Ship Combat     Ships and airships follow identical rules for combat (with some exceptions involving altitude for airships). Ship battles are much slower-paced than personal or vehicle combat, and involve comparatively huge distances. Each ship combat round lasts for 1 minute (12 normal combat rounds). Typically, ship combat is either an effort to destroy or escape another vessel, or an attempt to disable a ship and board it afterwards. If a ship is boarded or strafed by aircraft, ship combat rounds and normal combat rounds may be occurring simultaneously. Normal combat rounds will normally be resolved after the ship combat round's movement phase, but before ship combat attacks.

Ship Combat Turns     Like characters in normal combat turns, each ship takes part in a movement phase, then each gets a turn consisting of free actions, minor actions, and/or a major action. All ships resolve their movement phase before any ship does actions. Unlike normal combat, each ship also resolves its major action simultaneously after all other free and minor actions, and damage does not actually affect any ship until the end of the round. This means that turn order doesn't matter, and that it is possible for two well-armed ships to destroy each other in the same round.

Ship Stats     All ships have stats relevant to combat:

Speed (SPD)     Ships have a SPD stat directly comparable to the SPD of characters and vehicles. Like characters and vehicles, this is the stat they roll on to move in combat.

Maneuvering (MNV)     MNV describes a ship's turn rate and ability to begin turning quickly. It is referenced by certain Vehicle Abilities, but most importantly, it affects a ship's ability to move and fire effectively in the same round. Ships list a base MNV (bMNV), which may be increased by the Abilities of the helmsman.

Damage Control (DCN)     DCN describes a ship's resilience and ability to resist catastrophic damage. Certain degrees of failure require ships to roll on this stat to avoid a terrible fate. Ships list a base DCN (bDCN), which may be increased by the Abilities of the crew and engineering overseer.

Main Battery Level (MBL)     MBL describes the ship's ability to accurately bring its main battery weapons to bear on a target. Ships list a base MBL (bMBL) which describes the quality of its weapons, sensors, and fire-control systems; Abilities of the gunnery overseer may further increase MBL.

Point Defense Level (PDL)     PDL describes the ship's ability to quickly and accurately fire its point-defense weapons. Ships list a base PDL (bPDL) which describes the quality of its weapons, sensors, and fire-control systems; Abilities of the weapons crew and gunnery overseer may further increase PDL.

Spirit (SPR)     SPR describes the user-friendliness and comfort of the ship, and beyond that, the crew's morale in general. It tends to decay on long voyages, but is bolstered by certain Abilities and custom rooms. In combat, Spirit can be used to gain a reactive +TN to any of the ship's rolls in an identical fashion to characters using Willpower (see Stats & Rolling). Spirit can only be used in this way once every 4 hours.

Power Requirements     In addition to the insendite engines that power a ship's normal systems, fighting ships include volatite generators for weapons and other energy-intensive devices. This system is powered by greater volatite crystals, which are larger, more efficient versions of standard volatite crystals that can only be used in ship-grade generators. Each crystal weighs 100 pounds, costs 1000 coins, and holds 1000 charge. Multiple crystals can be loaded in the generator and used sequentially, meaning it is not necessary to spend time "reloading" the generator or tracking separate crystals.

    Ships list the charge generation that they provide, which refers to the maximum charge the ship can extract from volatite per ship combat round (1 minute). In other words, if the ship has a charge generation of 1,200, you cannot expend more than 1,200 volatite charge per ship combat turn. Certain Vehicle Abilities allow an engineering overseer to temporarily increase charge generation during battle.

Armor Ranges     All ships have an armor range, which works the same way as armor ranges for characters and vehicles.

    Ships also have an internal armor range. This is the armor range used whenever the ship is hit with damage from within the ship (for example, from bombs set by characters inside). The type of failure inflicted by internal damage depends on where the characters who caused the damage are located (for example, if enemy characters get into the engine room, any damage they do there will inflict Engineering Failures).

Crew    All ships require a certain number of engine and weapon crew, which normally consist of a large number of hired crew. Crew can be reassigned as a free action. All crew must have the relevant competency Ability from the Study of Vehicles.

Engine Crew     Ships require a certain number of engine crew in order to move and maneuver optimally. If a ship's current engine crew is less than its engine crew requirement, its SPD is proportionally decreased. For example, a ship that is down to 40% of its engine crew is reduced to 40% of its normal SPD. A character with any degree of Perception, Core, or Hand/Arm Injury cannot function as engine crew, nor can a character with 3 or more degrees of encumbrance.

