So my favorite rules company, Two Hour Wargames, has released a new game - 5150.  Here is a mini review of sorts, and some thoughts.

 

5150 is a version of CR2.0 that is optimized for larger, more "40k" sized battles, with lots of fancy scifi weapons and alien combatants.  (BTW, "5150" refers to the penal code for mayhem, not a year.)

 

Organizationally, 5150 is split into 3 parts.  The first part is the basic rules, which are roughly equivalent to CR2.0 in scope, and are enough to play a whole lot of scenarios.  The basic rules don't include any sort of scenario generators or campaign stuff - that's the stuff of the next two sections.

 

The second section is "Military Campaigns", which adds some rules for AFVs, Dustoff/Medevac, anti-armor weaponry and a campaign system adapted from Nuts!.  A couple of random battle generator tables are here, as well as a fun "reenforcements" system for escalating a battle beyond the first contact.  You can use these rules to amp-up the basic rules for full-on military actions.

 

The third section is "Adventures", which brings in more character-driven RPG like elements, such as figure attributes and advancement, a random encounter system for non-military actions (gang fights, heists, etc.), and some detailed "Bug Hunting" rules for Starship Troopers and Aliens scenarios.

 

All three sections can work together, and nothing in subsequent sections  "replaces" anything in the previous sections.  The "Basic" rules are not simplified, they're just the battle rules without any consideration to campaigns or more advanced combat situations.  It's quite possible (and in my mind, desireable) to use all three sections together for "Band of Brothers" types campaigns.  You'll have a detailed squad of characters as "your" squad, which will get into battles controlled by the military tables, etc.

 

And now for the rules themselves.  At first glance, 5150 is very much like CR2.0, but as they say, "the devil is in the details".

 

The first major change is to the "In Sight" test.  In CR2.0, any time two figures come into Line of Sight of each other (generally because one of them is moving), both take In Sight as sort of a "fast draw" check to see who can fire first.  In "Nuts!", this got simplified to essentially a combat initiative roll where some figures might fail to react.

 

In 5150, only the figures who are NOT moving get to test.  Additionally, instead of each figure testing individually, the whole unit rolls to see if any of its guys can react.  Different REP figures in the same group might react differently, but only one pair of dice is rolled.

 

This "roll for the whole unit" thing is pervasive in 5150, and promises to make larger games move faster at the expense of a little per-figure flexibility.  Since you can always split up and recombine groups, you could get that flexibility back as necessary, but you'll need to do it when you're active.

 

The weapons and damage model is different as well.  Weapons are now rated for impact against different armor types, so it's likely that you'll have some weapons that are useless against some opponents.  When a figure is hit you roll 1d6.  On a "1", you're dead.  Otherwise, if the number is not greater than the impact of the weapon, you are down and in need of medical attention.  If you're lucky enough to roll over the impact, you fall to the ground and have to make a test against your Repuatation (REP).  If you pass, you're ok and ready to rumble, otherwise you've checked out of the battle.

 

Each faction has its own weapons as well as its own reaction tables.  This makes things very interesting because, for example, some aliens won't dive for cover when shot at, some won't hesitate to charge into melee, some need more than one shot to kill, etc.  There's even one sort of "hive" race who's REP depends on the size of their unit.  Ed has done a good job getting support for a lot of 3rd party figures (SPUGS, Hydrissians, Scrunts, etc.), and hopefully will continue the trend even while he releases his own figures.

 

"Book 2" promises to add more races, equipment, (mechs, etc.) and an expanded "Adventurer" campaign system, sort of along the lines of "Necromunda" or "Mordheim".  The "Book 1" campaign systems are most of the way there, but there's always room for more detail and new kinds of encounters.  And at some point, there is going to be a book focusing on spaceship battles, maybe an economic system (like the old Traveller days), etc.

 

All in all, I'm very happy with 5150, and I can't wait to get the chance to try some real games with it.  As my primary interest in CR2.0 was scifi, I will probably use 5150 for most of my THW gaming, though CR2.0 is sufficiently different to keep around for other scenarios.

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