Starship Maneuvers

[Blue Glowie]

I'm curious--has anybody used the Starship Maneuvers in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook? And how has that worked out?

Historically, space combat has always lagged for me, in both D6 and D20 Star Wars. It's hard to get everyone involved, and it often devolves into a boring ground combat in spaceships. But as much as I disliked Saga Edition, it seemed to have something going for it with its starship maneuvers feat. So I decided to convert those powers for D6 (and add some new ones), as well as tweak what was going on in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook. I have no idea if this will play well, so feedback and suggestions are encouraged.

Dogfight Maneuvers (Altered Rebel Alliance Sourcebook maneuvers)
These are made with opposed rolls against an enemy ship, and can be used once a round, along with other actions. They count as an action for the person initiating them. They must be performed at High Speed or All Out Movement. For simplicity "Defense" is the Dodge or Range difficulty, whichever is relevant.

Break – Cause attacker to overshoot and lose position as the defending ship breaks hard to the side.
Modifier: Defender -5
Success: Defender gets +5 Defense for this and next round.

Scissors – Series of sharp turns in an attempt to get the attacker out in front of the defender.
Modifier: Defender -8
Success: Defender becomes attacker, but -5 to attack roll.

Jinking – Random turns, slips, and dives to make a shot harder and prevent target lock.
Modifier: Defender -5
Success: Defender gets +5 to Defense and +1D Maneuverability for rest of round.

Reverse Throttle Hop – Retaining advantage when the defender breaks
Modifier: Attacker -8
Success: Attacker keeps up with defender, and gets +5 to attack roll next round.

Tallon Roll – Roll the ship to keep advantage when defender break.
Modifier: Attacker -10
Success: Attacker keeps up with defender, and makes a free attack.

Target Lock – Attacker lines up defender in sights in front firing arc.
Modifier: Attacker -5
Success: Attacker gets +10 to attack roll.

Trap – (Requires two ships) One defender breaks and leads the attacker into an ally’s sights.
Modifier: Defender -5
Success: Second defender attack is +5

Under Split – (Requires two ships) As ships close in head on, lead attacker acts as a decoy, as the second attacker crosses under and behind to pull up for a shot.
Modifier: Second Attacker -10
Success: Second attacker’s attack +5 and +1D damage

Advanced Maneuvers
For every 1D in a Piloting skill or Gunnery (whichever is highest) you get to choose one of the following abilities to add to your repertoire. You can use them once per adventure. You must roll a Moderate (11) check to activate them, unless they say otherwise. Attack Patterns take a turn to activate and last for the rest of combat until deactivated.

Ackbar Slash – When an attack misses you, redirect it to a nearby (within short range) opponent, who can also Dodge. Difficult Piloting roll: The opponent can’t Dodge.

Afterburn – You can make an All-Out movement as a free action and gain +2D Maneuver on all Pilot Checks for the round.

Angle Deflector Shields [attack pattern] – Your shields are considered doubled against a single target, and halved against other opponents.

Attack Formation Zeta Nine [attack pattern] – You get -1D to your damage and +1D to your Shields

Attack Pattern Delta [attack pattern] – You get +1D Maneuverability when close to an allied ship.

Corellian Slip – Make a full move through an opponent and risk collision by adding +2D to attack and damage

Darklighter Spin – Attack multiple targets with one less MAP. Difficult roll: two less MAP.

Howlrunner Formation [attack pattern]- You get +1D to attack when adjacent to an allied ship.

I Can’t Shake Him – You get +3D to Piloting when executing Dogfight Maneuvers for the round.

Intercept – Instantly gain favorable position behind an enemy ship. Moderate: within short-range. Difficult: within medium range. Very Difficult: within long range.

Overwhelming Assault [attack pattern]- Against a single target in combat, you get -1D to your attack and +1D to damage.

Skywalker Loop – If an enemy starfighter failed an opposed Dogfight Maneuver that they initiated, you may make an attack.

Snap Roll – Reroll a Starship Dodge.

Strike Formation [attack pattern]- You get +1D to damage and -1D to Maneuverability.


Devastating Hit – Exceed Defense by 0-3, receive +1D damage. Exceed Defense by 4-9, receive +2D damage. Exceed Defense by 10 or more, receive +3D damage

Engine Hit – Increase a hit one level higher on the Damage Chart, except Destroyed.

Explosive Shot – Destroyed ship explodes violently harming nearby (within short range) ships. Exceed Defense by 0-3: Ship takes 4D; Exceed Defense by 4-9: Ship takes 5D; Exceed Defense by 10+: Ship takes 6D

Shield Hit – Bypass shields and hit the Hull directly.

