Space Combat

The rules for space combat are a superset of the rules for vehicle combat in System 7. Here is a quick primer on those rules:

Vehicle Combat

Vehicles don't take actions--characters do.

• Vehicles will allow one or more crewmen to man various positions.
• Things like piloting, shooting, etc are handled by the skill checks of the crewmen--these may be modified by the vehicle.

Vehicles have some of their own attributes, including:

• Movement: the crewmen's movement is irrelevant
• Hit Points and Critical Hit Locations (analogous to injuries)
• Maneuverability: a very important attribute that factors into many checks

In vehicle combat, use an initiative chart as normal. Vehicles do not take actions; rather, the initiative chart should consist of characters who are commanding vehicles. All characters go on their own initiative, even when multiple characters are operating a single vehicle.

Normally, vehicle combat uses the same kind of battle map as character combat. However, this is not applicable to space combat (see below).

Mapping

Space Combat eschews a normal battle map for many reasons. Instead, it uses two more abstract maps:

• The Battlefield Map keeps track of all vehicles and entities in the battle. It represents which vehicles are engaged with which--it does not represent exact positions.
• A series of Engagement Maps are used to track individual battles. These maps show which units have positioning advantage over which.