RPG Resources for Ships

Deck

Most squares of the ship are unobstructed deck, imposing no penalties to movement or combat (unless the ship is listing, rolling, or taking green water over the deck).

• Deck, Cluttered: Any square obstructed with various nautical gear—capstans, coils of line or chain, casks, cargo, small boats, stays, or rigging is considered cluttered. Cluttered deck provides cover and increases the DC of Tumble and Move Silently checks by 2.
• Deck, Raised: Many ships feature raised decks at the forecastle and stern. The raised deck is normally 8 to 10 feet above the main deck, reached by a set of short, steep steps.
• Deck, Slippery: A deck wet from ocean spray, ice, blood, or for some other reason becomes slippery. It costs 2 squares of movement to enter a square of slippery deck, and the DC of Balance and Tumble checks increases by 5. A DC 10 Balance check is required to run or charge over slippery deck.
• Hatch: A hatch is an opening in the deck leading below. A small hatch has a ladder (a short, steep staircase really) and is 1 square across, while a cargo hatch is 2 squares wide and usually doesn’t have a ladder.
• Mast: A ship’s mast is anywhere from 1 to 3 feet thick at the deck level, depending on the size of the ship. A creature standing in the same square as a mast gains a +2 bonus to AC and a +1 bonus on Reflex saves (these bonuses don’t stack with cover bonuses from other sources). The presence of a mast doesn’t otherwise affect a creature’s fighting space, because it’s assumed that the creature is using the mast to its advantage. A typical mast has AC 4, hardness 5, and 150 hp. A DC 20 Climb check is needed to climb a mast.
• Water: Any square that isn’t actually part of the ship is water. Vessels of Huge size or smaller have decks that are no more than 5 feet above the water. Gargantuan vessels have decks 10 feet above the water. Colossal vessels have decks 15 to 25 feet above the water.
• Stealth and Detection on Deck: Characters on the deck of a ship automatically spot other characters on deck unless the other character is hiding. The deck of a ship provides plenty of both cover and concealment, so hiding is not all that difficult. Characters encountering creatures in the water are entitled to Spot checks to notice the presence of creatures at or near the surface at a distance of 3d6×10 feet (although very large creatures can be spotted considerably farther away).

Combat

The best way to keep your D&D game running smoothly during a ship-to-ship encounter is to make any naval battle in which the PCs participate into a boarding action as quickly as you can. Unless the PCs have enough magical firepower at their disposal to destroy a ship before it can close, the fight will come down to a furious melee across blood-slick decks anyway—so the faster you can get to this decisive stage of the encounter, the better.
The narrative rules presented here presume the following: the skill of the characters controlling the ship is the most important factor in the ship’s maneuverability; exact maneuvers don’t matter, only the range to the other vessel and the heading of each ship; powerful characters or monsters are the most decisive weapons any ship possesses.
In a narrative combat, you determine initiative normally. However, ships don’t move on the turns of specific characters in the initiative order—instead, at the end of each round you will update the ships’ positions elative to each other. In effect, you can assume that over a single round the character (or characters) engaged in steering or otherwise controlling a ship perform numerous small tasks and adjustments that have a cumulative effect tallied at the end of the round.
The movement step at the end of the round follows all character actions for the round, and consists of the following steps:

1. Check for advantage, if necessary.
2. Opposing ship declares heading and speed.
3. Advantaged ship declares heading and speed.
4. Ships Move. Adjust the ships’ range based on the declared headings.
5. Opposing ship resolves special maneuvers, if any.
6. Advantaged ship resolves special maneuvers, if any.
7. Round ends.

The Advantage

During any naval battle, one vessel or the other possesses the advantage. The advantage might reflect a ship in a superior sailing position (upwind of its foe, for example), a nimble ship that enjoys more room to maneuver in restricted waters, or simply a vessel handled by a more experienced captain. Determining Advantage: At the beginning of a naval encounter, the commanders of each vessel involved make opposed advantage checks to determine who holds the advantage at the outset of the battle (the captain with the best check modifier wins ties). An advantage check is a Profession (sailor) check, modified by the vessel’s shiphandling bonus (see page 97).
Keeping Advantage: Once advantage has been established, it remains with the winner until one of the following events takes place, at which point a new advantage check is made.

