I’ve finally found time to read through the Tachyon Squadron rules from Clark Valentine/Evil Hat. The blurb promises a rules set for space fighter combat and a military sci-fi setting. While the second of those is fairly common, it was the space combat rules that had me excited when I first read about this book.

Tachyon Squadron is a supplement for the FATE core system (available as pay what you want on drivthrurpg or at the Evil Hat website). It doesn’t cover the basic rules of FATE but it does alter the rules to better fit the setting.

Content:

The first chapter provides an overview of the setting and genre. In short the players are civilian volunteers defending a peaceful neighbouring space nation from an aggressive empire. The setting is well written but the game rules could equally see use for Battlestar Galactica, Rogue Squadron, White Wizards Games Star Realms or Top Gun.

The character creation chapter helps players build interesting characters. It makes sure that the characters aren’t merely meatbags piloting a ship – their skills and personality are hugely important.

The following two chapters add to or alter the skills and stunts available. The skills list is altered make all available skills useful to the pilots. The stunts chapter has a section on gear stunts that I enjoyed.

“Engagements” adds the new rules for space fighter dogfights. These rules are really a highlight for me and demonstrate how a “rules light” system can still create tension, drama and, importantly, meaningful decision making in combat. The basic premise is that combat is split into zones based on the initiative and momentum of the pilots. Certain maneuvers can move you up or down the list. Other rules include technology related to space fighters and there is also a section on fighter pilot slang terms.

This is followed by a more detailed description of the setting and a chapter describing the day to day life of pilots and what they get upto in their spare time. These events are actually key to the recovery of damaged pilots and ships among other options. I can imagine Galactica’s Starbuck “Raising Hell” as part of her recovery routine.

Next comes a chapter of GM advice and tools followed by a chapter of ships and NPCs. The stat blocks for ships are very clear and contain a wealth of information. The ship’s damage tracks cause the loss of systems etc as they progress until eventually the pilot must bail out.

The final three chapters contain a set of pre-generated player characters and two scenarios. The final chapter gives a list of influences, no prizes for guessing many of the names present.

Final thoughts:

I bought this book excited about the ship combat rules and I wasn’t disappointed. They are slick and evocative and look like great fun! As mentioned above the rules can be transposed to any number of settings and that was my original intention. However, the setting presented in the book has caught my imagination as well.

The rules are well thought out and beautifully presented. The product is of the same high quality I associate with the entire FATE line. Despite having emerged during a difficult time for Evil Hat, this may be one of my favourite FATE books yet, highly recommended!