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"SPACE FIGHT!" Starship combat boardgame
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
No, each section is 25% of the total shield points. It's just coincidental that on that particular diagram 80 shield points worked out to four blocks of 4x5.
As I said, I need to figure out a way to note which arc is intensified.
If the two ships go right after each other in initiative order then in fact that would not be a problem, although it would cost some more APs. Suppose you had two ships A and B, in that order, and you want B to transport something to A. Do the following:
A's turn: Don't spend APs to maintain shields right now, but spend APs to ready them.
B's turn: Don't spend APs to maintain shields right now, but spend APs to ready them. Also ready transporters.
At the end of B's turn shields go down, then B uses readied transporters action to transport, then uses readied shields to put shields back up again. Then A activates his shields again using his readied action. By the time any opponents get to act, both the shields will be back up.
Admittedly that depends on the ships being in the right initiative order. But this did inspire the following idea:
- Include a "drop shields temporarily" action that you can perform on your turn, or ready. When you do this, the shields go down, then go up at the end of the current ship's turn. So you could use that action to drop your shields temporarily to do the transport. An opponent would only be able to sneak in and hit you while your shields were down if they had a readied action to do so.
With about 20 ships on the map (including squadrons), the chances of my two ships going straight after each other are pretty slim! As it was, the ships were nowhere near each other in the initiative order (and we agreed that a delay turn option was a bad idea for a game with constant movement).
I don't like the "feel" of all this readying. I originally envisaged it as an occasional action people would use for occasional circumstances; as it turns out, it seems to be the default way of acting and the whole game incolves remembering what actions ships have readied. Needs work.
Incidentally, we have another marathon playtest session tomorrow afternoon. We intend to play exactly the same ships as last time, the idea being that we're replicating the scenario where we noticed issues and trying to see if the changes have solved those issues.
I'm really enjoying this process! I hope that at some point we can get some playtest reports from other people.
I'm really enjoying this process! I hope that at some point we can get some playtest reports from other people.
OK, so this would be how a stat card looks after these changes. Printed on card, laminated, and using washable markers should make quite a nice interface.
With these stats, assuming two identical ships, the shields would on average halve the photon torpedo damage or, if intensified, would just about absorb the torpedo's damage on an average damage roll. Phasers will rarely get through an unintensified shield.
These shield changes totally nerf fighters vs. shielded capital ships, though. At least for a while until the shields have been battered down. It'd take on average 20 hits from squadrons to bring the shields down.
I like the way intensified shields will go down quicker. Because they're absorbing more damage, the shield points are reduced faster. That's a side-effect that seems like a good bonus quirk to the way it works in my mind.
At the moment, shield points are restored though repair rolls. I'm not totally sold on that, although it seems it'll work OK.
With these stats, assuming two identical ships, the shields would on average halve the photon torpedo damage or, if intensified, would just about absorb the torpedo's damage on an average damage roll. Phasers will rarely get through an unintensified shield.
These shield changes totally nerf fighters vs. shielded capital ships, though. At least for a while until the shields have been battered down. It'd take on average 20 hits from squadrons to bring the shields down.
I like the way intensified shields will go down quicker. Because they're absorbing more damage, the shield points are reduced faster. That's a side-effect that seems like a good bonus quirk to the way it works in my mind.
At the moment, shield points are restored though repair rolls. I'm not totally sold on that, although it seems it'll work OK.
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To make the heroes more interesting, one thing you could do is to, rather than just give each hero a passive benefit, also give them active abilities. But rather than have these be separate things a hero can do on their turn, they're abilities that the hero grants to the ship. And these abilities are things that cost something to use or require tactics that aren't normally used, so you have to decide whether and when to use them. Borrowing from 4e you could have an "at-will" that can be used all the time and a "encounter/daily" that you can only use once per game. (The "once per game" is by hero rather than ship, so you can't get it back just by moving from ship to ship.) For example:
Legendary Engineer:
"We Need More Power" - Once per turn, the LE's ship can spend double the normal action points on any one action to get a +4 bonus to that action.
