SpelljammerCombat

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Movement and Travel in SpelljammerShip movement can be treated under two general categories: tactical, short-range movement and long-range

movement in wildspace or in the Phlogiston. Movement in the Phlogiston is used to travel the

immeasurably large distances between crystal spheres. Wildspace movement is used for traveling the great

distances of space between the planets. Tactical movement deals with the shorter ranges between objects in

space and is the theater of ship-to-ship combat.

The magic behind the spelljammer helms allows them to travel great distances in little time, but also causesthem to slow down when they draw near other large objects, including other ships. For this reasonmovement is divided between long-range, high speed movement (such as when ships travel between

planets, or within the phlogiston) and short-range, tactical, or maneuver speed. Because tactical movement

often is triggered by (or followed by) combat, the rules for fighting from ship to ship are covered in those

same sections.

Traveling in Wildspace

All celestial bodies within a crystal sphere float in an airless void called wildspace, or sometimes, arcane

space. Conventional (those that take place on the material plane) interplanetary journeys around a solar system take place within wildspace.

Traveling in a straight line, spelljamming ships can attain high velocity relatively quickly, spanning thegreat emptiness between the planets in a short time. The operative phrase, however, is "straight line". Upon

making a turn, or coming into the gravity field of another large body, the spelljammer helm automatically

decelerates to a more manageable speed described under Tactical Movement. This is a function of all

spelljamming, regardless of the type of helm or owning race of the ship. Mind flayer serial helms and

pools, major and minor helms, and even arcane devices all function under this limitation. A "large body" is

any body of 10 tons or greater space displacement (a ton is 100 cubic yards, or a cube slightly less than 14

feet on a side), which includes most spelljamming ships, planets, stars, and other worthwhile celestial

bodies. Small items such as boats and elvish flitters which rate under 10 tons do not have this effect.A ship can travel 25 million miles per day per point of its SR rating in wildspace. Thus, a ship with an SR

of 4 can travel 100 million miles per day, or about 4 million miles per hour. An SR of 4 is considered

standard, and all travel times throughout wildspace assume an SR of 4. Table 7-1: Spelljamming Helm

Speed Table, below, shows the speeds that can be attained by spelljamming helms. Other devices that

provide motive power to large structures, but that are not helms, typically allow for similar speeds, and will

thus have their speeds rated in the same way (though there are devices that are restricted to slower speeds

than those allowed by spelljamming helms, that have speeds rated in feet per round or miles per hour).

Table 7-1: Spelljamming Helm Speed TableMinor Major

Caster Atmospheric Tactical Wildspace Phlogiston Atmospheric Tactical Wildspace Phlogiston

Level SR Feet / Round Feet/Rnd Miles/Day Miles/Day SR Feet / Round Feet/Rnd Miles/Day Miles/Day

1 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion2 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion3 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion4 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion 2 300 300 50 million 50 billion5 1 150 150 25 million 25 billion 2 300 300 50 million 50 billion6 2 300 300 50 million 50 billion 3 450 450 75 million 75 billion7 2 300 300 50 million 50 billion 3 450 450 75 million 75 billion8 2 300 300 50 million 50 billion 4 600 600 100 million 100 billion9 3 450 450 75 million 75 billion 4 600 600 100 million 100 billion10 3 450 450 75 million 75 billion 5 750* 750 125 million 125 billion11 3 450 450 75 million 74 billion 5 750* 750 125 million 125 billion12 4 600 600 100 million 100 billion 6 900* 900 150 million 150 billion13 4 600 600 100 million 100 billion 6 900* 900 150 million 150 billion14 4 600 600 100 million 100 billion 7 1050* 1050 175 million 175 billion15 5 750* 750 125 million 125 billion 7 1050* 1050 175 million 175 billion16 5 750* 750 125 million 125 billion 8 1200* 1200 200 million 200 billion

17 5 750* 750 125 million 125 billion 8 1200* 1200 200 million 200 billion18 6 900* 900 150 million 150 billion 9 1350* 1350 225 million 225 billion19 6 900* 900 150 million 150 billion 9 1350* 1350 225 million 225 billion20 6 900* 900 150 million 150 billion 10 1500* 1500 250 million 250 billion* Ships traveling at a speed greater than SR 4 within an atmosphere risk being damaged in flight.

At 100 million miles per day a spelljamming ship can travel from the earth to the sun in a single day.

However, space is incredibly large, and that same ship would take 36 days to reach Pluto. Given that the

crystal shell is as far from the last planet in a system as the last planet is from the primary star, a trip from

the Sun to the crystal shell girding Earth's system would take 72 days.



Therefore, movement between the planets is time-consuming when dealing with the outer bodies, and

relatively rapid among the inner bodies. Again, using the Earth/Sol system as an example, a ship from

Earth with a spelljamming device could reach as far as the orbit of Saturn in a single week. (Of course, the

planet may not cooperate by being there, but that is another matter. See Celestial Mechanics for

information on planetary placement).What slows movement among the more crowded inner planets is the presence of multiple, occasionally

overlapping gravity wells. Once a ship moves within the gravity well of a large body (10 tons or greater), itimmediately drops to tactical (150 feet per SR) speed. It can descend to the planet's surface, move around

in the planet's outer atmosphere, or leave the area again, after 1d8 rounds of warming up the spelljammer

helm.

The drop from spelljamming speed to tactical movement does not affect anyone riding on the ships. The

effortless deceleration prevents spelljamming ships from colliding with other ships, meteors, asteroids, and

planetary bodies creating the primary safety measure from such catastrophes. In reality, this often meansthat a ship in route from one point to another in a (relatively) more crowded section of space may have

more encounters than a ship moving through an emptier area (out near the shell, for example) so the ship

has to continually slow down between locations.

Calculating Travel Times in Wildspace

This is dealt with in more detail in the chapter on Celestial Mechanics, which adds the movement of the

spheres themselves. But in general, the time between two planetary bodies can be figured as:

Time to take off (in rounds)

Time to escape the gravity well (in hours or days)Time to cover the distance to the next planet (in rounds, minutes, hours, or days, as appropriate)

Time to land (in hours or days, reverse of time to escape the gravity well)

As an example, a trip from Earth to Mars, assuming that they were as near as possible (about 50 million

miles), would take: 1d8 rounds for warm-up on Earth + 2 hours at SR 4 to reach the edge of a class E world

+ Travel time = 50 million miles/100 million miles per day = ½ standard day or 12 hours + 2 hours at SR 4

to reach the surface of a class E world.

So, total travel time is about 16 hours and 9 minutes. Not bad for wooden ships. Earth and Mars are rarelyclose to each other, however. If they were as far apart as possible, the travel time between them would be

2.3 days. This number crunching is for players who are interested. An easier method is provided in the

Celestial Mechanics chapter.

Very Close Bodies — If the time it would take to travel between two bodies is less than the time it would

take to move out of one gravity well and into another, then the length of the trip is equal to the sum of both

times, with no time between. For example, a ship moving at spelljammer-class speed would take three turns

to travel from Earth to the Moon. But it takes four turns to move out of Earth's gravity well and three moreturns to move to the lunar surface. Thus, the trip from Earth to the Moon takes seven turns.

All of this assumes that the celestial bodies remain at the same relative distance during the course of the

trip. In many systems, including the "real" one, this is not the case. How does the spelljamming DM figure

travel times without going crazy?

Method 1: The Short Way — All planets are considered to be close to each other when figuring travel

times: Figure out the distance from the Primary, subtract the two, and divide by 100 million. This gives the

number of days it will take. Round all fractions up to the nearest day.

Method 2: The Long Way — All planets are considered to be at the furthest distance apart. Add the twodistances from the primary and divide by 100 million. For each .04 of the remainder add an hour to the

final time.

Method 3: The Average Way — All planets are assumed to be at their average separation. Determine the

distances using method 1, and method 2 and use their average. Round fractions up to the nearest day.

Method 4: The Starcharter's Way — Check out the Celestial Mechanics section and use the Celestial



Display for movement of the bodies.

Method 1 is the fastest method, and lets the characters move about the system very quickly. Method 2

slows them down a little, in particular when they are moving around the outer planets. Method 3 is the most

accurate, but takes slightly more time. Method 4 is recommended for long-term campaigns where themovement of the planets becomes an important factor (such as when an invasion is planned for the next

time two planets are close to each other).

Movement in the Flow

Travel in the Phlogiston is much like travel in wildspace, though the rainbow ocean does have some

peculiarities of its own. The rainbow ocean allows spelljamming ships to attain greater velocities. Where

travel in wildspace is measured in hundreds of millions of miles, travel in the phlogiston is measured in

hundreds of billions of miles. A ship with an SR of 1 travels 25 billion miles per day. A ship with an SR of 4 travels 100 billion miles per day (about 4 billion miles per hour). An SR of 4 is considered standard,

and all travel times in between the spheres are calculated assuming an SR of 4.

