Does anyone know where I can find a good example of space combat? I'm not talking about the rules, but rather a fully documented battle with roll results/maneuvers/actions taken by all parties?
Reading the rules is one thing, but reading actual gameplay turn by turn is so much better.
Edited by Darth PoopdeckIt will help if you can narrow it down; are you looking for fighter combat, multi-crew freighters, capital ships, or some combination thereof? Are you looking for a YouTube video, text file/webpage, or would an audio-only podcast be sufficient?
Hopefully someone knows the exact episode, but the Order 66 podcast went through it turn by turn a couple years back. It was useful, but I confess it didn't help endear me to the space combat system. Even they fudged a few things in the podcast.
I think the O66 episode in question is #15 but that seems awfully early in the series to me. I requested this topic 11/13/13, if that helps place the episode. For some reason the index doesn't list the air date....
I agree, there should be more examples out there by now.
I've certainly got a bad example, and the GM showed some mercy.
Jedi: "I go to my room to meditate." Everyone except me (the gunner) and the pilot starts doing their own useless thing. Our medic/drug dealer even samples his wares.
Me: "We're in the middle of a space battle with 4 TIE fighters on our tail!"
Them, rhetorically: "What can we do?"
Me: "Angle the shields! Damage control!"
GM: "The blasts from the TIE Fighters start a fire in the halls. The Jedi is trapped in his room."
Jedi: "Well, now I can't do anything."
Me: "LOOK FOR A FIRE EXTINGUISHER!"
I'm pretty sure I was the only player who actually read the vehicular combat rules.
I'm pretty sure I was the only player who actually read the vehicular combat rules.
Maybe you could find something useful in the Compiled Resources that you could share with the rest of the table (my GM rewards XP for such mighty endeavors) to give everyone a leg up. There's a ton of stuff for people who aren't flying or shooting to do in combat.
It will help if you can narrow it down; are you looking for fighter combat, multi-crew freighters, capital ships, or some combination thereof? Are you looking for a YouTube video, text file/webpage, or would an audio-only podcast be sufficient?
Any of the above, ANY space combat, but in text form. I'm not looking for podcasts/youtube videos.
Like a transcript. The Core book has 2 page examples of different combats and how those dice were interpreted, but I don't think it provides a space combat example.
It would look like this:
Round 1 (PCs in "X" freighter, NPC Rival in Tie-Fighter)
-PC Pilot makes "X" manuever.
-PC Pilot makes "X" action... maybe roll piloting check. The check result was...
-NPC does this...
-PC Mechanic does this... blah blah blah...
-PC Gunner does this... and gets a boost dice because of this....
...That sort of thing.
Edited by Darth PoopdeckI'd love to see this as well. Darth - if no one bites, I'm happy to put together a hypothetical encounter and we can run it turn by turn here to try it out.
Its this episode: The Order 66 Podcast Episode 25 - Great, Sam! Don't Get Cocky!
I wrote out a couple scenarios to test out some house rules I was considering (and have been using for a few sessions now). It's here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mm0RFKz55ahI1OsXlRCIC0dZg6-SuOyRBjI7gLeDgZY
House rules I was checking out are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uM-Q2WK_fdIehhIuLrTabSxbIywlJ8yBgnmQGCMYzx4
It will help if you can narrow it down; are you looking for fighter combat, multi-crew freighters, capital ships, or some combination thereof? Are you looking for a YouTube video, text file/webpage, or would an audio-only podcast be sufficient?
Any of the above, ANY space combat, but in text form. I'm not looking for podcasts/youtube videos.
Like a transcript. The Core book has 2 page examples of different combats and how those dice were interpreted, but I don't think it provides a space combat example.
It would look like this:
Round 1 (PCs in "X" freighter, NPC Rival in Tie-Fighter)
-PC Pilot makes "X" manuever.
-PC Pilot makes "X" action... maybe roll piloting check. The check result was...
-NPC does this...
-PC Mechanic does this... blah blah blah...
-PC Gunner does this... and gets a boost dice because of this....
...That sort of thing.
OK, so, let's take your suggested example (the PCs are on a freighter - let's say a YT-1300, for the sake of argument). Let's say we've got a pilot (Smuggler/Pilot), a gunner (Hired Gun/Merc Soldier), a mechanic (Technician/Mechanic) and a co-pilot (Explorer/Fringer). That's a pretty mixed party, but I should point out that, taking from CR EotE specs, it's also probably the best possible combo of specs for this kind of thing. Odds are most parties won't break down so neatly. Anyhoo, moving on.
