What Is Stargrave? Exploring Sci-Fi With Creator Joseph A. McCullough #StargraveWeekOTT
May 24, 2021 by avernos
We talk with the creator of the Stargrave Rules, Joseph A. McCullough, about exploring Sci-Fi with his newest game from Osprey Games.
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In this video, we discuss the Stargrave Rulebook, how to make your crew, the different options you have to choose from and how to get started playing the game. We also look at what some of the influences were for this expansive Sci-Fi skirmish wargame.
This is a brilliant rule book packed with cool Stargrave artwork which really gets the creative juices flowing when it comes to working out how we'll build our own crews!
Are you going to be diving into the Sci-Fi world of Stargrave with us?
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We will be picking winners from three of our communities: YouTube, OnTableTop & amongst our Cult Of Games Members.
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Stargrave Week Schedule
Here is what you have to look forward to throughout the week...
- Monday 5pm BST - An Introduction To Stargrave With Joseph McCullough
- Tuesday 5pm BST - Let's Play Stargrave #1
- Wednesday 5pm BST - Stargrave Sci-Fi Table Build VLOG
- Thursday 5pm BST - Stargrave Miniature Painting Tutorial
- Friday 5pm BST - Unboxing New Stargrave Plastic Sets
- Saturday 5pm BST - Let's Play Stargrave #2
- Sunday 5pm BST - What's Next For Stargrave With Joseph McCullough
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
In space, no one can hear you scream… but they can watch you flail about helplessly 🙂
I fancy a chance at winning the competition
Great run down, I’ve been looking forward to this one as I’m a big frostgrave fan.
Definitely gonna grab it and hopefully get some games in soon!!
Now I can finally find a good use for my Legion figures 🙂
Recently received my Stargrave rulebook and boxed sets, so going to be watching a lot this week. Haven’t done anything with my Stargrave stuff yet as am painting up some Core Space figures. Seems like a leaning towards sci fi crews and their adventures! Core Space and Stargrave should be quite interchangeable. Stargrave troopers would make good Galactic Corps figures for Core Space and vice versa.
Core Space crews are perfect! I’m considering using a few of the lower-level Purge as robot crewmen as well.
Enjoyed GA, and tend to feel fantasy doesn’t have enough Plasma weapons.
Watching with interest.
I’m curious to see if the core book has a campaign in it. I always like the look of things like this but without a definable end to a soloable campaign I know I either wont start, or I’ll play one game, work out how everything works, and then not go back to it. Even two player, campaign play benefits from an end goal.
Just great…. I’ve just settled in to stay with my two main games (SW:L, Battletech and Blood Bowl) *three* main games (SW:L, Battletech, Blood Bowl and maybe A Billion Suns *DAMN IT).
Frostgrave already looked very tasty and now a game with not-Han Solo and Space Hobos with glowing sticks?
You won’t get me unless I win yet again…
Speaking of: Does this entry count double or do I need to make another one as CoG Member in the green room over in the forums? 😉
counts double, and Han Solo doesn’t have a skull on his jacket
that’s how you can tell
Noice.
Nice interview, great way of getting Stargrave Week up and running. It was interesting to hear about some of the design differences required from Frostgrave by the introduction of ranged weapons for all.
Been excited for this for a good little while!
I haven’t been excited about something like this, for a long while.
My head is melting from the endless possibilities of making my crew. Must just get the glue out and decide
Looks like you can play Stargrave with Core Space’s maps, scenery and figures!
Definitely. I’ll be picking up some Core Space gear for exactly this.
LOve the miniature agnostic part. Get to play with all those mini’s I’ve had lying around for years
Just one of the many joys of Frostgrave was for finally finding a purpose for some of the random miniatures I had acquired over the years. I now get to do this for a whole new genre. Rummaging through quantities of Lead and plastic finding figures I’d forgotten I owned. I also feel good about myself for having the foresight to buy them in the first place.
yeah … gives me a whole new reason to buy more.