• The commander with advantage does not spend a standard action to actively command his vessel.
• The vessel with the advantage is holed.
• The vessel with the advantage has a rigging section destroyed.
• The vessel without the advantage successfully performs the come about special maneuver.
• The vessel with the advantage fails on an attempt to perform the grapple, ram, or shear special maneuver.

Holding the advantage means that you get to choose your maneuvers in response to your adversary’s movements. You are also more effective at closing or opening the range.

Actions

Most of the characters on board a ship in a fight are free to act as they choose. They can move about the decks, cast spells, make missile attacks, wait for an opportunity to board, or do whatever they think best during their turn each round. However, some individuals on board a ship must devote some amount of their actions each round toward controlling the ship.
Captain, Master, or Commander: The individual in command of the vessel must use a standard action each round to direct the actions of the crew and observe the enemy’s actions. No specific skill check is necessary. If the commander fails to use at least one standard action in the course of the round to direct the ship’s movement, he cannot direct the helmsman to change heading or the watch to change speed, or order the ship to perform any special maneuvers. In addition, if he currently holds the advantage, his failure to command means that the opposing captain gains a new advantage check in the movement step at the end of the round (as long as the opposing captain did use a standard action to command).
Helmsman: The individual steering the vessel must use a standard action each round to make course changes as directed by the commander. If the helmsman fails to use a standard action to steer, the ship cannot make heading changes in the movement step following the current round.
Oarsmen: A ship being rowed requires that the oarsmen use full-round actions to man the oars. If the minimum number of rowers necessary do not spend their rounds rowing, the ship’s speed falls to zero and it cannot make heading changes in the movement step following the current round.
The Watch: Every vessel has some number of sailors who must spend a standard action each round operating the vessel—keeping the sails in trim and adjusting the rigging. If the minimum number of crew needed on watch do not use standard actions to attend to the ship, the vessel cannot make speed changes in the movement step following the current round.

MANEUVERING

Your ship’s position relative to the enemy vessel has only five significant components:

1. the range between your ships
2. your heading
3. your speed
4. the enemy’s heading
5. the enemy's speed

Range The range between two ships dueling each other at sea is crucially important in determining what spells, weapons, and tactics they can use against each other. Thrown spears or close-range spells pose little threat to enemy crewmen on a ship 500 feet away. Determining just how close you want to get to an enemy ship (and how close you want to let them get to you) is a complicated tactical challenge for any captain.
At the end of each round of combat, update the range based on each ship’s heading and speed. Two ships closing on each other at a combined speed of 60 feet per round will naturally reduce the range by 60 feet each round until they collide or pass each other, at which point they’ll open the range by 60 feet per round unless one or the other decides to come about.
Opening Range: If you don’t know what range to set for the beginning of the battle based on the circumstances of the encounter, you can assume that a typical battle begins at a range of 2d6+2 × 100 feet.
Heading Basically, there are three directions a ship can be facing relative to the enemy vessel: closing, holding, or opening.
Closing: The ship is generally pointed at the enemy and is trying to get closer. Weapons that bear forward can be fired at the enemy. Enemy attacks target the bow of the ship.
Holding: The ship is maintaining its position. It might be drifting in the water or sailing along some course that doesn’t really close or open the range, simply maneuvering at a relatively constant distance from the enemy ship.
You can choose whether your bow, stern, port side, or starboard side faces the other vessel. Weapons that bear in that direction can fire at the enemy, and enemy attacks target that part of your ship. enemy’s speed.
Opening: The ship is pointed away from the enemy and is trying to open the range between the two vessels. Weapons that bear aft can fire at the enemy. Enemy attacks target your ship’s stern.

Speed

You can set your ship’s speed at any value up to your ship’s maximum speed based on the current conditions.
Oared vessels can assume any speed they like from round to round, limited only by their maximum speed, provided there are sufficient rowers to move the vessel.
Sailing ships do not accelerate or decelerate with the same ease. A sailing vessel can only change its speed by 10 feet per turn (up to its maximum current speed based on the wind and current). It must have a sufficient number of sailors on watch who use actions to help adjust rigging, raise or furl sails, and attend to other such tasks. A sailing ship’s maximum speed is based on its movement rate and the strength of the wind and current.
Sprinting: The rowers of an oared vessel can pick up the pace for a quick sprint but risk exhaustion soon afterward. An oared vessel can add +50% to its speed for up to 10 rounds, but after such a sprint the rowers are fatigued and the ship reduced to half speed for as long as the rowers are fatigued.

