Combat is carried out normally per old school D&D rules: initiative, moves, attacks, etc. It's all the same. Find the numbers, add or subtract bonuses and penalties, roll the dice.
Distance
Most spaceship fights begin at extreme sensor range between ships. This places the ships 21 - 40 squares apart.
Sometimes a ship is cloaked or manages to get in closer. Sometimes a ship will launch fighters at a closer range. Adjust accordingly.
Combat Phases
The one change is the addition of the Maneuver Check, an opposed Piloting check with bonuses or penalties from a ship's maneuver rating before initiative is rolled. The winner is assumed to have maneuvered to an advantageous position over his enemy.
1. Players declare character movement or actions.
2. Maneuver Phase: Opposed Pilot checks with modifiers for combat advantages.
3. Initiative: 1d6 plus modifiers is rolled by each opposing side.
4. Movement: The LOSERs of initiative moves his ship first in the movement phase.
5. Ranged Attacks: The winner goes first, followed by the losers
6. Force Use: The winner goes first, followed by the losers
7. Melee Attacks: The winner goes first, followed by the losers
Maneuver Phase
Pilot vs Pilot roll (Dex checks.) Ship's maneuver is added as a bonus to the Pilot's rolls.
Success and highest roll wins. Winner gets a +2 to hit and +2 to Initiative.
The winner also moves after the other ships in the Movement phase of combat (this gives them the opportunity of placing themselves in the most advantageous position.)
Initiative Phase
Basic Roll: 1d6 + Pilot bonus + /- Ship initiative modifier
+2 if a Maneuver roll was won the previous round.
Movement Phase
Again........ The Loser of the Maneuver Phase moves first, the winner moves last.
Each space square is 500m. Each atmospheric square is 50m.
I'm using a simplified abstract system to represent movement and maneuvering. That's what the Maneuver Phase is for.
No complicated side-slips or other overly specific mechanics. They are more complex than I wanted in this. IF you want to add them back it go fo it, it's easy enough to do so.
Speed
Unless the pilot adjusts course and speed the ship will automatically stay on the course and speed of the previous round.
Turning
Not all ships turn at the same rate. The smaller the ship the tighter and faster the turn as larger ships use movement to turn unlike smaller ships. This is part of the ship's Move action.
Small (light freighter) or smaller (Starfighters)
These small ships can turn any direction in one square.
It can curve around in the same square, do a looping barrel roll, or whatever to position itself to leave the square and finish any movement it has left.
The Catch: Any forward or sideways movement costs them no movement but any towards a rear arc costs two squares of movement as the ship loops up, down, or sideways to reverse direction.
An X-Wing can make a 180 degree turn, costing it two squares movement, and move down it's original flight path.
Medium and Large ships (Medium Transport, Corellian Corvette)
These ships can turn fairly sharply for their size. They can move forward or turn in a ninety degree arc.
When it turns it cannot just turn in its current square., it must move forward one square and then turn the ninety degrees and can move into the side square. That move cost two squares movement. The ship, if necessary and still has movement, can move forward another square and then turn another ninety degrees, costing two more square of movement.
A Corellian Corvette can make a 180 degree turn in two rounds, costing it four squares of movement, and end up two squares away from its original flight path.
Huge ships and Larger (Mon Cal Cruiser, Star Destroyers)
These massive ships are slow, often moving ony three or four squares maximum. To turn these ships move them up to their max speed. At the end of the move turn the nose 45 degrees in what direction it needs to go into a diagonal square. The next round repeat the maneuver along the diagonal squares. These two rounds turned the ship ninety degrees. Keep going two more rounds to turn the ship 180 degrees.
An imperial star destroyer with a max move of three and turning 180 degrees over the course of four rounds will end up eight squares from it's original flight path.
Moving in Reverse
Unless noted ships cannot go in reverse faster than docking speed. Almost all ships are not equipped with powerful reverse thrusters.
Pilot and Crew can attack in this phase.
Pilot's Ranged attack score.
