Δv/Belta: Ships & Space Combat

Build

Your Ship already has…

• Airlocks, but no Spacesuits

• It is Small

• Basic Comms, Impulse Navigation and Data Drives

• Basic LuxSpeed Engine.

• A Piloting console

• A Weapons console

• A Hull 

• A fuel capacity

• A small galley, and living quarters for 6 of your crew. 

• Extra space in the ship for three additional Upgrades or Cargo. 

  
  

  
  
  

1. You have three Stats: Pilot/Hull/Weapons. Plus 3 open Slots for Augments or Cargo or whatever else.

2. Assign 1/1/2 in those 3 Stats.

3. Pilot and Weapons point equals a d6, called a Stat Dice. Your first Hull dice is fixed at 6, the next ones add 3 to the Hull Stat Dice value.

4. The Hit Protection of the Ship equals Hull Stat dice multiplied by 3.

5. Total Fuel capacity is equal to (Pilot Stat+#Captain/s)x6 

6. You may purchase one Upgrade. The crew starts with a debt of that upgrade. 

7. Choose a name, and traits. 

Ship Combat

As always, make judicious use of common sense. For example, a drone attack would be resolved only after everybody has acted (to allow for the drone to reach the enemy ship)

The basic procedure goes as so:

1. Everyone at the table declares which console they are in. Any useful skills the PCs can justify allow that PC to roll twice.

2. Roll group initiative 1-3 the PCs act, 4-6 the NPCs act.

3. Resolve Upgrade attacks (hacking, tapping comms, drones etc)

4. Resolve Piloting tactics (ram, Luxspace jump, high-grav turn)

5. Resolve Weapon attacks

6. Repeat 

The Mechanical Attack goes as so.

1. Each Stat or Upgrade has a value equal to the number of dice you can roll. (2=2d6, 3=3d6) Each Player in a console rolls a dice, along with the dice of the Console/Upgrade. 

2. The total number of the Stat Dice is counted, with each Player having one dice they add to that total. 

3. You roll to attack, I roll to defend, we roll any Advantages, advantages do not stack.

4. If the defense is higher than the attack, it does nothing except protect the HP of the defender. If the attack is higher than the defense, HP is subtracted according to the difference. 

5. Any 1’s on the dice impose a disadvantage, with advantages subtracted first, single dice rolling at a disadvantage.

6. Tactics by the Pilot can impose a broad advantage on all PCs in an Upgrade, Pilot console or Weapons Console. They also impose disadvantages. 

It is recommended that each person, in each console, has their own dice. When a Dis/Advantage is imposed, you resolve it per player.  

Example

Each player adds a d6 to the Stat Dice, relevant advantages get ADVd6. Example: Ship has a stat of 2, adds 2d6. Pete and Wam each add 1d6, for a total of 4d6. If Wam has ADVd6 one d6 would be rolled twice, using the highest roll.

When you attack, the players in Weaponry add a d6 for a stat point, and a d6 or ADVd6 for participation, to beat the combined Pilot Roll+Hull points of the opposition. If the weaponry beats the opposition's Pilot+Hull Stat Dice, the difference is damage. The same thing is done when being attacked. A 1 on a dice leaves progressive dice being rolled at a DisADV. Example The Weapons:1 fires. Two PCs man it. the rolls are then 3, 4, 1. A DisADV is imposed, starting on a PC Dice. Next Roll: (2,5), 3, 4 = 9 Next Roll: (3,4), 1, 3 = 7. Another DisADV is imposed. Next Roll, (2,3), (1,5), 4 = 7. Any ADVs are cancelled first.

Pilot Tactics

These are very much last moment plans. It should also be understood that these are barely the only plans - environmental aspects can be used as Pilot tactics, and should be improvised or planned for in play. Write them up.

