Santa has been known to travel through deep space in his quest to deliver gifts to all the good girls and boys on Christmas morn. To do this he takes to the skies in his trusty cruiser, a one-man ship which uses the medium ship rules (except that it only has one hit location chart). If encountered by other spacecraft, Santa often attempts to aid or hinder them depending on how good they've been in the previous year. Occasionally, the naughty ones have tried to stop him from carrying out his goals. Though Santa cannot be killed or wounded, the magic of his cruiser can be weakened through damage, forcing him to retire and leave some gifts undelivered. He often calls on good beings in the vicinity to help him get the presents through to those deserving of them.
Suggested Scenario: Each player purchases a given point value of ships (the same value for each player) and randomly determines whether he is "naughty" or "nice" for the scenario. There should always be one more "naughty" player than there are "nice" ones (if there are an even number of players, give one of the naughty ones an extra allocation of units). The "nice" team then tries to help Santa reach a destination or defeat the Grinches on the other team.
Alternate Scenario: One player plays Santa. Each remaining player brings a predtermined amount of points to the battle. Prepare one slip of paper (or other chit or counter) for each of these players, writing "naughty" on half or them and "nice" on the other half (if there is an odd number of players, round up to the nearest even number). At the start of each turn (or, alternately, at the start of every other turn), before EW is determined, all chits are placed in a hat, re-drawn, and displayed for all to see. This is known as "making a list and checking it twice." Santa will then help the "nice" players and hinder the "naughty" ones depending on their disposition each turn. The victor is the player whose ship remains on the board last (what happens to Santa is immaterial).
The nose of the most famous reindeer of all has grown in power over the years, and is now capable of firing as a laser each turn. It can use raking, piercing, or sustained modes, using the normal rules. If fired in sustained mode, must cool off for a turn before it can fire again.
Santa can lob gifts into the fray. These use the ballistic rules for all purposes. If the gift hits a naughty unit, it scores the listed damage. If it hits a nice unit, roll 1d6 and consult the chart on the weapon datacard. In the case of the repair or intercept results, the owning player always chooses how the ability is used. The critical hit repair can be stored up for later use if no repairs are required when the gift hits, while the auto-intercept must be used next turn or it is lost.
If Santa chooses, he can utter his famous laugh during the Weapons Fire Step of the turn, after players have written down their fire but before it has been declared. Any naughty units within 10 hexes of his position suffer the listed damage. Nice units are filled with a sense of warmth and good cheer, but otherwise receive no benefit.
Note: This ability is inherent to Santa himself and has no icon or system marker on the control sheet. It cannot be used if Santa has taken over half his hits in damage, but otherwise is not affected by critical hits.