Scenario: the PCs are in an asteroid field, travelling at Speed 1 (always good to have some sort of scenery to actually do space combat in, otherwise it can get dull; asteroid fields are the standard example). They are suddenly set upon by 2 TIE fighters travelling at Speed 3, currently at Short Range, which were hiding in the Asteroid Field. Initiative is rolled: PC, PC, NPC, PC, NPC, PC.
- PC Pilot: decides the best idea is to engage the TIE fighters, and so makes the "Punch It" Manoeuvre (causing 2 system strain). Now at speed 3, he makes a "Fly" manoeuvre, closing the distance to Close Range (causing 2 additional system strain to make a second pilot-only manoeuvre).
- PC Gunner: takes a manoeuvre to occupy his station, takes a second manoeuvre (suffering 2 personal strain) to aim, and opens fire at the nearest TIE fighter. For the sake of argument, let's say he misses.
- NPC 1: the first TIE fighter makes a "Stay on Target" manoeuvre, and then fires his ship's weapons. He hits, causing of hull damage.
- PC Mechanic: the ship's taken a bit of damage, but the mechanic judges that system strain is more important, so he makes a "Damage Control" action. He succeeds.
- NPC 2: the second TIE fighter fires his ship's weapons, hits, and then makes an "Evasive Manoeuvres" manoeuvre.
- PC Co-Pilot: the co-pilot confers with the pilot, and they decide they can't win the fight, so they need a way out. The co-pilot makes a "Co-Pilot" check, plotting a course out of the system. This downgrades the difficulty of the pilot's next piloting check.
OK, now we're into chase mechanics (EotE CR, p241). So before anything happens, the PC and the NPCs roll off to determine whether the PC can escape. That's a competitive Piloting (Space) check, but they're moving through stellar terrain (the asteroid field), so the difficulty is determined by the ships' speed and silhouette. For the TIEs and the YT-1300, all going at speed 3, that's a Hard check upgraded twice, but the co-pilot's Co-Pilot check downgrades that once for the PC. So the PC pilot is rolling against DD C , while the TIE pilots are rolling against D CC . The result: the PCs roll more successes, moving to Short Range from the fighters. Even better, the TIEs roll a despair, causing one of them to suffer a Critical Hit.
It would go on from there, but I hope that gives you an idea.
PS: I haven't done a lot of narrative with this, just broken it down blow-by-blow. Obviously you'd expect there to be more description and players making laser sounds as the fire...or is it just my group that does that last one? I've also stuck pretty closely to the RAW, whereas in my games I tend to be a bit more fast-and-loose with space combat rules, especially the "Fly/Move" manoeuvre.
PPS: Apologies to any American readers for my spelling of "manoeuvre". I'm British, and that is genuinely how we spell it.
edwardavern, never apologize for the proper spelling.
It will help if you can narrow it down; are you looking for fighter combat, multi-crew freighters, capital ships, or some combination thereof? Are you looking for a YouTube video, text file/webpage, or would an audio-only podcast be sufficient?
Any of the above, ANY space combat, but in text form. I'm not looking for podcasts/youtube videos.
Like a transcript. The Core book has 2 page examples of different combats and how those dice were interpreted, but I don't think it provides a space combat example.
It would look like this:
Round 1 (PCs in "X" freighter, NPC Rival in Tie-Fighter)
-PC Pilot makes "X" manuever.
-PC Pilot makes "X" action... maybe roll piloting check. The check result was...
-NPC does this...
-PC Mechanic does this... blah blah blah...
-PC Gunner does this... and gets a boost dice because of this....
...That sort of thing.
OK, so, let's take your suggested example (the PCs are on a freighter - let's say a YT-1300, for the sake of argument). Let's say we've got a pilot (Smuggler/Pilot), a gunner (Hired Gun/Merc Soldier), a mechanic (Technician/Mechanic) and a co-pilot (Explorer/Fringer). That's a pretty mixed party, but I should point out that, taking from CR EotE specs, it's also probably the best possible combo of specs for this kind of thing. Odds are most parties won't break down so neatly. Anyhoo, moving on.
Scenario: the PCs are in an asteroid field, travelling at Speed 1 (always good to have some sort of scenery to actually do space combat in, otherwise it can get dull; asteroid fields are the standard example). They are suddenly set upon by 2 TIE fighters travelling at Speed 3, currently at Short Range, which were hiding in the Asteroid Field. Initiative is rolled: PC, PC, NPC, PC, NPC, PC.
