- Pulp space combat in Fudge -

Goal: To try to capture the flavor of Buck Rogers, E.E. Doc Smith, etc. style combat. Ships are fragile with one or two hits taking them out of combat or destroying them (PCs and some NPCs can use skills or Fudge Points to prevent this). The skills of the character involved are more important then their ships, except in extreme cases such as a Fighter vs. a Battleship.

Ships are defined using a couple of stats; 

Speed /Agility /Armor /Bions /Cargo /Mounts 

which are rated one to six. Damage to the ship is against these stats which have different effects when they are reduced to zero. 

Speed is the ship's movement, it's ability to open and close range in normal space. This may also be it's Faster than Light speed, depending on the setting background. At zero Speed, the ship is dead in space and unable to change it's range vs. other ships.

Agility is the ship's maneuverability. This is used complete fancy maneuvers and to dodge and jink in combat. At zero Agility, the ship can not dodge or change direction and will crash on any docking/ landing attempt (see Crashes and Ramming).

Armor is the strength and integrity of the ship's hull. This is used to prevent or shrug off damage. At zero Armor, the ship is destroyed, it's hull shattered.

Bions is the ship's life support and living areas. This is how many beings the ship can keep alive and comfortable for any length of time. At zero Bions, any beings on the ship not in space suits are dead or dying.

Cargo is the ship's cargo storage bays. This is how much stuff the ship can carry or drag between locations in space. At zero Cargo, anything it was carrying as cargo was destroyed.

Mounts are the ship's hard points, which are areas designed to accept special equipment and weapons (see Weapon Design). Each Mount can hold up to three items. At zero Mounts, all the ship's weapons and special equipment is destroyed.

The 'cost' of the ship is found with the following formula;
where: S=Speed, Ag=Agility, Ar=Armor, B=Bions, C=Cargo and M=Mounts

Cost=(S + Ag) x Ar  x C x (B + M)

Examples: 
A Vangar Star Destroyer is rated as S4/Ag5/Ar2/B3/C2/M2 for a cost of 144.. 
A Bilor Gunship is rated as S4/Ag3/Ar2/B1/C1/M2 for a cost of 42. 
These costs do not include any weapon systems.

The size (length in meters) of the ship is found by using the following formula;

Size=Cost x ((S + Ag + C) / 3)

Examples: 
The Vangar Star Destroyer is 528 meters in length. 
The Bilor Gunship is 112 meters in length.

Weapon System design

This is also simple. Here are the ground rules; there are three main types of weapons, Beams, Slugs and Missiles. Beams are the standard weapons, can fire every turn, unlimited ammo as long as it's ship has a Speed and/or Agility greater than zero. Slugs have ammo ratings and can run out of shots, otherwise same as Beam. Missiles have a endurance rating and an ammo rating, endurance being the number of turns that it can chase or attempt to impact a target and ammo is the number of missiles the launcher carries. All weapon systems have a Firepower rating and a Range. 

Weapons Formulas;
Where Fp=Firepower ,R=Range, Am=Ammo rating and E=Endurance.
Rm=Range Modifier and if based on R. If R is 1 to 5 Rm=1, if R is 6 to 10 Rm=2, if R is 11 to 15 Rm=3, etc.

Beams= (Fp x Fp)+(R*Rm)
Slugs= ((Fp x Fp)+(R*Rm))x(Am/20)
Missiles=((Fp x Fp)+(((R*Rm)/2)xE))x(Am/10)

The result is both the cost and the weight of the weapon system. A ship may not mount a weapon system that is worth more then the ship it is on.

Examples of Weapons: