Capital Ship Battle Rules?

[CRMcNeill]

Agreed. No real problems beyond the tentativeness from trying out an unfamiliar rule, but that's to be expected. Having a dry run to identify rough spots and ways to streamline the system was very wise, IMO, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things work out if we can fit another one in.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[The Bissler]

[CRMcNeill]

Okay, so, here's what The Bissler and I have so far. This is still a work in progress, but it has survived a round of playtesting, and this series of posts will reflect some alterations we've made to clean up and streamline gameplay.

First up, is...

The Command Deck:




Each Capital-scale ship has a Command Deck document for the ship's Captain to use. Its prime purpose is to provide quick-reference information to allow a Captain to operate his ship. It features the following information:

Capital Ship Operation: This value is equal to Capital Skill Piloting and represents the die code for any required Piloting or Damage Control rolls.

Initiative: The die code used to determine a ship's Initiative for the turn. It is calculated by adding the Captain's Tactics + Crew Sensors skills and dividing by 2 (rounding up if it is an odd number.)

Initiative Bonus Tracker: Where the current Initiative Bonus (if any) is recorded. See Initiative Phase.

Command: The die code for the Captain's Command Roll.

Command Difficulty: The difficulty required for the Captain to successfully Command their ship in any given turn.

Command Tracker: A place to note current skill bonuses/penalties in relation to the current Command Roll.

Ship Defence: The number entered here is based on the Manoeuvrability of the ship plus the Capital Ship Piloting. When an enemy ship targets the ship, this will be added to the range difficulty.

Space: How fast the ship can move.

Hull: The hull die code.

Shields: The shields die code.

Weapons: Each type of weapon used in a Capital Ship is listed and contains the following information:

Gunnery Fire Control: A single statistic which combines both the Capital Gunnery Skill and the Fire Control into a single die code.

Battery Dice: The number of dice that can be added either to Gunnery Fire Control or Damage. More on this later.

Damage: The die code rolled to apply the damage caused by the weapon when it hits. This is rolled against the enemy ship's Hull and/or Shields.

Range: This shows the weapon's Short, Medium and Long-Ranges. Anything less than short range is considered to be Point Blank Range.

Battery Dice Damage Allocation Limitation: Shows the limitations of how many Battery Dice can be added to Damage. More on this later also.

Silhouette: This shows the fire arcs on a ship, used to determine which weapons are firing or which section of the ship is being hit.

_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

Turn Sequence:

Each turn has a set sequence which is run as follows:

1) Initiative Phase
2) Command Phase
3) Damage Control Phase
4) Action Phase
5) Movement Phase

Initiative Phase:

As a new turn begins, the Initiative order for each ship has to be resolved. To determine this, each ship's Captain makes an Initiative roll (equal to Crew Sensors skill + Tactics / 2, rounding up any half pips). To represent the battle of wits which is being fought between the different tacticians, an Initiative roll is made every turn. This means there may be ebb and flow in who acts first from turn to turn! When Capital Ships are involved, the order of initiative may prove crucial!

The Captain who wins the roll gains a +2 to future attempts to regain the Initiative. This bonus is cumulative until the Initiative is lost. All bonuses are reset once Initiative has been regained. The Initiative Bonus should be noted on the Initiative Bonus Tracker on the Command Deck.

Example: Nowhere's Captain has 5D Initiative while the Captain of an ISD has 4D Initiative. They roll 15 and 11 respectively, and Nowhere's Captain wins Initiative on Round One.

In Round Two, both Captains roll Initiative, but Nowhere's Captain adds 2 to his roll for his Initiative Bonus. Nowhere's Captain rolls 17 and the ISD Captain rolls 18. Nowhere's Captain retains Initiative for a second turn because of his +2 bonus.

In Round Three, they will try again, only now Nowhere's Captain has +4 as his Initiative Bonus. Nowhere's Captain rolls 12, but even the +4 Initiative Bonus cannot stop the ISD Captain retaking Initiative as he rolls 19! Next turn, Nowhere's Captain will attempt to regain the Initiative, but this time the ISD Captain will add +2 to his Initiative!

