I like the abstract nature of space combat in AoR, but I can't stop thinking about the fleet of awesome looking models I have for X-Wing. Has anyone successfully incorporated X-Wing into their RPG? The benefits are that maneuvering, positioning and shield facing will make a difference (eliminating 'I put all my shields to the front, all that time') and that it simply looks awesome. The downside is that a game of x-wing in the middle of your RPG could take a long time and may leave some players bored.

Two points I think need to be focused upon,

1) The game needs to be quick.

2) PC abilities need to be able to shine. Co-pilots & crew on a YT-1300 need to have an impact and pilot abilities need to be represented.

The fact that the players will probably only be running 1-6 ships will help. If they're all pilots, thats 1 ship each. The GM then needs to make sure he doesn't throw 16 TIEs at them. Maybe an extremely abstracted use of the X-Wing rules, focusing on ship placement and leaving the dice and states to the RPG?

What are your thoughts?

Any success (or not so successful) stories out there?

Jake

I think just use the models and use the rules in the RPG. The models allow players to enjoy the visualization aspect and encourage them to be narrative in their maneuvers and actions not bound by technical rules about anything. Basically kids playing with toys and the added in dice rolls. Sounds fun to me.

I'm with 2P51 on this.

The minis are awesome, and I reckon they'd aid immersion. But the RPG rules are clearly designed around the narrative (there seems to be a fair degree of abstraction within all the RPGs combat rules), while the minis game rules have a very different focus.

Using the minis is fine, If nothing else, it adds a visual element to space combat encounters that will help the players track what's going on.

However, the rules are entirely too different to be used in AoR (or EotE, where this same topic has come up several times in the past). There was a chap over on the d20 Radio Forums that tried to do a conversion, but after a brief effort at converting X-Wing game rules into EotE traits, he seems to have moved on to other things.

I have been debating this myself.

Think I might just stick with the RPG rather than spend money, and brain cells, on a different game. Besides, I'm not likely to use X-Wings and Tie Fighters which makes having to spend money on a starter to get the rules pointless.

As has been said, there's nothing wrong with using the cool models.

I've found that using minis with the narrative doesn't work for my group per se.. they expect to make it much more tactical once they can see the tactical conditions. And I cannot blame them.

I would think the minis would make it easier to track movement and keep track of distances. I find that to be the hardest part of purely abstract space combat. There are lots of things moving around and different rates of speed and it gets too confusing to keep track of in me noggin.

For those that have X-wing minis, what are they, plastic? Nice quality? The line must be doing well they seem to be chugging along adding them.

For those that have X-wing minis, what are they, plastic? Nice quality? The line must be doing well they seem to be chugging along adding them.

Best-looking Star Wars fighter/transport minis I've ever seen. If you have some, you're gonna wanna find a way to work 'em into your game, 'cause they look that good. Unnecessary to be sure, but it's easy to see why this subject keeps coming up...

We use the models, but use the RPG rules.

Its hard to think tactically without some form of imagery, and if you are roleplaying someone in a battle you should be thinking tactically most of the time. What we usually do is use counters from an old wargame and homemade maps to keep track of ships, planets, asteroids, stations and when needed gravity wells.

Dunno if this will interest anyone, but I use the X-Wing miniatures game to do space combat and my group likes it. It's definitely something that will work for some and not others. I wrote a guide in the EotE forums to help out, I'll re-post it here.

X-Wing Conversion Book

Dunno if this will interest anyone, but I use the X-Wing miniatures game to do space combat and my group likes it. It's definitely something that will work for some and not others. I wrote a guide in the EotE forums to help out, I'll re-post it here.

X-Wing Conversion Book

Nice.

Nice.

Thanks! It's a little out of date, as it was done prior to the Hired Guns splatbook and some of the new miniatures, but's its a good place to start, and I hoped it gives people somewhere to wade in on their own ideas.

That said, I've played with it already, but the more people that do, the more weird situations that come up, so if anyone runs into something and wants to update me on a call they needed to make or a way a rule would work better, I'd really appreciate the feedback!

My guys are/were big mini players. We haven't used the ship combat stuff yet and I don't know how in their mini-centric mentalities they will take to the RPG rules. I was wondering about using the mini game.

Awesome

Fantastic. Good input guys. Nice work Kyla.
As an old Warhammer guy, I have a driving need to use minis excessively. I think we'll probably be using them in a vague AD&D representative way with the RPG rules. We should be playing soon, I'll have to put up some pix.

I solved the minis issue by adding movement units and mu based ranges.

1 MU = Close

4 Mu = short

9 MU = Medium

16 MU = Long

25 Mu = Extreme

Speed = MU per Maneuver

I have a system I use face and face and play by post that is a hybrid of the X-Wing and FFG systems. After some work I'm getting to like it.

http://dailydoserpg.com/rpg/ship_combat.htm

It has the maneuvers of X-wing but still uses the multiple success and advantages to allow for random and fun moves.

man, these x-wing conversations have been going on for so long now, it's crazy. i like using the minis just for visualization purposes, but the only way i think i'd ever pull out the full game and adapt rules would be in a solo campaign. the risks are too great that someone at the table will get bored with the tedium of the rules mashup or the likelihood that they don't have anything to contribute diminishes the aspect of narrating cinematically the combat.

i would suggest just playing x-wing one day and role-play whatever story you want over the action as you do so. but it's getting a little tiring to hear that space combat just isn't interesting and justifies these intricate rules taped on. the whole purpose of a session in AoR and EotE is to keep things simple and fun. if you're coming from tactical rpg's and find it difficult, try to not use minis at all for a session and then only slowly incorporate them back in on non-gridded surfaces. you'll find that with enough practice, your players will get the hang of it and realize that some days are meant for x-wing and others are for roleplaying.

apologies for any of this sounding snarky...i had to postpone an x-wing session this evening to a later date and i had really been looking forward to it.

I've used the models in EotE to great effect, but that's because the group had one ship, so it was easy to draw concentric circles and put ships in appropriate range bands. This system breaks down really quickly with 2 player ships, though.

I've not added any new rules, I just use the models because I have them and they're cool and the visual aid is useful.

Some have suggested using colored pipe cleaners to denote range between different models; I have yet to try this at my table, and I'm interested to see what you all have come up with.