Renegade Legion Returns

[Gabriel]

Anyone else excited about the potential return of Renegade Legion?

Renegade Legion to return

The original Interceptor, Centurion, Leviathan, Prefect, Circus Imperium and Legionnaire were all published by FASA.

www.geeknative.com

Renegade Legion – The Renegade Legion Universe Reimagined

Renegade Legion

renegadelegions.com

The latter currently just shows a countdown clock and implies a Kickstarter launch when it reaches zero.

The focus seems to be Centurion. I have to admit that I didn't care for that one. I preferred Interceptor. Damage allocation in Centurion was better and more intuitive because you always stayed on that grid of boxes, compared to Interceptor's slightly confusing "wiring diagram" flowchart damage chart, but Interceptor just looked better and seemed cooler with more visual variety in the fighters rather than the all very similar looking grav tanks.

Interceptor also had those little boxes for the fighters, along with the kill stickers you were supposed to put on them. Those were fun. I THINK Centurion 1st edition had those? But then Centurion 2e removed them for the kind of lame, tiny little plastic tanks. I know it's petty, but Centurion just wasn't much to look at. For ground action, I preferred Battletech. For space action, Interceptor was far better than Aerotech.

 

[chuckdee]

I am... I've been thinking about paying more than I should to get the boxed sets again. This saves my wallet.

The thing I liked most about Renegade Legion over Battletech was the penetration. It made it not just about a war of attrition- you could take out someone with mostly intact armor without luck being involved.

 

[chuckdee]

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

I am officially no longer that excited. I'll keep an eye on it, but they're making pointless changes, and are developing a completely new rule system.

One of the comments I can wholly agree with:

Never could understand why companies would pay for an IP just to change everything.
Always seemed self defeating to me.
You tend to drive away the player you are trying to buy.
So you are starting from square one, so might as well just make your own game in your own universe.

 

[Gabriel]

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

I am officially no longer that excited. I'll keep an eye on it, but they're making pointless changes, and are developing a completely new rule system.

Oh... Well... crap. I didn't know that. I hadn't bothered looking at DTRPG. If it's just some entirely new game with a different setting and different mechanics, then why the hell call it Renegade Legion?

The old games aren't that expensive on ebay, especially if you don't mind the later editions of the games. Those later editions can even still be purchased sealed.

 

[chuckdee]

Oh cool- I hadn't thought to look there. I was looking on Noble Knight

 

[David Johansen]

Yeah, my interest is killed. Still, the charts and record sheets style of game is a thing of the past. SJG did as much to Car Wars (the bastards).

Now if they were converting it to Traveller the New Era and Striker II I might be more interested.

 

[Silverlion]

While I'm definitely alright with a simpler system (to a limited degree) this robs the game of its core important elements and its soul. Sadly, not for me. The original wasn't much for me either in terms of system, but the setting? That was awesome (and yes, I loved the way damage worked in both Interceptor and Centurion mostly, simplifying that a tiny bit is one thing. Ditching it? Uh...ugh.) I still wish I could find a copy of Legionnaire and afford it. I mean it is not like I'd have anyone to play the other two with, or Silent Death another I loved (and wish I had a separate RPG for not Spacemaster even if it spawned from there.)

 

[David Johansen]

I offered to write a Silent Death rpg for ICE they weren't interested. X-Decom and Hot Lead are my great gaming heartbreaks. The Metal Express guys have talked about doing a Silent Death rpg but they're a very slow moving thing though I think they did finally bring out a true to scale Fletcher class warhound. I always wanted to play with Warhounds. The little crew casualty boxes amuse me.

 

[Silverlion]

I'm sad you did not get to write it.
(yet?)

 

[David Johansen]

Well, the original Incandescent was kind of intended to fill that role but it's a straight 1d10 roll under game. The Arcane Confabulation's damage rule borrowed the low and high die mechanism but applied it to percentile dice. The people at Metal Express have talked about doing an rpg but never much more than talked as far as I know.

