Fine artwork by Phlox
Recently I’ve been watching Star Wars and thinking about how to do a science fiction version of Sam Sorensen’s Cataphracts. My current idea is something like a Model UN with rules attached for the inevitable Civil War. One indelible feature of Cataphracts is its elegant simplicity, its focus on logistics. Battlecruiser walks away from that because fighting space battles is fun! For that reason it may work better as war rules for a more traditional science fiction RPG, although its smaller number of detachable pieces would help to keep the player count from growing too crazy in a Cataphracts-alike.
Battlecruiser assumes ships are expensive and difficult to maintain. 3-5 combat ships would be a common fleet for a constellation of planets. 10 or more would be a fearsome array, unlikely to be able to fuel itself for long.
Hull
-Every ship has 2-5 hull points. These are arranged in a straight line.
-1 point must be filled with everything necessary to make the ship work. Engines, etc.
-Other hull points contain Weapons or Systems.
-Only ships of hull 2 can land on a planet. Hull 3 and up are assembled in orbital ports and are space locked
Weapons
-Each has a Strike Rank, the turn they can start attacking.
-The basic assumption is that the distance between ships is closing. If they are staying a static distance apart there could be a duel of long-range strike range 1 guns, or if one fleet comes around a moon and is surprised to find an enemy fleet an engagement might begin at a higher strike rank. Let the fiction guide you.
-Each has a number of attacks.
-Each has a strength.
-When a weapon system targets a square occupied by a ship, it has a chance-in-6 of piercing the shield equal to the weapon’s strength minus the ship’s armor (almost always 1). So a strength 6 laser lance firing on an armor 1 patrol boat has a 5-in-6 chance of piercing their defenses and destroying the hull.
Order of Play
-Prior to battle, admirals may flee. If pursued, they have a 5-in-6 chance of escaping to an adjacent friendly system and a 1-in-6 chance of half their fleet being caught and forced to battle. The other half may continue to flee or turn and fight.
-Admirals organize their ships on their 10x10 naval graph.
-On the first turn, only weapons of Strike Rank 1 may be used. On turn 2, Strike Ranks 1 and 2. Etc.
-To attack, admirals fire all their in-range weapon systems, starting with the first strike ranks and continuing in order. They aim at squares on their opponents’ concealed naval graph, exactly like in Battleship.To determine who goes first, flip a coin.
-For each attack, admirals are told “Miss” if the target was unoccupied, “Shield” if the target was occupied but the attack was unsuccessful, or “Pierce” if the target was occupied and the attack destroyed the hull.
-When all the hull points of a ship are pierced, she is destroyed.
-Play continues until one side is obliterated, surrenders, or retreats.
Example naval graph
Retreat
-After 8 turns, an admiral may order a retreat. Ships power up their StarWarpers and forgo any attacks for one turn. The opposing admiral is informed of this. On their next turn any retreating ships leave the field.
Post-Battle and Repairs
-After battle, disable systems from damaged ships as jury rigged repairs fail. For each pierced hull point, choose a weapon or system to disable.
- If engines are disabled, the ship is immobile unless towed by ships equal to twice its tonnage. Immobile ships start battles revealed to the opposing admiral.
-After battle, suppressed fighter and bomber squadrons have a 2-in-6 chance of being destroyed, or 4-in-6 if their hangars have been disabled.
-Damaged ships must go to an orbital port to be repaired. This costs time and supply.
-Destroyed ship carcasses can be brought back to port as salvage. With a week of work, they yield 40% of their Material cost.
Fighters and Bombers
-Carriers utilize a special Hangar system, by default fielding one squadron of fighters and one squadron of bombers. While fighters may have wide uses outside of naval combat, within it their main purpose is escorting/disrupting bombers.
-Bombers attack at strike rank 5, -1 for each friendly fighter wing, +1 for each enemy fighter wing, minimum strike rank 2, maximum 8. They begin targeting at the edge of the naval graph and target 4 contiguous squares (diagonals don’t count). On subsequent turns they continue their attack from a square adjacent to the square they left off in.
-Some ships have weapon systems with a Screen score. Each time such a vessel is attacked by a bomber, there is a Screen score-in-six chance the bomber squadron is suppressed and removed from the battle. If the bomber’s admiral wishes, they may choose to suppress one of their fighter squadrons instead.
Scanning
-Scanners begin at strike rank 3. Each scanner may scan one half of the naval graph and learn how many hull points are within that half. On subsequent turns, you may scan half of the half you previously scanned (a quarter of the naval graph), and so on.
