Psi Wars: Spacehips Playtest -- the Revision

The Alliance fleet has escaped from the Dead World Styx and now attempts to liberate the verdant world of Arduín. The Alliance has concieved of a desperate, two pronged attack, and Tobin is in charge of the first, once more facing off against the now-repaired Arc of Dominion. He and Arrow squadron, featuring Punk and Starlet, Stubb's sister who has mixed feelings about joining Arrow squadron in her brother's place, and they'll escort two Wyvern fighters.

The Wyvern fighter can be found on page 12 and 13 of SS 4. They carry hydrogen rather than water for 150g acceleration and 900 mps delta-v (if it matters). They'll be loaded with 10 torpedoes. Punk and Starlet each have 2 torpedo and 3 missiles, and Tobin has a complement of 7 missiles.

The Arc of Dominion is guarded by the Resilient, a Tiger-class Frigate, and two squadrons of five typhoon fighters: Red and Blue. Blue Squadron leader, Lieutenant Harkin, has improved considerably since we last met him.

The particulars:

The Alliance:

• Arrow Squadron 3 Starhawks:
  • Tobin (as previously described)
    • 7 Missiles
  • Punk: Gunner, Pilot and Artillery 15, Combat Reflexes
    • 2 torpedoes, 3 missiles
  • Starlet: Gunner, Pilot and Artillery 14
    • 2 torpedoes, 3 missiles
• Breaker Squadron 2 Wyverns: Gunner, Pilot, Artillery 13
  
  • 10 torpedos

The Empire

• The Arc of Dominion Empire-Class Dreadnought: All pertinent skills at 12
  
• The Resilient Tiger-Class Frigate: All pertinent skills at 12
  
• Red Squadron 5 typhoons: All pertinent skills at 12
  
• Blue Squadron 5 typhoons: All pertinent skills at 12
  
  • Liuetenant Harkin: Pilot 16, Gunner 18, Higher Purpose (Dog Fighter), Combat Reflexes

The Arc of Dominion and the Resilient start Holding Course with +0 acceleration. They're keeping this quadrant free of interlopers. Red Squadron is Holding Course in Formation with each other near the Arc of Dominion. Blue Squadron has not been deployed.

Tobin gets to go first.

Psi Wars: Spaceships -- Simplified Space Combat 1.2

Simplified Space Opera Combat 1.2

Turns are 20 seconds long.
There are four categories of ship worth paying attention to:

Fighter (+0)	SM+4 to SM+6
Corvette (+3)	SM +7 to SM +9
Capital (+6)	SM +1o to SM +12
Dreadnought (+9)	SM +13 or larger

Action During Combat

Use the Cockpit Multitasking rules (SS4 33).
Command applies to squadron leaders and applies to everyone in their formation. Ignore it for minor NPC formations or NPC warships that are commanded by non-named NPCs.  Motivate Crewman can be done with Leadership or Shiphandling, but the former applies to members under your command in a fighter squadron.
Engineering applies to fighters only if they have a robot in an engineering room. Ignore it for NPC ships
Navigation: Ignore it (unless you're jumping to Hyperspace)
Sensor Tasks: Ignore it.
Piloting: See Piloting below.
Gunnery: As normal.
Communications: Ignore it. It never costs anything to communicate, unless someone is jamming you.

Space Movement

Use the Airplane-Style dogfighting rules. Every 25gs of acceleration give +1 to your acceleration bonus. Ignore MPS unless you're worried about long-term endurance for some reason. Assume ships have enough fuel to keep accelerating throughout the battle.
If you lack sufficient thrust to gain an acceleration point, you may not dodge, and you may participate in any Contested roll that requires acceleration at a -5 to your Pilot skill if you have at least half the necessary thrust, and -10 if you have a quarter of the necessary thrust.
Neutral Range is Short (-8). Engaged range is Close (-4). Hugging range is Point-Blank (-0).
Fights begin at Neutral Range.

Maneuvers

Close: Brings you into Close range with a target (Engagement is automatic). If you succeed in the contest by 10+, you may also become Advantaged or go straight into a collision (not hugging). If you are already Engaged and you succeed at the pilot contest, you may move closer (for a ram) or hugging (if at least two size categories larger than you), or you may become advantaged. All other rules apply as normal. Use Airplane-Style Dogfighting (SS4 p33): You may not close one someone who closed on you and is sufficiently advantaged that they have your rear facing them. If you choose to close with a target other than the one you closed with previously, you lose your engagement status with that target (unless they have previously Closed with you; That is, you can only be “engaged with” one opponent at a time, but multiple opponents can choose you as their single target to be “engaged wih” and remain close to you).

• Dedicated: As normal
  
• Ambush: As normal
  
• Stunt: As per Action 2 p33: You may elect to make a second Pilot roll at a penalty of between -2 to -10. If you succeed, gain +1 to your closing roll per -2 you applied. If you fail, you go into an uncontrolled drift if you failed by less than your stability, or your engines you crash if you fail by more.
  

Evasive Action: If you engage in evasive action, you automatically give up any advantaged status and you can longer be engaged with any target (but other targets may remain engaged with you). If other targets are engaged with you, you must roll a contest of Pilot, similar to closing, but you get to double your acceleration bonus. Success breaks engagement with that target. Success is automatic if your opponent was in an Uncontrolled drift. Apply the +1 to dodge as normal.

• Hiding: You may attempt to “hide” as part of an evasive move if you're in a nebula or an asteroid field or have a lucky break. As Action 2 p 32, except “Close” is -10, and “Short” is -5. Hiding is impossible at point-blank.
  
• Stunt Evasion: As Stunt Escape Action 2 p34: Use a Lucky Break or Scenery to stunt (using the same rules as the Closing Stunt). If your opponent does not make an equivalent stunt, you Escape back to Short Range automatically.
  

Hold Course: Unchanged

Retreat: To retreat, you must have nobody Engaged with you. Otherwise, make the contest normally.

• Stunt Escape: As Action 2 p34: Use a Lucky Break or Scenery to stunt (using the same rules as the Closing Stunt). If your opponent does not make an equivalent stunt, you Escape back to Short Range automatically.
  

