During my session last night, I introduced my players to starship combat. This was only our second session with the game totaling 12 hours of total game time. One of the players ask me a simple question that I am debating the answer to, and was hoping you all could provide some insight.

on starships that have multiple weapons such as the BTL y-wing which has

two torrent mounted twin light ion cannons (linked)

two forward mounted laser cannons (linked)

two forward mounted proton torpedo launchers (linked)

can the pilot fire more than one weapon in a round?

if this were personal combat I would say no since you only have one action each round, however since I imagine the ships are designed to fire more than one weapon at a time I am not sure of the answer.

Any thoughts you have on the situation would be helpful.

thanks in advance.

Firing a weapon is an action. So a character may only fire one weapon at a time. The exception being special talents like Master Pilot, which can allow for the pilot to fire 2 weapons, or do a number of other things.

Firing a weapon is an action. So a character may only fire one weapon at a time. The exception being special talents like Master Pilot, which can allow for the pilot to fire 2 weapons, or do a number of other things.

Slight expansion on that: An action only fires one weapon system. A weapon system can consist of multiple linked weapons. In the case of the Y-wing, the two laser cannons are linked forming a single weapon system. likewise, the two ion cannons form a second weapon system, and the two torpedo tubes form a third weapon system.

I wouldn't have a problem with using the two-weapon rules for attacking with two starship weapons. Since most of the normal attacks are Linked anyway, you'd need lots of Advantages before you'd be able to hit with the second shot.

Thank you all for your help. I had suppected that it worked the way you described but wasn't 100% sure. Thanks again everyone.

Note that if there are multiple persons on board the ship, it is possible for each of them to fire a different weapon system in a single round (assuming the controls of the vehicle are laid out in a way that permits this).

So if, for example, a freighter has a laser cannon, an ion cannon, and a concussion missile launcher, you might have one person fire the laser cannon, a second fire the ion cannon, and a third fire the missile launcher all in the same round.

However, no single weapon system can be fired more than once per round, regardless of how many persons are able to control it.

Note that if there are multiple persons on board the ship, it is possible for each of them to fire a different weapon system in a single round (assuming the controls of the vehicle are laid out in a way that permits this).

And you could always have what amounts to droid brains that can also act as gunners, in case there aren’t enough PCs to go around.

Just a thought.

During my session last night, I introduced my players to starship combat. This was only our second session with the game totaling 12 hours of total game time. One of the players ask me a simple question that I am debating the answer to, and was hoping you all could provide some insight.

on starships that have multiple weapons such as the BTL y-wing which has

two torrent mounted twin light ion cannons (linked)

two forward mounted laser cannons (linked)

two forward mounted proton torpedo launchers (linked)

can the pilot fire more than one weapon in a round?

if this were personal combat I would say no since you only have one action each round, however since I imagine the ships are designed to fire more than one weapon at a time I am not sure of the answer.

Any thoughts you have on the situation would be helpful.

thanks in advance.

Per RAW, no. Per a GM that wants to implement what they feel to be a common sense amendment to the rules that makes play more fun at the table, yes.

During my session last night, I introduced my players to starship combat. This was only our second session with the game totaling 12 hours of total game time. One of the players ask me a simple question that I am debating the answer to, and was hoping you all could provide some insight.

on starships that have multiple weapons such as the BTL y-wing which has

two torrent mounted twin light ion cannons (linked)

two forward mounted laser cannons (linked)

two forward mounted proton torpedo launchers (linked)

can the pilot fire more than one weapon in a round?

if this were personal combat I would say no since you only have one action each round, however since I imagine the ships are designed to fire more than one weapon at a time I am not sure of the answer.

Any thoughts you have on the situation would be helpful.

thanks in advance.

Per RAW, no. Per a GM that wants to implement what they feel to be a common sense amendment to the rules that makes play more fun at the table, yes.

If you want to let them, for game balance I would probably increase the difficulty (like you would for dual-wielding weapons). That's the "yes, but..." answer.

I think this is something you should use common sense with.

It would make sense for the pilot of an X-wing to be able to fire all his weapons at the same time(possibly with modifiers) but that wouldn't hold true for a freighter.

