Vehicle Combat: Difference between revisions

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<small>[[Epic Path]] \</small>
<small>[[Epic Path]] \</small>


These rules are intended to provide a fun, interesting means of simulating vehicular combat, whether a sailing ship on the high seas, an armored horse-drawn carriage, or a sleek flying vessel which uses ley lines to propel itself. These rules are optional, since some campaign settings will have no use for them.
Vehicle combat rules are optional, since some campaign settings will have no use for them.  Furthermore, some GM's may disagree with the approach outlined below, as it is quite different from the traditional ship vs. ship combat of other game systems.


These rules provide a crew role for each player character, allowing them to contribute, as a team, to the success or failure of the vehicle's combat prowess. This keeps the combat interesting for each player, rather than the one who spent any points in a piloting/driving skill.
Specifically, in order to ensure that every player is engaged in all aspects of the combat, these rules assume that each player will be piloting their own vehicle, and that they will typically be fighting multiple enemy vehicles.  This mimics the way traditional melee combat works in as many ways as was practical.  In fact, rules are included to mix vehicle combat directly with traditional melee combat encounters (e.g. PC ships versus monsters, or PC's versus NPC's in ships).


These rules are focused only on ''combat'' between vehicles.  Outside of combat, vehicles should be fairly easy to handle, with only the occasional skill check to see if the vehicle remains on course and how quickly it can arrive at its destination.
In a highly magical world, even in a pirates/high seas setting, or ancient Roman-style chariot combat, it's hard to imagine that any hero would put himself in the position of being a helpless passenger, hoping that the one PC who took ranks in a driving skill doesn't get the whole party killed.  Even worse, such combats can sometimes stretch on for an hour or longer of real time, while the majority of the party can only sit around waiting for it to finish, with little input over the outcome, except that they might die of things go pear-shaped.


the Mind,' , and maneuverability is abstracted.  
Instead, heroes being the resourceful folk that they are, we assume they'd want their own vehicle to join in with, supplying death and mayhem with their own flavor of subtlety (or lack thereof) and flair.


===The Basics===
While it breaks the traditional motif of one pirate ship facing off against that imperial ship-of-the-line, the first rule of gaming is it should be fun.  Giving each player a way to participate directly in the combat is more important, in our opinion, that keeping with traditions that have, historically, always failed to be fun (for everyone except that one bard with skill ranks to burn on random skills like Profession (Drover)).  
:* '''Choose a station:'''
:: At the start of combat, each PC declares which station of the vehicle he or she wishes to occupy. Stations are:
::* Captain
::* Channeler
::* Gunner
::* Pilot
::* Repair Crew
::* Spotter


::* '''Changing Stations:'''
==The Mother Ship==
::: PC's may change which station they are at, but it requires a full turn to change stations (no other actions or die rolls may be made while changing stations).
We encourage the need for a central mother ship, piloted by one of the PC's, and larger than the other ships in the party, which acts as a central base and refueling/repair area for the smaller fighters that the rest of the party uses during combat encounters.  It's not too huge a stretch to think that magical pirates might employ smaller, faster craft to gain advantages against their prey, or that the blue-sailed Ship-of-the-Line of Her Majesty's Navy might do the same.  The mother ship is also the only vehicle that is capable of longer, independent voyages between settlements.


:* '''Make a skill check:'''
The mother ship is also a participant in the combat, but is less offensive and more defensive.  For more details on why this is still fun, see Ship Classes, below.
:: Each station has a profession skill associated with it, which determines expertise at that particular station's duties.  On your turn, you make a skill check against this skill.


::* '''Alternate Skills:'''  
However, this mother ship notion is entirely optional, purely for color, and to add a point of interest in combat (you have to defend your party's mother ship, and it's fruitful to single out the NPC mother ship over the less-important fighters).  If it doesn't fit your campaign's theme, you could just as easily make all ships relatively equal to each other.  There are no game mechanics that work better or worse without a mother ship in these rules.
::: If you do not have any ranks in the skill for your station, you may instead use any bailiwick skill in its place.


:* '''Determine action pool:'''
==The Basics==
:: If you used the appropriate Profession skill, you divide your skill check's result by 5 (round down), and take this many d6 dice into your action pool for the round.  If you used a bailiwick skill instead of the appropriate Profession skill, you divide your skill check's result by 10 (round down) instead. 
All vehicle combat uses 2-D space, rather than 3-D space, even in cases where all the vehicles are capable of flight.  This is to keep things simpler, especially in terms of miniatures on a map. Frankly, until your X-axis exceeds your Y-axis by a fair margin, there is no difference between 2-D and 3-D anyway, since diagonals are measured 1:1.
::* '''Minimum action pool:'''
::: No matter how poorly you roll on your skill check, you always get a minimum of 2d6 for your action pool.


:* '''Roll action pool and determine expenditures:'''
The combat round still consists of each player getting one standard, one move and one swift action.  However, unlike traditional melee combats, each round begins with a Planning Phase, and then everyone takes their move actions simultaneously during the Movement Phase.  It isn't until the Action Phase that initiatives are calculated, and each player takes their standard and swift actions in order.
:: You then roll your action pool of d6's, and may allocate the results of your roll to one or more expenditures available to your station.  Each expenditure contributes in some way to the success of the combat, and is detailed in the descriptions of each station below.


:* '''Banking dice:'''
During the Planning Phase, each ship-based participant must secretly select their movement, standard action and swift action for the round.  Once everyone has had a chance to make their choice, all of these actions are revealed simultaneously, even the enemy NPC ships' actions, and no character can change those actions after the fact.  If you declare you are going to attack this round, but after everyone moves, there's no one in your firing arc, you've wasted that action.
:: In the event that you don't have enough pips in your action pool to perform an action, or you have left over dice which you weren't able to use this round, you can also bank some of your unused dice until a future turn, adding their existing pips to a future action pool.


:: You can expend any 1 die from your action pool to bank one or more (or all) of your remaining dice, each turn. Once banked, the dice just become a numerical total ("banked pips"), and can be split up (in future turns, not the the same turn you banked them) in any way you wish.  There is no maximum number of pips you can bank, and banked pips do not affect how many dice you get in your action pool in future rounds.
Next, all movement actions are performed, simultaneously and without regard to initiative, based on the movement each PC and NPC selected for the round.   


:: Note, however, that, if your station is not able to take an action this turn (such as a Siege Gunner who has no legal targets within range of his weapons), you can't expend dice, and thus, you also cannot bank dice.  (In such a case, the Siege Gunner should consider moving to a different station until the combat closes into an appropriate range).
Once that is done, initiatives are calculated, and each player takes their standard and swift actions during their turn.