Uncontrolled Drift: Unchanged.  You cannot maintain your own engaged status while in an Uncontrolled Drift (but others might remain engaged with you).

Advantaged Status: If you are Engaged, further successful Closed contests give you advantaged status. You may follow the standard rules for Advantage or, if you already face their rear, you may gain a cumulative +1 to hit with all shots, to a maximum of +4.

Engaged: When a ship becomes “Engaged”, it becomes engaged with a specific ship. Both sides may be “engaged” with one another. Engagement does not end until both sides have lost engagement, either by giving it up with an Evasive Action, or by forcing their opponent relinquish engagement with an Evasive Action. Thus, if ship A closes with Ship B, ship A is engaged with ship B. If ship A evades, engagement is lost. However, if ship A closes on ship B, and ship B closes on ship A, then both ships are engaged with each other. For ship A to escape, it needs to evade and to win at its evasion action. If a ship is engaged with a ship in formation, it is engaged to all ships within that formation. If the formation breaks, the ship must choose one ship to remain engaged with.

Weapons Fire

Simplified Beam Weapon Fire:

• SM: +3 per size category, and -1.5 (round up) per size category smaller than you (for secondary or tertiary batteries) or -3 per size category (for spinal weapons, or major medium batteries from Corvette-class ships and larger). This does not apply to missiles. Use the point defense modifiers below.
  
• Space Range: -8 for neutral, -4 for engaged, -0 for hugging.
  
• ECM: +2 for targeting. This +2 bonus can be reduced by 1 to a maximum of 0 for each Defensive ECM system on the target.
  
• Spinal or Fixed: +2
  
• Target: -1 for streamlined front or rear. -5 for specific location. -10 for armor weakpoint or armor gap (against partially exposed systems).
  
• Multitasking: As normal (use cockpit multitasking for fighters)
  
• Point Defense: Apply the point defense penalty appropriate to the missile, and apply a bonus equal to half of the range penalty that the missile was fired at.
  
• Rate of Fire: As normal
  

Point Defense: When making a point defense attack, note the range that the weapon was fired from. Apply half the associated range penalty as a bonus to point defense (A torpedo fired at Short range is +4 to hit, and a torpedo fires at Close range is +2 to hit). This reflects the fact that the additional travel time makes point defense easier to calculate.
All other rules are the same.

Missile fire
Make a single Artillery (Guided Missile) roll to attack with a missile or torpedo with the following modifiers

• SM: +3 per size modifier difference
  
• Accuracy: +1 if firing a missile, +0 if firing a torpedo.
  
• ECM: -2 per defense ECM system possessed by enemy. +2 if you have a functioning Tactical Array.
  
• Target: -1 for streamlined front or rear. -5 for specific location. -10 for armor weakpoint or armor gap (against partially exposed systems).
  
• Multitasking: As normal (use cockpit multitasking for fighters)
  
• Rate of Fire: As normal (Torpedoes always halve their ROF due to their heavier size)
  

Missile Type	Cost	Mass	Point Defense	Damage
Light Missile (20 cm)	$125k	1/8	-7	6d(10)
Light Torpedo (20 cm)	$200k	1/4	-4	6dx20
Medium Missile (40 cm)	$2M	2	-5	6dx2(10)
Medium Torpedo(40 cm)	$3M	4	-2	6dx40
Heavy Missile (80 cm)	$30M	15	-3	6dx4(10)
Heavy Torpedo (80 cm)	$40M	30	-0	6dx80

Collisions
Use the normal rules, but apply the following optional rule for named NPCs and PCs: A collision cannot destroy your ship. Apply damage normally to the system struck, but at most, destroy it. Additional damage is lost. Furthermore, if damage would have been enough to destroy your ship, your engines are automatically disabled. You are in an uncontrolled drift.

Dodging
Apply all normal rules, but apply ECM for missiles only.

Damage

Torpedoes: Torpedo damage is halved against hardened armor (treat them as having a 0.5 armor divisor against hardened DR).

Armor Gaps: Certain systems have armor gaps rather than armor weakpoints. Attacks to armor gaps require half the necessary damage to disable or destroy. Damage achieved via an armor gap cannot exceed the amount of damage necessary to destroy a system. Excess damage is lost. Systems with armor gaps include:

• Defensive ECM
  
• All Enhanced Arrays
  
• Jet Engines
  
• Ram Scoops
  
• All Reaction and Reactionless Engines
  
• Robot Arms
  
• All Weapon Systems.

Action Aboard

Unchanged

Special Rules

Formation: As per the usual rules, but with the following additions: Advantaged status (and bonus to attack) apply to all ships in the same formation. Stunts performed by the squadron leader must be matched by the stunts of the other characters in formation, or they break formation. Use the sacrificial dodge rules on SS 4 p31. For simplicity, treat all massed fire against a formation as an attack against everyone in the formation and the GM may apply hits to whatever target he sees fit (favoring unnamed NPCs and Unlucky/Cursed characters first). If you are engaged with a ship in formation, you are engaged with all ships in formation. If the formation breaks up (or a ship leaves), all ships engaged in the formation may choose a ship to become engaged with automatically.
For other special rules, see Large Space Battles and Environmental Effects, both in SS 4.

Flesh Wound: The “Flesh Wound” rule can apply to ships! Spend a character point to reduce damage to your ship to 10% of your HP. That means that one system was disabled, but you suffered no further damage. Whew!

TV Action Violence: You can apply TV Action Violence if you take sufficient damage that your ship would be forced to take a survival check, or the damaged system put you in danger (life support, or a volatile system). Your ship loses one HT, you lose a turn as your systems blink and flicker, and you spend that turn in an uncontrolled drift, but otherwise you take no damage.

Designing Ships

We have a limited selection of ships available to us from the SS series, and we may need to expand that. Some design guidelines:

• Hyperdrives: Hyperdrives cast a hyperspace shadow. This halves the acceleration a capital ship is capable of, and halves the reaction-based acceleration a corvette-class ship is capable of making. Hyperdrives on fighter-class vessels are too small to cast a shadow, but are also less efficient, and have 1/10th the speed/range as larger hyperdrives.
  
