Psi-Wars Space Battles Lite

 I've had a lot of complaints recently that my Action Vehicular Combat is "too complicated."  It "involves unfamiliar maneuvers" (that are right there, in GURPS Action) and "really big numbers."  I don't know what to say.  If you can handle applying a -10 Deceptive Attack Penalty to the Vitals (-3) in the dim torchlight (-2) while making an All-Out Attack (+4) and then apply 1.5x damage on a hit, I'm pretty sure you can handle rolling against  Piloting with a +20 bonus and determining the margin of victory.  This is GURPS, we deal with big numbers all of the time.  This isn't White Wolf, where you can count on your fingers.

"I can do the math; I'm an engineer. I just don't want to.  I'm here to play, not to work." 

--Nele van den Ende, PHD

Alright! Alright. I get it.  I see these complaints a lot, and they mean something.  The criticism of my action vehicular system is not that it's wrong, or that it's inaccurate, or that it doesn't scale.  It hits all of those notes just fine.  The complaint is that it's too much work to implement.  Yes, it's simpler than standard GURPS combat.  Yes, it's simpler and more cinematic than GURPS Spaceships combat, itself a simplification of standard GURPS combat. But it still involves quite some work and some experience to learn. Can it get any simpler than that? Sure! Of course. I mean, we're a long way off from GURPS Ultra-Lite, so I'm pretty sure there's plenty room in which we can put something that's simpler, but still tactically interesting.

But what do we mean by "simpler."  We probably don't want "whooshing sounds with crayons." I mean, if you want really simple, just have people roll Pilot and then make up what happens.  What's wrong with that idea? Well, it makes the Fighter Ace effectively pointless ("Did we defeat the Empire and save the carrier?" "Well, I rolled well, so yes.").  So we still want some complexity here, but then, how much complexity is too complex? Well, we have some fairly specific criticisms we can parse through, and my own gut feelings.

I think what people who are complaining about this want are:

• Familiar maneuvers: GURPS Action's Chase rules are fine, but you have to, you know, learn them.
• Finger-Counting: It sounds condescending, but it's true: humans are very intuitive with values ~5, which is why we often see modifiers that tend to be in the plus or minus 1 to 5 range.  Even if we have to do a lot of adding, it's easier to add 5 + 5 + 5 than it is to workout the margin of success from a roll of 13 vs a total of skill 17 with +19 in modifiers.
• Roll and Shout: While "Just roll Piloting and narrate the results" is probably too simple for what we're looking for, most people do just want to roll their skill with some "finger-counting" modifiers and then get a result out of it.  As much as possible, we should be rolling against familiar skills and familiar values. That is, we shouldn't be rolling against a -1 or a 50, if possible, but somewhere between 3 and 18.

What do we actually need?

Okay, let's break down what Psi-Wars Space Combat needs.  First, let's focus exclusively on space combat, and for this discussion, I'm going to focus entirely on what I've built.  This isn't designed to help anyone who is hypothetically creating their own GURPS Ultra-Tech Space Opera from scratch, though by all means, follow my logic, but don't expect that what I come up with will translate directly to whatever assumptions you're making, unless what you're doing is close enough to Psi-Wars that you can easily reverse engineer what I'm doing.  So that's the first thing we need: a bounded context.

All forms of vehicular combat also need to know how quickly your vehicles are moving, to see if you're catching your target, or losing them.  You also need your Driving or Piloting skill, to try fancy tricks or to take care of things; handling makes a nice modifier to that, as it will determine "how good" your vehicle is.  You'll probably need Gunner, if you want to shoot any guns associated with your vehicle, and the accuracy of your weapons.  You'll also want to know how much of a beating your vehicle can take.

Psi-Wars also has some handy assumptions we can work with: we have fast, highly maneuverable fighters (based on jet fighters), slower and less maneuverable corvettes (largely based on propeller aircraft or very fast motorboats) and essentially static capital ships; they can move in relation to one another, but they're not really fast enough to move in relation to fighters or corvettes (though corvettes get into a bit of a grey area).

Finally, we have range bands from GURPS Action; these aren't "default GURPS," but they're used in lots of places (Action, After the End, Monster Hunters, etc), so I suspect people will be familiar with them, and I'm working on the assumption we're going with something abstract here, rather than tactical, which is another kettle of fish.

