I'm looking at running a game surrounding a sort of fringe Rogue Squadron, not unlike Wraith Squadron. Players would have their own custom starfighters, rather than all being assigned a standard model.

I had an idea that I could make 3 or so varied, but balanced stat blocks, and let them create their own shape and design around a stat block, and then get to do some after market upgrades. The basic models would probably follow the basic starfighter stereotypes: agile and fast but not heavy hitting (A-wing), slow but tough and packing a huge punch (Y-wing), and something intermediate (X-wing).

Does anyone have any methods for making comparable but balanced fighter designs? If not, would anyone be up for helping me make a trio of diverse but balanced ships?

Double post due to an internet glitch. Could I have a moderator delete one of these identically named threads?

Sounds like you're waiting for the Age of Rebellion rules, which has the X-Wing stats. They're probably saving the A-Wing for the last book.

Sounds like you're waiting for the Age of Rebellion rules, which has the X-Wing stats. They're probably saving the A-Wing for the last book.

IIRC, the A-wing is in the AoR Beta.

Sounds like you're waiting for the Age of Rebellion rules, which has the X-Wing stats. They're probably saving the A-Wing for the last book.

I don't want exact numbers for those ships. I'm just trying to figure out how to balance Hull Trauma, System Strain, Speed, Handling, Shields, Armor, and Weapons. I want to make a trio of generic statblocks that the players can upgrade to create custom starfighters that remain roughly balanced.

I just want the players to like the feel of their ship without one player having a clearly superior craft and dominating in combat.

@HappyDaze: thanks, didn't know.

I just want the players to like the feel of their ship without one player having a clearly superior craft and dominating in combat.

Ah, my misunderstanding. It would be difficult to do I think. You could assign different point costs to each ship characteristic, but the scale wouldn't necessarily be linear, and the characteristics would also interact with each other (eg: armour & handling, defence and strain, etc)

Caveat: I haven't had a lot of experience with space combat so this is coming from a pure theoretical perspective.

I'm not really good at coming up with balance custom content, so I can't offer you solid statblocks. Usually I find something similar to what I want and reskin it. So you could easily just pull an A-wing, X-Wing, and Y-wing statblock from the published source and just file off the serial numbers.

But if this is not what you are interested in doing here, are some easy rules of thumb: If you want to represent something fast and agile, give it a positive handling, conversely, give the statblocks negative handling modifiers for slow and unwieldy. Speed can be an easy adjustment for the previously mentioned aspects, but I think I think the handling mechanic is more expressed through the game than speed.

If you want the fighter to be sturdy and "be able to take a beating" like the Falcon, increase the armor. If you want the ship to have a feel that it's protected more by advanced technology rather than solid engineering, give it an extra point of shielding (no more than 3 total points).

For a light, fast, agile ship, I would give it at least moderate weapons, a positive handling (no more than 2), a high speed, 1 point of shielding, a low hull trauma threshold, low armor (to give it the extra speed unique to that ship), and moderate system strain threshold.

For a heavy, slow, tank, I would make it's hull trauma threshold and armor high, At most give it 2 points of shielding though this might be too much considering if the armor is going to be high. It should have the better of the three weaponry, something standard but also something nice with a limited ammo quality. Definitely reduce it's handling. This guy should be the heavy bombers or flying fortress that the small fighters are meant to protect.

For the middle-ground work horse, I would make it's shield be its best quality, with no bonuses or penalties to handling. Give it decent or even poor armor and average speed. Throw in decent weaponry, but nothing better than the heavier model mentioned previously. Maybe consider giving it a good system strain threshold an extra hard point.

Also consider what extra peripherals you may want to include, such as attachments and modifications. Does the fighter have a hyperdrive? Is it on-board or would the pilot have to use a hyperdrive sled? Does it have room for an astromech droid? Does that explain the high system strain threshold?

Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too much by throwing out some completely unbalanced concepts.

No, those look good, kaosoe.

What I'm considering doing is making a "basic" statblock, and then giving players a series of choices. For example:

Modification 1

a) +1 Speed, -x hull trauma

b) +x hull trauma, -1 speed

c) no change

Modification 2

a) +1 Handling, -x system strain

b) +x system strain, -1 handling

c) no change

Modification 3

a) +Armor, -Shields

b) +Shields, -Armor

c) no change

etc.

Weapons would just be a choice, such as:

a) Quad Laser Cannons

b) Medium Laser Cannons + Concussion Missile Launcher (4 shots)

c) Light Laser Cannons + Proton Torpedo Launcher (2 shots)

This way you only have to balance one trade off at a time, and still allows good customization.

Starship balance completely befuddles me. Take, for instance, the CloakShape and the Z-95. Stat-wise, they're very similar fighters, with just a few exceptions:

The CloakShape has:

• +1 Hull Threshold
• +1 Custom Hard Point
• +4 Encumberance Capacity

While the Z-95 has:

• +1 Handling
• +1 Defense
• +17,000 Credit Price Tag

Now it makes sense that Handling and Defense would be expensive features on a ship, but when a point in each of two stats raises the price of a fighter by almost 50%, I get a headache just trying to imagine the spreadsheet that cracks that code.

You might just need some trial and error to determine whether a particular mod throws off combat balance. Maybe just playtest a few dogfights for glaring issues. Of the examples you mention, I can't imagine any of those options being too game-breaking. I'd still recommend (as a few others have) that you start with a re-skinned fighter from the books and then mod from there. Maybe also make sure that none of these modifications make a fighter better at anything than the ones in the book. (No Speed: 6 or Handling: +4, etc.) As long as your custom fighters are within the margins of established ships, that ought to be enough to keep the game interesting for everyone.

You could start simple and just give everyone Cloakshapes with various Attachments (give them all the same budget but let them decide how their fighter is customized).

You could start simple and just give everyone Cloakshapes with various Attachments (give them all the same budget but let them decide how their fighter is customized).

I like this, especially because it makes the players invest their credits (and maybe some extra obligation) in making a slick ship.

To reflect some of the hot-rod-ness of the ships, I might offer them the choice of +1 Armor, +1 Handling, or +1 Speed right off the bat. I don't think either of those would be terribly game-breaking.

You could start simple and just give everyone Cloakshapes with various Attachments (give them all the same budget but let them decide how their fighter is customized).

I like this, especially because it makes the players invest their credits (and maybe some extra obligation) in making a slick ship.

To reflect some of the hot-rod-ness of the ships, I might offer them the choice of +1 Armor, +1 Handling, or +1 Speed right off the bat. I don't think either of those would be terribly game-breaking.

You can get +1 armor for the fighter by taking Enhanced Carbon-Durasteel Armor for 2 Hard Points and 6,000 credits. It also reduces Handling by 1,

You can get +1 Speed for the fighter by taking High-Output Ion Turbine for 1 Hard Point and 5,300 credits. It also reduces System Strain Threshold by 1.

You can reduce Handling by 1 by simply not mounting the Curich Engineering Stabilizer Conversion Kit. There's no return in credits, but you gain an additional 1 Hard Point. If you assume this is the base model that everyone gets, then choosing to have this kit effectively gives you the better Handling option.

Oh yes, I realize that. This freebie would be above and beyond upgrades, so if they really want a speed demon, they can take the freebie +1 speed and the High Output Ion Turbine to bump it to Speed 5 and keep up with Tie Fighters. If they really want a tough ship, they can take the Enhanced Carbon Durasteel Armor and the freebie +1 armor. Etc.

Here's an interesting conundrum. Do I give them an astromech or give them the option to buy one (and get a slot in their ship for 1500 and a hardpoint)?