Dogfights/Pulp Adventures

I've been reading "The First Air War" by Lee Kennett, about aviation in WW1 and slightly before, and it's inspiring me to get my 1920s east indies air pirate game going. Dirigibles and floating planes and biplanes, yay.

So, I've been working on dogfighting rules, but are there any out there that people like? I believe ledded used some rules from "Dead from Above" in his WWII game; I looked for it at the game store last night, but they didn't have one, anyone care to give me a brief summary?

I'll post the rules I've been working on here after my meeting this afternoon. Silly job.

Which store did you check, i thought i noticed it at the gaurd tower....hmm i am going there later, ill check.

I did not use Dead From Above, though it was suggested to me buy some others. I havent been able to locate it last time I checked at my FLGS.

I used a combination of the Star Wars Revised Core Rulebook rules for atmospheric vehicles, combined with the manuvers listed in Bloodstone Press's Hell on Earth. It worked pretty well so far, if a bit abstract, having used it a few times. The Story Hour of mine in the sig below has a description of one of the dogfights in it.

I am *very* interested in the genre that you are describing, as I'd love to get my guys to do a pulp-ish game of that sort, so if you come across anything good please post up about it, particularly stuff about dirigibles.

I've just picked up an old copy of Crimson Skies PC game for the first time, and I think that I'm going to get hooked on the whole thing pretty soon.

Really? I was at the Guard Tower, they had Death on the Rhine, and I think the one about the Pacific theatre, and a lot of Deadlands stuff, but not the "Wierd War" airplane one.

Rules forthcoming.

Dogfighting houserules

These are narrative, abstractish, non map-intensive dogfight rules, because I don't anticipate ever owning a table or play area big enough to represent a big chunk of sky at a useful scale. These rules use a d20 modern base, so there is a piloting skill, vehicles have initiative modifiers, maneuver modifiers, hardness, hp, and so on.

2 Plane Dogfighting

Step 1, Encounter:
Start when two planes encounter each other; they are unengaged, but relatively near (within spotting distance of each other, which can be several miles on a clear day). If both planes want to engage, they do so automatically, proceed to step 2 with an initial position of 0. If neither do, they can both withdraw, and no combat occurs. Otherwise, they must make opposed pilot checks.

Note: any time a pilot check is called for, obviously all modifiers are included, such as appropriate feats and the maneuver stat of the plane.

Most planes of the era I'm looking at would qualify as Huge or Gargantuan, and so have a -2 or -4 size modifier, which is both the initiative and maneuver modifier for the vehicle. The maneuver statistic is sometimes modified for high-performance vehicles. In the d20 modern SRD, a Chevy Corvette, size H, has a -2 initiative modifier, but a +0 maneuver stat. I'll need to come up with a table of stats like this for era-appropriate aircraft, eventually. Balloons and zepplins would be collosal (65-128' keel, -8 size modifier), collosal 2 (129-256' long, -16 size mod), and even collosal 3 (257-512 feet long, -32 size mod) (to use the size terminology from FFG's Dragonstar). For purposes of air combat, they're basically set pieces, being relatively stationary compared to planes, and crewmen on them would act on their own initiative scores.

If the aggressor pilot wins the opposed Pilot check by 10 or more, the planes are engaged, go to step 2; the winner gets an initial position of +1. If the avoiding pilot wins by 10 or more, he escapes. Otherwise, the round is inconclusive, and step 1 is repeated.

Option: Surprise: If the DM decides one side has the drop on the other, such as by hiding in a cloud or the sun, or is otherwise unspotted, the surprising plane can choose to withdraw or engage freely. If he engages, then he automatically gets a surprise round to act in, and his Position begins at +1 for each round he observes the enemy before engaging, to a max of his Int bonus. Then continue the engagement normally.

Step 2, Engaged:
Roll initiative; don't forget the vehicle init modifier.

Option: when only a couple planes are involved, roll opposed Pilot checks for initiative, add any miscellaneous modifiers such as improved initiative to this check. The better pilot might deserve a better chance to go first.

Each pilot has a "Position" or "Advantage" score relative to his opponent; these are always the opposite of each other. This starts at 0, unless the planes became engaged by the aggressor winning a piloting check, in which case he has a +1 and his opponent has a -1.

Each round has two phases:

A) Maneuver Phase: At the beginnning of the round, each pilot makes a pilot check. This sets his Defense score for the round. Additionally, the pilot who wins this as an opposed check modifies the Position score 1 point his way; no change occurs on a tie. The maneuver phase takes the place of a pilot's move action for the round.

