A while ago I bought John Lambshead’s excellent book Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios, from which we used two scenarios for One Page Rules‘ Grimdark Future Firefight. Thus far, we played Strut your Stuff and Smash the Icon, both very cleverly designed by the author.
So, what is this book exactly? What’s included and whom is it for? And why should you get it?
Overview
After a recent discussion with my club buddy David, about how to go about book reviews, without revealing too much content, I decided to keep this review as brief as possible and highlight the aspects I like.
What’s on the cover
Contents
The book starts with getting you in the mood for narrative scenarios by introducing you to the author’s generic Science-Fiction setting. Generic, to me, is the main selling point here, as you can easily adapt and house-rule things in it.
Next, there are 36 scenarios with setup, battlefield maps, rules and victory conditions. As said we played 2 of them so far and thoroughly enjoyed them. Smash the Icon, a race against time, was in my opinion the better one. The scenarios can either be played freely, as part of a campaign or selected randomly. You simply roll 2 D6 (or a D36) The dice correspond to the digits in the scenario title. Simple, but clever.
Since John Lambshead wrote his book during COVID-19, the obligatory solo section is part of the package you get. This chapter introduces you to the concepts of playing solo scenarios with some insights and inspiration to create your own scenarios and even campaigns
Speaking of which, the book comes with 3 campaigns as well as ideas and methods to create your own, all in one book. You can, of course, conveniently find the scenarios in the main chapter.
As an appendix, the author lists some miniature manufacturers as well as popular Science-Fiction skirmish rule sets. In my opinion, a source of fiction and further inspiration, similar to D&D’s famous Appendix N, would have been more useful. But that’s really the only (minor) complain I have.
Target audience
Sci-Fi skirmish players, but not limited to that, can perfectly use it for fantasy and modern as well. You might rephrase some wording here and there, but overall, I see no reason why it shouldn’t be interchangeable between genres.
Also, it should easily be adaptable to other popular scales beyond 28mm, such as 15 or 6mm. At smaller scales you could try replacing individual minis by a base of a squad or by a bigger vehicle as a Mech or tank for instance.
Also, in my opinion, since you can pick the elements you like from this book, it becomes quite modular and easily adapts to pretty much every level of complexity. Perfect for beginner and/or casual wargamers.
Verdict
To me, Science-Fiction Skirmish Scenarios is the perfect companion book to go along your favorite (Science-Fiction) skirmish game(s). Take for example Space Weirdos and One Page Rules Grimdark Future Firefight, which come with 1 or 3 basic scenarios. Together with John Lambshead’s book on Science-Fiction Skirmish Scenarios, you can elevate your games to a whole other level. Let’s go beyond the classic Kill ’em All scenario!
All in all, it’s quite affordable to buy a digital or physical copy online. I got mine around 15 to 20 € on amazon.
I highly recommend getting John Lambshead’s excellent book on Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios.