MANOEUVRE ACTIONS

Basic Maneuvering for a voidship requires no test. A vessel of any size decides at the start of its turn two things. First, the helmsman chooses if the vessel is moving at half, or full power. At half-power, a vessel can move at a maximum of half its speed value. If it is below this value, it accelerates forward until it reaches this speed, gaining +2 VU for every turn it accelerates at half speed for a Light-Cruiser or smaller sized vessel, and +1 VU for cruiser sized vessels. If above this value, it decelerates at the same rate per turn until it reaches half-speed. If moving at full power, the vessel moves at a maximum of its full Speed Value. If below, it will accelerate at a rate of +4 for Light-Cruiser or smaller vessels, and +2 for Cruisers or larger. At the end of any such move, a vessel may turn up to 90° for smaller vessels and 45° for Cruisers or larger.

For all of the following manoeuvres, the helmsman or directing character adds the vessels Manoeuvrability rating to the test.

Adjust Bearing

This maneuvre is used to make course corrections for the vessel, allowing it to turn faster in combat.

First, the ship decides if it is moving at half, or full-power this turn. The ship's helmsman or a directing character attempts a Challenging (+0) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test for a vessel moving at half-power or a Difficult (-10) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test for moving at full-power. A Success and every additional Degree after it allows the vessel to turn 1 VU earlier during its movement to a minimum of 1 VU for vessels moving at half power and 2 VU for vessels at full power.

Adjust Speed

This manoeuvre is used to either slow or accelerate a vessel faster.

First, the ship decides if it is moving at half, or full-power this turn. The ship's helmsman or a directing character attempts a Challenging (+0) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test. On a Success and every additional Degree, the vessel may slow down or accelerate 1 VU more this turn. See basic manoeuvring for the rules on acceleration.

Adjust Speed and Bearing

The helmsman attempts the difficult task of both altering the ship's course quickly, while also pushing the engines to either slow, or accelerate it along its course.

First, the ship decides if it is moving at half, or full-power this turn. The ship's helmsman or a directing character attempts a Difficult (-10) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test for a vessel moving at half-power or a Hard (-20) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test for moving at full-power. On a Success and every additional Degree, the vessel gains the benefits of both Adjust Bearing and Adjust Speed for that many Degrees of Success.

Come to New Heading

Pushing his ship to the limits of its capability, the captain orders a radical course correction.

Because of the vast energies required to attempt this manoeuvre, a vessel must be at full-power during this turn, as power is redirected to the thrusters. The helmsman or directing character then attempts a Hard (-20) Pilot (Spacecraft)(Int) test. On a failure, the vessel may turn once at the halfway point on its movement this turn. On a Success, it may turn once at the halfway point and once more at the end of its movement. Because of the stresses involved during this time, the vessel does not alter its speed even if it is below its full speed value and suffers a -20 penalty on any Shooting Actions this turn.

Have these been playtested? It seems like they'd add more complications to an already convoluted system.

They have in a limited fashion, mostly just me running test scenarios. In practice, they don't add any real time to the game, as movement boils down to just comparing current speed to half- and full-speed and applying relevant modifers.
What it does do, however, is stop PCs from doing ridiculously stupid things like 17 Speed Cruisers. It also makes combat feel more cinematic, as a Cruiser that is stopped will take 3 Rounds to get to Full Speed, as its a lumbering piece of adamantium, unless a talented helmsman uses Adjust Speed to push it along by managing the thrust.

Well, you have to track "current speed" then, rather than the binary half/full state.

I do like the idea - I'm big on verisimilitude - but over time I've come to accept that most people aren't looking to play a simulation, more's the pity :/

Well for NPC ships that is done by me (curse/blessing of the GM), and for the party well its just one number. But I am lucky to have a group that actually plan naval combat out, and they look at where enemy ships are where they will go over the course of a turn or even multiple turns.

But yes, you are right, the D&D saturated players today do not want "realistic" rules most of the time, because they want to think of themselves as some kind of superhumans.
Imo there's Deathwatch for that

Don't get me wrong, they're not spoilt children, it's just too much detail can bog a game down. I meant 'simulation' in the same sense as a computer game; I play a version of Silent Hunter III modded to be ultra-realistic, but I'm not going to insist my players learn about inertia and delta-v to play Eclipse Phase , for example

Heh. I remember the first Traveller computer game. You had to use the auto-pilot program. Flying manually result in slinging yourself way off-target unless you were trying to get to the 100-dia. jump mark, in which case you'd run yourself out of fuel. I loved the Silent Hunter when it first came out back in the 80s. I picked up a copy of Doenitz's U-Boat Commander and put it to the test. My scores went through the ceiling. Most people watching me play, though, would get sooooo bored. They couldn't believe I'd take that long to set up an attack run. Yeah, simulations are just fine, but not for the tabletop. Abstraction is your friend. I'd still like to see an abstraction of the space combat where miniatures and maps aren't needed at all.

Haha, at the risk of derailing the thread: I do all my attack and course calculations by hand. Nothing beats the thrill of finding a ship exactly where you calculated it would be after a six-hour interception.

The book does suggest conducting space battles entirely narratively, but while I've adopted a half-and-half approach to personal combat I think the evoking of Age-of-Sail naval combat and submarine warfare requires a certain robustness in ranges and facings. Setting up a manoeuvre and bringing an enemy into range of your broadsides two turns later is just too satisfying to pass up

The abstract method only works when there are 2 ships involved. At least, that's my experience. Admittedly, I only ran things that way the time I ran RT with Savage Worlds rules.

All True Astrogators use the rules for Attack Vector: Tactical to figure out where their ships are in 3D space! :P

http://www.adastragames.com/attack-vector-tactical/

One of the questions I get is "Why do you track thrust, rather than simply assume that the displacement on the turn of thrust is equal to the change in velocity?"

Yeah, that was my first question... honest.