Thursday, August 24, 2017

Simple Sci-Fi Ship-to-Ship Combat


As I mentioned yesterday, I am in the midst of type-setting my SF + SWL Mash-Up and I am not sure I will have enough room for Ship-to-Ship combat (since that isn't a primary focus of the game). I did, however, come up with a simple (if extremely abstract) combat system and I want to at least post on the blog. Please note: I am operating under the assumption that space ships are extremely valuable, so combat between ship is designed to disable and board, not destroy a ship.
At the beginning of each round of combat, both sides choose to either Engage or Evade.
  • If both Evade, the combat is over and both sides escape.
  • When one Evades and the other Engages: if both sides succeed or fail with their roll, combat continues; if Evasion succeeds and Engagement fails, the combat is over, the Evaders escape; if Engagement succeeds and Evasion fails roll d6 for damage (see below)
  • If both Engage, on any success, roll a d6 for damage:
  1. Outmaneuvered! Attacker may successfully Evade or add +2 to next roll.
  2. Minor Damage! Target ship is at -1 on all rolls until fixed.
  3. Dangerous Leak! All crew members of target ship are at -2 until the leak is fixed.
  4. Shields Down! Target ship is at -2 on all rolls until fixed.
  5. Prepare to be boarded! Target ship’s Engine is dead until fixed and attacking crew may board.
  6. Crash Landing! Target ship is near totaled and stranded on nearest planet/large space object.
As you can see, there are only three real possibilities with this system: escape, the ship is boarded or the ship crash-lands. Thus, regardless of which of these three events occur, the situation the players find their characters in can be affected by their choices and actions. If a TPK occurs, it doesn't happen because one player made a bad roll and the ship gets destroyed with everybody on it.

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