TTRPG Roll 26-31 ~ “Now you see me, now I SHOOT!” Starship combat in the not-a-Combat RPG Dropship (Blackwall Games, 2026)

After I posted my initial impressions of the combat roleplaying game (RPG) Dropship the kind folks at Blackwall Games engaged me in the comments and provided some very useful insight and clarifications.

So, with that encouragement in mind, let us try generating a character in Dropship once again.

[In Dropship there are two core campaigns, the Marine Campaign and Navy Campaign. As I am an old Traveller RPG player I not only want to experience the Dropship combat system, but also the starship combat rules.]

Toll I’som – Human Ace/Smuggler

Let me introduce you to Toll I’som, Human Ace/Smuggler.

Core Attributes/Stats

• Level 1 / Tier 1
• Experience: 0
• Attributes: FITNESS +2 / REFLEXES +2 / SENSES +0 / WILLPOWER +2
• Speed: 6 Combat Spaces
• Defense: 10
• Hit Points: 20
• Perk: Skill Focus (Starships) (from Combat Veteran Feature)

Skills

Computers +2	Deception +2	Intuition +2	Legal +2
Starships +3	Stealth +2	Underworld +2	Languages (English/Korean)

Fighting Styles: Knives / Pistols / Rifles / Shields

Passive Abilities

• Bloodrage: +1 die of damage if you are below maximum Hit Points (from Human Species).
• Combat Veteran [Feature] (from Human Species).
• Maverick: Double your Starship Skill on Skill Checks made to avoid Hazards. In addition, the first time each day that your Starship would be reduced to zero Hit Points, it is reduced to 1 Hit Point instead. When your Flight is reduced to zero Hit Points, this ability only affects your fighter. (from Ace career).
• Silent Runner: You gain Stealth as a Bonus Skill. In addition, double your Stealth Skill on Skill Checks made to hide your Starship. See Hidden Starship Rules in Chapter 12 (from Smuggler career).

Actions

• Alpha Strike (Starships) [Feature]: [1/Day/Tier] Make an Attack with a Spinal Mount Starship Weapon. Apply that Attack against each target in a stright line out from your Starship, up to the Spinal Mount’s maximum range. The Spinal Mount immediately overheats and cannot be used gain until the end of your next turn.

Maneuvers

• Barrel Roll (Starship): Whenever your Starship would be hit by an Attack, you may use Barrel Roll to make that Attack miss instead (from Ace career).
• Hair Trigger: Immediately make a Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack (from Smuggler career).
• Sensor Scramble [Pilot] (Starship): Your Starship immediately attempts to hide behind Cover (from Smuggler career).
• Strafe (Starship): When you make a Starship Weapon Attack, you may use Strafe to make an additional Attack with that weapon (from Ace career).

Protection & Immunity

• Protection: Blunt, Slashing
• Armor: Combat Vest. Defense = 10; Protection Blunt/Piercing

Weapons

• Fist – 1d4 Blunt
• Combat Knife – 1d6 Slashing. Assassin – Deals extra die of damage in first round of Combat)
• Service Pistol – [12 bullets] 1d10 Piercing, Impact – Critical Hit on Attack Roll of 11 or 12)

Other Gear

36 Bullets, Earpiece, 2x Smoke Grenades, Jetlag, Mild Painkillers, Canteen, ID, Glow Sticks, Signal Mirror, Nutrition Bars, Parachute, Jumpsuit, Bandolier & Belt Pouch (+8 Carrying Capacity) – TOTAL WEIGHT 13.5/18 / Locker w/ Dress Uniform (2/20 spaces used).

50 Credits

Per the rules for “Ranks & Pay” on Dropship page 18, player-characters start at the lowest rank. Assigning Toll to the Starfighter Corps gives a rank of Ensign with monthly pay of 150 Credits. Looking at “Starfighter Corps” on page 19 we find the lowest echelon of force is a Flight commanded by a Flight Lieutenant. Skipping to Chapter 15 “Starships & Starbases” on page 222, I look for Human Fighters and choose the F-107 Falcon on page 223 which usually comes in a flight of three.

Knife fight with lasers

In Dropship, “Chapter 10 Game Master” includes a simple Navy Missions generator. Rolling 1d20 on the Navy Missions Table (p. 102) with a roll of [3] gives, “Convoy Escort: Protect a convoy of allied Freighters.” Returning to page 101, the Game Master then rolls 1d6 for the strength of the opposition. In my case a die roll of [2] reveals, “Detachment: 1d4 Class 2 Starships. 25% chance of Class 3 Starships instead.” Rolling a d4 delivers a [3] so three Class 2 Starships (another set of rolls determines none are Class 3).

I build a Human Task Force (TF Guardian) of 4x Retribution Class 2 Frigates. As each has a Shuttle Bay with 4 Dropships/Fighter/Shuttles I figure Toll’s Flight of 3x F-107 Falcon Fighters is spread across the TF as each Retribution carries 1x Dropship, 2x Shuttle, and 1x Fighter (1 is spare). This also seems to be a reasonable matchup against 3x Bolmori Warden Class 2 Frigates. The Navy Missions generator on page 101 is again consulted for Starship Starting Distance (roll 1d6); a roll of [5] indicates the engagement starts at a distance of 2 Light Seconds (~180 Combat Spaces).

Location, location, location

At this point I realize that a battle in open space is both dangerous (from a Dropship rules perspective) and a bit lame (from a story perspective) as the prospect of a long approach battle is…unexciting. Casting about the Dropship rulebook for something to add some spiciness I turn to the “Stars & Worlds” chapter to generate the Star System the encounter is taking place in.

Details for a Star System created using the Dropship rulebook reveals my Star System consists of:

• A Red Dwarf star with a Gravity Well out to 4 Light Seconds
• The Key Feature of the Star System is “Nebula, Badlands [System Wide]” that limits Sensors to, “half of their normal range and allow a Starship to hide anywhere in it” (p. 116); a Badlands Nebula is plagued by Plasma Storms which require a Difficulty Check (DC) 12 Starship Check to avoid taking 1d10 Fire Damage per Ship Class and disabling one Ship System at random (p. 116).
  • Randomly rolling for each Human and Bolmori Frigate, we discover that this day the third Bolmori Frigate (Warden 03 or W03) was damaged by the Plasma Storms and took 2 Fire Damage and the Power Core is disabled, giving it one less Action and the crew suffers a -1 Circumstance Bonus on all Actions since automatic gravity controls are fluctuating (that Circumstance Bonus is not in the rulebook but seems reasonable to me given the conditions).
• The Major World sits 1 AU from the star and is a “Corrosive” Medium-size planet with a Gravity Well out to Close Range.

The fact this battle is now taking place in a Nebula changes the starting positions. According to the Dropship rulebook:

In an area with obscured lines of sight, such as in an asteroid belt or nebula, the Game Master should roll 1d4 instead. On a 1, the nearest opponents are Adjacent. On a 2, the nearest opponents are within Close Range. On a 3, the nearest opponents are within Short Range. On a 4, the nearest opponents, are within Medium Range.

“Starship Combat – Starting Ship Distance,” Dropship, p. 124

A die roll of [3] now sets that starting distance of this Dropship Badlands space battle at Short Range, or within 12 Combat Spaces. To make it easier to visualize the battle, TF Guardian, the Bolmori, and the disabled Liner in orbit around the Corrosive Major World are roughly arranged like an isosceles triangle with sides measuring 12 Combat Spaces. Both TF Guardian and the Bolmori are converging on the Liner.

The ability to hide in a Badlands Nebula leads me to the Sensor rules in Dropship on page 127, specifically the “Using Cover” rule. To use cover requires, “a Stealth Check against a DC set by the Game Master, usually between 6 and 16” (p. 127). I also note Toll’s Starship Maneuver named, “Sensor Scramble [Pilot] (Starship): Your Starship immediately attempts to hide behind Cover.” The shortened detection ranges and ability to use cover in the engagement changes the entire tactical situation…

[As you likely can tell, I am basically “playing” Dropship solo here as I develop the encounter, explore the rules, and fight it out. At this point I imagine the Game Master is keeping the battle map “behind the screen” TF Guardian will be asked for orders, specifically course, speed, and asks if they will be “Running Dark”, i.e. trying to move through space undetected, or not. Unbeknownst to the TF Guardian players, a Bolmori force is nearby and already “Running Dark” with orders to seize the Liner. TF Guardian players can use the Starship Action “Sensor Sweep” to search for the Bolmori ships (and vice versa if TF Guardian is running dark) by making, “an Investigate Check using the hidden Starship’s Stealth Check as the DC” (p. 127). I also note that Retribution Frigates have the Trait of “Electronic Warfare Suite [Module]: You have a +2 Equipment Bonus to find hidden Starships and intercept enemy transmissions” (p. 226).]

“Contact”

Starship movement in Dropship uses a form of vector movement called, ‘Inertia.’ The rules states, “a Starship continues moving along the same course at the same Sublight Speed as its last movement until it lands, comes to a stop, or enters a Gravity Well” (p. 123). I read that as there is no acceleration as in the Traveller or Cepheus Engine RPG rules or the Traveller-adjacent wargames Mayday or Power Projection Fleet: Traveller or Squadron Strike: Traveller. Both TF Guardian and the Bolmori force move at a Sublight Speed of 3 Combat Spaces (the Falcon Fighters have Sublight Speed 4 Combat Spaces).

Detection plays out in this manner:

• TF Guardian conducts a Sensor Scan for enemy shipping. The Bolmori Stealth Check is [7] versus TF Guardian Investigate Check of [11], DETECTION!
• A vigilant Bolmori commander likely would also conduct Sensor Scans. The Warden Frigate, however, does not have the same EW Suite Trait as the Retribution making detection more difficult. The random DC is determined to be 16 giving the Bolmori no chance to detect the Humans.

Fight’s on

In Dropship, surprising your opponent does not grant an unopposed or even first attack; the only effect is that +2 Circumstance Bonus to Attacks. To determine order in Combat, the standard Dropship rules apply. Each player rolls a d12 and adds his Character’s Reflexes Attribute. I decide TF Guardian is led by a Bridge Officer aboard Retribution 01 (R01) with Reflexes +4; the Bolmori have a Bridge Officer leading with Reflexes +3. TF Guardian rolls a modified 11 and the Bolmori rolls a modified 10. According to the rules, the winner will go first and then the other players, “continue taking turns clockwise around the table” (p. 5). Assume the TF players are seated R01, R02, R03, R04 followed by Warden 01 (W01), W02, and W03.

• R01
  • Action 1 – Attack W03 with 2x Nuclear Missiles. Using a Standard Crew Starship Check of +2, the Attack roll is d12+2 (Skill)+2 (Surprise) = [7]+2+2= 11 which is greater than the Warden’s Defense of 10. HIT. The Warden Frigate, however, has the Ship Trait of Shields, Primary [Absorption] [Module]: The first Attack that would damage you in a round is absorbed instead. NO HITS.
  • Action 2 – Attack W03 with another 2x Nuclear Missiles. Attack roll is a natural [12] which is a Critical Hit. The Warden’s Shields Trait has already been used this round so the Attack cannot be stopped. Total Hits are 22 against the Warden’s 60 Hit Points. The Critical Hit also adds a level of Affliction from Radiation to W03. For each level of Affliction, the dice size rolled for Attacks, Attribute Checks, and Skill Checks is reduced by one (p. 9).
• R02
  • Action 1 – Attack W03 with 2x Nuclear Missiles. The modified Attack roll is 15 for a HIT. The Nuclear Missiles add another 24 Hits (total of 46).
  • Action 2 – Attack W03 with 2x Nuclear Missiles. Modified Attack roll of [13] strikes for 20 more Hits. This reduces W03 to -6 Hit Points and Cripples the ship. A die roll using d4 shows W03 will explode in 2 rounds.
• R03 (Toll aboard)
  • Action 1 – LAUNCH Falcon 03 with Ensign Toll which is placed Adjacent to R03.
  • Action 2 – Attack W03 with 2x Nuclear Missiles. Modified Attack roll of 5 is a MISS. Nuclear Missiles, like most Missiles, still score half damage on a Miss. As W03 is already Crippled no more Hits are added but the “countdown” to explosion is reduced by 1; W03 will now explode at the end of the next turn.
• R04
  • Action 1 – Attack W03 using 2x Nuclear Missiles. MISS but half damage reduces the Crippled “timer” to zero; W03 will explode at the end of this round.
  • Action 2 – Launch Heron Dropship (Class 1 Starship).
• W01
  • Action 1 – Attack R01 with 2x Starstreak Missiles using Standard Crew Starship Skill +2. Modified roll of 12 beats Defense of 8 and is a HIT but Shields on R01 absorb all damage.
  • Action 2 – Take Cover. Stealth Check against a randomly determined DC of 13. FAIL.
• W02
  • Action 1 – Attack R01 with 2x Starstreak Missiles using Standard Crew Starship Skill +2. Modified roll of 6 is a MISS but Missile half-damage on miss scores 16 Hits.
  • Action 2 – Take Cover. Stealth Check against randomly determined DC of 7 is 12. W02 is now Hidden.
• W03
  • Action 1 (only Action due to Plasma Storm damage) – W03 could try Repairs but the most Hit Points that can be restored in a single successful Repair is 2 Hit Points and W03 is at -6.
• End of Round W03 explodes and is removed from the board.

