Space combat system

[Theodred theOld]

Been running a spelljammer themed 3.5 campaign but we've found that the original space combat system is extremely slow paced and leaves very little to do for anyone not driving the ship. My question is this: does anyone have a suggestion for a 3.5 compatible system that is a little more fast-paced and modern feeling?

[Grod_The_Giant]

You could probably adapt the naval rules from Stormwreck pretty easily, although they're not fantastic either. I wrote some (in my opinion) fairly engaging rules (https://www.dropbox.com/s/8uypm36w4zp0trm/Fate%20of%20the%20Stars.docx) for FATE, some of which could possibly be adapted. The central idea was to emulate the feel of, say, a Honor Harrington book*, with random damage reports streaming in after every salvo. You laid your ship out on a grid, and placed vital systems (engines, reactors, weapons, etc) and players in separate rooms within that grid. Damage would be assigned to random rooms, with nasty consequences for anything-- or anyone-- within the room that just got hit. You wound up with the pilot doing his thing, other players working weapons and sensors and such, and the engineer(s) running frantically around the ship trying to fix things.


*Or possibly FTL, although I've never played and I think my rules might predate it.

[frogglesmash]

D20 Future has a fairly extensive set of space combat rules, though I can't recall whether if actually provides a lot of options for the entire party.

[Bronk]

I usually hand wave space combat, but have you tried the updated spelljammer rules in Dungeon92/Polyhedron151? That might work.