So, all my players are on one ship. Combat starts. Int has been rolled. How does combat actually play out?
Lets say the int order is PC, NPC, NPC, PC, PC, PC. Now I could be reading this wrong but in the rules it almost looks like the "ship" gets the two maneuvers and an action limit that for most of those the pilot or the co-pilot are in charge of (except for shoot a weapon). If those maneuvers are used up as well as the one action. What does the rest of the crew get to do?
Space combat is my weak point so I will yield to anyone calling out my mistakes but here is how I believe it works. Every player gets their full compliment of actions. Actions designated as "Pilot only Maneuvers" and "Pilot only actions" are actions and maneuvers the pilot uses on the ship. They are manuevers the pilot takes or actions the pilot takes. A ship can only perform 2 pilot only maneuvers (at the cost of system strain on the ship) and one pilot only action. So in a way, the pilot (and co pilot if the pilot doesn't want to perform 2 pilot only maneuvers and a pilot only action at the cost of strain to himself as well as the ship), share the same actions with the ship.
Beyond that, the rest of the players have all sorts of ways to contribute to space combat in the ship (For more information see page 237 in the EotE core rule book.)
These player can still perform there own actions and maneuvers. In fact for larger ships, you might only have the pilot/copilot doing the fancy flying while someone sits in the gunner seat and just spends actions firing down fighters like Han and Luke escaping from the Death Star.
Space combat is my weak point so I will yield to anyone calling out my mistakes but here is how I believe it works. Every player gets their full compliment of actions. Actions designated as "Pilot only Maneuvers" and "Pilot only actions" are actions and maneuvers the pilot uses on the ship. They are manuevers the pilot takes or actions the pilot takes. A ship can only perform 2 pilot only maneuvers (at the cost of system strain on the ship) and one pilot only action. So in a way, the pilot (and co pilot if the pilot doesn't want to perform 2 pilot only maneuvers and a pilot only action at the cost of strain to himself as well as the ship), share the same actions with the ship.
Beyond that, the rest of the players have all sorts of ways to contribute to space combat in the ship (For more information see page 237 in the EotE core rule book.)
These player can still perform there own actions and maneuvers. In fact for larger ships, you might only have the pilot/copilot doing the fancy flying while someone sits in the gunner seat and just spends actions firing down fighters like Han and Luke escaping from the Death Star.
We break out the X-Wing miniatures and keep it pretty narrative. Space combat rules are very light...compared to say Star Fleet battles.
We break out the X-Wing miniatures and keep it pretty narrative. Space combat rules are very light...compared to say Star Fleet battles.
Haha. Everything is light in comparison to SFB!
Never played SFB. I was just really curious cause my normal crew for Geek Night (its been a standing 4+ years for gaming of every kind of Wed Nights) is six people, and the way the combat was looking if they were all on the same ship a couple of them would be left twiddling their thumbs. Its always been a challenge keeping all of them at once occupied.
Thanks for the run down though Kao. We just had our first session last week. Haven't gotten to any space combat, or vehicle combat yet. Want to try and get the other things down first, and was trying to learn before getting there.
So, all my players are on one ship. Combat starts. Int has been rolled. How does combat actually play out?
Lets say the int order is PC, NPC, NPC, PC, PC, PC. Now I could be reading this wrong but in the rules it almost looks like the "ship" gets the two maneuvers and an action limit that for most of those the pilot or the co-pilot are in charge of (except for shoot a weapon). If those maneuvers are used up as well as the one action. What does the rest of the crew get to do?
I think you are confusing pilot-only maneuvers/actions with all possible maneuvers/action.
Starship combat is very similar to personal combat, with only a few stark differences:
The biggest difference: pilot-only maneuvers/action. The second biggest: anytime the vehicle takes a second maneuver, it takes system strain, even if the pilot downgrades their action (EotE232, last paragraph of the left-hand column).
Other than that, you can use almost all of the personal-scale maneuvers while in a starship, they may just take on different meanings. For example, anyone in a gunner seat can aim, gaining the usual benefits. However, the move maneuver moves yourself within the ship, not the ship itself. For example, if you're in the cockpit chatting with the pilot and a fight breaks out, it may take one or two move maneuvers to get from the cockpit to the gunner well (depending on the size of the ship).
Gunners can use the aim maneuver and the attack action regardless of what the pilot does, but some pilot-only maneuvers/actions can make your shot harder or easier (evasive maneuvers or gain the advantage).
If you're not the pilot, there are a lot of actions you can do. The most common being damage control (EotE233) and the list on table 7-7 (EotE237).
An example from A New Hope : the scene when the Falcon blasts its way out of the Death Star.
So the ship is only doing one or two maneuvers each turn, but every PC onboard is doing their own maneuvers and actions.
Does that clear it up some?
-EF
What does the rest of the crew get to do?
Legit question.
There is a section about starship combat that details out what options PC have. Some are pilot only and are marked as such. Some other things are gunning, repairing, slicing, astronavigating, screaming like a little girl....
The thing about gunning is that you can only have as many gunners as you have open weapon stations. If your PCs want to get creative, "I move into the station, fire, then take two strain to move out so that Jim can do that same thing on his turn effectively shooting the one gun twice"
Slap them with a Hard coordination check or something.
"You flail about awkwardly and tumble, unceremoniously out of the gunner's seat. You look like a Gammorean marionette as you crash into Jim taking you both to the deck in a painful, clumbsy embrace (You are reminded of the night you spent with that Trandoshan on Nar Shadda).
You will both be Disoriented for two rounds and Jim will need to spend an action to get free of you."
I still think keeping 6 players engaged in a YT-1300 for instance is difficult. Again I let the narrative story take over, impacted by a few die rolls from some of the key spots in the starship. page 232 describes the narrative abstract nature of combat.
For some reason I can't paste anything into this forum (I also can't LIKE a post or thread... no idea why this forum hates my PC), but I just bumped a thread where I gave an example of Ship Combat with individual initiatives, etc.
How do you handle starship combat when the PCs flying YT-1300 move away from a TIE which is a faster craft? The PCs can make double move and move away from the TIE range. TIE minion cannot do much as he cant take 2nd maneuver and has to waste action, so he cannot shot. If the TIE pursues using his action, one of the PCs can shoot at him as they have multiply crew. I imagine one has to switch into Chase scene. So when the PCs are moving away the GM should ask - you are escaping - make the piloting checks away from the combat structure. If successful, they move away one range band. Then they can do their other actions and maneuvers but not move. In the next round the Chase interrupts again the combat order initiated by either pilot. Any comments, ideas, links will be appreciated. Thanks!