#orbit war

[siryl]

Box art by Alan Gutierrez for the board game Orbit War by Steve Jackson Games.

The scan in the artist's Deviantart gallery is awful.  It's covered with dust and hairs, and parts of the starfield have been digitally smeared for some reason.  I fixed what I could and cropped out the unfixable part.

[oldschoolfrp]

Don't forget Space Marines!

FanTac Games ad for Orbit War and Space Marines, printed in Dragon magazine #11, December 1977, the year both games were released.  Orbit War was a boardgame depicting space combat around a single planet.  It was written by Claire Curtis and Carl Frederick and is unrelated to the Orbit War released by Steve Jackson Games in the 90s.

Space Marines, "The Game of Tactical ground combat between Humans and Aliens in the 22nd century", was a miniatures game written by A. Mark Ratner and illustrated by David Sutherland.  It included rules to convert stats for D&D and Metamorphosis Alpha characters, which seems odd in retrospect but is similar to the intent of the multi-genre cross-over rules in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide.  Fantasy Games Unlimited released a version of Space Marine in 1980, and adapted the setting for their Space Opera RPG.  Some of the Space Marines miniatures are still available from Stan Johansen under the name "Star Armour".