• Reactionless Engines: Reactionless Engines are a function of interacting with your hyperspace shadow. Fighters cannot cast a hyperspace shadow, thus may not mount reactionless drives. Larger vessels may, but halve the speeds of all reactionless engines (and halve them again for capital-class ships, because hyperdrives halve their speed).
  
• Force Screens: All force screens may be adjustable for free. Treat adjusting the force screens as an engineering action (possible without having an engine room, for fighters) that requires no roll.
  
• Tactical Arrays: Remain useful for jamming transmissions, but they are less useful for ships without missile capability.
  

All ships can have armor (typically Light Alloy, Nanocomposite, or Diamondoid), cargo holds, contragravity lifters, control rooms, defensive ecm, Engine Rooms, Enhanced Arrays (often tactical), External Clamps, Force Screens, Fuel Tanks, Habitats (but never total: Ships carry supplies and need to make stops), Hangar Bays, Open Space, Passenger Seating, Super Fusion Power Plants, Super Fusion Torch engines, Super Reactionless, Engines, Star Drives (Hyperdrive), and Improved UV, Improved Plasma, Anti-particle, X-ray, Tractor and improved EM disruptors (SS 7 p19). For missiles, use those noted below.

Fighters

Fighters should typically have between 150 and 250 Gs of acceleration from Super Fusion Torch engines. They need at least 450 mps of fuel, but don't bother to track more than this except for “long range” fighters, which are more of a setting/background concern. Fighters have shorter (1/10th) range with Hyperdrives, so they should be rare.
Fighters typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. A fighter typically deals 4d(5) damage with its lasers, so should not have more than about 35 DR or it will be invulnerable to other fighters. For ships with a single missile system: A light fighter with a missile bay can carry 3 light missiles or one light torpedo. A medium fighter can carry 7 light missiles or three medium torpedoes. A heavy fighter can carry 20 light missiles or 10 light torpedos. Don't worry about whether or not a ship can actually fire 20cm missiles: All fighters with Major batteries can load light missiles.
Fighters typically have between 1-3 defensive ECM systems.

Corvettes

Corvettes should typically have between 50 and 100 Gs of acceleration from Super Reactionless engines.
Corvettes typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. A Corvette typically deals 3dx5d(5) damage with its lasers, so should not have more than about 150 DR or it will be invulnerable to other Corvettes. Corvettes can mount Medium missiles and torpedoes in Major batteries, or Light missiles or Torpedoes in Secondary batteries. Numbers of missiles aren't important.
Corvettes typically have 0-1 defensive ECM systems.

Capital and Larger

Capital ships should typically have between 25 and 75 Gs of acceleration from Super Reactionless engines.
Capital ships typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. There's no upper limit to armor or damage from Capital class ships. A capital class ship can mount heavy torpedoes or missiles in a major battery (and Dreadnoughts can mount them in Medium batteries). A capital class ship can mount medium missiles and torpedos in a medium battery (a dreadnought can mount them in a secondary battery). A capital class ship can mount light missiles in a tertriary battery. Numbers of missiles aren't important.
Capital ships rarely have Defensive ECM systems.

Simplified Missile Table

Missile Type	Cost	Mass	Damage
Light Missile (20 cm)	$125k	1/8	6d(10)
Light Torpedo (20 cm)	$200k	1/4	8dx15
Medium Missile (40 cm)	$2M	2	6dx2(10)
Medium Torpedo(40 cm)	$3M	4	8dx30
Heavy Missile (80 cm)	$30M	15	6dx4(10)
Heavy Torpedo (80 cm)	$40M	30	8dx60

Character Concerns

We've got our combat system.  Let's compile all the traits we need to make it work.

Perks

• Corvette Switchboard: You may use the Cockpit Multitasking rules while piloting a corvette, provided the GM agrees that such tasks are reasonably done from the cockpit.
  Duct Tape Savant: You may always attempt to jury-rig repairs to a starship during a 20-second turn, and you may ignore up to -2 points worth of penalties while doing so.
• Equipment Bond (Ship)
• Feel of the Ship: You can judge the state of a ship just by feeling how it flies.  You always know its state (its HP, what system is damaged and how) even if no computer system can tell you that information.  The GM may require you to roll Pilot(Starship) at some penalty to uncover truly unusual things, such as detecting the presence of a hyperspace tracer by the fact that the ship is just a touch heavier on one side.
• Fishbed Flier: If the "Heavy" optional rule is in effect, you may ignore it.  SM +6 fighters, SM +9 corvettes, etc, do not get the -1 Handling when you fly them.
• Intuitive Pilot: You may ignore the multi-task penalties for Pilot and Gunner(Beams), provided you are using Cockpit Multitasking.
• Reacquire Target: If you have just dodged a missile, on your next turn, you may make a ballistic attack using Electronics Operation (EW) in place of Artillery (Guided Missile) on an opponent currently Engaged with you.  This attack doesn't use up one of your missiles (You're using the existing missile to attack your opponent).
• Mark of the Ace: Whenever you defeat an enemy ship using Gunner (Beams), you may make a free Intimidation roll against all survivors.
• Maverick: Increase your stability by 2 for the purposes of determining whether a failed Pilot roll resulted in a mere Uncontrolled Drift or a Crash.
• Sidewinder: You may make deceptive attacks with your missiles.  Apply the same penalty to point defense attacks on your missile that you apply to dodge.
• Soar like a Leaf: You may use the "Light" optional rule even if it isn't standard to your campaign. SM +4 fighters, SM+7 corvettes, etc, gain +1 handling.
• Standard Operating Procedure: Calibrations: You always maintain your ship.  The GM never needs to ask if you did, or see you do so in game, nor can he penalize you for lack of maintenance unless you have been unable to access your ship for a long time (such as being in prison), and even then should be lenient ("Hey, those back-up power-convertors are still working!")
• Standard Operating Procedure: Primed to Go: You always keep your ship primed and ready to move at an instant's notice.  Unless the GM has a very explicit reason for doing so (your ship has been heavily damaged, or the port authorities impounded it due to unpaid docking fees), you can always start your ship at an instant's notice.
• Wing Commander: You may ignore the multi-task penalties for command tasks using Leadership and Tactics, provided you are using the Cockpit multitask rules.

