*Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 20:55:02 +0100 *From: Jesper Rathsach *Subject: Starship Combat v.2.0 I posted the v1.0 rules the other day on the list, before I had a chance to playtest them. Well now I have tried them and found a couple of things that didn't work as I had planned. The major flaw was the damage thing, in the first edition of these rules it was meant to use WEG's normal damage calcu- lation. That didn't work, so I made up a kind of hitpoint system. I also got some requests on the "How to build the models" section that I didn't include in the first posting, so these are included this time. The main changes have been put under a new "Damage" section. INTRODUCTION: These are some rules for conducting starship battles in Star Wars - The Roleplaying game. The rules are made for two-dimensions, but using the rules described in "Star Wars - The Roleplaying Game Rulebook" page 97-98. SCALES: To make this work you can't have 1600 meters long models of Star Destroyers, so you'll have to make some sort of scale. A Star Destroyer is pretty damn large and scary, and it still is with this scale. All you have to do, is take the "length" number, 1600 with STD's, and divide it with twenty. 1600/20 gives 80, then the model should be 80 centimeters long (1 Inch = 2,5cm ). Now the quick-minded would say that a starfighter would become very very very small, true enough. A X-Wing would become 0,625 cm long, and a Tie- fighter would become 0,315 cm long. So to make it easy, all starfighters should be 1*1(*1) cm. Here are some of the most popular ships, made into miniatures: Any Starfighter: 1 cm Star Destroyer: 80 cm Mon Calamari MC80 Star Cruiser: 60 cm Corellian Corvette: 7,5 cm Nebulon-B Frigate: 15 cm Corellian YT-1300: 1,5 Rendili Lictorclass Dungeon ship: 38,2 cm World Devestator "Silencer-7": 160 cm long, 75 cm tall. And the really biggies: Sovereign class Star Destroyer: 750 cm Eclipse class Star Destroyer: 875 cm As you might notice the scale is inadaquate for the really large ships. It's not very easy making a model that's 8,75 meters long, but then again how many times does your characters run into such ships as "The Eclipse". And if they did, it probably wouldn't be necessary to set up a battle with miniatures, as your characters wouldn't be able to live very long against "The Eclipse". THE FIGHT: The fight makes use of all the roleplaying skills you normally use in a battle. The player(s) control the different ships and fighter wings, using their respektive commanders. Fx: If you have Rougue group in your battle you would use Wedge Antillies "Command" and "Tactics" skill to issue commands. While a Mon Calamari starcruiser uses its commander for issuing orders. Failed rolls result in what ever would happen, with that specific skill. Moving the ships is very easy, you just take the repektive ship's space move and that's the number of centimeters you can move your ship per action. Remember that making a turn counts as an action. WEAPONS: First of all, remember your fire arcs and command rolls. Weapon ranges are easy to figure out, just take the space range and that's the number of centimeters the weapon can shoot. It could be a good idea to make small markers for marking ships with things like: "Ionized", "-1D maneuverability" and "-1 moves allowed per round" DAMAGE: In the first edition of these rules It was meant to use WEG's normal damage calculation, this didn't work out as I had thought, so I made this hitpoint system based on my experience with "Tie Fighter". Using WEG's damage system and the combined action bonus rules, I succeeded in PULVERIZING a ISTD using TWO! Corvettes (no fighters were used in that test game). This hitpoint system is much better and demands the player to be more strategic in his game, which I think is good. Well enough talk, let me get to the actual rules. The system uses two kinds of hitpoints, they are: HULL and SYSTEM. Each value is calculated like this: HULL hitpoints: (Hull code + Shield code) * 100 SYSTEM hitpoints: (Hull code * 100) + (Space move * 10) +1 counts as 10 HP and +2 counts as 20 HP So an Imperial STD II would have the following values: HULL hitpoints: 930 ((7D+1 + 2D+2) * 100)) SYSTEM hitpoints: 770 ((7D+1 * 100) + (6 * 10)) Hope that wasn't too complicated... Now everybody screams about shield arcs, well forget about shield arcs. The shields are counted as always being on, and fully on all sides. No more splitting up shield dice. So a ISTD II ALWAYS start with 930 HULL hp on ALL arcs, OK. To damage a ship you roll your normal damage dice and add them together. Say your laser does 5D dam you roll and get a 5,4,3,2,2=16, so you do 16 hp worth of damage. You still use the scale rules as described in the rulebook to calculate damage. When a ship's HULL hp reaches 10% of its starting value the ships has suffered so much structural damage that the ship is unable to do anything, and is beyond repair. This gives the crew a warning signal as to when to hit the escape pods. When a ship reaches 0 HULL hp it blows up, any ship that has less than 10% of its starting HULL hp at the end of the battle is counted as destroyed. You can disable a ship using the SYSTEM hp's. When a ship is hit by ION cannons the damage is substracted from the SYSTEM hp instead of the HULL hp. When a ship reaches 0 SYSTEM hp it is disabled, and ready to be taken over by your troops. If your wondering that it might take a lot of time to destroy a ship with 900 hp doing only 16 hp of damage per shot. Well try combining your gunners actions and suddenly you do a whole lot more damage, just try it and see. WHAT YOU NEED: To set up your battle you need the following: A large flat surface (A table tennis board is fine for most battles, a dinner table is often too small), models of the ships in the battle (see "How to make the models"), a big ruler, and "Star Wars - The Roleplaying Game". It's a good idea to write down some crucial of the shipdata on the models, if the model is not too detailed. This makes gameplay a lot faster, unless you have memorized all the data for the ships. For some hints on how to make the models E-Mail me privately. HOW TO MAKE THE MODELS There are many ways to build your models, you might want to make some models more detailed than others, feel free to do so. Here are some ways to make your models. Quick: All models are represented by a piece of paper, in the right size. A Corellian Corvette would be a piece of paper that's 7,5*3 cm. All Starfighters are simply pieces of paper 1*1 cm. Normal: Like quick, but you cut the models in the right shape, maybe drawing some detail on the models like sensor-dishes and turbolasers. Good: This is the way your models should be made, if they should last longer than the "Normal" models. All models are cut from pieces of hard cardboard, the thicker the better (to a certain degree). Then made with the same level of detail as "Normal" Detailed: Models in 3D, made of wood or other materials. Painted with real model paint. These models takes hours/days/months/years to make and perfect. These models lasts a lifetime, and are really fun to make. And who knows, someone might even pay money for your model. This amount of detail should only be implemented to one or two models. Starfighters shouldn't have more than "Quick" detail, and a letter marking the type, like a X for X-wing and TI for Tie Interceptor. This is because of the large number of starfighters used in most adventures. Try cutting 72 Ties from hard cardboard and you know why this is a good idea. I think that's it, what do you think? Any questions? -- Jesper "Ackbar" Rathsach Visit my homepage at: Http://www.geocities.com/area51/8166/index.htm Mail me at:Rathsach@vip.cybercity.dk ---------------------------------------------- [:::::::(====================================> ______________________________________________ "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" My a.k.a's: Ackbar, Darklord, Executer and Raven