Space Combat

The ability to travel across the light years to distant worlds is a watershed for any intelligent race. Once a race gains the technology to create colonies beyond its homeworld, it becomes an interstellar power to be respected and possibly feared by its neighbours, a far cry from the technologically backward primitives who have yet to discover the existence of Subspace,Slipstream or hyperspace and the benefits of commerce with new worlds.

The most coveted spacecraft technology is that of artificial gravity and most races are still unable to implement it into their designs. The larger ships of the Earth Alliance are able to create the effects of gravity on board through the use of rotating sections, much like Freeport Alpha.

However, this is only possible on their largest vessels and remains a weak point of every design in combat. Few races have achieved true artificial gravity, through the use of gravitic and magnetic principles tied to the main drive systems of their ships. The Centauri and Minbari are the principal races with control of gravitic technology and both jealously guard their secrets as it grants them a great advantage in battle.

This section describes spacecraft themselves, their typical crews and the methods by which these juggernauts clash,

from fighter dogfights to capital-scale spacecraft conflicts.

Starship Stress Superscale Size

Ship Database

Size and Type:

A simple listing of the craft’s size, as well as its type – usually surface vehicle, aircraft or spacecraft. These define much of what a vehicle is capable of and more importantly, in what situations. A spacecraft can only participate in space combat, unless it has the Atmosphere Capable special quality (in which case it may participate in atmospheric combat, or even surface combat if it has landed).An aircraft can only participate in atmospheric combat, unless it has landed (in which case it may participate in surface combat). A surface vehicle can only participate in surface combat.

Defence Value:

All craft have a base Defence Value of 10,modified by their superscale size modifier.

Armour: Nearly all craft have Armour of some kind, representing their innate hardness and ability to shrug off damage. Actual armour plating can make up very little of

a craft’s Armour score; structural integrity and resilience are more important.

Handling:

This is the modifier an operator of the craft must add to his Pilot or Operations (piloting) checks when performing manoeuvres or executing orders. It also adds to a craft’s Defence Value, as long as the craft is being piloted and is adequately operational.

Sensors & Stealth:

These two scores determine how easily a craft can locate potential enemies and how well it can avoid being detected itself. Activity on the part of the craft decreases

its stealth – a craft’s Stealth score is temporarily decreased by 5 for each order it executes in a turn.

Stress:

This is a measure of how hardy the craft is in terms of withstanding pressure and harsh manoeuvres. Whenever a craft must make a Stress check, this is the DC.

Therefore a craft that can take a great deal of Stress has a lower Stress statistic. Surface vehicles do not have a Stress statistic.

Features: Some craft have special or unique traits that set them apart from others.

Crew:

All craft require crew members of some description, even if it is only a single driver or pilot. This listing also includes the general crew quality used on this type of craft.

Also listed here are the number of passengers the craft can transport at any one time.

Structural Spaces: All basic craft of a certain type have the same number of construction spaces, which are further subdivided into cargo, control, crew, engine, hangar and weapon spaces. The number of construction spaces a craft has is determined by the quality of its design and its superscale size.

Cargo Spaces:

These spaces contain the cargo holding areas of a craft. Nearly all of a craft’s passengers will be located in these spaces. If there are important Non-Player Characters

on board, they can be placed in a specific cargo space. If this space is destroyed, they are automatically killed. Not all craft will have cargo spaces (most fighter spacecraft do not).

Control Spaces:

Control spaces include the bridge, computers, targeting sensors and so on. As control spaces are destroyed, the craft loses functionality and orders given in combat become much harder to execute. All craft have at least one control space.

Crew Spaces:

Crew spaces do not just represent crew quarters but also access spaces, special tools and gear, food and life support, spare parts storage and all the other things which

make a spaceship functional. Not all craft will have cargo spaces (some fighter spacecraft do not); in spacecraft, this will mean that the occupant must wear a spacesuit while inside the craft and is unlikely to be capable of prolonged activity.

Engine Spaces: Engine spaces contain both the engines themselves, the power plants and the engineering control areas. As these are destroyed, the craft loses manoeuvrability and speed, and a spacecraft may find itself drifting. All craft have at least one engine space.

Hangar Spaces:

These spaces are dedicated to the storage, maintenance and launching of the craft’s auxiliary vehicles. Damage to these spaces may cripple unlaunched auxiliary

vehicles or block their routes of egress. Each hangar space can hold a number of auxiliary vehicles dependent on the craft’s superscale size.

Craft without auxiliary vehicles are unlikely to possess hangar

spaces.

Craft (X): Many craft carry other vehicles, such as shuttles and fighters. These carried craft are sometimes referred to as ‘auxiliary vehicles’ and are typified by shuttles and fighters in spacecraft. The maximum number of auxiliary vehicles a craft may launch per turn is given in the parentheses.

Weapon Spaces:

Some vehicles are armed with a variety of weaponry with which to defend themselves from attack. Weapons are grouped by arc; either Fore, Aft, Port, Starboard or Turret. Listed with each weapon system is its range (Close or Long), Offence (the amount of damage a successful hit deals), special qualities (if any), and the number of weapon spaces it takes up.