I think I've got an OK idea for how to run a one-on-one duel in the skies. I've PDFed it for convenience.
http://www.gregstolze.com/SOSDogfight.pdf
Anyone wanna tell me what you think?
-G.
I'm not a big fan of using a standard deck and it seems you have rules about cutting the size and such. Could you make a non-standard deck? I think it would be easier to track b/c you have 16 specialty cards and tracking the abilities or cross ref could be a problem.
The mechanic seems fine though and i like the idea that it can be added on to an existing system. Star Wars saga has a "decent" space combat system and i am working on one myself. Also there was a card game called mag-blast that you might find interesting. I'll re read when i get more time and post some suggestions.
Seems workable, but I'm not sure it addresses the real difficulties and complexities of introducing this sort of thing into RPG's.
- one-on-one dogfights are pretty rare, even in fiction, and when they do occur they usually do against some other time-specific backdrop.
- where craft are not flown by 1pilot, the rest of the crew have nothing to do and cannot affect the action
- Players often like to trick out spaceships and so on, but small scale modifications seem impossible to represent
- there seems to be very little relation between procedural events and in-game narration, which makes it kinda dull
There are quite a number of solutions to abstracting the combat itself, including my own chase-catch-kill, posted some time back, but none that IMO really allow it to be as meaningful or intuitive an activity as combat on foot.