    If a ship is propelled by sails, this crew mans the sails. They can be referred to as sail crew, but follow the same rules as engine crew for simplicity's sake.

Weapons Crew     Ships require a certain number of weapons crew in order to operate its weapons. If a ship's current weapons crew is less than its weapons crew requirement, the use of some weapons batteries or point-defense weapons will be lost. The ship will list the crew requirement of individual weapons batteries; partially-crewed batteries will inflict a proportionally lesser amount of damage, as well as ammo/charge (drive is unchanged). A character with any degree of Perception, Core, or Hand/Arm Injury cannot function as weapons crew, nor can a character with 3 or more degrees of encumbrance.

Overseers    In addition to a large number of crew, all ships also have stations for overseers (a term which replaced the Imperial Age's "bridge officer"). Overseers monitor ship systems and issue orders from stations typically located on the ship's bridge. All ships require at least a helmsman; additional overseers may be optional to enhance the ship, or required by the ship's technological competence requirements. Some ships do not have certain overseer stations, while others have multiple stations of a single type. Overseers must be competent at their station via Overseer Competency or Naval Mentor (Vehicles).

    Regardless of position or which player is rolling on behalf of the ship, no character's Willpower or expertise re-rolls can be applied to a roll on one of the ship's stats (unless otherwise stated by an Ability). However, they can be applied to the rolls for any relevant Vehicle Ability being used by the character.

    Overseers can swap stations at the beginning of a ship combat round without disrupting the ship, provided the incoming character is close by. However, no Vehicle Ability that entails an expenditure of insight can be used if this is the overseer's first round on their station.

Helm     A ship's helm station controls the movement of the ship. Without a helmsman, a ship has 0 SPD and automatically fails all SPD rolls. Certain Vehicle Abilities allow the helmsman to enhance the ship's maneuvers. If the helmsman is a PC, that player rolls all SPD and MNV rolls for the ship.

Command     The command station may or may not be occupied by the ship's legal captain or owner (naval traditions in this regard vary widely, especially amongst adventuring groups). Regardless, the individual chosen to man this station has final authority during battle. The command station has little or no direct control over the ship's systems. However, many powerful Vehicle Abilities are usable only at the command station, where a character can maintain situational awareness without the distraction of monitoring detailed systems.

    The Command station can be left unmanned without adding negative effects; captains short on overseers or without dedicated command Abilities often man a different station.

Engineering     A ship's engineering overseer issues orders to the ship's engine crew. Powered ships can still move without an engineering overseer (provided the engines have no tech competence requirement), but must add 1 Hindrance to all SPD and MNV rolls. Certain Vehicle Abilities allow engineering overseers to increase the effectiveness of the ship's power generators (if applicable). Finally, engineering overseers control any ship device designated "Engineering." If the engineering overseer is a PC, that player rolls all DCN rolls for the ship.

    Tech competence requirements for engines and engineering devices must be satisfied by the engineering overseer.

Gunnery     A ship's gunnery overseer issues orders to the ship's weapons crew. Ships can still fire without a gunnery overseer (provided the weapons have no tech competence requirement), but must add 1 Hindrance to all offense rolls. Certain Vehicle Abilities allow gunnery overseers to increase the effectiveness of the ship's weapons. Gunnery overseers also control any ship device designated "Gunnery." If the gunnery overseer is a PC, that player rolls all offense rolls for the ship.

    Tech competence requirements for weapons batteries and gunnery devices must be satisfied by the gunnery overseer.

Technical     A ship's technical overseer controls certain ship systems not assigned to another station. They control any ship device designated "Technical," and satisfy those devices' tech competence requirements.

Multiple Stations     Some ships have multiple stations of the same type; such ships allow multiple overseers to contribute relevant Vehicle Abilities for that type of station at the same time. Vehicle Abilities will specify whether or not their effects stack if used by multiple overseers simultaneously. There are never multiple Helmsman or Command stations.

    Additionally, all the overseers may combine their tech competencies to satisfy any requirement associated with that station. Their degrees of competency do not stack, but a device's requirements can be met by multiple overseers. For example, two overseers with Diagnostics: 1 will not meet a requirement of Diagnostics: 2. But if one of them also has a competency of Adamantology: 1 and the other has Crystallurgy: 1, they will satisfy the requirements of a device that requires both Adamantology: 1 and Crystallurgy: 1.

