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Starship Combat Preview
Starship Combat: Relative Abstraction This section presents rules for combat between starships (starfighters, space transports, and capital ships). The ultimate goal of any starship combat scenario in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game should be to create an exciting, fast-paced scene in which the heroes feel their skills and aptitudes have an impact on the outcome of the battle. To this end, the game uses an abstracted system for starship combat. The relative positions of ships are not plotted on a grid or hex map, but on specially designed starship combat templates. This system of relative abstraction allows starships of dramatically different sizes and scales to coexist in combat scenarios. As a result, the system doesn’t use hard-and-fast numbers for ranges, velocities, and so forth. Instead, it uses relative terms to describe the starships’ ranges from one another, speeds, and maneuvers. The Starship Combat Template The starship combat template can be found below. You should photocopy this diagram for use in your starship combat scenes. The template is designed to show the relative positions of all starships engaged in combat. Your ship is always at the center of the range rings. Use miniatures, counters, or tokens to mark the relative starting positions of all other starships (both their range from you and what arc of fire they’re in) in the combat. As it progresses, adjust the positions of these counters to reflect the actions of the starships in the combat. The "Pursued/Pursuing" line is used when you are engaged in a direct pursuit of another starship. Starship Combat Actions As with character-to-character combat, you can take both a move action (more properly called a "maneuver") and an attack action in each round of starship combat. Instead of taking an attack action, you may take a second move action if you choose. Just as in melee combat, you can "fight defensively" while piloting a starship (which grants a +2 dodge bonus to the ship’s Defense and applies a –4 penalty on attack rolls), or select "all-out defense" (which grants a +4 dodge bonus to Defense, but does not allow you to attack). These modifiers last until your next action. If you have 6 or more ranks of Pilot and the appropriate feat (Starfighter Pilot or Capital Ship Pilot), the dodge bonuses increase to +3 for fighting defensively and +6 for all-out defense. Maneuvering A pilot may make one maneuver per round, or two if he chooses not to attack. (Of course, if the pilot and gunner are two different people, the ship could make two maneuvers and attack without difficulty.) Rather than categorize starship maneuvers into turns, rolls, and loops, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game uses an abstract combat system that measures position and range relative to other vehicles in combat.
Turn: This maneuver turns your ship 90 degrees to the right (clockwise) or left (counter-clockwise). To simulate this effect, move all the ships on your template one fire arc in the opposite direction. Thus, if you turned left (counter-clockwise), you would move all the ships on your template one fire arc to the right (clockwise). If you are being pursued (with the establish pursuit maneuver), this will not break pursuit—the pursuing vessel remains on the "Pursuer" line of the template. Reverse Direction: This maneuver turns your ship in the opposite of the direction you were facing. To simulate this, move all the ships on your template 2 arcs clockwise. If you are being pursued (with the establish pursuit maneuver), this will not break pursuit—the pursuing vessel remains on the "Pursuer" line of the template. Increase Range: This maneuver increases the range category between the two ships by one, or by two if you’re at ramming speed. (If the other pilot isn’t attempting to stay close, the check automatically succeeds.) The faster-moving starship gains +5 to the Pilot check. If the check succeeds, the controller of each ship moves the other vessel to the next highest range ring (from short to medium, for example). If a starship at sensor range succeeds in this maneuver, it has broken off combat and escaped. Decrease Range: This maneuver reduces the range category between the two ships by one, or by two if you’re at ramming speed. (If the other pilot isn’t attempting to keep his distance, the check automatically succeeds.) The faster-moving starship gains +5 to the Pilot check. If the check succeeds, the controller of each ship moves the other vessel to the next lowest range ring (from short to point blank, for example). If the pilot is at short range and decreases range while moving at ramming speed, he may attempt