Scale, Move Speed, and Maneuverability affecting Turning

[Dr. Bidlo]

Below is a proposed House Rule to apply to starships to reflect how larger vehicles should take longer to turn about and maneuver based on their scale, Move Speed, and Maneuverability. I will use the term "Turn" because its use in RAW is in reference to vehicle maneuvers and not "Rounds" or "Actions".

Ship Movement Turning
A ship may turn as part of its movement with a maximum turning angle determined by the Move Speed and maneuverability of the ship. A ship may attempt maneuvers as normal per pages 108 and 109 of the RAW in order to turn the ship at greater angles with increased difficulty to the appropriate piloting skill roll, as normal.

Ship Speed : Number of Turns
Cautious: 4 Turns
Cruise: 2 Turns
Fast: 1 Turn
All-out: 0 Turns

Normal Scale Rules
Maneuverability: Turn Angle
Scale: Starfighter
Less than 1D: 10º
1D to 1D+2: 20º
2D to 2D+2: 30º
3D to 3D+2: 40º
4D+: 50º

Scale: Capital
Less than 1D: 2º
1D to 1D+2: 4º
2D to 2D+2: 6º
3D to 3D+2: 8º
4D+: 10º

Scale: Deathstar
Less than 1D: .2º
1D to 1D+2: .4º
2D to 2D+2: .6º
3D to 3D+2: .8º
4D+: 1º

Alternate Scale Rules
Inspired by CRMcNeill’s Alternate Scale Rules, I have adjustment them a bit to fit my own preferences and have applied the turning angle rules to this new scale system. This system does not have a mathematically consistent value/5 per each +6D increase as the former example because there are steps for every +2D and the degree values would get too irregular. For this reason, I just stepped the base intervals down to what felt right in game play. This really helped make the different scales of ship operate differently and prevented the larger capital ships from spinning each turn to get their targets in different fire arcs while weapons with lower Fire Rates cooled down, but gave more advantages to smaller capital ships in outmaneuvering larger capital ships. A corvette cannot do much damage to a Destroyer, but it can run circles around one with these rules, which I feel is not well reflected in the RAW even with the higher speed and maneuverability of most corvettes.

Alternate Scale Rules
Maneuverability: Turn Angle
Scale: Starfighter (+6D)
Less than 1D: 10º
1D to 1D+2: 20º
2D to 2D+2: 30º
3D to 3D+2: 40º
4D+: 50º

Scale: Freighter (+8D)
Less than 1D: 5º
1D to 1D+2: 10º
2D to 2D+2: 15º
3D to 3D+2: 20º
4D+: 25º

Scale: Corvette (+10D)
Less than 1D: 3º
1D to 1D+2: 6º
2D to 2D+2: 9º
3D to 3D+2: 12º
4D+: 15º

Scale: Frigate (+12D)
Less than 1D: 2º
1D to 1D+2: 4º
2D to 2D+2: 6º
3D to 3D+2: 8º
4D+: 10º

Scale: Destroyer (+14D)
Less than 1D: 1º
1D to 1D+2: 2º
2D to 2D+2: 3º
3D to 3D+2: 4º
4D+: 5º

Scale: Dreadnought (+16D)
Less than 1D: .5º
1D to 1D+2: 1º
2D to 2D+2: 1.5º
3D to 3D+2: 2º
4D+: 2.5º

I would not likely use anything of greater scale than Dreadnought, but if I were to use the Deathstar as a plot device since I am running in the period before ANH, I would use the following:

Scale: Deathstar (+24D)
Less than 1D: .03125º
1D to 1D+2: .0625º
2D to 2D+2: .09375º
3D+ .125º

These values are incredibly granular, but the program I run my space battles in allow this level of precision and it would be used to determine when the superlaser of the Deathstar was able to be brought to bear on a target. Again, I would likely never use this though.

[garhkal]

SO looking at this, a fighter going cruise speed, could NOT just do a bootleg turn (180 degrees) even IF IT has say 4d in maneuverability?? He'd have to go Cautious and do 4 full moves, to turn around?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dr. Bidlo]

[Dr. Bidlo]

Admittedly, this house rule is quite niche as it slows down game play and turns starship combat into a tactical endeavor. I myself do not use it all the time - sometimes I run a more narrative game and sometimes I run it as a tactical move by move battle. I certainly do not take offense if those reading would never opt to use or even consider it!