Flying Mice Games and Better Mousetrap Games are pleased to announce the release of In Harm's Way: Aces In Spades. The second game in the In Harm's Way series, Aces In Spades concentrates on fighter pilots in the Great War, World War I, You can be French, British, American, or German pilots; going up in fragile wood and cloth planes, barely a decade after the incention of the aeroplane, determened to shoot down other brave pilots.

Aces In Spades uses the same system as the original In Harm's Way, with troupe play, Honor/Practicality mechanic, advance in career by Notice and Interest, and advance in skill by time.

Aces In Spades features a new aerial combat system using markers to represent potential and immediate energy as your aeroplane swings through maneuver after maneuver, generating complex dogfights. The file also contains 16 custom dogfighting sheets for the most famous of Great War fighters.

Aces in Spades carries the tradition of In Harm's Way: A Napoleonic Naval Roleplaying Game on into a new dimension.

Couple of questions.

1. What kind "stuff" can you do besides "dogfights" ?

2. Print copy is availale right ? "No more PDFs" says the crew

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RCouple of questions.

1. What kind "stuff" can you do besides "dogfights" ?

2. Print copy is availale right ? "No more PDFs" says the crew

Regards,
David R

Chat up French girls, play Ragtime jazz, escape from No-Man's land. drink excessively, get into thoroughly illegal duels, sing sentimental songs, get married, get involved in political intrigue, solve mysteries, cure alcoholism, and get into brawls, wander the French countryside lost and thoroughly drunk, set yourself on fire, and drive over the countryside in a motorcycle and sidecar whooping like madmen  - in addition to strafing, bombing, busting balloons, shooting down aircraft that are strafing you with a handgun, rigging a hated fellow pilot's plane to break down, harassing other pilots, capturing an enemy plane, and catching spies - at least that's what my group did.

It will be on sale in print shortly - I'm just waiting for the proof copy to OK it.

-clash

Quote from: David RCouple of questions.

1. What kind "stuff" can you do besides "dogfights" ?

Play Blackadder IV: Blackadder Goes Forth. (insert Lord Flashheart quote here) :keke:

You could also watch The Blue Max for some inspiration. There are some excellent movies and books in the game's bibliography you can mine for ideas. My favorite idea mines were War Story and Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson - I particularly stole the "sadistic" Flight Leader who made his men's (the PCs) lives hell to prepare them for the war, believing their best chance was to harden them as quickly as possible. He ended up plowing into a big German bomber to avoid slamming into one of the PCs, who had made a supremely stupid move right in front of him. The PCs hated him with a passion, but truly respected him.

-clash

David:

I've been thinking how to say this, and the best I can do is to say that Aces in Spades isn't about dogfighting any more than the original IHW was about defeating enemy ships. They're both about, first and foremost, people in wartime, not about the war. The war, and the things that happen in war, are a powerful element in the setting, but the game is about being a pilot in the Great War, and what that means to you and to the people around you.

-clash

Very nice summation Clash. There are two ways I'm thinking of possibly going - I'll get a better idea when I read the book

The first is a proto Dirty Dozen type game. I think it's appropriate since one of my players wants to base her character on Micheal Madsen...and the others are just naturally badasses...

The second, is a Tales of the Golden Monkey type but more historical action adventure set in Africa.

Both I think will follow the serial nature of my IHW campaign.

Regards,
David R

Both of those would be doable and interesting. The campaigns in Africa are sadly neglected. The only major media fiction I know that covers them is the African Queen - both the movie and C. S. Forseter's novel. The German/African guerilla army in Tanganyka - Tanzania - were resupplied by zeppelin over the Med and the Sahara. In addition to Tanganyka, there were African campaigns in Togo, the Kamerouns, and Southwest Africa.  Also, there were campaigns in Gallipoli, Greece, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Italy, and Arabia (with Laurence) being fought as well.

-clash

Hi David:

I was just re-reading The Red Fighter Pilot - von Richthofen's autobiography - and noted a passage:

"A very amusing thing occurred. One of the Englishmen whom we had shot down and whom we had made a prisoner was talking with us. Of course he inquired after the Red Aeroplane. It is not unknown even among the troops in the trenches and is called by them "le diable rouge." In the Squadron to which he belonged there was a rumor that the Red Machine was occupied by a girl, by a kind of Jeanne d'Arc. He was intensely surprised when I assured him that the supposed girl was standing in front of him. He did not intend to make a joke. He was actually convinced that only a girl could sit in the extravagantly painted machine."

Fodder for the fertile GM's mind?

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceFodder for the fertile GM's mind?

-clash

You are familiar with my style

I've been wandering around online seeking info about black pilots, since the crew are interested in playing an all black squadron. I found this :

QuoteOctober 1916 After joining the French Foreign Legion before the war, then serving with the French infantry in 1915, African American Eugene Jacques Bullard transferred into the French Air Service, where he became a highly decorated combat pilot. Known as the "Black Swallow of Death," Bullard flew over 20 combat missions. Despite his outstanding record, Bullard was never allowed to fly for the United States, even after it entered the war.

here: http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/CHRON3.html

So the Red Fighter Pilot and the Black Swallow of Death....

Regards,
David R

Yep! That sounded like a DavidR Plot seed if I ever heard one!

I know qbouf Ballard, and always thought it was a crime how he was treated. He was one of the main characters - under a different name - in Flyboys.

I think an all-black squadron is an awesome idea - shades of the Tuskeegee Airmen of WWII fame! Since they probably wouldn't have a rich backer like the Lafayette Escadrille, who were paid a bonus on top of their French Army pay, they'd probably have less top-notch equipment, which can be interesting to roleplay... Give a lot for the mechanics to do...

-clash

The print version of Aces In Spades is now available: In Harm's Way: Aces In Spades

-clash

Very nice. This time I will read it first

Regards,
David R