    Some ships have stations listed as Variable. These stations can be changed to function as either Gunnery, Engineering, or Technical. The station can only be set to 1 type at a time, and changing the station's type renders it inoperative for 4 hours while the relevant crew reconfigures the ship's systems.

Defense     Like vehicles, ships do not make defense rolls. They are hit by any valid attack that passes its offense roll, but do not receive critical hits (though there are other ways for an opposing ship to attack specific systems). Any ranged attacker outside the ship that is not another ship (for example, a strafing aircraft) may freely choose the type of failure inflicted by its damage on any hit, as ships are immense targets.

Ranges     As with characters in normal combat, the exact positions of ships in combat are not tracked. Distances between ships are described in one of four ranges, which are separate from the ranges of normal combat:

    If ships intend to battle each other, it is not necessary to begin using combat rules until they are within range of the longest-range weapon that will be fired. Poor weather may limit the maximum range at which ships can be seen.

    Unless otherwise stated, all ranges in this chapter refer to these ship combat ranges, not normal combat ranges.

Movement     During a ship's movement phase, it may choose a movement goal - either closing distance with another ship, increasing distance, or trying to maintain the same distance - or choose to continue a previous goal. It then rolls a d20 on SPD. If successful, it applies 1 success to the goal; if it succeeds by 20 or more, it counts 2 successes. Assuming the other ship is not moving, the amount of successes required to move from one range to another is:

If one ship has a competing movement goal with another - for example, one ship attempting to close while the other attempts to increase range - the ship with more successes instead has its successes canceled by the other ship's rolls. In other words, a success only counts if not countered by the other ship's success. If one ship has the same movement goal with another - for example, both ships attempting to close distance - both apply successes to the same goal. If one ship is trying to maintain the current range, its successes cancel those of the other ship, but are ignored if the other ship does not succeed.

    If there are multiple ships, the GM will determine which ones can reasonably counter the roll successes of others. For example, if a ship is surrounded by multiple other ships, increasing range from one will decrease the range to another.

    Remember that all ships complete their movement phase before the round moves on into attacks or other major actions.

Movement Tactics     Not all movement is described solely by the SPD roll to change range. Regardless of whether a ship chooses a movement goal to roll on SPD for, a ship must also first choose one of five movement tactics at the beginning of the round:

    The effects of all movement tactics may be adjusted by the helmsman's Vehicle Abilities.

Ramming & Boarding     If a ship begins the round within short range of another ship and uses the Full Speed Ahead tactic, it may attempt to ram or board that ship. This takes the place of a normal movement goal, but requires the same d20 roll on SPD. The other ship may roll d6 on SPD to evade this attempt. If it fails this SPD roll and ends the round's movement phase still within short range of the first ship, the ramming or boarding attempt succeeds. Characters may move from one ship's top deck to the other for 30 seconds (4 turns); if the ship succeeded on a boarding attempt last turn as well, characters have a full minute (12 turns) to board. All ramming attempts allow simultaneous boarding, but not all boarding attempts are also rams.

    Whenever one ship rams another, each ship takes damage equal to 200 times the ramming ship's SPD. If both ships successfully attempted to ram each other (that is, both succeeded on their d20 rolls on SPD), each ship takes damage equal to 200 times the sum of both ships' SPD. Damage from ramming always inflicts Hull Failures; resolve it after weapons damage. Armor has no effect against this damage.

    If both ships are attempting to board one another, only one needs to succeed on its d20 roll. If both ships want to board but only one wants to ram, the other may roll its d6 on SPD to evade only the ram.

    Submerged submarines and airships in flight cannot board or ram surface ships, and vice versa. All vessels must have matching altitude (see below).

    Characters on ships which fail an attempt to board might have their own methods of quickly moving over; typically, ship combat short range is equivalent to 4 or 5 zones of character combat distance.

Matching Altitude     It is not necessary to track exact altitude numbers or ranges. Instead, altitude is considered to be either matching or non-matching between two ships.

    Gravnet airships all have similarly low above-ground altitude limits, and can easily match altitude with one another for the purpose of boarding and ramming. They will typically be lower than liftgas airships. Both will be significantly higher than surface ships, which in turn are notably higher than submarines. For all these reasons, liftgas airships, gravnet airships, surface ships, and submarines are all normally considered to have matching altitude only with each other. Liftgas airships may even have non-matching altitude with each other, unless terrain has forced both of them to the extremes of their ceiling. Matching altitude is required for ramming or boarding attempts, and non-matching altitude has implications for certain weapons battery tags (see below).