⦁ Ranged attack bonus + Dex bonus
⦁ +2 Pilot class attack bonus
⦁ + weapon's targetting computer bonus if applicable
⦁ speed factor
⦁ penalty for range
⦁ +2 maneuver bonus if gained
Crewman's Ranged attack score.
⦁ Ranged attack bonus + Dex bonus
⦁ + weapon's targetting computer bonus if applicable
⦁ speed factor
⦁ penalty for range
⦁ +2 maneuver bonus if gained
Range (in 500m squares)
Point Blank 0
Short -2
Medium -4
Long -6
Firing into Dogfight
-4 to avoid allies.
Force Use Phase
Characters with Force powers may go in this phase.
Melee Attack Phase
Normal melee combat (if relevant) go in the phase.
SHIPS STATS
⦁ Scale
⦁ Armor Class
⦁ Hit Points
⦁ Shields
⦁ Move
⦁ Maneuver
⦁ Initiative
Scale
The size of a ship compared to other ship and objects. This is important as certain weapons (such as Ion) will not affect ships of a larger scale.
Colossal- Capital Ship: Star Destroyer, Mon Cal Cruiser
Gargantun- Assault frigate
Huge- Nebulon-B escort frigate
Large- Corellian corvette, bulk freighter
Medium- Medium transport
Small- Light freighter, Imp customs light cruiser
Tiny- X-Wing starfighter
Diminutive- Tie fighter
Fine- Missile, escape pod, airspeeder
Armor Class
Vehicle AC + Pilot Bonus + Speed Factor
Flying defensively (no attack attempt) adds +4
The ship's maximum hit points at full strength. Ships have a Damage Reduction based on size attached to hit points. When ever damage is done to the ship's HP the DR is deducted first.
Shields
Shields deflect objects away from a starship. They run off of generators which can be overloaded in combat or any other situation that the shield is being battered. Shields cannot be left on indefinitely as this will blow out the generators; they are kept for situations such as combat, asteroids, etc.
The Shield Points are the number of damage points absorbed before the shield generators are overloaded and shields are down. Once this happens damage is done to the ship's Hit Points.
Like Hit Points shields have a DR rating based on size which deducts damage to the SP which each hit.
Regeneration
Overloaded generators will regenerate Shield Points at a rate per minute based on ship size:
Fine/Diminutive- 1 SP
Tiny/Small- 2 SP
Medium- 5SP
Large/Huge- 8 SP
Gargantuan/Colossal- 10 SP
Repair
As long as the shield generators are not destroyed a character can make a Repair roll with a -8 penalty to regain 5 points to the shields. This is a full round action. It can be repeated until shields are at full capacity.
Angling Shields
Sometimes called 'doubling' shields. A ship can angle its shields on one fire arc to increase the shield points for that arc. This requires a lot of power and strain on the shield generators. This prevents any protection from arcs other than the angled one. The angled arc's shield points are doubled. If the angled shield is damaged any remaining shield points are halved when power is returned to the other shields. Therefore if a doubled shield is down to 20 shield points after attacks then it and the other shield arcs have 10 when power is redistributed.
Raising shields takes time as seen below.
The shields take effect on the crewman who activated them's turn.
This is the maximum number of 500km squares a ship can move in space and 50m squares in atmosphere.
Unless a Pilot changes speed or direction in a round the ship will automatically move in the direction it was headed at the speed it was at from the previous round.
Starting the Ship
Engines take time to warm up. The bigger the engine the longer the time.
A Pilot can reduce this time by one step (minimum a move action) with a successful Piloting check taken as a move action.
Maneuver
This bonus is added to the Piloting rolls for any Piloting check. It is most commonly used in combat for the Maneuver Check for advantages in combat.
Initiative
The ship's bonus to the Pilot's initiative roll for combat.
WEAPONS
Weaponry is pretty self-explanatory:
⦁ listed damage
⦁ bonus to hit with the weapon (bonuses from size, fire control computer, etc)
⦁ firing arc
The Starship descriptions include weaponry in their stats.
I've used the old d20 weapon stats. They work well and are easy to find online.
I will have a large list of weaponry and options in the upcoming Starship Modifications post.
Here's a few basics to use with the Starship descriptions.