Move

So what actually matters in a chase? Well, can you catch your opponent?  And how do we determine that? Well, it's just your Move.  If two people are running, the faster one will catch the slower one.  We could remove a roll entirely from our vehicular action rules and say: if you are faster than your opponent, you automatically win a chase roll, all things behind equal, and you may close or increase range by one band.  With capital ships, we'll go one further and say they count as static for the purposes of faster ships, which increases the range the other gets on you by 1.  So if you're faster, you get one range shift, and if your target is stopped, you get two range shifts; this applies to fighters or corvettes chasing capital ships (or any target with move of less than, say, 100).

So how do you keep your opponent from catching you? Or how do you catch a faster opponent. You Stunt.  This is the space-craft equivalent to an Acrobatic Move.

A Stunt requires a Piloting Roll.  You roll Piloting at a penalty you choose: -1 to -10, and your vehicle's Handling as a bonus.  If you fail, handle the results as a Wipeout (GURPS Action 2 page 35). If you succeed, your opponent needs to attempt the same roll at the same penalty.  If they succeed, nothing happens and the chase carries on as normal (if they're faster, they gain one range shift, if they're slower, you do, etc).  If they don't, however, you can choose one of the two following benefits:

• You get one range shift (farther or closer); this replaces any range shift that would have happened (so you get to pull away even if your opponent is faster).
• You become Advantaged against your opponent until the end of your next turn, or until he succeeds at a Stunt roll against you, whichever comes first.

You may not stunt if you are Static.  Capital ships may never stunt against corvettes and fighters.

That's it.  You Move, or you stunt, which is also a move.  You can also choose to Stop, in which case, your vehicle is Static.

Attack

Okay, so this also has a ton of bonuses and penalties and complex calculations.  Can we trim that down? Sure.  

You are either "in range" or you are not "in range."  "In range" is within the 1/2D of the weapon firing.  If you're attacking out to your full range, you are "sniping" and you need to be Stopped to even try it. 

You can't attack someone who is Advantaged against you with fixed mount guns unless your guns are positioned in a way that (GM's discretion) allow you to attack in a weird direction (such as rear-facing guns).  You can attack with turrets against an Advantaged opponent.

Do not worry about range/speed penalties or size modifiers (for now).  Instead, we only worry about the following modifiers:

Blasters or Torpedoes:

• We roll Gunner (Beams) or (Torpedo)
• Acc (under certain conditions)
• RoF (if it applies)
• A special -5 for attacking "small targets"
• A special -5 for "Sniping."
• A special -4 for a "Wild Attack."

If you are a Fighter Ace, add half your accuracy except during a Stunt. If you Stopped, add half your accuracy at targets up to your size category (Capital ships get no bonus against corvettes or fighters, for example) and you may Snipe.  If you're Moving, you may attack but you may not add your Accuracy. If you are Stunting, you add a -4 to  your attack roll and rolls higher than 9 count as misses automatically unless you are a Fighter Ace, then you may roll to attack at no penalty (but you get no Accuracy bonus either).

If you are advantaged, you may improve your accuracy by "one step."  Stopped attackers add full accuracy; moving attackers add half accuracy; stunting attackers add no accuracy (but have no penalty).  Fighter Aces add half accuracy during a stunt and full accuracy during a Move.

Characters who want to attack "small targets," such as ejected pilots or specific locations on enemy fighters or corvettes may apply a -5 to hit; this will allow you to attack specific targets ("I'm targeting the force screen generator") or to attack armor weak points: when attacking an armor weak point, halve the armor DR.  If your attack doesn't get through armor DR, apply 1/5 your damage as injury anyway. 

Capital ships are so big that Fighters and Corvettes may attack "Small targets" on a Capital Ship at no penalty, including armor weak points. Fighters and Corvettes count as "Small Targets" to a capital ship.

Missiles:

• We roll Artillery (Guided Missile)
• Acc (under certain conditions)
• RoF (if it applies)
• Apply the target's ECM modifier as a penalty.

Missile attacks can never "snipe" and cannot attack "small targets." They lack that level of precision.  They also cannot gain a lock during a Stunt unless you are a Fighter Ace.  Fighter Aces add full Acc at all times except during a Stunt; stopped vehicles add full Acc. Moving vehicles may attack with no Acc bonus.