::* '''You can't split dice in your action pool:'''
The reason for changing the movement to simultaneous resolution is to emphasize that vehicle combat is kinetic.  Vehicles rarely, if ever, move adjacent to their intended target, park in one square and unload with full attack actions until one or the other of them fall over dead.  Instead, there are strafing runs, dog fights, and constant movement.  Stopping in one place, even briefly, makes your ship an easy target.
::: Pips from d6's in your action pool cannot be split up.  That is, you must use all of the pips on a single die if you use any of them.  This means if you wish to purchase an expenditure which costs 12 pips, and you have three 5's on your action pool dice, you must spend all three dice to pay for the 12 pip cost, effectively wasting 3 pips of your action pool.  Alternatively, you could bank your dice, converting them into pips, to attempt to use them more efficiently, at the cost of not having access to them until next turn.


::* '''You can split banked dice:'''
Another major break from traditional melee combat is that vehicle combat requires the use of facing, and firing arcs.  Most vehicles must line up their shots with the enemy before they can attack, and clever pilots will want to do so without exposing themselves to being lined up upon by the enemy at the same time.  Maneuver and position are key.
::: Once dice are banked, their pips are simply added up as an available bonus to your future action pool rolls.  If you bank a 5 and a 6, you have 11 pips you can spend in the future, split however you wish.  As a result, even though there is a fee to bank dice (you must expend 1 die each time you bank one or more dice), it can also be very efficient.


===Vehicle Ranges===
These differences are even more interesting when vehicles square off against non-vehicle opponents.  The vehicles have to follow the declared actions rule, resolve their movement before any attacks, must line up their attacks within their limited firing arcs, and must concern themselves with facing.  Non-vehicle-borne creatures do not need to do any of these things.  They have no facing, and they can decide all of their actions, and the order in which they are performed, without any need to reveal those plans beforehand, and without committing to them, able to adapt if the situation changes before their turn arrives.  Creatures can react much more quickly, and target their enemies much more easily than vehicles can.  Of course, vehicles are heavily armored, and inflict terrible damage on unfortified foes with their mighty siege weaponry.  All-in-all, such encounters are exciting, and quite different from the norm.
Even though vehicle combat takes place in 2d space (usually on a surface of something, like the ground or water) or even 3d space (in the case of flying vehicles), the relational distance between two vehicles is simplified for purposes of these rules.  A vehicle is always in one of five ranges from anything else. These ranges are:


: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left"
==Size and Space==
|-
Each square in vehicular combat is equal to 50 feet, instead of 5 feet.
! Range || Distance || Notes
|-
! Close Range
| adjacent to 50 feet || Boarding and Ramming range. Also the range for docking at port
|-
! Short Range
| 51 feet to 1600 feet || The upper range of spells and bows
|-
! Medium Range
| 1601 feet to 2 miles || The range of many siege weapons
|-
! Long Range
| 2 miles to 15 miles || The horizon, as seen from the vehicle's deck.
|-
! Out-of-Range
| 15 miles to 50 miles || The horizon, as seen from a spotting station.
|-
! Out-of-Sight
| 50+ miles || Impossible to perceive. If a vehicle lacks a spotting station, Out-of-Range is also considered Out-of-Sight
|}


Most PC's will start off in smaller fighter craft, which will typically be sized-small or sized-medium, each of which takes up a single 50-foot square.  The ship itself is assumed to occupy the whole space, even if its actual dimensions are less than that.


A pilot uses the majority of his action pool attempting to maneuver into or out of these ranges, in relation to one or more other vehicles. Depending on the vehicle's maneuverability class (see below), it can require more than one expenditure to move from one range to another.
Movement is measured in squares.  Thus a movement like "Straight 4" would be moving forward 4 spaces, in the same direction the ship is currently facing, and leaving the ship's facing unchanged throughout the movement.


, that vehicle may declare that combat is over.
Each turn type describes exactly how it is performed, and when the ship's facing changes.  Ships (nearly) always move in the direction they are facing, unless the movement type specifically states otherwise (e.g. barrel roll 3).


is equal to Out of Sight, range.  Note, however, that a vehicle with a spotter station, but no PC manning it can still spot vehicles at Out of Range, as the NPC can spot on the player characters' behalf.
A ship's firing arc is always considered to be the 90-degree cone directly in front of it, in a square the size of the firing range.  So a ship with a weapons range of 3 would have a firing arc that was 3x3 (150 feet by 150 feet), originating from the front face of the ship and always 45-degrees to each side of that face.


===Intervals===
This is very easy to visualize on a square grid:
Turns in abstract combat last 1 hour each, and are called "Intervals".
* If we imagine the top side of the square as north, and that our ship is facing north, and has a weapon range of 3, the firing arc is drawn 3 square diagonally to the northeast and 3 squares diagonally to the northwest, and 3 squares directly ahead of us (north), with our own ship's square being the bottom corner of a fat triangle.  This is the shape of a firing arc when the ship's facing is towards the flat side of a square.
* If we imagine our ship is facing diagonally, say, northeast, and has a weapon range of 3, the firing arc is drawn directly north 3 squares, directly east 3 squares, and diagonally in front of us (northeast) 3 squares, forming a box which is actually 4x4 squares in shape, with our ship occupying the bottom right corner of the box.  This is the shape of the firing arc when the ship's facing is towards a corner of a square.


Taking any action requires the full hour.  If the encounter turns into real-time combat, such as with a boarding action, initiative will be rolled, and turns will revert to 6-second rounds as per the normal combat rules.
Obviously, different weapon ranges will result in smaller or larger firing arcs, but the way they are visualized on the map remains the same.


Note that boarding merely gives you control of the vessel. Clearing, searching and looting a boarded vessel is .  Even cursory looting of a vehicle, going as quickly as you can, takes a minimum of 1 hour. Thoroughly looting a vehicle can take 3 or more hours, especially for larger vehicles.
A ship can fire into any square that is inside its firing arc.  A ship cannot fire into any space outside of its firing arc, unless it has some special ability which allows it to specifically do so.


==Crew Stations==
All turns are always either 45-degrees, 90-degrees or 180-degrees, and always remain either in the cardinal or ordinal directions of the square.
Not all vehicles will have all stations available to them.  A flying carpet may only have a pilot station, and nothing else.  Furthermore, some vehicles will have limitations on how many crew can occupy a given station.