Recently backed a kickstarter with 80’s scie fi style minis *because* of Stargrave.
All that is missing is something I can use as ‘the enemy’ in games.
Maybe Genestealer Cultists and Orks ?
Been enjoying talk of Stargrave on the Weekenders and also on Ash Barker’s channel. I’ve been playing Zone Raiders for the past 6 months or so too, and it is a close cousin to Stargrave. Also been playing (and collecting) a lot of Core Space so will soon be lured by Stargrave too.
Sci fi Frostgrave ,what’s not to like and prizes too!
Like that it’s agnostic but have to say the ones mercenaries and troops do look great (though the mercs seem better to me)
Oooo, Frostgrave in space
good interview. I can see alot of people using all kinds of minis for their crew. also in all the different universe there still is only one GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.
Citizen Kane? 😉
A ship’s engineer is the modern wizard.
All new recruits get a free set of red shirts.
Looks like it’s going to be a great week guy’s.
Love the Matrixy music.
I have been doing a project on Stargrave building up different crews from the models I have from the Nickstarter and other sources. What I like about stargrave is you can tailor it to suit your own universe. I takes me back to watching the original Star Trek every thursday evening. The crew would land on a new planet and each adventure would be different from the last. Well it is a bit less Kirk trying to make out female aliens and a lot more red security guys dropping dead but the idea is the same. What is great is you can set in a 40K style, firefly, Star Trek, and use and play out the missions in that style. Their is a lot of scope to tinker at the fine edges of the games in terms of monsters that turn up or the style of mission.
I’ve got a few Star Trek away teams from Modiphius … just the thing for this game.
Captain + First mate pretty much write themselves.
Red shirts are a given as well.
All that is missing is a sufficiently big collection of Trek enemies to use and the Star Trek skirmish game is ‘done’.
I don’t have a rulebook yet. What sizes are the bases? Or does it matter? I have an idea for some custom bases and want to know before I order any.
I’m still a bit torn as to how to structure my crew. So many possibilities!
doesn’t matter, I threw them on 25mm as there was a set with the plastic kits
Joe McCullough is killing it with his designs the last few years. I’m really looking forward to diving into Stargrave in the future — unless I win the contest in which case THE FUTURE IS NOW!
I’m going to use you guys this week.
to get my son to start stargrave.
it’s not going to be easy as he is still sad to have lost almost all of his figures and board games when his basement was flooded last winter.
I am curious if I will be able to get him back into the hobby.
I’m hoping I can find some people to get into this with me ☺️
The open world or I should say Universe is the primary draw for me. I can use anything and everything somewhere in the game.
Comment!! Stargrave lets us do almost ANYTHING…I’m trying to find models with a steampunk/victorian setting for a “Treasure Planet”-style Aether-Sail Ship.
Looking forward to the whole week!
Really looking forward to this week, love the fact that there were solo rules available right off the bat and hope that they will be expanded on over the next few book releases.
Sounds interesting, winning one book + box set would be nice
Can’t wait to play it with my mates when the Lockdown rules loosen
The only way forward is Space Gnomes with their pointy helmets and electro whips/fishing rods
I would like to see how easy it woukd be to run VSF with it
Very excited for this. Joe makes GOOD games.
Very excited for Stargrave! Can’t wait to kitbash models for the game!
Stargrave is for me the most anticipated Miniatures game of 2021
Not got it yet (although I’ve got RoSD and Frostgrave), I’ll probably pick it up at some point. The “….grave” games are easy to pick up and great for a throwdown game on a club night (as they don’t take too long to play. But I’ll probably wait (unless I win a bundle) until a couple more campaign books are out as the varied missions that are available in the other games (in the extensive campaign books) are what make the original systems shine.
The “Oooooh…shiney” aspect of any game is usually the minis, but it’s the paper products that add the “meat and potatoes” to any system (and keep you coming back to play more) 😀
Stargrave looks cool.