Because the phlogiston is without landmarks or other permanent markers, it is very easy to get lost in the

flow. Unless a locator device is used to locate a particular sphere, the spelljammer has the Phlogiston

Sense feat, or the navigator is working off of a set of phlogiston charts, the ship will reach a random sphere

within 200 to 800 days. This often means certain death for those on board. Those with the proper tools can

follow the natural paths, or flows, of the Phlogiston to reach the particular sphere that is sought. Some

spheres cannot be reached directly along a path, and travelers must go through a third or fourth sphere inorder to reach their goal. It is possible to travel off of the natural paths, but this is a very risky proposition,

even for seasoned spelljammers. Travel off of a path in the Phlogiston reduces the maximum SR of avessel by one. A ship with an SR of less than 1 is stuck, and cannot travel under its own power. Some

paths in the flow have their own special properties, which are noted under the individual path descriptions.

Ships in the Flow slow down when they encounter other bodies, such as ships and rogue planets, (just as

they do when traveling at spelljamming speeds in wildspace) but this does not typically affect total travel

time.

Variant: Infinite Phlogiston

The rules in this article assume that ‘time’ and ‘space’ in the Phlogiston act in much the same manner asthey do in the Prime Material Plane, and that there are finite, measurable spaces between the crystal

spheres. If this is not to your liking, or even if you just prefer a simpler method of determining travel time

between the spheres, you can instead assert that the Phlogiston is a sperate and infinite plane which borderson the Material Plane at the Crystal Spheres. This option will make determining the travel time much

simpler (and more akin to the method used in the original Spelljammer setting). When traveling through

the Phlogiston in this way, simply roll 1d10. The result, multiplied times ten, is the number of days that the

vessel travels in the phlogiston before reaching its destination.

Tactical Movement

Tactical movement occurs when a ship encounters another large body, usually another ship, a starbase, or a

planet. Such tactical encounters can occur either in the Flow or in wildspace, and both are handled

similarly.

When entering tactical movement for the purpose of ship-to-ship combat, use a battle-mat, paper, or

transparency marked with a hex grid. Each hex is 50 yards (150 feet) across. A round of combat in space is

the same as a standard round (6 seconds).

Ship-to-ship combat flows along the same lines as standard D&D combat, with each ship acting in turn in a

regular cycle. Combat between ships runs in the following way:

1. The Encounter: The DM determines the encounter distance and position, and all involved parties make

spot checks to see which combatants are aware.

2. The Surprise Round: If some (but not all) of the combatants are aware, then those who are aware get to

act in a surprise round, before the other combatants are able to react. Otherwise either continue rolling

spot checks or proceed directly to the regular combat round.

3. The Regular Combat Round: Any combatants that did not act in the surprise round now roll initiative



and start acting as normal.

.



The Encounter

Given the nature of space movement, an opposing craft may appear suddenly in the distance, and then slow

to combat speed immediately. Since it is the nature of the spelljamming helm to stop when it nears the

gravity plane of another body, many encounters will occur without the desire of either side.

The opposing ship(s) will appear 15 to 24 (25 minus 1d10) hexes away in a random direction determined by rolling 1d6 (and then rolling a second d6 for vertical placing, if desired, replacing right with above, and

left with below).

Table 7-2: object encounter positioning

Roll Position

1. Directly Ahead

2. Ahead & Right (Starboard)3. Behind & Right

4. Directly Behind

5. Behind & Left (Port)

6. Ahead and Left

Heading is usually toward the player's ship, though the DM can determine this if he desires.

After the initial placement of the ships, the DM determines which of the ships are aware of their opponents

at the start of the battle. He may call for Spot checks or other checks to see how aware the crew are for the

enemy. When spotting ships or large creatures in open space - anything 1 ton or larger - use the following

table:Table 7-3: Spotting Difficulty

Spot Creature

Ship Size Tonnage DC Size

Very Fine -- 24 Small

Fine -- 20 MediumDiminutive -- 16 Large

Tiny 1 - 2 tons 12 Huge

Small 3 - 10 tons 8 Gargantuan

Medium 11 - 30 tons 4 Colossal

Large 31 - 60 tons 0Huge 61 - 100 tons -4 Immense

Gargantuan 101 to 200 tons -8

Colossal 201 to 400 tons -12 Awesome

Immense 401 or more tons -16

Circumstances DC ModifierContrast +/-5 or more

Stillness +4

Six or more ships or creatures -2

¼ concealment +2½ concealment +4

Moonlight or ¾ concealment +7

Starlight or 9/10 concealment +10

Total Darkness or total concealment +40

Ship or creature has ¼ cover +2Ship or creature has ½ cover +4

Ship or creature has ¾ cover +7

Ship or creature has 9/10 cover +10

Ship or creatures are 15 or more tactical hexes away +2 per hex beyond 15

Hiding and Spotting

It is not generally possible for a spelljamming vessel to ‘hide’ in wildspace. There are, however, instancesin which one or more of the opponents will be largish creatures lying in ambush, instead of a spelljamming

vessel. In these cases. Add 5 plus the creature’s Hide in Shadows roll to the DC for the check to spot that

creature. Also apply a -2 penalty to the hiding creature’s spot roll, as it is more difficult to keeps track of the goings on in one’s surroundings if one has his head down.

Evading or Escaping an Encounter

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, and he who fights and runs away lives to run another day.

Unfortunately, when one is close to another large body (such as a ship or planet), the spelljammer helm will

not permit the ships to reach sufficient speeds to make high-speed travel worthwhile.



The times listed under Takeoffs and Landings reflect the amount of time it takes to clear a planetary surface

in order to attain high speeds. For smaller bodies (such as errant asteroids and pirate ships), the "capture"

distance is 25 hexes on the map, counted at the start of the ship's movement. That is, if there is nothing

within 25 hexes of the ship (including debris), then the vessel may start traveling at spelljamming speeds.

The helmsman must ‘warm up’ the spelljamming helm for 1d8 rounds before resuming spelljamming(wildspace or phlogiston) speeds, once he has cleared any interfering gravity wells. During this time, the

ship will continue to travel at tactical speeds, possibly allowing a faster ship to catch it.

The Surprise Round

If some but not all of the ships are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before the regular

rounds begin. The ships who are aware of the opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for

initiative. In initiative order (from highest to lowest), ships who started the battle aware of their opponents

each take an action during the surprise round. Ships must choose their move actions before performing anyother actions. Ships who were unaware do not get to act in the surprise round and are assumed to be taking

the Still move action. If all ships start the battle aware, there is no surprise round. If no ships are aware of

other ships, continue making spot checks for all ships involved.

The Regular Combat Round

Once all the involved parties have become aware that there is an encounter going on, the first regular

combat round begins. All combatants who have not yet rolled initiative do so, and they begin acting in

initiative order (from highest to lowest).

Initiative

Each round, each ship gets to do something. The ships’ initiative checks determine the order in which they

act, from highest to lowest. At the start of a battle, each ship makes a single initiative check, adding the

ship’s current maneuverability modifier. The DM finds out what order the ships are acting in, counting

down from highest result to lowest, and each ship acts in turn, with the check applying throughout the

entire combat. If two or more ships have the same initiative check result, the ships who are tied go in order

of maneuver bonus (highest first). If there is still a tie, use their helmsman’s Pilot Spelljammer skill. If

there is still a tie, flip a coin.

Ship Actions

Because ships are operated by multiple people, the types of actions a ship can take work differently.

Technically, ships take no actions; the people on the ship perform all actions. The helmsman moves theship, the weaponeers fire the weapons, and so forth. Still, for ease of play, many such actions are referred

to as if the ship were taking the action. For example, when the helmsman moves the ship, it is referred to

as the ship taking a move action. In effect, the results of character actions translate into ship actions.

Throughout this article, the type of character actions required for a given ship action are detailed.

There are two types of actions a ship can take - move actions and standard actions. A ship can take one(and only one) move action, and a number of standard actions, based on the actions of those aboard. A ship

cannot take two move actions (i.e. A double move) in a round.

Tactical Movement

The movement of spelljamming vessels across space in combat is much like the movement of warriors on

the battlefield. Both will attempt to get into positions ideal for attack and defense. The movement of ships

tends to be more complex, because the free-floating and three-dimensional aspects of space combat allow

for more variety and options than does moving along the ground.

Characters and Ship Move Actions

Ship movement is a result of the actions of the character sitting on the helm - or whatever device drives the

ship - a ship cannot typically move on its own.

Moving a ship via its helm is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. However, the

character on the helm is usually relatively immobile, and thus is denied his Dexterity bonus to AC.

Normally, moving from the



helm severs the link between the helmsman and the ship, instantly bringing the ship to a dead halt. The

helmsman can take move-equivalent actions.

The crew of men operating the rigging are also heavily involved. Operating rigging is a full round action

that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. In some instances, the rigger will have to move to do his

job, up to his normal movement rate. This may provoke attacks of opportunity if the movement is throughan enemy's threatened area.

