Let’s learn the basics of Starship Combat in West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition. You can learn more about Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Roleplaying_Game
You can pick up the original sourcebooks as PDF’s here: https://www.starwarstimeline.net/Westendgames.htm
Time Stamps:
- 0:00 Intro
- 0:24 About
- 1:04 Ship Systems
- 1:47 Space Combat Skills
- 2:21 Starship Combat Sequence
- 3:13 Speed and Pursuit
- 4:12 Gunnery
- 4:41 Shield Attempts
- 6:26 Damage
- 8:31 Outro
About Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition
Few books or games have had as enduring an impact upon the Star Wars galaxy and its fans as Star Wars™: The Roleplaying Game. Originally published by West End Games in 1987, it arrived at a time when the future of the Star Wars galaxy was uncertain, and it captivated a whole generation of gamers with rules and guidelines that made it possible to design and enjoy adventures truly worthy of the Star Wars universe and its ongoing space opera.
Now Fantasy Flight Games is proud to offer faithful recreations of this influential rulebook and The Star Wars™ Sourcebook. Our Star Wars™: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition is a limited edition set of both books, printed with higher quality than the originals and packaged in a stylized slipcase.
These books were sent to Timothy Zahn as references when he started to develop Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Thrawn trilogy. They introduced materials that were later adopted into Star Wars canon, such as the names of alien races like the Twi’lek, Rodians, and Quarren. They even inspired members of the Lucasfilm Story Group as they worked on their writers’ bible.
Now, Fantasy Flight Games is proud to return Star Wars: The Roleplaying to print as a collectible set of two high-quality, hardbound books presented in a stylized slipcase. You’ll find all the original game materials—just as playable as ever—and they’re presented with the same graphic design and fake, in-universe Star Wars advertisements for the Imperial Navy, the R2 astromech Droid, and more.
Even the books’ use of black-and-white, blue ink, and full color sections have been recreated, along with its use of still photos and concept art, some of which have been updated for this new 30th Anniversary Edition. Finally, the books come with a foreword by Pablo Hidalgo, one of the creative executives on the Lucasfilm Story Group.
Transcript
Intro
Welcome to The Infernal Brotherhood of the Scruffy Looking, Nerf Herders! In this episode of How to Play West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition, we are discussing Starship Combat.
Discussion
As this Tabletop Roleplaying Game, or TTRPG is called Star Wars, you will inevitably find yourself in a spaceship, navigating the galaxy. At times you will also find yourself under fire from Pirates and Privateers, or Imperials. Let’s discuss Starship Combat so that you will be ready when you find yourself in another starship’s sights.
The first thing you should know is that this TTRPG is not designed for grand battles between large fleets of enemy warships. It is designed to handle small space battles involving a few small ships on each side. With that in mind, let’s continue.
Ship Systems
Let’s start by examining a few of the more relevant ship systems. The ship’s die codes work much in the same way as character skills. Speed is used to catch up with or evade other starships. Maneuverability is used to evade enemy fire. Hull is used to determine what damage the ship sustains, like a character’s Strength Attribute in combat. Shields are used when a ship is hit in combat, as a reaction. Many starships have weapons installed. Each weapon has two codes: Fire Control is used to determine if you hit your target, and Damage to determine how much damage you inflicted on a successful hit.
Space Combat Skills
In addition to the Ship systems, we need to go over the Space Combat Skills used by the Player Characters or PC’s. There are three skills found under your Mechanical Attribute which are germain to space combat, the Starship Piloting skill is used to influence speed rolls and evading attacks from other ships. The Starship Gunnery skill is used when firing on another ship. And the Starship Shields skill is used when operating the shields. This skill is used as a reaction during combat.
Starship Combat Sequence
Just like traditional combat, starship combat is played in combat rounds, with each round broken down into segments. First is the Piloting Segment. This is when pilots, copilots, and gunners announce what actions they will take in the combat round. Second is the Speed Segment, where dice are rolled for each ship to determine whether it closes with its opponent or increases its distance. Third is the First Fire Segment where gunners make skill rolls to determine whether they hit their targets. Pilots may roll to evade enemy fire. And Shield operators roll to intercept enemy fire with their shield. When a ship is hit with another’s weapon, damage rolls are made against the target’s hull and shield rolls. Then the Second and Subsequent Fire Segments if there are more than one weapon system on the starship.