the Ram Target maneuver as a free action. Change Speed: This maneuver accelerates or decelerates the starship. A starship can’t accelerate or decelerate more than three speed categories in a single maneuver. Establish Pursuit: To establish position behind your target, you must match speeds with the target and then make an opposed Pilot check. The target gains a +5 bonus on his check if he is aware of your attempt. Once position has been established, the pursuer ignores all speed modifiers to the pursued ship’s Defense. The controller of the pursued ship should move the token representing the pursuing ship onto the "Pursuer" line of the starship combat template, while the controller of the pursuing ship should move the token for the pursued ship onto the "Pursuing" line. A starfighter or space transport must be at point blank range from his target to establish pursuit, while a capital ship can be no farther than short range from its target. In either case, the target must be in the front arc of the ship that is attempting to establish pursuit. Break Pursuit: To shake a pursuer, make an opposed Pilot check. The pursuer gains a +5 bonus on his check. If the pursued ship wins, he breaks the pursuit; move both ships off the "Pursuer/Pursuing" line. If the pursuer and pursued are traveling at different speeds, add +5 to the pursued pilot’s skill check for every category of difference between the two. Regain Control: This maneuver is required when the pilot has lost control of the starship (see Failed Maneuvers, below). Note that any penalties that apply for the loss of control apply to this check. Avoid Hazard: This represents a pilot’s attempt to avoid a hazardous object or area in his path, such as an asteroid. The base DC 10 is used when the object’s size is within one category of the starship’s. For each additional size category of difference after the first, add +5 to the DC. (Of course, extremely large vehicles often won’t bother to avoid very small obstacles, counting on their thick hull to prevent _serious damage.) Join/Rejoin Wing: This maneuver is required when the pilot wishes to join (or rejoin) a starfighter wing (detailed below). The pilot must be at point blank range from the wing to be joined and must match the wing’s speed. Resist/Escape Tractor Beam: The pilot of a vessel hit by a tractor beam can attempt to resist or escape the beam’s hold by making a Pilot check. The base DC to resist is 10, while the DC to escape is 20. Add +4 to this DC for every category of size difference between the captured vessel and the vessel firing the tractor beam (or subtract 4 from the DC if the capturing vessel is smaller). If the pilot rolls high enough to resist the tractor beam, he maintains his current distance. If he rolls high enough to escape, his ship may act normally. Ram Target: This maneuver can only be attempted at point blank range. Disregard the target’s armor bonus to Defense when determining success. X-Wing Fighter Often hailed as the best starfighter ever made, the T-65 was actually developed in secret when the Incom Corporation began to support the Rebel Alliance. With impressive firepower, sturdy shields, and even a hyperdrive, the X-wing is as agile as an Imperial TIE fighter and far more versatile. It comes equipped with a topside astromech bay, letting the pilot plug in an R2 droid to handle targeting, damage control, and hyperspace calculation. Craft: Incom T-65B X-wing; Class: Starfighter; Cost: 150,000; Size: Tiny (12.5 m long); Crew: 1 (Skilled +4); Passengers: 0; Cargo Capacity: 110 kg; Consumables: 1 week; Hyperdrive: x1; Maximum Speed: Ramming; Defense: 22 (+2 size, +10 armor); Shield Points: 30; Hull Points: 120; DR: 5. Weapon: Laser cannons (4 fire-linked); Fire Arc: Front; Attack Bonus: +12 (+2 size, +4 crew, +6 fire control); Damage: 6d10 ?2; Range Modifiers: PB +0, S +0, M/L n/a. Weapon: Two proton torpedo launchers (3 torpedoes each); Fire Arc: Front; Attack Bonus: +10 (+2 size, +4 crew, +4 fire control); Damage: 9d10?2; Range Modifiers: PB +0, S/M/L n/a. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One of the best-loved features of the Star Wars saga is the
visually stunning space battles, replete with fantastic ships of all sizes and
descriptions, darting and zipping through space. Although the design team for the Star
Wars Roleplaying Game wanted to include these cosmic dogfights in the game system, it
was beyond the scope (not to mention the page count) of the core rulebook to provide a
comprehensive, rules-intensive space battle simulation. What we needed was something that
felt like the movies but didn’t bog down in a lot of tactical maneuvering and complex
calculations. What we came up with was the simple, abstract system you see below.
