Babylon 4: Ships and War

Each faction in Babylon 4 has its own territory and fleets, and while the Babylon station was built to be a place where people could work out their differences peacefully, some conflict is inevitable.

If and when wars happen, they will usually take place off-camera: The focus of the game is on the diplomatic discussions on Babylon 4, and the PCs will receive occasional reports from the front lines detailing the territory gained or lost, and the casualties suffered by each side. PCs are unlikely to take direct part in large scale conflicts but might influence the outcome through defence treaties, espionage, and sabotage.

Hidden Information

At the beginning of the game, knowledge about each faction's fleets will be hard to come by. Ambassadors and military characters will be given some knowledge of their own faction, but only rumour concerning others.

Information about other faction’s fleets can be uncovered through espionage, and passing this on to your government will give your side an advantage. This secret information could include what their ships can do, how many ships they have, where they are currently located, and the existence of any listening posts, secret bases, or new weapons being developed.

Uncovering this information could be done in a number of ways:

Getting the information from another PC during a session.
Asking spies represented by the Contacts merit.
A PC could personally go into another territory to spy during downtime.
Listening Posts will reveal information about nearby systems.

Territory Control

The galaxy is divided into sectors and many of them start under the control of one of the different factions. Some sectors might provide a bonus to its controlling faction, this could be resources, information, a tactical advantage in battle, or other things. Throughout the game, sectors may change hands, most commonly due to conquest.

Ships and Fleets

Each ship has stats that determine how effective they are in combat, some also have special abilities.

Size

Ships are categorised based on their size, with smaller ships often acting as screens against the fire of larger ships.

Small: Small ships usually only have enough space inside for 1-2 people and no cargo. They are very fast and manoeuvrable, but usually have only low powered short range weapons and are easily destroyed. Small ships include fighters, probes, and escape pods.

Most fleets employ fighters in large numbers to harass and overwhelm larger ships which often have difficulty targeting such fast vessels, and to act as screens against enemy ships doing the same.

Medium: Medium ships are a compromise between small and large ships, they are still fast and manoeuvrable while not as fragile as a small ship. They have more powerful weapons but not as powerful as a large ship. They typically have enough space for 10-20 people and some space for cargo.

Many fleets employ medium ships as support vessels, and this class also includes many transports, shuttles, and science vessels.

Large: The largest class of spacecraft, with enough space inside for hundreds or even thousands of people and able to carry significant cargo. They are slow and lack manoeuvrability but often have good defences and very powerful weapons. Many ships in this class are capable of making their own jump points.

Large ships include cruisers and other capital class ships, as well as cargo haulers and deep space exploration vessels.

Militaries use large ships as mobile fortifications, capable of opening a jump point for the rest of the fleet to use, launching squadrons of fighters, and firing very powerful long range weapons.

Jump Capability

Each ship lists whether it’s capable of creating its own jump points. Once a jump point is open, other ships in the fleet (and possibly pursuing enemies) can use the same jump point, so large jump capable ships often help smaller non-jump capable ones to enter hyperspace.

Without a jump capable ship, the fleet is restricted to using the jumpgate network, which makes its movements very predictable.

At least one ship in a fleet must be jump capable for them to initiate an ambush or guarantee retreat from a battle.

Once a ship has opened a jump gate, it takes at least 3 rounds for their engines to recharge before they can open another one, and so a fleet is most vulnerable just after completing a jump.

Hull

Each ship has a hull rating which acts like its health. When its Hull reaches zero, it is destroyed. Many ships have escape pods, so some of the crew may survive when a ship is destroyed.

Defence

A ship's Defence represents how hard it is to hit and is the target number for all attacks against it.

Accuracy

A ship’s accuracy represents how good its targeting computers are, how skilled its crew are, and how quickly its turrets can swivel to follow enemy ships. A ship’s Accuracy acts like its attack skill in combat.

Attacks

Many ships have weapons and will list one or more attacks. They can use each attack once per round. The number after the name of the attack indicates how much damage it does.

