Naval Combat

Welcome to Cimmerian Shade's Naval combat ruleset. This is a guide for combat to allow for ship to ship combat from both air and sea. GM discresion is always first and foremost but this can act as a guide to help with enjoying combat. This guide covers both air and sea combat for the world. There are a few new skills that have been added to address ship needs. There are many ships that are in the world, some on the sea, some in the air. Some that can do both. See below for more information.

Definition of Terms

Maneuverability: This is the target difficulty to get successes to perform an evasive or aggressive maneuver. botched rolls negatively effect Movement and potentially direction. The helm and the ship design effect this rating
Penalties: this is the effect of piloting the helm, these vary from helm to helm.
Exhaustion: Exhaustion requires rest after use for 1.5 x hours managed. so if you pilot for 8 hours you will need to rest for 12.
Movement: The number of hex a ship can move which can be reduced by failed maneuvers. 1 hex is used to change elevation up or down
Hardpoint: a hardpoint is a mount for ship based artillery weapons, sometimes called siege engineers or war machines. they come in all shapes and sizes, and suggestions for a hardpoint can be approved by a GM, several machines have been outlined as examples.
Helms: This is the command and control of a vessel, it also for our game terms represents the power source for the ships along with the ship design.
Boarding: The action of putting two ships close enough together so that crew from either ship can come together to fight. see boarding party for more details.
Landing Ground/Landing Sea: Airships that can land on ground or sea cannot have weapons that aim down. Though side mounted weapons can fire at ground targets. This requires distance as they are limited to a 30 degree down angle. Craft that cannot land land on ground or sea and require an air hanger to port, can have weapons that allow for a 45 degree down angle.
Ammo: Access to ammo depends on the ammo desired, difficulty to source is based on character resources, finance and regional access and GM approval.

GM Guidelines:
1. Easy: available to be sourced with minimal resource and finance requirements
2. Moderate: available to be sourced with moderate resource and finance requirements
3. Difficult: difficult to be sourced and has moderate resource and finance requirements along with the proper influences to acquire the contacts
4. Rare: Very difficult to be sourced and has high resource and finance requirements along with the proper influences to acquire the contacts, likely quests routine efforts to maintain access to the resources

Ship Game Mechanics

Crew Roles

The purpose of crew roles are to ensure all party members have activities they can be a part of during ship combat. Those with range abilities can use them against enemy ships and crews but there are also a number of other activities that can be done.

Helm and Rigging Control: The helm is who controls movement, the rigging control team is an extension of the helm and are only there for roleplay and mishap table purposes, reduction in rigging control crew effects movement or maneuverability)
Gunners per hard point type: # crew per hardpoint and each "type" of hardpoint is lead by a player or NPC "gunner" so all the scorpions would be one type and heavy catapults another
Damage Control: Crew dedicated to the repair of the ship in or out of combat the fire dmg per round and dmg per round that the crew can handle should be indicated in advance of the ship goes "under way". this is important to have defined in advance before combat
Boarding Party: Any crew members who are available once the two ships are within range. Any crew member can throw a grappling line with a dex + melee skill to hit and str + melee

Moving your Ship

Helm leader controls ship movement this can be a PC or an NPC. A ships movement is calculated by adding the ship movement rating to the helm movement rating which will equal the total ship movement rating. as example, if your ship has a movement of 4 and you also have a Minor Telepathic helm with a movement rating of 1 means your ship has a total movement of 5. the Helm can also roll to increase movement. each success increases the movement to a maximum of 25% of the ships max movement. Doing this doubles the penalty of the helm. Each turn your ship can make one hex turn, this is a single turn not a full rotation. to make additional turns you must roll for combat maneuvers.