Tactic	Effect	Advantage	Disadvantage
Ram	Ram Your Hull into another	Enemy Hull Damage	Self Hull Damage (Smaller vessel or Hull Stat Dice difference)
LuxSpace Jump	Phase into LuxSpace for a couple minutes	Cannot be damaged	Next Round, Defense=Hull Stat Dice.
High-Grav Turn	Turn ship, causing HighGrav	ADV to Pilot Defense	Next round rolls have DisADV
Hold	Stop ship relative to nearby star	ADV to Weapons/Upgrades	Next Round Defense has DisADV
Deaden	Switch off all ship systems	All opponent attacks are at DisADV	Cannot act next round, Boot up.

Upgrades

The slots are essentially always cargo holds, until you dedicate it to a Upgrade.

Name	Description	Price
Landing Gear	Allows you to Land on a Planet	C
LuxNav AI	Halves LuxSpace Travel	CCCC
DeepSleep Quarters	Allows up to Six DeepSleep for LuxSpace travel	CC
Secret Cargo	A secret cargo hold	C
Drone Bay	Allows a 3 drones of various uses to be docked	CC
Hacking Console	Allows for hacking of systems	C
Spacesuits	Spacesuit storage and refueling	C
Med Bay	Allows for 1d10 healing time	CCC
Dedicated Work Bay	Allows for Advantage or preparation in a specific subject. Farm/Dojo/Weaponry/Science/Animal Pen	~CC~
Additional Weapons	Another Weapon Fitting (allows an increased damage dice, Special effect or more dice)	~CC~
Additional Quarters	Allows space for 4 Hired Crew	~CCC~

Ship Traits

Outside	Sounds	Inside Space
Grimy	Creaky	Distinct Smell
Shiny	Sound dulled inside	Oddly Proportioned
Slogans across Hull	Rattling Pipes	Feels Cramped
Banged up	Creepy Silence	Feels Spacious
Bulky	Echoey	Badly Lit
Sleek	Loud	Brightly Lit
History	Build	Inside Look
Found abandoned	Homebuilt	Sharp Angles
Barely used	Old Model	Dull Paint Job
Previous name famed	Corp prefab	All curves
No records (wiped/lost)	Bog Standard	Industrial Aesthetic
Military	Historically significant specifications	Colourful Paint Job
Station Module (Bar/Home/Clinic/Farm etc)	Modular Layout	Baroque Facades

Space Travel

Ships all have a Lux-Engine. Interplanet travel uses impulse, Interstellar travel uses LuxSpeed through LuxSpace. LuxSpace is a type of universe having outlived 3 universes before ours. Like a capricious sea it requires focus to traverse, with a live crew, or an expensive LuxNav AI. Failure to prepare for LuxSpace travel has resulted in madness, ghost Ships, raiders and entire fleets disappearing.

LuxSpeed engines are Basic, or Complex. Complex Engines are pre-fall, and cut the time travelled in half. Basic Engines can be fine-tuned at great cost for a single trip of half-time. A LuxNav AI halves the time. An awake competent crew-member halves the time.

I assume essentially “units” of distance between stars. A Basic LuxSpeed one unit trip, no fine tuning, Deep-Sleeping crew, no encounters and fortunate LuxSpace tides, is a 144 days of just waiting.

Designer’s Note: 144 is a 12 squared. 12 has a bunch of factors so you could divide by two for quite some time before you hit a single indivisible number.

Travel inter-planet is 1 trip:1 fuel per impulse trip in a system.

Per unit LuxSpeed trip with working, living crew 1 unit:2 Fuel per person+engine.

Per unit luxspeed with Deep-sleeping crew 1 unit:1 fuel per person+engine.

Ship augments requiring energy increase the fuel cost by 1 per upgrade.

Sleeping on your trip means you could get lost (if no dedicated luxspeed navigation computer), or captured en route.

Deep-Sleep

However you wish to flavour it, Deep-Sleep is cryogenic, hormonally induced, or whatever else. LuxSpace is mildly stressful, and boring, and DeepSleep allows for maximized resources. 

LuxSpace Encounters

Roll 1d6 per unit of Travel, 6 is an encounter.

Roll 1d6 if an awake crew, 1d12 if asleep. A LuxNav computer counts as if the crew is asleep.