Skills

• Artillery (Guided Missile): All missiles and torpedos.
• Electronics Operation:
• Communication: Penetrating signal jamming
• Electronic Warfare: Jamming communication, the Reacquire Target perk
• Sensors: Detecting details (life signs, that a space station is no moon)
• Engineer (Starship): For understanding how a starship works, or making sense of its plans.
• Gunnery (Beams): All beam weapons
• Leadership: Command tasks
• Mechanic (Starship): All repair tasks associated with starships
• Navigation (Hyperspace): To get your ship through hyperspace
• Pilot (Starship): Piloting a starship
• Shiphandling: For commanding vessels larger than a fighter.
• Spacer: Repairing a ship, rescue, securing yourself during evasive maneuvers, general maintenance
• Tactics: Command tasks

Psi Wars: Spaceships: Revising the Revision

A tester is just a developer with a bad attitude;

instead of trying to make things work, he looks for

how he can make things break.

-Charles Granier

The moral here is: If you want to get all

the bugs out of a game, playtest the dumb strategies

-Steve Jackson, the Ogre Book.

So, that was a great playtest! I walked away quite satisfied with it, because it worked far better than the standard rules. Then, I got to thinking about missiles again. Weren't they a little complicated? And exactly how did engagement work? When exactly was it lost? And I only showed combat between fighters, and between fighters and a dreadnought? What about between dreadnoughts? And what about corvettes? Was I sure that my ideas were actually structurally sound after just one playtest?

I prefer to design robust systems where the tactics within the system can stand up to a "munchkin's eye." Most people complain about munchkins, and I do believe you can push so deep into mechanics that you lose sight of the narrative fluff that also drives an RPG, but I find them similar to testers: Able to show the flaws in your system. And sometimes, completely well-intentioned players will fall into the same traps. I want to look at the game from multiple angles and make sure it works the way I intend it to, especially given how far afield I've gone.

And so I raced down a mathematical rabbit-hole, as I often do. What will follow are a summary of my thoughts and my notes on what works and what doesn't. I go deep into math, because that's just how I roll (nothing more complicated than percentages and basic algebra. If you can follow most RPG math discussions, you'll be fine here), so if you're averse to that sort of thing, just wait a day, and I'll show you the next refinement of my ruleset.

Psi Wars: Spaceships Playtest -- New Ruleset

Tobin Starlaw leads a squadron (Arrow Squadron) of Starhawks featuring the pilots Punk and Stubbs. Tobin has Pilot-18, Gunnery (Beams)-16, and Artillery (Guided Missile)-16. Punk and Stubbs have all those skills at 14. They're making a forward run on the Arc of Dominion in a desperate effort to stave it off before it can reach the vulnerable, battle-weary Alliance fleet orbiting the dead world Styx. Each is armed with one (and only one!) Light Fusion Torpedo.

“We've got one shot at this, boys.”

The idea is to hit the fusion reactors on the back. If they depower the ship and leave it adrift, then the fleet will have time to make repairs and either fight, or jump out.

The Arc of Dominion is crewed by a somewhat competent crew with skill-12. They have two squadrons of 5 Typhoons, Red Squadron and Blue Squadron. The Arc of Dominion can scramble all ten fighters in one minute (three turns).

Combat begins with Arrow Squadron and the Arc of Dominion both holding course. The Arc of Dominion is going as fast as it can: all engines are powered for a +1 acceleration bonus. Arrow Squadron each has two engines fired up for 100gs (+4 acceleration)

Arrow Squadron gets to go first

Psi Wars: Spaceships -- Simplified Space Combat 1.1

Simplified Space Opera Combat

Turns are 20 seconds long.
There are four categories of ship worth paying attention to:

(Missile)
Fighter	SM+4 to SM+6
Corvette	SM +7 to SM +9
Capital	SM +10 to SM +12
Dreadnought	SM +13 or larger

Action During Combat

Use the Cockpit Multitasking rules (SS4 33).
Command applies to squadron leaders and applies to everyone in their formation. Ignore it for minor NPC formations or NPC warships that are commanded by non-named NPCs.
Engineering applies to fighters only if they have a robot in an engineering room. Ignore it for NPC ships
Navigation: Ignore it (unless you're jumping to Hyperspace)
Sensor Tasks: Ignore it.
Piloting: See Piloting below.
Gunnery: As normal.
Communications: Ignore it. It never costs anything to communicate, unless someone is jamming you.

Space Movement

Use the Airplane-Style dogfighting rules (SS4 p33). Every 25gs of acceleration give +1 to your acceleration bonus. Ignore MPS unless you're worried about long-term endurance for some reason. Assume ships have enough fuel to keep accelerating throughout the battle.

• Neutral Range is Short (-8)
• Engaged Range is Close (-4)
• "Hugging" is Point-Blank (-0)

Close: Brings you into Close range with a target (Engagement is automatic). If you succeed in the contest by 10+, you may also become Advantaged or go straight into a collision (not hugging). If you are already Engaged and you succeed at the pilot contest, you may move closer (for a ram) or hugging (if at least two size categories larger than you), or you may become advantaged. All other rules apply as normal. Use Airplane-Style Dogfighting (SS4 p33): You may not close one someone who closed on you and is sufficiently advantaged that they have your rear facing them.

• Dedicated: As normal
  
• Ambush: As normal
  
• Stunt: As per Action 2 p33: You may elect to make a second Pilot roll at a penalty of between -2 to -10. If you succeed, gain +1 to your closing roll per -2 you applied. If you fail, you go into an uncontrolled drift if you failed by less than your stability, or your engines you crash if you fail by more.
  

Evasive Action: Ignore the rule that states all engagement is broken. You may attempt to break engagement and go to Neutral range. Lose any advantaged status you had, and roll a contest similar to Closing, doubling your acceleration bonus. Success put you at neutral range. Success is automatic if your opponent was in an Uncontrolled drift. Apply the +1 to dodge as normal.

• Hiding: You may attempt to “hide” as part of an evasive move if you're in a nebula or an asteroid field or have a lucky break. As Action 2 p 32, except “Close” is -10, and “Short” is -5. Hiding is impossible at point-blank.
  
