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Shaan shouts a warning to his comrades: "Hang on, it might get bumpy!" Then he turns to the computer console and twists a few buttons and flips a couple of switches.
The ship suddenly buckles wildly, hopefully knocking the boarders prone.
Forewarned about what is going to happen, Shaan avoids falling himself and moves forward to engage his foes, drawing his doshko as he does.
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Rahdokama advances and quickly puts a grievous injury into jinsul warrior #3!
Zeth advances to get the closest jinsul (#2) in range for his Mind Thrust spell!
DC 15
...doing full damage to it!
Alejandro helps focus the team's attention on jinsul #3, and hits them with a glancing laser shot!
Astrator takes advantage of the team's coordination, and also hits #3!
Shaan grabs the controls of the transport and pulls a hard lateral maneuver!
(+4 Each)
...causing jinsul warriors #2 and #4 to fall prone! Unfortunately, Alejandro also goes down!
Jinsul #1 will fire a gun at Zeth:
vs. EAC
#2 will stand up, prompting an attack of opportunity from Shaan!
vs. Prone KAC
Jinsul #2's lifeless body is pinned to the deck by the spikes of Shaan's doshko!
#3 will attempt to bite at Rahdokama wildly with a full attack!
vs. KAC
vs. KAC
...but both attacks scrape harmlessly against the solarian's armor!
And finally, #4 will stand up, provoking an attack of opportunity from Rahdokama!
vs. Prone KAC
Even hurt, they still attempt to fire a pistol at the vesk!
vs. EAC
ROUND 2
Shaan
Rahdokama
Astrator
Zeth
Alejandro
ROUND 3
Jinsul #1
Jinsul #2
Jinsul #3
Jinsul #4
The whole party is up!
A non-descript, totally forgettable-looking Starfinder wearing a red shirt runs in from around the corner and yells, "I'm here to help! How can I aid???"
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Allied Offensive: A nearby Starfinder agent strikes a creature at the same time as the PC, increasing the damage dealt on one attack by 1d8. In addition, after the attack, the target counts as flanked when targeted by any melee attacks until the beginning of the attacker’s next turn.
First Aid: A Starfinder agent restores 1d6 Hit Points or Stamina Points to each PC—each PC can choose which benefit to receive.
Remote Assistance: A Starfinder crew provides starship assistance from afar. Each PC receives a +2 bonus to all checks required by crew actions for 1 round.
Timely Inspiration: A Starfinder agent provides the effects of an envoy’s don’t quit improvisation. Each PC can choose one of the benefits available at 1st level; the effect lasts 1 round.
Provide Knowledge (must be boosted): Gain the benefit of a successful Culture, Engineering, Life Science, Mysticism, Physical Science, or Profession check to identify a creature or recall knowledge.
Provide Spellcasting (must be boosted): Gain the benefits of a beneficial spell cast by an ally as listed on the Aid Token.
Your GM recommends one of you deciding which option to use ASAP - once an aid token is used or boosted it immediately goes to help another table, so using it quickly helps everybody! :)
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Rahdokama took out #3, and Alejandro helps coordinate your continued efforts against jinsul warrior #4.
Astrator hits jinsul #4, staggering it, but it's still capable of fighting!
At that moment, an Allied Offensive (Aid Token) from one of the Starfinder survivors/refugees in the back of the transport occurs, shooting #4 in the back for more points of damage, which is enough to kill it!
Shaan (botted) takes a step over #2's body to swing with his doshko!
vs. KAC
Meanwhile, Zeth (botted) launches a telekinetic projectile at #1
vs. KAC
The sole jinsul warrior remaining, #1, lashes out at Shaan!
vs. KAC
ROUND 3
Shaan
Rahdokama
Astrator
Zeth
Alejandro
ROUND 4
Jinsul #1
Jinsul #2
Jinsul #3
Jinsul #4
The whole party is up!
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Seeing the enemy fall at his feet, Rahdokama glows even brighter with excitement. He nods towards his captain, signalling him to come around and Get Em! the last hostile!"Well done team! One left! What say you, Captain, shall we, get him?"