Option: Position doesn't modify unless you win by 5 or more. For every 5 you win the opposed roll by, get 1 point of Position. If Plane A has position -2 relative to Plane B, but wins the maneuver check by 15, he finishes maneuver with a +1 position.

B) Action Phase: This phase occurs in order of initiative. If more than 1 person is in a plane, like a rider in the observer seat, they act on the pilot's
initiative for simplicity.

Available actions:

Attack: Fire your guns at the enemy. Use the appropriate bonus (BAB + Dex + any feats, -4 for nonproficiency if applicable), but Range modifiers are ignored, subsumed into Position, which also modifies this attack roll. If you are at Position +5 on your enemy, you are right on his tail as he corkscrews through the air, lined up for a great shot. If you are at Position 0, you and your opponent don't enjoy any advantage relative to each other, and if you're at a negative position, you're in trouble. If you have 5 or more ranks in Pilot, you gain a +2 synergy bonus to your attack roll.
- A fixed, forward firing gun gains a +2 to-hit if you are in a positive Position, but cannot fire at all if you are in a negative Position. Guns on a rotating mount can fire from any Position.
- This is a single attack, so iterative attacks or the use of feats like Rapid Shot are not available, though a Burst would be if your gun works that way.

Fly Defensively: You, and everyone in your plane, take a -4 to your attack, and the plane gains a +2 to defense. If you have at least 5 ranks in tumble, the defense bonus is +3. This lasts until your next action. For simplicity, assume the pilot of a plane acts before anyone else on it.

Total Defense: Whip the plane through the air wildly, trying to evade attack. You cannot attack, but your plane gains a +4 to defense, +6 if you have at least 5 ranks in tumble. Anyone else trying to fire from your plane takes a -8 to their to-hit roll.

Maneuver for Advantage: Make a pilot check modified by your Position score, DC 20. If you succeed, you get a +2 to your next Maneuver check.

Aid Another: Make a pilot check modified by your Position score, DC 10, to line up the best shot. If you succeed, your second-seater can get a +2 bonus to his next attack.

Disengage: You can disengage from combat by winning an opposed pilot check, both pilots modified by their Position score, by 10 points or more; if so, return to Step 1 to see whether combat will resume. The pilot you are fleeing from can choose to lose this check automatically.

Actions available for a second-seater:
Attack: If a gun is available to you, as above, modified by any flying tricks the pilot did such as flying defensively. The second-seater gets a +2 synergy bonus to attack if he has at least 5 ranks in the pilot skill, just as the pilot does, representing an educated guess as to the probable path of both his own and the enemy aircraft.

Full Attack: The second-seater has his full round available, and so can make as many attacks as his BAB and feats allow.

Aid another: Using either Spot or Pilot, roll vs DC 10. If you succeed, add +2 to the pilot's next attack or maneuver roll.

Combat runs until one plane goes down, one escapes, or both decide to withdraw.

A pilot can only maintain position with relation to 2 enemy aircraft, it's just too hard to track and take shots at more planes than that as they buzz around. Any number of enemies can maintain position on a target plane; however, to keep the amount of die-rolling from getting absurd, use the following simplifications:

The outnumbered pilot selects the two planes he'll maintain position on (he has his pick of targets). Track only those two. Additional planes involved can select from other actions:

Aid Another: for their wingmates; if they succeed at a pilot check, DC 10, they can give a +2 to their wingmate's next maneuver check or attack roll.

Take Position: By beating both your wingmate and the target at a piloting check (the target gets his position modifier, both wingmates use the engaged pilot's position modifier), a plane can drop into the place of that wingmate in the dogfight; the new fighting plane's Position is 0, the old is out of Position entirely. Note that your wingmate can choose to lose this check automatically, so you only have to beat the enemy.

Disengage: Since no one is maintaining position on them, they can leave at will, be unengaged in one round, and be completely withdrawn in the second.

Example:
The Red Baron is out on dawn patrol, and spots a flight of 3 French Nieuport 11s. They also see him, and all of them want to engage.

Initiative is rolled. Using the optional rule, the Red Baron's pilot check of +15 more than counterbalances his -3 from his plane's maneuverability, and he gets a 26 on his initiative, beating all the Frenchmen.

Round 1
Maneuver Phase: All the French pilots roll their maneuver checks, but lose to the Baron. He gains +1 position relative to planes A and B; plane C will be aiding another until it gets a chance to do otherwise.