The Basics of Ship Movement

All ships have a speed rating (SR). This number is rated in hexes per round, which is the number of hexes

the ship can move on the hex grid each round. Each Hex is 150 feet. The number of hexes per round a

ship can move works as a pool of points - termed speed points - which are spent to move hexes on the

combat map. Moving forward is simple, and all ships follow the same rules, regardless of how

maneuverable they are: moving forward one hex takes one speed point.Unlike personal combat, ship combat has strict rules for facing. Each hex has six sides, and the front of the

ship must be facing one of these sides; it cannot be facing one of the corners. In order to turn, a ship must

use some of its speed points to change facing. If a ship wishes to change its facing it must spend one point

of speed for each hex face they wish to turn.

The maneuverability class plays an important part in how a ship turns. For each maneuverability class,

there are two corresponding numbers that affect turning. The first is free turns. This is the number of

times a ship can change their facing by one without using speed points. For example, a ship with MC 9 has

two free hex face changes every round. Before a ship can use any of these free turns, they must havemoved at least one hex this round. After that, they can use the free turns as they see fit. Beyond these free

turns, the ship must spend one speed point per hex face change, as normal.The other number is turns per hex. This is the number of times a ship can change hex facing within a

single hex, if the ship is also moving forward this round in any manner. In order to make additional turns,

the ship must move forward at least one hex. For example, an MC 7 ship can make 2 turns per hex. This

means that they can turn twice in a single hex, but in order to make a third hex face change they must move

forward into another hex. Some ships have fractional turns per hex, which means they must move forward

more than one hex before every single hex face

change. For example, a ship with a turns per hex of 1/3 must move three hexes forward before every turn.

All forward movement must be consecutive, but need not all occur in the same round. Thus if the shipmoved forward one hex last round and two the current round, it could then change its hex facing by one

side.

Note that free turns and turns per hex only apply to ships moving forward at all. If the ship is simply

rotating in place, it uses the rotate move action, detailed below.

Table 7-4: Maneuverability Class Effects

12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Free Turns 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0Turns per Hex 6 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 ½ 1/3 ¼ 1/5

1/6

Speed Change 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1

Maneuver Modifier +8 +6 +4 +2 +1 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -14 -

20

Free turns: This is the number of times a ship can change their hex facing by one without using speed points. For example, a ship with

MC 9 has two free hex face changes every round. Before a ship can use any of these free turns they must have moved forward at least

one hex this round. After that they can use the free turns as they see fit. Beyond these free turns the ship must spend one speed point

per hex face change, as normal.

Turns per hex: This is the number of times a ship can change hex facing within a single hex, if the ship is also moving forward this

round in any manner. In order to make additional turns the ship must move forward at least one hex. For example, an MC 8 ship can

make 2 turns per hex. This means that they can turn twice in a single hex, but in order to make a third hex face change they must first

move forward into another hex. Some ships have fractional turns per hex, which means they must move forward more than one hex before every single hex face change. For example, a ship with a turns per hex of 1/3 must move three hexes forward before every turn.

All forward movement must be consecutive, but need not all occur in the same round. Thus if the ship moved forward one hex last

round and two the current round, it could then change its hex facing by one side.

Speed Change: A ship’s speed is the maximum number of hexes the ship can move in a round (determined by the helm), but ships



must spend time accelerating and decelerating in order to reach maximum speed, or slow down to zero. Each round a ship has a

maximum and minimum number of points they must spend on forward movement. The maximum number they can spend is either the

maximum speed of their helm, or



the amount they spent last round plus the speed change of their helm, whichever is less. The minimum number of speed points they

must spend on forward movement is the number of points they spent last round, minus their speed change.

Maneuver Modifier: This is a modifier applied to the maneuver roll whenever a ship attempts to do tactical maneuvering in ship to

ship combat. Note that the maneuverability class of a ship can change drastically from round to round during combat, so this modifier is tracked separately from the maneuver bonus derived from the skills of the riggers and pilot. Also see the section on spelljammer

combat for more information.

Multi-Hex ShipsEach hex is 150 feet long, and some ships will be larger than this. A ship might be both longer and wider

than 150 feet, in which case they take up more than one hex, possibly even in multiple directions. In the

case of multi-hex ships, the forward most hex is considered the front of the ship and is the turning point.

When any turns are made, they are based on this hex, and the rest of the ship turns around that hex.

Move Actions

On a ship’s initiative, before anyone on board the ship can perform a ship action, the helmsman mustdetermine how the ship is going to move for this round. This is done by deciding which type of move

action the ship will take. The type of move action the ship takes can affect other aspects of combat, such as

how hard it is for other ships to attack your ship, or how hard it is to ram a ship. There are nine different

move actions: standard, offensive, defensive, full defensive, ramming, forward, still, rotate, and fail. Each

move action will affect the attack, defense, and ramming capabilities of the ship, and may determine how

the ship can move. Ships must take a move action every round - even unmoving ships are taking the stillmove action - and the type of move action is chosen before any other ship actions are resolved.

The move actions of ships are not always performed automatically. The maneuvering of a spelljammingship is a team effort involving the helmsman and the crew operating the steering devices of the ship, and

there are many opportunities for things to go wrong. Because of this, several of the move actions for ships

require a maneuver roll to succeed. A maneuver roll is the ship’s maneuver bonus, plus its current

maneuverability modifier. Maneuver bonus is equal to the average Profession: Sailor skill of the rigging

crew plus the Pilot: Spelljammer skill of the helmsman, divided by two. The maneuverability modifier is

based on the ship’s Maneuverability Class, as shown on Table 7-3, above.

The various move actions are detailed below. If the action has a listed Difficulty Class higher than 10, that

action requires a maneuver roll. If the roll succeeds, the ship can move and modifiers listed for the moveaction take effect, and remain in effect until the helmsman picks his next move action. If the maneuver roll

fails, the ship automatically takes the fail move action. If the action has a listed Difficulty Class of 10 or

less (this applies to the Forward, Still, and Rotate move actions), then a maneuver roll is not normallyrequired. Only in instances when a maneuver roll is specifically called for (such as when the ship is

rammed, or its rigging is damaged), is it necessary to roll for these more simple move actions. This

includes any other time the ship is required to make a maneuver roll against its current move action.

If the ship takes the same move action that it did on the previous round, the ship can take 10 on the

maneuver roll to succeed. The exception to this is the full defensive move action, which requires a roll

every round that it is performed. For example, a ship using the forward action wants to take the standard

move action on its next turn. The helmsman makes a maneuver roll and succeeds. He then takes thestandard move action for the next three rounds, and since the ship’s effective maneuver bonus, including

the maneuver modifier, is _10, he can take 10 on the three subsequent rounds after he rolls, automatically

succeeding. If he then wished to take the full defensive maneuver action he would need to make a

maneuver roll.

Each move action lists modifiers for three different things: attack, defense, and ramming. The attack

modifier affects any ranged attacks the ship makes against other ships or their crews. This includes attacks

with ship weapons, personal weapons, and any magic spells or abilities that require rolls to hit. The

defense modifier affects the ship’s Armor Class against all attacks directed at the ship, as well as the AC of all those aboard against missile or spell attacks whose source is outside the ship. It also modifies the

helmsman’s roll to avoid being rammed. Attack bonuses are circumstance bonuses, and defense bonuses

are dodge bonuses. The ram modifier affects any rolls to successfully ram another target, including

counter-ramming and shearing attacks.

.



Standard Move Action: DC 15; Attack +0 / Defense +0 / Ram -3

The standard move action is a compromise between attack and defense. The helmsman seeks to maneuver

the ship suitable for ship weapon attacks, while giving equal attention to avoiding attacks from opponents.

Movement follows the normal rules.

Offensive Move Action: DC 20; Attack +2 / Defense -3 / Ram -5

The offensive move action focuses on positioning a ship to optimize attacks with ship weapons or crew-fired weapons, giving less attention to defense. Movement follows the normal rules.

Defensive Move Action: DC 20; Attack -3 / Defense +2 / Ram -5

This move action, often called ‘evasive maneuvers,’ is the opposite of the offensive move action; the ship is

maneuvered to focus more of defense, and attack is made secondary. Movement follows the normal rules.

Full Defensive Move Action: DC 25; Attack -6 / Defense +4 / Ram -8

The full defensive move action is evasive maneuvering taken to its limits; the ship is maneuvered to focus

completely on defense, and attack is ignored. Unlike other move actions, a roll must be made every round

to perform the full defensive move action. Movement follow the normal rules.

Ramming Move Action: DC 20; Attack -2 / Defense -2 / Ram +0

All other move actions give a penalty to ramming. The ramming move action, though, is optimized for it,

and thus has no penalties. The ship maneuvers only to try to ram, giving little attention to defense or shipweapons. Movement follows the normal rules.

Forward Move Action: DC 10; Attack -4 / Defense -2

This is simply moving forward, with no turning at all. Speed points cannot be spent on hex face changes,

nor can free turns from MC be used. This move action does not require a roll to perform, but it gives

penalties to both attack and defense, and ramming another moving vessel is pretty much impossible. The

DM might allow a ship using the forward action to ram a nonmoving ship in its path of movement.

