Into the Void

There has been precious little posted about Voidfighter so I thought I'd give it a test run.

Putting The Game Together

First, things first. I didn't have any components for the game, so I slapped stuff together.

• The battle space - I don't have a 36 by 48 inch space mat, let alone space for one. But I have a black dish drying mat that is 44 by 60 centimeters. I'll scale down from inches to centimeters and the game should work fine.
• Note: My cat has claimed this mat as a bed so it is covered in fur and catnip! I guess that will represent space debris.
• Ships - I still have some wooden ovals that I used for some naval experiments last year. Cut them in half and they work perfectly for ship markers.
• I really like how they came out. They look like something from a computer display
• Dice - Voidfighter uses a variable dice type system, so I need D4s, D6s, D8s, D10s, and D12s. I had to scrounge around.

Test Battle

I decided to do a simple battle with two 15-point snubfighters (silver) vs three 10-pointers (red). The two sides are trying to claim a derelict freighter.

Turn 1 - KABOOM. One of the silver fighters blows up.

I played another turn, then stopped. I found recording damage to be too fiddly. It's not a bad system - on a hit, roll 2D6. Then refer to a table to determine the result, which includes hull hits, crew hits, system hits, etc. You can see the damage table on this online QRS. It provides a lot of flavor.

But, it requires a roster, and I hate maintaining a roster when I play solo. I really prefer something much simpler.

I was also getting annoyed with the combat system.

• I don't like using multiple dice types. Too much groping around.
• I don't like rolling two dice per side for opposed rolls. I like to roll both sides together so one die each works better.

I knew going in that Voidfighter went against my preferences, but I thought I'd just roll with it. It just got too annoying for me to continue.

I was thinking of running this during my LARP group's summer game sessions, but I'm having second thoughts. I may take another look at Starfighters!

Using MicroBattle

Since I had the components out, I decided to play the scenario using my MicroBattle air combat rules.

The Federation (silver) sends two fighters to retrieve a derelict freighter. But the Empire got there first. Our heroes get bounced by two Imperial fighters.

Ace (Federation ship 1) takes a shot at an Imperial trying to hack the freighter's computer system. The shot misses but rattles the Imperials pilot. Deuce (Federation 2) manages to send instructions and turns the freighter's nose around.

One of the Imperials is damaged and flees the battle. Missing a picture of the successful attack

The remaining Imperials damage our heroes.

Deuce takes severe damage. He manages to escape and limp back home.

This was a target destroyed result, but I allow PC's to make a survival roll. Deuce succeeded, and lives another day.

Damaged, Ace makes a break for it.

Not a stellar outing.