Action Phase: He selects his target, who ended up with a 20 Defense. The Baron gets a +1 to attack from Position, +2 from his forward-mounted guns (bless their interrupter gear), +2 synergy from his high ranks in Pilot, and has a +8 BAB, total attack roll of d20 + 13. He peppers the wing of plane A with fire.

Planes A aids B, but B misses the Baron.
Plane C aids another for Plane B's next maneuver check, successfully.

Round 2
Maneuver phase: Plane A loses to the Baron, who goes to Position +2 on it, but Plane B, aided by C, beats the Baron, and changes their position to 0 (even).
... and so on.

If this keeps up, the Baron will likely further damage Plane A, but Plane B will start getting advantage on him and hitting back; Plane C can try to drop into Plane A's position and let it Disengage or move to a support position. It may be a little tight for the Baron.

It's possible to have a chain or network of dogfighting planes, for instance, if a new German showed up he might engage plane B and C. So A and B have position with regard to the Baron, the Baron has position with regard to A and B; B can maintain position on the new plane, G, as can C if it desires. Or G could drop in and simply Aid the Baron on his checks.

Adding planes to a dogfight:
If a plane downs its last opponent, or arrives at a fight it isn't involved, it can automatically enter any engagement it can see, since the combatants probably aren't paying the slightest attention to him. They're basically surprised, so he'll start with +1 position on his chosen two targets for every round he observes the melee, to a max of his Int bonus.

I plan to use an index card, one for each PC, to track all these positions. Note the two planes he's holding position on, use a d6 or d10 to track Position for each, and then the player can write down his defense for the round, track his plane's hps, etc. Then a little table will suffice for me to hold the NPC planes on, with a row of squares for their Defense each round, and space for their hps. I can just let the PCs track position scores, and use that when I get around to the NPC turns.

Flying Skill Checks

Flying DCs
Takeoff: DC 10
Landing: DC 15
Shoot a large gap (at least twice the width of your wingspan): DC 10 or don't bother rolling unless adverse conditions apply
Shoot a medium gap (1-2x the width of your wingspan): DC 15
Shoot a narrow gap (narrower than your wingspan, but doable if you roll): DC 20
Recover from a stall: DC 25
Reorient a plane: DC 20

Failure may indicate clipping a wing, setting down hard on landing, or being unable to takeoff, depending on situation. Your plane will probably be damaged if there's anything nearby for it to hit.

Modifiers:
Runway too short: +1 DC (and on up, also applies to taking off with insufficient speed).
Headwinds on takeoff or landing: -2 DC (actually makes it easier).
Crosswinds: +1 DC for every 3 mph.
Engine out: +10 DC (if applicable, obviously takeoff is impossible).
Impaired visibility: +10 DC (dusk, light fog, smoke).
Flying blind: +20 DC (nighttime with no lights, heavy fog).

Night Flying
It's easy to become disoriented when flying with no visual clues. The governing skill here is Balance.

During typical, daytime flight, it's a DC 0 Balance check to keep your plane stable and upright. That is, unless you're unconscious, if you know how to fly a plane, it's probably fine.

The DC goes up to 20, however, at night, or during other times without visual clues. Bad visibility, like fog or flying through a cloud, would necessitate a DC 10 check.

If you have five or more ranks in Pilot, you get a +2 synergy bonus to this check.

The check for disorientation should be made secretly by the DM; if it fails, more pilot checks will be necessary to regain control and right the plane, as noted above.

Parachuting

Hasn't come up in the game yet, but I had a rule just in case.

If your plane is going down, I should probably require a check, maybe escape artist, to get out; the plane falls 150 feet on the first round and 300 feet every subsequent round, so you have several tries to make it out of the plummeting wreckage if you're high enough.

Assuming the parachute opens correctly (and I'm not terribly sure how to judge that, so I'm just going to say that for a PC it always does), a parachute reduces the fall to the equivalent of a 50' fall, for 5d6 damage, reflex save DC 15 for half (per the rules for falling in modern).

Proper technique can reduce this further. Each parachutist should make Balance, Tumble, and Jump checks, DC 15 (substituting Dex, Dex, and Str if untrained), each of which reduces the effective height fallen by 10 feet. Make all the checks, and you're looking at 2d6 damage, Reflex DC 12 for half. Even in the best case you take a bit of damage, but it's certainly better than hitting the ground full speed.

