The (Unofficial)

FREEDOM IN THE GALAXY

SUPPORT PAGES

Last Update: 13-Mar-97

To stave off the most frequent comment that I get from this page: No, I will NOT make a copy of the rules for you, and I have no idea where you can get them. Sorry.

Over the years, I've become more familiar with good user-interface design. Many wargames producers are too, but I still end up gritting my teeth a lot as I discover some lengthy rule that could have been summarized as a table, or a modifier that could be physically placed on the units but isn't, or special rules that apply to the 197th division on a certain turn but neither that unit nor the turn record track are marked. I'm sure that you've got examples of your own.

Freedom in the Galaxy (first published by SPI, then by Avalon Hill, and now out of print) is a perennial favorite of mine. That's surprising, considering that I'm no big fan of Star Wars in particular nor science fiction in general, but that's another story. But when I pulled it out recently and tried to play it, I was surprised at how awkward and fiddly it was.

However, it's a great game, so I've taken it upon myself to rework the components to make playing the game more pleasant.

The Map

My main complaints are as follows:

• The circular star system displays look really cool but are a playability disaster. The misalignment of the loyalty tracks -- a Loyal position on an inner planet matches the Dissent position on an outer planet -- makes it impossible to see the state of the system at a glance. The problem is worse still if you're trying to get a picture of an entire province (or the galaxy).

• It's difficult to figure out which planets can be affected by race-based Domino Effects, since you actually have to read each environ box on a planet to know who lives where.

• Players are forced to look up Irate Locals strengths and monster characteristics, but that information is located in two different places! That's too much paper shuffling.

I submit that each of these major problems are solvable, and in reworking the map I've taken the opportunity to fix up some minor playability problems as well.

The results are currently just a Word 97 document containing my reworking of the second province. I hope to garner feedback before diving in to finish off the map and moving on to the other parts of the game.

I don't think Word is really the correct package to use for this type of work, but it's all I've got. I don't imagine that I'll be investing in Adobe Acrobat anytime soon, unless folks want to start paying for me to do this. :-) If you have Acrobat, and want to run with this project, please be my guest. And if you know how to make Word do things that I can't figure out, please enlighten me.

Also, I don't have a color printer (gasp!), so although things look OK on my screen, they might look horrible printed out. I'd appreciate your feedback.

Now, the changes:

• Most obviously, the star systems are no longer circular. The new layout is less artistic and more schematic, but allows easier visual survey of the state of the galaxy.

• The stars themselves are color-coded to show which stars are accessible to the Imperials:
  • White stars are safe for the Rebels unless the star's province is on the current Strategic Assignment.
  • Red stars are always dangerous for the Rebels.

• The intermediate stars (light blue on the original map) have been removed. Stars joined by a dotted line are two stars away from each other. Stars joined by a solid line are "adjacent". (This is less because I didn't like the blue stars, and more because mapboard space is at a premium.)

• The lines and loyalty numbers have been de-emphasized, showing the important planet information (namely the location of the counters) at a glance. The background shading of the loyalty boxes shows the initial planet loyalty -- the marker begins in the leftmost shaded box. This information is also useful at tax time, since the Imperials cannot use taxation to make a planet more loyal than it began the game -- in other words, the marker can't enter a loyalty box with a white background. (The current gray doesn't work too well with gray loyalty/PDB markers, but the counters are going to be fixed in a future installment.)

• I have omitted Armageddon scenario loyalty positions as not worth the ink. But then I only play the campaign game. It would be easy enough to add a dot or some other unintrusive mark if needed.

• The orbit boxes now contain two numbers, the full tax value (top number) and the half-tax value (bottom number). This should speed up tax calculations.

• The environs are now color coded by inhabiting race (white=non-starfaring, yellow=Kayns, green=Saurians, etc.) I omitted the star symbol after the starfaring race name because it's redundant, given the background color. It's now trivial to figure out where (e.g.) all the Yesters live.

• Underneath the race name is the strength/endurance of Irate Locals in that environ, obviating the need for the table in the Charts and Tables Booklet. (As on that table, strengths marked with an asterisk are hand-to-hand fights.)

• Environs now have monster stats as well as the name. The line under the monster name is the monster's strength (S#) and endurance (E#), or I# E# for intelligence-using monsters. Underneath that are codes for the monster's special abilities: NB1=no breakoff in first round, S2=surprise shift of 2, etc. (complete list TBD) This should greatly reduce Galactic Guide consultation.

• Sovereigns are now color-coded (green=Imperial, red=Rebel, gray=Neutral).

• Coup ratings are given a white background.

Still to do:

• Drift boxes
• Star system names (big deal)
• Fix environment shapes to correspond with original
• Province tax and half-tax values should be printed on the map.

I like the results much better as a playing surface. What do you think? Mail me.