Create Exciting Scenarios with Complications

One of the best ways to create tension in a space combat sequence is to present complications that affect the way combat takes place. Although battles in which starships simply square off agains one another are fine, a battle with some larger complication can increase the level of tension and excitement. Complications are factions that affect combat without affecting the battlefield itself.

One of the most often-used complications is a time constraint. Placing a limit on the amount of time--in rounds or otherwise-- that the players have to complete their tasks creates a sense of urgency that makes space combat more exciting. For instance, attacking a superweapon before its weapon fires, or attempting to incapacitate an enemy ship before it makes the jump to hyperspace.

Similarly, limiting the perception or communication of combatants can add an air of the unknown to an encounter. In addition to terrain that impairs visibility, you might include a jamming field that prohibits ships from communicating with each other, or a sensor scrambler that imposes disadvantage on Piloting checks as the ship's onboard computers struggle to clear out the interference.

NPC INITIATIVE

At the beginning of every combat, PC ships typically role group initiative. NPC ships may be large in number and/or have huge numbers of NPCs manning them, so a GM should generally determine NPC initiative by rolling for each ship individually as follws. Roll initiative by making a ship Dexterity check modified by the number given in the Initiative Size Modifier table below.

Initiative Size Modifier

Encounter Creation and Ship Rating (analogous to Challenge Rating for creatures) needs to be rewritten. It will require a decent amount of maff on my end, so it's not ready yet. For the time being, have your GM use common sense to dictate what is an appropriate encounter.