Damaging, Sinking, and Repair

Damaging a ship means damaging one or more of its hull sections or rigging sections. A ship can accumulate several different states of damage, as shown below: Damaged: One hull section is reduced to 50% of its hit points or less. A ship that is damaged loses 5 feet from its base speed.
Severely Damaged: Two or more hull sections are reduced to 50% of their hit points or less. A ship that is severely damaged loses 10 feet from its base speed (this is not cumulative with the speed lost from being damaged). Holed: One hull section is destroyed (reduced to 0 hit points). When a hull section is destroyed, all hull sections adjacent to that section are weakened, and immediately reduced to 50% of their normal hit points in the following round. This collateral damage can cascade across a ship from round to round and section to section, possibly destroying more sections in succession if they were sufficiently damaged to begin with.
A holed ship is severely damaged, since the destruction of a section and the damage dealt to the neighboring sections meet the criteria for that condition as well.
Each time a ship is holed, it must make a sinking check (see below). A vessel with at least 25% of its sections destroyed has been demolished, and sinks immediately.
Rigging Damaged: If a section of the ship’s rigging is reduced to 50% of its hit points or less, the rigging is damaged. The ship loses 5 feet from its base speed. If two or more sections of rigging are damaged, the wind is treated as one category lighter than its actual strength; the ship can’t capture the wind as well as it should.
Dismasted: If a rigging section is destroyed, the ship is dismasted. Unlike hull damage, rigging damage does not spread to adjacent sections. If the vessel possesses only one mast, it can no longer sail. If it possesses two or three masts, its base sailing speed is reduced by 10 feet (this is not cumulative with the penalty for damaged rigging). A dismasted ship takes a –4 penalty on ship handling checks if it is missing 1 out of 3 masts, or a –8 penalty if it is missing 1 out of 2 or 2 out of 3 masts. A sailing ship that has been completely de-masted typically becomes a derelict.

Sinking

When a ship is holed (a hull section destroyed), it is at risk of sinking. Minor damage to the hull can produce leaks and a fair amount of nonthreatening flooding, but a destroyed section represents a mortal threat to a ship.
Each time a ship is holed, the commander must make a sinking check. This is a Profession (sailor) check modified by the ship’s seaworthiness rating. The DC is 15, +4 for each hole after the first. For example, the sinking check DC for a ship holed for the third time is 23.
On a successful check, the ship is not in immediate danger of going down. However, the captain must make a new sinking check 1 hour later, and once per hour after that until the damage is repaired or the ship sinks. Some captains deliberately ground their ships in such straits, given the opportunity, or else use the time to launch the lifeboats.
On a failed sinking check, the ship begins to sink. A ship normally requires d% minutes to sink, but if the ship lost 25% or more of its hull sections, reduce this to 1d6 minutes.

Repairs

Controlling damage and patching or repairing damaged hull sections is a crucial task on board any ship.
Repairing a Damaged Section: Repairing a damaged section requires a Craft check (carpentry for wooden ships, armorsmithing for metal ships, or sailmaking for rigging) and 1 minute of uninterrupted work. For every point by which the check result exceeds 19, 1 hit point is restored to the damaged section. Only the character leading the repairs on the section makes a skill check; any other people assisting use the aid another action to increase his or her Craft check result. Normally, a crew of three to five carpenters and assistants tackles any minor damage of this sort.
Shoring a Weakened Section: A section that lost hit points due to the destruction of an adjacent section can be shored up. Shoring requires 1 minute of uninterrupted work and a DC 25 Craft check. If successful, half the hit points lost due to the destruction of the adjacent section are repaired. For example, if a ship has 60 hit points per hull section, a weakened section loses 30 hit points when the section next to it is destroyed. A successful shoring effort repairs 15 hit points, restoring it to 45 hit points. From that point on, it must be repaired normally.
Repairing a Destroyed Section: A section that has been destroyed is more difficult to repair, requiring time and money. The cost of the repairs in gold pieces is equal to the number of destroyed sections divided by the total number of sections times half the ship’s cost. Each repair crew makes a DC 20 Craft check once per day; on a successful check, the crew repairs 100 gp worth of damage. The crew repairs 200 gp worth of damage if they have access to a dock or small repair shop, or 500 gp worth of damage if the vessel is in a large shipyard