Pilot Advanced Class

Prereq: BAB +2, Pilot 6 ranks, Spot 6 ranks, Vehicle Expert

Hit Dice: 1d6 + Con.
Action Points: 6 + 1/2 character level.
Class Skills: Balance, Craft (mechanical), Drive, Knowledge (tactics), Navigate, Pilot, Profession, Repair, Spot, Tumble.
BAB 3/4 (+0/1/2/3/3/4/5/6/6/7).
Good Reflex save (+2/3/3/4/4/5/5/6/6/7), others poor (+0/0/1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3).
Defense as Soldier (+1/1/2/2/3/3/4/4/5/5).
Reputation as Gunslinger (+0/0/1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3).

Class Abilities
1 Favorite Plane +1
2 Right Stuff 1/day
3 Bonus Feat
4 Jink
5 Right Stuff 2/day, Favorite Plane +2
6 Bonus Feat
7 Wingman
8 Right Stuff 3/day
9 Bonus Feat, Favorite Plane +3
10 Improved Jink

Favorite Plane: For a plane which you have flown and trained in for at least a month, gain the listed bonus to Pilot and Repair checks.

Right Stuff: Add your Pilot level to one Pilot skill check, up to the listed number of times per day.

Jink: for one attack per round on a plane you're flying, make a reflex save DC 20 to take half damage.

Wingman: When aiding another in a dogfight, a successful check provides the target of your attempt with an additional +2 bonus.

Improved Jink: as Jink, but take half damage on a failed save and none on a successful one.

Bonus Feats: Choose from Advanced Firearm Proficiency, Aircraft Operation, Alertness, Burst Fire, Drive-By Attack, Exotic Firearms Proficiency, Vehicle Dodge, Vehicle Expert, The Whole Nine Yards (see below).

Miscellaneous Rules

Machine guns on planes are typically .30 caliber, and do 2d8 damage. They require the Exotic Firearms Proficiency to use without penalty, but the +2 for being forward mounted and the +2 for 5 ranks of pilot will cancel this out, so it's not totally necessary.

Auto Fire: attacking a set of squares doesn't really work with this system. Instead, auto fire lets a pilot make two attacks with a single action, at a -8 penalty. The Advanced Weapons Proficiency feat reduces this penalty to -4. If the shooter could full attack (ie an observer in a two-man plane), and had iterative attacks or extras from some other feat, they would also work with this.

Burst Fire: any attack can be made at a -4 penalty, for an extra 2 dice of damage. This can be stacked with autofire, for 2 attacks at -12 or -8 which would do 4d8 damage each if they hit.

Plane stats: Planes of this era had wingspans from 25-40 feet, which fits annoyingly on the Huge/Gargantuan barrier. So rather than figuring out stats for real planes, I let the players metagame out their plane stats and use that to describe them.

Planes have hardness, hit points, and initiative and maneuver modifiers.
A Huge Plane has 20 hp. Gargantuan, 30, and Colossal, 40.

Base init mod and maneuverability are -2, -4, and -8, respectively.

A biplane gets an additional +5 hps; projecting, a triplane would get +10. I'd probably say each extra engine adds 5 or 10 hps and +1 maneuverability, too, though colossal planes will have 2 by default.

A monoplane gets a +1 maneuverability mod. I'd probably give a triplane an additional -1, but it hasn't come up. This may need rethinking.

Harness:
Cloth: 0
Soft Wood: 3
Wood: 5
Aluminum: 6
Steel: 10

Most planes of the era I'd call soft wood or wood; early biplanes and gliders, plus dirigibles, are the cloth category. I might knock steel down to Hardness 8 for aircraft, because it would be very thin steel.

Size mods, projected:
Medium: 0
Large (<16'): -1
Huge (<32'): -2
Gargantuan (<64'): -4
Colossal (<125'): -8
Colossal 2 (<250'): -16
Colossal 3 (<500'): -32
Colossal 4 (<1000'): -64

And so on. What flies, and is 1000 feet long? My players will find out, muhahahaha.

Today they escorted a convoy from the Republic of Hawaii to the Sultanate of Brunei, and the three of them fought air pirates, 4 enemy planes buzzing around a double-zepplin with a bunch of anti-aircraft guns mounted on it.

They later visited an airshow debuting the new Bruneian Army Air Force, to make contact with its commanding general and seek employment and fortune. One of the Bruneian planes went down, and that night the PCs were caught up in a riot of nationalists blaming British secret agents for sabotaging Brunei's pride and joy. That crisis averted, they managed to get a job training the air force to hunt pirates in the Phillipines.

The year is 1925, hydrogen is cheap, airplanes are the future, and the pirates are plundering. Arrr, matey.