If one player wins Initiative by 10+ points, they have pulled off a Tactical Masterstroke. This allows ships to make their move in the Action Phase rather than in the Movement Phase as is usual. See the Action Phase for more on this.

Command Phase:

Command Roll: The Ship's Captain is the key character in determining a vessel's success in any given turn. All Captains make their Command Roll with the difficulty based on the number of crew on board the ship (see Appendix A). For the purposes of my group, the difficulty to successfully Command Nowhere is 12. (It should be 15, but I have reduced the difficulty as the ship is mostly manned by droids who are more compliant than a human/alien crew), while the difficulty for an Imperial Star Destroyer is 17. Once the roll has been made, consult the following table:

Command Roll Result:
Success: For every 3 points above target roll, mark one pip to the positive side of the Command Tracker.
Failure: For every 3 points below target roll, mark one pip on the negative side of the Command Tracker.

The result is applied as a bonus/penalty to all of the ship's skill rolls for the turn.

Example: Nowhere's Captain rolls a Command roll of 25, a whopping 13 points over the target of 12! All of Nowhere's skill rolls are now boosted by 1D+1 for the turn. Meanwhile, the Captain of the ISD rolls 10 for his Command and all of his ship's skill rolls are made with a -2 to the rolls.


Angle Deflector Shields: Deflector shields should be allocated to the required arcs during this phase. You have enough dice to roll and crews are unlikely to fail Capital Shields rolls. Simply allocate your shields to whichever arcs you wish (front, back, left and/or right). Obviously, you will want to put most shields into the arc(s) most under threat - but this may not always be an easy decision!

Damage Control Phase:

Ships that have been damaged may attempt repairs in this phase. Until repaired, ships which have damage incur the following crew penalties and associated rolls:

Lightly Damaged: -1D
Heavily Damaged: -2D
Severely Damaged: -3D

To repair damage, a Capital Ship Operation roll is made. A Captain can declare that he is applying multiple actions to repairing the ship, in which case +1D is added to the roll to repair the damage per additional action carried out - however, the Multiple Actions Penalty will be applied to all subsequent rolls this turn. The difficulties required to repair damage are as follows:

Lightly Damaged: 10
Heavily Damaged: 20
Severely Damaged: 30

If the roll is successful, the damage is fully repaired. If the roll is failed by 10 or less, damage drops one level. If it is failed by 11 or more, the damage is unchanged.

Example: The ISD is Heavily Damaged. Their Capital Ship Operation is usually 5D+1, but has been reduced to 3D+1. A roll of 20 is required to repair the damage, unlikely with the dice at hand. The Captain decides to order his crew to perform 3 Damage Repair rolls, boosting the roll to 6D+1. He rolls 23 - success! However, all of his subsequent rolls for the turn will incur the MAP of -2D!

Action Phase:

All ships unleash devastating volleys during the Action Phase. The first Captain to fire is the one with the highest Initiative roll. The Captain with the next highest Initiative roll fires next, and so on. Captains may want to fire one or several weapons during his action before passing play to the next Captain. Once all Captains have completed their action(s), the play returns to the first Captain and the same process is repeated until all Captains have exhausted firing all of their weapons.

Firing: A Captain can opt to fire a single weapon or several weapons during his turn. If he fires a single weapon, he performs the action as the following rules set out. However, if the Captain opts to fire more than one weapon, Multiple Action Penalties will be applied.

Example: The Captain decides to fire two weapons from the front arc and two from the left arc - four in total. His Gunnery Fire Control rolls will each suffer a -3D penalty.

Targeting & Fire Arcs: Capital Ships can target enemy ships in each fire arc (i.e. left, right, front, and, occasionally, rear). Enemy ships which lie within a particular fire arc can be targeted with a single or multiple weapons on that arc. Note that an enemy ship may not be targeted by weapons from any more than one arc from a firing ship.

