Forums of the Megaverse®

What house rules have you added to increase the fun of Space Combat in your games?

How do you engage all the players during space battles?

I use Kitsune's various rules to enhance my space games.

http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Rifts/Rifts-Rules.htm

Critical damage tables.
Going from minor annoyances, like the coffee maker being blown apart, all the way to being "cored" through the long axis

Critical damage table are always nice! I'd love to see those DhAkael.

i haven't actually used these in games yet (space opera isn't a big thing where i am), but here's an over veiw of mine.

first, i changed the weapons ranges. everything on a starship or fighter shoots about 100x farther in space. a missiles range is considered infinite, but it's manuvering range is limited by how long it can run. (this makes missiles shorter range than direct fire weapons over one melee, but if your willing to launch a few melee's out, missiles are an excellent long range choice)

second, i changed the 'mach in space' mechanic to be an accelleration one, with a ships mach speed becoming how many mach it can gain or loose in one melee. mach velocity tops out around 600,000 mach for CG ships (.6C) most ships won't ever reach that speed, but speeds of a few thousand mach would be typical for normal travel in a star system. (orbital speed around earth is about 30 mach BTW..)
less advanced ships like from AU or MiO would be mach per minute or even hour, and have much lower top speeds. (less efficent drives). this puts CG ships as having hundreds of G's of accelleration.

third, computers control much of combat. they'd have to. all weapons on a starship have a set # of shots per melee (instead of using the gunners #), and can be slaved together to create larger volleys of fire at one target. this means that a small player group could control an entire battleship.

fourth, sensors work a bit different. thermal is king, and you can detect most ships light minutes away. radar is an ultra short range option for targeting at ranges under 100,000 km. FTL sensors are either passive gravity detectors (picks up CG drive sigs), or 'sweeping' distorsion scanners with a range of only a few light seconds. using active sensors of any kind are detectable far beyond their effective range, and make it easier for enemies to find you and hit you.

fith, i added rules for ramming and using reaction drives as weapons. ramming inflicts 1D6x10md per ton for every 10 mach of closing speed. to both rammer and ramee. tends to be a suicide manuver.
reaction drives do damage based on their output (accelleration rate) and type (fusion, antimatter, conversion torch). they have an exhust plume that is several km long (varies based on thrust) that is hot enough to do damage to enemy ships. i also came up with rules for using Bussard ramjet magnetic scoops as weapons (EMP issues, hard rads, scrambled nervous systems...).