Rahdomaka moves up and readies to strike at the remaming enemy for when Alejandro makes his move!
Special! Allies who shoot #1 get +1 to hit, because of coordinated shot!
Edit! --
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Alejandro gets in sight of the last attacker and encourages you all to strike it!
Shaan's doshko aims true and puts a deep gash into the jinsul warrior, but Rahdokama's attack goes wide!
Zeth (botted) draws his pulsecaster, thinking that it might have a better chance of hitting the target in the middle of a flurry of melee fighting!
vs. EAC
Astrator (botted) comes around the corner, also trying to fire at the jinsul past the cover it has!
vs. EAC
...and hits!
The jinsul continues to fight furiously, attempting a full attack on Shaan!
vs. KAC
vs. KAC
ROUND 4
Shaan
Rahdokama
Astrator
Zeth
Alejandro
ROUND 5
Jinsul #1
Jinsul #2
Jinsul #3
Jinsul #4
The whole party is up!
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"Well aren't you the tough one..." - Rahdokama smiles, visibly excited at the fact that there is still one more still standing. He changes the grip on his weapon and swings again.
Special! Allies who shoot the target Rahdokama is in melee with, gain +1 to hit from co-ordinated shot!
"Aaagghghhhh!" - he cheers as he hit!
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Alejandro and Rahdokama both hit their targets, killing the last jinsul warrior!
You are now out of combat - MISSION SUCCESS!
Back on the bridge of your transport vessel, you see active communication relays from both Jadnura and Luwazi Elsebo.
Jadnura is coordinating Starfinder teams like yours to carriers currently being boarded by jinsul warriors and mages, while Luwazi is coordinating Pegasus and Drake strike deployments to push back the jinsul capital ships trying to destroy the rescue carriers themselves!
1 - Carrier Defense (Similar to the previous mission)
2 - Capital Ship Counterattack (Starship combat)
Once I see 2-3 votes, that's what I'll go with so you have as much time as possible to play!
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~~~~~
Shorthand Starship Combat Primer!
To make this easier, I have some sheets that my local players love so much that they won't do ship combat without them. Digital copies of those sheets are HERE. You'll want the ones that start "2 Drake" - they have everything filled out except for the AC (because the AC depends on knowing the number of ranks the Pilot has in the Piloting skill).
Every ship needs 1 Pilot, and can only have one. There can also only be 1 Captain. The other roles (Engineer, Science Officer, and Gunner) can have multiple people doing those jobs. Anyone can switch to a different position at the start of each combat round.
Combat rounds are divided into three phases:
1 - Engineering Phase. Engineers take their actions to boost power to systems or repair damage.
2 - Helm Phase. The Pilot and Science Officers take their actions. Each ship's pilot/S.O. decide what order they go in (for PbP it's usually easier to decide that once and then stick with it rather than changing it every round). When Pilots take their turn, they make a piloting roll for initiative vs. the enemy pilot(s), and then roll their regular piloting checks (if they want to do any of the maneuvers listed on the pilot sheet) separately. Whoever pulls highest initiative moves last - this lets the "better" pilot see where their enemy is going.
3 - Gunnery Phase. All gunners can fire their weapons simultaneously. Even though the "fire at will" option lets a gunner shoot twice (-4 to each), each weapon can only be fired once per turn, so make sure to check your firing arcs and number of gunners.
The Captain can choose to take their action in any phase they wish. They work sort of like an "interrupt" in some older card games - whenever they want to boost an ally (or attempt to mess with an enemy) they raise their hand (or in the case of pbp, make their rolls) and those effects kick in when and where the Captains want.
~~~~~
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Once you're all set, here's how I like to run ship combat in play-by-post (copy/pasting from my other PbPs) -
[spoiler ]
~~~~~
Example:
Phase: Helm
Role: Pilot
Action: If our ship is forced to move first, I will attempt the "Evade" maneuver to increase our AC/TL and then try to get around very wide to the "south" of target X, making sure our front arc is facing it. If we can move second, I will instead attempt to increase our maneuverability to accomplish the same thing while making sure to not end up adjacent to the enemy.
Evade DC = 10 + 1.5 x Tier = DC 13
- Success!
