The Forge Archives

Inspired by the topic about 'Interesting space dogfights' I started dreaming this up.  Working Title "Faces of Aces"

The system is designed to take alot of the recordkeeping off of the GM and focus the action on the players while being easy to play and keeping that cinematic feel.  I'm almost done fine tuning this and would like comments on the above aspects, other comments welcome.

This section is only about dogfighting and can be used for space opera and pulpy air combat.  This could be expanded to a fuller RPG.  And I'm not including everything in this first post to keep it simple.  Anything I mention is not in the examples has rules created.


Pilots: Each player has a piloting and gunnery skill. Normally totalling up to 3 pts overall

Craft: Each craft has attributes for Engines, Shielding/Armor, Weapons.  Normally totalling 6 pts overall.

Each player combines their pilots piloting skill and their ships engine rating to determine their Defensive Ability.  Also the Gunnery skill and Weapons rating determines their Offensive Ability.

Defensive/Offensive rolls: The player rolls 2d6 and adds his relavant ability.  Double 1's is an automatic failure and double 6's is automatic success

Card Values: 2,3,and 4s count as 5's  face cards count as 10 and the Ace has no value

Communication In combat, players are restricted in conversation.  their are three phases to Comm, statement, reply and rebuttal.  Each player can initiate Comms on their turn.  Comms are required to be short.
Example:
Statement (p1):  I've got an bogey on my six!
Reply(p2): I'm on it
Rebuttal(p1): No, protect the bomber, I can shake em.

Named Units:  These are special enemies or allies.  They are statted out similar to characters and track damage the same as characters.  For examples we will not be using named units other than the characters.

Unamed Units: These are the one hit one kill allies or enemies with static stats(mooks).  They are listed only by their stats and the number present. Unamed allies have special rules for being dealt into combat but will not be used in these examples.

Capital Ships Special case, also not used in examples

Combat Overview

Staging
The GM the objective as well as the amount of enemy and allied units and their type as well as any named units.
 
EXAMPLE: The GM wants a simple recon mission and decides the characters will hit an enemy patrol mission consisting of 20 unnamed Tie Wings
Tie Wings(20)
Offensive(1)
Shielding(0)
Defensive(3)
He assigns each character an unmodified X-Fighter
X-Fighter
Offensive(2)
Shielding(2)
Defensive(2)


Setup
Each player needs their Stat card listing their pilots skills and crafts attributes.  They also need a token and 2d6
The GM needs a pack of cards. And his list of allies and enemies
The GM then takes the role of the Commander and briefs the pilots on their mission and any intel they have
EXAMPLE: "Allright Flyboys we're in the Krynn system.  I'm sending you out to take a quick look around.  Intel indicates their aren't many Imps around but if you see any don't let them escape.  Luckily this system interferes with long range comms so if you can take them out we'll keep the element of suprise.  I've marked the waypoints into your navcomps.  Any patrols will probably be around Umbra, Krynns moon.  Marked as waypoint Bravo.  We're trying to keep a low profile here, so I can't spare any more squads.  You're on your own. Don't screw up."

Combat
Each player is dealt, face down, a card.  This card represents the situation the character is in this round.

Hearts: From left to right, any player with the suit of hearts flips their card over and declares that they have a tail.  If noone assists or fails in their assist the player must  make a defensive roll.  If the roll fails to beat the number on the card or the card is an Ace the have taken a direct hit and must determine damage(see below).  If they roll equal to or above the cards value then they have shaken the tail for this turn.  Any other player with a Club or Spade can declare an assist before this roll is made.  See the section on Clubs and Spades for details on Assisting.

Diamonds: Next any player with the suit of diamonds flips their card over.  This player has come under general fire.  This cannot be assisted.  If the player fails his defensive roll or the card is an Ace the player takes a glancing hit and must determine damage.  Otherwise the player "blows through".

Clubs: Next any player with the suit of Clubs has gotten a lock on an enemy unit.  If the card is an Ace or their Offensive roll is equal to or higher than the value on the card then they've scored a direct hit and if this is an unnamed unit, it is destroyed.  A player with the suit of Clubs can declare an assist immediately after the tailed player declares.  The assisting player rolls his offensive roll and if it beats the value on the their own card he has scored a direct hit and the tailed player automatically shakes his tail and need not make a defensive roll.

Spades:  Finally any player with the suit of Spades have lined themselves up for a strafing run.  If the offensive roll wins or the card is an ace they have scored a glancing hit and must determine damage.  A player with a Club card can also declare an assist but a success only distracts the tailing enemy and does no damage and the tailed player automatically shakes his tail.


Determining Damage: GLANCING HITS
If the player is the target, add their armor/shielding to their roll.  If the roll still fails to beat their cards value the player takes glancing damage.  Place a token on the players stat card.  Next round the player's offensive and defensive abilities can only use the pilots skills and not their crafts ratings as they try to bring their craft back under control.  At the end of the next round the player will remove the token.  If the player allready had a token at the beginning of the round, he automatically takes glancing damage and the token remains in play until next round.

If an unamed enemy is the target, add thier armor/shielding to the cards value.  If the player still succeeds the enemy spins out of control and is destroyed.  If the roll fails there is no effect.

Determining Damage: DIRECT HITS
Resolved similar to Glancing hits.  With the following exceptions.
If the player's armor/shielding absorbed the direct hit, One level of armor/shielding is ablated.  If the armor/shielding fails to deflect the direct hit he recieves a token as well as take damage to either their Engines or Weapon ratings(even/odd on a d6).
Unamed Enemy and Ally Units are destroyed outright with a direct hit regardless of armor/shielding.
If a Player's craft is reduced to 0 rating in either Engines or Weapons they decare that they are dropping out of the fight.  The player plays one more round.  If a direct hit damages the 0 rated system again the player must eject.

Combat Example
GM deals all 3 players a card face down

Bobby 'Mav' flips his 9 of Hearts over and States "Bogey on my Six!"
Sarah 'Arrow' flips over an Ace of Clubs and Replies "I've got hard lock on em Mav"
Mav Retorts "Owe you one."
(since this was an Ace of Clubs, Arrow scores an automatic direct hit and destroys the enemy tailing Mav)

Mike 'Sleeper' flips over an 10 of Diamonds and comes under general fire. He rolls a 4, his defensive ability is 3 for a total of 7.  He has a shield rating of 2 which is still lower than the face value of the card.  Mike places a token on his sheet and States "I'm @#$!#$ hit"

The GM reduces his enemy count by one.
Sarah racks up a kill tally.
Next round Mike can only use his piloting and gunnery skills for his rolls.


Experience
for every unamed enemy unit you destroy put a mark on your stat sheet.  This is your "kill tally"  you can trade in kill tallies to repair damage to your ship or install upgrades.  Also if you fire the shot that destroys a Named unit or Capital ship not only do you recieve a kill tally but you recieve 1 "Bragging Right"(detailed later)

Just a few quick notes.

A person tailed by an Ace of hearts can only be assisted by an Ace of Clubs or Spades but it automatically beats the Ace of Hearts.

Face cards while only count as a value of 10, do have special abilities when dealing with Named Units and Capital ships,  Hence the working title ;)

One example, If a player has a face card of Hearts.  The GM can declare that one of the Named Enemies is the one tailing him before assists are declared.  Also Any player with a face card of Clubs or Spades can declare his target is a Named Enemy.  Aces are not considered Face cards.

D'oh
I forgot to add that the enemies offensive and defensive abilities are added to the value of the card as needed.  Sleeper still failed his defensive roll.  His target number would have been 11.  10 from the card and the tie-wing has a offensive value of 1.