Space Combat

The fathomless depths of space are dangerous to even the most experienced crews, but they can be deadly to those who wander the stars unprepared. Planet-crushing black holes, invisible radiation belts, and chaotic meteor storms are found in any system. But of all the hazards that you might encounter between the stars, hostile vessels are by far the most common. The following rules govern combat between starships—or in rare cases, between immense spacefaring creatures.

Ship Combat Roles

The actions crew members on a starship can take depend upon their roles. For most roles, multiple people can perform actions each round, but for other roles, only one person can fill that role and only one action for that role can be performed each round. Role actions can only happen in certain phases of the round. The available roles are listed below. You should declare your role when you board a ship (if you declare yourself a passenger, however, you take no special actions in combat unless you assume a role), though you can change your role in the heat of combat.

Captain

Your role in combat is about encouraging the crew while taunting enemies into making critical mistakes. A starship can have only one captain, and a character can assume that role only if it is currently vacant. The captain alone can act in any phase of combat.

Engineer

You work with your starship’s power core and engines to achieve maximum efficiency, grant extra power in times of need, and divert power to vital systems as necessary. You can also repair damaged systems. A starship can have any number of engineers. Engineer actions occur during the Engineering phase.

Gunner

You operate your starship’s various weapon systems, using them to neutralize or destroy enemy vessels. A starship can have at most one gunner (or gunner team) per weapon mount. A gunner acts during the Attack phase.

Pilot

You plot the course of the ship. Each starship has speed and maneuverability ratings, but you can push your starship beyond these boundaries with enough skill. A starship can have only one pilot, and a character can assume that role only if it is vacant. The pilot acts during the Operations phase of combat.

Science Officer

You use the starship’s computers, scanners, and other systems to identify threats, target foes, and navigate hazards. A starship can have any number of science officers. A science officer acts during the Operations phase of combat.

Large and Small Crews
A starship’s base frame determines the minimum and maximum number of crew members needed to operate that vessel. A starship without its minimum complement can’t be flown. However, when a large NPC starship with its full complement enters starship combat, each individual crew member doesn’t take a regular action—it would take hours to resolve a single round! In such cases, usually on Large or larger starships, most roles simulate entire teams of personnel. The number of crew members required to assist a single officer who wants to attempt a check in that role is listed after the role’s name in a starship stat block. This number varies between starships, and some vessels might have a crew large enough to allow multiple checks for a single role—for instance, a dreadnought might have several teams of engineers or gunners.

Actions for each role are documented on the Crew Actions Page.

Minor Actions

In the event that certain roles are left vacant, there are possible actions the ship itself can take in a crew member's place. The role noted must be vacant for the ship to take the action. The ship can only take 1 Minor Action per round. Drift - Pilot
Phase: Operations
The ship moves as if it rolled a 0 on it's Pilot Check, using its speed to break ties (faster ships move after slower ships). The ship can move at half its speed and operates as a maneuverability level higher than normal. You may spend a computer node's bonus to have the ship make this action for free and allow it to make abother minor action this round. Blind Shot - Gunner
Phase: Attack
The ship makes a Gunnery Check with one weapon. If a Computer Node bonus is available, the ship may use the bonus in this check. Target Scan - Science Officer
Phase: Operations
The ship uses its Sensors (the ship must have sensors to use this action) to aquire a target. The ship makes a Computers check as if it took the Lock On Science Action but only grants a +1 to Gunnery Checks this round on the target. If a Computer Node bonus is available, the ship may use the bonus in this check. Scramble - Science Officer
Phase: Operations
The ship uses its Sensors (the ship must have sensors to use this action) to interfere with enemy fire. The ship makes a Computers check as if it took the Jam Targetting Scanners Science Action but only grants a +1 to AC and TL this round. If a Computer Node bonus is available, the ship may use the bonus in this check.