Defense

You have the same defenses as normal.  Characters may roll (1/2 piloting)+Handling as a Dodge.  Characters with ECM may roll (Electronics Operation (EW)/2)+ECM Rating as a "ECM Dodge" against missiles.  The GM might also allow characters to roll (Electronics Operation (Force Screens)/2) as a Force Screen Block to double force screen DR against a single attack.  The GM might allow a ship with several people on it to attempt several of these.  For example, a fighter with a tech-bot in it might attempt both a Dodge and a EW "Parry" if the pilot is dodging and the robot is attempting to jam the incoming missile.

Slightly Expanded Maneuvers

For a little more tactical variety:

• All-Out Attack (Determined) adds +1 to hit, but you get no Active Defense.  You may Move or Stunt like normal (during a stunt, you may attack as though Moving; you may may ignore the Wild Attack penalties and Fighter Aces may add half accuracy).
• All-Out Defend lets you apply a +2 to all defenses rolled until your next turn.  You may Move or Stunt like normal, but you may not attack.
• All-Out Stunt.  Okay, here's a new one, but I think you can handle it. You throw everything you have into a very determined stunt.  There are two variations:
• All-Out Stunt (Aggressive). You must Stunt for at least -2, and you get +2 to your Piloting. You may attack as though Moving (no Wild Attack penalty, and Fighter Aces may add half their accuracy). You may not defend.
• All-Out Stunt (Evasive). You must Stunt for at least -2, and you get +2 to your Piloting roll.  You may not attack.  You may defend as normal.

What About Capital Ships?

In principle, everything above should work with capital ships.  In principle, Fighters and Corvettes will get two range shifts against Capital ships per turn, and once they're "in range," they can attack the Capital ship's weak points, and they'll at least do a little "nibble" damage (though not much; a typical fighter cannon deals about 100 damage, which reduces to 20 against an Imperator, which means you need about 450 average hits to reduce one to 0 HP; that means 25 Valiants, a full squadron, that successfully hit with three shots per turn, would need about 6 turns to kill an Imperator).  Capital ships have terrible ECM ratings and handling, so will rely on sheer size and armor to survive those attacks.

Capital ships will also maneuver on one another and, in practice, will often "stop" to make attacks.  A battleship can reasonably "Snipe" a target at very long distances by sitting still and firing.  On average, the faster capital ship will move one range band closer to another per turn.  They can also "stunt" on one another, though with their low handling, this will often be subtle (typically -1 or -2 at most, and only if they're relatively certain of success).

What About Lucky Breaks and Terrain?

Rough terrain, like a debris field, requires a Piloting roll to navigate without incident or damage (a capital ship can just blast through it, but fighters need to be more careful).  A lucky break represents a unique opportunity to outmaneuver your opponent, like a break in a debris field, or a shortcut through a nebula, etc. These typically add +4 to a Stunt roll for the "Lucky" character, but might have a minimum stunt level to exploit, or require a separate roll to exploit ("There's a hyperspatial anamoly that will let us "skip" forward, but we need to navigate it right." "I trust you've calculated the course already" "I have!").

What about...

Look, this is untested, and it's working with some assumptions from Psi-Wars space combat.  In general, fighters and corvettes are rarely much more than +5 away from one another in speed, and a lot of that difference is also represented in the differences in their Handling.  In practice, you need to be a pretty good pilot to get your corvette to successfully outstunt a fighter.  Perhaps we should add a -5 to the Stunt roll, but I think it's probably okay.  Both tend to have outpace capital ships by enough to get two range shifts per turn.  In practice, it's easier to just assume you make up the difference.

For the most part, targeting radar, acc and a bevy of other rules, are mostly just there to get past the range penalties.  So, this assumes you've got enough going on to get past range penalties.  I've halved accuracy for this reason: in practice, most people don't get much of a bonus from their accuracy even when everything lines up, because range and SM differences eats it up.  I gave "free attacks to big ships" as a bonus because, in practice, once a fighter or a corvette starts to attack a capital ship, they're close enough that they can usually start targeting weak spots.

There's some additional nuance we can bring into this, but I think at this point it starts to look familiar enough that you know what to do ("Can I add deceptive attacks?" Sure, why not?).  I don't recommend it for smaller-scale chase scenes.  I mean, maybe it'll work for a gunship vs a guy on a bicycle, but I dunno. There's a reason Action has all these rules on mobility escapes and such, because that represents a very different dynamic than what we see in space.

Anyway, I await your feedback and I may edit this if someone points out some flaws.  If it's particularly well liked, I may fold it into the wikil