Space Combat Example

By anmay73, in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion RPG

Fellow gamers

I would like to start a post of exmples that would help GM's and players visualize and gain ideas on how to run a exciting space combat with the given rules. I sorely miss a roleplaying example of the space combat like they did with the rp example early in the book.

If you could write a small example of how you setup your space combat and the narrative referencing the rules I think we could make a great instructive post that everyone could use for ideas.

Thanks

Here is an example of ship combat.

It's an example completely based off of actual play, with the actual rolls.

It may not be exactly what everyone is looking for, but since people are always asking for examples of ship combat, I thought I would post it.

A Rebel YT-1300 and Headhunter fighter are examining a derelict Star Destroyer, ruined in some past space battle, when an Imperial TIE fighter and YT-2400 fly into view.

Here's how initiative pans out.

1 - Imp

2- Imp

3 - Reb

4 - Reb

5 - Imp

6 - Reb

7 - Imp

8 - Reb

All at Speed 3, Short Range to start. Close range with the Derelict.

Round 1 - The TIE flies into close range and opens fire on the Headhunter.

Rolls 1 success, 3 Threat. Hits the Headhunter for 7-3=4 Points, and spends 3 threat to have difficulty of all shots against it this round -1 difficulty.

It flies straight into the Headhunter, shots bouncing off the Headhunters hull, but the TIE pilot barely pulls up in time to avoid crashing into the derelict Star Destroyer, and swerves into open space where he is vulnerable!

The Imp pilot of the YT-2400 flies to Close range.

The Headhunter pilot increases his speed to 4, and wingtip lasers at the TIE.

1 success, 2 advantage. Activates Linked for 2 6-2=4 damage hits.

The rebel pilot guns it and swerves around on the TIE fighter. Unleashing his wingtip lasers, the TIE explodes in a fireball.

The Rebel co-pilot makes a pilot check to try to make the Pilots next check easier. 0 success, 2 advantage. He fails to help the pilot, but notices a chance for the Headhunter to slip behind the YT-2400 (giving him as Boost to next shot.)

The Co-Pilot also angles all the YT-1300 deflectors to aft.

The Imp co-pilot tries to boost shields and rolls no successes.

He angles deflectors to the front.

The rebel gunner fires his laser turret. He rolls 5 Threat!

He upgrades the difficulty of the Reb Pilots next roll.

The YT-1300 gunner opens fire with the turret on the Imperials in the YT-2400 freighter, but he misses and strafes the side of the derelict, blowing bits off that become dangerous space debris.

The Imp gunner fires at the Headhunter.

2 Success, 4 Threat.

The Imp Pilot has a Difficulty Upgrade to next roll due to the debris as well, and the Headhunter takes 8-3=5 Damage! Another hit will kill him, as his Hull Trauma is now 9, right at the threshold!

The gunner in the YT-2400 has Imperial training and strafes the Headhunter with laser fire. His shots also blow some debris off the derelict, causing even more space obstacles.

The Rebel pilot turns the YT-1300 and attempts to thread through a hole in the derelicts structure to escape the battle.

He rolls a Failure, and reduces speed by 1 due to failure.

The pilot can't find an opening large enough as he skims the surface.

Round 2

The Imp gunner fires at the Headhunter again.

Failure with 1 Advantage!

He adds a boost onto his next allies action.

The imp gunners next shots miss the Headhunter, but cause him to swerve defensively.

The Imp pilot spins the YT-2400, performing Evasive maneuvers , upgrading all shots against them, and all their own.

The Reb Headhunter pilot performs Stay On Target, and upgrades his shots, and those against him. He fires at the YT-2400 with linked Concussion Missiles. 1 success, 2 threat. The Headhunter takes 2 Strain, and the YT-2400 takes 7-4(negated by Breach 4)= 7 Damage.

The Headhunter, holding tight to the YT-2400 despite the danger he is in, fires off a missile volley at the Imperial freighter. One of the missiles impacts on the freighter, doing moderate hull damage.

The Reb Gunner fires at the YT-2400. He rolls 0 success, 1 Triumph.

