Session 45 was our first ship combat in a long time. SAFCO wisely avoids ship combat.
In this case the pursuing ships were not really ships. They were patrol speeders. Tougher than an air raft, and with one ship-power laser, and with 3G acceleration (or it’s in-atmosphere equivalent), but no jump drive, etc. Essentially fighters.
The ship the PCs were on, the Fortunate Son, is a Far Trader. No armor. One dual pulse laser turret. One sandcaster. 2G acceleration. Not a bad ass ship.
What made the FS superior was the crew. Using the excellent and fun ship combat rules from Cepheus Light, each crew member has something to do each round. Something of real value that can help in a fight. The “advantage” rules allow you to run the combat without worrying too much about actual positions. You and the players can describe the flying to your heart’s content. It is cinematic, for lack of a better term.
Note: the Cepheus Light rules are currently only $4.20 for the PDF. Just buy them. The soft cover is less than $20. Great streamlined rules.
With Pilot-4, Gunner-3, Gunner-1, Engineering-3, and an effective Comp-1 on Sensops, the rules really bring to light how good a good crew can be. For each position there are a number off possible actions, each requiring a roll.
This was our first time using these rules. The session, including roleplaying and combat, took about 1.5 hours. I spent about 20 minutes before that going over the rules a bit and answering questions, so that each player understood that in the possible upcoming fight each would have possible meaningful actions.
The rules worked well for Classic Traveller, but of course not perfectly. There are details that need to be dealt with, but I’d say overall it was smooth. I’m hoping Omer Golan-Joel will do the same thing for ship combat that he did for vehicle combat in his Quick and Dirty Vehicle Combat book for Classic Traveller.
Now, if you want a detail ship combat wargame experience, these are not the rules for you.
I made a few mistakes. Sandcasters should not work in-atmosphere. I forgot, let it happen once, so I just let it continue. I forgot that the dual pulse laser turret should get two attack rolls. Had it become important, I would have also forgotten that pulse lasers do more damage and get two effect rolls on the hit chart.
I made this first use of the rules easy on myself by making the pursuing craft very simple. Not a lot of rolls to do. Pilot and Gunner. They rolled for advantage. Could then roll for a Pilot action. So there wasn’t too much for me to keep track of.
Looking forward to next week.
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