Rogue Stars: Skirmish Wargaming in a Science Fiction Underworld (Osprey Wargames, 17);

Rogue Stars is a character-based, science fiction skirmish wargame, where players command crews of bounty hunters, space pirates, merchants, prospectors, smugglers, mercenary outfits, planetary police, and other such shady factions from the fringes of galactic civilization. Crews can vary in size, typically from four to six, and the character and crew creation systems allow for practically any concept to be built. Detailed environmental rules that include options for flora, fauna, gravity, dangerous terrain and atmosphere, and scenario design rules that ensure that missions are varied and demand adaptation and cunning on the parts of the combatants, make practically any encounter possible. Run contraband tech to rebel fighters on an ocean world while being hunted by an alien kill-team or hunt down a research vessel and fight zero-gravity boarding actions in the cold depths of space--whatever you can imagine, you can do.