He spends the Triumph to remove the Headhunter safely from the battle.

The YT-1300's gunner sees that the Headhunter is in danger of destruction, and takes a chance firing at the derelict and sending a cloud of debris up which cloaks the Headhunter long enough for it to make an escape .

The Imp co-pilot attempts to reduce Hull Trauma after spending his maneuver to move to the hull damaged section, rolling only 2 Advantages. He gives the pilot a Boost on his next action.

Running to where the hull took a hit from the missiles, the co-pilot sees that the damage is not repairable at this time, but he does reroute some power from damaged couplings.

The Reb Pilot flies out to Short Range of the YT-2400.

The Reb Co-Pilot flies into Engaged with the Derelict. (YT-1300 takes 2 Strain for a second maneuver)

The GM decides that the derelict adds 2 setback dice to the YT-1300 for anyone not engaged with the derelict. Being engaged with the derelict also causes pilots to roll checks for actions that normally would not require them, as well as make required rolls more difficult.

Round 3

The Imp Pilot flies into Close Range with the YT-1300.

The co-pilot spends his maneuver to move back to his seat, and flies into Engaged with the derelict. YT-2400 takes 2 strain.

The Rebel freighter dove in to dangerously strafe the wreckage, and the Imperial freighter followed closely behind it.

The reb pilot increases Speed to 3 and performs Stay on Target (2 Strain for a second maneuver to both the ship and the pilot.)

This requires a roll due to the proximity to the Derelict.

1 Success, 2 Threat, 1 Despair! The YT-1300 performs the maneuver but takes 2 Strain, and has a collision! Crit roll is 50-20(shields)=30 Knocked off course! He can't make maneuvers till he corrects his course with another roll.

The Rebel Pilot is determined to line up a steady shot for the gunner, but he holds the position a moment too long and collides with a turret on the derelict Star Destroyer. The Rebel YT-1300 careens off, out of control as it flies through the wreckage.

The reb gunner fires. Failure and 4 Threat!

The gunner is bouncing all over thanks to the collision, getting a setback to next shot, and offering the enemy gunner a Boost.

The imp gunner fires. 4 successes! Damage 10-3=7 Hull Trauma.

The Imperial gunner takes the opportunity to line up a shot with the out of control YT-1300 and strafes along its hull with fire.

The reb co-pilot attempts to give the pilot some help with his next check.

0 success, but 3 Advantage.

He manages to pull up enough to avoid the wreckage of the derelict for 1 round. (This will make the Pilots next Out of Control check a bit easier, not adding the terrain difficulty.)

Round 4

The imp Gunner fires again. 1 success, 3 Threat, 2 Triumph!

The YT-2400 takes 3 Strain, and the GM and players agree to let the 2 Triumph be used to take out the YT-1300 engines. The wounded ship skims to a stop along the derelict, and the Imps prepare for boarding!

that was awesome...
the Imps board and...what? after reading through it all i'm super curious now :)

Thanks! I have a lot of fun with space combat. It's not at all confusing when you treat it just like personal combat, and play a bit free and loose (which is how I think this entire system was designed.)

Here's one of my first I ran with my group. I don't have the full play by play, but I'll break it down and also add in commentary on what I'd do differently.

The party starts on Polis Massa. It's a group of 5, A smuggler Scoundrel, an Ace Pilot, a BH Survivialist, a HG Marauder/Bodyguard and a Tech Slicer/Exile. The group has a YT-1300 (The Kryat Fang from the Beginner box I ran the smuggler through that got it all started) and a Dunelizard.

They were there to drop off supplies to a contact at a werehouse and trouble brewed when some crates that had been there earlier were on a time release and mutated things came out and killed most of the workers. A named NPC and the party prevail and find on their sensors incoming trouble. A pirate force seeded the warehouse with their critters and came to collect after everyone should be dead.

The party races back to their ships, narrowly avoids being sucked into space as the connecting tunnels are bombed to isolate the warehouse and they go to join the space fight.