Ship Movement calculation

Ship Movement + Helm Movement = Total Movement

Temporary Increasing Ship Movement

Roll: Int + Navigation skill: difficult=Helm rating, GM discretion

1-3 success = +1 movement of ship
4+ success = +2 movement of ship
Penalty: doubles helm penalty

Ship Combat Maneuvers

A ship can only make 1 move with out your helm making rolls for combat maneuvers, the helm can at times force the ship to perform far more heroic acts and push the ships design limits. the difficulty is base don the helm difficulty rating.

Combat Turns

Roll: Dex + Navigation skill: difficult=Helm rating, GM discretion

1-3 success = 1 hex turn or 1 elevation change
4+ success = 2 hex turns or 2 elevation change

Boarding actions are started with a combat maneuver, the two ships must be with in hexes that touch. Once the ships are within the proper range boarding hooks can be thrown to connect the two boats.

Ship Weapon Combat

Firing Weapon

after Loaded the lead gunner will aim and fire the weapon. You must declare your critical success target in advance. if you get or more successes you get to hit your target. This can be a person, Rigging, Steering, or other visible target. if a weapon does Double the DMG threshold of the ship. Then the shot is considered a mishap and will roll on the mishap table. (See Appendix A)

Roll: Int + Siege Gunner: aiming difficulty=base 8, GM discretion

success: hits ship
5+ success: Declared target is hit
failure: misses
critical failure: misfire, weapon broken for 2 turns

Boarding

Any crew members who are available once the two ships are within range. Any crew member can throw a grappling line with a dex + melee skill to hit and when enough are attached, GM discression then a STR + melee roll for the "Crew" to pull together. crew members can cut lines 1 per turn per crew free.

New Skills added

Navigation: This gives the ability to use Compasses, maps, Lead line, Log line, Sand glass, Cross staff, Nocturnal, Quadrant Astrolabe and other aeronautical and nautical tools to allow them to navigate ships using the stars.

Shipwright/Repair: This is the knowledge of ship design and construction, it is the skill that is used along with intelligence or dexterity to fix a ship. this skill can fix both normal and aggravated damage but certain materials or tools are required. aggravated damage cannot be healed "underway" and most be taken care of in port. Normal damage can be repaired with a repair kit as well as materials to repair. 1 tonne of materials can repair 2 levels of damage

Siege Gunner: Knowledge on how to load, target and shoot mounted siege equipment. High levels of siege gunner along with shipwright can build and repair hardpoints

Appendix A: Mishap table

Roll: Each ship has a DMG threshold, if a weapon doubles that number in a one hit. Roll 1d10.

Crew knocked out (crew not dead but not able to perform activities)
Fire!! (ship takes dmg per round, ignores threshold)
Sail and rigging damage (reduces Movement)
Hardpoint destroyed (weapon destroyed and unable to repair with out drydock)
Elevation reduced/flooding (ship sinks/looses altitude X per round)
Crew killed/knocked off craft (crew removed from ship)
Helm damage (reduces maneuverability)
Hardpoint damaged (hardpoint disabled but able to repair with skills)
Sail and rigging damage (reduces Movement)
Crew knocked out (crew not dead but not able to perform activities)

Appendix B: Ship Health and Damage

Ship Health: Alls Ships have 10 health points that represent the shp iteself. all ships get 1 point of armour. Ships can have more points of armour and have to be justified in their design and approved by the GM. Sea faring Ships can hve more armour than their airship counterparts

Ship Damage: Two types of Damage, Normal and aggravated. Aggravated damage cannot be healed by normal means outisde a drydock. only Normal damage can be repaired while underway.

Cost of repairs: Aggravated damage costs X and minor ship repair materials cost Y and are R tones per repair effort. See GM for cost amounts.

Fire: When Fire hits, it does X damage per 2 square feet on impact and then per round. there is a base value show in the weapon examples but its up the the GM discression. Fire can be combatted by fire suppression teams which can put out the fire. The damage control team should have their Dmg per fire and dmg per round ratings defined in advance of the scene.

