I recently asked my Friday gaming group what they wanted to see in a sci-fi game that most games they've played don't address. Universally they said they wanted to see some sort of mechanic that reflects just how "f***ing terrifying" traveling in space is. As they put it, it's so much more than just space battles. You can get clobbered by an asteroid that you didn't see coming. You can have an explosive decompression from a hairline fault in the hull that nobody saw. Your computers could blue screen and life support goes out while you're in hypersleep.
Space travel is, indeed, scary just at its basic concept. Hell, in the space of twenty years, the United States saw two space shuttles explode from random malfunctions or faults that were overlooked on inspections. Now think about what happens when you're out there for years!
So I started thinking how to mimic that idea in an RPG, and what happened was, I completely overhauled the starship rules in Thirteen Parsecs to be unlike anything I'd really seen in an RPG before. I'm sure there will be folks out there that point out, "Actually, x game did this back in y," but whatever. There's that old saying that everything that can be done, has been done. I feel like these rules are pretty original, and they work utterly seamlessly with the O.G.R.E.S. system.
Better yet, they also allow for spacecraft of every size and variety from the tiniest one-person snub shuttle to lightning-fast starfighters all the way up to capital ships and gigantic space stations.
So what do these rules look like in Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier?
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Starships in Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier
Everything about a starship in 13P is rooted in eleven systems. I chose eleven as the magic number because it represents the range of results on 2d6 (or, if you want to give your crew a fighting chance, d12-1). In many instances, when something goes wrong with your vessel, the affected system will be determined by a random roll (unless the GM deems that there is a good reason why a specific system is affected - in combat, for example, your defensive systems are always worn down first).
Basic Systems
These eleven systems are Communications, Computers (AI), Construction, Defensive Systems, Engineering Systems, Engines, Life Support, Maneuverability, Navigation, Sensors, and Weapons Systems. These systems and what they represent are fully explained in the game, but for now are largely self-explanatory (save Engineering Systems, which basically represents the ressources available to repair or push the ship). .
Each system will have a rating that will generally run from zero to four - some, such as engines and maneuverability, may go higher. At this time (and we're still playtesting, so it could change) there is no upper limit save the point value of your ship.
Sizes
Ships come in four sizes, with each carrying a point value to spread among the systems. The sizes are your basic small, medium, large, and capital/space station. The latter is not likely to be a vessel owned by player characters - capital ships and space stations tend to be more set pieces or plot devices. Consider Star Trek, for example. The Enterprise certainly counts as a Capital ship with its crew of hundreds of people, but it's more the setting for the series, which the crew usually has to take into battle. The GM would in such a case design the ship themselves, or possibly in conjunction with the player characters. The same goes for Deep Space Nine, or Babylon 5, both miles-long cities in space. These are set pieces whose statistics are built and maintained by the GM.
This is as opposed to, say, the Sulaco from Aliens, which is a large military transport ship with a crew of maybe a few dozen. Such a ship could be designed by the players for their travels. A ship like the Serenity or Millennium Falcon, are medium-sized freighters and would almost certainly be owned and designed by the players (unless the story deems otherwise).
The ship's size grants its point value, but may also limit certain things - Capital ships, for example, are severely limited in their Maneuverability due to their sheer mass. While everything is weightless in space, mass still counts for momentum and it requires much more power and precision to maneuver and thrust a gigantic ship or space station than it does a snub fighter. There's also a bit of genre-emulation here: the vast majority of science fiction properties see space stations as stationary and capital ships as ponderous but heavily armed.
As with anything (and with a cautionary note) GMs are always free to override or add restrictions based on their campaign settings or preferences.
Other Statistics
Ships have additional statistics as well, including Age, which limits the top value of any system, but opens up access to special features called Quirks that let characters do things like performing Percussive Maintenance, bypassing systems, or even coaxing a given system into performing an explosively outstanding feat one time before breaking down. The older a ship is, the less robust it is compared to newer, sleeker, top-of-the-line models, but the more likely it is to be an "Old reliable" when the crew needs it.
Currently Age runs from 1-10 with every 2 points granting a Quirk and reducing the overall point value of the ship by the Age. Since this results in Age never being purchased in increments of less than a factor of 2, I may simplify this to 1-5, and each point granting a quirk, plus reducing overall point values by 2.
Finally, we have Structure (the ship's Vitality, essentially) and DV (Defense Value). These are derived stats used in combat.
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Sample Ship
How it Works
For the most part, a given ship's system adds to tests that involve its use, either on a 1:1 basis in d20 checks, or on a 1:5% basis involving class ability or skill checks.
In combat where a ship has multiple crew members (normally medium or larger vessels), each crew member gets to make a check to use their individual system, and if they succeed, they can divide the system's value among various combat tasks by explaining how they are using the system to bolster the ship for the round. For example, the communications officer for a ship with a Communications value of 3 makes her check and succeeds. She mentions that she has managed to tap into the enemy communications as well as implanting a jamming virus into their computer. She opts to grant 2 of the communications points to attack and 1 to defensive systems for the next round.
To simplify things for the GM, NPC and enemy vessels will simply have a Crew Value - the GM makes a single check and if it succeeds, they can split the crew value up among the enemy systems as needed each round.
Dogfighting
Dogfighting can be handled in one of two ways, depending on how fast or tactical you want to make it. It can be done exactly as any abstracted combat in the O.G.R.E.S. system, with the basic form represented as a series of attack and damage rolls accounting for ship's systems and DV.
For more dynamic and complex combat, dogfights mane use of attack and defense maneuvers, which involve jockeying for position to get the best opportunity to level a shot at your opponent.
Damage to Vessels
Damage to vessels is represented not only by reducing its Structure points, but potentially by directly damaging the ship's systems. When the situation calls for it, the GM (or players, if the PCs are doling out damage to an enemy) may roll one or more 6-sided dice and apply the results to various systems on the vessel, either randomly or as befits the situation. When any given system reaches zero, something catastrophic happens to that system. For something like communications, it means you simply have no way to call for help or hail other vessels until it's fixed. For things like life support or construction, you could end up suffocating, losing air, or being subject to explosive decompression.
This is also how the risk of space travel is portrayed. The GM can roll a ship's systems check every so often during travel and on a failure, one or more systems suffer damage. In this case, it's possible that the player characters never know a system is damaged until they go to use it, or it fails. That's how we represent the horror of space travel. How often you roll and the severity of the roll depends, as do many things in O.G.R.E.S., on the level of grit you choose in your game.
There you have it! The basics of starship travel, construction, and combat in Thirteen Parsecs: Beyond the Solar Frontier. Be sure to follow our campaign to get notified when we go live! We are planning discounted pledge levels for the first 48 hours, so get in early! I may also work out a raffle of some sort for those who pledge the first 24 hours. I'm considering options. Possibly an early preview printing of the original Amazing Adventures from back in 2010. Only 50 of these were ever printed!
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