1.	Gravity Well (+d4 Fuel cost)	11.	Black Hole (+d12 Fuel Cost)
2.	Lux Tide (Lost)	12.	1d6 Lux-Raptors (Extremely Dangerous)
3.	Trader	13.
4.	Lux Piscean School (CCC if caught)	14.
5.	Systems Failure (+12 days)	15.
6.	Raider Ship	16.
7.	Transmissions (1-6 Chance to have value)	17.
8.	Pre-Verse Lighthouse (Means Beware)	18.
9.	Abandoned Ship	19.
10.	Appear in Nebula (5-6 Systems Failure)	20.

 

Please let me know what you think of it in the comments!

(Also, as for the name: Belta, Δv or something else?)

Pen & Paper Tavern Games

A person, making a world for any Tabletop RPG, will come across a question at some point in their career - whether it be in game, or outside of it; What the hell do my NPCs play as games in their spare time?

Whether your PCs find a place to sit in the crowded tavern of the bustling city-port of your fantasy world, drink martinis and cocktails in seedy bars of cyberpunk metropolii, or compete in the underground speakeasy of your steampunk frontiertown, you will need to come up with some sort of game your players can get interested in - a bar game.

I've seen variations of bar games, here and there. I've seen it done on Critical Role, in my own games, in some sci-fi actualplays I can't care to remember the name of.

So, what the hell works?

This determines how you want your players to interact with the world. When playing one of these games, you do not want them to have so much fun as to abandon the main point of the TTRPG altogether - an addictive minigame. You don't want it to be too complicated, and you don't want it to break the suspension of disbelief, and bring the players rushing back to playing a game for stakes in the real world.

So you want it to be interesting, but not too fun, simple, and (preferably) using in-universe theatre of the mind.

How to recognize a good (TTRPG) game

Simplicity, Playability, Interactivity, Reward. Let's say these are the pillars of a good TTRPG game.

Simplicity: This one is simple - this is a game within a game, you don't want to not play the game you're all here to play. Then you might as well tear one off the shelf and begin playing with those coloured tokens. You want it to be accessible, simply.

Playability: In the end, no matter how simple the game is, you want the game to play well. The no stakes "one roll and you're out" is no fun. Neither is the simple game with the same outcome. This ties into the simplicity and accessibility in your game.

Interactivity: I would like to say this one is the most vital of the bunch. You are here to play a TTRPG. Whether it be online or in mom's basement or at your local gamng store, you are here to play with other people. In this regard, you want the game to stimulate interaction between your characters, and your NPCs - this includes making it crystal clear that your NPCs are cheating, but the characters not knowing that. This can take the form of betting, constant chatter, still pokerfaces; the point is that the very act of trying to figure out the motivations of the others at the table is a vital aspect of this game.

Reward: This can honestly be anything, and is dependent on your table. Your group may just love rolling dice - let them roll dice. They might love upping stakes - give them a betting game. They might not even care about the game, but want the incredbile amounts of cash available winning it - be careful with this one, it could derail your game. Use the latter as an introduction into other parts of your world.

Example

Let's have a look at an unbelievably simple '21' variant one of my players cooked up. The point of the game is to guess the dealers roll.

1. Each side rolls a 1d20+1d4.
2. Place bets 1 round. 
3. Choose to add a 1d4. 
4. Place bets again. 
5. Repeat steps 3-4 until somebody folds or cannot bet higher.
6. Reveal. Closest to, below 21 wins.

We ran this as if they were playing a card game - in a bar in a MagicPunk frontiertown. Simple? Hell yeah, I wrote the rules in six short sentences. Playable? Very much so. Not dull, uses weird dice, tense, not too many moving parts. Interactive? If you don't think being smart and guessing the other's roll, reading them and then betting is being interactive, then leave. Reward? The reward can be in the money, in the tense dice rolling, or the players jeering people on.

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition Dungeon Master's Guide had a list of gambling games on page 215-216. They are clearly in the "normal people gambling games" category.