Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Fleeting 101

Intro:
Star Wars. Two parts fancy glowstick dancing, one part epic space battle. Occasional sprigs of things like Luke kissing Leia, but Lucas swears he had it all planned out. But I digress.


Fleeting is, simply, the struggle between two or more individuals in space through starships of some sort. This encompasses everything from two starfighter pilots dogfighting through the asteroids Hoth to the titanic clashes of armadas over Coruscant. As time and technology have progressed, so too has the idea of space combat. From the initial depictions of it as a naval conflict in space (See Episode VI), to Episode III and more recently with TOR, which depicts space fights as being fast, crazy, and unpredictable. But for writers, the question often comes up "how do I write starship combat? How do I 'fleet'?" Well hopefully by the end of all this, you'll have a pretty good idea on how to go blow up the Death Star and save the galaxy.

What You Need:
To start off, you obviously need a ship of some kind. It's gonna be a short space fight if you don't have a ship. You're also going to need a basic understanding of the terminology used in starship combat.

Terminology:
  • Aft - The rear of the ship, typically where the engines are located.
  • Auxiliary Power - Also called 'Back-up power' or 'Emergency power'. Secondary to main power. Usually used when main power is knocked out or is insufficient for a task. Typically insufficient to power weapons alongside critical systems such as life support and engines.
  • Battleship - A term typically reserved for the largest capital ships. Can also be used to describe any combat-oriented capital ship. Usually has a handful of very powerful weapon batteries with numerous other supporting batteries.
  • Bearing - Relating the direction of objects compared with your ship. This is done by the system 000-mark-000. Each three-digit number goes from 000 to 359 and represents 360°. The first number indicates direction while the second denotes elevation. Example; A ship bearing 315-mark-035 would be 45° to port, elevated 35° relative to your horizontal plane. In other words, it would be to your left and above you. Useful for targeting
  • Bomber - A starfighter designed to deal heavy damage to capital ships.
  • Bow - The forward area of the ship.
  • Capital Ship - Any ship with at least one dimension exceeding 100 meters.
  • Carrier - A ship, usually a capital ship, designed to carry starfighters into combat. Typically armed only well enough to repel light capital ship attacks, but capable of repeling coordinated enemy starfighter attacks.
  • Command Ship - The largest capital ship classification to see widespread use. Can also be used to describe a ship to coordinate fleet efforts.
  • Corvette - The smallest capital ship classification. Corvettes are typically reserved for patrol ships and blockade runners.
  • Cruiser - A medium capital ship classification. Cruisers tend to make up the bulk of fleet groups and are usually considered to be the workhorses for a faction's navy.
  • Dorsal - The top area of a ship.
  • Frigate - One of the smallest capital ship classifications. Frigates are typically assigned support roles in larger fleets, but are capable of engaging other capital ships if necessary.
  • Gravity Well - The area surrounding a planet where its gravity fiel. An artificial gravity well can be generated by interdictors as well.
  • Gunship - A specialized bomber craft. Gunships can also be called heavy bombers.
  • Heading - Relating the position of your ship relative to a star or the galaxy at large. This is done with the same 000-mark-000 system for bearings. Useful for navigating.
  • Heavy Cruiser - A medium capital ship classification. Like cruisers, heavy cruisers are the backbone of a major naval force and are typically the most numerous. They are usually assigned direct combat roles.
  • Heavy Warhead Launcher - Powerful anti-capital ship warheads. These can cause major to significant damage to a capital ship if allowed to hit an unshielded target.
  • High Orbit - An orbital distance from a planet, usually a minimum of 35,000 kilometers and up to a maximum of 350,000 kilometers.
  • Hull - The exterior of a ship. Typically composed of durasteel.
  • Hull Breach - An event where a section of hull is breached, or broken, exposing part or all of the ship to vacuum. Dangerous if left unattended.
  • Hyperdrive - How starships travel around the galaxy. Hyperdrives cannot function within a certain area of a planet or large stellar body typically referred to as a gravity well.
  • Interceptor - A starfighter specialized in intercepting and engaging enemy bombers. Lightly armored, but very fast.
  • Interdictor - A specialized capital ship with gravity well projectors that prevent enemy ships from escaping into hyperspace.
  • Ion Cannon - A specialized capital gun designed to disable a vehicle or ship. It is very effective against shields. Successive strikes are necessary to disable a target, based on its size and the strength of the cannon. A handheld ion rifle might disable a droid in two or three shots, but to disable Star Destroyer in a single shot would require a planetary ion cannon.
  • Life Support - What makes a ship habitable in space. Controls things like temperature, atmospheric pressure, and air quality and content. A popular target to disable or destroy in order to capture a ship without causing ion damage.
  • Light Star Destroyer - A heavy capital ship classification. Light Star Destroyers are usually used as frontline warships alongside heavy cruisers.
  • Low Orbit - An orbital distance, with a minimum distance 300 kilometers and up to 2,000 kilometers
  • Main Power - A ship's primary power. Used to power all systems such as weapons, shields, and life support.
  • Maneuverability - A description of how readily a ship can change course. The larger the ship, the less maneuverable it is.
  • Port - The left area of a ship.
  • Power Generator - The source of a ship's primary power. Auxiliary power is typically handled through a secondary power generator. A favorite target for sabotage and damage.
  • Role - A term used to describe what function a ship serves. Typical roles include patrol ship, interdiction, or ship-of-the-line
  • Sensors - How a ship sees. Critical for navigating and targeting. Can be jammed or nullified through specialized technology.
  • Shields - The primary protective force of a ship. Protects a ship from hazards such as radiation or micro-asteroids. Divided into three categories; ray shields, particle shields, and deflector shields. Ray shields block energy-based attacks, while particle shields block physical-attacks. Deflectors are a combination of both ray and particle shields.
  • Speed - How fast a ship is. Much like maneuverability, typically the larger a ship is, the slower it is.
  • Starboard - The right area of a ship.
  • Star Destroyer - A large capital ship classification. Heavily armed and armored. One ship of this size is typically enough to control a star system, though systems with very high populations, traffic, or having strategic importance tend to have many more.
  • Starfighter - A small craft, typically piloted by one person.
  • Tractor Beam - A specialized technology that allows a ship to grab a target in space. Larger objects require larger ships to pull, otherwise the reverse occurs. A Star Destroyer can tractor a starfighter. A starfighter cannot tractor a Star Destroyer.
  • Ventral - The bottom area of a ship.
  • Warhead Launcher - A weapon system typically used by starfighters and very small capital ships. Generally ineffective against capital ships.

Tactics & Formation:
Coming Soon

Bearing vs Heading:

Bearing is the method of determining a target ship's location relative to your own and is most often used in combat. A bearing of 000-Mark-000 is directly ahead with no relative elevation. 180-Mark-000 is directly behind you. 090-Mark-000 depends a bit on personal interpretation, but most generally agree that 090 is a ship's starboard side and 270 is a ship's port side. Similarly, 000-Mark-045 would be directly ahead with a 45° elevation.

Heading is the method of determining a target ship's location relative to the local star or the galaxy at large and is most often used for navigation. The same 000-Mark-000 system is used here.

I'll be crafting a series of images to help visually explain this in depth later.
 

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