Space Combat (starship systems)

[MarkB]

The last time I played a game like that, the campaign was set in an interstellar carrier, and the PCs were all some kind of mecha pilots. Mine was a pilot in name only- she was the unit’s combat engineer/field tech. She was as close to a mechanical “wizard” as the skill system allowed, but was barely functional as a pilot. Each PC had 3 attempts to “qualify” for away missions by landing on the carrier while it was maneuvering. Her third attempt as the only one she didn’t actually crash...

Don't let that stop you.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't let that stop you.

I strongly suspect that with her abysmal piloting skills, had she decided to kamikaze the enemy, she would have missed.

And if that were in a space battle, that would involve REPEATED misses.

“Why is Blue 7 repeatedly buzzing the cruiser? Is she trying to annoy them? Draw their fire?”

 

[aramis erak]

Fair enough -- there won't always be boarders. But it's possible to board, and for that to happen alongside the spacecombat system.

(I'm not sure if you're asking a question specifically to the mechanics of FATE/Diaspora or if it's a questions about the game narrative; more details possible either way.)

Tyranny of ΔV.
that is, Diaspora is a hard SF setting.

In terms of the setting: fuel is limited; ΔV is based in fuel and course... if you're maneuvering too much in combat, you're going to miss your rendezvous with the target planet. Worse, given that the jump points are at the zenith and nadir with the ecliptic plane perpendicular to that line between zenith and nadir, if you miss your target, you're haring off into the deeper outsystem away from the ecliptic. If you don't starve before rescue, expect the fees to be pricey.

So, once you hit the point where fuel is what's going to be needed if you delay course correction an hour down the road, you HAVE to stop maneuvering... and they're likely to send boarding craft or power armor, not dock ship-to-ship...

 

[MarkB]

Tyranny of ΔV.
that is, Diaspora is a hard SF setting.

In terms of the setting: fuel is limited; ΔV is based in fuel and course... if you're maneuvering too much in combat, you're going to miss your rendezvous with the target planet. Worse, given that the jump points are at the zenith and nadir with the ecliptic plane perpendicular to that line between zenith and nadir, if you miss your target, you're haring off into the deeper outsystem away from the ecliptic. If you don't starve before rescue, expect the fees to be pricey.

So, once you hit the point where fuel is what's going to be needed if you delay course correction an hour down the road, you HAVE to stop maneuvering... and they're likely to send boarding craft or power armor, not dock ship-to-ship...

That could easily develop into a lose-lose scenario, where each side needs to take the opposing ship intact, in order to capture their fuel reserves, or else they won't have enough fuel to get home.

 

[dragoner]

If you are being a bunch of pirates, you need to board to take the cargo.

 

[aramis erak]

If you are being a bunch of pirates, you need to board to take the cargo.

Yup... and successful piracy requires being able to disable rather than destroy the target... which is why the Select program exists in Classic Traveller. Take out their drives.

 

[dragoner]

Yup... and successful piracy requires being able to disable rather than destroy the target... which is why the Select program exists in Classic Traveller. Take out their drives.

The players used that on the last Type M liner they took out. Then it's mech skill to crank open doors and toss a few grenades in, room clearing. I've played a few different systems, and keep coming back to CT Book 2, a little bit crunchy, except I am a math guy, so the pythagorean theorem is fine for turns, and I have done some quick hard sf hacks, dropped ranges by a significant figure, pulse lasers are rail guns. Mostly by the books though, and it is fast, space combat rarely lasts more than 10 turns, usually less.

Damage was an eye watering experience, but that just lead them to making a deal with a Wintermute type bank AI, get their ship fixed for some wet work. Pretty typical Traveller stuff.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

For my D&D 4 based Star Wars, I have created a space combat system as well. I first thought about using some kind of 2D space combat thing with fancy maneuvers like in the X-Wing miniatures game, but it seemed too involved, and doesn't really work so well if the player characters are controlling mostly one ship. (They have a Light Corvette, a TIE Advanced and a small shuttle craft by now, but the aren't really in the business of piracy, space security or military, so they mostly use their ship to go from A to B and maybe evade people trying to stop them from leaving A or reaching B.)

So what I went for is to have roles aboard the ships. THe basic roles are Commander, Engineer, Pilot and Gunner, plus a generic "crew". Each role has a set of techniques (or powers in 4E terms) associated with them. They are more different than 4E techniques here, though. The Engineer focuses on restoring shields, boosting shields, weapons, engines,, repairing damaged subsystems, the Commander basically hands out buffs to the other characters, the Pilot tries to outmaneuver his enemies and gain lead on the opposition or shooting fixed guns, and the Gunners are operating the ships guns, missiles, turrets and so on.

I am basically using a more elaborate chase mechanic like in Night's Black Agents. You have an abstract starting point and try to reach a destination point. At that destination point, you can do stuff like jump into hyperspace, land on a planet, start a boarding operation, or just get significant buffs if you really just want to beat your opposition.
Movement/Speed is relatively abstract - ships have a maneuverability score that pilots can basically use to power their abilities, and distance or speed is only measured by the lead.

There is a provision for on-board actions as well, if it ever comes to having boarding parties.


It remains to be seen how well it works to actually give the various roles meaningful options, but everyone aboard the crew can do something. If you can't do anything else, you can still be gunner, because everyone in the system has some combat ability.

 

[Vaslov]

SWN as mentioned has been easy to run ship combat after learning how to work Command Points. It did take everyone a bit of practice to get. As you are converting to 5e you might find the esper genisis starship rules helpful. EG doesn't use Command Points like SWN does, but the departments and skills concept holds. I think those EG ship combat are in their free version of the rules they offer on drivethrurpg.

If you want to go further afield to look for something different Seven Worlds (Savage Worlds) did an interesting ship combat system. The main enemy in space is heat so it's all about managing heat levels through various means, giving everyone plenty to do. You can toss the setting stuff aside pretty easily.

I have fond memories of Knight Hawk (Star Frontiers) and Jovian Chronicles. Time likely has more to do with it than either being a great system. I do recall the way JC used Hex's to work a 3-D map was different. My group never liked the JC mecha stuff so we tossed that part it and enjoyed a something closer to a Babalon 5 like ship fights.

 

[beholdsa]

I'm a big fan of the ship-to-ship combat rules in Shadows Over Sol and Ashen Stars.