"Overload Reactor" - Once per game, the LE's ship can use up to 10 action points over its normal allotment. At the end of the turn, it takes 1d4 damage per extra action point it used.
Science Genius:
"Subsystem Targeting" - Once per turn, when targeting a specific system on an enemy ship, the SG's ship can choose to disable it until the end of the SG's ship's next turn instead of doing damage.
"Reverse Polarity" - Once per game, after the SG's ship rolls a d20 for any ship system, it can flip the die over (so a 1 is instead treated as a 20, a 2 is treated as a 19, etc.)
Plucky Pilot:
"Shake Sensor Lock" - Once per turn, the PP's ship can spend 1 AP to roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, all sensor locks that enemies have on his ship are dropped.
"Target Weak Point" - Once per game, if the PP's ship ends his turn in the space of a Huge or larger ship, he can declare that he is going for a "weak point." On the PP's ship's next turn, if the PP's ship is in the target ship's space (or moves there) the PP's ship can spend 2 AP to make a special attack roll at a -10 penalty. If the attack succeeds, the target ship takes damage equal to 1/4 of its maximum hit points. (Note: This is intended to simulate something like the Death Star "trench run" where you fly over an enemy ship looking for a weak point.)
Squadron Leader:
"Covering Maneuver" - Once per turn, the SL's squadron can give another Medium or smaller ship within 2 hexes +2 to defense until the end of the SL's squadron's next turn.
"Attack Pattern Alpha" - Once per game, at the beginning of its turn, the SL's squadron may initiate a coordinated attack on an enemy ship system. This increases the squadron's available AP that turn to its remaining HP value, and gives it a +4 bonus to attack, but all the attacks have to be made at the same specific system on the same target.
Legendary Engineer:
"We Need More Power" - Once per turn, the LE's ship can spend double the normal action points on any one action to get a +4 bonus to that action.
"Overload Reactor" - Once per game, the LE's ship can use up to 10 action points over its normal allotment. At the end of the turn, it takes 1d4 damage per extra action point it used.
Science Genius:
"Subsystem Targeting" - Once per turn, when targeting a specific system on an enemy ship, the SG's ship can choose to disable it until the end of the SG's ship's next turn instead of doing damage.
"Reverse Polarity" - Once per game, after the SG's ship rolls a d20 for any ship system, it can flip the die over (so a 1 is instead treated as a 20, a 2 is treated as a 19, etc.)
Plucky Pilot:
"Shake Sensor Lock" - Once per turn, the PP's ship can spend 1 AP to roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, all sensor locks that enemies have on his ship are dropped.
"Target Weak Point" - Once per game, if the PP's ship ends his turn in the space of a Huge or larger ship, he can declare that he is going for a "weak point." On the PP's ship's next turn, if the PP's ship is in the target ship's space (or moves there) the PP's ship can spend 2 AP to make a special attack roll at a -10 penalty. If the attack succeeds, the target ship takes damage equal to 1/4 of its maximum hit points. (Note: This is intended to simulate something like the Death Star "trench run" where you fly over an enemy ship looking for a weak point.)
Squadron Leader:
"Covering Maneuver" - Once per turn, the SL's squadron can give another Medium or smaller ship within 2 hexes +2 to defense until the end of the SL's squadron's next turn.
"Attack Pattern Alpha" - Once per game, at the beginning of its turn, the SL's squadron may initiate a coordinated attack on an enemy ship system. This increases the squadron's available AP that turn to its remaining HP value, and gives it a +4 bonus to attack, but all the attacks have to be made at the same specific system on the same target.
That's definitely an avenue worth exploring! It's getting late and I need some sleep, but I'll think more on this tomorrow. Our playtest is in the afternoon, so I'll be sure to report results (and probably post pictures, since I've been working so hard on the props!)
