Topic: PC/NPC System vs Space Battle System?

[Cory Magel]

So, I mentioned somewhere else that I'm starting work on a Sci-Fi campaign.  My primary concern is the two systems to use for PC's/NPC's and Space Ships.

I know I'm going to use Spacemaster for the characters, but have not decided what I'm going to do about Spaceship battles.  I'm seriously considering using something like X-Wing but need to find out a little more about the mechanics.  I've been eying the Star Wars X-Wing models themselves (and actually already bought the Tantive when I saw it for less than $50).  If X-Wing is robust enough to show character progression I might just go simple and stick with that, but I don't know if I'll actually put the campaign in the Star Wars setting.  I was ready to drop some serious coin on the X-Wing stuff at GenCon, but when I found out I had to stand in line 45mins just to LOOK at stuff that I then had to pay full price for and lug home on the airplane.... yeah... not doing that.  Once the VISA is paid off (should be in the next 2-3 months) and all I'm down to is the mortgage payment I'll probably order a whole slew of them from Miniature Market (and, um, put a down-payment on a Geek Chic table!).

Now, if X-Wing is not robust enough to show character progression (and I'm kinda doubting it is) I'm going to pick up a spaceship system that it's easy to custom built your own space fighters - this way I can build fighters that fit the X-Wing models looks.

I'm also going to have to stock up on some regular character miniatures.  Been having a little trouble finding good ones.  I don't want giant Warhammer space marines that dwarf all the others.  Reaper has some promising stuff and I've seen a limited number of others I like, but I suspect I might wait for the new Star Wars Rebel Assault plastic mini's and buy them for the foes.

I'm thinking start it off a bit more generic or Firefly-like then possibly integrate it into the Star Wars setting as the group levels up if it seems appropriate.

[Wolfhound]

X-wing isn't likely to work well with characters who's skills change over time without some major modification.  Also x-wing doesn't handle 3D space flight at all.  In fact that is my biggest disapointment with x-wing (even though I've sunk a few hundred into the game already) is the fact that it only represents 2-dimentional "flight". 

Ad-astra has a good 3D space flight system, but not sure how well it would work with Spacemaster (I've not purchased it yet, but likely will at some point in the future).

[Cory Magel]

I'm largely unconcerned with capability between the character portion and the ship portion (those might be famous last words).  If I can get a good space battle system all I really need to do is convert Spacemaster percentiles into the piloting and offensive abilities of the ships.  So, as an example, if the space combat uses a 20 based setup, I just divide character skills by 5.  However, that said, there needs to be some level of character progression possible in the spaceship system to make the translation without screwing up the ship to ship combat system.

I know I'm making that sound easier than it will be, but I'm confident I can do it (famous last words again?).

[Wolfhound]

With some work you could make it work.  Guess I wasn't fully grasping what you were getting at.  In the x-wing game you do choose a pilot for each ship, and that pilots abilities do play a major role in the ships capabilities, so in that respect it will probably work well.  They use custom 8 sided dice though, with the number of dice rolled dependant on the ship, weapons, abilities, etc.  So figuring out how to convert SM skills over to it might be a little tricky, but I'm sure you can probably figure out a good way to do it.

In fact, if you do it might be worth either posting it in this thread or doing a write up on it for release through the GuildCompanion.com.  I'd certainly be interested in seeing it. 

Although personally I'm still disapointed that x-wing doesn't handle 3D movement and tactics (t'was my biggest disapointment with it).  But despite that it is still a fun game.  The biggest challenge is learning how to maneuver (as just about every ship is different, but then again my second biggest disapointment with it is the inability to actually stop a ship and sit still or to be able to use some of the maneuvers that you see in Battlestar Galactica). 

[Cory Magel]

I suspect I'm going to find a more robust system and just use the miniatures from X-Wing (and likely other games mixed together).  I've had suggestions and seen some various possibilities.  A few of the ones I'm likely leaning towards right now are Silent Death, Star Strike, and BattleTech rules.  But I'm going to have to get my hands on more of the materials and give them a read through.  So long as a game has a kind of progression for advancing characters skill it's easy enough to convert them when using a largely percentile based game (RM).  The combat results (i.e. damage, crits, etc) of ship to ship combat don't really need to work the same way as RM characters, I just need to decide how to work the characters skills in relation to maneuvering and scoring hits.

It would be nice to find a system that handled 3D environments, but at the same time that is then a little troublesome to simulate on the tabletop.  For non-space combat I'd definitely want it (Wings of Glory for example), but in space combat I'm not as worried about it.  Having an on-board radar and without the effects of gravity the only benefit I can see is separating certain crafts by distance vertically as well as horizontally.  I'm not going to go out of my way to simulate vertical differences until it can easily represented on a table top.

I was just hoping that people here had played some of them already and could give me an idea of what they thought of them.

[Defendi]

I used silent death a lot during playtest, because there was a decree from ICE that it should be silent death compatible.  That fell by the wayside on some draft or another (I had, what, three editors?).  Basically, the conversion rules boiled down to this:
Divide combat pilot bonus and weapon skills by 15 for stats. SM has different skills for the different weapon types, so there would be three skills instead of one gunnery.
For XP, multiply the TPV by 10 or so to get a ballpark xp figure.
I wrote some frictionless space rules at one point.  Those might be more complex than you'd like.

[Defendi]

I'm a huge fan of Silent Death, BTW.  Loved Star Strike, too, but Silent Death was a better miniature game.

[markc]

  SD is a game I have not played so I cannot compare it to SS but I have heard many positive reviews about it. I think the thing that sort of moved me away from it was the fact that it used multiple die types and that I had a few other SF games in my library that I liked and did a quick conversion that I liked.
MDC

[Wolfhound]

I've also heard good things about Silent Death, but have never played it and am not familiar with it either.