Crew: Total Crew represents the total amount of humanoids the ship is needed to run the ship and its weapons easily and with redundancy. This excludes any humanoids on board that are designated as cargo/passengers. The Minimum crew is the absolute minimum a ship can be crewed with. During combat crewmen can be killed/disabled/removed from play. Hardpoints automatically are staffed with new crew as they fall until the minum amount is met. The ships captain can choose to man the guns or take penalties for movement and manuverability under the minium crew number. The GM has discression as to the effects on the ship in those cases.

Basic Ship Health Levels with no additional armour

Armour/No Penalty
Maneuverability Reduced
Hardpoint disabled
Movement Reduced
Hardpoint disabled
Maneuverability Reduced
Ability to Repair out of drydock reduced
Maneuverability Reduced
Ability to Repair out of drydock reduced
Movement Reduced
Helm Damage, limited repair options

Helm Types

There are two categories of ships sea and airships. Either of them can be modified to use the below helms. Sea faring ships are known technology they are able to have MUCH more cargo and hardpoints. They are also much slower and less maneuverable. They are however very manuverable and fast. Where the airship helms are often a closely guarded secrets by any who have such knowledge. And are a new and exotic form of travel and a brand new unknown technology. Airships have much less armour, they have fewer hardpoints and much smaller cargo capabilities.

Traditional basic Helms

The Helms and rudders are control and Movement of the ship. Helm is inclusive of rigging and sail control primarily focused on propulsion but does effect maneuverability, While Rudder represents maneuverability exclusively. Though traditionally made for sea faring vessels they have been adapted to newer airships.

Minor Helm and Skeg mounted rudder

The most basic of helm and rudder these are common on lower end ships or to those new to the sea and adapted for crude airships

Number Required to helm: 1
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 8
Movement: 1
Penalties: Exhaustion of the Pilot

Chain Helms and Spade rudder

An Upgrade from the Minor Helm, the Chain helms offer a greater level of control and Movement. They are common in many commercial ships as well as some warships

Number Required to helm: 1
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 8
Movement: 2
Penalties: Exhaustion of the Pilot

Major Helm and Full keel rudder

Favored by warships and large commercial vessels the Major Helm and full keel offer a great amount of Movement and control.

Number Required to helm: 2
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 7
Movement: 4
Penalties: Exhaustion of the Pilot

Rare and Advanced Helms

In the Airships the Helms represent both propulsion and control, There is far less known about how the helms work and are almost impossible to reproduce. Very few people have the knowledge to refurbish one let alone create one from scratch. Several cultures have created their own types of Helms which are listed below. Damage to an airships helm will effect both Movement and maneuverability

Soul Helms

These helms are sacrificial alters, rituals are performed and the soul of entity strapped to the altar fuels the Helm. The Ritual leader then uses the power of the sacrificed soul to control the ship. The ritual will kill the living creature. a single soul will fuel the ship for two days.

Number Required to helm: 2, one controller and 1 sacrifice per day
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 6
Movement: 5
Penalties: This type of helm sucks the soul of the person who helms the ship. Their death is assured

Minor Blood helms

Blood helms are very taxing, they use blood of a creature to fuel them. For each point of blood used the ship can be controlled for an hour. Which means a ship will spend about 24 blood points a day to function.

Number Required to helm: 2
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 7
Movement: 3
Penalties: This helm accepts blood as its fuel to drive the ship.

Major Blood helms

Blood helms are very taxing, they use blood of a creature to fuel them. For each point of blood used the ship can be controlled for two hours. Which means a ship will spend about 12 blood points a day per person to function.

Number Required to helm: 4
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 6
Movement: 5
Penalties: This helm accepts blood as its fuel to drive the ship.