Powering Weapons
The bigger the ship, the longer it takes to get the weapons hot and ready to fire.
One extra dice damage per pair of weapons (you'll see this in the starship weapon stats.) Must be identical weapons.
Ion Weapons
Ion weapons do not work on objects of a larger scale. Personal weapons do not affect vehicles which do not affect starships/transports which do not affect larger ships such as capitol.
Ion weapons ignore shields. When they hit a ship they do not do damage to the ship Hit Points. The ion damage affects electrical systems: pretty much everything aboard a ship. This shows up as a penalty to all skills or abilities used with the ship: Piloting, Nav, attacks, etc as the damaged systems are slow to respond and glitching.
For each hit and damage roll check the following chart. Total all ion damage done from all ships and weapon emplacement attacks on the targeted ship. Penalties apply immediately.
The more damage builds up the worse it gets until the ship is incapacitated at 81+ points of Ion damage. No system works, controls are locked and the ship continues on the course and speed it had previously.
Missiles
+5, marginal
+10, ordinary
+15, good
+20, amazing
Missiles move at a rate of 9 squares. They have enough fuel for six rounds.
When a missile enters the same square as its designated target it makes an attack roll to hit using the bonus from its guidance system.
⦁ It will take the most direct route and if it requires a Pilot check the check bonus is equal to the guidance system bonus.
⦁ If it misses it will continue on its course using the rest of its movement, if any, out of the square. It will turn to attack again the next round.
⦁ It will stop if it hits the target, runs out of fuel, or runs into something else and explodes.
Distracting Missiles
Target enters Square with another ship, asteroid, etc.
Pilots: check to avoid collision. All pilots in square roll a Piloting check, worst roll is new target.
Asteroids, obstacles, etc.
Asteroid check is 10, Pilot rolls normal. If Pilot rolls better check the asteroid is hit and explodes.
Ac- 22
Hp- 30
Move- 9 squares
Initiative- same as when launched.
Fuel- six rounds
Fire-linked- as normal rules.
Attack Roll- 1d20+ guidance bonus.
Tractor Beams
As a move action the beam can move a trapped ship a number of squares based on the size of the tractoring ship.
Resisting/Escaping the Tractor Beam
A Pilot can attempt to maneuver and resist or even escape the beam. He must make a Piloting check with all bonuses and penalties for the ship's Maneuverability score. If he makes the roll by 5 points he has resisted and the trapped ship does not move from its current position. If made by 10+ the ship breaks free and can move normally. If the tractoring ship is larger add a -4 penalty to the check, if smaller add a +4 bonus to the check.
CAPITAL SHIPS
Point-Defense Weapons
(Round down to a minimum of one weapon.)
To address this problem many capital ships use point-defense weaponry. They fire as a medium sized ship (+0 to hit, no penalty at point blank range.) P-D weapons cannot target a ship at greater than point-blank range (1 square.)
Weapon Batteries
Strafing Run
A second Piloting check determines the success of the run and it is modified by the size of the object being strafed.
Colossal, -4
Gargantuan, -6
Huge, -8
Large, -12
If successful only Point-Defense Weapons can attack the ships.
If it fails the Pilot must immediately make another check with the same penalty to regain control.
If successful the ship flies on normally and can attempt another strafing run on his next action.
If he failed by ten or more he must roll on the out of control chart below. A change of pitch could collide his ship with the larger object. See below.
Once a ship drops of a Huge ship or larger's sensors with a successful strafing run the smaller ship can, in theory, employ its landing claw to dock on the larger ship and appear to have disappeared. The Piloting check penalty for this is -12.
DAMAGE TO SHIPS
When an attack is successful against a ship damage is rolled normally.
You must knock out shields before you start hitting a ship's Hit Points.
Ships can be critically hit:
⦁ A natural 20 on the attack dice roll is a crit.
⦁ Any hit on the ship when it is at half hit points or lower is a crit.
⦁ You cannot critical hit shields, only hits to a ship's Hit Points.
