In the Black

NOTE: These are only core rules; the Referee may overrule any of these at any point in
the game.

Part One: Making Your Army

NEEDED FOR PLAY

• a fleet of microspace ships

• pen and paper
• a few copies of the rules
• templates for movement and attack range

CLASSES

There are 6 different classes of spaceships based on the size of the ship.
• Personal
• Fighter
• Gunship
• Frigate
• Capital Ship
• Space Station

• The class Personal is for 1 or 2 manned spacecraft, which is generally limited to

escape pods, and does not have any weapons systems.
• Fighters are small spacecraft that have about 1-2 weapons systems and are
manned by 1 or 2 people.
• Gunships are a little bigger than Fighters and have about 2-4 weapons systems.
• Frigates are even larger still, but they get Hangars and Bridges, which is
something that none of the previous classes are large enough to have. They can
have anywhere between 3 and 5 weapons systems, and can hold 1-4 spacecraft.
• Capital Ships are the largest of the all of the space craft that are able to move.
They tend to have about 4-6 weapons systems, and hold 1-6 spacecraft.
• Space Stations have everything that any other class has, except they cannot move.
Space Stations remain in the same place they are put in the beginning of the game.
They are also the only class to get Regenerators, which replenish their shields a
little when they are down. Space Stations can have 5-10 weapons systems and can
hold between 1 and 10 spacecraft.
ENHANCEMENT POINTS

Enhancement Points are the number of enhancements you have. Enhancements are the
different components that make up your ship and give it different abilities. There are two
types of enhancements; weapons systems and non-weapons systems.

Weapons Systems
• Anti-fighter Guns: +1 against Fighters
-1 against everything else
• Ion Cannons: +2 against Shields
• Missiles: +2 against Hull
• Turbo Laser: +1 against both Hull and Shields

Non-weapons Systems
• Bridge: allows for communications between allies, and can allow for truces
• Engines: allow movement
• Hangar: allows for storage of other spacecraft
• Regenerator: gives back some shields to Space Station
• Shields: defends entire ship

CONFIGURING HEALTH

There are two parts to a ship’s health; the Shields and the Hull. The Shields are just what
protects the Hull, and the Hull is the ship itself. In order to blow up a ship, you must first
attack its Shields, and once they are down you may destroy the Hull, which essentially
destroys the ship. But we’ll get more in detail with that later.

In order to calculate the Hull, you add up the Enhancement Points (EP) and multiply
them by a number based on the ship’s size.

x1 Personal
x2 Fighter
x2 Gunship
x3 Frigate
x3 Capital Ship
x3 Space Station

For example, if a ship was a Fighter and had 3 EP;

3(the ship’s EP) x 2(It’s size designated number) = 6 (the Hull of the ship)

The Shields of the ship is 2/3 the Hull;

2/3 x 6 (the Hull of the ship) = 4 (the Shields of the ship)

Part Two: Playing the Game

SETTING UP

Quadrants, equal teams, play area

THE TURN

There are 2 phases to a turn; Movement and Attack, and you can do them in any order.
Use the necessary template for Movement. The base Attack is 2, and then you add on or
subtract based on what Weapons Systems you have and their abilities.