Triplanetary was a science fiction board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop in 1973. It was a simulation of space combat within the solar system in the early 21st Century. The game was designed by Marc W. Miller and John Harshman as part of a series to be named "The Stars! The Stars!". A second edition of the game was issued in 1981. In 1989, Steve Jackson acquired the rights to the game, with ambitions to release a new version of the game in 1991. Although a draft version was created, a new edition was never released.
Contents
The game consisted of a 16-page book of rules (with four additional pages of errata and clarification); a hex map of the inner solar system; a clear acetate overlay for the map, a grease pencil, a set of cardboard counters representing the various spaceships, and a 6-sided die. (The replacement game parts sold for US$6.80 in 1973.) The game scenarios typically allowed for two players, although some allowed for more players.
The map includes the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and its Moon, Mars, part of the Asteroid belt, and Jupiter, along with the four largest Jovian moons. There were also hexes for two of the largest asteroids, and for a secret asteroid base. The map scale is 9.3 million miles across, so that the placement of the moons is entirely unrealistic; they were situated primarily for game play purposes and not for accuracy.
Development
Marc W. Miller states that one late-night session of blank hex-grid battle board combat with John Harshman for the game Lensman "inspired the design for Triplanetary, with its image of our solar system and use of vector movement".
Gameplay
The most innovative feature of this game was the clear acetate overlay that allowed each player to plot the movement vectors of their ships. Each ship could accelerate during the turn, which then modified the vector one hex in any direction. The ships continued to follow their current vector from turn to turn, which could only be modified by acceleration or by entering the "gravity field" of a planet. (For simplification purposes, this gravity field consisted of the six hexes surrounding the planet.) Moons have a weaker gravity that only affected a course when ships pass through two adjacent hexes
Acceleration consumes part of a ship's fuel supply, and players were required to track the current fuel remaining on each ship. If all the fuel was consumed, a ship would be unable to accelerate. Ships could refuel by landing on friendly planets, orbiting a base, or passing slowly through an asteroid base. They can also refuel by matching speed with another ship (such as a tanker) and transferring fuel.
Each game was played in a series of turns that alternated between each of the players. Each turn a player followed a sequence of five phases:
- Astrogation — plot the movement vector of each ship.
- Ordnance — launch mines and torpedoes from ships.
- Movement — follow plotted course to new location.
- Combat — attack enemy ships in range, including using mines and torpedoes; roll for space hazards.
- Resupply — perform various logistical activities, as well as looting and rescue.
A ship counter showed the vessel silhouette symbol, an identifier number, the combat rating, fuel capacity, and the cargo capacity. The counters were printed in several colors to represent different sides in each conflict. The combat ship types were: Corvette, Corsair, Frigate, Dreadnaught, Torch (Frigate that doesn't need fuel), and Orbital Base. The non-combat ships included the Transport, Packet (armed transport), Tanker (fuel carrier), and Liner.
Combat used a damage table that was based on the ratio of the attacker ship combat strength to that of the defender. The odds ranged from 1:2 to 4:1. A six-sided dice roll was used to determine the results of an attack, with one subtracted from the roll for each hex of range between the ships. Before the results are applied, the ship being attacked can optionally fire upon its attackers.
The results of an attack are expressed in a number of turns the ship is disabled, or, for high odds and a favorable roll, the ship is destroyed. Higher dice rolls resulted in more damage. If the cumulative damage to a ship required more than 5 turns to repair, the ship was destroyed.
Torpedoes and mines also have their own combat damage tables that are used when the course of a mine or torpedo intersected a ship. (Torpedoes were generally very effective weapons, as they had a 2/3 chance to inflict an elimination result.) There were also damage results for ramming attacks, as well as for moving too rapidly through asteroid hexes.
Some scenarios use hidden counters, so that ships and planets can only identify enemy vessels that come within range. Planets can detect ship types up to five hexes away, while ships can scan a distance of three hexes.
Scenarios
The game came with six scenarios, plus an additional pair in the errata sheet.