Minor Magic Helms

Magic Helms require the absorption of magical energy. Magical items can also be offered to the helm, Magical helms can be powered for over a week with certain magical items (quality and power matter). However, magic that is offered by a living creature will be less effective. The magical energies must be constantly maintained by one or many casters. With out magic actively being absorbed by the helm it will not function.
(debating removing magic helm, not sure it make sense)
This helm requires magic to be infused into it

Number Required to helm: 1 minimum
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 7
Movement: 2
Penalties: Requires the sacrifice of magic items or magical energy

Major Magic Helms

Number Required to helm: 3 minimum
Maneuverability: Target difficulty: 6
Movement: 5
Penalties: Requires the sacrifice of magic items or magical energy

Hard Points

hardpoints are vehicle mounted "siege" artillery weapons, war machines, that are used for combat in the air and sea. Light hardpoints are generally antipersonnel weapons though some light hardpoints are intended to attach smaller vessels. While heavy hardpoints are primarily used to inflict damage onto vessels. Though a creature being hit by a heavy hardpoint will cause significant damage.

Light Hardpoints

Scorpion: a very precise anti personnel weapon. virtually useless against ships themselves

Small Stone: Cheap, less effective, anti personnel shot

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 8
Damage: 1
Ammo: easy, safe storage
Special: Can pierce hulls, can go through multiple creatures

Steel Tipped Bolt: expensive anti personnel shot

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 10
Damage: 1
Ammo: moderate, safe storage
Special: Can pierce lightly armoured hulls, can go through multiple creatures
note: These machines are particularly good at staking a vampire

Small Fire Bolt: a bolt covered steel tipped with tar and caught on fire. This has the potential to do fire damage

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 10
Damage: 1 *Special
Ammo: difficult, dangerous storage
Special: Hits heavily doing normal dmg, then +1 dmg per round unless controlled by damage control teams;
Notes: Speeding up loading risks catching the weapon on fire. the extra crew is to ensure safety of loading

Light Catapult: a small catapult that can do personnel dmg and limited ship rigging damage

Small Stone Shot: light anti ship ammunition

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 8
Damage: 4
Ammo: easy, safe storage

Metal Fragments: anti personnel shot

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 5
Damage: 2
Ammo: easy, safe storage
Special: sharp metal fragments designed to hurt personnel and potentially cut dirigibles

Small Chain Shot: for damaging rigging designed to damage ship Movement and maneuverability

Targeting Difficulty: 9
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 4
Damage: 1 *special
Ammo: moderate, heavy storage
Special: Foul up rigging to reduce Movement or maneuverability based on # successes

Small Fire Pots: A jar filled with flammable liquid. Tar sealing the top which is set ablaze before firing

Targeting Difficulty: 10
Crew Requirement: 1
Range: 8
Damage: 2 *Special
Ammo: rare, dangerous storage
Special: Explodes in 4 foot diameter area spreading fire across the entire area. Fire hits for 2 dmg, then +2 dmg per round unless controlled by damage control teams;
Notes: Speeding up loading risks breaking the ammunition. the extra crew is to ensure safety of loading

Heavy Hardpoints

Heavy Ballista: a very accurate, huge crossbow like device it hurls large javelins and stones at great distances

Large Bolt: long range. Intended to do damage to armour and people

Targeting Difficulty: 8
Crew Requirement: 2
Range: 12
Damage: 7
Ammo: easy, safe storage
Special: Can pierce hulls, can go through multiple creatures

Large Chain shot: for damaging rigging designed to damage ship Movement and maneuverability

Targeting Difficulty: 9
Crew Requirement: 2
Range: 6
Damage: 2 *Special
Ammo: moderate, heavy storage
Special: Foul up rigging to reduce Movement or maneuverability based on # successes

Large Fire Bolt: a bolt covered steel tipped with tar and caught on fire. This has the potential to do fire damage

Targeting Difficulty: 9
Crew Requirement: 2
Range: 6
Damage: 2 *Special
Ammo: difficult, dangerous storage
Special: Hits heavily doing normal dmg, then +2 dmg per round unless controlled by damage control teams;
Notes: Speeding up loading risks catching the weapon on fire. the extra crew is to ensure safety of loading

Heavy Catapults: a massive device that does tremendous damage but is difficult to aim

Heavy Stone: long range heavy damage weapon

Targeting Difficulty: 9
Crew Requirement: 2
Range: 12
Damage: 8
Ammo: easy, safe storage

Large Fire Pot: A jar filled with flammable liquid. Tar sealing the top which is set ablaze before firing.

