Fate Core: Aeon Trinity pt 8

Space combat in Aeon Trinity seems to fall into one of two categories. The first is incidental. You have a session that is about space combat or has space combat in it then it is back to the regular campaign. the second type is when the campaign revolves around space combat and space travel. The rules need to be a lot more focused in the second type of game than in the first. In the first style of game you still need rules that engage, but mostly you can hand wave a lot of the nitty gritty details. This post is going to deal with the second type of space conflict, as that requires more work. having too much is never a problem. It is when you need more and do not have it that problems occur.

If I am going to talk of Space Combat I need to talk about space ships. In the Trinity Continuum there are several different styles of space ship and there are two flavors of each. there are hardtech ships and there are biotech ships. I have already covered biotech in a previous post, but I will need to detail out a few extra bits for bio-fighters and the like. There are four basic types of space craft organized by size: fighters/shuttles, Frigates, Freighters, and Leviathans. I will be focusing primarily on the fighter craft as they are single and double cockpit making them the most PC friendly. I will have a brief bit on the larger ships further down the post.

Fighters have a couple of features. Speed of the craft is measured in Vacuum Speed(VS). This is rated from one to five. Weapon Rating(WR), Sensors(S), and Handling(H) are also rated from one to five.These numbers represent the highest rating a character can have in a skill(barring use of aspects) when piloting the craft. This is where Bio-fighters have an advantage on hardtech fighters. when formatted to a system(weapons, engines, sensors, or controls) that system's rating is increased by one. A properly formatted bio-fighter is a terrifying thing indeed. A formatted fighter also allows you to use you psychic powers(should you have them).

Piloting as a skill is used for maneuvering and moving as well as dodging. Shooting is used for weapons. Notice is used for sensors. The ship itself has no stress boxes or consequences. All stress is taken by the pilot. as this is a campaign focused around ships, your consequences can be noted as damage to the ship. Space combat in Aeon Trinity is closer to to World War II than to actual space combat. To represent this I would like to use the dog fighting rules from Kriegzeppelin Valkyrie. Look to that document for more information on that.

Here are a few sample ships for the game:

Standard fighter(both hardech and biotech)
VS: 3
WR: 2
S: 2
H: 2

The Banji Hornet(Biotech)
VS: 3
WR: 2
S: 4
H: 3

The Raptor(hardtech)
VS: 4
WR: 4
S:2
H: 3