===Ship's Channeler===
Diagonals are always treated as being 1:1, just as with traditional melee combat, even though, proportionally, this is inaccurate.  It makes counting and visualizing MUCH easier, and since everyone follows the same rules, the weird mathematical exploits can be used by everyone equally. (Thanks, Pythagoras. Jerk.)
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Engineer)


A ship's channeler is responsible for making the motive force of the vehicle as efficient as possible.  This could be as mundane as beating a drum to keep time for the rowers, cropping the horses to make them go faster, or tweaking the magical matrix of the vehicle to coax a little more power out of it.  In non-magical vehicles, a ship's channeler might be referred to as a pace-setter, drover, or any other term appropriate.
==The Combat Round==
Each combat round has a Planning Phase, a Movement Phase and an Action Phase.


A Ship's Channeler may use his action pool for the following expenditures:
===Planning Phase===
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
Each player secretly determines both their move action, their standard action, and their swift action (if available) before any actions are revealed.
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
|-
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
|-
| Focus Power || grant a d6, rolled immediately, to the action pool of any station on the ship. This d6 can be expended or banked as the receiving player wishes, but once used, it is gone. || 12
|-
| Dedicate Power || grant a d6 each round for the remainder of the encounter to the action pool of any station on the ship. This d6 is rolled immediately, and can be expended or banked as the receiving player wishes. || 25
|-
| Overcharge || The channeler chooses one functioning station of the vehicle, and that station rolls d8's for its action pool, instead of d6's, for the remainder of the encounter, starting next turn || 40
|}


* '''If Unmanned:''' A vehicle which has a ship's channeler station, but is not crewed by a PC will grant no benefits to other stations.
Ideally, this is done with playing cards or some other thing which can be selected in secret, and then flipped over to reveal the chosen actions.  Some suggestions on how to convert playing cards for this purpose are provided below.


* '''If Destroyed:''' If a vehicle's Channeler station is destroyed, the ship can no longer improve its efficiency during the fight. Any dice granted by the Channeler's "Dedicate Power" expenditures are not refreshed in future turns, though they may be used this turn.
Once selected, you can't change your mind in reaction to what everyone else did.  Players can collaborate and plan at the table beforehand, but they must do so where the GM can listen, unless they have magic items or some other means of secret communication. As a result, it's usually better if players don't specify exactly what they're going to do.


===Ship's Captain===
====Planning your move action====
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Soldier)
Each ship has a list of available moves it can make.  Not every ship can make every kind of move, and some ships are better at some moves than others.


A ship's captain issues orders to the crew to make them operate more efficiently, or to force them to pay attention to something important.  
There are 17 basic moves (but only because each move includes a speed), and within those 17, there are three strengths of the move, dictating how easy it is for the pilot to pull off that particular move.  Strengths are described as (red), meaning they cost 1 focus to perform, (yellow) meaning they cost no focus to perform, and (green) meaning you gain 1 focus for performing it.  The fastest, most agile ships will frequently gain focus from their move action.


A Ship's Captain may apply the pips of his action pool for the following expenditures:
=====Basic Move Types=====
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
* Sudden Halt
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
* Straight 1 (move forward 1 square, facing unchanged)
|-  
* Straight 2 (move forward 2 squares, facing unchanged)
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
* Straight 3 (move forward 3 squares, facing unchanged)
|-  
* Straight 4 (move forward 4 squares, facing unchanged)
| Tactical Orders || The captain chooses one functioning station of the ship and lowers the cost of any expenditures made by that station by 2 for this turn || 12
* Straight 5 (move forward 5 squares, facing unchanged)
|-
* Straight 6 (move forward 6 squares, facing unchanged)
| Strategic Command || The captain chooses one functioning station of the ship and lowers the cost of any expenditures made by that station by 2 for the rest of the encounter || 25
* Shallow Turn 2 (forward 1 square, 45-degree face change, forward 1 square)
|-
* Shallow Turn 3 (forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change, forward 1 square)
| Reallocate Talent || The captain can assist one PC in moving to a different station of the ship without losing a turn to do so. The PC must be willing to be reassigned. || 25
* Shallow Turn 4 (forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change, forward 2 squares)
|}
* Sharp Turn 2 (45-degree face change, forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change)
* Sharp Turn 3 (45-degree face change, forward 3 squares, 45-degree face change)
* Sharp Turn 4 (45-degree face change, forward 4 squares, 45-degree face change)
* U-Turn 3 (move forward 3 squares, facing reversed)
* U-Turn 4 (move forward 4 squares, facing reversed)
* Barrel Roll 2 (move 2 squares directly left or right, facing unchanged)
* Barrel Roll 3 (move 3 squares directly left or right, facing unchanged)


* '''If Unmanned:''' A vehicle which has a ship's captain station, but is not crewed by a PC will grant no benefits to other stations.
Note that the turn movements can be used to turn either left or right, but you must declare whether you are turning left or right at the same time the movement is selected.


* '''If Destroyed:''' If a vehicle's captain station is destroyed, it takes double damage from any ramming maneuvers it attempts to perform (but not those performed against it).
Each ship picks out its available movement types at the time it is created, and can gain additional movement types (or trade up for better versions of existing movement types), based on ship level, or ship upgrades.  It is common for a ship to have only 4 to 5 movement types available to it, and lower level or less agile ships may be very limited in which movement types they can select.  Even the most agile ships will rarely have even as many as 10 available movement types.


===Ship's Gunner===
It is possible for ships to have a top speed higher than 6, but only through upgrades or special abilities. If a ship has such a thing, they are not performed during the movement phase, but instead as swift actions (or sometimes free actions).  Often, this non-move-action movement makes the ship considerably more adaptable to the surrounding combat.
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Siege Engineer)


A ship's gunner is responsible for firing the siege weapons of the ship against enemy ships.
=====Move Action Initiative Modifier=====
Many move actions include an initiative modifier, usually based on the actual speed of the maneuver selected, which is added to your initiative score for the round.  Initiatives are not calculated until the start of the Action Phase (see below).