• Stunt Escape: As Action 2 p34: Use a Lucky Break or Scenery to stunt. If your opponent does not make an equivalent stunt, you Escape back to Short Range automatically.
  

Hold Course: Unchanged

Retreat: To retreat, you must have nobody Engaged with you. Otherwise, make the contest normally.

Uncontrolled Drift: Unchanged.

Advantaged Status: If you are Engaged, further successful Closed contests give you advantaged status. You may follow the standard rules for Advantage or, if you already face their rear, you may gain a cumulative +1 to hit with all shots, to a maximum of +4.

Weapons Fire

Simplified Beam Weapon Fire:

• SM: +3 per size category larger than you or -3 per size category smaller than you (for secondary or tertiary batteries or any weapons fired by a fighter) or -6 per size category (for spinal weapons, or major medium batteries from Corvette-class ships and larger)
  
• Space Range: -8 for neutral, -4 for engaged, -0 for hugging.
  
• Spinal or Fixed: +2
  
• Target: -1 for streamlined front or rear. -5 for specific location. -10 for armor weakpoint or armor gap (against partially exposed systems).
  
• Multitasking: As normal (use cockpit multitasking for fighters)
  
• Point Defense: +0
  
• Rate of Fire: As normal
  

All other rules are the same.

Missile fire

Missile attacks are two part. The rules for targeting are as follows: Roll Artillery (Guided) with the following modifiers

• SM: +3 per size modifier difference
  
• ECM: -2 per ECM system. +2 if you have a functioning Tactical Array.
  
• Target: -1 for streamlined front or rear. -5 for specific location. -10 for armor weakpoint or armor gap (against partially exposed systems).
  
• Multitasking: As normal (use cockpit multitasking for fighters)
  
• Rate of Fire: As normal
  

Success gives you a lock and you may fire. From then on, the missile (controlled by the player that fired it) has 5 turns to close and strike the target. A missile begins at the range of the attacker to the target (if the attacker is hugging the target, the missile may attempt to strike immediately). It uses the normal closing rules using its own skill of 15 plus its own handling+acc modifier: It always makes dedicated close attempts, and it only stunts to keep up with a stunt evasion. If a missile is dodged, it returns to neutral range and must attempt to close again.

The roll for the missile to hit is made with its skill of 15 and the following modifiers:

• SM: +3 per category size difference
• ECM: -2 per ECM system. +2 if the attacker still has a functioning tactical array.
• Target: The same as the attacker chose to lock onto when he fired.
• ROF: For salvos only.

Collisions

Use the normal rules, but apply the following optional rule for named NPCs and PCs: A collision cannot destroy your ship. Apply damage normally to the system struck, but at most, destroy it. Additional damage is lost. Furthermore, if damage would have been enough to destroy your ship, your engines are automatically disabled. You are in an uncontrolled drift.

Dodging

Apply all normal rules, but apply ECM for missiles only.

Damage

Unchanged except that attacks to armor gaps require half the necessary damage to disable or destroy, and armor gaps go away if the system is destroyed. Damage achieved via an armor gap cannot exceed the amount of damage necessary to destroy a system. Excess damage is lost. Systems with armor gaps include:

• Defensive ECM
• All Enhanced Arrays
• Jet Engines
• Ram Scoops
• All Reaction and Reactionless Engines
• Robot Arms
• All Weapon Systems.

Flesh Wound: The “Flesh Wound” rule can apply to ships! Spend a character point to reduce damage to your ship to 10% of your HP. That means that one system was disabled, but you suffered no further damage. Whew!

Action Aboard

Unchanged

Special Rules

Formation: As per the usual rules, but with the following additions: Advantaged status (and bonus to attack) apply to all ships in the same formation. Stunts performed by the squadron leader must be matched by the stunts of the other characters in formation, or they break formation. Use the sacrificial dodge rules on SS 4 p31.

For other special rules, see Large Space Battes and Environmental Effects, both in SS 4.

Designing Ships

We have a limited selection of ships available to us from the SS series, and we may need to expand that. Some design guidelines:

• Hyperdrives: Hyperdrives cast a hyperspace shadow. This halves the acceleration a capital ship is capable of, and halves the reaction-based acceleration a corvette-class ship is capable of making. Hyperdrives on fighter-class vessels are too small to cast a shadow, but are also less efficient, and have 1/10th the speed/range as larger hyperdrives.
  
• Reactionless Engines: Reactionless Engines are a function of interacting with your hyperspace shadow. Fighters cannot cast a hyperspace shadow, thus may not mount reactionless drives. Larger vessels may, but halve the speeds of all reactionless engines (and halve them again for capital-class ships, because capital-class ships cast heavy hyperspace shadows).
  
• Force Screens: All force screens may be adjustable for free. Treat adjusting the force screens as an engineering action (possible without having an engine room, for fighters) that requires no roll.
  

All ships can have armor (typically Light Alloy, Nanocomposite, or Diamondoid), cargo holds, contragravity lifters, control rooms, defensive ecm, Engine Rooms, Enhanced Arrays (often tactical), External Clamps, Force Screens, Fuel Tanks, Habitats (but never total: Ships carry supplies and need to make stops), Hangar Bays, Open Space, Passenger Seating, Super Fusion Power Plants, Super Fusion Torch engines, Super Reactionless Engines, Star Drives (Hyperdrive), and the followiung weapon systems: Improved UV, Improved Plasma, Anti-particle, X-ray, Tractor and improved EM disruptors (SS 7 p19). For missiles, use those noted below.

Fighters

Fighters should typically have between 150 and 250 Gs of acceleration from Super Fusion Torch engines. They need at least 450 mps of fuel, but don't bother to track more than this except for “long range” fighters, which are more of a setting/background concern. Fighters have shorter (1/10th) range with Hyperdrives, so they should be rare.

Fighters typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. A fighter typically deals 4d(5) damage with its lasers, so should not have more than about 35 DR or it will be invulnerable to other fighters. For ships with a single missile system: A light fighter with a missile bay can carry 3 light missiles or one light torpedo. A medium fighter can carry 7 light missiles or three medium torpedoes. A heavy fighter can carry 20 light missiles or 10 light torpedos. Don't worry about whether or not a ship can actually fire 20cm missiles: All fighters with Major batteries can load light missiles.