If the roll was a success but less than five over the target AC and the ship is not at half hit points or less: Roll 1d8
The entry shows what the penalty is and what kind of Repair roll is required, with possible penalties, to jury-rig the system (see below.) Finally it shows the consequences if the entry is rolled again.
1. Stabilizer damaged, -2 to all Piloting rolls and attacks, Normal Repair, if rolled again stabilizers must be replaced and Piloting is at -4
2. Shield generators damaged, lose all shields from the arc attacked and cannot be angled to reinforce this arc until repaired, -4 to Repair to get the generator working
3. Sensor damage: -4 to all Nav Sensor checks, Normal Repair, if rolled again Sensors destroyed and must be replaced
4. Computer damage: All Nav Astrogate and attack rolls at -2 penalty, Normal Repair, will suffer an additional -2 for each time this result is rolled
5. Sublight engine damage, ship max Speed drops by 1d6, Normal Repair, reduce by 1d6 for each time this result is rolled
6. Comms damaged, -4 to all Nav Comms checks, -4 Repair, if rolled again Comms destroyed
7. Weapon damaged, a single weapon (not a fire-linked group) is non-functional, -4 Repair
8. Hyperdrive damaged, +1d3 to ship's hyperdrive multiplier, Normal Repair, it will add 1d3 to the multiplier for each additional result rolled.
Jury-Rig
The damage above can be jury-rigged with a Repair roll, with or without a penalty (noted in each entry above.) The jury-rig attempt takes a full round and can be made each round until successful.
A success with remove one set of penalties temporarily. If a system was hit more than once another jury-rig must be made for each additional penalty (unless it is Comm or Sensors, those are destroyed on a second hit.)
For example: Computer is hit twice for -4 total. Each jury-rig attempt would temporarily restore -2. The same works for sublight and hyperdrive engine damages if hit more than once. Each jury-rig would temporarily restore whatever dice of speed was lost in on hit.
The jury-rig will last a number of minutes equal to what the repair roll was made by. After this time the system or part will regain it's damaged state until full repaired. Roll the minutes for each jury-rig even if more than one was on the same system.
If the roll was 5 or more over the target AC or the ship is at half or less Hit Points from the attack or the total damage from all attacks including this one. Roll 1d8
1. Armor stripped! Part of the ship's armor plating is stripped away from the arc attacked, lose 1d10 from AC on that arc, takes one full day to install new armor
2. Shield generators destroyed! All remaining shields are lost, do not regenerate until generators fixed, takes one full day to install new generators
3. Computer destroyed! No nav computer to aid in Astrogation and fire-control bonus lost to all weapons, all attacks take additional -2 penalty , takes one full day to strip and replace
4. Weapons destroyed! One weapon emplacement is destroyed, any gunner(s) will take half damage from the hit, must be replaced
5. Sublight engines knocked out! Ship is adrift in space, can by jury-rigged with a -12 to Repair but takes one full day to do so, if rolled again the engines are totally destroyed and must be replaced
6. Hyperdrive critically damaged! Backup is still functional (if there is one) unless this result shows up again, takes one full day to install new
7. Widespread damge: the ship's power core is overloaded and going to blow in 2d6 rounds, destroying the ship and everyone on board, anything in the same square will take damage according to the ship's size.
8. Obliterated: the ship instantly disintegrates or explodes into a ball of fire.
Targeting the Engine or Pilot
Sometimes you want to take out a ship without blowing it to space dust. To do this you can target the ships engine or its crew and hopefully it won't explode.
A ship cannot target a ship of a small scale than it is.
Penalties:
-4 to attack the engine or structures such as a conning tower
-6 to attack a smaller structure such as a weapon emplacement or cockpit/crew
If the attack hits roll normal damage.
Once it goes through Shields and is damaging Hit Points add the following effects.
If the roll was a success but less than five over the target AC:
Engines (1d6)
1-4 Sublight Damage: Ship's Max Speed drops by 1d6, Normal Repair, reduce by 1d6 for each time this result is rolled
5-6 Hyperdrive damaged, +1d3 to ship's hyperdrive multiplier, Normal Repair, it will add 1d3 to the mutiplier for each additonal result rolled.
