Ship Combat
Basics
Ship combat mirrors normal combat with the addition of abstracted range bands to add granularity, and encourage maneuverability.
Critical Damage to a ship does not incapacitate it, as it would a player, instead individual Modules are damaged. This maintains impact and decisiveness while still allowing the party to make fight or flight decisions.
Range
Distance to other ships and their relative velocity is abstracted into Engagement Bands.
Short range is point blank, close enough to risk collisions.
Medium range is one minute (one round) of flight time, close enough to see by eye.
Long range is a stand off distance. Close enough for high resolution Scans.
It takes an Action in combat to Maneuver the Ship between Engagement Bands.
Beyond these distances weapons are unable to track and hit anything but massive, relatively static targets. See In-System Travel for navigating and interacting with ships at longer distances.
Ship Rounds
In a fight or circumstance where timing is helpful, use rounds to keep track of when something occurs. A round in ship conflict is roughly one minute of in-game time and is comprised of turns.
Actions
On the crew’s turn, each crewmember can take a single action. Each Module on the ship (engines, shields, a specific weapon) can be used only once each round. A single crewmember cannot activate multiple modules or multiple weapons with one action.
Actions include but are not limited to:
- Maneuvering the Ship
- Firing a Weapon
- Activating a Module
Each round, the PCs declare what they are doing before dice are rolled. If a character attempts something risky, the GM calls for a Save for appropriate players or NPCs.
If the action relies mostly on the ship’s capabilities the Save is made using the ship’s Abilities. If the action relies mostly on the player’s skills or cleverness the Save is made using that character’s Ability.
Turns
The GM will telegraph the most likely actions taken by NPC Ships. Sensor Scans or other clever observations can give greater clarity and more detailed information.
If it’s unclear if the PCs would act before their opponents, an appropriate Save can allow the PCs to act first.
Attacking
The attacker rolls their weapon die and subtracts the target’s armor, then deals the remaining total to their opponent’s Shields.
Attack Modifiers
If firing from a position of weakness (such as through cover or outside a weapon’s optimal ranges), the attack is impaired and the attacker rolls 1d4 damage regardless of the weapon’s damage die.
If fighting from a position of strength (such as against a helpless foe or after a daring maneuver), the attack is enhanced, allowing the attacker to roll 1d12 damage instead of their normal die.
Direct Damage
Damage that reduces a target’s Shields below zero deals Direct Damage to the Hull by the amount remaining. The target must then make a Hull Save to avoid Critical Damage.
Critical Damage
When a ship takes Critical Damage, a random Core Module is damaged. Damaged Modules operate at significantly reduced capacity until they are repaired, and if damaged a second time are completely destroyed.
Hull Loss
If a ship’s Hull is reduced to 0, it is completely destroyed.