- PC Pilot: decides the best idea is to engage the TIE fighters, and so makes the "Punch It" Manoeuvre (causing 2 system strain). Now at speed 3, he makes a "Fly" manoeuvre, closing the distance to Close Range (causing 2 additional system strain to make a second pilot-only manoeuvre).
- PC Gunner: takes a manoeuvre to occupy his station, takes a second manoeuvre (suffering 2 personal strain) to aim, and opens fire at the nearest TIE fighter. For the sake of argument, let's say he misses.
- NPC 1: the first TIE fighter makes a "Stay on Target" manoeuvre, and then fires his ship's weapons. He hits, causing of hull damage.
- PC Mechanic: the ship's taken a bit of damage, but the mechanic judges that system strain is more important, so he makes a "Damage Control" action. He succeeds.
- NPC 2: the second TIE fighter fires his ship's weapons, hits, and then makes an "Evasive Manoeuvres" manoeuvre.
- PC Co-Pilot: the co-pilot confers with the pilot, and they decide they can't win the fight, so they need a way out. The co-pilot makes a "Co-Pilot" check, plotting a course out of the system. This downgrades the difficulty of the pilot's next piloting check.
OK, now we're into chase mechanics (EotE CR, p241). So before anything happens, the PC and the NPCs roll off to determine whether the PC can escape. That's a competitive Piloting (Space) check, but they're moving through stellar terrain (the asteroid field), so the difficulty is determined by the ships' speed and silhouette. For the TIEs and the YT-1300, all going at speed 3, that's a Hard check upgraded twice, but the co-pilot's Co-Pilot check downgrades that once for the PC. So the PC pilot is rolling against DD C , while the TIE pilots are rolling against D CC . The result: the PCs roll more successes, moving to Short Range from the fighters. Even better, the TIEs roll a despair, causing one of them to suffer a Critical Hit.
It would go on from there, but I hope that gives you an idea.
PS: I haven't done a lot of narrative with this, just broken it down blow-by-blow. Obviously you'd expect there to be more description and players making laser sounds as the fire...or is it just my group that does that last one? I've also stuck pretty closely to the RAW, whereas in my games I tend to be a bit more fast-and-loose with space combat rules, especially the "Fly/Move" manoeuvre.
PPS: Apologies to any American readers for my spelling of "manoeuvre". I'm British, and that is genuinely how we spell it.
Thank you so much for the time you put into that edwardavern! That is EXACTLY what I was looking for.
Super helpful. What about the specific tactics for each of the parties involved?
For example, why did the pilot punch it? Couldn't the same pilot used a double move to do the same thing?
Why did the TIEs stay on target / evasive maneuver?
Super helpful. What about the specific tactics for each of the parties involved?
For example, why did the pilot punch it? Couldn't the same pilot used a double move to do the same thing?
Why did the TIEs stay on target / evasive maneuver?
So, the "tactics" of this battle were mostly for demonstrative purposes, and don't necessarily represent good decisions. Having said that, with regards to your specific questions...
The pilot punched it to get to speed 3, which is a pretty key speed, as it gives the ship the ability to perform the "Evasive Manoeuvres" and "Stay on Target" manoeuvres. And yes, he could have accelerated twice in order to achieve the same speed - which would have cost the same system strain - but then he wouldn't have had a manoeuvre left over to actually move. RAW, accelerating does not actually get you anywhere.
The TIEs performed different manoeuvres because I thought it would be boring to have the do the same thing. But, importantly, "Stay on Target" is done BEFORE the first TIE fires his weapons, while "Evasive Manoeuvres" is done AFTER the second TIE shoots his weapons - since these manoeuvres affect shot difficulty, this is quite crucial.
Hope that helps.
This is a really helpful post Edwardavern, thank you.
The action that has me the most intrigued is " Gain advantage ". If successful, the pilot cancels penalties for Evasive manoeuvres until end of next round. And more importantly, the pilot chooses where to hit the opponent, and here I am assuming that applies to any gunner in the pilot's ship, right?
But where it becomes foggy for me is when the next opponent can try to Gain the advantage to cancel it out. With the difficulty raised by one each time he or the opponent has successfully gained the advantage over the other. Does this mean that it escalates endlessly adding a difficulty die with each attempt??
I would love to see another combat sequence description including this all important Gain the advantage action.
Thanks for your help.