A Ship's Gunner may apply the pips of his action pool for the following expenditures:
====Planning Your Standard Action====
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
All ships can perform the following standard actions:
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
* '''Double move''' a whole second move, which can be completely different from the first, and is chosen after all normal movement is resolved.
|-
** some ships have a higher speed during double moves (ship class and upgrades)
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
* '''attack''' make an attack roll against an enemy vehicle within range
|-
* '''take aim''' make an attack roll against an enemy vehicle within range, but instead of doing damage if you hit, you gain a +2 bonus to your CMB when making attacks against that target, until the end of the encounter, or until it dies.
| Fire Weapons || Fire a volley at the enemy ship. || enemy ship's hardness
* '''evasive maneuvers''' gain a +2 dodge bonus to your ship's CMD until the end of the round.
|-
* '''build focus''' make a skill check to build focus
| Fire For Effect || The gunner's next shot will reduce the enemy ship's Captain's Pool by 2 on the turn after the attack is made. This penalty can be stacked with itself. || 12
* '''damage control''' shunt power to repairing damage and rebuilding shields
|-
| Chain Shot || All shots by the gunner for the rest of the encounter reduce the enemy ship's Captain's Pool by 2 on the turn after the attack is made. This penalty can be stacked with itself. || 25
|}


Note that most ships, especially once they are upgraded, have access to 1 or more additional standard actions. See the specific ship class or ship upgrade for details.


A Gunner may only fire once per round, and only at a single target per round, regardless of how many siege weapons are equipped on the vehicle.  A vehicle with multiple siege weapons deals additional durability damage on successful hits.
While all movement is performed simultaneously, standard (and swift) actions are performed on your initiative, taking turns with all other PC's and NPC's in the combat.  The exception to this is the Evasive Maneuvers action, which occurs immediately after you reveal that it was your selection.


A Gunner which exceeds the enemy ship's hardness by 5 or more deals 1 additional durability damage with his shot. He cannot increase his damage by more than 1 in this way.
====Planning Your Swift Action====
Few pilots will even have a swift action available to them at low levels, but once they have access to 1 or more swift actions, they must secretly declare that swift action as part of their planning phase.


Note, if multiple PC gunners are present, and multiple siege weapons, they may split the siege weapons between them, and each of them may select a different target, or fire separately on the same target, as they wish.  The vehicle's base weapon damage must be split evenly between the two of them, round down, drop any fractions.  That is, if a vehicle has three large catapults, dealing 3 base damage, and two PC's wish to man the Gunner's station to target different enemies, they will each do 1 point of base damage.  Since there are three siege weapons, a third PC could theoretically also join them, but only if a third enemy vehicle is present to be targeted. In that case, each of them would deal 1 base damage.
As with normal combat, you may only perform a single swift action on your turn.  You may choose to perform your chosen swift action either before or after your standard action.


* '''If Unmanned:''' A vehicle which has a ship's gunner station, but is not crewed by a PC will fire no more than once per 3 rounds, assuming the enemy vehicle is in range.
===Movement Phase===


* '''If Destroyed:''' If a vehicle's gunnery station is destroyed, it may no longer make attacks with its siege weapons.  It may still perform ramming or boarding actions.
===Action Phase===


