"And there ain't no party like a boarding party, 'cause a boarding party don't stop." - Archer 1999
Brass Jester mentioned using modified SWADE Chases for combat in his solo games, and then while I was re-reading 5150 Fringe Space for my retrospective review I remembered the generic spaceship layout it has. What would happen, I wondered, if I put those two ideas together?
Concepts
We can use the SWADE Chase rules on the 5150 Fringe Space spaceship layout as a way to resolve boarding actions. As ships are quite small, these are Foot Chases.
Replacing the areas in that layout with cards is the first step, but if you replace them with index cards and write the chase cards on them, it gives you more room for figures and means you only need one deck of cards (for initiative) rather than two.
Also, index cards make the layout roughly the right scale size if you retain 1" as 6 feet; my rules of thumb are to give Traveller ships a mass ten times their displacement and look up the Size from that on the Size Table (SWADE p. 179), which is a good fit to published deck plans, or to add 11 to a 5150 ship's Hull and use that as the Size, which feels about right.
- 3" x 5" cards = 120' long, Size 13. Traveller scoutship.
- 4" x 6" cards = 144' long, Size 14. Traveller free trader; 5150 pirate, slaver or trader.
- 5" x 8" cards = 196' long, Size 15. Traveller subsidised merchant or patrol cruiser; 5150 cutter.
- 6" x 9" cards = 216' long, Size 16. Traveller mercenary cruiser; 5150 light freighter.
- A4 or US Letter = 264' long, Size 17. Traveller ship up to 1600 tons; 5150 heavy freighter.
The City Streets customisation is fitting - ships have cramped quarters with a lot of obstacles and cover.
As an added flourish, the chase card can indicate Encounters, with a face or ace card meaning you meet something interesting as you advance; perhaps spades are more enemies, for example, diamonds valuable cargo, and hearts passengers.
Lessons Learned from Tryouts
I played through a number of boarding actions using this approach in extreme slow motion, checking all the options and modifiers, taking copious notes, to see how well this actually worked; I learned the following:
- Using the Chase rules this way gives you something that feels a lot like Classic Traveller range band combat.
- The reduced options for tactical manoeuvre make it easy to decide what NPCs should do without referring to an AI; I found this the main benefit.
- Neither side can Flee, as they can't gain enough separation. Boarding actions last until one side surrenders or is incapacitated.
- Combatants are usually too close for Range modifiers for firearms to come into play; modifiers from Evade manoeuvres (which replace Cover), Suppressive Fire, Support, and Tests are more important. Most Shooting rolls are made at -4 or more, so most of them miss; I found hits on Innocent Bystanders more common than striking the intended targets.
- Figures are occasionally Bumped off the map and out of the ship; this makes sense if there is an open hatch, say, but not so much if there is a solid bulkhead in the way.
Coda
Overall, I found this method to be no faster than normal combat, although the cognitive load on the GM is lower as it's easier to remember the modifiers involved (there are fewer of them) and easier to decide what NPCs should do (they have fewer options). So I can see myself using this in future, not just for boarding actions but for a broad range of combat situations. Thanks to Brass Jester for the idea!
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