Preparing for Starship Combat

Starship combat is played on a grid of hexes with figures representing the starship combatants. Unlike in ground combat where a grid or hex is a set distance measurement, the hexes here are abstract distances and just measured in numbers of hexes. Unless otherwise specified, ships take up 1 hex regardless of size.

Beginning Starship Combat

When the crew of a starship has hostile intentions toward another vessel, they go to their battle stations and activate their starship’s targeting systems and shields. This is clearly obvious to all other starships in the vicinity with working sensors, though there could still be a chance a hostile vessel can be talked down, if the GM allows it. In general, the GM decides when starship combat begins, where the combatants are, and which way their starships are facing.

Phases of Space Combat

Like combat between characters, starship combat occurs over a number of rounds until one side flees, surrenders, or is otherwise defeated. Unlike rounds in combat between characters, a round of starship combat doesn’t correlate to a specific amount of time. Each round of starship combat is divided up into three phases, resolved in order. Each character aboard a starship typically acts in only one of these phases, depending on his or her role on the starship. Once all of the phases have been resolved, if there are still combatants engaged in the fight, the next round begins, starting with a new engineering phase.

1. Engineering

The engineers on all ships (if present) each take an action to repair the starships’ systems or give them a boost. These actions occur simultaneously (taking effect at the end of the phase), so they can be resolved in any order.

2. Operations

Each starship’s pilot attempts a Piloting check. The ship whose pilot has the lowest result must move first, followed by the next lowest, until all starships have moved. This check is repeated each round during the operations phase, so the order of movement can change from round to round. If there is a tie, the pilot with the lowest modifier in the Piloting skill (DEX + Proficiency if applicable) must move his starship first. If there is still a tie, the two pilots in question should each roll another Piloting check and compare the results; the pilot with the lowest result moves first. During this phase, pilots can take certain actions to perform dangerous maneuvers as they move their starships. Also during this phase, any character taking on the role of science officer can use the starship’s systems to scan vessels or target foes. All science officers must act immediately before or after their starship’s pilot, but they can jointly decide the order they act.

Ships with No Pilots

If a starship has no one in the pilot role, that starship acts with a 0 for it's check and considers it's pilot skill mod as +0 for calculations like AC and TL. See the Drift Minor Action above for moving a ship without a pilot.

3. Attack

During the attack phase, gunners fire their starships’ weapons. Starships fire in the same order in which their pilots acted during that round’s Operations phase, but the effects of damage are not taken into account until the end of the phase, meaning that all starships can fire, even if they take enough damage to be disabled or destroyed during this phase. Return to Contents

Starship Movement

There are a variety of ways to maneuver a starship through the cold vastness of space. Unlike in battles between characters, starships face a specific direction, and this determines their firing arcs and shield quadrants, as well as their direction of movement.

HEX EDGES

The six edges of a hex in starship combat have different designations, related to the direction the starship in that hex is facing. The edge that the starship is facing is its forward edge, and its aft edge is opposite of that. The forward-port and forward starboard edges are the two edges adjacent to the starship’s forward edge, to its left and its right, respectively. The aft-port and aft-starboard edges are the two edges adjacent to the starship’s aft edge, to its left and its right, respectively.

Turns

While moving, a starship can make turns, altering its forward movement direction, firing arcs, and shield quadrants. One turn changes a starship’s forward facing by 60 degrees, or one side of a hex. Every round in which a starship turns, it must move a certain number of hexes before each turn, determined by its maneuverability (see the table below). A starship must move at least 1 hex to initiate a turn. For example, a ship with average maneuverability making two turns in a round must move at least 2 hexes before its first turn, and at least 2 more hexes before its second turn. The number of turns per round a starship can take is limited only by its speed and maneuverability. Turns don’t count against a starship’s movement speed. If a ship with average maneuverability has a speed of 8, it can usually turn a total of four times during a single round. A ship’s maneuverability also modifies Piloting checks for it.

