Space combat question

[Gabriel_Luna]

This might be an odd thing to ask, but...how long does one round of space combat take?

I know the new rules are more abstract (and I prefer it that way), but what if you have, for example, half the party on board the carrier fighting off the raider boarding party, and half outside in fighter ships defending the ship? I'd treat them the same, but logically it takes a heck of a lot longer to close from, say, sensor range to close range than it does to fire your gun or move down a hallway. I just know one of my players is going to point this out, and I can't think of a good answer other than "Deal with it."

In addition, are there any house rules other than the armor damage rule that I should read up on to make space combat more playable?

 

[pasuuli]

I sort of assume that, for small craft like fighters at least, turns are about the same length as personal combat, since fighters are just so darn fast and agile. Seems close enough to me.

 

[Majeh]

well you could initiative order for players, one round is only like 6 seconds. That would be simplest.

Another is to play a few rounds with the ones in fighters, then should anything affect the ship the ones are on, have it appear during the "time frame", like 6 rounds into space combat a ship blows a hole into the other ship. You go back to the ones inside and go for 6 rounds, group hears a very loud explosion and alarms going off saying " Hull breach!" at the time frame of the ship being punctered. Little harder to do

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

It's a moot point at this point, but thanks for the responses...

The main question was to cover what happens if the group fights past the boarders, gets to the fighter bay, and launches. Running the length of the ship seems like it should take less time than moving thousands of kilometers to close range bands. But that gets into acceleration speeds and the like, and that's not covered by the current space combat rules.

It didn't actually come up though, so it never really mattered. The PCs took down the Raider agents on board before they could initiate the general mutiny, so I only had to deal with one thing at a time anyway. So all is well.

 

[pasuuli]

Glad to hear it.

Generally, all the players want to be involved as much as possible, so bending space-time a bit to give everyone a turn is well worth it... at least in that case.

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

Yeah, that's probably the best solution anyway. I have one particularly literal-minded player, so having answers like this handy is a good idea. Generally though, "speed of plot" is the best solution for everything. Thanks all!

 

[pasuuli]

Yeah, that's probably the best solution anyway. I have one particularly literal-minded player, so having answers like this handy is a good idea. Generally though, "speed of plot" is the best solution for everything. Thanks all!

"Speed of Plot" <== gotta remember that phrase

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

Heh I stole that from JMS too. When asked how fast the ships can fly, his answer was "At the speed of plot."

 

[pasuuli]

So, what's your story, Gabriel? You've posted a lot of useful tidbits for me lately. Where are you coming from, how long have you gamed, and how did you get roped into Babylon 5?

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

Eh...nothing too interesting. Just a B5 fanatic who likes to be helpful. I've been gaming nearly as long as I can remember (starting with a friend's older brother on the original D&D). As for B5, I've been hooked since the pilot first aired, but I only got into the RPG recently. I started with the second edition, but my campaign seems to be going well, so far. If I can help fellow B5 fans, I'm happy to.

 

[pasuuli]

Well then, thanks for the input, you're quite helpful.

 

[Gabriel_Luna]

Think nothing of it.