===Ship's Pilot===
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Drover)
A Ship's Pilot may apply the pips of his action pool for the following expenditures:
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
|-
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
|-
| Advance, Retreat or Hold Steady || Close the distance, open the distance, or hold steady in relation to the enemy ship. || enemy's pilot expenditure
|-
| Evasive Maneuvers || Make your vehicle harder to hit, increasing its effective hardness by 2 until next turn || 12
|}
The pilot has to guess how much of his action pool to spend to maneuver his vehicle in relation to the enemy vehicle.  Each round, he records how many of his pips he is spending as well as whether he is attempting to close, open or hold his position, and the GM records the same for the enemy vehicle (or vehicles). Both sides reveal their results simultaneously, and the highest total gets their way, if the chosen actions are opposites.  That is, if the PC's vehicle wishes to close the distance, and the enemy vehicle wishes to open the distance, the winner of this bidding war will succeed in moving 1 success closer to the next range band (see maneuverability classes below). However, if the chosen actions are not contradictory, like both ships wish to close, they both succeed, as long as they each spent any pips at all to perform the action.
Much like the gunner, if the Pilot exceeds the enemy ship's pilot expenditure by 5 or more, his expenditure counts as two successes instead of one.  He cannot increase his successes by more than 1 in this way.
* '''If Unmanned:''' A vehicle which has a ship's pilot station, but is not crewed by a PC will generate 2 pips of action dice per campaign level (e.g. 20 pips at campaign level 10, etc.).  These can be banked or spent as needed, for use on navigation-related expenditures.
* '''If Destroyed:''' If a vehicle's pilot station is destroyed, it slows to a halt and can no longer move or maneuver.
===Repair Crew===
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Shipwright)
A Ship's Repair Crew may apply the pips of his action pool for the following expenditures:
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
|-
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
|-
| Suppress Fires || reduce existing damage to one ship's station by 1 || 12
|-
| Emergency Repairs || remove up to 2 points of penalties to a single station (repeatable, if needed). || 12
|-
| Reinforce Hull || Repair crew can select one ship's station and increase the Hardness DC to hit it by 2 until the end of the encounter. || 25
|}
* '''If Unmanned:''' All vehicles have a repair crew station. If it is not manned by a PC, and the vehicle has an NPC crew available, the repair crew will remove 1 point of (repairable) durability damage from the ship every 5 rounds.
* '''If Destroyed:''' The repair crew isn't really a station on the ship, and cannot be destroyed.
===Ship's Spotter===
* '''Skill Required:''' Profession (Sailor)
A Ship's Spotter may apply the pips of his action pool for the following expenditures:
: {| border="1" cellpadding="5" style="text-align:left" width="95%"
! width="20%" | Expenditure || width="70%" | Effect || Pips Required
|-
| Bank Dice || allocate pips to next turn's action pool || any number
|-
| Spot Enemy Vehicle || Locate an enemy vehicle after it has changed ranges || enemy's Spot DC
|-
| Assess Enemy || determine a target ships' Hardness/Durability, which stations are present, and whether or not the ship appears hostile (has gone to battle stations) || 12
|-
| Sighting In || Lower the gunner's next shot's target number by 2 || 12
|-
| Called Shot || Makes the gunner's next shot hit a specific station on the enemy ship || 25
|}
Spotters are responsible for locating enemy vehicles each time the relative range changes between the two vehicles.  The DC to spot an enemy vehicle is nearly always based on the size of that vehicle, rather than its CR, though some vehicles are better than hiding than others.  By expending the appropriate number of pips, the spotter informs his vehicle's crew of the enemy vehicle's location until the next time the relative ranges change again.
* '''If Unmanned:''' A vehicle which has a ship's spotter station, but is not crewed by a PC generates 5 pips per round which can only be spent on Spot Enemy Vehicle or Assess Enemy.
* '''If Destroyed:''' If a vehicle's spotting station is destroyed, it can no longer detect enemy vehicles at "Out of Range" range. Any bonuses it has granted to the gunner expire at the end of the turn in which the Spotter's station is destroyed.
===Multiple PCs in one station===
If multiple pcs occupy the same station, there are diminishing returns.
* Each person must declare who is primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. before any die rolls are made.
* The primary gets his full rolls results.
* The secondary halves all of his pips rolled at that station
* The tertiary divides his rolled pips by 1/3rd
* (quaternary is quartered, etc.)
The sum of all pips, after division, may be used on expenditures for that station.
These rules do not apply to the Ship's Gunner station, as long as they are each firing on separate targets, and have split the vehicle's weapons between them (reducing the vehicle's damage appropriately).
===Ship Maneuverability Classes===
Maneuverability describes how many expenditures are required to move into a particular range from the one adjacent to it.  The maneuverability class also has a maneuverability profile, which is expressed as 5 numbers separated by slashes ("/"). The five numbers represent the number of successful expenditures required to move from one range to the next.  The first number of the five represents "out of range', the second is "long range", the third is "medium range", the fourth is "short range" and the fifth is "close range".  The relevant number to reference is the range increment you are attempting to move into, not the one you are currently in.  For example, for maneuver class 14, it costs 3 expenditures to move from Long Range to Medium Range.
Note that the listed values for maneuverability profile are simply a list of the values available to that maneuverability class.  When the vehicle gains the listed maneuverability class, its maneuverability profile is set to include all of the listed values for the maneuverability class, but they can be in any order.  That is, a maneuverability class of 5, which has a maneuverability profile of 2/1/1/1/1 could place the 2 into any of the 5 range bands, requiring two successful expenditures to move into that range, and only 1 successful expenditure to move into any of the others.
Vehicles which have zeroes in any of their range bands in their maneuverability profile may skip those ranges entirely with a successful expenditure, instead applying that expenditure to the first non-zero range band.  Neither "Out of Range" nor "Close Range" can ever have a value of 0 in their maneuverability profile (otherwise, there'd be no way to stop!).  A ship's pilot may always elect to move into a range band in which their vehicle has a 0 in its profile, in which case, the range band is treated as though it had a value of 1.
Note that, despite the table below suggesting otherwise, there are theoretically an infinite number of maneuverability classes above 20. It is, however, rare for a vehicle with a maneuverability class greater than 20 to willingly engage in combat, since they will pretty much always be outmaneuvered.
: {| cellpadding="5" border="1" style="text-align:center"
! Maneuver Class || Maneuver Profile
|-
| 1 || 1/0/0/0/1
|-
| 2 || 1/1/0/0/1
|-
| 3 || 1/1/1/0/1
|-
| 4 || 1/1/1/1/1
|-
| 5 || 2/1/1/1/1
|-
| 6 || 2/2/1/1/1
|-
| 7 || 2/2/2/1/1
|-
| 8 || 2/2/2/2/1
|-
| 9 || 2/2/2/2/2
|-
| 10 || 3/2/2/2/2
|-
| 11 || 3/3/2/2/2
|-
| 12 || 3/3/3/2/2
|-
| 13 || 3/3/3/3/2
|-
| 14 || 3/3/3/3/3
|-
| 15 || 4/3/3/3/3
|-
| 16 || 4/4/3/3/3
|-
| 17 || 4/4/4/3/3
|-
| 18 || 4/4/4/4/3
|-
| 19 || 4/4/4/4/4
|-
| 20 || 5/4/4/4/4
|}
==Enemy Vehicles==
enemy ships should have as few stats as we can get away with, but should be capable of being better or worse, depending on the CR of the encounter.  A ship 5 cr's higher than the player level should crush them, while a ship 5 cr's lower should be trivial.
Stats we know we need:
* Ship's hardness (target DC to hit the ship with siege weapons)
* Durability for each station (and which stations exist)
* Maneuverability Class
* Weapon Range
* Weapon Damage (number of sunders it performs)
* Navigation pool (how many pips it generates each turn to use for maneuvers; can be banked)
* Gunner's pool (how many pips it generates each turn to use for attacks; can be banked)
* Captain's pool (a rolled action pool which grants the GM additional pips to apply to expenditures that turn; can be banked)
===Order of Play===
Note that there isn't really an initiative roll in these rules. All vehicles act essentially simultaneously. For simplicity and clarity's sake, however, the GM should ask the players to take each of their turns in whatever order they wish.  Many of the actions each player takes will modify or improve the outcomes for the other players, so order within the stations of a vehicle of PC's matters to some degree.  All of these individual actions are merely part of the ship's action, however, and the ship is treated as acting all at once, and at the same time as any enemy ships present.
The enemy vehicles, controlled by the GM, operate much more simply than a PC-controlled vehicle, abstracting a lot of the die rolling that PC's do during their turn. This makes it possible for a GM to manage multiple enemy vehicles without spending a lot of time rolling dice.
If there is ever a need to resolve the order of actions between vehicles, use the following to determine which vehicle acted soonest:
# Ship Maneuverability Class
# The number of expenditure costs required to move into the current range between the two ships (e.g. If the PC vehicle as "2/2/1/2/2" and the enemy vehicle has a maneuverability of "2/1/2/2/2", and the tie occurred at long range (the second number in the listing), the enemy vehicle would win, since it has a 1, whereas the PC's vehicle has a 2)
# Compare the number of pips being expended on the two actions which are vying to go first
# If all of these things are tied (which is highly unlikely), ties go to the GM.
===Maneuvering===