Toll checked his scanner and saw that he was the only Falcon launched. “Great,” he mumbled, “four Frigates and a Starfighter enter a barfight…”

At the beginning of the next round all ships use Inertia movement to continue towards the disabled Liner. TF Guardian and the Bolmori each end up 5 Combat Spaces (Close Range) from the Liner but 7 Combat Spaces from each other (Short Range). Both TF Guardian and the Bolmori also are now inside the Gravity Well of the Corrosive Major World.

• Initiative sees TF Guardian (less Toll) rolling a modified 11, Bolmori roll a modified 8, and Toll rolls a modified 14. Round order will be Toll, R04, W01, W02, R01, R02, then R03.
• Toll in Falcon 03
  • Action – Attack W01 with Shredder Missile. Attack roll add Starship Skill +3. Die roll is [7]+3= 10 for HIT. The Warden uses Shields to absorb the Attack. Toll then uses his Strafe Trait to make an immediate second attack which is a CRITICAL HIT. The Shredder Missile scores 12 Hits and the Critical disables the Phase Cannons aboard W01.
• R04
  • Action 1 – Attack W01 using 2x Starstreak Missiles. HIT for 24 Hits (W01 suffering from 36 Hits).
  • Action 2 – Attack W01 using 2x Starstreak Missiles. HIT for 34 more Hits; W01 Crippled at -10 Hit Points and will explode at end of next combat turn.
• W01 cannot accomplish sufficient repairs to avoid exploding; no other Actions allowed.
  • [According to the rule book for Dropship, a Crippled ship, “is unable to do anything” (p. 124). The next paragraph talks about regaining Hit Points so the ship can Repair. I interpret the Crippled rule in that the Ship cannot take Combat Actions like Attack or Sensor Scan. Other Actions, like Repair or Launch are allowed. With that thought in mind W01 launches a Herald Dropship (Class 1 Dropship) as a lifeboat.]
• W02 is HIDDEN and decides to take NO ACTION in order to remain so.
• R01 (Remember the crew of R01 suffers from an level of Affliction so all rolls are a 1 dice size smaller)
  • Action 1 – Sensor Scan to try and lock onto W02. The Stealth DC is set at 9; R01 rolls a [1] and does not find W02.
  • Action 2 – Second Sensor Scan attempt against same DC 9 Stealth Check. SUCCESS reveals W02 to all networked TF Guardian ships and Toll.
• R02
  • Move Action to shift 3 Combat Spaces towards W02 (now range 4 Combat Spaces or Close Range)
  • Attack W02 using Gauss Cannon scoring 9 Hits of Blunt Damage but Shields absorb the Attack.
• R03
  • Move Action to shift 3 Combat Spaces towards W02 (now range 4 Combat Spaces or Close Range)
  • Attack W02 using 2x Nuclear Missiles. CRITICAL HIT. Scored 30 Hits and crew gains 1 level Affliction from Radiation. Suffering from total of 30 Hits.

At the start of the next Combat turn the Bolmori signal TF Guardian that they are leaving. TF Guardian decides not to pursue and instead tend to the disabled Liner. END OF COMBAT SEQUENCE.

Feature image “A Futuristic Starfighter Soars Through The Desert With Distant White City In Background” courtesy pngtree.com.

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