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Starship Combat (homebrew)
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. 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.
Like combat between characters, starship combat occurs over a number of rounds until one side flees, surrenders, or is otherwise defeated. The combat system uses the standard combat round duration of 6 seconds.
Measuring Distance/Range/Speed
To keep these homebrew rules as synonymous as possible with the rules as written in the SFCRB, we will use “hexes” as a unit of measurement when tracking the distance between objects in space. This works harmoniously with the core rules and the 5e Nautical Adventures, Naval Combat system, I am using to create these homebrew rules.
Pre-Combat Positioning
Hostile intentions are detected by the ships sensors. The distance at which hostile intentions can be detected is dependent on the ships sensor ranges. Short-range sensors have a range of 5 hexes, medium range sensors have a range of 10 hexes, and long-range sensors have a range of 20 hexes. In passive mode (pre-combat), sensors automatically scan the ship’s surroundings. Passive sensors detect visible or unhidden objects in a 360-degree field around the ship at a range of up to twice the sensors’ range category while in space or in the Drift. Therefore, the starting distance between vessel occurs at the point where the defending vessel detects the hostile intentions of another vessel.
Note: local conditions may affect sensor range. Gravitational forces and atmospheric conditions limit starship sensors to a range of 250 feet on most planets, and their range might be further limited by terrain.
When the ships are beyond firing range, each ship needs only to decide how it wants to move. Move in closer to the other ship, keep about the same distance, or move away?
If both ships decide to move away, they move in opposite directions until they are out of range of one another, or until one ship decides to stop fleeing.
If both ships decide to close, the range between them decreases by both ships total speed. The ships approach until one ship can fire, or take an other type of action against the other.
If both ships decide to maintain current range, the range between them doesn’t change. If one ship wants to avoid combat, however, a chase ensues.
Evasion and Pursuit
A faster ship can always catch a slower ship, but even slow ships can take advantage of favorable conditions or terrain to make good their escape.
Ship chases use the detailed combat rules below with the following changes: 1) The ships maneuver can only be Turn, Close, Back Off, or Hold.
2) A chase ends when either ship decides to end it, or when the pursuing ship closes to within a weapons base firing range, or when the pursuer can no longer detect the prey (outside of range, turned invisible, flew into a space anomaly, landed and powered down, etc.).
Theatre of the Mind
There is no need for model ships and hex or square battle mats. These rules for combat between ships concentrates on the PCs point of view. What can the PCs see and how can they effect the battle? You need only track of how far apart the ships are. The resolution of any ship maneuver may change this range between ships.
Rounds
A Ship-to-Ship melee round is the same as a standard melee round.
Ship’s Speed
Number of hexes traveled in one round at maximum acceleration.
Facing
To facilitate speed of play, starship combat handles ship facing in an abstract way. The distance between ships does not take facing into account. The only facing that matters is one ship’s orientation in relation to the other. In general, ships are assumed to be facing in the direction they are moving. A ship can turn 90 degrees in any round that it moves only half its speed, or less (with a turn maneuver). Your ships orientation in relation to your opponent’s ship will determine which ship’s maneuvers are available to you. The ship will be in one of four possible orientations; forward (bow to the other ship), to the rear (aft to the other ship), right (port side to the other ship), or left (starboard side to the other ship).
Range
The distance between ships may change at the end of each ship’s turn. The change in range depends on the ship’s maneuver action and its speed. It is handled in much the same way as ship facing. It is not intended to be exact. In reality, the distance between any point on your ship and any point on the enemy ship will vary depending on each ships orientation and exactly where each ship is in relation to the other ship. This degree of verisimilitude is not the goal here. We only want to know if the enemy ship is close enough to hit.
Initiative
Before the start of combat, the Captains each roll for initiative. The ship whose Captain rolls the highest initiative goes first each round. Everyone on that ship has a chance to act during the ships turn.
Changes to Piloting Actions
Fly. No skill check, regular movement.
Accelerate/Decelerate (No skill check). Reduce/increase ship speed. Unless a piloting is attempting a stunt, ships cannot stop from full speed in one standard melee round (6 seconds). Neither can it go from a full stop up to its maximum speed in a single round. A ship can accelerate or slow down up to half its maximum speed in one round.
Stunts (Push)
Back Off (Piloting, DC 10 + 1.5 x ship tier). At the end of the round, the distance between the ships is increased by your ship’s speed. Prerequisite: Your ship must be facing to the rear. If facing right or left the distance between the ships is only increased by your half your ship’s speed. This maneuver cannot be attempted if your ship is facing forward. On a failure, only move back 1 hex. If failed by 5 or more, move back 1 hex and -4 penalty to AC and TL.
Turn (Hard to Port or Hard to Starboard) (@ half speed or less Piloting, DC 10 + Ship Tier) (@ full speed or more Piloting, DC 10 + 1.5x ships tier). The ship changes the direction it faces by 90 degrees. It moves at up to half its speed before the turn. On a failure, the ship moves forward up to half its speed, and can’t turn.
Barrel Roll (Piloting, DC 10 + 1.5 x ship tier). Starship moves half speed and its facings are inverted for the round. If failed, no roll. If failed by 5 or more, no roll, and -4 penalty to AC and TL.
Evade (Piloting, DC = 10 + 1.5 x Tier). Normal movement, +2 AC and TL. On fail, no bonus. If failed by 5 or more, -2 AC and TL.
Flip and Burn (@ half speed or less = Piloting, DC = 15 + 1.5 x ship tier) (@ full speed or faster = Piloting DC 15 + 3 x ship tier). Move half speed forward then rotate 180°. If failed, no rotation.
Turn in Place (@ half speed or less Piloting, DC 15 + 1.5 x ship tier) (@ full speed or faster Piloting DC 15 + 3 x ship tier). Ship can turn to face any direction. If maneuverability is Clumsy, -4 to AC and TL. If maneuverability is Poor, penalty of -2 to AC and TL.
Full Power (Push, -1 RP, req: 6 ranks in Piloting; No check). Move 1.5x the ship’s speed, but increase the difficult of manuvers by an additional x1.5.
Audacious Gambit (Helm Phase) If you have at least 12 ranks in Piloting, you can spend 1 Resolve Point and attempt a Piloting check (DC = 20 + 1.5 × your starship’s tier) to pull off complex maneuvers. You can move your starship up to its speed, and at the end of your starship’s movement, you can rotate your starship to face in any direction. If you fail the check, you instead move as if you had taken the fly action (but still lose the Resolve Point).