Still Move Action: DC 10; Attack -5 / Defense -4

This is simply not moving at all, and the ship cannot spend points on any kind of movement. Unmovingships are easier to hit with ship weapons, and anyone attempting a ram against them roll only against their

Armor Class, and the ship can still never attempt a counter-ram. A ship that was moving the previous

round cannot take the still move action unless they can decelerate down to zero speed. The still moveaction does not require a roll to succeed.

Rotate Move Action: DC 10; Attack +0 / Defense -2

The rotate move action is for when the ship is not moving forward, but rotating in the same spot. The ship

can move two hex faces at the cost of one speed point, but cannot spend points on forward movement, anddoes not get the free turns they would normally receive for their Maneuverability Class. Anyone

attempting to ram a rotating ship rolls only against its Armor Class, but the rotating ship can attempt to

counter-ram when appropriate. Rotating ships can take the ready action to rotate into position in order to

counter-ram as well. A ship that was moving in the previous round cannot take the Rotate move action

unless it can decelerate down to zero speed in one round. The rotate maneuver does not require a roll to

succeed.

Fail Move Action: Special; Attack -5 / Defense -3 / Ram -6This is the move action all ships take if they fail their roll to perform other moves actions. Ships

performing the fail move action have an effective Maneuverability Class of one worse that the previousround; this means the Maneuverability Class penalty is cumulative, should the ship continue to take the fail

action. Succeeding in any other maneuver removes all penalties associated with the Fail move action.

Movement otherwise follows normal rules.

.



Acceleration and Deceleration

A ship’s speed is the maximum number of hexes that the ship can move in a round, but ships must spend

time accelerating and decelerating in order to move maximum speed, or slow back down to a stop. Each

round a ship has a maximum and minimum number of points they must spend on forward movement. The

maximum number they can spend is either the maximum speed of their helm, or the amount they spent lastround plus the acceleration of their vessel, whichever is less. The minimum number of speed points they

must spend on forward movement is the number of points they spent last round, minus their deceleration, or zero, whichever is higher. The acceleration and deceleration of a ship is based on its maneuverability class,

as shown in Table 7-3, above.

Moving Backwards and Sideways

Normally, ships move forward, along the direction they are facing, but helms are not necessarily limited to

this direction of travel and are actually capable of flying in any direction. The majority of ships, however,are designed along lines specific to forward movement, as is the ship’s rigging. Because of this, any

movement in a direction other than forward in a round requires a maneuver roll for the current move action

for every hex moved this way. The helmsman cannot take 10 on this roll, nor on his maneuver roll for the

move action on his ship’s next round.

Rolling

Rolling is spinning along the beam of the ship. If a ship is moving at least speed 1 and no turns have yet

been made this round it can roll to any angle as a free action. Otherwise it requires the ship to spend one point of Speed to roll. The primary use of rolling is to bring weapons on one side of a ship to bare on an

enemy on the other side; the ship rolls instead of turning 180 degrees, which allows it to keep the sameheading and spend less Speed points maneuvering.

Rolling requires a maneuver roll, using the same DC as the current move action. If this roll is failed, the

ship shifts immediately to the fail move action.

Hexes, Stacking, and Three Dimensional Movement

If you want to keep things fairly simple, you’ll want to stick with two-dimensional movement. If you

decide to use two dimensional movement only, then any number of ships can stack within the same hex, as

they can freely move above or below one another with no effort or effect.

If you like things to be a bit more complex, consider adding three dimensional movement to your

spelljammer combats. With three dimensional movement, combat can take place on multiple planes(planes in the geometrical sense, rather than in the planescape sense), and ships can change their up or

down angle, just like they can turn in a two dimensional arena. Like turning a ship, a ship’s vertical angle

must face one of the sides of the hex, never the corner of the hex.

Making full use of the three dimensional space also means that ships that would appear to be in the samehex, when looked at in two dimensions, may be in different hexes when viewed in the third dimension.

This means that you may not have as many ships ‘stacked’ in the same hex as it would appear. When two

ships actually are in the same hex, however, they are pretty close together, and each ship must make a

maneuver roll versus its current move action. If either ship fails, they crash (see Crashing, below). When

one ship is attempting to ram another, they need not make these rolls (see Ramming, below).

.



Ship Weapons

Most ship in arcane space carry at least a few ship weapons on board. Resolving attacks with them is not

all that different than resolving missile attacks during normal combat.

The Attack Roll

The basic attack roll is:1d20 + Base Attack + Weapon Modifier - Range Penalties + or - Size Modifier

This may be further modified by the move action that the ship is taking. The total is compared to the target ship’s Armor Class; if the

result is equal to or greater than the target’s Armor Class, then the attack is a hit. Otherwise, it is a miss. The rules for a ‘natural’ roll

of one or a ‘natural’ roll of 20 apply normally, as they do for attacks with personal weapons.

Base Attack : Attacking with a ship weapon is based on the skill of the leader of the weapon crew. The crew leader’s Base Attack is equal to the total number of ranks the leader of the crew has in the Heavy Weaponeer skill and his Wisdom bonus. Although the base attack for ships weapons is derived from a skill, attacks from ship weapons are attack rolls,not skill checks.

If the crew leader does not have the appropriate Heavy Weapon Proficiency feat, they suffer a -4 penalty to hit. If they do not have the Heavy Weaponeer skill at all they suffer atotal of -8 to hit.

Weapon Modifier : Some weapons are more accurate than others. Each ship weapon has an attack modifier that is added to all attack rolls.

Range: All ship weapons have a listed range, in hexes or in feet. They receive no penalty to attack ships within this range. For every hex beyond this, they have a penalty of -2 totheir attack roll.

Size Modifier : The size of the ship attacking will make it easier or more dif ficult to hit with ship weapons. This size modifier is shown on Table 7-5.

For more on Heavy Weapon Proficiencies and the Ship Weaponeer skill, see the Skills and Feats section of this article.

For more on weapons themselves, see the Outfitting Your Ship With Weapons section of this article.

Table 7-5: Ship Size, Effects, and Equivalents

MC by Size Creature Square Hex

Ship Size Tonnage Size Mod Size Face Dimension Face

Very Fine -- +16 Small 5x5x5 2ft - 4ft 1x1x1Fine -- +8 Medium 5x5x5 4ft - 8ft 1x1x1

Diminutive -- 10 +4 Large 5x10x10 8ft - 16ft 1x1x1

Tiny 1 - 2 tons 9 +2 Huge 10x15x35 16ft - 32ft 1x1x1

Small 3 - 10 tons 8 +1 Gargantuan 20x20x70 32ft - 64ft 1x1x1

Medium 11 - 30 tons 7 0 Colossal 30x30x90 64ft - 128ft 1x1x1Large 31 - 60 tons 6 -1 30x35x150 1x1x1

Huge 61 - 100 tons 5 -2 Immense 30x35x250 128ft - 256ft 1x1x2

Gargantuan 101 to 200 tons 4 -4 40x60x300 1x2x2

Colossal 201 to 400 tons 3 -8 Awesome 70x50x500 256ft - 512ft 2x2x4

Immense 401 tons or more 2 -16 90x60x500 2x4x4

Ship Size: Like creatures, all ships have a size. Ship size is not on the same scale as creature size (even smaller ships tend to be

relatively large compared to most living things, and larger ships dwarf even the oldest of terrestrial dragons). Size affects the ship’s

armor class and its ability to hit with ship’s weapons. Unless specifically stated otherwise, size in this article always refers to ship

size.

Tonnage: The volume of the ship, in tons. One ton is 2700 cubic feet, or 100 cubic yards. The tonnage of the ship is important in

determining other qualities of the ship, such as how many crewmen it can sustain, how maneuverable it is, and how difficult it is to

attack from with ship’s weapons, among other things.

MC by Size: The base maneuverability class of the ship, based on its size in tons. Also see Table 1-3: Maneuverability Class Effects

to learn more about maneuverability.

Size Mod: The size modifier applies to attacks made with ship weapons and to the ship’s armor class. This is basically just like thesize modifier that is applied to creatures, but uses ship sizes rather than creature sizes.

Creature Size: The equivalent creature size for the corresponding ship size.

Square Face: The most likely facing of the ship in five foot squares. Some ships may have different square faces than this, due to anodd deck design.

Dimension: The longest physical dimensions of a creature that size.

Hex Face: The size of the ship in 150 foot hexes.

.



Firing Arcs

Because ship combat uses specific facing rules, the direction a ship-mounted weapon is facing is important.

Unless the weapon is turreted, it can fire into a limited area, termed its firing arc. There are four firing arcs:

forward, aft, port (left), and starboard (right). The Firing Arcs are illustrated on the Illustrations page,

below. The firing arc of a weapon is determined by its placement and facing. Unless it is mounted on aturret, a weapon will be capable of firing into only one of these arcs.

Multi-hex ships work the same way. Decide which hex of the ship a given weapon resides on, then use thatsingle hex to determine its firing arc. For more information on turrets, see the Other Equipment and

Accessories section of this article.

Note that doing a roll can allow a ship to bring weapons on one side of the ship to bare on another side.