Example: A Star Destroyer has a YT-1300 freighter and a Corellian Corvette in its left arc, and a Mon Calamari Cruiser lies in both its left and front arcs. The Star Destroyer may not fire more than one arc at the Mon Calamari cruiser and so opts to fire all of its front arc weapons at it. It may split the weapons on its left arc to fire upon both the YT-1300 freighter and the Corellian Corvette - or fire both weapons at one of those two targets.

A single Gunnery Fire Control roll is made each turn for each weapon type on a Capital Ship on each arc. e.g. One roll for all Turbolasers, and one for all Ion Cannon. If the roll to hit exceeds the Range Difficulty plus the Ship Defence, roll for damage. Both the Gunnery Fire Control roll and/or the Damage roll can be improved upon with Battery Dice (see below).

Example:
Front Arc: The Star Destroyer fires its Turbolasers and Ion Cannon at the Mon Calamari Cruiser. A Gunnery Fire Control roll to hit is made for each weapon.
Left Arc: The Star Destroyer opts to fire its Turbolasers at the Corellian Corvette and its Ion Cannon at the YT-1300. A Gunnery Fire Control roll to hit is made for each weapon at the relevant target.

Battery Dice: To represent the sheer scale of coordinated firepower from a capital ship, the weapons receive Battery Dice which can be used to either bolster the Gunnery Fire Control or Damage Dice. The Battery Dice are shown under the Fire Arc stat on the Capital Ships. These must be allocated before any rolls are made - or are lost if they are not.

Battery Dice and Range: The power of a Battery is diminished at longer range. When assigning Battery Dice, the maximum number of dice you can assign to Damage rolls is reduced as follows:- Subtract -1D for Short Range, -2D for Medium Range, and -3D for Long Range. There is no cap to assigning Battery dice for Point Blank fire.

Example:
Front Arc: Both the Turbolasers and the Ion Cannon each benefit from 4D Battery Dice on the front of the Star Destroyer. The Mon Calamari ship is at Medium Range which reduces the number of Battery Dice which can be applied to Damage by -2D, so a maximum of 2 of the 4 Battery Dice can be placed into Damage. The Commander decides to put 2D into both the Gunnery Fire Control roll to hit and 2D into the Damage roll, thereby increasing both rolls by 2D each.
Left Arc: The Turbolaser has 4D Battery Dice while the Ion Cannon has 3D+2 Battery Dice. The Corellian Corvette and the YT-1300 are at short range which reduces the number of Battery Dice which can be applied to Damage by -1D, meaning a maximum of 3D Battery Dice can be added to the Turbolaser Damage roll. Similarly, the maximum Battery Dice that can be put into Damage for the Ion Cannon is 2D+2. For the Turbolaser attack on the Corellian Corvette, the Commander puts 2D into the roll to hit and 2D into damage, while, mindful of the added difficulty of hitting a smaller scale target, adds all 3D+2 of the Battery Dice to the Gunnery Fire Control for the Ion Cannon attack on the YT-1300.


Targeting a Specific Location: A Gunner can target a particular system on a ship: Manoeuvring, Sensors, Weapons, Hyperdrive, Shields or Engines. The Gunner receives a 6 penalty, but if he hits can apply Damage directly to the targeted section. For a hit which causes a Severely Damaged outcome, use the following results:

Manoeuvring = Controls Damaged
Shields = Overloaded Reactor
Engines = Dead In Space

Tactical Masterstroke: As mentioned earlier, a ship with a Captain who achieved a Tactical Masterstroke during their Initiative roll may move their ship during the Action Phase. The movement counts as an action and contributes to Multiple Action Penalties if used in conjunction with other attacks. The major advantage of a Tactical Masterstroke is that you may fire at an enemy ship from one fire arc, then fire at it again from another fire arc in the same turn! In addition, the manoeuvre may move you into an arc which is undefended by shields placed during the Command Phase! Note that you may NOT use a Tactical Masterstroke to make a second attack from a Fire Arc from which you've already fired from this turn.
A Force Point may be spent to activate a Tactical Masterstroke.

