5150 Fringe Space AAR Part 7 - Space Combat!

Part 6
Space combat?! Yep, space combat rules are included in 5150 Fringe Space. In fact we've included ship and character paper counters for your use.

 Now back to the Story.

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Movement in Fringe Space can be on planets or in space. Each Ring (there's 9) is divided into 6 Sectors. You can move through as many Sectors per turn as desired. So this turn Billy will be moving from Sector 4 to Sector 1 - where the Jump Point is.

Next month he can move from one Jump Point to any of the other 8 Jump Points. Once you finish your movement, in this case Sector 1 where the Jump Point is located you roll to resolve PEFs - just like when you're in a Settlement on a planet. 

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 The first PEF is resolved as nothing, but the 2nd is Contact. Rolling 1d6 gives me 2 ships. One more roll gives me Pirates. 

 Movement in space combat is simple. Start with the ships facing each other. You can use the counters we've provided or any models you already have!

 Doing a quick Ship to Ship Talk the Talk and ...

 Combat is carried out by starting on the Dogfight Table and rolling d6 based on Captain Rep, Circumstances, Attributes, Profession and Race. Toss in the Chance Cards and roll dice, looking for successes.

Winner goes with one loser to the Taking Control Table. Other losers are temporarily out of the combat having passed by the winner. They will return when the ships return to the Dogfight Table.

 Place the winner from the Dogfight Table to the side or rear of the loser, signifying it is lining up a shot. Roll dice on the Taking Control Table - similar process. If the ship wins again, it fires on the Firepower Table.

Boom! Three hits on the Hull and the Pirate ship explodes. The 2nd Pirate takes a Continue On Test and does.

Back to the Dogfight Table. The Pirates draw the Asteroid Chance Card - costing Billy a success due to avoiding an asteroid. The Pirate chooses to fire at the LA Woman's Engines and scores 2 hits. If the Thrust (Engines) of the ship is reduced to 0, it can be boarded.

Back to Dogfight Table and Billy wins and delivers damage to the Pirate's ship...

 

 Who fails the Continue On Test and bugs out.

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The LA Woman took 2 Thrust hits - reducing it to only 1. This is problematical.  Thrust can only be repaired  at a Space Port on a planet. The ship still has power to move from Sector to Sector, but can be boarded by any ship if they lose on the Dogfight Table. 

I've always had problems with spaceship games where it takes a long time to recreate something that would be resolved in a few minutes. As you can see movement is abstracted. Once you eliminate the need to plot movement, measure movement, check for firing arcs, space ship combat games can play fast. The actual fight took about 15 minutes.

Now it becomes more about when and how many Bonus Dice to allocate. By simplifying the mechanics and focusing on the end result, the Story can continue. Also there's no waiting around while your opponent moves.

Still one more PEF to resolve and dice are rolled.

Uh oh. 

 "Billy! Hishen Slaver coming into fast."

It doesn't seem to be Billy's day.  Part 8.