Suggest a system for adjudicating space combat

[dragonlordofpoondari]

What are, in your opinion, the best space combat systems out there that could potentially be used with a D20 system? I ask since the D20 version of Fading Suns lacks starship combat rules. What do you think? Should I ...

1. use Blood and Space v.2
2. somehow adapt the VPS space combat rules to D20.
3. use Traveller T20 space combat rules.
4. use Classic Traveller rules.
5. use GURPS Space rules
6. use Alternity rules
7. use Dragonstar rules
8. use Star Frontier rules
9. use D20 Modern/Future rules (?)
10. use Star Wars SAGA rules
11. fire up Sins of a Solar Empire in the middle of a tabletop game
12. fire up the Fading Suns PC game in the middle of a tabletop game
13. consider your novel suggestion

What do you fellows/ladies think?

EDIT: Is Thanee a lady? Anyway, please tell me a little bit about the system you suggest. What are the primary flaws/weaknesses in you opinion? Thanks!

 

[Thanee]

We have been using Renegade Legion INTERCEPTOR with HERO rules (changed the rules a bit to use HERO style rolls and HERO characteristics) for one campaign. That worked quite well, especially since it also has a rather detailed damage system (including lots of systems that might get damaged, but have no direct influence in combat), so you know what parts are in need of repair or broken beyond repair after a combat and what the effect of that is roughly, which is quite useful information for a roleplaying game.

Bye
Thanee

 

[rgard]

What are, in your opinion, the best space combat systems out there that could potentially be used with a D20 system? I ask since the D20 version of Fading Suns lacks starship combat rules. What do you think? Should I ...

1. use Blood and Space v.2
2. somehow adapt the VPS space combat rules to D20.
3. use Traveller T20 space combat rules.
4. use Classic Traveller rules.
5. use GURPS Space rules
6. use Alternity rules
7. use Dragonstar rules
8. use Star Frontier rules
9. use D20 Modern/Future rules (?)
10. use Star Wars SAGA rules
11. fire up Sins of a Solar Empire in the middle of a tabletop game
12. fire up the Fading Suns PC game in the middle of a tabletop game
13. consider your novel suggestion

What do you fellows think?

Starfleet Battles. I love the simultaneous movement. You'd have to create your own ship designs though.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Stormborn]

Choice #10: Star Wars Saga looks pretty good to me.

 

[Switchblade]

Starfleet Battles. I love the simultaneous movement. You'd have to create your own ship designs though.

Thanks,
Rich

Well if you are a masochist prehaps. I once made the mistake of asking to borrow the rules from a friend. After seeing him pull out the SECOND large ring binder I decided to stick to Babylon 5 Wars for space battles. Well, after several hours of cross referencing, foul language and confusion.

B5 wars is a nice choice if you want to run battles with more than one ship per side. Simple rules.

 

[ExploderWizard]

It depends on how much simulationism vs ease of play you are looking for. Once you know what you want in terms of complexity, the choice narrows a bit.

 

[Toben the Many]

My personal favorite is the d20 Future rules. It treats the vehicles like PC on a battle mat. It makes it easy for the players to intuit what to do when it comes to starship battling.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

It depends on how much simulationism vs ease of play you are looking for. Once you know what you want in terms of complexity, the choice narrows a bit.

Good question. I actually included a specification in my original post, but deleted it when I thought about how we haven't deep space combat in reality to simulate. Dogfights in aircombat could be close since they occur in 3D space, but not zero gravity. We could always simulate fiction, or our dreams. Space combat in my dreams always has The Seatbelts playing in the background.

Regardless, to speak to the spirit of your point (I guess granularity vs fluidity might be fitting rpg lingo in this case):

I'm looking for a nice balance between speed, options, and detail. I don't want something so complex that combat will really drag, but I also want the rules to be interesting enough to keep my tactical-minded players excited. Balance, it's not a bad word is it?

 

[rgard]

Well if you are a masochist prehaps. I once made the mistake of asking to borrow the rules from a friend. After seeing him pull out the SECOND large ring binder I decided to stick to Babylon 5 Wars for space battles. Well, after several hours of cross referencing, foul language and confusion.

B5 wars is a nice choice if you want to run battles with more than one ship per side. Simple rules.

The cadet/introductory/lite rules are at this page:

Star Fleet Battles

Free PDF of the rules:

http://starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/CadetHandbook.pdf

They also have the cadet SSDs and counters for free.

Not bad for free and the cadet level is not all that complex.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Speaking from personal experience, I found the space combat in Star Wars Saga to be a bit too simple for my tastes, and the space combat in Traveller d20 to be a bit too complex. I've been working on adding some additional options and complexities (while trying not to go too far) to the SWSE space combat rules for my own games.