Space Combat

Space combat offers dynamic opportunities for hosts to challenge players through strategic maneuvers and tactical use of spacecraft systems.

Whether managing solo pilots or multi-crew ships, it's essential to capture the sense of scale, danger, and opportunity that space provides.

This guide is provided to assist hosts in facilitating space encounters, offering tips for handling ship systems, crew cooperation, and decision-making at various ranges. By leveraging the range table, hosts can describe how sensors, weapons, and boarding pods perform at different distances, adding depth to combat and exploration.

Solo Maneuvers

Solo vessels are a class of ship that has only a single pilot such as a drone, a fighter, a racer, or a small individual type of shuttle aircraft. The ships are small and agile and respond immediately to pilot input, so a player's intentions can be immediately translated into action.

During space encounters where a single player is controlling the spacecraft, the host can use the standard rules for performing actions. The player states their intentions for their turn in the turn order and, if required, dice determine if they succeed.

Multi-Crew Maneuvers

For ships that support a crew of two or more such as small, medium or large class spacecraft, performing maneuvers is a more complex and time-consuming endeavor. Ships of this size are controlled through central control computers and involve an AI responding to crew commands. Encounters involving these ships should involve strategy discussion among the group and reward teamwork.

Performing crewed maneuvers can be performed as a group task. A ship's action may be fixed, occurring over a specific number of rounds, or fluid, involving specific success or failure criteria and conducted over a dynamic number of rounds.

QUICK MANEUVERS

Using tasks can help draw out the time performing a maneuver takes during game play, typically stretching across multiple rounds. This can help build tension, and make combat feel more detailed, intense and dramatic.

For groups that prefer a faster play style, use a Quick Encounter. Up to 3 players in the group can contribute an asset and make a single roll for the entire group to resolve a specific maneuver. Each quick encounter represents a full round in the turn order making combat feel fast-paced and exciting.

Range

This following range table maps the range of various spacecraft systems to space combat and encounter situations. It allows for a flexible approach to different scales of engagement in space, from close boarding actions to long-range sensor sweeps and reconnaissance.

Range Category	Distance	Description
Close	0 to 1 km	Within this range, boarding actions can be initiated, and short-range weapons like lasers or EMP devices can be used effectively. Sensors will detect fine details about enemy ships or objects.
Near	1 to 10 km	Ships are close enough for short-range boarding operations and detailed scans. Weapons like drones and EMP devices can be used with higher precision.
Short	10 to 50 km	Short-range sensors and weapons, such as interceptors and EMP missiles, operate here. Boarding actions may require specialized pods for extended boarding distance.
Medium	50 to 500 km	Standard ship-to-ship combat occurs at this range. Weapons systems such as lasers and drones are used at reduced accuracy. Sensors provide clear data about ships' configurations and capabilities.
Long	500 km to 10,000 km	Sensors can track ships at this distance, providing general data (speed, trajectory). Long-range lasers and drones can be deployed for disabling or harrying enemies but at diminished efficiency.
Far	10,000 km to 100,000 km	Only high-powered sensors can detect objects at this distance, and most weapons are ineffective. Long-range tracking and reconnaissance occur at this range, especially for large objects like space stations.