Thruster Hit – Exceed Defense by 0-3: Ship is -1D to Maneuverability, -1 Move; Exceed Defense by 4-9: Ship is -1D to Maneuverability, Initiative, -1 Move; Exceed Defense by 10+: Ship is -2D to Maneuverability, Initiative, -2 Move

Target Sense – (Force-Sensitive) You can use your Sense dice as a bonus to your attack roll for a round.

Jury Rig – Essentially a medpac in space. Roll the appropriate Repair skill to fix the ship.

Reroute Power – Roll Repair to negate the penalties of damage effects.

Recharge Shields – Roll Shields to regenerate the ship’s shields.

[Bren]

[garhkal]

Yup. Most if not al space combats i have been in as a player were just adlibbing the results. BUT i do like what you have wrote out.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[atgxtg]

I haven&t used them, but I might just try the stuff you rote here.

hat I normally do is to give them a basic difficulty y to pilot, and any fancy maneuvering ups the difficulty. A 45 degree turn is :5, 90 degree :10, and so on. Moving at high speed ups the difficulty by 5, going a half speed reduces it by 5. It seems to rok fairly well.

Im hoping to get my group familar enough to use STAR WARRIORS, but every time I think they are ready something comes up that makes me put it on the back burner.

[Fallon Kell]

[TheDoctor]

[CRMcNeill]

[vanir]

This kind of thing I really like in our games, which heavily involve starship combat of all kinds. Like some mention I am wary of stalling the action sequences with too much tablature and circumstantial adjustments however.

I take a flight simulator approach which has worked very well.
I try to create a player experience of placing them in the cockpit and equally concerned with the ships systems that he/she is with what is going on outside the cockpit, which is just like the real thing since the days of biplanes.

As an added bonus the more technologically advanced warbirds have become, the more automated many of their basic functions. Once upon a time fighter pilots had to adjust mixture, prop pitch, throttle settings, supercharger gears and think about energy management in the midst of manouevres and the changing combat environment (altitudes, airspeed, etc.) all whilst avoiding things like target fixation and poor situational awareness at all costs (it is always the guy you never saw which kills you). And you're not going to be altogether too aware of the mechanical condition you're putting the aircraft through during all this unless someone gives you enough pause to check some guages, mostly you're worried about things like why your wings are making a cracking sound after that last loop.

Our real world jet fighters like the F-15 actually simplify much of this with electronic engine management and other onboard flight computers, adding the complication of sensor systems, ECM and guided weapons.

Starfighters are much like this but even more advanced, hence these mundane aspects of governing flight control are even more simplified. Great for RPG players.

What I still do is use modern warbird avionics and piloting guidelines to some degree however to give that gritty real world suspension of disbelief where the player is keenly aware that his character is inside a fallable piece of technology up against another guy in his, and there's a lot more to it than superior piloting/shooting rolls.

Here are some house rules for example:

Just for sizing, you're going to have trouble visually identifying a starfighter sized vessel from about 2-5 spaces (friendly fire anyone). From about 10-15 spaces you're only going to see a tiny, fast moving speck, if you look for it. And many starship cockpits aren't exactly set up for visual "out of the pit" combat but designed to rely upon sensors and other installed equipment.
Keep in mind many military warships aren't exactly painted so as to be highly reflective, even lightly coloured ones are often matt finished and markings are for close visual identification purposes among friendlies.
Brightly finished starfighters are usually interceptors not designed for deep penetrations of an enemy stellar space. And even these can be easily lost to the naked eye without a dedicated a Search skill roll outside of about 12 spaces, which under realistic conditions aint easy either, blink and you'll miss it.

So firstly you need a Sensors roll when entering the combat zone. Here is an interesting point, it is entirely possible for one party to "paint" another with their Passive Sensors before being detected themselves, in which case automatic initiative and surprise (free attack at base difficulties) is attained. GMs will have to carefully adjudicate these instances using grid maps and counters for the combat area.
Using active Sensors of course alerts others in the vicinity that you are around and a general direction, so you may gain automatic initiative if they don't know specifically where you are but they still get to manoeuvre and use shields when their weapons fire alarm starts blaring on one particular fire arc (these respond to being "locked" by a fire control system).

It also outlines the general measure that pilots in enemy territory spend most of their time scanning the area, as failure to do so leads to a quick death. Additionally it punctuates the benefits of owning a more expensive starfighter with better Sensor capabilities or crew coordination (including droid copilots) than the next guy. For cheaply mass produced starfighers (like TIE fighters) it explains the need for specialised scout versions among patrol and picket formations.
It finally outlines the Starfighter Pilot's primary need of skills in Starship Gunnery, Starfighter Piloting, Starship Shields and Sensors. This is a quite specialised career, plain and simple, you'll be lucky to get some decent Blaster and Dodge skill in addition if you're going to be a Starfighter Ace.

