Ship combat idea

[WWHsmackdown]

I was thinking about possible avenues ship combat might take and I remember the devs talking about how they didn't want it to be a separate game.

I had an idea of a possible shape it could take if it followed the lines of PC combat: ships get some arbitrary number of actions (more than 3) and you get a relevant list of actions a ship can take tied to skill checks or relevant class action rolls. You parcel out the number of actions each activity costs and when it's time for the party's ship in initiative the party decides what they want to do and the relevant characters make relevant rolls. Ship stat blocks just function like monster stat blocks and everything stays quick and snappy (provided the combat doesn't field too many ships.

It sounds like 1e ship combat but I think trimming the cumbersome portions (like shield facing and hex movement) plus the addition of the 2e action system would speed things up.

All speculative, but I just wanted to hear some thoughts.

[Perpdepog]

I like that idea. I could also see replacing hexes with something more narrative, like range bands or simple descriptors of how far ships are from one another. Range bands would probably work better, because you could use the party's vessel as the reference and then determine any arbitrary number of enemy ships in relation to that center.