~~~~~
Exception:
Because you all know the DCs that you are rolling for, if you succeed at taking an action that has an effect for a crewmember in a phase of starship combat that occurs after the one you act in, you may edit your post (or make a second post if you'd rather do it that way) to indicate such.
Example 1: The Engineer successfully diverts power to the shields (let's say +6 shields). The Engineer can post this visibly so that the Science Officer knows how many shield points they have to play with should they decide to utilize the "Balance" action during that Helm phase.
Example 2: The Science Officer wants to move all your shields to one quadrant to fend off an enemy - they can either tell the Pilot that they are doing so or ask the pilot to set them up to do things that way. Alternatively, the Science Officer can make their post with a details on how they want to move the shields once they see the positions of the enemy ship(s) in relation to theirs.
I know this is a lot to take in all at once. If you want a more thorough look at the Starship rules you can find them on the Archives of Nethys site:
Go ahead and pick your roles for starship combat now!
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Once you disembark from your transport vessel, you board a heavily armed Drake-class vessel, and immediately launch to join other Starfinder ships defending the rescue carriers and retrieval shuttles!
Luwazi Elsebo's voice comes over the comm channel, “Attention, all starship crews! Jinsul ships are aggressively attacking our retreating transports. Deploy immediately and stop the attackers. There is a heavily armed capital ship nearby - do not engage unless ordered to! I repeat, do not engage!"
A moment later, Luwazi Elsebo hails your ship directly!
“Starfinders, yours is one of the few uninjured ships left in our fleet. We have a situation. The Jinsul Capital Ship is approaching dangerously close to our carriers with survivors on-board. However, we have analyzed a weakness to the Jinsul Capital ship. If you can get behind it and hit it with enough damage, you might cripple it and allow the rest of the fleet to get away! We'll use our other ships to draw the capital ship's fire and most of their escorts away...will you take on this dangerous mission?"
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Alejandro jumps into action, sliding into the gunner's seat for the aft laser. He hollars into the comm, "I'll cover aft, starboard and port with this guy if any enemies drift into my sights!"
He plugs in his datapad and uploads a trick to boost the laser's output.
Role: Gunner
for
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Okay, Shaan, declare your piloting actions and make your rolls! :)
Alejandro: Technically, each individual weapon can be controlled by a different gunner, or gunners can "full attack" with 2 weapons at a -4 penalty to each. Missiles work he same as other weapons except they target the enemy's TL rather than AC, and they have a limited speed in hexes per turn (your missiles can move 12 hexes per turn, but your range increment is Long (20 hexes) so they might take more than 1 turn to get to the target, if you're too far away. Each round the missiles are "in the air" the gunner who fired them has to make a new gunnery check as a free action to represent the guidance system of the missile tracking to its target.
Astrator, Zeth, Rahdokama, please pick your roles aboard the Drake, and take your actions!
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Zeth has a +2 in computers and no engineering. Rahdokama has neither, so you're the only one who can do engineering, I think. If I don't hear from those two soon, I'll bot them for this opening round. We still need Shaan to declare his actions since, as the pilot, the direction things go kinda depends on it!
Suddenly a video screen in front of you lights up as the same non-descript, totally forgettable-looking Starfinder wearing a red shirt that you met before appears! "Hey guys! You're doing a GREAT job! And not that you need it but I've got a moment to aid you!"
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Allied Offensive: A nearby Starfinder agent strikes a creature at the same time as the PC, increasing the damage dealt on one attack by 1d8. In addition, after the attack, the target counts as flanked when targeted by any melee attacks until the beginning of the attacker’s next turn.
First Aid: A Starfinder agent restores 1d6 Hit Points or Stamina Points to each PC—each PC can choose which benefit to receive.
Remote Assistance: A Starfinder crew provides starship assistance from afar. Each PC receives a +2 bonus to all checks required by crew actions for 1 round.
Timely Inspiration: A Starfinder agent provides the effects of an envoy’s don’t quit improvisation. Each PC can choose one of the benefits available at 1st level; the effect lasts 1 round.
