House rules for space combat

[arcador]

I've been fiddling with the space rules a bit, addressing some minor (or not so) issues that bother me for some time.

Of course, those are just a version of house rules. If you have your own, you can share them as well.

Sandcasters
In fleet combat 10 sandcasters absorb 1 dmg from turrets. It's a pool. (note that their effect is usually neglgible).

Mass driver bays
Attacking anything with M-Drive 1 or more (which is actively using it), inflicts -6 to the attack.
Same is valid for Freet combat.

Ortillery missiles/torpedos
Can't attack ships. If they attack ships, attack bonus = 1/10 from # (minimum -6).
Same for fleet combat.

Bomb-pumper torpeodes
Fleet combat - Salvo defence is only 80% against those.

damage from critical effects
The hull damage the ship gets from the critical effects table doesn't count against the sustained damage (to prevent chain-critical-death of smaller ships).

Squadrons
Each fighter from the squadron receives bonus to damage = average gunnery skill
Squadron locks targets as one.
Squadrons fire missiles as a salvo.

Edit: removed the "balance" rules, since were purely my own preference.

[AnotherDilbert]

Sensor tasks get a negative DM equal to half the attack DM for range (e.g. -2 at very Long).

You get one chance to detect a ship per range-band it gets closer.

[AnotherDilbert]

Dogfighting:

The dogfighting replaces the Attack Step [p154] of the space combat round, and only the Attack Step, not the entire Round.

Dogfighting does not include a Manoeuvre Step. We cannot move away from the dogfight.
Dogfighting does not include an Action Step

So instead of
1. Manœuvre Step
2. Attack Step
3. Action Step
we have
1. Manœuvre Step
2a. Short Attack Step
2b. Short Attack Step
2c. Short Attack Step
2d. Short Attack Step
2e. Short Attack Step
...
2z. Regular Attack Step
3. Action Step

So no dogfighting "Rounds", but dogfighting "Attack Steps". This is a big change.

Each "Short Attack Step" starts with a dogfighting roll, then attack rolls.
Thrust used in the Manœuvre Step is gone and cannot be used in dogfight.
Thrust dedicated to the dogfighting roll is gone and cannot be used for Evasive Action.


In my house-rule any action in the Combat Step is allowed in the dogfight, but no action in the Action Step. I even allow the Combat Manoeuvre Docking during the dogfighting Short Attack Step, to allow boarding.

[arcador]

That sounds interesting! We will try it out and see what happens!

[Juums]

On avoiding crit-chains, my house rules on Sustained Damage are as follows:
1) A Severity 1 critical hit occurs whenever an attack does damage greater than or equal to 10% of the combatant's maximum Hull;
2) A Severity 1 critical hit occurs when a combatant sustains damage equal to 25%, 50%, and 75% of its maximum Hull;
3) Any natural crit occurs that would proc a Sustained Damage crit as well, the natural crit's severity is increased by +1 per Sustained Damage crit proc'd; and
4) If a Sustained Damage crit cannot proc an additional Sustained Damage crit, even if one would normally be inflicted by virtue of damage inflicted by the Sustained Damage crit.

A convenient upside of that is that it tends to make dice-induced crits more dramatic and reduce the bookkeeping, as things get whacked for one big crit rather than two or three smaller ones.

[AnotherDilbert]

1) A Severity 1 critical hit occurs whenever an attack does damage greater than or equal to a combatant's maximum Hull;

Do you mean before armour? Otherwise the ship is destroyed?

[Juums]

1) A Severity 1 critical hit occurs whenever an attack does damage greater than or equal to a combatant's maximum Hull;

Do you mean before armour? Otherwise the ship is destroyed?

That's just poor spellchecking on my part. Phasers set for maximum derp there. It should read:
"A Severity 1 critical hit occurs whenever an attack does damage greater than or equal to 10% of a combatant's maximum Hull;"

Edited the main post to reflect that.