As stated in the section for Ship's Pilot, maneuvering is an opposed contest between the pilots of any ships involved in a combat.  This means that the GM sets aside pips for his maneuvers for the turn, and compares that to the number of pip's the PC pilot has expended this turn.  Whoever has the higher total gets to decide what maneuver action occurs.  These options are:
:* '''Advance'''
: If a successful piloting action occurs, the pilot applies the success against the number of successes needed to move into the next closer range band in relation to the enemy ship. For example, for a ship with a maneuverability profile of 3/3/2/3/2 to move into close range (from short range) requires 2 maneuver successes.  If this is the first time the pilot has succeeded on an Advance action to move into close range, he applies the success against the 2 needed, and now needs only one.  The second time he succeeds, he moves into close range with the enemy ship.
: Note that these successes need not be achieved in concurrent turns, but they need to occur before the enemy ship is able to change the current range between the vehicles.  That is, if the enemy ship achieves enough successes to pull out to medium range (retreat) before the PC pilot can "seal the deal" and close to Close range, all successes the PC pilot has earned towards moving into Close Range are lost.  Similarly, if the PC can close to Close Range before the enemy ship can pull away to Medium range, any successes the enemy ship has accrued are likewise lost.
:* '''Retreat'''
: A retreat action attempts to move your ship further away from the enemy ship.  Once you achieve the appropriate number of successful expenditures to meet the number listed for the desired range (assuming the enemy ship doesn't successfully close the range first), you move one range band further away from the enemy ship.
: Note that, in those rare cases where multiple enemy ships are present, the GM can make things messier by declaring that your ship is surrounded or bottled in. (This scenario is far more likely in a confined maneuver space, such as a river.)  In such a case, you must advance on one ship in order to retreat from the other.  Of course, these rules aren't meant to handle large scale battles with multiple ships, so these scenarios should be rare.
:* '''Hold Steady'''
: Sometimes you want to hold your position in relation to another vehicle.  The Hold steady action attempts to prevent the enemy ship from either advancing or retreating.  In this case, any successes you achieve can only be applied against the enemy ship's current attempts to either retreat or advance.  That is, you never gain successes, nor can you cause the enemy ship to lose any successes it has already applied against its desired maneuver (either advance or retreat).  Even if the vehicle wishing to hold stead exceeds the enemy ship's maneuver pips by 5 or more, the only effect it has is to prevent the enemy ship from accruing a success that turn.  As a result, holding steady is exceptionally difficult to sustain for very long. Eventually, the enemy ship will accrue successes and be able to either advance or retreat as it wishes.
:* '''Ramming'''
: Ramming can be declared at the moment that a vehicle's pilot achieves enough successes to move from Short Range to Close Range.  If he so chooses, the ensuing movement is used to ram into the vehicle it is closing with, instead of merely pulling adjacent (presumably to board).  Ramming is resolved as described below (see [[#Ramming|Ramming]).
: A boarding action may not be declared on any turn in which ramming has occurred, or the turn immediately after ramming.
: Once you have rammed an enemy vehicle, you cannot ram it again unless you first move back out to Short Range, and then back in to Close Range.  It takes a bit of a running start to ram another ship, which just can't be achieved within the confines of Close Range.
:* '''Boarding'''
: If you are at close range with an enemy ship, you may declare a boarding action, as long as it is not on a turn in which ramming occurred, or immediately after ramming occurred.  Once a boarding action has been declared, both vehicles must participate in boarding.  There are no rolls or expenditures to avoid boarding actions (other than avoiding being at close range).
: It is possible for an enemy ship to counter-board, sending their own soldiers to attempt to wrest control of your ship, even if you instigated the boarding action.  As such, it is usually a good idea to leave some crew or soldiers behind to defend the critical stations of your vehicle prior to boarding an enemy vehicle.  Unattended stations are assumed to be under the control of any boarders who happens upon them.  Boarding is resolved as described below (see [[#Boarding|Boarding]]).
===Dealing Damage===
Weapons on vehicles are siege weapons, which do sunder attacks against the enemy vehicle, in an attempt to disable or destroy it. Siege weapons have varying ranges, base damage and effects on their targets, depending on the weapon(s) mounted to the vehicle.  When a vehicle targets an enemy vehicle's hardness, this is the same as the vehicle's sunder DC.  Refer to the [[Combat_Maneuvers#Sunder|Sunder rules]] for additional details.
A gunner may not roll skill checks to generate an action pool until his vehicle is inside the range of his siege weapons.  This can mean that a gunner will be idle for many turns before he is able to begin participating in a combat.  As a result, PC's who are intending to perform the Siege Gunner duties are encouraged to be at least modestly adept at another vehicle station as well, to assist that station until such time as the vehicle is able to begin taking shots at the enemy vehicle.
Once within range, the gunner rolls his action pool and expends his pips just as any other station.  In order to fire a successful shot at the enemy ship, he must expend a number of pips equal to the enemy ship's hardness (sunder DC).  This number can be adjusted by a captain or a spotter granting a benefit to the gunner.
In general, few gunners can successfully fire on an enemy ship every round. As a result, most Siege Gunners will want to bank dice for one or more rounds to ensure he has enough pips to successfully hit the enemy.  Note that, in order to bank dice, the Siege Gunner is actually taking shots, even though he is missing (deliberately), in order to expend dice equal to the number of dice banked. (See [[#The_Basics|Banking Dice]] for details).
A Siege Gunner is also affected by range.  For each range increment beyond Close, the enemy ship gains an effective +5 to its sunder DC. (Some siege weapons may negate some or all of this penalty.)  This means that a Siege Gunner targeting a ship at Close Range suffers no penalty to hit, suffers a -5 penalty for Short Range, a -10 penalty for Medium range, and a -15 penalty for Long Range.
Once the gunner expends enough pips from his action pool to hit the enemy vehicle, a hit location must be rolled. Roll a d6 and consult the following table:
{|
! Roll || Station
|-
| 1 || Hull (no station, but the ship's total durability is reduced)
|-
| 2 || Captain's Station
|-
| 3 || Spotter's Station
|-
| 4 || Channeler's Station
|-
| 5 || Pilot's Station
|-
| 6 || Gunner's Station
|}
Each station has its own durability score, and that score is reduced by the amount of durability damage the attacking vehicle deals.  If a station has its durability reduced to 0, it is considered 'destroyed' and can no longer generate dice on its own. Consult the section above for the specific section to see exactly what effects destroying the station has.
The Channeler may grant dice to a destroyed station to allow it to continue to function in a very limited capacity. This includes any dice the channeler has already given to that station. (Of course, if the station destroyed is the Channeler's station, this is no longer true.)
Half of all damage dealt is irreparable until the vehicle can be put into dock for repairs. However, this only applies to single hits which deal 2 or more durability damage. Each hits damage is halved, round down, to determine how much, if any, of the damage is irreparable.  Thus, a bunch of 1 point hits are all repairable, but a 3 point hit causes one point of irreparable damage.
In addition, all crew inside a station that is hit suffer hit point damage.  This damage is treated as splash damage, meaning it deals the minimum amount of hit point damage that the siege weapon can deal. (Note that, unlike siege weapons specifically using anti-personnel munitions, this base weapon damage does not get multiplied due to higher level Siege Gunners; that is, even if the Siege Gunner is level 8, the siege weapon's base weapon damage is not affected).
Repairable damage is repaired by the Repair Crew's action pool expenditures.
If any three of a vehicles stations are reduced to 0 durability, the vehicle is considered destroyed.  If you don't want to destroy the ship you're attacking, either target specific stations (such as the Pilot and Gunnery stations) to disable, or perform a boarding action before it is destroyed.
===Mishaps===
===Ramming===
===Crashing===
===Boarding===
===Hand-Held Weapons vs. Vehicles===
===Settings===
Not all vehicle combats occur in the middle of nothing.  Sometimes obstacles, islands, buildings, astral asteroids (astraloids), etc. can present extra challenges, provide cover or concealment, etc.  In such cases, a vehicle (or vehicles) could lay in ambush behind cover, instigating a fight at closer range than the traditional "Out of Range".
GM's are encouraged to provide detailed settings for vehicle combats, if only to add color, however, it is recommended that such settings have very simple rules, if any.  Cover and concealment, minor penalties to specific stations while near certain obstacles, etc. can add flavor, if used in moderation.