Targeting Difficulty: 10
Crew Requirement: 2
Range: 5
Damage: 4 + *Special
Ammo: rare, dangerous storage
Special: Explodes in 8 foot diameter area spreading fire across the entire area. Fire hits for 4 dmg, then +4 dmg per round unless controlled by damage control teams;
Notes: Speeding up loading risks breaking the ammunition. the extra crew is to ensure safety of loading

Known Ship Designs Examples

Known Airship designs

Skyrunner

Helm Type: Minor Helm
Total Crew: 10
minimum crew: 7
Maneuverability: 4
Cargo: 5 tonnes
Movement: +4
length: 31 feet
width: 14 feet
Built by: Ubar
Health Levels: 11+0=11
landing Ground: Y
Landing Sea: Y
Light hardpoints: 2

1 Foredeck,
180 firing arch
1 Aftdeck,
180 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 0

BlackIron

Helm Type: Minor or Major Helm
Total Crew: 30
minimum crew: 20
Maneuverability: 2
Cargo: 10 tonnes
Movement: +2
length: 45 feet
width: 21 feet
Built by: Ubar
Health Levels: 11+10=21
landing Ground: Y
Landing Sea: Y
Light hardpoints: 4

2 Port side,
120 firing arch
2 Starboard,
120 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 1

1 Foredeck,
180 firing arch

Black Dragon

Helm Type: Major Helm
Total Crew: 50
minimum crew: 35
Maneuverability: 0
Cargo: 15 tonnes
Movement: +1
length: 75 feet
width: 36 feet
Built by: Ubar
Health Levels: 11+25=36
landing Ground: Y
Landing Sea: N
Light hardpoints: 6

3 Port side,
120 firing arch
3 Starboard,
120 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 4

1 Foredeck,
180 firing arch
1 Aftdeck,
180 firing arch
2 Port,
120 firing archt
2 Starboard,
120 firing arch

Known Tall ships

Knarr

Helm Type: Minor Helm
Total Crew: 8
minimum crew: 6
Maneuverability: 4
Cargo: 24 tonnes
Movement: +4
length: 54 feet
width: 15 feet
Built by: Many nations
Health Levels: 11+5=16
landing Ground: N
Landing Sea: Y (sea only)
Light hardpoints: 1

1 Foredeck,
180 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 0

Cog

Helm Type: Minor or Major Helm
Total Crew: 20
minimum crew: 15
Maneuverability: 2
Cargo: 120 tonnes
Movement: +2
length: 82 feet
width: 26 feet
Built by: Many nations
Health Levels: 11+20=31
landing Ground: N
Landing Sea: Y (sea only)
Light hardpoints: 8

4 Port side,
120 firing arch
4 Starboard,
120 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 2

2 Foredeck,
180 firing arch
1 Aftdeck,
180 firing arch

Galley

Helm Type: Major Helm
Total Crew: 300
minimum crew: 200
Maneuverability: 0
Cargo: 250-350 tonnes
Movement: +1
length: 150 feet
width: 56 feet
Built by: Many nations
Health Levels: 11+35=46
landing Ground: N
Landing Sea: Y (sea only)
Light hardpoints: 8

Hardpoints: 4 Port side,
120 firing arch
Hardpoints: 4 Starboard,
120 firing arch

Heavy hardpoints: 10

Hardpoints: 1 Foredeck,
180 firing arch
Hardpoints: 1 Aftdeck,
180 firing arch
Hardpoints: 4 Port,
120 firing archt
Hardpoints: 4 Starboard,
120 firing arch