Re: Space fightercraft in RPGs.
I am of two minds on this subject... on the one hand I love the idea of small fighter craft (ala Star Wars), however I know that realistically they are unfeasible. I used to include them in my games only because my players seemed to expect them. Had one player that always played an ace pilot type and would have a cow if there were no small craft for him to fly around in.
I usually modeled my fighter craft after the vessels used on Babylon 5.. no aerodynamic turns or anything like that. I felt and still feel that it had the feel that I was looking for from space battles. However, this did not sit well with said player... so I scrapped the game and moved onto a fantasy game.
Second mind, it always seems that in any space game, you only have one or maybe two people that want to play fighter jocks and the rest... well they seem to have to sit on the sidelines every time you give face time to the fighter aces. I eventually concluded that it was just not in the best interest to have craft that small in the game. Especially since a craft that small realistically can't take that much damage and not explode.
So, when I revamped my space hero game a few years back, I went with a concept similar to both Xavier's and David Webber's.. the LAC. The players that want to be ace pilots, still can be, and the rest of the players can fill other roles on board the attack craft. Now I must mention, unlike Xavier, my small attack craft are not FTL capable. They must be brought in on a larger ship and launched in system. This I stole directly from the Honor Harrington books
All in all I do like the concept of fighter craft that are not huge ships of war, I just don't see really small ones being feasible weapons platforms with any kind of realistic survival rate, to do any good in protracted engagement.