Looking for a system for roleplaying and space combat.

[Fred M. Sloniker]

Since this is RGFA, I figured I'd give people a chance to advocate. I'm
interested in running a game in which the PCs are crew members on a
spaceship roaming a dangerous section of space, doing the Elite
trading/combat/exploring thing. The ship is just the right size for the
PCs; it's not so small that one PC handles all the space combat while
the rest huddle in the back, but not so big that the PCs can't
realistically do all the work. (I don't want them to be either fighter
jocks with no say in the grand strategic plan or people who sit on the
bridge and watch the fight.) I also want all the PCs to have to make
decisions during battles, so I'm thinking they'll pilot drone fighters
or something instead of just sitting in turrets and shooting whatever
shows up. That's all setting stuff, though.

What I'm looking for is a system that has a good system to handle the
space battles. I don't want it to be so complicated that each fight
devolves into five hours of moving counters and rolling dice; I don't
want to be deciding fights with a single roll or a drama call either,
though. Ideally, any fight that isn't ludicrously one-sided should have
each PC making at least one decision and at least one skill roll (and
there should be more than one skill that gets tested in space combat;
the PCs should have to make some choices about what they're good at.)

Can anyone suggest a game system that has a good space combat system,
while also giving the characters an opportunity to be good at other
things (negotiating with aliens, exploring strange new worlds, that sort
of thing)?

[Nicole Massey]

Post by Fred M. Sloniker
Since this is RGFA, I figured I'd give people a chance to advocate. I'm
interested in running a game in which the PCs are crew members on a
spaceship roaming a dangerous section of space, doing the Elite
trading/combat/exploring thing. The ship is just the right size for the
PCs; it's not so small that one PC handles all the space combat while the
rest huddle in the back, but not so big that the PCs can't realistically
do all the work. (I don't want them to be either fighter jocks with no
say in the grand strategic plan or people who sit on the bridge and watch
the fight.) I also want all the PCs to have to make decisions during
battles, so I'm thinking they'll pilot drone fighters or something instead
of just sitting in turrets and shooting whatever shows up. That's all
setting stuff, though.
What I'm looking for is a system that has a good system to handle the
space battles. I don't want it to be so complicated that each fight
devolves into five hours of moving counters and rolling dice; I don't want
to be deciding fights with a single roll or a drama call either, though.
Ideally, any fight that isn't ludicrously one-sided should have each PC
making at least one decision and at least one skill roll (and there should
be more than one skill that gets tested in space combat; the PCs should
have to make some choices about what they're good at.)
Can anyone suggest a game system that has a good space combat system,
while also giving the characters an opportunity to be good at other things
(negotiating with aliens, exploring strange new worlds, that sort of
thing)?

I'd use Spacemaster for it. Combat in space is just scaled up personal
combat in the system, and it's skill based so they have to use their skills
to do things. Combat actually has a set of different "armor classes" for
larger objects, (since you may need to blast other things besides just
starships and space faring vessels) and there is a fairly detailed critical
system as well.

The chargen rules allow a lot of flexibility in what skills the characters
can get, too, so it's possible to have a wide range of skills in the same
character.


It sounds like this would fit the bill nicely for what you're looking to do.

[Stephen McIlvenna]

Post by Fred M. Sloniker
Since this is RGFA, I figured I'd give people a chance to advocate. I'm
interested in running a game in which the PCs are crew members on a
spaceship roaming a dangerous section of space, doing the Elite
trading/combat/exploring thing.

My favourite for this was the old d6 Star Wars game with their Tramp
Freighters supplement. Crew duties could be nicely divided up between a
couple of gunners, a pilot and a sensor / shields officer. The Tramp
Freighter supplement had a nice overview of buying and selling goods,
customising ship upgrades, and dealing with Imperial customs or smugglers.

It might be pretty hard to come by the Star Wars books these days, although
they do have a 'vanilla' d6 space line
(http://www.orcsnest.com/blurber.asp?Title=D6%20Space%20Ships). I'm not sure
if the newer d20 Star Wars game has an equivalent supplement.

Stephen
http://www.btinternet.com/~s.mci/dlance/dlindex.html

[psychohist]

Traveller had at least one good, detailed space combat supplement.
"Mayday", maybe?

Warren J. Dew

[David Meadows]

Post by psychohist
Traveller had at least one good, detailed space combat supplement.
"Mayday", maybe?

I would be surprised if Mayday was still in print, but it was a fun game and
fast enough to play that you could embed even quite complex combats within a
role-playing session. But it doesn't really satisfy the requirement to keep
all the PCs active with specific tasks within the combat. Yes, you can have
one player moving the ship and another rolling laser hits, but it's not
really designed for that kind of use.

I seem to remember that FASA's old Star Trek system was specifically
designed so that each member of the bridge crew (i.e. the PCs) played an
active part in ship-to-ship combat. But I never played it and have no idea
how it worked in practice.

[Nicole Massey]

Post by David Meadows

Post by psychohist
Traveller had at least one good, detailed space combat supplement.
"Mayday", maybe?

I would be surprised if Mayday was still in print, but it was a fun game and
fast enough to play that you could embed even quite complex combats within a
role-playing session. But it doesn't really satisfy the requirement to keep
all the PCs active with specific tasks within the combat. Yes, you can have
one player moving the ship and another rolling laser hits, but it's not
really designed for that kind of use.
I seem to remember that FASA's old Star Trek system was specifically
designed so that each member of the bridge crew (i.e. the PCs) played an
active part in ship-to-ship combat. But I never played it and have no idea
how it worked in practice.

It really didn't work all that well, because a lot of the things players
were doing were just busywork things that kept them engaged, but not really
affecting the outcome. I remember the Communications officer having the
least relevant part of the process, though the medical personnel were a
close second.

Also, the ST:RPG system deals with large ship combat almost exclusively
until you get rather late in the system, while the original poster mentioned
wanting to do some kind of fighter based combat design.

[gleichman]

Post by Fred M. Sloniker
Since this is RGFA, I figured I'd give people a chance to advocate.

Advocacy isn't really the goal of the group, however we love answering
questions.

Good space combat rpgs are... non-existent IMO. But that's likely because
I'm so demanding of them.

Even so, so possiblities:

Traveller 2100 had a interesting system that represented eggshells hunting
each other with sledgehammers. Very recon and stealth focused. Does nothing
for handling multiple players per ship but could work nicely for one ship
per player as small fleets which in truth is how I imagine many settings
would have combat ships deployed.

One could take a look at the Flying Mice games
(http://flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html). I think at least 'Cold Space' was
suppose to do exactly what you're wanting however I have no experience with
them. At $10 a PDF, it's not a bad risk.