Starship combat?

[TheSouljourner]

What's your preferred way to handle starship combat? I know there are some rules in Star Hero, but I can't really tell how well they work. I'm going to be running a Terran Empire game, with the approximate tech level of Star Wars, with the main ship being about the size and crew of the Millenium Falcon.

 

I'd like for the PCs to have useful individual contributions to the combat, even if that's running around repairing holes in the hull.

 

The "dramatic" rules under starship combat are definitely what I'm looking for (I don't really care about realism other than I want things to at least make sense internally to the system).

 

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

 

-Nate

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Starship combat?

 

There has been some recent discussion on this topic; in this thread and also a bit in this other thread.

 

Anything I can tell you at this point would probably just repeat what's already been said.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Starship combat?

 

One idea:

Pilot - this is the character that works per Standard Hero Rules, moves at whosever Speed and Dex are lower (Pilot or Ship)

Gunner - or Gunners, independently fire weapons at their own Speed/Dex

Sensors - Can use tracking, targeting, or ECM to assist either the Pilot or Gunners, go on their own Speed/Dex, if it isn't synced to another character, applies to the next Phase of whomever they help, and can't switch helping someone until that person has gone.

Engineer - can possibly use tricks to assist pilot if it's that kind of style (like Firefly) of game.

Others - put out fires when their ship gets hit...

[dmjalund]

Re: Starship combat?

 

Engineers also possibly in charge of repairing systems that go down when ship takes damage.

[Beast]

Re: Starship combat?

 

Specs on the Falcon gave it 2 quad blaster cannons each needing a gunner

the pilot had access to missiles that fired forward

you could probably dock 2 A-wings (1 on either side at midships over the escape pods)

that gives you 5 characters doing attacks(leave DC to NPC droids and after the battle)

the A-wing type fighter could have tail gunners like the Y-wings that gets you up to 7 characters that can fight

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Starship combat?

 

Combat should probably be held in Turns rather than in phases. During a particular Turn, each character should get a number of actions equal to their speed. Characters roles should be fairly specific. The obvious one's are Pilot, Gunner, Sensors/EW, Engineer etc.

 

There can also be a Damage Control Engineer. They direct personnel to the damaged sections of the ship to rescue crew members and stop further damage to the ship. The GM could make these particular scenes dramatic and tense ("We have 10 crewmen trapped on the other side of that bulkhead and the hull is about to explosively decompress. We have to hurry!") and could (should?) switch to combat time during such scenes.

 

The Captain of the ship should be making Tactics rolls to determine the next action to take and to help coordinate the actions of all the various stations. It is at the captians command that the crew members utilize their teamwork skill to pull crazy maneuvers which can make or break a battle ("Sir! Two enemy vessels are approaching. They are concentrating their firepower on our forward shields. They can't take much more of this!" Captian scratches his chin. "Engineering. On my mark I want you to divert 50% of the power from the shields to the engines and give me full thrust. Gunners, I want each of you to target their engines. We want to reduce their mobility. Helm, I want you to aim directly in between them when we start moving. This is going to happen very quickly" Helm looks over his shoulder at the captian. "Sir, that's a tight squeeze." The captain gives his helmsman a side-long glance "Are you saying you can't handle that maneuver lieutenant?" The lieutenant rubs his hand in anticipation "No sir, I'm just saying don't dock my pay if the paint gets scratched!" )

 

The main thing I think is just to make sure that everyone has something to do. Pilot and gunner and engineering are going to be continually busy in any battle. Sensors as well. Just keep the challenges coming and the players should remain interested.

[TheSouljourner]

Re: Starship combat?

 

There has been some recent discussion on this topic; in this thread and also a bit in this other thread.

 

Thanks for the links, though the first one appears to just point to this thread we're talking in right now. Interesting self-referential loop, but probably not what you were going for.

 

The movement I think I want to be standard flight movement with turn modes... tracking vectors is way more trouble than I want to take, and loses a lot of tension.

 

I like all the ideas for different roles.. that'll definitely help keep everyone from getting bored (the last thing I want in what is supposed to be a riveting space battle).

 

Definitely good call on using tactics to allow the captain to coordinate the crew... that's a great role that can add a lot of interesting options to the combats.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Starship combat?

 

Thanks for the links, though the first one appears to just point to this thread we're talking in right now. Interesting self-referential loop, but probably not what you were going for.

 

The movement I think I want to be standard flight movement with turn modes... tracking vectors is way more trouble than I want to take, and loses a lot of tension.

 

I like all the ideas for different roles.. that'll definitely help keep everyone from getting bored (the last thing I want in what is supposed to be a riveting space battle).

 

Definitely good call on using tactics to allow the captain to coordinate the crew... that's a great role that can add a lot of interesting options to the combats.

 

D'oh!

 

Link has been fixed. (Too many tabs in my browser? Insomnia? Cosmic rays?)

[Tasha]

Re: Starship combat?

 

What's your preferred way to handle starship combat? I know there are some rules in Star Hero, but I can't really tell how well they work. I'm going to be running a Terran Empire game, with the approximate tech level of Star Wars, with the main ship being about the size and crew of the Millenium Falcon.

 

I'd like for the PCs to have useful individual contributions to the combat, even if that's running around repairing holes in the hull.

 

The "dramatic" rules under starship combat are definitely what I'm looking for (I don't really care about realism other than I want things to at least make sense internally to the system).

 

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

 

-Nate

 

I figure out what scale I am working in (ie how many KM to the Hex), figure out how many of those hexes a ship can move in a phase. Then I basically treat the combat like I would a battle that was based on 1hex per meter (or the classic 1hex = 2m). I have PCs manning the weapons(as many as possible), one piloting, one fixing stuff that breaks (and doing stuff to make the ship perform better).

[Harrkonen]

Re: Starship combat?

 

I ended up running a Star Wars old republic game where the I re vamped the vehicle combat rules almost completely. It was a while back so I'd have to dig up the details but I do remember it working half-way decently.

 

I do recall the simplest change was movement which helped speed the game up quite a bit, it was a simpler take on the KM=X amount of hexes formula

 

Effectively 1 Hex = 10 Hexes. Using simplified acceleration/deceleration rules things ended up running rather smoothly

 

The PCs were engaged in star fighter to star fighter combat meaning they could almost be treated as individual characters. Now I'm working on a game where the group will be in a circumstance similar to your own. I plan on keeping the movement formula but I'm re-vamping space ship construction this is mainly because in this setting there are no Shields.

 

Of course this was my first real run with heavy vehicle combat (I've run a few car chases but that's another story)