    Ships are typically either inconvenienced by the prospect of matching altitude with a normally non-matching ship, or are unable to do so. Submarines may easily match altitude with each other while submerged; they must surface to match altitude with a surface ship, and gravnet airships must water-land to match a surface ship. Gravnet airships are unable to match with unwilling liftgas airships, except when terrain and ceiling are hampering the latter. Liftgas airships cannot match surface ships, but have an easier time matching with each other or with gravcore airships; however, if the altitude difference is significant, this may take more time than the typical ship combat. A high-ceiling liftgas airship takes around an hour to go from sea level to its maximum altitude, making such changes more a prelude to combat than a part of it. Extreme differences in liftgas airship altitude may prohibit them from closing to short range.

Landed Airships     Gravnet airships that land in the water function as surface ships, but have their SPD, MNV, and DCN reduced to 50%. Entering or leaving the water is a major action for them.

    Any type of airship may land on solid ground, but only in TE4 or better (see Terrain). Landing in combat is a process action, rolled on MNV as a major action every round, with a point goal of 30. Taking off is a major action. Airships on the ground never match altitude with flying airships. Weapons batteries tagged Ventral cannot be used. The ship always counts as using the Full Stop movement tactic.

Battery Attacks     A ship's main weapons are organized into batteries, each of which consists of multiple weapons of the same type. A ship may have multiple batteries if it has multiple types of main weapon - for example, one battery might excel at long range or drive, while the other might be better for overwhelming energy shields at short range. As a single major action, a ship may attack with all of its batteries. Each battery is considered a separate attack, thus each is resolved one at a time. Multiple batteries may be directed at multiple targets, but all weapons in a given battery must fire at the same target. A ship may fire only a portion of a battery to save charge. Batteries will list damage, drive, and charge/ammo consumption for the battery as a whole over the course of 1 ship combat round (1 minute). Partially-crewed batteries will inflict a proportionally reduced amount of damage, for a reduced amount of ammo/charge. Partially-crewed batteries must also add 1 Hindrance to offense rolls, regardless of the percentage of crew remaining.

Each battery also lists offense rolls in a format like d20/d12/X. This refers to the offense roll on MBL used at short/medium/long ship combat ranges. An X indicates a range at which the battery may not attack. One offense roll is made for the entire battery, and covers the entire ship combat round. Each battery must roll separately.

Attacking Other Ships     If a ship attacks another ship (or another similarly large target that follows ship combat rules), a successful offense roll allows the ship to fire the weapons battery for 1 ship combat round (unless the weapons output is lessened voluntarily or by running out of charge/ammo). Remember that other ships (or the firing ship) might add Hindrance to the offense roll via movement tactics. Unlike normal combat, a ship does not fire weapons upon a failed offense roll; it is simply unable to achieve a firing solution.

    Even on a successful offense roll, a large portion of the shots fired will miss the target ship due to the huge distances involved. By default, a successful offense roll hits the target with only 1/10 of the battery's damage. If the roll succeeds by 10 or more, this is increased to 1/3 damage. Only if the offense roll succeeds by 20 or more will the battery inflict 100% damage. If the ship is trying to save charge or ammo, it can elect not to fire the battery this round if the offense roll is deemed insufficiently successful.

    For ships with energy weapons, the listed damage for a full round of fire will be much greater than the listed drive. This is because the damage occurs over the course of many shots. Do not adjust a battery's drive as a result of partial energy shielding or the reduced damage from lesser roll successes or partial crew; whatever shots hit the ship do so at the listed drive value.

Which batteries' attacks are resolved first are chosen by the firing ship, even though all weapons are ostensibly firing at once. For example, to represent tactical timing of low-yield Exuro shots to weaken a ship's energy shields for larger Exuros with higher drive, a ship might want to resolve the smaller weapons' battery attack first. If multiple allied ships are attacking the same target, each ship must resolve all of its attacks before the next ship, but the order of ships may be freely decided.

Attacking an Area     Some ships can bombard targets on land, or perhaps areas of water (for example, to destroy approaching watercraft). Main battery weapons are not precise enough to hit vehicle or character-size targets with a single shot, but some large ones can inflict various ZAoEs at certain ranges. This damage occurs every time the weapons fire, so consult the battery's fire rate. Batteries will list the ZAoE(s) they can attempt, along with the high and low damage values. Since each battery is targeted separately with a separate offense roll, ships with multiple batteries can attack multiple areas simultaneously.