 

[Acmegamer]

Well hell, got all excited as well and then read into it and quickly soured. Ah well.

 

[chuckdee]

So... yeah. Not Renegade Legions



I looked at the explanation of the system- it seems totally forgettable other than the handful of dice you'll need.

 

[David Johansen]

So, no fire arcs? What's the activation sequence? Is movement pre-plotted? How is damage applied. Are the mock-ups 3D printed or old metal models painted to look plastic. Those don't seem to be the classic ships.

You know what? A Renegade Legion integrated strategic computer game would be cool.

 

[Gabriel]

Well...

You know, Interceptor is a pretty generic name. The original game is over 30 years old. Only old fogeys like me remember it much less care.

But they're clearly wanting to capitalize on those memories and the attachment to the old game. They even kept a similar logo. They invoke the old FASA space games in their video.

It's not Renegade Legion, but they seem to have dropped that attachment for the Kickstarter. It's just a starfighter combat game. And... that's fine.

What got me in the video was how they say that this Interceptor game is like the FASA space games of old. I still play The Last Starfighter, Interceptor, and Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. The mechanics being described aren't very much like an old FASA game.

I feel like they want people like me who like the old games to be on board with this, but they don't want to provide anything substantively similar to those old games. It feels like a bait and switch.

In all honesty, even though I don't really like the tactic being used here, I am still a bit interested in the game. I'd be willing to give it a shot. Had this Kickstarter launched two months ago, I would have been in. But now I have some nasty financial stuff going on and it's going to be a few months before I get it straightened out. I hope it funds, but I will definitely have to sit it out and maybe check back when it hits retail.

I guess my other comment would be the starfighter miniatures look really generic and 80s board game quality. It looks like one of them might have some passing resemblance to the signature TOG fighter, but that's about it.

I know miniatures are the big draw nowadays, but FASA of the 80s really did awesome counters. I love the counters for Battlestar Galactica, The Last Starfighter, and the different iterations of the Star Trek starship game. I would totally buy packs of counters like that.

 

[chuckdee]

I guess my other comment would be the starfighter miniatures look really generic and 80s board game quality. It looks like one of them might have some passing resemblance to the signature TOG fighter, but that's about it.

They have a lot of those passing resemblances in the game, even down to the names of the factions. If this was wholecloth new, and the original site wasn't Renegade Legions but they had posited this Aetherstream while they were trying to build up the hype for the game, I might have been inclined to do so.

But it wasn't fans that equated it to Renegade Legions. I'll just leave this here on my way out...

Renegade Legion – The Renegade Legion Universe Reimagined

Renegade Legion

renegadelegions.com

Update... so maybe I'm not on my way out. Maybe I'm misinterpreting this.

Aetherstream Interceptor is by Fasa and has launched.

That Renegade Legions site says we still have 33 days and it specifically has this blurb at the bottom:

Renegade Legion, "R", TOG, Centurion, Interceptor, Leviathan, Legatus and Xenovita are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Budgie Smuggler Games & RL, LLC in the United States and/or other countries.

Are there some licensing shenanigans going on? Are these two things not the same?

 

[David Johansen]

I wonder which parts of the rights they hold. The new FASA seems to really flounder on things like the Space 1889 they were going to bring out when they first came back.

 

[Gabriel]

That Renegade Legions site says we still have 33 days and it specifically has this blurb at the bottom:



Are there some licensing shenanigans going on? Are these two things not the same?

Hell, I have no idea what the heck is goin on. I checked that countdown earlier today and it was at zero, but I had thought it had another month to go. Now it's back to showing another month to go.

 

[Imaginos]

I was a day 1 backer for Interceptor, and I'm honestly only holding the pledge on to see what they do with it. But all the stuff I loved from the original Interceptor seems to be missing. And I've got 3 copies of the original, so I'm most likely just going to pass on this one in the long run. Plus, $100 is a lot. And i"m willing to bet the expansion empires, if they even hit them, would be add-on expenses.