by HP after 9/11.

[Frag-o Delux]

OK I don't know where that all came from. That was a bit wierd.

As a reply to the OfficeMax thing, OfficeMax recalled Crimson Skies? The video game? or the miniature game? And how would they do that? Crimson Skies the miniature game has been out of print for a few years now, the clicky game is owned by Wizkids and was just released a few months ago, and the video game is property of Microsoft, and I believe MS just put another Crimson Skies game I forget the name at the moment.

I guess I didn't mention I was refferring to the original metal miniature game. It used a hex map about 18 x 24, maybe a little bigger, and it had a chart the that determined your what you can do on your move. At the begging of the game you have a character sheet for all your planes that you'll be playig with that round, each plane had stats that determined how fast they could go or brake, how hard they bank (g force could break wing spars which then reuced your turn rate even more among other things). It determines all yor planes stats plus the pilots stats. Well with the manuever chart you secretly mark your manuever on your character sheet, then when you and your opponent are done with movement, you all move your planes, now if any planes are able to use their weapons the fastest initiative goes, then down from their. Everything is done with just one d10. Now if you hit your oppenet you have a little plastic card with the weapons and ammo type with which you mark off bits, somethings lead to different types of problems, like wing spars, flaps, alerions, wepons systems, gas tanks, radios, engines, and of course the cockpit (Which if you hit the cockpit enough you could actually kill the pilot), you can take out the landing gear also ( which could kill the pilot after the game is over and still get pionts for it or at least make him lose points. Now with the points you spend them to build up your character. They tried to expend the system before it fell through to include a campaing system were you would keep track of plane damage and scenerioes to gain money, as a pirate or pay as a air militia pilot. It was a very fun game. Their web page apperently has gone away, the guy or group of guys who wrote it maintained the web site for it even after it went down with some good fiction, but it now leads to FASA Interactive, a MIcrosoft company page.

[Buzzed]

I guess I don't know what a clicky is.

[Adam]

A "clicky" is slang for any of WizKids' games with the clickable base.

[Bull]

The CS Board game was tons of fun, if a bit involved, and like Battletech, you need reams of sheets to play.

The Clicky game is fun, but limited because there's not that many planes.

The new X Box game rocks a LOT. :]

Bull

[Dim Sum]

I've not tried the board version but I still take to the air from time to time on the PC flight sim - it's a real BLAST! Especially, if you're going head-to-head. :D

I haven't seen the Xbox version, yet, and am wondering if I should get a copy as I already have it on PC. Recommendations, anyone?

[Frag-o Delux]

I played the board game a lot until one day a friend came per and joined my brothers squadron to get the feel for the game. Well I had a pilot who had a ton of kills and he was the wingman, the guy who starts with weaker stats. After a couple of sessions he had the ability to almost never miss at medium and short range, tail anyone he wanted and just be a real oain in the butt to the other side. That also takes into account my ability to think in 3D and relate it to the board and knowing the stats on all the planes. But my brother was getting good and started to really mess up the plane, a few bad calls on the field and a few off the field. I was getting so good that I neglected my ability to bail-out. Well my friend who was just basically fllying in circles got lucky and ended up on my starboard trialing wing and put a 70 caliber magnesium round in the slot for my fuel tank and rolled max burn turns. So I pushed my luck and decided to finish off the guy I was trialing then bail. We mdified the rules a little were can try to bail once a round until your plane is no longer flying. At the end of the burn it would have hit my full fuel tank and blow me up. Since I pushed my luck and get the extra kill before bailing out I had 1 attempt to bail. And I botched it. Now his sheet is taped inside the box awaiting someone who can top his stats. After that I kind of lost heart in the game and picked up something else, until a few months ago when a friend moved and found my stuff, and we have played on and off for the last couple of month, and I think I am going over Satruday to kick some butt.