Cockpit: Roll 1d6
1 Comm damage: -4 to all Nav Comms checks, -4 Repair, if rolled again Comms destroyed
2-3 Computer damage: All Nav Astrogate and attack rolls at -2 penalty, Normal Repair
4-5 Sensor damage: -4 to all Nav Sensor checks, Normal Repair, if rolled again Sensors destroyed and must be replaced
6 All crew in cockpit take damage: 2d6 damage
Weapon
A single weapon (not a fire-linked group) is non-functional, -4 Repair
Jury-Rig
The above effects on equipment can be jury-rigged as with normal critical hit rules.
If the roll was 5 or more over the target AC or If the ship is at half or less Hit Points from the attack or the total damage from all attacks including this one.
Engines: Roll 1d6
1-4 Sublight engines knocked out! Ship is adrift in space, can by jury-rigged with a -12 to Repair but takes one full day to do so, if rolled again the engines are totally destroyed and must be replaced
5-6 Hyperdrive critically damaged! Backup is still functional (if there is one) unless this result shows up again, takes one full day to fix
Cockpit: Roll 1d6
1 Comm destroyed! Crew takes 1d6 damage
2-3 Computer destroyed! No nav computer to aid in Astrogation and fire-control bonus lost to all weapons, all attacks take additional -2 penalty and the crew takes 1d6 damage
4-5 Sensors destroyed! Crew takes 1d6 damage
6 All crew in cockpit take damage: 4d6 damage
Weapon
Destroyed! One weapon emplacement is destroyed, any gunner(s) will take half damage from the hit, must be replaced
Engine Wash
Flying close to a ship's sublight drives can be hazardous as they put out a lot of heat and radiation. Each round a ship is at point blank range behind another ship it takes damage based on the ship's size. Of course shields and DR will make smaller ship's wash insignificant.
Ship Size Damage
Colossal 10d6
Gargantuan 8d6
Huge 6d6
Large 4d6
Medium 3d6
Small 2d6
Tiny/Dimin./Fine 1d6
Ram Attack
Sometimes Pilot's get desperate and have no choice but ram their ship into an enemy.
This is how ramming works:
⦁ Declare the speed of the ramming ship; it must be enough to reach the target ship.
⦁ Starship combat Maneuver, Initiative, and Movement phases are followed.
⦁ On his movement the ramming ship must move in a straight line towards the target ship (an has a -2 penalty to his AC.) If there are obstacles the Pilot can make a Piloting check to avoid those in his pathway to the target.
⦁ When it enters the square the target occupies the Pilot makes an attack roll with a +2 bonus, the armor of the target ship does not count towards its AC (-10.)
⦁ If it hits a collision has occurred. If missed it continues on its flight vector until the end of it's max movement that round.
Collision Damage
Use highest speed of the two ramming ships.This gives us a damage dice.
⦁ Docking - d4
⦁ Cruising - d8
⦁ Attack - d10
⦁ Ramming - d12
Now find the damage dice based on size. The damage done to each ship will be based on the size of the ship hitting it..
⦁ Colossal- 24
⦁ Gargantuan- 20
⦁ Huge- 16
⦁ Large- 12
⦁ Medium- 10
⦁ Small- 8
⦁ Tiny- 6
⦁ Diminutive- 4
⦁ Fine- 2
⦁ Smaller- 0
Finally find the Collision Vector for a Damage Modifier
⦁ Moving toward the ramming ship- x2
⦁ Moving perpendicular-x1
⦁ Moving away- x1/2
Once the damage has been calculated apply damage to both ships,
Avoiding Obstacles
When entering the same square as an obstacle the Pilot must make a Piloting check to avoid hitting them with the ship. It is a free action to steer around or through each relevant obstacle although there are penalties.
If another ship is in the same square and there is the possibility of a collision both Pilots roll. Only if both Pilots fail is there a collision. Unless a lot of damage is rolled it is most likely just a graze with the possibility of losing control.
Use the damage from Ramming above.
If the Piloting check was failed by 10 or more see below.