Movement Phase:

Players take turns at moving their respective vessels, with the Captain with the lowest Initiative score moving their ship first.

Unless the Capital Ship is performing a tricky manoeuvre (such as navigating asteroids or flying close to other Capital-size ships), it is assumed that the Capital Ship is in open space and can be moved as desired, within movement limitations (namely the ship's speed, i.e.Space). No rolls are required for making open space moves. Checks will be required if flying through debris / asteroid fields and the like.

Note that, like other Spacecraft, Capital Ships may not fire on a turn that they move All-Out (quadruple Space). This is because all power is being distributed to the ship's engines.

Turning: Capital Ships are not built for manoeuvrability. A Capital Ship may only turn up to 90 degrees if flying at cautious speed, or up to 45 degrees at any other speed. This means that a ship would take two turns at cautious speed to turn right around, or four turns at any other speed.

_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[CRMcNeill]

A lot of what's left is pretty much quoted verbatim from some of my other posts, so I'm just going to provide links, with any changes noted below the link:

Alternate Starship Damage Chart, with the following alteration:

PASSENGER DAMAGE
When calculating damage to crew and passengers aboard larger ships (with crews in the dozens to hundreds of thousands), use the following penalties, applied to the ship's Crew Skill dice values, representing how crew casualties affect the crew's ability as a whole to operate the ship.
Lightly Damaged - -1D
Heavily Damaged - -2D
Severely Damaged - -3D
Catastrophic Damage - Special: reserved for PC manned ships. Characters will have an indeterminate number of rounds to evacuate the ship before it is Destroyed.
Destroyed - All crew killed. The only exceptions will be NPCs who managed to make it to escape pods with seconds to spare. This allows the GM to preserve the life of major villains and such in the interests of continuing the story.

Command Difficulty based on Crew Size

As I said above, we're still hammering out some of the details, but it worked quite well at the "table" (Roll20), and we're well on our way toward patching up what didn't.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Raven Redstar]

So cool. I'm looking forward to potentially ending up with my Duros smuggler as captain of an alliance capital ship. Long way to go on that story.
_________________
RR
________________________________________________________________

[CRMcNeill]

[The Bissler]

[The Bissler]

Okay, based on the rules that have been evolving on this thread, I thought some of you might be interesting to see how it actually works in practice! Here's a turn by turn (fairly detailed) battle report. Comments and discussion very much welcomed!

http://thebissler.blogspot.com/2020/08/star-wars-d6-capital-ship-play-test.html

[Raven Redstar]

I really feel like the optional rules from Rules of Engagement would add some spunk to the slugging match. For every X number of points an attack beats the difficulty the attack gets +1 damage. There were a couple of times where the attack roll blew way over the target difficulty, and these can be explained as lucky hits in the barrage or whatever. I think to keep it from getting too crazy, do a +1 Damage for every 5 over the difficulty. This will really encourage captains to continue evasive maneuvering during engagements.

Also, maybe a nitpick, but "Fly Casual" does not scream capital ship engagement, though I do appreciate the Star Wars reference. Maybe something like: "Steady On" or "Ahead Full". Or something along those lines to indicate normal maneuvering patterns as opposed to evasive maneuvers?
_________________
RR
________________________________________________________________

[The Bissler]

[CRMcNeill]

[Raven Redstar]

I'm a fan of "Steady As She Goes." So count that as +1 vote. You could shorten it to an acronym "S.A.S.G" for type in play reports.

But, I'm curious. Have you done any other ship conversions to the new system? I was thinking it might be fun to fool around with my Privateer Solo campaign and use these rules for some capital ship battles for prizes!


_________________
RR
________________________________________________________________

[CRMcNeill]

[The Bissler]