    As with attacking ships, weapons are not fired upon a failed offense roll, but degree of success does not modify damage. An offense roll success or failure counts for the entire ship combat round (1 minute). Batteries used to create ZAoEs cannot attack other ships in the same ship combat round.

    Because ships typically bombard areas from much too far away to clearly see characters or even vehicles, a ship must have some sort of targeting information to usefully attack enemies in an area. The area must be a clearly visible landmark, or characters near the area must mark it in some way (for example, with a bright light source or a smoke grenade).

    Although most shots land in the targeted area, ship bombardment is not necessarily confined to the zones in question. Stray shots are by definition not accurate enough to be tracked in combat rules, but can cause collateral damage that might limit its application. Ships (even airships) also cannot typically acquire target areas in dense forests, Alacrian ruins, or other rough terrain.

Point-Defense Weapons     Almost all fighting ships are equipped with a number of matching point-defense weapons. These smaller weapons are not effective at ship combat ranges, but can retaliate against attacking aircraft. Their attacks are resolved as a vehicle using normal combat turns (see Vehicle Combat), but with a different offense roll system. First, the d12 offense roll is made on the ship's PDL, not the gunner's DEX. Additionally, rather than rolling for each weapon separately, decide how many weapons will fire; only one offense roll per targeted aircraft is made, but the roll receives 2 Easing for every extra point-defense weapon beyond 1 that is fired at the same target (2 Easing for 2 weapons, 4 Easing for 3 weapons, and so forth). If successful, the aircraft receives 1 hit; for every 6 by which the roll succeeds, another weapon hits, up to the maximum of the number of weapons fired. In this way, sheer volume of fire can often make up for the high speed Hindrance of a strafing aircraft.

    Point-defense weapons cannot fire multiple times in a normal combat round (but can fire 12 times per ship combat round). Firing point-defense weapons does not count as an action for the ship on its ship combat turn. Many ships feature a point-defense scanner that allow point-defense weapons to fire at incoming missiles and strafing aircraft 1 normal round before they arrive, rather than retaliating just once against aircraft that strafed on their last turn. Unless the attackers are particularly unwise, a group of aircraft will normally strafe in the same normal combat round, requiring point-defense weapons to be divided between them.

    Remember that aircraft in SC0 (for example, aircraft slowing to drop boarders) can be attacked every normal round.

    Airships at low altitude using Full Stop can use their point-defense weapons against aircraft that attack ground targets beneath them.

    Resolve point-defense weapons (and all other normal combat rounds) after ship movement, but before major actions. If you use too much charge in point-defense, less may be available for main battery attacks.

Battery Tags     Some ship weapons batteries have tags that add additional rules. Those tags are defined here:

    If the ship has multiple Fixed batteries, they cannot fire simultaneously unless they are all targeting different ships at short range. This situation typically occurs on primitive vessels with fixed broadsides, which can only practically attack two ships at once by sailing between them. Even in this case, all Fixed batteries except the first must add 1 Hindrance in offense rolls.

Surprise Attacks     Ships are normally visible at extreme range, but submarines and ships with cloaking devices may have the element of surprise. If a ship is attacking another ship which could not see it prior to this round, the ambushed ship has 5 Hindrance in any offense roll against the ambushing ship for 1 round. The other ship may still act in the round as normal; the Evasive Maneuvers tactic is a good choice.

Combat Readiness     All of the above rules assume a ship that is on full alert, ready to fight on a moment's notice. This state is referred to differently in various naval traditions; it is general quarters in Hal'Tayat, battle stations in Manusia and Skreti, action stations in Cevelky, or condition red in I'Gremsul. Whatever the terminology, it is exhausting for a crew to remain fully combat-ready at all times. Remaining combat-ready inflicts a temporary penalty to SPR at a rate of -1 every 4 hours; it is removed at the same rate when the ship stands down to normal stations. If the ship is already at 1 SPR when it is due to take another -1 penalty from these rules, all its other stats are decreased to 50% instead; these penalties are removed after 4 hours of normal stations.

    A ship normally readies for combat once an enemy ship is sighted or otherwise expected. A ship that is not combat-ready cannot fire weapons, cannot use the Evasive Maneuvers movement tactic, and cannot deploy nauphragus or torpedoes. It takes 2 major actions for a ship to reach combat readiness.

    In addition to combat and normal states, a ship also has a lower level of readiness it must enter to repair or dock. In this state, it is considered disabled, and must spend 2 rounds to return to normal (or 4 rounds total to become combat-ready).