Orbital Ports
-They count as having 10 hull points and 3 armor. 5 of their hull points are typically taken up by Star Factories that enable the production and repair of space ships. Ponderous, they begin play revealed on the naval graph. Typically they are studded with laser lances.
Weapons
*See Fighters and Bombers section for Strike Range modifiers and attack pattern.
Systems
-Hangar (2 hull). Can house up to 2 fighter or bomber squadrons. Screen 1.
-Scanner Array. Strike rank 3. Scan to measure how many hill points are on sections of the naval graph. Alternatively, jam enemy signals, reducing their number of effective scanners by 1.
-Overcharged Shield Generator. Rare. Instead of taking up a hull point, this system is placed as an extra hull point on the bottom of the ship on the naval graph. The ship’s armor counts as 2 higher while the Overcharged Shield Generator is still functional, but it cannot generate a shield for itself and has armor 0.
-Cloak. Does not show up on scan.
-Fortress Array. Rare. +1 Armor, +1 Screen.
-Mobile Barracks. House an invading army.
-Floating Factory. Mobile industry.
Logistics
Probably skip this part if you just need war rules. Consider numbers preliminary
-Building a ship takes 100 material/hull point. Systems and weapons cost 25 material, or 50 if they are rare technology. Orbital Ports can produce 100 material of ship per month.
-Repairs cost 40% of the material and time.
-Ships can carry 20 material/hull point.
-When stationary, ships consume 1 material/hull point/week. When moving, they consume twice that.
Default Vessel Patterns
Carrier (5 hull)
-Engines
-Hangar
-1 Fighter, 1 Bomber Squadron
-Plasma Launcher
-Flak Batteries
Battlecruiser (4 hull)
-Engines
-Laser Lance
-Gauss Cannon
-Gauss Cannon
Destroyer (3 hull)
-Engines
-Flak Batteries
-Scanner
Infiltrator (3 hull)
-Engines
-Cloak
-Plasma Launcher
Patrol Boat (2 hull)
-Engines
-Plasma Launcher
D20 Rare Civilization Shipbuilding Bonuses
1. Hunter-Seekers. Free to install Cloaking technology.
2. Ironbourne. All manufactured ships gain +1 armor, +20% build cost, and attempts to flee from Ironbourne ships always succeed.
3. Boarders. All ships may make an additional attack at Strike Rank 10, the Ram, with a strength equal to the number of hull points+armor+2 if she has a mobile barracks. When ships Ram, the ship they are attacking makes an automatic Ram attack back at them if they are not destroyed.
4. Supercapital Class. You may manufacture ships of up to size 8.
5. Droid Crew. You may reduce the upkeep of ships by 1 material/hull point, though if you do these ships are unaware of their surroundings.
6. Hotshots. Hangars contain 3 squadrons instead of 2.
7. Engineer Corps. After battle, each destroyed hull has a 50% chance of being deemed easily reparable. After a week without moving, these sections are repaired for free.
8. Nanobot Mantle. All ships gain Screen 1.
9. Quantum Computing. Your flagship and any ships adjacent to it or to ships adjacent to ships adjacent to it each give one of their weapons -1 strike rank, minimum 1.
10. Kaizen Manufacturing Practices. Ships cost 75 less material to build.
11. Tomb Worlders. Rare weapons and systems are not doubled in cost for you.
12. Viiscarian Metallurgy. Ships do not need to be built in a straight line.
13. Tracer Doctrine. For squares you have attacked but not pierced on previous turns, the first attack against that square has +1 Strength
14. Scavengers. You may fire to immobilize instead of destroy, reducing your weapon’s effective strength by 1 but disabling rather than destroying ships. Disabled ship carcasses can be salvaged for 80% of their cost. Your ships can tow their own tonnage.
15. Advanced Lenscrafting. Your Scanners have a strike rank of 1.
16. Ionized StarWarpers. Instead of flipping a coin, always go before your opponent. 3-in-6 chance of catching fleeing opponents
17. Earthshaker. Your fleets are better at orbital bombardment. (Vague placeholder until rules exist for armies and planetary industries)
18. Hardpoint Doctrine. Your orbital ports have +1 armor and work twice as fast to build, repair, and salvage vessels. They are 25% cheaper for you to build.
19. Dazzle Camouflage. The first time a hit on each of your ships would send a result of “Shield” to the enemy admiral, they report “Miss” instead.
20. Organic Vessels. Your ships eat and are grown with Supply instead of consuming and being built by Material. They cannot be retrofitted or salvaged.
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