"OPEN FIRE!" - Capital ships, starfighters etc.

[Jace_Terrik]

Okay.

I'm thinking of setting up a Privateer-style campaing, where the characters can "pillage, plunder and pilfer their black guts out." Well, at least raid Imperial shipping lanes and swashbuckle through daring adventures with their buccaneer crew.

They start out with freighter-size ships, but like in the pirate movies, the cool stuff comes out when the big boats- ships- start blasting the big Jesus outta each other.

So.

My point is:
How would you run a Capital ship VS. Capital ship-engagement? I mean, doing it round-by-round sounds insane: a Nebulon-B has 12 turbolaser batteries and 12 laser cannons!! By the time you're halfway through rolling individual capital ship gunnery checks, you'd be snoring.

And if that's bad, think about it when the characters go up against a Star Destroye!!!
The horror!

And there's another vrelt in the kitchen:
Even if you get past rolling the capital ship gunnery checks, there is the issue of damage.
A Nebulon-B's turbolasers do a measly 4D damage.
Imagine trying to get past a Corellian Corvette's Hull-rating of 4D and Shield-rating of 2D! They'd be slogging each other from here to Judgement Day without a resolution!

Of course, the damage will be greater when the turbolasers make multiple hits with multiple barrages, but I've not encountered any rules that would cover this aspect, either.

Well, enough whining.
How would you solve this conundrum?

So far, I've been thinking that a captain's ship rolls his command or tactics skills to resolve the initiative.

But how would the rest play out?
So, here I am, sheepishly asking for assistance from my colleagues.

"Help me, Rancor Pit Forum. You're my only hope."


P.S

I'd like to raise another point:
How would you resolve a situation, where starfighters attack a capital-scale ship?
The X-wing-books and -comics provide us with several spectacular moments, when a dozen X-wings blow up an Imperial Star Destroyer. How would you translate this into gaming terms? [/i]
_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the Force.

[cheshire]

As far as what to do about massive boats getting into a lightfight, I have no idea. But, I can help you with the issue of starfighters attacking a capital ship. The book Pirates and Privateers has rules for targetting and attacking a specific ship system (engines, shield generators, gun turrets, etc.). You increase the difficulty proportionaly to how much more damage you want to do. I don't remember the exact chart right now, but I'll see if I can find it a bit later.

Given the difference in scale, it should be fairly easy for a starfighters to hit a capital ship system while still doing a reasonable ammount of damage. Take out enough systems and you can eventually cripple the ship. One of your more daring players may want to wait until the shields are down and then fly his starfighter right through the bridge of an ISD. You have to roll up a new character, but the effects are imperssive.

[Jace_Terrik]

Yeah, Arwel Crynyd showed us how effective that tactic was.

Hey, did you know, that during the shooting of the scene where the A-wing plows into 'Executor's bridge, they used a burnt-out car and dragged it across the stage on wires, or something? Pretty freaky.

Umm.. yeah, I know about the book. Only since WEG went down, it's been increasingly difficult to find WEG-books (of any sorts!) over here. I mean, Europe has it REALLY bad when it comes to good RPG-stuff, and Scandinavia (more precisely, Finland) is even worse off.

But if you manage to find that chart, I'd truly appreciate it.

Hmmm, well, probably the most simplest way to take down a capital ship with a few starfighters is to fire a concentrated volley of proton torpeodoes.
But how would it work in game terms... hmmm....?

(goes off-screen for a while, returns with a pile of paper)

Okay, with just a few minutes of fudging, I came up with this:
"It's a combined action. A flight or squadron leader coordinates the whole thing with a command roll.
Since there are twelve members in a standard squadron, if the squadron leader is successful in his command check, his proton torpedoes do 15D starfighter-scale damage [9D standard damage with a +2D damage for fire-linking his proton torpedoes, with +4D for the whole squadron.]

Since a Star Destroyer has a Hull-rating of 7D, with 3D worth of shields plus a 6D bonus because of it's capital-scale, it gets to roll a 16D."

What do you think? Check the math. I'm not good at math, but it seems pretty good, since it means that the starfighters have to have coordination, strength in numbers as well as surprise to make it work.
I mean, if that Star Destroyer has it's shields evenly placed, the starfighters have a better chance of hurting it, right?

P.S
As far as the 'big boat blast-out', I'm still waiting for suggestions!

P.P.S
Man, why do my post always wind up this long?
_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the Force.

[Hellcat]

On a cap ship like a Nebulon-B, unless each individual battery in a particular fire arc is aiming at a different spot on the target ship, why not just add up the total number of fire control dice required for each battery and roll them together instead of seperately. Of course if you're talking firing the turbolasers in, say, the left fire arc of a Nebulon-B, you're talking three turbolaser batteries at 3D fire control each for a total of 9D, which should make hitting a lot easier. So maybe you assign a gunnery observer you targets all the batteries in a particular fire arc or a certain number of batteries in that fire arc and have them roll the fire control for when all batteries under their command are firing at the same area on the opposing cap ship.

[RedFox]

[worfbacca]

If you program in C++ or java you could write a program that will roll all those rolls for you!
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"That was left handed!"

[RedFox]

[Feyladil]

Don't forget those fire arcs. For example a Star Destroyer can never use all of its weapons because 1/3 goes to the front, 1/3 to the left and 1/3 to the right.

In addition Imperial Officers tend to be arrogant and overconfident: "Well, it's only a Corellian Corvette. Turbolasers 9-12 open fire. I think this will be more than enough to show that rebel scum that they'd better surrender...."

This way you can scale that type of battle a bit down without beeing unrealistic.

Cheers
Feyladil
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Hey, this is not my fault!

[Jace_Terrik]

Yah, well, I forgot to mention that. Of course I'm paying attention to the fire arcs!
Who do you think you're talkin' to!

And secondly, why involve officers and NPC's. If the character is the captain of the ship, he/she should roll his/her command skill as noted above.

Maybe I wasn't just expressing myself clearly enough... that happens a lot sometimes.

And yes, I'd still like to have that chart, if you wanna share.
_________________
There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the Force.

[john brewer]

[Ray]

Just proof that "Trench Run Syndrome" does exist and is a major reason for Capital Ship Captains to worry and demand Lancer Frigate support.

And that was with outdated Headhunters. Imagine Modern B-Wings, X-Wings and Y-Wings, with A-Wing support for eating up Tie Fighters!

[john brewer]