Ship Combat

Ship battles are divided into rounds and each round follows these steps:

Each ship chooses an enemy to attack. Each has a preferred sized target but if it’s not available then one is chosen randomly.
For each Attack the ship has, it rolls a d10 and adds its Accuracy, if the total is greater than or equal to the target’s Defence, then the attack hits and deals the listed damage. Critical successes deal 1 extra damage.
All ships are considered to be attacking at the same time, so a ship can still fire back even if it is destroyed that round.
At the end of the round, each fleet decides whether to fight on or attempt to flee or surrender (See below).

Player Pilots
When PCs are controlling ships, they get to influence the ships actions in a few ways:

PCs can choose which target their ship attacks each round.
When controlling a Small ship, the player may use their Piloting skill instead of the ship’s Accuracy to determine if they hit.

If their Piloting skill is level 3 they also gain +1 Defence, and if it’s 4, they gain +2.

E.g. a PC with Piloting 4 controlling a Raider Fighter would have Defence 8 and Accuracy 4 instead of the normal Defence 6 and Accuracy 1.

Medium and Large ships take multiple crew to control and each crew member is only in charge of one system. A PC in charge of navigation can use their Piloting to boost the ship’s Defence as above, while one in charge of a weapon may apply their Piloting skill in the place of Accuracy for that weapon's attack.

Ambushes

If a fleet knows the precise location of an enemy fleet, they can ambush them. At least one ship in the ambushing fleet must be jump capable to open a jump point from which to launch the ambush. The ambush succeeds unless the defending fleet knows it’s coming. During an ambush, the Attacking fleet gains +2 to all attack rolls and +2 Defence for the first round of combat. After the first round, combat proceeds normally.

Retreat and Surrender

At the end of each round of combat, each fleet will evaluate their situation and may decide to retreat if they are outnumbered or if it looks like they may lose all their jump capable ships in the next round.

In such a situation a fleet will usually retreat unless it is enraged, making a last stand, ordered to hold the line, or otherwise emotionally compelled to risk death. The other fleet may opt to pursue if there appears to be an advantage in doing so but this is dangerous, battles in hyperspace are almost impossible and the retreating ships could lead them into a trap.

A fleet can only guarantee retreat if they still have a jump capable ship remaining to open a jump point, otherwise they must head towards the nearest jumpgate while under attack the whole way.

If a fleet has no option to retreat and death seems certain then they are likely to surrender unless they believe they will be killed or they are making a final stand.

Example Ships

The stats for each government's ships are a secret known only to the military of that government, but provided here are some example stats for raiders, transports, and cargo ships. Raiders are a problem all across the galaxy and every government has experience fighting them and knows what they are capable of so this can be considered in-character info for characters with any military experience.

Raiders typically use scrappy, cobbled together or outdated ships, powerful enough to attack cargo haulers and transports, but inferior to almost every government's military. As such you can assume that military ships are stronger than those listed here.

Raider Carrier

Size: Large
Jump Capable: Yes
Hull: 13
Defence: 5
Accuracy: 0
Preferred Target: Large Ships
Attacks:

Large Pulse Cannon: 3 damage
Large Pulse Cannon: 3 damage

Special:

Fighter Bay: Holds a squadron of 5 Raider Fighters.
Fighter Bay: Holds a squadron of 5 Raider Fighters.

Raider Warship

Size: Medium
Jump Capable: No
Hull: 6
Defence: 6
Accuracy: 0
Preferred Target: Medium Ships
Attacks:

Medium Pulse Cannon: 2 damage
Medium Pulse Cannon: 2 damage

Raider Fighter

Size: Small
Jump Capable: No
Hull: 1
Defence: 6
Accuracy: 1
Preferred Target: Small Ships
Attacks:

Small Pulse Cannon: 1 damage

Civilian Transport

Size: Medium
Jump Capable: No
Hull: 4
Defence: 5

Civilian Cargo Hauler

Size: Large
Jump Capable: No
Hull: 18
Defence: 3

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Ships and War