Speed and Pursuit
When determining distance between starships, you use the short, medium, and long range references. Enemy ships typically approach from long range initially. If both ships want to close distance or increase distance, you do so by the next range. For example closing from Long to Medium range, or increasing from short to medium range. However, if one ship is closing the distance and the other is trying to increase it, you roll opposing Starship Speed dice, with the highest result determining the outcome. Ties indicate maintaining the existing range. A pilot can use their Starship Piloting skill to add to the ship’s speed roll, but this takes an action and will affect any other actions they do in the combat round. If the ship can hold more than one crew, another PC may be the copilot, but only one of them affects the speed and evade roll.
Gunnery
Each starship with weapons will have a fire control code. The weapon can only be fired with an operator. The operator rolls their Starship Gunnery skill and the weapons fire control dice, and adds them together. The difficulty number is based on range. Point Blank range is 5, short range is 10, medium range is 15, and long range is 20. This difficulty number can be modified by the opposing ship’s pilot, by using their Starship Piloting skill to Evade. This works much like dodging in regular combat. The pilot rolls their Starship Piloting skill and their ships maneuverability dice, if it has any, and the total of the two rolls is added to the base difficulty number of th e attacker. A pilot can evade once per segment, with each evasion affecting all enemies’ attacks. The gunnery operator can fire more than once, but each attack action is in a different segment and reduces die rolls by 1D like evading each segment does.
Just like in regular combat, each PC must state exactly what non-reaction skills they are attempting at the beginning of the round. Any more than one action or reaction will reduce all action codes by 1D each. A PC other than the pilot may be the gunner, and fire it in as many segments as desired, but they cannot fire any other weapon in the same combat round.
Shield Attempts
Each time a ship is fired upon with shields, the PC operating the shields may announce a shield attempt as a reaction. Each shield attempt only affects a single attack. The operator must make their Starship Shields skill roll before the attacker makes theirs. The Shield attempt difficulty number is based on range. Long range is 10, medium range is 15, and short range is 20. The closer you are, the less time the shield has to deflect the attack, and the more difficult it becomes. If the skill roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty number, you would roll the ship’s shield dice, and add it to the hull dice roll to try and reduce the incoming damage.
Damage
Each Starship weapon has a damage code. When a weapon hits, you roll its dice. If the weapon was fired at medium range, reduce the damage code by 1D. If it was fired at long range, reduce the damage code by 2D. Ship damage is determined much like regular combat. If the Hull roll is greater than the Damage roll, this ship is Lightly Damaged with its shields blown or controls ionized. If the damage roll is greater than or equal to the Hull roll, it is Heavily Damaged If the Damage Roll is twice the Hull roll, it is Severely damaged, and if the Damage roll is three times the hull roll, it is destroyed!
If shields were not used or didn’t have any, a lightly damaged ship has its controls ionized. This means no speed, maneuver, fire control, piloting or gunnery rolls may be made for the next combat round. Shield rolls may be made normally. If shields were used, and the ship is lightly damaged, the shields are blown and all future uses are reduced by 1D. A heavily damaged ship’s speed, maneuver, fire control, and shield codes are reduced by 1D until the ship is repaired. Hull codes are not affected, nor are weapon damage rolls. Neither are pilots, gunners, and shield operators’ skill codes. If a ship is heavily damaged again, it becomes severely damaged. Severely damaged ships act like heavily damaged ships. In addition, roll on the Starship System Damage Table; the indicated ship’s system stops working. The chosen system cannot be used until repaired. A severely damaged ship which is again heavily damaged
becomes dead in space. Until repaired, it cannot move, fire, enter hyperspace, or make shield rolls. A severely damaged ship which is again severely damaged is destroyed.
And that is the basics of Starship Combat. I will return in another episode to discuss Torpedoes and Missiles, Multiple Ship Combat, Ships and Personal Combat and Improving Ships.
Outro
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Until the Infernal Brotherhood convenes again my fellow scruffy looking, nerf herders “May the Force be with you.”