yet another homebrew Naval system


Skull & Shackles


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Hi, I DM a small group and we are currently replaying through Skull and Shackles (Because Pirates)
I put some effort this time around into making a rules system for ship to ship combat that wasn't just about boarding.

This is the result of those efforts. When forced to choose between a fun rule of choice and realism we choose fun. :: D

We kept advantage because it works well but we ditched the movement part of it. Instead it gains you 45 degree turns. We have since limited that to a max 0f 90 degrees which feels like a reasonable balance.

Set up is the same too, defending ship heading roll d8, then position of enemy ship d8, then squares away it starts is 1d4+2, then the wind is a d8. Since ours allows diagonals.

We ended up limiting siege engine range and rotation a bit to make it more fun as a grid based maneuvering game. So broadsides are only in straight lines up to one range increment straight from the sides of the ship. So for light ballista 4 squares, or 3 diagonal. Front and back guns get shooting wedges, which templates for can be found Here. You just place the template at the front of the ship or rear and thats what the forward and rear guns can shoot

We allow catapults to shoot up to 3 range increments on the map to give them a different feel than ships with ballista

This set up of kinda limited siege and only straight shooting broadsides, really lets you dodge and plan your moves around the board, getting in close but not within a firing arc of the enemy ship, broadsiding them on a pass by and getting behind them, knowing its gonna be hard for them to turn at their current speed and get you.

Basically the pilot "builds" a check, then roles. If he succeeds he can do all the parts that he put into his check, if he fails he loses control
(just moves straight and loses 30ft of speed)

So an example of this wound be, Hold Her Steady which you need to take one of, so thats 10, then a turn at 30ft, so thats 4, for 14 total, plus then we want to accelerate and swerve, ones 10 the other is 6, so the total is 30. And thats the DC the pilot has to make, but hes get to do all that in a single turn. It's awesome cause at higher levels you just keep getting more badass. Fun at lower levels cause you can end up getting "stuck" in the wind for a couple turns cause the high speed makes it hard to turn.

We allowed ships to move more than their max speed when coming out of the wind losing it at at start of their next turn.

I threw in the ship actions page, which the ship gets ONE (thats not one per player) of a turn just to give other players something to do, also sharks...

If anyone is interested or has any questions feel free to ask. Not looking for too much feedback since were already playing with it and its really fun. (seriously go play some of it and tell me it doesn't feel AWESOME to pull off a risky maneuver you had like 30% of succeeding on)

Notes: We play this on a standard grid, ships only take up one square, and squares represent 30 ft. (I know this is off, but it makes it more fun.)

I made a pdf so my players can reference most of it. Its got some random art work grabbed of google to make it less dull.

Naval Rules Booklet. (I even enabled commenting on the file.

p.s. Sharks!


looks groovy, thanks!

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