I still don’t know what will be better.
3d printing Star Wars miniatures to play with or painting my Infinity miniatures and use those.
Great opening video. Interesting points made and good to know the variety of options available for miniatures, scenarios and terrain.
Picking up the Cowboy Bebop board game to make a crew would be a pretty unique. I just need to figure out what scale those minis are! Lots to like with this release.
I started following OTT a few weeks ago, but this is the content that’s made me sign up here. Stargrave is a game I’m super interested in, so I’m looking forward to see more info on the game and how it plays before I decide whether to commit to buying the rulebook!
Really looking forward to this week. Already almost finished my first 10 man team with some ideas on future proofing and replacing the inevitable turn over of crew. The last couple of Robots in my crew are Skitarii minis and are proving tougher to decide the paint scheme on than I expected.
Been looking forward to Stargrave for months, and now looking forward to Stargrave week. Planning to print a bunch of Cyber Forge STLs (an SF Patreon from the Titan Forge crew) to build up my forces…though I’m a big fan of the Northstar Frostgrave minis, so I’m oogling the Stargrave lines as well!
Still excited and want to get going with this. Ordered the book over a month ago, being delayed for some unknown (unexplained) reason! Hopefully it frees up soon.
Have Core Space minis, but do want to check out the plastic North Star minis.
Looking forward to the Let’s Play segments.
I’m in already but it’s nice to hear the author’s thoughts. Cracking interview, lads.
I’ve really missed these discussions with the developers. bootcamps were always a great time to have videos like this, but… no bootcamps as of late for obvious reasons.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the content on stargrave
I’m all for a little more complexity if it widens the net of play possibilities. The ‘unwanted attention’ sounds like a good, thematic bit of pressure that’s ‘realistic’ and something that i suspect a few other games could benefit from, though i suspect i’d like it to be a ‘probability’ rather than a certainty. I wonder if Stargrave rules could be used to play games in human hives with gangers.
I have so many options for this….that need painting!
It’s like Shark week.. only with Joe… and in space… and the sharks have laser beams… so it’s not really like shark week, cause it’s WAAAAAAYYYY BETTER!!!!
This looks like a great game. Wonder what it would be like if other designers said. Hey use whatever miniatures you have, use whatever terrain you can find. Just have fun!. Looks like Stargrave is off to an awesome start.
Nice can’t wait to see more
Really looking forward to seeing some Let’s Plays.
looks very interesting frostgrave was good so no pressure lol
Really great interview and overview. Looking forward to watching some gameplay.
I really enjoy Frostgrave so I’m fairly certain I’ll get right into Stargrave.
Stargrave is the game that I have been waiting for. I can finally mix diffreent sci-fi miniatures in the same game. Really excited to play this game!
I love core space. With Stargrave now on the scene… I think I’m set for ALL scifi itches that need to be scratched. Really.. its a good time to wield a blaster.
Our group has had a chance to play a couple of games and we are loving it. The mechanics are familiar with a few additions. They aren’t hard to pick up at all. At the same time the feel is very different. We are looking forward to a campaign and exploring the system and the ravaged galaxy…
i have Deadzone Rebs and Enforcers from various lots and crazy boxes, as well as some old MERCS teams that might make a couple of crews.
I wonder it you get to choose the crew member weapon and equipment load out or is it mostly preset like Frostgrave crew? Looking forward too the game to come out.
Looking forward to getting my crew finished.
WOHO! Stargrave Week!
Really excited for this game.
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Great game. I’m working on my crews, can’t wait to start playing. The scenarios are quite exciting…
I’m excited to see how this all plays out and to create a unique crew
I really can’t wait to get copy of the book on my table!
Hmm, never heard of this before, but Stargrave looks very interesting. Thanks for the video!
So do we think this will be the way forward for gaming, the combination of Role Playing and Figure Gaming? It has certainly piqued my interest in playing SciFi, something that hasn’t happened before.