Provide Knowledge (must be boosted): Gain the benefit of a successful Culture, Engineering, Life Science, Mysticism, Physical Science, or Profession check to identify a creature or recall knowledge.
Provide Spellcasting (must be boosted): Gain the benefits of a beneficial spell cast by an ally as listed on the Aid Token.
Your GM recommends one of you deciding which option to use ASAP - once an aid token is used or boosted it immediately goes to help another table, so using it quickly helps everybody! :)
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To quote the scenario:
During this encounter in the gunnery phase, tables can use an Aid Token to call on weapon fire from other Starfinder starships partaking in the greater fight. Attempt a gunnery check with a bonus equal to 4 + 1-1/2 × the tier of the PCs’ ship. On a success, the target enemy vessel takes 2d8 damage per tier of the PCs’ starship. Unlike other Aid Token benefits, a table can activate this benefit up to three times (but still only once from a single Aid Token) during the encounter.
Alternatively, a table can use one Aid Token to force one of the jinsul assault craft to temporarily disengage from combat. The enemy starship ceases firing for the current and following round when an Aid Token is used in this manner. Only one jinsul assault craft can be affected in this manner.
~~~~~
I'll bot the others and make a GM post shortly!
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STARSHIP COMBAT - ROUND 1
Drake - 0 Damage (15/10/10/15) *
Capital Ship - 0 Damage
Orange Jinsul Assault Craft - 0 Damage (Shields Unknown)
Purple Jinsul Assault Craft - 0 Damage (Shields Unknown)
~~~~~
Astrator (botted) takes up positon at the engineering station, trying to boost power to your weapon systems!
(DC 13)
...and succeeds! (All damage dice from gunnery that show 1s are now 2s for this round only)
DE
I3
MG
TE
DG1
HL
HT
~~~~~
DX
I2
MG
TE
DX
XL
XT
The orange enemy engineer boosts the speed of their ship!
Shaan is still getting the hang of this ship, and as such is unable to take evasive maneuvers.
Two jinsul ships leave their formation, but they are apparently rather slow and don't make it far.
Zeth (botted) grabs the science officer post and tries to help your gunners by acquiring a target lock on the orange ship's weapon systems.
...and succeeds! (Any gunnery roll that is a natural 19 or 20 auto-crits the enemy's weapon systems. This is in addition to normal critical threshold rules)
Zeth can also tell that both enemy ships have locked on to your engines!
With only five of you, no one sits in the captain's chair.
Finally, all weapons are fired! Your laser doesn't have a shot, but your missiles and forward coilgun do!
Rahdokama (botted) hits the orange ship, and so does Alejandro!
Both of your gunners score an insane amount of damage with their first volleys, sending the Jinsul ship into four critical thresholds!
- Orange Engines are Glitching (-2 to Piloting)
- Orange Engines are Malfunctioning (-2 more to Piloting)
- Orange Engines are Wrecked (all Piloting checks fail until this sytem is repaired)
- Orange Power Core is Glitching (-2 to Engineering checks except for "Patch" and "Hold it together")
The Purple jinsul ship misses you with a torpedo and linked laser cannons, but unfortunately, the orange ship hits with both, and its laser is a critical threat due to the target lock!
Your forward shields take 14 damage, but because they're still holding, the critical hit is negated!
Just then, Astrator and Alejandro call in fire support from a nearby Starfinder gunship against the orange vessel!
The orange jinsul ship is DESTROYED!!!
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Alejandro cheers as one of the enemy ships turn to vapor. "GREAT JOB!!!"
He looks quickly at the readout in front of him and throws out a couple requests, "alright, can we get those shields boosted back up a bit? I feel okay in the aft but I doubt you all feel the same."
He quickly adds his plan of action, "I'm hopping into the turret, if we get close enough I'll launch the missiles at the second assault craft. If we take it out then we just have to worry about that capitol ship!"
Role: Turret Gunner
for
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Alejandro will wait until the gunnery phase and see where the enemy is located. If they are within 12 spaces he would shoot the turreted missiles. If they are outside of 12 but within 20 and in an arc that the laser could hit, he would shoot that. If they are outside 20 he would do nothing.
Is that a better way to do a third round kind of action?