Speed

A starship’s speed is the number of hexes it typically moves in a round. It can instead move fewer hexes than this amount, as determined by the pilot. This movement is in a straight line in the direction the starship is facing, though a starship’s facing can be altered while it moves by making turns (see below). A starship’s maximum speed modifies Piloting checks for that starship.

Perfect Maneuverability

If a starship has perfect maneuverability (the distance between turns is 0), the ship can move forward 1 hex and turn two times as a result (allowing it to turn around a single point). It must move forward the one hex to initiate the turn and cannot turn without moving anywhere.

Moving through Other Starships

Since the hexes in starship combat aren’t representative of three-dimensional distance, starships can move through hexes containing other starships, but they can’t end their movement there. If a starship moves through a hex containing an enemy starship, the enemy starship with at least on person in a gunner role can fire any one of its direct-fire weapons from any arc at the moving starship, targeting its Aft Quadrant. This free attack doesn’t benefit from any bonuses or additional abilities from other actions taken aboard the enemy starship, such as divert power or lock on. Any character currently in a gunner role can make this attack. If no one is designated as a gunner (often the case in starships with only one crew member), the enemy starship can’t make a free attack. A weapon used for this free attack can still be used as normal later in the round. Return to Contents

Attacking

Whenever one starship fires a weapon at another starship, that action is resolved with a gunnery check. Attacks are made during the attack phase of combat, in the order determined during the operations phase, but the damage and critical damage effects are applied after all of the attacks have been made (meaning every starship gets to attack, even if it would be destroyed or crippled by an attack that happened during the same attack phase). With only very rare exceptions, each of a starship’s weapons can be fired only once per round. You make an attack using the following procedure.

by Austin Graham

Range and Arc

First, determine the arc of attack. The attacking starship can fire a weapon against only ships in the same arc as that weapon. If the targeted starship is in a hex that lies in two arcs (the shaded hexes in the diagram), the gunner decides which arc’s weapons target it, but the same ship can’t be targeted by weapons in two arcs. Normally, if 2 shield arcs fall within your arc you can choose which arc is impacted by your attack. Should the target also be in a situation where the attack arc line falls between 2 of it's arcs, the impacted arc is determined as the one with the most hexes overlapping with the arc of the attacking ship. For example: if 2 ships are facing the same direction and the target is up 1, over 1 (on the line of Forward and Starboard) the targetted arc would be Port if the weapon used is in a Forward weapon, or Aft if it is a Starboard weapon. You may attack with a starship weapon past its range increment, however the gunnery check takes a cumulative –2 penalty for each 5 hexes over the range increment to reach the target. See Ship Weapons for more details on range.

by Austin Graham

Making a Gunnery Check

Gunnery checks are made for each weapon fired against a target (except for linked weapons, which are resolved using one action and a single gunnery check). Rarely, some feats or class / backgrounds grant the ability to add your proficiency bonus to Gunnery checks.

Gunnery Check = 1d20 + the gunner’s (DEX mod + Proficiency Bonus) or Pilot Skill modifier, whichever is higher + active bonuses from computer systems + bonuses from the captain and science officers + relevant penalties

Resolving Direct Fire Attacks

If you attack with a direct-fire weapon and the result of the gunnery check equals or exceeds the target’s Armor Class (AC), you hit the target and damage is determined as normal (see Damage below). A target’s AC is determined using the following formula.

AC = 10 + the pilot’s Piloting Skill Modifier + the ship’s armor bonus + modifier based on the ship’s size + bonuses and penalties from successful or failed stunts and actions

Resolving Tracking Weapon Attacks

If the attack is made with a tracking weapon such as a missile launcher and the result of the gunnery check equals or exceeds the target’s Target Lock (TL), the tracking weapon’s projectile moves its speed toward the target, making turns during this movement as needed (a projectile from a tracking weapon has perfect maneuverability). If it intercepts the target before it reaches the end of its movement, it explodes and deals damage as normal (see Damage below). If not, the projectile keeps it's initial value and is recompared to the TL value of the target this round. The target may buff it's TL value this round through various crew actions. If the result of a gunnery check for a tracking weapon is ever less than the target’s TL, the weapon’s projectile is destroyed and removed from play. A target’s TL is determined using the following formula.