I’ve only recently finished my Frostgrave warband based on the brotherhood without banners from GoT. Looking forward to all the stargrave stuff this week.
Enjoying he new minis for his
This sounds awesome, you can skin it however you like!
got interested in frostgrave and this also peak my interest
Always enjoy hearing Joe McCullough talk either about Frostgrave, Stargrave or game systems in general. The Let’s Talk roundtable videos on Guerilla Miniature Games with him, Mike Hutchinson, Sean Sutter, Joseph McGuire and Ash Barker are particular highlights for me having acquired various rulesets by them over the years. Really looking forward to digging into Stargrave and putting the minis from the likes of Core Space, Blackstone Fortress and Arvalon-8 by RM Printable Terrain to use.
I hope this has a big impact on 40k players. we all have these minis at home, we just bought them because they are cool. To see the Inq28 community embrace this train of thought to bring bach one of the best factions of the 40k universe. the Rogue Trader would be a dream come true. And I believe we all would love to see a more skirmish game to play with does unique characters and recreate with them classic scenes from movie history.
Haha! I’ve got a couple of people in mind that I reckon wouldn’t need a Jedi Mind Trick to get involved with this game.
Had great fun playing Frostgrave. Fingers crossed this is just as good.
If it’s as good as Frostgrave it’ll be some game!
Frostgrave is a superb game and this is getting the juices flowing for sci fi once again…. although I’m really looking forward to seeing Joseph’s up coming napoleonic game…
I’m really looking forward to getting a game of Stargrave now folks. 🙂
I’m going to be digging out some minis to be used for this tonight.
I did enjoy the terrain challenges of Frostgrave. I can’t wait to see all the scenarios to come from Stargrave.
Great information. Definitely want to pick this one up.
Seems quite fresh and pretty inovative despite being based on the Frostgrave engine ?
Got the rules now I need to find someone to play.
I hope they print enough or do another run. Its sold out everywhere I’ve looked.
good interview. Looking forward to playing a campaign.
This is my kind of game.
Really like the accessibility of Frostgrave and Stargrave. You can use your old mini’s and terrain and then only need the book to play. More likely to persuade a friend to play a skirmish game like this than a larger scale game requiring more commitment and financial outlay.
I was aware of the game, but this has definately peaked my interest. I have bought alot of paranoia / old school sci fi sculpts over the years, definately will buy the rule set now
Stargrave sounds and looks amazing. Wondering how it will be to get into for someone who hasn’t played Frostgrave.
I’ve somehow managed to avoid looking at frostgrave, much to @avernos and @brennon ‘s disgust I’m sure. Didn’t even know that space frostgrave was coming. I’m thinking I need to take a look at both
This game got me. I love Rogue Stars, but some game mechanisms can be a bit difficult to grasp for beginners. No such problem with Stargrave. I’ll be able to play demo games and interest new people into trying Miniatures Wargaming…
Damnit, I swore I wasn’t going to start another rule set!?
Really looking forward to this week. I really enjoy shows like Battlestar Galactic, The Expanse, Bablyon 5, Firefly, and Farscape. It would be awesome to recreate some of those scenarios on the tabletop.
I’m not saying I would use Modiphius’ Star Trek minis for this, but I’m certainly not saying that I wouldn’t have Klingons make an appearance.
This is going to be fun! I haven’t read to much of the core book yet but, the pics are really good. I’ve started to assemble a few minis (2 crews and 2 pirates) and looking at various terrain pieces and scatter terrain and preping the assembly of 2 Mantic Enforcer Arbiter Interceptor that will find some service!
Thanks for the vid!
Oh man…a lot of ooohs and aaaahs here.
Mass effect in frostgrave well done sir very well done.
I prefer the scifi over the magic fantasy and I have less games that are scifi themed so count me in!
At last a game I can use my old star wars, EM4 and AT-43 minis and my collection of Battlesystems sci-fi terrain on. Looking forward to getting use out of the collection and its all already painted! Hurrah!