===Action Points===
===Action Points===


[[Average Vehicle Stats]]
[[Average Vehicle Stats]]

Revision as of 22:12, 10 November 2016

Epic Path \

Vehicle combat rules are optional, since some campaign settings will have no use for them. Furthermore, some GM's may disagree with the approach outlined below, as it is quite different from the traditional ship vs. ship combat of other game systems.

Specifically, in order to ensure that every player is engaged in all aspects of the combat, these rules assume that each player will be piloting their own vehicle, and that they will typically be fighting multiple enemy vehicles. This mimics the way traditional melee combat works in as many ways as was practical. In fact, rules are included to mix vehicle combat directly with traditional melee combat encounters (e.g. PC ships versus monsters, or PC's versus NPC's in ships).

In a highly magical world, even in a pirates/high seas setting, or ancient Roman-style chariot combat, it's hard to imagine that any hero would put himself in the position of being a helpless passenger, hoping that the one PC who took ranks in a driving skill doesn't get the whole party killed. Even worse, such combats can sometimes stretch on for an hour or longer of real time, while the majority of the party can only sit around waiting for it to finish, with little input over the outcome, except that they might die of things go pear-shaped.

Instead, heroes being the resourceful folk that they are, we assume they'd want their own vehicle to join in with, supplying death and mayhem with their own flavor of subtlety (or lack thereof) and flair.

While it breaks the traditional motif of one pirate ship facing off against that imperial ship-of-the-line, the first rule of gaming is it should be fun. Giving each player a way to participate directly in the combat is more important, in our opinion, that keeping with traditions that have, historically, always failed to be fun (for everyone except that one bard with skill ranks to burn on random skills like Profession (Drover)).

The Mother Ship

We encourage the need for a central mother ship, piloted by one of the PC's, and larger than the other ships in the party, which acts as a central base and refueling/repair area for the smaller fighters that the rest of the party uses during combat encounters. It's not too huge a stretch to think that magical pirates might employ smaller, faster craft to gain advantages against their prey, or that the blue-sailed Ship-of-the-Line of Her Majesty's Navy might do the same. The mother ship is also the only vehicle that is capable of longer, independent voyages between settlements.

The mother ship is also a participant in the combat, but is less offensive and more defensive. For more details on why this is still fun, see Ship Classes, below.

However, this mother ship notion is entirely optional, purely for color, and to add a point of interest in combat (you have to defend your party's mother ship, and it's fruitful to single out the NPC mother ship over the less-important fighters). If it doesn't fit your campaign's theme, you could just as easily make all ships relatively equal to each other. There are no game mechanics that work better or worse without a mother ship in these rules.

The Basics

All vehicle combat uses 2-D space, rather than 3-D space, even in cases where all the vehicles are capable of flight. This is to keep things simpler, especially in terms of miniatures on a map. Frankly, until your X-axis exceeds your Y-axis by a fair margin, there is no difference between 2-D and 3-D anyway, since diagonals are measured 1:1.

The combat round still consists of each player getting one standard, one move and one swift action. However, unlike traditional melee combats, each round begins with a Planning Phase, and then everyone takes their move actions simultaneously during the Movement Phase. It isn't until the Action Phase that initiatives are calculated, and each player takes their standard and swift actions in order.

During the Planning Phase, each ship-based participant must secretly select their movement, standard action and swift action for the round. Once everyone has had a chance to make their choice, all of these actions are revealed simultaneously, even the enemy NPC ships' actions, and no character can change those actions after the fact. If you declare you are going to attack this round, but after everyone moves, there's no one in your firing arc, you've wasted that action.

Next, all movement actions are performed, simultaneously and without regard to initiative, based on the movement each PC and NPC selected for the round.

Once that is done, initiatives are calculated, and each player takes their standard and swift actions during their turn.

The reason for changing the movement to simultaneous resolution is to emphasize that vehicle combat is kinetic. Vehicles rarely, if ever, move adjacent to their intended target, park in one square and unload with full attack actions until one or the other of them fall over dead. Instead, there are strafing runs, dog fights, and constant movement. Stopping in one place, even briefly, makes your ship an easy target.

Another major break from traditional melee combat is that vehicle combat requires the use of facing, and firing arcs. Most vehicles must line up their shots with the enemy before they can attack, and clever pilots will want to do so without exposing themselves to being lined up upon by the enemy at the same time. Maneuver and position are key.

These differences are even more interesting when vehicles square off against non-vehicle opponents. The vehicles have to follow the declared actions rule, resolve their movement before any attacks, must line up their attacks within their limited firing arcs, and must concern themselves with facing. Non-vehicle-borne creatures do not need to do any of these things. They have no facing, and they can decide all of their actions, and the order in which they are performed, without any need to reveal those plans beforehand, and without committing to them, able to adapt if the situation changes before their turn arrives. Creatures can react much more quickly, and target their enemies much more easily than vehicles can. Of course, vehicles are heavily armored, and inflict terrible damage on unfortified foes with their mighty siege weaponry. All-in-all, such encounters are exciting, and quite different from the norm.

Size and Space

Each square in vehicular combat is equal to 50 feet, instead of 5 feet.

Most PC's will start off in smaller fighter craft, which will typically be sized-small or sized-medium, each of which takes up a single 50-foot square. The ship itself is assumed to occupy the whole space, even if its actual dimensions are less than that.

Movement is measured in squares. Thus a movement like "Straight 4" would be moving forward 4 spaces, in the same direction the ship is currently facing, and leaving the ship's facing unchanged throughout the movement.