See the Movement section of this article for more on rolls.

Reload

Each ship weapon has a listing for crew and reload. Reload is the number of rounds the crew must spend

reloading the weapons before it can be fired again. The listed crew is the number of crew required in order

to have the listed reload time, assuming all have one or more ranks in the Profession: sailor skill, though

crew beyond this do not help. For every man under the listed crew, add one to the Reload time, down to a

minimum of one man.

Reload times assume that ammunition for the weapon is within 20 feet of the weapon and easily accessible.

For every additional 20 feet away the ammunition is from the weapon, add 1 round to the reload time.

The crew listed for a weapon is there only for the purpose of reloading. Actually firing a weapon requiresonly one man, the crew leader.

Damage

If a ship weapon succeeds in hitting its target, roll its listed damage. Subtract from this the hardness of the

target’s hull. The damage is then subtracted from the ship’s hit points. See Ships and Damage, below, for

more information on a ship’s hit points.

Threats and Critical Hits

Each weapon has a threat rating. If the attacker rolls this number or greater, and the attack was a hit, the

attacker has scored a threat. Roll the attack again, using all the same modifiers. If the second roll is asuccess, the attack is a critical hit. If the second roll is a failure, it is a normal hit.

On a critical hit, roll the weapon’s listed damage twice. If the weapon has a multiplier of x3, roll the

damage three times. All damage from a critical is totaled before the target’s hardness is applied.

Collateral Damage

Collateral damage varies from ship-threatening results of combat to less dangerous situations, which impair

the functioning of the ship. Whenever a ship takes more than 100 points of damage in a single attack, it

also suffers from collateral damage. Whenever the ship is reduced to 50% of its total hit points, itimmediately suffers from 1d3 collateral damage rolls. Finally, atmospheric travel, crashes, and other

circumstances can also cause a ship to suffer collateral damage.

When collateral damage occurs, roll on the table below for each collateral damage result. Apply each result

to the ship as applicable. If the result is inapplicable ("Ha! You can't destroy the spelljammer helm! You

blew it up last turn”) shift up to the next higher entry on the list.

Table 7-6: Collateral Damage

Roll Result Roll Result

1 Loss of 10d10 Hit Points 11 Fire2 Deck Crew Casualty 12 Loss of SR

3 Siege Weapon Damaged 13 Interior Crew Casualty

4 Ship Shaken 14 Siege Weapon Damaged

5 Hull Holed 15 Ship Shaken

6 Deck Crew Casualty 16 Hull Holed7 Interior Crew Casualty 17 Maneuverability Loss

8 Maneuverability Loss 18 Loss of 20d10 Hit Points

9 Loss of 20d10 Hit Points 19 Loss of SR

10 Ship Shaken 20 Spelljammer Shock



Loss of 10d10 or 20d10 Hit Points: This loss is in addition to the initial damage. In some cases it may cause the ship to break up or

force another collateral damage check. Multiple rolls for the same attack are cumulative.

Deck Crew Casualty: One exposed crew member is struck and suffers the same damage as the ship. Choose the target randomly from

exposed crew. All characters within 5 feet of that individual must make Reflex save DC 15 or take damage from shrapnel from the

shattered deck or catapult shot. Damage from this shrapnel is 2d8 hit points of damage.

Interior Crew Casualty: Same as Deck Casualty, but everyone aboard is a potential target, including prisoners, the captain, andspelljamming mages. This reflects not so much the effect of the missile itself, but shattered parts of the ship's interior bouncing around

during combat.

Ship Shaken: Ship rings from the blow of the attack. All characters not sitting or otherwise firmly tied down (the spelljamming mageis considered secure) have a chance to fall to the deck, disallowing any attacks or spell use that round. All on deck NPCs and PCs have

to make a Reflex save DC 20 to maintain their balance.

Ship Weapon Damaged: One of the ship’s weapons (chosen randomly) is inoperable until repaired (see Repairs). Its crew is

unharmed.

Hull Holed: The attack punches a hole in the ship where there was none before. The DM chooses which part of the ship is holed

(either by random roll, according to the situation between the ships, or whatever would make things more interesting at that point).

Fire: A fire starts somewhere in the ship, as determined by the DM! The effects of fire aboard ship are described below. In caseswhere it is physically impossible for a fire to start (all the lights are magical, there is nothing flammable onboard, and everyone is

wearing cloths made of rock), go to the next entry. A fire onboard as a result of this collateral hit (as opposed to greek fire or magic)

inflicts no damage the first round, but may spread.

Loss of SR: The SR of the ship drops by one for 1d10 rounds while the helmsman readjusts his balance and senses to the new damagelevel. Additional losses are cumulative, to a minimum of 1 SR. If a ship with a SR of 1 receives this result, go to the next entry.

Maneuverability Loss: The ship drops one MC for 1d10 rounds. A ship with a Maneuverability Class of 0 cannot lose any more

maneuverability so the next entry is taken instead.

Spelljammer Shock: The spelljamming mage must make a Fortitude save versus a DC of 20. On a successful save, the helmsman is

shaken for 1d4 rounds. A shaken character suffers a -2 morale penalty on attack rolls, skill and ability checks, and saving throws, and

cannot take 10 on any maneuver rolls. If the character fails the saving throw, he takes 3d6 points of subdual damage and is shaken for

1d6+1 rounds. If the helmsman is dropped to unconsciousness due to subdual damage from spelljammer shock, he enters a coma

which lasts for 1d4+1 days.

Cover

Depending on the situation, a ship may gain bonuses or suffer penalties due to cover. Cover provides a bonus to a ship’s AC. The more cover a ship has, the bigger the bonus. Cover is assessed in subjective

measurements of how much protection it offers a ship. The DM determines the value of cover. See Table

7-7: Cover Bonuses, below.

If it is ever important to know whether the cover was actually struck by an incoming attack that misses its

intended target, the DM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without thecover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover, buy high enough to

strike the target if there had been no cover, then the object used for cover was struck. This can be

particularly important to know in cases where a ship uses another ship as cover. In such a case, if the cover

is struck and the attack roll exceeds the AC of the covering ship, then the covering ship takes the damage

intended for the target.

If the covering ship has an AC bonus due to its move action, and this bonus keeps the covering ship from

being hit, then the original target is hit instead. The covering ship has dodged out of the way and didn’t

provide cover after all. A covering ship can choose not to apply its move action bonus to its AC, if its

intent is to try to take the damage in orders to keep the covered ship from being hit.

Concealment

Concealment covers all circumstances where nothing physically blocks a shot, but where something

interferes with an attacker’s accuracy. Concealment is subjectively measured as to how well concealed the

defending ship is. Concealment always depends upon the point of view of the attacker. See Table 7-8:

Concealment.



Concealment gives the subject of a successful attack a chance that the attacker missed because of

concealment. If the attacking ship hits, the defender must make a miss chance percentile roll to avoid being

struck. When multiple concealment conditions apply to a defender, use the one that would produce the

highest miss chance.

Table 7-7: Cover

Amount of Cover Bonus to AC Bonus to Reflex Saves Additional Effect

One quarter +2 +1One half +4 +2

Three fourths +7 +3 Nine tenths +10 +4 Improved Evasion for target

Table 7-8: Concealment

Amount of Concealment Example Miss Chance Additional Effect

One quarter light fog, twilight 10%One half blur, moderate fog 20%

Three fourths moonlight, asteroid field 30%

Nine tenths dense fog, starlight 40%

Total invisibility, total darkness 50% cannot pinpoint target’s location

Specific Targets

There will be times when a weapon crew wishes to target specific parts of a ship, such as its crew,

weapons, or rigging. Plus, some ships are made up of identifiable sections that a crew may wish to target.

Each of these situations works similarly.

Targeting Crew: Attacking the crew on an enemy ship with ship weapons is not easy. It follows the normal rules for ship weapon

attacks, but the character targeted gains a bonus to his AC based on his size (This is Ship size, not Creature size). To find a

character’s ship size, refer to table 7-4: Ship Size, Effects, and Equivalents, above. In addition, the target gains any bonuses (but not

penalties) to AC that the ship gains from cover or its move action.

Targeting Weapons: Ship weapons have an AC of 20, modified by the size of the weapon. The weapon gains any bonuses or penalties

to AC that the ship gains from cover or its move action. Ship weapons have their own hardness and hit points, which can be found in

Table 5-1: Ship Weapons.

These above rules assume attacks by ship weapons or similar assaults. Attacks on ship weapon by characters using personal weaponsfollow all of the normal rules for attacking and damaging an object.

Targeting Rigging: Rigging has AC 20, modified by size, and rigging is smaller than the ship it is on. Minimal rigging is three sizes

smaller than the ship it is on, standard rigging is two sizes smaller than the ship it is on, and terrestrial, topped out, and perfect rigging

are one size smaller than the ship it is on. The rigging gains any bonuses or penalties to AC that the ship gains from cover or its moveaction. The hit points and hardness for rigging can be found in table 3-4 and calculated using formula 3-1 in the Building Your Own

Spelljamming Vessel section of this article.