Fighters typically have between 1-3 defensive ECM systems.

Corvettes

Corvettes should typically have between 50 and 100 Gs of acceleration from Super Reactionless engines.

Corvettes typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. A Corvette typically deals 3dx5d(5) damage with its lasers, so should not have more than about 150 DR or it will be invulnerable to other Corvettes. Corvettes can mount Medium missiles and torpedoes in Major batteries, or Light missiles or Torpedoes in Secondary batteries. Numbers of missiles aren't important.

Corvettes typically have 0-1 defensive ECM systems.

Capital and Larger

Capital ships should typically have between 25 and 75 Gs of acceleration from Super Reactionless engines.

Capital ships typically armor themselves with Nanocomposite or Diamondoid armor, hardened. There's no upper limit to armor or damage from Capital class ships. A capital class ship can mount heavy torpedoes or missiles in a major battery (and Dreadnoughts can mount them in Medium batteries). A capital class ship can mount medium missiles and torpedos in a medium battery (a dreadnought can mount them in a secondary battery). A capital class ship can mount light missiles in a tertriary battery. Numbers of missiles aren't important.

Capital ships rarely have Defensive ECM systems.

Simplified Missile Table

Missile Type	Cost	Mass	Closing Rolls	Attack Rolls	Damage
Light Missile (20 cm)	$125k	1/8	31	16	6d(10)
Light Torpedo (20 cm)	$200k	1/4	23	14	4dx10(100)
Medium Missile (40 cm)	$2M	2	24	15	6dx2(10)
Medium Torpedo(40 cm)	$3M	4	19	13	8dx10(10)
Heavy Missile (80 cm)	$30M	15	20	14	6dx4(10)
Heavy Torpedo (80 cm)	$40M	30	16	12	8dx20(100)

Psi Wars: Spaceships -- Rewriting Spaceship Combat

"I thought you wanted to do as little work as possible

and just borrow the rest from the books?

So much for using the rules as written."

-LordofDorkness

So, fair enough, Ulzgoroth is correct: Spaceships, as written, is focused on realistic space combat.  We don't want realistic space combat, we want authentic and cinematic space combat, something familiar to a modern viewer's eyes, rather than something that would actually happen if space combat vessels engaged one another.  I want starfighters that whoosh and explode, and I want the game's focus on individual starfighter pilots, rather than zoomed out to the battle as a whole.  And I want more than just Star Wars, though.  I want Wing Commander and Strike Suit Zero too.

The problems standing in the way of this are:

• Missiles are too dangerous
  
• Fighters (without missiles) aren't dangerous enough
  
• Turret-fire is too accurate against fighters (fighters are too vulnerable)
  
• Capital ships are just too fast.
  
• Dogfights aren't cool enough.
  

I'm not seeing all comments being made

And I'm investigating the problem.  I know I've had some kind words regarding my wedding, and some questions about the Starhawk v Typhoon fight, but I can't actually see those comments.  I think it has something to do with using Google+ comments, but I can't be sure.

If you don't get a response on your comment, it's not because I'm ignoring you or can't be bothered.  Sometimes, Blogger just hides them, or makes them vanish, or... something.

Psi Wars: Spaceships Playtest -- Tactical Combat

We've looked at the basic combat system, seen how it works and seen its flaws, and we've taken a look at alternate combat systems.  Now let's take a look at the tactical combat system found in GURPS Spaceships 3: Warships and Space Pirates.

Psi Wars: Spaceships Playtest -- Starhawk vs Empire-Class Dreadnought

Mjolnir's Might by AdamBurn

The core tension in Star Wars combat is not starfighter vs starfighter, it is starfighter vs starfighter in the context of a larger battle featuring a capital ship.  The contest between capital ship and starfighter dominates the battlefields of Star Wars, and also many of my favorite space fighter games, like Wing Commander or Strike Suit Zero.  On the one hand, a fighter needs to present some kind of threat to a capital ship, but on the other hand, he cannot prove to be so effective that a capital ship is pointless.

So, today Tobin once more bravely agrees to enter the fray (after reluctantly giving up on chasing poor, terrified Typhoon pilots) and face an Empire-Class dreadnought all on his own.  You can find the Empire-Class dreadnought on page 10 of Spaceships 3.

Psi Wars: Spaceships Playtest - Starhawk vs Typhoon

Starfighter Zero by MeckanicalMind

To understand the problems and strengths of GURPS Spaceships when it comes to handling a swooping spaceship space opera, we need to actually try the game out! I find that if I make assumptions or jump to conclusions based simply on reading the mechanics, I am often wrong, so let's actually look at how the game plays out before rewriting it.  Spaceships 4 has two interesting "deep space fighters," the Typhoon-class fighter (page 11), which seems to resemble the Star Wars Tie-Fighter, and the Starhawk-class fighter (page 12), which seems to resemble the Star Wars X-wing.  For our first run, let's take Starfighter Ace Tobin Starlaw, and send him up against two Typhoon-class Fighters on patrol, and see what happens.

Psi Wars: Spaceships! - Sample Character Tobin Starlaw

If we're going to playtest fighters, we should have a fighter ace.  I've kept Tobin deliberately conservative: It's pretty easy to have a Fighter Ace with Pilot 20+ and Gunnery (Beams) 18+.  I wanted someone a little more reasonable to give us an idea of what most fighter aces could do, rather than a highly optimized one.