Opening Scene:

There is a CR90 (CR92 to be exact, but didn't have the stats at the time) modifered corvette that starts at Extreme range. I knew from the start I didn't want it to really be involved in the fight, but it's presence was to help motivate and guide the scene. It's a pirate cruiser and the players make a Know: underworld roll to know a bit about them.

Several flights (minons) of Z75 are flying Caps in pairs for 8 total. They are mopping up the local defense force.

Three tugs were over the warehouse area that had been opened up to space. They were pulling out containers and running them back to the CR90 Cap ship. At the start, two were cargoless and moving to grab containers and one was hauling something and was halfway there.

Change: I had them use NPC slots. I would simply have them go at set times in the round next time Makes running them easier. I wouldn't add them all the end, but spread them out so the party could have choices to make. I would probably make them have a separate group type so I can move any of them in any order, but only the Tugs on that slot.

A skipray blast boat, being piloted by a Duros Nemesis and some support NPCs for remainder of the crew. The Smuggler is Corellian and I added him as a hope (which paid off) that he could be a returning bad guy. He has now survived two encounters the party was in by the skin of his blue chiny chin chin.

Future Change: I ran the 4 groups of Z95s plus 3 NPCs slots for the Blast boat + the Tugs. I'd cut it down to 5 groups and make the Blastboast have 2 base manuvers and actions to represent the extra crew and do it all at once (So at most it was doing 3 manuevers, 2 of which could be pilot with that causing strain, and 2 actions). Again this is an effort to keep the action flowing smoother and faster.

Since this was at Polis Massa, there were some Asteroid groups in stable orbit, but could (and were) used if the group went to them. Also to keep things simple, I let the party start at max speed as they had time to race there off camera and accelerate to attack speed before we hit the scene.

Turn 1:

The group quickly decided to let the Tug that was enroute to cap ship go. The Dunelizard broke off to grab a Z95 flight and move them near an asteroid while the Fang charged in and grabbed another Z95 flight flying Cap. The Dunelizard did some fancy flying and started to do the fighter pilot dance. The Fang wiped out their flight of Z95s (Two solid gunners and they have a targeting upgrade mod), but took some in return. The Blastboast rolled closer and let the group learn what torps are BAD.

Tug moves to escape, the other two flub rolls to get some cargo moving.

The other Z95s start to close distance.

Turn 2-3:

The Fang and the Blastboat start to dance, the fang having some luck with their shields while grazing the blast boat. The Dunelizard leads now two flights into the asteroid field and lets space rocks do the talking. He dances through, they aren't so lucky and he trims the pursuit count.

the final flight of Z95's jump on the Fang and its starting to look bad for the YT.

The tugs continue to try to lift cargo. One gets a crate out, which was done on a bad guys threat roll.

Final turns:

Out of one of the crates a Ywing busts loose. It's being piloted by the NPC contact they had and he joins the fight with a token NPC goob that they party managed to save depsite the odds as his gunner. The gunner blasts a tug and the Y-Wing unloads torps onto the blastboat. This, coupled with the damage from the Fang puts the Blast Boat exactly at his Hull threshold. There was also threat on the roll so the blast boat goes spinning away with the hit, getting some distance from the Fang and then recovers and runs.

the Fang lets him run as they don't want to get close to the CR90 and they focus on the Z95's. The Dunelizard pilot comes out of the Asteroid and blasts another Headhunter while the others start to bug out. The pirates, now losing ships and already got a bit of the cargo, decide to call it a day and flee with their haul.

Conclusion:

All in all, the battle went well. It had terrain, it also had a lot of stuff going on. The party wasn't there to wipe out the enemy, but to drive them off. The enemy wasn't there to kill the party, but to get loot. I gave the party choices to make, some of them BAD choices (like chasing the Tug that started at Medium range from an Assassin class Corvette.) They accepted some losses to save the great whole and pulled it off nicely.

As I said above, I'd condense my initiative tree a bit. The only other big thing would be timing of the Y-Wing reinforcement. He changed the tide, but in all likelyhood he saved the Fang from getting blasted by the more heavily armed blast boat.

All the PCs had to work overtime as 4 people on a ship is a good amount of plenty to do and not really enough people to do it all.