Starships and Dogfighting

21 Aug, 2025

GLoG_ASTRA is slowly turning into an OddLike... And I love it.

- from Meckanical Mind

Starships

A starship is a vehicle capable of exiting and entering atmospheres, and making interstellar jumps*, all while keeping its crew alive (usually).

HP is Hull Points. When HP is reduced to 0, the ship is disabled. If HP reaches -5, the ship is destroyed, and all crew must make a save to see if their safety systems engage, allowing them to wait up to 8 hours for rescue. To repair a ship, spend (a lot of money and time, economics later.)

• Generally ships will leave a disabled ship alone. Pirates may try to capture it for themselves (prepare to repel boarders!), and others may simply flee the scene of the battle. Destroying a disabled ship is usually seen as a waste of resources.

Modules: Every item listed after || is a module. Modules can be removed and replaced in port, but a ship can never have more modules than it began with. Large modules (L) count as 2 modules if removed or placed, and integral modules (I) cannot be removed.

• Fighter: d6 (3) HP || Canon (d6), Shield (2)
• Frigate: 2d6 (7) HP || 2x Canon (d6), Shield (2), Missiles (2/2)
• Freighter: 3d6 (10) HP || Heavy Shield (3, L), 2x Cargo, Plating (+3 HP)
• Cruiser: 4d6 (14) HP || Railgun (d10, L), Heavy Shield (3, L), Heat Ray (d8)
• Carrier: 6d6 (20) HP || Bay (2/2, L), 2x Canon (d6), Heavy Shield (3, L)

*A Note on Fuel - Due to some science about mass and time-space dilation, all ships can make about 6 jumps on a full tank.

Common Modules

• Bay (L): Contains 2 fighters. A single fighter can launch at the end of the round without using the carrier's action, or all fighters can be launched at the end of the round as the carrier's action. Typically only a Carrier or Freighter class ship can install a Bay.
• Boosters: When evading or moving to another area, remove 1 damage dice rolled against you.
• Canon (d6): Launches small physical projectiles.
• Cargo: Can carry 1 unit of trade-goods.
• HackLink: Target saves at the beginning of the turn, or a module is disabled for d4 rounds. May only disable 1 module at a time.
• Heat Ray (d8): Cannot reduce the target's hull below 0.
• Missiles (2/2): One missile can be launched per turn. It deals d12 damage. Missiles must be restocked in port.
• Plating: Increase max HP by 3.
• Railgun (d10): Launches a single large projectile at incredible speed.
• Shield (2): Activates at the start of the round, before attacks. Once activated, reduce all damage taken to hull and modules by X. Large shields have X of 3.

Rare Modules

The galaxy is littered with battlegrounds, and scavenging modules from rare ships has been a lucrative business since the Liberation. There's almost no limit to what a module might do, for example:

• Cloaker: Become invisible to all detection at the end of the round, or until you attack. Works once per combat.
• Teleporter Bay: Transport tagged individuals onto your ship, onto a planet, or onto an unshielded ship.
• FullDive: A virtual reality drive capable of simulating complex situations, environments, and characters.
• BioForge: A large vat capable of modifying biological beings by adapting genetic material. Most beings can handle 1 modification, but begin to grow more and more feral with additional modifications.

Dogfights

-From Star Wars

When ships fight, each side rolls a d6 at the beginning of each turn. The loser must declare what action they take first, then the winner of the roll declares their action. All actions in space occur simultaneously.

For massive fights, it may be helpful to separate fights into areas, with moving into a different area of the fight an action that occurs at the end of the round.

• Attack: Activate any offensive modules against a single ship. Ships only take the single highest attack roll against them each round as damage.
• Disable: Activate any offensive modules against a particular module. This attack is impaired, but any module that takes 3 damage becomes disabled until repaired.
• Evade: Make a piloting test to impair all attacks targeting you this round. Impaired attacks roll a d4 instead of their usual dice.
• Lock On: Make a weapons test to lock on to a particular target, improving attacks made against it on the following round. Improved attacks deal d12 damage instead of their normal dice.
• Jump: Prepare to enter a hyperspace jump. At the end of the round, pay fuel to enter hyperspace. A pursuer must test piloting to successfully follow.
• Activate: Engage a special module.

An Example

From a small station, a handful of fighters are deployed to investigate a nearing duo of ships. The station fighters (SF 1, 2, & 3) discover that the duo of ships are pirate vessels, a Fighter (PF) and a Frigate (PFrg).

Round 1

The station fighters lose initiative.

• SF 1 & 2 attack PFrg
• SF 3 locks onto PFrg.
• PFrg evades
• PF attacks SF 3.

The actions resolve:

• PFrg's evasion roll is unsuccessful.
• SF 1 & 2 roll a 2 & 3 damage to Pfrg, so Pfrg is reduced to 3/6 HP.
• PF attacks SF3, dealing 5 damage before SF 3's shields activate.
• SF 3 is destroyed. (It's pilot is ejected, awaiting rescue.)

Round 2

The station fighters win initiative.

• PFrg attacks SF 1.
• PF attacks SF 2
• SF 1 evades
• SF 2 attacks PF

The Actions Resolve

• SF 1 evades successfully.
• PFrg rolls 2d4 against SF1, and deals 2 damage.
• SF 2 attacks PF, dealing 3 damage.
• PF attacks SF 2, dealing 3 damage.
• PF and SF2 are destroyed. (Their pilots eject, awaiting rescue.)
• Only SF1 and PFrg remain, both are damaged!

Round 3

SF 1 wins initiative!

• PFrg will attack SF1
• SF1 will attack PFrg!
• PFrg rolls 3 & 5, dealing 5 damage.
• SF1 rolls 3 damage!
• ALL SHIPS ARE DESTROYED!

The station would send rescue craft to capture surviving pirates and reclaim their own crew members. Overall, this becomes a victory for the station, though a costly one.

Your First Ship

- From Star Trek

Imagine a crew is in debt to a single dangerous individual, or tasked with an important assignment. They start with the following ship, which they should name and add a single common module to.

• Frigate: 10 HP || Canon (d6), Shield (2), Plating, _____ ?

Improving Your Ship

A ship can be improved twice. This usually takes quite a bit of money and time. (Again, I haven't really talked about economy yet, so, I'll get back to this someday, but for now, each time you capture and sell a ship, you can improve a ship of the same class.)

Each time you improve your ship, it gains d6 HP, and space for 1 module.

#glog_astra #systems