Each turn type describes exactly how it is performed, and when the ship's facing changes. Ships (nearly) always move in the direction they are facing, unless the movement type specifically states otherwise (e.g. barrel roll 3).

A ship's firing arc is always considered to be the 90-degree cone directly in front of it, in a square the size of the firing range. So a ship with a weapons range of 3 would have a firing arc that was 3x3 (150 feet by 150 feet), originating from the front face of the ship and always 45-degrees to each side of that face.

This is very easy to visualize on a square grid:

  • If we imagine the top side of the square as north, and that our ship is facing north, and has a weapon range of 3, the firing arc is drawn 3 square diagonally to the northeast and 3 squares diagonally to the northwest, and 3 squares directly ahead of us (north), with our own ship's square being the bottom corner of a fat triangle. This is the shape of a firing arc when the ship's facing is towards the flat side of a square.
  • If we imagine our ship is facing diagonally, say, northeast, and has a weapon range of 3, the firing arc is drawn directly north 3 squares, directly east 3 squares, and diagonally in front of us (northeast) 3 squares, forming a box which is actually 4x4 squares in shape, with our ship occupying the bottom right corner of the box. This is the shape of the firing arc when the ship's facing is towards a corner of a square.

Obviously, different weapon ranges will result in smaller or larger firing arcs, but the way they are visualized on the map remains the same.

A ship can fire into any square that is inside its firing arc. A ship cannot fire into any space outside of its firing arc, unless it has some special ability which allows it to specifically do so.

All turns are always either 45-degrees, 90-degrees or 180-degrees, and always remain either in the cardinal or ordinal directions of the square.

Diagonals are always treated as being 1:1, just as with traditional melee combat, even though, proportionally, this is inaccurate. It makes counting and visualizing MUCH easier, and since everyone follows the same rules, the weird mathematical exploits can be used by everyone equally. (Thanks, Pythagoras. Jerk.)

The Combat Round

Each combat round has a Planning Phase, a Movement Phase and an Action Phase.

Planning Phase

Each player secretly determines both their move action, their standard action, and their swift action (if available) before any actions are revealed.

Ideally, this is done with playing cards or some other thing which can be selected in secret, and then flipped over to reveal the chosen actions. Some suggestions on how to convert playing cards for this purpose are provided below.

Once selected, you can't change your mind in reaction to what everyone else did. Players can collaborate and plan at the table beforehand, but they must do so where the GM can listen, unless they have magic items or some other means of secret communication. As a result, it's usually better if players don't specify exactly what they're going to do.

Planning your move action

Each ship has a list of available moves it can make. Not every ship can make every kind of move, and some ships are better at some moves than others.

There are 17 basic moves (but only because each move includes a speed), and within those 17, there are three strengths of the move, dictating how easy it is for the pilot to pull off that particular move. Strengths are described as (red), meaning they cost 1 focus to perform, (yellow) meaning they cost no focus to perform, and (green) meaning you gain 1 focus for performing it. The fastest, most agile ships will frequently gain focus from their move action.

Basic Move Types
  • Sudden Halt
  • Straight 1 (move forward 1 square, facing unchanged)
  • Straight 2 (move forward 2 squares, facing unchanged)
  • Straight 3 (move forward 3 squares, facing unchanged)
  • Straight 4 (move forward 4 squares, facing unchanged)
  • Straight 5 (move forward 5 squares, facing unchanged)
  • Straight 6 (move forward 6 squares, facing unchanged)
  • Shallow Turn 2 (forward 1 square, 45-degree face change, forward 1 square)
  • Shallow Turn 3 (forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change, forward 1 square)
  • Shallow Turn 4 (forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change, forward 2 squares)
  • Sharp Turn 2 (45-degree face change, forward 2 squares, 45-degree face change)
  • Sharp Turn 3 (45-degree face change, forward 3 squares, 45-degree face change)
  • Sharp Turn 4 (45-degree face change, forward 4 squares, 45-degree face change)
  • U-Turn 3 (move forward 3 squares, facing reversed)
  • U-Turn 4 (move forward 4 squares, facing reversed)
  • Barrel Roll 2 (move 2 squares directly left or right, facing unchanged)
  • Barrel Roll 3 (move 3 squares directly left or right, facing unchanged)

Note that the turn movements can be used to turn either left or right, but you must declare whether you are turning left or right at the same time the movement is selected.

Each ship picks out its available movement types at the time it is created, and can gain additional movement types (or trade up for better versions of existing movement types), based on ship level, or ship upgrades. It is common for a ship to have only 4 to 5 movement types available to it, and lower level or less agile ships may be very limited in which movement types they can select. Even the most agile ships will rarely have even as many as 10 available movement types.

It is possible for ships to have a top speed higher than 6, but only through upgrades or special abilities. If a ship has such a thing, they are not performed during the movement phase, but instead as swift actions (or sometimes free actions). Often, this non-move-action movement makes the ship considerably more adaptable to the surrounding combat.

Move Action Initiative Modifier

Many move actions include an initiative modifier, usually based on the actual speed of the maneuver selected, which is added to your initiative score for the round. Initiatives are not calculated until the start of the Action Phase (see below).

Planning Your Standard Action

All ships can perform the following standard actions:

  • Double move a whole second move, which can be completely different from the first, and is chosen after all normal movement is resolved.
    • some ships have a higher speed during double moves (ship class and upgrades)
  • attack make an attack roll against an enemy vehicle within range
  • take aim make an attack roll against an enemy vehicle within range, but instead of doing damage if you hit, you gain a +2 bonus to your CMB when making attacks against that target, until the end of the encounter, or until it dies.
  • evasive maneuvers gain a +2 dodge bonus to your ship's CMD until the end of the round.
  • build focus make a skill check to build focus
  • damage control shunt power to repairing damage and rebuilding shields

Note that most ships, especially once they are upgraded, have access to 1 or more additional standard actions. See the specific ship class or ship upgrade for details.

While all movement is performed simultaneously, standard (and swift) actions are performed on your initiative, taking turns with all other PC's and NPC's in the combat. The exception to this is the Evasive Maneuvers action, which occurs immediately after you reveal that it was your selection.

Planning Your Swift Action

Few pilots will even have a swift action available to them at low levels, but once they have access to 1 or more swift actions, they must secretly declare that swift action as part of their planning phase.

As with normal combat, you may only perform a single swift action on your turn. You may choose to perform your chosen swift action either before or after your standard action.

Movement Phase

Action Phase

Action Points

Average Vehicle Stats

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