These above rules assume attacks by ship weapons or similar assaults. Strategic attacks by characters with cutting weapons can

damage rigging much more effectively, as determined by the DM.

Solid Mass: Ships with solid mass do not combine the hit points of their two sections. A weapon crew that recognizes the solid mass

will typically aim for the non-solid sections of the ship. The non-solid section has its own AC and hit points. If the crew is not aware

that part of the ship is solid, the section that they strike will be random. To find which section the crew attacks, find the percentage of

the total tonnage that each section takes, and then roll percentile dice to determine which is hit. Use the AC of the section that was

struck to see if the attack was successful or not.

Composite Hull: A ship with a composite hull works similarly to a ship with solid mass. The attacking crew can target individual

areas of the ship. Unlike solid mass ships, composite hull ships have an overall set of hit points for the whole ship. When targeting

individual sections, each section should modify its AC by size. If the weapon crew does not realize that a ship has a composite hull,

they fire normally, or they can simply aim at the ship as a whole, not worrying about which section they hit. See Solid Mass, above,for rules for such random attacks. Individual sections of a composite hull ship do not gain size modifiers separate from the ship when

attacked randomly this way. Whatever section is hit will determine the hardness.

Shell Ships: The two ships that make up the shell ship are typically targeted individually. The percentage of the smaller ship’s

tonnage that the larger ship devotes to the mooring space is used to determine the smaller ship’s level of cover in combat.

Other Specific Targets: It is possible to target other specific areas of a ship, or objects on a ship. In such cases the target’s AC is

based on its materials and ship size.

.



Jettisons and Fire Projectors

These two ship weapons work differently than the others. Both create area effects, and can hurt the crew.

Attacking with a jettison or fire projector requires the same roll, but instead of the ship’s AC, the difficulty

is a flat DC 15 plus the ship’s current defense modifier from its move action. The crew chooses where they

wish to center the attack, then rolls to hit. If they succeed by five or more, the center of the area is wherethey planned. If they succeed by less than five, the attack hits, but its center is 1d6x5 feet from their

planned center. Roll 1d8 to determine the direction. Both a jettison and a fire projector allow saves for half damage. As with any Reflex save, the crew gains a bonus to their save based on any cover that they

might benefit from.

Jettison: The Reflex save against a jettison is DC 13 for a light jettison and DC 15 for a heavy jettison. The

area of effect is a 10 foot radius for a light jettison and a 20 foot radius for a heavy jettison. Each bit of

shrapnel does approximately one point of damage, and thus does not harm anything with a hardness of 1 or better.

If half or more of the crew takes damage from a jettison, whether they are killed or not, the ship needs to

make a maneuver roll for their current move action.

Fire Projector: The Reflex save against a fire projector is DC 13 for a light projector and DC 15 for a

heavy projector. The area of effect is a 10 foot radius for a light projector and 20 feet for a heavy projector.

Ships make a fortitude save versus these same Dcs to determine whether or not they catch fire from this

attack.On the round following the attack, anyone who took damage from a fire projector takes additional damage;

roll the projector’s damage a second time. The target can take a full-round action to attempt to extinguishthe flames before taking the secondary damage. It takes a successful Reflex saving throw (DC 13) to

extinguish the flames. Rolling on the ground allows the character a +2 circumstance bonus to this save.

Leaping into enough water to cover the character or magically extinguishing the flames automatically

smothers them.

If Half or more of the rigging crew takes damage from a fire projector attack, whether they are killed or

not, the ship needs to make a maneuver roll for their current move action.

Damage from a fire projector also applies to a ship, even if it also strikes characters. While the damage is

minimal enough, it can set the ship on fire. See Fire, in Ships and Damage, below.

Characters and Ship Weapons

Ship weapons do not normally load and fire themselves. In order for a weapon to be loaded, turned, or fired, the crew must take one of these three actions.

Loading a weapon is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Some men in the crew may

move during the full round action in order to retrieve and replace ammo for the weapon, and this movement

may provoke an attack of opportunity if it goes through an enemy’s threatened area.

Rotating a turreted weapon to a different firing arc is a full round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but it may involve moving through a threatened area, which provokes attacks of opportunity as

normal.

Firing a weapon is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity, as all attention is focused on

hitting the enemy ship.

Ship Weapons and the Ready Action

Because firing a ship weapon is a standard action, it is possible for the crew leader to take a ready action in

order to fire the weapon. Doing so works differently than normal ready actions.First, when using a ready action to fire a ship weapon, all initiative numbers remain the same. Unlike a

normal ready action taken by a character, the initiative of the person and ship that took the action does not become one greater than the ship that they are acting against.

Second, the conditions that will trigger the readied action need not be specific. Once a crew has taken the

ready action to fire a ship weapon, the crew leader can fire at any time, even in the middle of someone

else’s turn. He can fire between hexes of movement, or after the ship has performed some action. If

another ship has declared an action, the readied action goes after the declared action. Each hex of

movement is considered a separate declared action.

The crew leader can still get specific if he wishes, which allows his readied action to go before a declared



action, as a readied action normally would.



Ramming

Most ship designed for warfare are outfitted with a ram, allowing them to plow into other ships. Ramming

has the potential to cause large amounts of damage, but there is risk involved. Ramming a ship may result

in damage to your own ship, as well. In some situations, the enemy ship may be able to maneuver to ram

you in return. Ramming is handled a bit differently than ship weapon attacks. The skill of the helmsmanand crew of the ship is important, as is the maneuverability of the ship, and its target’s AC.

In order to ram another ship, the attacker must move into that ship’s hex; a ship cannot ram another ship inthe same hex, although it can leave and reenter the hex. When ramming, the facing of the target and the

direction from which the attacker approaches is important, as it determines the angle of attack. There are

four angles: head on, aft on, forward, and aft, which are illustrated below.

The Procedure for resolving a ram attempt is:

1d20 + attacker’s maneuver bonus + maneuverability modifier + or - size modifier

vs.defender’s maneuver bonus + maneuverability modifier + one-half the defender’s AC

This may be further modified by the move action the attacking ship is currently taking. Ramming can also result in a critical failure,

also detailed below.

Characters and Ramming

Ramming a ship is part of a ship’s movement, and thus the actions of those involved are the same. See

Movement, above.

Ramming Damage

When one ship rams another, both ships may take damage. The base damage an attacker does to his target

with a piercing ram or blunt ram is twice the ship’s tonnage. The base damage the attacker takes from

ramming a ship is equal to one tenth of the target ship’s hit points before it was rammed. It is possible for

the ramming ship to reduce this damage via a piloting roll.

The speed of the two ships is important when figuring damage. The speed of the ramming ship is either the

number of points it spent of forward movement last round, or the number of points it spent of forward

movement this round, whichever is higher, minus any speed points used to change facing this round. This

is unless the helmsman wishes to actually reduce his speed before ramming. The speed of the target ship isthe number of points it spent on forward movement on its last action.

The angle at which the ship rams its target determines the total damage done to both the attacker and the

defender:

Head On: Damage to the target is equal to base damage, multiplied by the attacker’s speed plus the defender’s speed. The defending

ship automatically gets a counter-ram attempt against the attacking ship, if it has a ram and an active helm. The attacking ship takestwice the base damage from ramming. A successful maneuver roll (DC 30) reduces this by half.

Forward: Damage to the target is equal to base damage, multiplied by the attacker’s speed plus one half of the defender’s speed. The

attacking ship takes base damage from ramming. A successful maneuver roll (DC 25) reduces this by half.

Aft On: Damage to the target is equal to base damage, multiplied by the attacker’s speed minus the defender’s speed. The attacking

ship takes one half base damage from ramming. A successful maneuver roll (DC 15) reduces this to zero damage.

Aft: Damage is equal to base damage, multiplied by the attacker’s speed minus one half of the defender’s speed. The attacking shiptakes one-half base damage from ramming. A successful maneuver roll (DC 20) reduces this by half.

Hardness is subtracted from all damage as normal, but use the hardness of the frame, rather than that of the

hull.Any time a ship being rammed is reduced to zero hit points, the attacking ship takes only half of the normal

damage that he would otherwise have taken. The damage is reduced to zero with a successful maneuver

roll.

Counter Ramming

Ramming a ship from the head on angle can be very risky; the target may be able to position itself to ram

you at the same time, which is called a counter-ram. It counts as a head on ram, and is resolved normally.If both hit, both take the damage the other inflicts, plus the damage from ramming someone. This makes



head on rams very dangerous.



Cover and Concealment

These two situations can hinder a ram attack just as it would an attack from a ship weapon. See the rules in

the Ship Weapons section, above.

Piercing Ram

An attack from a piercing ram puts a hole in the other ship, possibly deep into its interior. The target of a successful ram attack from a

ship that has a piercing ram automatically takes a Hull Holed result from the Collateral Damage table, as well as any additionalcollateral damage effects that might result from being rammed. The DM determines where the hole is, based on the angle of the

attack, then uses this to judge any additional effects based on the situation. Anyone who might be adversely affected by this can makea reflex save (DC 20) to either avoid the effects or at least reduce the damage.