TL = 10 + the pilot’s Piloting Skill Modifier + the ship’s bonus from defensive countermeasures + modifier based on the ship’s size + bonuses and penalties from successful or failed stunts and actions

Resolving Damage

Combat in space can be highly dangerous to the vessel and its crew. Once a starship has been damaged, critical systems might malfunction or shut down altogether, leaving its passengers without electricity, gravity, or even air. Such damage might also cause a starship to lose its sensors, propulsion, or weapons systems, which could spell defeat during an active engagement.

Resolving against Shields

When a gunner hits with an attack, the gunner rolls the damage dealt by the weapon he or she is using and determines which quadrant of the targeted starship is hit. A starship’s shield quadrants are the same as its firing arcs. Damage is first applied to any shields the target starship has in the quadrant hit by the attack, depleting a number of Shield Points equal to the amount of damage dealt. If that quadrant’s Shield Points reach 0, that shield is entirely depleted and any excess damage is applied to the target starship’s Hull Points. If the ship doesn’t have shields or if its shields in that quadrant have already been depleted, apply all damage directly to the target’s Hull Points.

Factoring in Damage Threshold

If a starship has a Damage Threshold, any attack that would deal damage to its Hull Points equal to or less than this Damage Threshold fails to damage the ship’s Hull Points. If the damage is greater than the Damage Threshold, the full amount of damage is dealt to the ship’s Hull Points.

Disabling and Destroying a Ship

If a ship is reduced to 0 or fewer Hull Points, it is disabled and it floats in its current direction of travel at a rate of half its speed until it is repaired, rescued, or destroyed. Crew members aboard such ships are not in immediate danger unless their lifesupport system is wrecked, but they might eventually die from starvation and thirst if they have no way to repair the ship. If a ship ever takes damage that exceeds twice its Hull Points, it is destroyed and can’t be repaired. All systems stop functioning, and the hull is compromised. The crew might initially survive, but without protection, they won’t live very long.

Critical Damage

Starship systems can take critical damage, causing them to become less functional and eventually stop working altogether. Critical damage is scored whenever a gunnery check results in a natural 20 on the die and damage is dealt to the target ship’sHull Points. If the attack’s damage only reduces a starship’s Shield Points, no critical damage occurs. An attack of a natural 19 or 20 on the die is considered a critical hit if the target starship was the subject of a successful "Target System" Science Officer action. Critical damage is also scored whenever the target starship’s hull takes damage that causes its total amount of damage taken to exceed its Critical Threshold or a multiple of that threshold. For example, a starship with 100 Hull Points and a Critical Threshold of 20 takes critical damage each time its total amount of Hull Point damage exceeds 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 points (and so on). Alternatively, you can track this status by current Hull Points using the inverse order. So critical damage would occur when your ship's Hull Points drop below: 80, 60, 40, 20, 0, -20, etc An individual attack does not need to deal more than 20 damage to score critical damage against this starship; it just needs to be the attack that pushes the starship’s total damage above a multiple of its Critical Threshold. A starship can take critical damage even when its total Hull Points are below 0.

Critical Conditions

When critical damage is scored, the attacking PC should roll on the table below to randomly determine which of the target starship’s key systems is hit; that system gains a critical damage condition (see below), with the effect listed on the table. If the system isn’t currently critically damaged, it gains the glitching condition. If it is critically damaged again, its critical condition changes by one step of severity (glitching becomes malfunctioning; malfunctioning becomes wrecked). These conditions and their effects on crew actions are explained in Critical Damage Conditions. To determine which system is affected, roll d% and consult the table below. If a system already has the wrecked condition (or in the case of the weapons array, if all weapon arcs have the wrecked condition), apply its critical damage to the next system down on the chart. If you reach the bottom of the chart, instead deal damage to one of the crew (as described below).

