Space combat experiences

JaJacob · 04-16-2018, 06:32 AM

Hello everyone, after concluding our fantasy campaign, my players got the captain's itch for sci fi adventures.

Now, I don't have any books besides ultra tech, so I'm wondering if you have good experiences using some of the spaceship combat systems in gurps.

I'm gonna run similar setting as Shadows of Sol - some hard scifi elements like reaction drives and tracking delta v requirements, no artificial gravity and some horror super science elements like genetic monsters.

Space ship combat won't be central part of the campaign, but it might be main component of single (or few) sessions. Weapons available are rail guns, classic guns and missiles (as well as nukes). I just don't want to have whole combat revolve around few pilot/gunner rolls.

From what I read, there are few options:

Spaceships 4e - seems like a obvious choice, but complicated and bogged with rolls and modifiers (do you really roll all guns separately?), also after searching for days, I could only find few combat examples and few opinions along the lines of "I don't think it's actually playable". It seems you also get almost immediately destroyed with the high damage.

Space Opera Combat System - I only found snippets, seems completely abstract with no damage rolls, instead GM narrates everything. The few people seem to like it, but then again it's almost impossible to find any detailed information.

Just using Basic - Well I thought about just going with basic and make up some additions for players to do. Although I have no idea about possible stats for the various ships and weapons.

So, experienced GMs. What system do you actually use or would you in my case?

04-16-2018, 06:32 AM	#1
JaJacob Join Date: Sep 2017	Space combat experiences Hello everyone, after concluding our fantasy campaign, my players got the captain's itch for sci fi adventures. Now, I don't have any books besides ultra tech, so I'm wondering if you have good experiences using some of the spaceship combat systems in gurps. I'm gonna run similar setting as Shadows of Sol - some hard scifi elements like reaction drives and tracking delta v requirements, no artificial gravity and some horror super science elements like genetic monsters. Space ship combat won't be central part of the campaign, but it might be main component of single (or few) sessions. Weapons available are rail guns, classic guns and missiles (as well as nukes). I just don't want to have whole combat revolve around few pilot/gunner rolls. From what I read, there are few options: Spaceships 4e - seems like a obvious choice, but complicated and bogged with rolls and modifiers (do you really roll all guns separately?), also after searching for days, I could only find few combat examples and few opinions along the lines of "I don't think it's actually playable". It seems you also get almost immediately destroyed with the high damage. Space Opera Combat System - I only found snippets, seems completely abstract with no damage rolls, instead GM narrates everything. The few people seem to like it, but then again it's almost impossible to find any detailed information. Just using Basic - Well I thought about just going with basic and make up some additions for players to do. Although I have no idea about possible stats for the various ships and weapons. So, experienced GMs. What system do you actually use or would you in my case?