Thursday, August 20, 2020

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?)

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