Tobin Starlaw, Humble Fighter Ace, 250 points

SC_Privateer_Option

Attributes

ST 10 [0]
DX 13 [60]
IQ 13 [60]
HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs; HP 10 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6.00 [-5]; Basic Move 6 [0]

Advantages

3D Spatial Sense [10]

Ally (TB-7, Almost all the time) [6]

Charisma +1 [5]

Combat Reflexes [15]

Daredevil [15]

Fearlessness +1 [2]

Higher Purpose (Dogfighter) [5]

Honest Face [1]

Hot Shot Pilot +2 [10]

Luck [15]

Military Rank 2 [10]

Old Hand [1] 

Disadvantages

Compulsive Carousing (12 or less) -5]

Duty (Space Navy, 12 orless, Extremely Hazardous) [-15]

Impulsiveness [-10]

Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]

Pacifism (Cannot harm innocents) [-10]

Sense of Duty (Comrades) [-5] 

Skills

Animal Handling (Blue-Milk Space Cows) (A) IQ [2]-13

Area Knowledge (The Farm World of Gardonia) (E) IQ+1 [2]-14

Artillery (Guided Missile) (A) IQ+2 [12]-16

Beam Weapons (Pistol) DX+1 [2]-4-14

Brawling (E) DX+1 [2]-14

Carousing (E) HT+2 [4]-14

Computer Operation IQ [1]-11

Fast-Talking (A) IQ [2]-13

Free-Fall (A) DX+2 [2]-14

Gunner (Beams) (E) DX+3 [2]-16

Leadership (A) IQ+1 [2]-14

Mechanic (Contragravity) (A) IQ [2]-13

Mechanic (Starship) (A) IQ+1 [4]-14

Navigation (Hyperspace) (A) IQ+4 [2]-16

Parachuting (E) DX+1 [2]-14

Pilot (Contragravity) (A) DX+3 [2]-16

Pilot (Starship) (A) DX+5 [8]-18

Savoir-Faire (Military)(E) IQ [1]-13

Scrounging (E) Per+2 [4]-15

Spacer IQ+2 [4]-14

Stealth (A) DX+1 [4]-14

Vacc Suit (A) DX [2]-13

Wrestling (A) DX [2]-13 

Gear

Battleweave Vaccsuit: DR 30, $20,000 30 lbs,
Blaster Pistol: 3d(5) Acc 5, 1.6 lbs, RoF 3, Bulk -2, rcl 1, $2200
Tiny wrist-mounted radio: 5 mile range, $50, 0.05 lbs

Notes

Light Encumbrance

Dodge: 10, Parry (Brawling) 11.

Tobin is your stereotypical fighter ace: Loves to party, loves his squadron, serves his country, and would never kick a puppy.  I've given him Daredevil and Higher Purpose (Dogfighter) to emphasize how much he loves to get into the thick of it.  And I've given him a humble origin, because obviously he went into space to escape the mundane existence he had on some boring farm planet milking space-cows.

Psi Wars: Spaceships!

Seldon Crisis: Battle by AdamBurn

You seem to want a system for whooshing space opera battles between fighters and capital ships.  GURPS Spaceships is not that system.

-Ulzgoroth, paraphrased

I've held off on dealing with Spaceships for as long as I could, not because I dislike the book, but because I knew how much work it would be, and boy was I right. This was a doozy.  Ulzgoroth, above, is not wrong. GURPS tends to trend towards the realistic and Star Wars is, to put it lightly, not realistic.  That said, GURPS Spaceships actually does address whooshy spaceships at great length, especially in  Spaceships 4: Fighers, Carriers and Mecha, but we're going to have to parse all of that, understand all of it, and then pull out all the pieces and put them back together to get the game we want.  Unsurprisingly, I can't find much material on this sort of thing.  Most people I find who actually use GURPS Spaceships use the tactical system out of Spaceships 3, because it works pretty well out of the box.  We'll take a look at that too, but by the time we're done, we'll have a combat system that's as unique to Psi-Wars as the Chase System is to Action.

I'll be posting Spaceships stuff all week. And all of next week too.  Like I said, a doozy.  Today, I'll take a look at what's wrong with the actual Star Wars paradigm and why it's so hard to model in Spaceships, and we'll take a glance at alternate GURPS models that might work better.

Heads up: A wedding

Let me interrupt my GURPS stuff for just a second to let you know that I'm getting married tomorrow.  Thus, I'll be quite slow in responding to comments.  For example, I know that some of the robot templates posted today are wrong (especially in light of my modifications posts from last week).  I'd even fix them, but I just don't have time right now.

Anyway, enjoy, and I'll get back to you guys when I can.

Psi Wars: Robot Templates

Last time, we worked out the details to how robots function in Psi Wars, including their place in society, the nature of their neural nets, their role in the game, and how to put one together.

For this post, I'm going to put together some ready-made robots!  These will use the rules and suggestions from the previous post, as well as the default bodies straight out of Ultra-Tech.  I have chosen, where possible, for 150 point characters, as I suspect the final PC total for Psi Wars will be around 300, making these "50% point allies," which would be great additions to the existing templates.

Psi Wars: Robots

The computers from Star Wars (and thus Psi-Wars) herald from an older era of sci-fi: these gargantuan things lack interconnection or artificial intelligence.  We have already discussed computers enough in the post regarding general technology.  However, we have one exception to the "dumb computers" rule, and that is robots!

Star Wars brims with droids, in every movie, in nearly every scene.  They form the backbone of society, literally working thanklessly behind the scenes to maintain the machinery of civilization. For Star Wars, however, robots lack the transformative themes that they often embody in transhuman science fiction and, let's be honest, throughout much of GURPS Ultra-Tech.  While droids fundamentally change how the Empire and the Republic engage in both war and industry, they don't change what it means to be human, nor do they raise the question of what it means to be sapient.

Star Wars is space opera, and the term "space opera" comes from an era of exploitative fiction for young men.  Publishing houses would release pulp serials that catered to the particular interests: Westerns for the kids who liked to read about cowboys, swashbuckling stories for kids who liked to read about pirates, and sci-fi for the kids who liked reading about rocketships.  To save on cost, these publishing houses would kick out the same stories and/or comics, only with different window dressing.  In the western, the cowboy rescues the school marm from injuns, in the swashbuckling story, the musketeer rescues the princess from pirates, and in the sci-fi story, the space captain rescues the space princess from aliens.  The term "space opera" referred to this change of window dressing: they weren't really fiction about science, but adventure stories that happened to be cosmetically set in space.

Thus, the characters of a space opera tend to be stock characters, and Star Wars, which emulates that old space opera, uses the same sorts of stock characters.  And since those early adventure stories stole liberally from the adventure stories of the 19th century, the stock characters tend to reflect late 19th, early 20th century sensibilities: The heroic European nobleman strides out to conquer a dark continent, along with his stalwart servant and his mysterious, foreign guide.  In space opera, the stalwart servant becomes a robot, and the mysterious, foreign guide becomes an alien.

