Huge space battles in Phaseworld: Help requested

[Braden Campbell]

OK.....

My first question is: what ship are you guys in? Because that's the only one that matters. Everyone else are unpaid extras and CGI models.

My second question is: whom does the GM want to win? Because that's probably who's going to, unless the PC party in their ship can wreck unimaginable havoc on the enemy.

Good Example: Deep Space 9 episode Favor the Bold. Hundreds of ships and small fighters duking it out. But, in accordance with plot, only or intrepid heros aboard the Defiant are worth watching. It's all up to them. If they manage to blow the wormhole, the Alpha Quadrant is safe. If they fail, we all learn the Dominion Anthem. Everything else happens "off-camera".

So, to answer your question: tell your GM to put you all on he bridge of one ship, and have it take the lead.

Engage!

[Braden Campbell]

:exhales slowly:

Man, you are testing my GMPhD powers here....

Your GMs first mistake was to allow you guys to self repair. No. Scatch that. Your GMs first mistake was to allow any of you to play a dreadnought-class starship. A small runner ship...maybe. it could be like Andromeda. But not anything nearly that big. It's like being able to play an Alien Intelligence.

Secondly, As advanced prototype Golgan ships, your creators (the Golgan) would never let such powerful machines have such autonomy... those Golgan like to be in control. But what is done, cannot be now amended.

Also, if you are now #1 on the TGE's most wanted list, your days are numbered. As I point out in my article, Fleets of the Three Galaxies, "A wing of twelve [space] fighters each carrying two torpedoes can dish out over 57,000 points of damage; more than enough to “sink” a battle cruiser.". One Doombringer dreadnought carries enough flying fangs (about 800 in fact) to dish out over 3 million points of damage, if each of them is loaded with just two anti-matter cruise missiles.

Scarry, no?

As for actual mechanics of running such a huge battle... I would say, in the particular case of this PC party, to let you beat up on other ships till your all bored with the character concept, then kill you with the God-like power of the TGE Imperial Armada... and then he should nuke Mechanik and kill all the Golgan too, 'cause that's what would happen.

Then you should all roll up human Space Pirates.

[Aramanthus]

I agree about the GM making a mistake with allowing the ships/Robot classes, but what is done is done.

About the numbers, in my game Battlecruisers run from 100,000 - 200,000 MDC. Since Battlecruisers are supposed to carry the same sort of armament that Battleships do, but carry lighter armor. I'll stick with the designations I grew up with, since I grew up in a navy family.

[Esckey]

Everyone plays a different style of game.



If the GM wants to play fair, he can devide up ships weapons, role to trike for each set, and then just take the average damage. Probably the quickest way to be fair about it

[sHaka]

Your GMs first mistake was to allow you guys to self repair. No. Scatch that. Your GMs first mistake was to allow any of you to play a dreadnought-class starship.

SIGGED!

[Braden Campbell]

Your GMs first mistake was to allow you guys to self repair. No. Scatch that. Your GMs first mistake was to allow any of you to play a dreadnought-class starship.

SIGGED!

Been on these boards since 2000, and its only after Open House that I get sigged. I think I have tears in my eyes...

[Braden Campbell]

Just one simple and relatively logical question to your GM....

WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING, GIVNIGN YOUR PLAYERS CAPITAL SHIPS TO TOY WITH?!
.

Oh it can be done. And it can be fun and interesting, too.

My PC group currently is tooling around the Anvil Galaxy in one of Jelko Rodula's prototype Defender-class star ships: about equal to a light cruiser, but armed with some very powerful weapon systems. The thing is also a hot rod, able to hit speeds of 9 light years per hour.

Now, part of the reason I let them take it out of the cold storage in which they found it, was that it provided the party with a means to get around the galaxy fairly fast. Also, the ship, while powerful, is balanced out by the fact that it was never fully finished ro tested (and thus, I secretly roll percentiles often to see if things break down), and that Jelko Rodula wants it back, and is coming after them in the vessel's sister ship (there are only two).

So it can be done, but you have to balance it out. And Guardian is far from indestructible... its that ship that got wailed on by a Splugorth Servitude ship (from waaay earlier threads).

[devillin]

I can understand your GM's problems, I faced much the same thing when I was setting up my Robotech/Phase World campaign. I needed a way to streamline a battle between a REF taskforce (with the PCs in charge) and an Invid fleet without having said battle take 3 days to RP out. You can find my assorted notes on movement and combat on this page. The first thing we did was to use a module system, where the character or group has their actions divided evenly among 3 combat modules. 3 modules = a round. When their turn comes, they take all of their actions then and there. They can save 1 action for a dodge that carries for the entire module, otherwise, an unused actions go away. Second thing we did was reduce the number of actions a ship can have based on the number of systems the ship has. No more firing each system a certain number of times each round up to their rate of fire. They are restricted to firing based on how many total actions the ship has. The last thing we did that cut a surprising amount of time out was to get rid of missiles that rolled a dodge. A missile volley has a set dodge number, you get one shot to hit it. If you miss, it hits, that's it.

Other things we did included grouping squadrons and swarms of Alphas and Invids together in groups of 12 (REF) or 30 (Invid). With everyone of a group having the same bonuses, actions, and weapons, it was simple to multiply all damage by the number of people left in a group, then divide it among the number in the target group. With each PC being a squadron leader, they get the feel for being in a large battle, and they get a share of the experience points for the kills.

The only problem I had with that scenario was that life and death came down to who won initiative. If the PCs got initiative, it was possible for them to pop the clamships before they got their swarms off. If the Invid won, they overwhelmed individual squadrons with swarms of Armored Scouts. Now there were certain things that I did off-screen, like a battle between a huge swarm of Shock Troopers versus a platoon of VHTs on the surface of the PC's mothership, and a squadron or two of Alphas that weren't under the PCs direct control.

But anyway, like I said before, the real trick to doing this kind of fight is to streamline as many game mechanics as possible.

[Jefffar]

I've let players operate capital ships before. I even let one play an AI controlled battle cruiser as well. Was lots of fun.

For quick mas space battle rules I suggest you comb through the Deck Plans books for Macross II RPG. There are a few ways to signifigantly cut back on the number of dice rolled.

Though in general, as a GM, I decide before the battle what will happen in the NPC vs NPC combat, and modify it as the player's actions cause influence.

[Aramanthus]

As I said earlier, it is up to the GM to take the campaign where he would like it too go.