Great interview – good hearing about the origins / thoughts behind it 🙂
Great video guys. Looking forward to playing some stargrave this summer
Loving everything about stargrave. It’s the scrappy sorta Sci fi setting that really appeals (more so than 40k these days) but the fact is miniature agnostic is great.
I can’t wait to start playing this. I have played quite a bit of Frostgrave in the past, I think the system is great.
I like, as mentioned in the video that the background of the setting is kept quite lite allowing you more creativity.
This system is a great way to repurpose my old Rogue Trader minis that have been outdated and out-scaled for a good 25 years. I used to use them with the Rogue Stars game from Osprey as mercenaries. I will definitely paint up two teams and try and get a few club members interested.
I am liking the idea of a VSF crew running around with stiff upper lips and jolly hockey sticks
Looking forward to jumping in to Stargrave.
Got my rulebook in the mail last week so looking forward to bring it on the table when our club can open up again.
Quite interessted how the Power move works out in games.
Thankfully quite a few at the local club are currently building crews. So the plan to run a campaign once the club starts meeting up again.
I like that you can use nearly any sci-fi miniatures. I can’t wait to start playing.
Ohh I am inspired; the terrain building opportunities that the Stargrave universe provides are going to be awesome.
Time to crack out the space flixs and start checking out the backgrounds.
Stargrave is great, looking forward to where we go with this universe!
Got my book already, and started building terrain and crews.
Looking forward to having a lot of fun with this game!
I’m so excited for this game. I’ve got loads of crew ideas rattling around in my head.
I really like that Stargrave is really stimulating my sci fi imagination. I already imagined crews based on Expanse, Firefly, Dune, …
For now I like how the system looks and will try local players to try this out.
Happy it’s not just Frostgrave in space. Don’t get me wrong, I’m into Frostgrave, but you should never make a straight clone.
I’m a huge fan of Joe’s work and this has been on my to-play list since I first heard about it last year. Very interesting to learn more about his thought process when it comes to game design and balance vs. detail, etc. I think this will be every bit the success (if not more so) that Frostgrave was/is. It certainly has all the hallmarks of a fun game that’s easy to get into, quick to pick up, fast-paced and most importantly, fun to play.
Always good to hear from the designer and the process and thoughts they went through. I think it means you can read the rules and understand what certain things work the way they do.
Wow, stargrave looks really interesting! Haven’t played Frostgrave before, but I’m gonna look into that as well now for sure.
I can’t wait to use my not-Firefly crew from Wild West Exodus in Stargrave!
I’ve been waiting for this 🙂
I’ve been looking for a sci-fi game to complement Frostgrave. I think this might be the perfect fit.
Great video! I’ve been wanting to check this out!
Stargrave is the best!
Mr McCullough is the coolest. His games are great. Will jump into this one deffo.
Be good to see more about characters, can you have Robot Characters? With only 8 guys, can’t imagine vehicles will be a feature other than as an objective.
There’s something about the detailed, yet vague, worldbuilding Joseph does, that really inspires my roleplaying games. I have a D&D adventure planned in the city of Felstad (Frostgrave), and now I’m itching to run something Sci-Fi in the Stargrave universe
So that’s stargrave….
Stargrave is getting me interested in tabletop skirmish/wargames, as I’m a ‘traditional’ board game player (Viticulture, Nemesis, etc.)
It will be interesting to see what kind of additional content becomes available for this system
Stargrave rox!
This is a nice game
Stargrave seems great!
Time to kick back and catch up with Stargrave week. Always interesting listen to Joe being interviewed, seeing how he has developed as a designer over the last five or six years.
I love the system
I hope to see more alien rules
It’s great to hear more about this game
I’m definitely interested
I needed a reason to do some sci-fi mini mods, etc. This sounds like the perfect chance. Will this one have solo mode as well?
This sounds like an interesting system to play
Stargrave sounds lovely
The system sounds promising
Stargrave is interesting