Glitching
A glitching system isn’t operating at peak performance. Crew actions involving the system (except the hold it together and patch engineer actions) take a –2 penalty.

Malfunctioning
A malfunctioning system is difficult to control. Crew actions involving the system (except the hold it together and patch engineer actions) take a –4 penalty. Also, crew members can’t take push actions using that system. If the power core is malfunctioning, all actions aboard the starship not involving the power core take a –2 penalty; this penalty stacks with penalties from critical damage conditions affecting other systems.

Wrecked
A wrecked system is minimally functional. Crew actions involving the system (except the hold it together and patch engineer actions and minor crew actions) automatically fail. If the power core is wrecked, all crew actions aboard the starship not involving the power core take a –4 penalty; this penalty stacks with penalties from critical damage conditions affecting other systems.

D%	System	Effect
1–10	Life support	Condition applies to all captain actions
11–30	Sensors	Condition applies to all science officer actions
31–60	Weapons Array	Randomly determine one arc containing weapons; condition applies to all gunner actions using weapons in that arc (a turret counts as being in all arcs)
61–80	Engines	Condition applies to all pilot actions
81–100	Power Core	Condition applies to all engineer actions except hold it together and patch; a malfunctioning or wrecked power core affects other crew members’ actions

Crew Damage

If the starship’s core has the wrecked condition and further critical damage is dealt to the core, no critical damage conditions are applied to the ship. Instead, one of the crew (determined randomly) is injured, taking an amount of Hit Point damage equal to the Hull Point damage dealt by the attack (without the increase for starship weapons against humanoid targets). That crew member can attempt a DC 20 Dexterity save to take only half damage.

Repairing Damage

When a starship combat encounter is over, the crew members can repair damage done to their starship, provided it hasn’t been destroyed and they haven’t been captured! You can remove the critical damage condition from a system by taking 10 minutes and succeeding at an Engineering check. The DC depends on the severity of the condition (DC 15 for glitching, DC 20 for malfunctioning, and DC 25 for wrecked). The system is no longer critically damaged (it has no critical damage conditions) and can function as normal. You can lower the DC by 2 for every additional hour spent fixing the system. Repairing damage to the hull (restoring lost Hull Points) is more difficult. You must first stop the starship completely, usually at a safe location (for instance, a world with a nonhostile atmosphere or a dock on a space station), and the repairing character or characters must have access to the outside of the hull. In most civilized places, the crew can pay mechanics to repair the starship; the cost and time needed are up to the GM. If the crew is on its own in uncharted territory, it can still repair the starship’s hull. Doing so costs 10EC per point of damage to be repaired and requires 5 hours of work regardless of the number of points repaired. A character who succeeds at an Engineering check (DC = 12 + 2 × the starship’s complexity modifier) can cut either the cost or the time in half. For every 10 points by which he exceeds the DC, he can reduce one of these factors by half (or by half again), to a minimum of 1 EC per point of damage and 1 hour. Any number of allies can use the aid another action to assist with this Engineering check.

Shields

Shields regenerate Shield Points at a set rate (depending on the type of shield) as long as the starship’s power core isn’t wrecked. You can double this recharge rate for 10 minutes by taking 1 minute and succeeding at an Engineering check (DC = 12 + 2 × the starship’s complexity modifier). Any penalties from critical damage conditions apply to this check.

Other Actions in Starship Combat
While your role determines what actions you can take during a starship combat encounter, on occasion you might want to perform some other kind of action, such as casting a spell or using a class feature. The GM has the final say on what kind of regular actions you can take, but generally, you can take only a move or standard action in a single round, and you can take only a minor crew action during that round. You aren’t assumed to be adjacent to any of your allies during starship combat, so the GM might also decide that you need to take an additional round to get close enough to an ally to affect him with an ability or spell. Any such action is resolved at the beginning of the round, before the engineering phase.

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