Designing Space Battle in RPG

[Morrus]

As much as I think this has merit, completely disassociating roles goes against some of the OPs goals. As originally stated, anyone should be allowed to attack/repair/send communications, but some should be better at it than others. I respect this desire as a nod to both realism, and helping players connect to their characters by feeling like they're unique and/or special.

That’s just about character statistics. Just like on ground. The point is not restricting players to roles. Sure, some will be better at some.

- Proximity rules: Everyone can do any job, but it will take time for them to switch. Helm control needs one round to switch to Comms, but two to switch to Weapons or three to switch to Engineering, etc. Inspired by Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.

Missing turns is anti-fun. The idea was to make starship combat more fun, not as boring as possible! Your solution to the problem of starship combat being not much fun is to make people sit out of the game for three rounds?

 

[Tonguez]

As much as I think this has merit, completely disassociating roles goes against some of the OPs goals. As originally stated, anyone should be allowed to attack/repair/send communications, but some should be better at it than others. I respect this desire as a nod to both realism, and helping players connect to their characters by feeling like they're unique and/or special.

To this goal, I would throw these basic ideas out there (apologies in advance if any of these already exist in WOIN, I don't own a copy):

- Incomplete disassociation: Everyone can do a majority of the jobs, but not all of them. Maybe everyone picks one role they're not allowed to do, or you get a penalty when doing 2/5 roles.

- Special bonuses: Opposite of the above. Everyone can man Weapons, but only one or two players can access the Super Laser.

- Required cooperation: Variant on the above. Everyone can do any role, but can only do some with assistance. E.G. Player 1 can do Comms or Weapons any time, but can only take the Helm if Player 2 or Player 3 is in Engineering. Player 2 can do Engineering or Helm at any time, but can only do Comms if Player 3 or 4 is at the Helm. Could be complicated, but could also really encourage inter-party communication.

- Proximity rules: Everyone can do any job, but it will take time for them to switch. Helm control needs one round to switch to Comms, but two to switch to Weapons or three to switch to Engineering, etc. Inspired by Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.

or you could just use the advantage mechanic or skills - so an Engineer gets advantage on engineering but can still do Gunnery or Helm functions if they want to.

Anyway in my Naval Rules we divide a ship into Helm (Manouveres), Propulsion (Speed), Deck (Tactical) and Hull (Stability). For Ship Turns PCs assign themselves to sections and all four sections make similtaneous checks as they are “working together”. Each section also has its own AC so that enemies can target them sperately resulting in different ‘status effects’ that PCS then have to resolve On their turn.

 

[Plane Sailing]

FWIW I wanted to do something similar to make space combat interesting in my RPG (Starguild: Space Opera Noir) and I went for distinct bridge positions (pilot, navigator, engineer, gunner, captain) and each of those bridge positions had a number of things they could do each combat round. The captain would normally have some combination of shuffling around the computer program bonuses and using leadership skills to improve other bridge crew performance. Only one person could be piloting the ship at one time, but anyone could jump into the pilots position if needed. This is the quick reference chart:

 

[Laurefindel]

I'm digesting all your comments; not ignoring anyone.

On thing is clearer than ever; characters need a minimum of mobility between their stations (or their stations must be versatile).

Another thing that was clear from the beginning and that I may not have addressed properly: "Captaining" is not a skill, or if it were, a "captaining check" is not a fun roll. Departments (which I had called battlesations, now that I looked back on my notes) must have enough options to... give options. A character doesn't need a high Strategy skill rank to do a good job at the helm, but a character with a high Strategy skill may be better at using some of the helms options than others.

And should everything fails, every character should be able to use their action to make an attack and shoot enemy ships to space dust...

 

[Eltab]

And should everything fails, every character should be able to use their action to make an attack and shoot enemy ships to space dust...

In one of Larry Niven's "Known Space" stories, a top-of-the-line warship is destroyed by an unarmed colony vessel using the comm laser
For my highly-Niven-copied SF setting, I have thought about doing the same by rotating the colony ship (for artificial gravity) and turning on a Bussard ramjet's magnetic fuel scoop.

Star Fleet Battles is much more complex than you want, but there are rules for Officers to influence the ship's performance in various ways. You might find something to inspire you.

 

[nomotog]

Design the system around small ships. Most players want the millennium falcon experience, so rather than trying to make your system scale from small to just have all your ships be small.

 

[atanakar]

Picard Star Trek. The captain (actor Santiago Cabrera) runs the entire ship from his chair.

 

[GMMichael]

I'm making a sci fi (space opera) RPG, because making RPGs is fun.

The analogy with a D&D party doesn't map-out exactly like a sci-fi game (in a non-d20 system to booth)...

In a D&D party, players usually play different classes...

Important design concept: In a D&D party, everyone can attack (some do it better) or do their class-y thing...

Sounds like you just want to play D&D. If you're designing a game, not a module, it might help to throw out some assumptions. Like "D&D would do it this way."

 

[Deset Gled]

That’s just about character statistics. Just like on ground. The point is not restricting players to roles. Sure, some will be better at some.

Playing a statistic is anti-fun. You don't get emotionally invested in a character because he's got a +2 to a roll, you get excited about a character that is unique and can do unique things. A wizard is restricted from wearing armor and a fighter is restricted from casting spells; they're not just a little bit better at magic or fighting.

Missing turns is anti-fun. The idea was to make starship combat more fun, not as boring as possible! Your solution to the problem of starship combat being not much fun is to make people sit out of the game for three rounds?

Strategy is fun. Having the group make a tactical decision about whether the Gunner gives up one turn of shooting to fix the technobabble in Engineering or the Helmsman gives up two turns of flying to do the same job is fun. In either case, both players are still contributing to the game.

My 3.5e Assassin character would regularly spend 3 rounds doing nothing but observing a target before making a Death Attack. He was still a fun character. Just because you're not rolling dice doesn't mean you're sitting out. If a player can't handle a round where he's not the center of attention without saying it's "as boring as possible", I would recommend them to play computer games instead of TTRPGs.

 

[Morrus]

Playing a statistic is anti-fun. You don't get emotionally invested in a character because he's got a +2 to a roll, you get excited about a character that is unique and can do unique things. A wizard is restricted from wearing armor and a fighter is restricted from casting spells; they're not just a little bit better at magic or fighting.

That is really not what I said.