The Universal Space Combat System

by Steve Metze

The purpose of the Universal Space Combat System is to create an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play futuristic miniatures-based space combat system that can work with Role-Playing-Games (RPGs), as a stand along space skirmish game, as a space campaign game, or for massive fleet combats. It takes into account a giant variety of technological levels, and can be used as a stand-alone skirmish, fleet, or campaign game, or used to replace or augment any already existing space combat systems in other game systems, specifically RPGs. Part of the simplicity of the game is that ships are considered agile or armed enough that ship facings don't have any bearing on the combat, and momentum is assumed nullified by giant gyroscopes, inertial dampening fields, or other technology. Another key aspect of the game is that the ships use dice both to represent their power level and abilities, as well as their damage, rather than tracking it as two different numbers and having to erase and rewrite those numbers as ships take damage and make repairs. At the same time, ships are afforded a wide variety of weapons, defenses, miscellaneous systems, and maneuvers. This game specifically splits up portions of the rules into either a SCIENCE fiction (SCIfi) setting, such as the game Traveller or the show Firefly, or a science FICTION (sciFI) type setting, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, etc - Essentially, space fights that look cool, or space fights that are based more on realism, with the ability for players to mix and match aspects of each as they see fit. It allows for space combat in worlds where ships tow each other by grappling hooks or by tractor beams, where space marines board by teleporting onto the other ship or by laser-cutting open holes in the hull, and where faster-than-light travel happens by a single instantaneous jump, or by traveling days in a warp bubble that allows ships to chase and fight each other while moving.