A Sensors Search roll is good for a high speed assault mission where you can dictate the fire-arc upon which enemy starfighters are most likely going to reside, generally the front but you'll probably want wingmen to Search Sensors to the sides and you could be in trouble against high speed TIE fighters that can quickly wind up on your tail. Coordinate your Sensors Search patterns if you're doing this type of mission or you won't live long in one of my modules. TIE fighters don't last long individually in one on one combat so believe you me I make every possible use as a GM to ensure that every role-playing benefit is enjoyed by your enemies, do not, I mean never underestimate the reasons why the Imperial Fleet dominated the entire galaxy for several years.

When "bounced" by enemy fighters however a scan roll is smart so you know just what you've gotten yourself into.
If performing a deep penetration you'll probably want to rely upon Passive Sensors so as not to give your position away and you'll probably be using half-moves anyway, creeping up for a sudden attack and then run away at full speed.

If you fail the Sensors roll you lose Fire Control and operate Starship Gunnery on your base skill die.
The reasoning is simple, if your starship avionics can't lock up an enemy starfighter, it can't direct fire control accurately upon them and you have to do it yourself, without the benefit of on board computers.

It's a bit like Luke not using his targeting computer on the Proton Torpedo shot that blew up the Death Star. He used a Force Point instead, with his base Starship Gunnery skill hence doubled and without fire control added, the way that particular weapon system works it is one or the other and not both. I enforce this rule generally if you want to use a Force Point in mechanised combat like Starship weapons systems, either you use the targeting computer or you use the Force, not both and yes, at lower skill die this means it is often smarter to use character points than it is to use a Force Point. That is as it should be.

Once you have "painted" any particular enemy starfighters with your Sensors operation however, they remain locked unless they flee beyond your maximum Sensor range in the Search function. This is automatic. There is also no real limit on how many enemy starfighters maybe tracked or targeted by your on board computers, subject to your skills in using them.

There are many other elements, I could write about this forever. You get the general idea.
Hopefully somewhat of use. Not everybody is going to do things the way I do, but our player group seems to enjoy it since my primary function is to keep the action moving.

[garhkal]

I like that.. Somewhat simple to implement.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

[vanir]

I'm stretching my memory on some things, but for manoeuvrability and flight dynamics again I reference an aircraft I'm quite familiar with like a Flanker and nice little X-Wing blueprints that were published in the first Sourcebook I think, because it labels stuff like the shield units and other systems that I can then ascribe game purposes to.

Manoeuvrability is inherent to the vessel, but FBW allows unstable layouts to be controlled by human hands, it's really a control-interpretator but in some aircraft like the Fulcrum it's designed to actually be switched off so that you can exceed the safety protocols for high-alpha manoeuvres in extreme emergencies. You can come around on an Eagle at medium altitude in a Fulcrum in the blink of an eye for example, where in thick air the firmer structure of an Eagle easily surpasses the manoeuvre capabilities of the Fulcrum. You can use this trick even at low alt against things like a Viper, switch off the control system and use high off boresight Archer missiles to get shots and manoeuvres that seem impossible, the Germans in dissimilar flight training exchange programs turned this into a fine art in the 90s and really trumped US pilots in close combat scenarios.
This works very much like the FP with inherent manoeuvre added, in the case of the Fulcrum it is already a stable design and the control system is just used for smoother interpretation and safeties (built in limiters).
I found generally soviet tech/doctrine seems to adapt very well to SW.

So I might rule that you have to switch off the control system and dampeners for a FP with manoeuvre added but if you're using the high die roll to do something too silly it might have some repurcussions, like cracking the ship through an extreme maneouvre and damaging it, although for that round you use the FP you will be a sight to behold, and you could get away with doing it a couple of times before having to retire from combat...then probably scrap the ship upon landing

This happened with the German Fulcrums too, they found after a few years of matching them up against US warbirds they all started cracking around the base of the fins.
Also back in the 70s the Foxbats used to do this with extreme high speed runs, as high as 3.2 Mach was recorded by Israeli ground stations in one instance (they're safety limited to 2.83 Mach normally), but when he landed the engines had to be scrapped.

Same thing with the Eagle actually, or similar. It's speed limited to 1.78 Mach by the engine management system but has an override in the cockpit for exceeding 2.5 Mach, but you have to do a full tear down maintenance on the engines upon landing if you use it, these safety overrides are really single shot use for extreme emergencies under wartime conditions...or record attempts for propaganda purposes in which case the aircraft will be specially prepared for the sortie which will be performed under controlled conditions.

[vanir]

Hey I was thinking actually, I'm in the process of finishing a revised ruleset for starship combat in our new gaming group, so in case anybody is interested where can I link an upload to so browsers could download the packed Word file?

Should I just start a new thread here and linky?

I've already finished an arcane items expansion, I could upload that now (advanced lightsabre construction, some general guidelines and basic tables on Word, ancient weapons and other Force artefacts).

[Bren]

I think you should start a new thread and include the link.