When ramming with a piercing ram, the two ships may become locked together. If the helmsman of the ramming ship wishes to lock

the two ships, he must first make a Pilot Spelljammer roll against a DC of 15, plus the maneuver modifier of the target ship. If he is

successful, then the helmsmen of both ships must make a contested Pilot Spelljammer roll. The winner of this contest determines

whether or not the two ships are locked. If the ships become locked, the two ships are grappled as if the ramming ship had a grapplingram. Once the two ships are locked together, another opposed Pilot Spelljammer check is required to separate them. If both

helmsmen want to disengage from the lock, or if one of the ships has no active helm, then the DC for unlocking the two ships is 20. If

the two ships do not become locked, or disengage from a lock, then both ships are stopped, and floating next to each other in the same

hex. Also see Grappling Rams, below, for more information.

Blunt Ram

An attack from a blunt ram severely shakes the target ship. The target of a successful attack from a ship that has a blunt ram

automatically takes a Ship Shaken result from the Collateral Damage table, as well as any additional collateral damage results that

might result from being rammed.

Recovering from a Ram

When one ship rams another, both may be thrown off balance. Both ships must make a new maneuver roll

for the maneuver that they were making when the ram occurred. If the target ship is reduced to zero or

fewer hit points, the attacking ship gains a +5 circumstance to this roll, and, of course, the destroyed ship

need not bother rolling. If either ship fails this roll, their current move actions becomes the fail move

action, with all corresponding penalties.

When one ship rams another, both ships come to a stop, unless the ramming ship reduces its target to zerohit points, in which case it can move through normally.

Critical Hits

Ramming a ship with a blunt of piercing ram can result in a critical hit. Rams threaten on a 20, and do x2

damage.

Crew Damage

Ramming a ship can harm or kill its crew members, especially those below decks. The DM will need todetermine where the ram strikes the ship, based on the angle of the ram and the layout of the ships. Anyone

within 15 feet of this location must make a Reflex save (DC 20) or take 5d6 damage, with a successful save

resulting in half damage. Anyone farther than 15 feet, but within 30 feet must make a Reflex save (DC 17)

or take 3d6 damage, with a successful save resulting in no damage. Anyone on an open deck receives a +4

circumstance bonus to this saving throw.

If the target ship is reduced to zero hit points, the damage is doubled (10d6 for those within 15 feet and 6d6

for those within 30 feet), and there is a path through the ship rather than an impact point. Anyone within

the listed ranges ofthe path is susceptible to damage. Also, anyone within 15 feet of the path may fall off of the ship if they do not succeed at a Reflex save (DC 15).

If the ramming ship is reduced to zero hit points, its crew may take the same damages listed above, with the

point of impact being where the helm is connected to the ship.

Crashing

A ship does not need a ram in order to ram into another ship. Such attacks are crashes. Crashes can also

occur accidentally due to poor maneuvering or unseen obstacles. A crash works the same as a ram attack,

except both ships take damage as if they were the attacker, rather than one of them being the defending

ship. In addition to this, crashing automatically causes a Collateral Damage roll (See Collateral Damage,

above).In the case of a ship crashing into an object, rather than another ship, simply use the crashing ship’s own



hitpoints for the base damage (that is, the ship takes one tenth of its own hit points, multiplied times its

speed.



Grappling Rams

A ship using a grappling ram on another ship works a lot like a person trying to grapple another person. It is a contest of maneuver

rolls, both modified by ship size. The defending ship gains a +10 bonus to this roll.

If the grappling ship manages to get a hold of its target, it can then move both ships around, provided its helm is capable of moving a

ship equal to the combined size of the two ships. Forces from both ships can also attempt to board the enemy ship.The ship that initiated the grapple can withdraw its grappling ram, which requires 1 round, after which either ship can move away

from the other.

If the target ship is the same tonnage or smaller than the grappling ship, it can try to escape from the grapple. This is a Pilot

Spelljammer roll rather than a maneuver roll. The DC is based on the size of the two ships and the materials that the grappling ram iscomposed of (if this is not listed, use the materials of the grappling ship’s frame), as shown on table 7-9.

Table 7-9: Escape DC for Grappling Rams

Material DC Grapple Ram Size DC Modifier

Leather 12 1 size smaller -4

Bone 14 Same size 0Wood 15 1 size larger +2

Ceramic 16 2 sizes larger +4

Glass 11 3 sizes larger +2

Living Wood 15 4 sizes larger 0

Gravwood 15Ironwood 17

Stone 18

Glassteel 20

Iron 20

Crystal 20

Steel 22Mithral 23

Adamantine 25

Obdurium 30

If the pilot succeeds at the check, he may opt to break free of the grapple and move away, however, he

may, depending upon how well he succeeds at the check, tear away some or all of his rigging. If the Pilot

Spelljammer roll succeeds by five points or less, then the ship is able to break free, but all of the ships

rigging will be torn away. If the Pilot Spelljammer roll succeeds by more than 5, but less than ten, then the

ship is able to break free, but the rigging will be damaged as if it were the target of a successful shearingattack (see Shearing Attacks, below). If the Pilot Spelljammer roll succeeds by 10 or more, then the ship is

able to break free without damaging its rigging. After the Pilot Spelljammer check is made, and the degree

of success determined, the helmsman can opt to take that check, and all of its consequences, or he can

remain in the grapple and try to escape again is subsequent rounds.

If the results of the Pilot Spelljammer check failed by five or more points, then the ship’s rigging may betorn off anyway, as well as leaving the vessel stuck in the grapple. If the pilot fails his check by five or

more, but less than 10, then the rigging is damaged as if it were the target of a successful shearing attack. If

the Pilot Spelljammer roll fails by ten or more points, then all of the ships rigging will be torn away.

If the grappling ship is smaller than the target ship, the target ship cannot escape from the grapple. Because

the gravity of the larger ship overrides the gravity of the smaller ship, they are considered one ship withtonnage equal to their combined tonnage. Even if the helm of the target ship is capable of moving a hip of

their new, combined size, the smaller ship will simply be drug along with it. In order to remove the smaller

ship, the grappling will have to be cut away, or the crew ill have to overtake the smaller ship and retract its

grappling ram.

Shearing Attacks

A common tactic for smaller warships is to mount blades on the hulls, known as rigging shears, that can be

used to cut away sections of rigging on enemy ships, making them less maneuverable. These attacks arecalled shearing attacks.

Using rigging shears is surprisingly easy when compared to a ram, since the armor of the ship usually

won’t help much, but it does have the drawback of exposing the ship to it’s target’s ship weapons.

In order to make a shearing attempt, the ship must have rigging shears, and the target must have rigging.

The attacking ship enters into the target’s hex, passing over it. Shearing attacks are opposed maneuver

rolls, modified by the move action of the attacker (ram bonus) and the defender (defense bonus).

Defenders with solid rigging gain a +4 bonus to this roll, as do defenders with a portion of their rigging

mounted internally (for a combined bonus of +8 for internal, solid rigging).



If the attacker meets or exceeds the defender’s roll, he has managed to shear away some rigging. The

results of a shearing attack depend upon the ship’s current rigging type. If the ship has minimal rigging, it

is destroyed, dropping the ship’s effective rigging to none (i.e. The rigging’s hit points are reduced to zero).

All other types of rigging drop to minimal (i.e. The rigging’s hit points are reduced to one-half of their

total). The ship’s Maneuverability Class is modified appropriately. The ship’s new effective rigging typeis used if the ship is successfully sheared again. Thus, two successful shearing attacks against any ship

susceptible to such attacks will completely destroy its rigging (reducing it to rigging of none). The changein the effective rigging type from a shearing attack does not reduce the number of men required to operate

it, however, no rigging is no rigging, whether from having your rigging destroyed or having no riggers.

There are two drawbacks to making a shearing attack. First, passing over the ship in the attempt makes the

attacker particularly vulnerable to the target’s ship weapons. Any attacks made by the defending ship

against its shearing attacker are made at a circumstance bonus of +2 to hit while the two ships are in the

same hex (but not before or after). The second drawback is that shearing attacks may throw off themaneuvering of the ship. If the shearing attack is successful, they need to make a maneuver roll for their

current move action. If this roll is successful, nothing happens, otherwise, the ship’s move action

immediately becomes the fail move action, with all the penalties normally associated with that action.

Cover and Concealment

These two situations can hinder a shearing attack just as it would an attack from a ship weapon. See the

rules in the Ship Weapons section, above.

Shearing Without Shears

It is possible for a ship without rigging shears to try and pull away another ship’s rigging, but it is moredifficult and possibly dangerous. The procedure works as normal, but the attacking ship has a penalty of -4

to its attack roll. If the attacking ship fails by 10 or more, it has managed to shear away some of its own

rigging, just as if it has been the target of a shearing attack.