Maybe have the rules be something like this,

Firing multiple weapons: Any player manning multiple weapons may fire any or all of the weapon together as a single action provided they are fired at the same target.

For each weapon beyond the first fired, each rolls suffers an additional setback die.

Firing 1 weapon: No setback die

Firing 2 weapons: 1 setback die on each

Firing 3 weapons: 2 setback die on each

and so on and so forth.

That way, you can still go in guns blazing, its just harder to hit with each weapon as you are unable to concentrate on aiming any particular weapon.

For each weapon beyond the first fired, each rolls suffers an additional setback die.

Firing 1 weapon: No setback die

Firing 2 weapons: 1 setback die on each

Firing 3 weapons: 2 setback die on each

and so on and so forth.

That way, you can still go in guns blazing, its just harder to hit with each weapon as you are unable to concentrate on aiming any particular weapon.

l'd rather upgrade those checks, Setbacks don't feel powerfull enough to represent the risks. Similiar to autofire.

• Ships suffers system strain, lets say two per additional weapon fired.
• One attack roll, Upgrade once per additional weapon, or upgrade like minion groups (+1 dif, once upgraded)
• Two advantages means additional weapon hits.
• Despair means one of the weapons took the blunt of the system strain and is now inoperable.
• Triumph means it works perfectly.

Just an idea, but it would be close to already existing rules.

I don't see a logical reason for a ship to suffer strain for firing multiple weapons, unless they're overdrawing on the power supply which they shouldn't unless they were jury rigged on there.

I like the setback die because it represents the lack of focus on the part of the pilot. He can't direct full attention to each weapon and his accuracy suffers(but the shot doesn't get more difficult)

I don't see a logical reason for a ship to suffer strain for firing multiple weapons, unless they're overdrawing on the power supply which they shouldn't unless they were jury rigged on there.

I like the setback die because it represents the lack of focus on the part of the pilot. He can't direct full attention to each weapon and his accuracy suffers(but the shot doesn't get more difficult)

I appreciate your reasoning for Setback dice, but I don't think that jives with the system. Setback dice represent some external factor that interferes with the task (e.g. rain, an alarm, or being shot at). However, the act of shooting multiple weapons isn't an issue of the environment, nor is it something directly opposing your action (i.e. a Challenge dice).

Shooting two weapons at once is inherently more difficutly than just shooting one, which is represented by the base difficulty. I think that's why in the CRB using multiple weapons (aka dual-wielding) requires an extra Difficulty die instead of a Setback die or an upgrade to a Challenge die.

YMMV.

The game already has rules for shooting two-weapons at once, and they work really well. Better than the vast majority of games I have. I don't see the need for creating a different set of rules just for starfighters especially since most weapons are linked anyway.

And I'm not normally one to argue against house rules.

It would make sense for the pilot of an X-wing to be able to fire all his weapons at the same time(possibly with modifiers) but that wouldn't hold true for a freighter.

I have a feeling you're missing something. The X-Wing has only two weapon systems: the laser cannons and the missile launcher. You don't fire each laser cannon separately, you fire them as a group with one dice roll , and for each pair of advantages you get an extra hit.

If you mean you want to be able to fire the laser cannons in the same turn as the missiles, I don't see the point. Seems overpowered, and with the increased difficulty (whatever it is you assign) it just means more of a chance to waste your limited number of missiles.

Thats what I meant. And if I want to take the shot I see no reason I shouldn't be able to.

Maybe I'll only get one pass on the enemy and need it to count.

Okay, then I'm not sure why the dual-wielding rules don't work. Dual-wielding adds +1 difficulty, and while the systems both use the gunnery skill, at my table I'd be tempted to say the systems are used so differently it's worth at least an additional setback...holding the trigger down while trying to get a lock seems problematic and somewhat futile. Anything less feels like a freebie.

So once that's set and you roll the dice, you still need two advantages to hit with the second weapon, and further advantages to trigger any Linked or Guided qualities. If you don't require the extra advantages for the second weapon to hit, that also feels like a freebie.

Anyway, with YYYG it *may* start to pay off...especially if other pilots are passing you boost dice.