Failed Pilot Check by 10 or More
If the Pilot is trying to avoid and obstacle or perform some other maneuver which requires a check (except for opposed Piloting checks) there is the possibility of losing control of the ship. This could lead the ship into slamming into another obstacle or ship (if the second ship blows his Piloting check to avoid the out of control ship) and causing damage.
If a Piloting check is failed by 10 or more, and the GM believes the ship is in peril from it, the Pilot must make the check again with the same penalties or bonuses. If successful the maneuver is sitll a failure but the Pilot retains control of the ship. If the second check fails the Pilot must roll on the Loss of Control Table below. Along with the loss of control it also shows the penalties to all checks made within the ship and the penalty to it's Armor Class while out of control.
⦁ Skew: The ship skews to one side moving slightly sideways along the same vector and same speed.
⦁ Pitch: The ship's nose moves up and down at random and continues along the same direction and speed but at each round of movement the Pilot must roll a dice: even and the ship is flying upwards, odd and the ship is moving at a downward dive. If flying near a gravity well or object this can be bad news.
⦁ Yaw: The ship continues on its last vector and speed. Roll a dice. even and the ship moves left 45 degrees. Odd it turns right 45 degrees. It will continue to rotate in this direction until brought under control.
⦁ Spin: The ship continues on its last vector and speed but is rapidly spinning. Roll a 1d8 for direction each round to find it's facing. 1: front, 2: front left, 3: left, 4: rear left, 5: rear, 6: rear right, 7: right, 8: front.
⦁ Tumble: The ship it completely out of control doing all of the above and moving in the same direction and speed. Roll for Spin and or Pitch.
To regain control the Pilot must roll a Piloting check with the check penalty from above. He can attempt this as a full round action each round.
REPAIRS
System Repairs
Most system repair times are given in the critical hit section. They generally take an hour or so for a system repair up to a day or longer for replacing critical systems.
At the end of a given work time a Repair roll is made. If multiple workers are used they each add a +2 bonus to the main mechanics roll, up to a maximum of +8. IF the roll is made the repair is complete. If it fails they must take 2d12 to work on it and try again.
To Repair Ship Hit Points
At the end of one hour roll a Repair check. The main mechanic can be aided by up to four others for a bonus of +8 to his Repair. If successful a number of Hit Points equal to what the check was made by are regained.
Ships that are below 0 hit points add the negative number as a penalty to the Repair roll.
No ship can be repaired once it is -10 hit points or less.
I will be posting actual ship stats next.
In later posts I might complicate things a bit by translating other complicated maneuvers to my simple bonuses and penalties.
Bonus:
X-Wing
(Tiny)
Ac- 22
Hp- 120/ Dr 10
Shields- 30/ Dr 10
Move- 10 space/ 18 atmo., 1050 kmph
Maneuver- +2 size
Initiative- +2 size
Crew- 1
Passengers- none
Hyperdrive- x1
Backup- none
Cargo- 110kg
Cost- 150K, 65K used
Weapons-
4 fire-linked Laser Cannons
6d10x2, +8 hit (+ 2 size, +6 fire control), front arc
2 Proton Torp. Launchers (not linked)
9d10x2, +10 (ordinary), front arc, 3 torpedoes each
YT-1300
(Small)
Ac- 21
Hp- 120/ Dr 20
Shields- none
Move- 8 space/ 13 atmo., 800 kmph
Maneuver- +1 size
Initiative- +1 size Crew- 1 to 2
Passengers- 6
Hyperdrive- x2
Backup- x12
Cargo- 100 tons
Cost- 100K, 25K used
Weapons-
Laser Cannon
4d10x2, +5 hit (+ 1 size, +4 fire control), turret arc
TIE Fighter
(Diminutive)
Ac- 24
Hp- 60/ Dr 10
Shields- none
Move- 10 space/ 20 atmo., 1200 kmph
Maneuver- +4 size
Initiative- +4 size Crew- 1
Passengers- 0
Hyperdrive- none
Backup- none
Cargo- 65kg
Cost- 60K/ 25K used
Weapons-
2 fire-linked Laser Cannons
5d10x2, +8 hit (+ 4 size, +4 fire control), front arc
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