This explains why Star Wars treats its aliens and its droids the way it does (Note, for example, that only aliens have foreign languages).  The droids, in particular, create this strange dissonance.  On the one hand, they're "only droids," and so the story does not expect us to mourn the tragedy of the on-screen slaying of a dozen battle droids, or even the sad whimpering of some gonk droid. But, on the other hand, Star Wars treats R2-D2 and C3P0 as full characters, and generates suspense by throwing them into trouble.  We are told that the light side values life, but droids evidently don't count (given the numerous times the Jedi Order criticizes Anakin for his fixation on his droids).  We recoil horror when Leia is enslaved by Jabba, but we don't blink twice at the fact that C3P0 is similarly enslaved, and that he is never actually freed.

Are droids expendable minions, or are they fully realized characters, or are they both?  What about the transformative or introspective elements that more sophisticated robot stories evoke?  Do we want to borrow from them?

Bonus Post: Modifying Robots

Ultra-Tech gives us plenty of robot templates, but what if you don't like any of those templates? Where are the vibro-clawed assassin-bots, or the elegantly chromed and exquisitely crafted androids? We have no “robot design system” in the sense of being able to put together advantages and getting a cost out of it. However, we can use Ultra-Tech's gadget modification system to at least tinker with existing robots!

Psi Wars: Weapons and Armor

Cinematic space opera thrives on the spectacle of dramatic combat.  Lasers flash, armor gleams and grenades punctuate the conflict with fiery explosions! But we need to be careful with Ultra-Tech weapons if we want to build up the right sort of combat scenario.  In low-tech or high-tech conflict, we emulate existing weaponry and we use them in scenarios where they face logical.  If we open the ultra-tech book, however, we are faced with a smorgasbord of options that don't all work perfectly well together.  Bullets will zip through reflective armor, and lasers will cut through ballistic armor.  Disintegrators ignore armor completely, and battesuits can shrug off most small-arms fire.  When we choose our weapons and armor, we must carefully consider how they interact with one another, so that we get both a consistent, believable universe, and the sort of gameplay that we want.

And we want swashbuckling heroics, where heroes use beam and blade to defeat their opponents in face-to-face combat.  We have, thus, two golden standards around which we can build our combat paradigm: the force blade, and the blaster pistol.  The former represents the lightsaber, without which we do not evoke the imagery of Star Wars, and the latter has similar armor penetration capabilities and fits into the right TL.  For armor, our golden standard is the combat hardsuit, as it resembles the white plastoid armor of the storm trooper.  Finally, we know that we need to create combat that captures both the feeling of World War 1-2 era combat, and also allows us to have our leaping space-samurai having dramatic duels with one another.

Psi Wars: the Gear List

GURPS Action 1 includes a catalog of items available to its heroes, starting on page 26.  Psi Wars should include a similar list, allowing player to select non-combat items appropriate for their characters.  By having such a catalog, we can trim the inappropriate options from Ultra-Tech, and customize anything that we include to be specific to our particular setting.  So, all we need to do is go through the items, one for one, in the Action list, and replace them with appropriate Ultra-Tech items.

Most items can be replaced directly with ultra-tech equivalents, but sometimes, we need to adjust them. Ultra-Tech is intended less as a catalog of items, and more as a gadget-design system.  Thus, where I have had to alter, fiddle or redesign gadgets, I have included a full description (and perhaps a page reference to the original gadget I derived the new gadget from).

The list in Action includes weapons, clothing and armor, but we'll revisit that at a later time, as it is worthy of its own post.

Unlike the Action list, the following list includes legality class, a page reference and (if necessary) further discussion because, unlike in Action, we cannot take for granted that our players will automatically know these details.

Psi Wars: A Technological Setting Part 2 -- General Considerations

Last time, we looked at how hyperspace travel might work, and thus shape the universe in which the heroes of Psi Wars live.  Now we'll take a look at how technology shapes the rest of the infrastructure of the Psi Wars universe.  Specifically, we'll look at the larger picture: Industry, agriculture, trade, medicine.

While an action-oriented game like Psi Wars might not spend a great deal of time on, say, farming, the details of day-to-day life certainly inform a typical action adventure.  In a GURPS Action game, terrorists might take over an oil refinery, and the heroes' government might send them in to take care of the problem.  The players would intuitively understand why an oil refinery might be something of national interest, even if the specifics of global oil trade aren't interesting to the players. We need to understand how the world of Psi Wars works, so that we can create similarly believable and consistent adventures and descriptions, and we need to inform the players, so that they understand the context of their actions.

However, too much detail will bog down play.  Psi Wars demands dynamic action, not slow exploration of sci-fi concepts.  We don't want to ask our players to do homework to understand our setting, and so less is more.  Our setting should resemble the real world (or, really, the world of the 1930s), only with cooler, more advanced technology.

This entry will discuss the core technologies of power generation, computers, industry, agriculture, medicine, security and transportation.

Psi Wars: A Technological Setting Part 1 -- FTL Travel

Hyperspace Exit

Without faster-than-light travel, we have no "space" in our "space opera!"  We enjoy Star Wars because it brings the exotic wonder of distant worlds right to our doorstep with the toss of a magical "hyperspace" switch.  We want Psi-Wars to do the same.  We want to visit distant worlds, and have alien invaders show up on our doorstep.  But while we're side-stepping the laws of physics, we still want our FTL to follow some consistent, repeatable rules, rules which we'll need to define before going much further.

GURPS Space has an excellent section discussing the particulars of FTL travel on pages 37 to 42.  In addition to discussing the possible options we have, it challenges us with a few specific questions:

• How reliable is FTL travel?
• How difficult is FTL navigation?
• How fast is FTL?
• How far can one expect to get in an FTL ship?
• How much fuel does it consume? What are the economics of FTL travel?
• What are the side-effects of FTL travel?

We need to answer these questions in a fashion that is not only true to our Star Wars inspiration, but that serve us well for our setting design.