So I'm thinking of giving a bunch of players an Imperial Star Destroyer.

They're imperial loyalists, properly appointed to their positons, and in friendly imperial territory. their mission is primarally defensive, guarding an influential outpost. There's no alderranians or other agitators aboard.

Instead, the game is mainly about the politicks of command, making nice with the imperial govenor, Imperial Security, breaking up fights between the Stormtrooper garrison and the tie pilots, dealing with pirates, and making sure maintinance gets done on schedual.

So, none of the PCs would actually have combat skills. They're officers, they give commands, and the crew of the mile long space battleship carry it out.

So, Mass combat rules. Only, it's not just 1 PC who needs to be rolling in mass combat.

-The Engineer needs to be organizing the engineering crew

-The Analyst is running the Combat Information Center, with dozens of eyes on everything in the area

-The Wing Commander is organizing the tie fighters outside the hull

-The Tactical officer handles maneuvering and shooting commands

--Loyalty officer doesnt have much of a role in combat

--Quartermaster doesnt have much of a role in combat.

So, what doyou think is the best way to go about this? Say, Pirates in a pair of Nebulon B frigaes make the mistake of engaging the PCs. How should this go down?

--Loyalty officer doesnt have much of a role in combat

Are you familiar with the role of WH40K Commissars? They can have a big role in combat.

--Loyalty officer doesnt have much of a role in combat

Are you familiar with the role of WH40K Commissars? They can have a big role in combat.

Loosely familiar, but go ahead and say what you're thinking- I may be missing something.

He will be using a mix of Leadership and Coercion to either inspire or threaten crewmen to do their duty (up to an including sacrifice for the Empire). He will also be looking out for saboteurs and infiltrators that elect to take action while the ship is already in danger. He can also back-up the Analyst and filter results--even in combat. He might assist the captain on important tasks--he may be one of the few crewmembers beyond the captain that actually know what the orders really are.

Since theis thread is dropping off, let me rephrase...

How do you handlemass combat with 4+ commanders at the table?

You....don't?

This one is really throwing me off. On the one hand it seems like there should be a solution. On the other what you're describing doesn't quite match the mass combat mechanics as presented.

It's sounds more like you'd run it as normally as a big capship encounter chain, but when it comes time to do the mass combat check you'd either pick the leader most relevant in the preceding phase, or you'd roll two or three to cover different components of the battle.

That's what I thought, but now that we've found the rules as written dont cover what I want, I'm looking for ideas for interesting Capital ship "leadership in Combat" encounters.

I think you have the Mass Combat rules slightly mixed up.

each of these actions:

-The Engineer needs to be organizing the engineering crew

-The Analyst is running the Combat Information Center, with dozens of eyes on everything in the area

-The Wing Commander is organizing the tie fighters outside the hull

-The Tactical officer handles maneuvering and shooting commands

Is part of a phase, its the actions each character is doing during a Phase to bolster their sides dice pool for the Mass Combat check.

The Engineer may add a boost or 2 with his actions by strengthening shields

The Analyst may add an Upgrade due to improved tactical knowledge

The Wing Commander may Increase the size of the Force one step by bringing more fighters to bear on the enemy.

The Tactical commander could be decreasing the size of the enemy force by maximising weapon damage and out manoeuvring the enemy.

Then only one roll is made for the Mass Combat Check each Phase, and the person rolling can just be rotated through each Player, giving everyone a turn. The results are Narrated as a group, with everyone at the table contributing to the results.

The best way to understand it is to put it as an example from the movies. The Battle of Endor.

And I don't just mean the exciting parts.

The briefing at the beginning could be considered to be a check, maybe not a mass combat check but the outcome of it could have affected everything else. Like a despair meant that Vader was on the Executor to sense Luke.

The PCs are the Strike team of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie; And Lando and Wedge in Space with the Rebel Fleet.

Then the strike team infiltrates the sentry moon. They're successful but threat or despair has them captured by the Ewoks. The Strike Team turns this around by making the natives think C-3P0 is a deity, this will come back to affect the Mass Combat later.

Vader coming down to the forest moon and Luke going to meet him would also impact later Mass Combat because they won't have the Jedi to assist them.

You could count the failure to infiltrate the Shield Generator as a Mass Combat check but it's questionable.

The first one I would say for sure is the Rebel fleet arriving above Endor. They're being jammed, the shield is up, Imperial fleet comes out of hyperspace behind them. A Despair reveals that the Death Star's main weapon is operational when it destroys a Mon Cal capital ship and makes things that much harder for the Rebels.

Second Mass Combat, while the Fleet engages the Star Destroyers at point blank range at Lando's suggestion the Ewoks start fighting the Legion of Imperials on Endor, allowing the Strike team to escape.

The PCs disable the shield generator helps the next Mass Combat check, keeping the Fleet alive and destroying the Executor.

Finally, PCs destroy the Death Star leading to a massive swing in momentum for the last Mass Combat check which as the Rebel fleet routing the Imperials.

The way to look at Mass Combat is you have PCs doing things that influence the fighting that is going on in the background regardless of if the PCs were there. Mass Combat represents the fighting that the PCs aren't a part of.

Because of this you might be better off using the Capital Ship Command guide made by GM Hooly and posted here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/138576-capital-ship-combat-a-user-guide/page-2

You use this to determine what the PCs are up to and then figure out the impact their ship has on the overall fleet engagement.

An alternate option would be to throw Mass Combat checks out the window, and treat the PCs like you'd treat the crew of a freighter in a 'normal' space battle, if that freighter were on steroids:

Tactical Officer - Manages all the ship's guns, using their Gunnery skill to direct things

Engineer - Keeps the ship flying; just because narratively they're telling others what to do, doesn't mean their own skills won't factor in

Wing Commander - Stat up fighter squadrons (Minion group of 12, all weapons have Linked x11, hope you have enough dice) and have them direct them with Leadership or Piloting (either encouraging them or providing guidance from experience)

Loyalty officer - Use Leadership to encourage a particular crew section, thus boosting the checks of the 'more important' PCs

Quartermaster - Have them DJ Star Wars music (there's not much to do here in combat, unless you want to give them control of experimental weapons)

Analyst - Run Mass Combat checks for the rest of the fleet if needed, or else just use various actions/checks to boost the checks of other PCs

Bridge crew games require a very particular setup, but it seems like a great concept. Which is the Captain? I have a house rule for Captains where they can flip a DP to use their Leadership pool instead of rolling their normal skill pool, since they have people to do everything for them.