Ships and Damage

The hit points of a ship work in the same manner as hit points for characters, but they do not tell the whole

story of the ship’s durability. The hit points listed for a spelljamming ship are actually one-half of the

ship’s total hit points. That is, the ship has twice the listed number of hit points.The reasons that a ship has only one-half of its total hit points listed is because of the helm. An active

spelljamming helm creates a field around the vessel that moves the ship through space. This field put

enormous stress on the ship, in the same manner that an ocean puts stress on a seagoing vessel. This stressis what is felt by the rigging crew and used to intuit the direction that the helmsman is trying to move.

While this stress does not feel significant to those aboard, it exerts considerable force on the ship that the

helm is connected to.

When a ship with an active helm is reduced to one half its total hit points (the total amount of hit points thatare listed for the ship), the stresses placed on the ship by the helm’s field overwhelms the structural

durability of the ship, and the ship breaks up into several smaller pieces. The automatically shuts the helm

down.

Because most ships operate in combat via an active helm, the first half of the ship’s hit points are the most

important and are tracked separately. This is what the listed hit points for a ship represent. If a free

floating ship took more damage than one-half of its total hit points, it would not break up, since it does not

have an active helm. If a helm was linked to the ship and activated before the ship was repaired, the ship

would immediately break up.Ships that break up because of the helm field end up in 2d4 chunks, each with an equal portion of the ship’s

tonnage and remaining hit points, except for the chunk with the helm, which receives the brunt of the stressdamage from the break up, and has only enough hit points to hold it together.

It is possible to move the helm from its original fragment onto another one, and use that as a ship. Such

fragments have an MC appropriate for their new size, but have poor form and no rigging whatsoever,

worsening their MC by three. They also suffer a -3 to AC.

.



Ships and Saving Throws

Normally, attended objects use their user’s saving throws, and unattended objects automatically fail their

saves. But, while ships are objects, their saves work differently. Ships have both Reflex and Fortitude

saves.

A ship can make a Reflex save as long as the ship is taking a move action other than fail, forward, rotate, or still. A ship’s reflex save is a maneuver roll, but the DC for the save is +20; it is quite difficult for a ship to

make most reflex saves. Add the ship’s defense bonus to the roll.Ships make Fortitude saves based on the section of the ship that is targeted and the materials that section is

made of. Anything targeting the decks or the outer hull is based on the hull material. Anything that targets

the inside of the ship or the ship’s structural integrity is based on the frame materials. The fortitude saves

for the various materials can be found on Table 2-1 in the Ship Construction section.

Damage from Spells and Personal Weapons

Attacks against ships from personal weapons or most spells tend to do less damage than ship weapons.

Ships are objects, and as such take less damage from certain types of attacks. They are immune to critical

hits from anything but ship weapons and ramming attacks, as well as any form of subdual damage. Ships

take half damage from ranged personal weapons, fire, and electricity; divide the damage by 2 before

applying the object’s hardness. Cold attacks deal one-quarter damage to objects. Acid and sonic attacks

deal full damage to objects.

Some forms of personal ranged weapons will do normal damage, due to size factors, as determined by the

DM. For example, a rock hurled by a giant is much more akin to a catapult attack than a normal personalweapon, and as such may be treated as an attack from a ship weapon.

Fire

Most ships in arcane space are made of wood, and unfortunately wood burns. Even stone and metal can

burn when hit by a magically hot fire. Any time a ship takes damage from fire, it may begin to burn. A

burning ship continues

to take damage, and the fire creates smoke that pollutes the ship’s air envelope. Being caught in the middle

of the void on a burning ship is a nightmare many spacefarers have.

When a ship takes fire damage, it needs to make a Fortitude save, based on the materials where the fire

struck. If struck on the decks or hull, use the hull material. If struck on the interior of the ship, use theframe material. The DC of the save is based on its source. Spells use their normal DC. Anything other

than a spell that does not have a listed DC should use the DC of a similar spell. If the save is successful,

the fire does its normal damage, but then peters out and the ship does not catch fire. If the save is failed,then the ship catches on fire. Each subsequent round, the ship takes damage equal to the damage it took in

the previous round, plus two. The reduction of damage from being an object and hardness is then applied.

For example, a wooden ship is struck by a fireball that does 20 points of damage and the ship fails its

saving throw. The ship is now on fire. On the second round, the fire does 22 points of damage, which is

halved to 11, then the ship’s hardness reduces it to 6. On the third round, it does 24 (reduced to 7), and soon.

In addition to damaging the ship, fire also burns up breathable air and pollutes the air envelope. Every five

points of fire damage (before being reduced by half and the ship’s hardness) reduces the ship’s current air

supply by one man day.

The crew of the ship can try to put out a fire. The two standard methods are smothering and water.

Smothering works well for smaller fires, but once a fire gets to a certain size, it is useless. Water works

against all sizes of fire, but getting water to the fire may be difficult.

In order to smother a fire the crew must have access to something suitable for smothering. This can bethings such as extra sails, blankets, cargo canvas, and so on. The DM will determine what is available and

how long it will take to get it to the fire. Every round of smothering a fire reduces it by five points of damage. Smothering does not work at all against fires that are currently doing 50 points of damage or more

per round.

Each standard bucket (four gallons) of water put on a fire reduces its damage by one point. When possible,

most crews set up bucket brigades between the fire and the water, allowing them to put three buckets per

line on a fire each round. This assumes one man per five feet between the fire and the water. Someone

with a bucket and standing next to a water source can do the same thing. For characters running back and

forth between the fire and the water, consider both dipping a bucket and throwing it on the fire to be free



actions, though dipping the bucket in the water does provoke an attack of opportunity.



Often worse than the ship catching on fire is when the rigging goes up in flames, especially if that rigging is

sails. Sails have a Fortitude save of +0, and solid rigging has a Fortitude save based on the type of

materials that it is made of.

If the rigging is on fire, it burns just like the ship would. When standard, terrestrial, or topped out rigging is

reduced to half its hit points it becomes effectively minimal rigging, while its crew requirements remain thesame. Rigging reduced to zero hit points becomes useless, as if there were no rigging at all. Any time a

ship’s rigging is reduced the ship must make an immediate maneuver roll for its current move action. Oncethe rigging is destroyed, the fire begins to do its damage to the ship.

Putting out fires on the rigging can be very difficult, especially for sails; it is hard to get water up into the

rigging above. Solid rigging is often designed in a manner that makes it easier to get to. The DM will need

to judge the difficulty of putting out a fire in rigging, if it is even possible. For most fires in sails, assume

that it takes two buckets, rather than one, to reduce a fire by one point. Solid rigging is often the same as

the rest of the ship (one bucket per point).

Character Actions

Throughout the rules, there have been details on how the actions of the characters translate into ship

actions. Not all character actions in ship combat are also ship actions. Some examples of character actions

that do not translate into ship actions are; casting spells on enemy ships (or on your own ship), moving

about on a ship, or attacking others on the same ship.

Characters and Initiative

In ship combat, all characters on board a ship act on that ship’s initiative. Normally, the order in which

they act is determined arbitrarily by those on board, as long as all aboard agree on the order of initiative.For example, there are two weapon crew with weapons ready to fire this round, two spellcasters who wish

to cast spells this round, and a crewman who wishes to get to the helmroom to talk to the helmsman. As

long as all of these characters agree, they can act in whatever order they wish.

If the order of action is not in agreeance, initiative is rolled among the characters aboard the ship. This

secondary initiative is separate from the initiative of the overall ship combat. If a character goes from one

ship to another, he may have to reroll his secondary initiative when he gets to the new ship.

For example, a sorcerer teleports over to the deck of an enemy ship on his ship’s own initiative. On the

initiative of his new ship, he wants to start killing off its crew with fireballs. Because the enemy crewwants to stop him before the does damage, secondary initiative is rolled. The secondary initiative is

resolved on that ship’s initiative.

If a character is not part of a ship, and is capable of acting, he will have a ship initiative of his own. If heleft a ship and is in space on his own, on subsequent rounds his initiative is equal to the initiative of the ship

that he just left, plus his Dexterity modifier. If this ties with another ship, use the ship’s Maneuverability

modifier versus the character’s Dexterity modifier to break the tie. If there is still a tie, flip a coin. If the

character boards a ship, his initiative becomes the same as the ship he boarded.

Affecting Targets on Other Ships

There will be times when a character wishes to do something that affects the people on another ship, such

as targeting them with spells or personal ranged weapons. Most such attacks are resolved normally, with

the distance between ships being the most commonplace complication.

A ship is normally considered to be in the center of its own hex at all times. Thus, when one ship is one

hex away from the other, it is 150 feet away. If the ship is in the same hex as another ship the actual

distance can vary, depending on the desires and skill of the helmsmen. See Stacking in the Movement

section.Using personal ranged weapons against the crew of another ship uses the normal rules, taking into account

the range and potential cover a target might have. In addition, the target gains any bonuses to AC that theship gains from cover or its move action, that he does not suffer any AC penalties the ship gains from move

actions. For example, full defensive gives the ship a +4 to AC, and all characters aboard the ship also gain

bonus, but do not suffer the -4 penalty of AC from the still move action. Characters aboard a ship suffer

the penalties to hit that their ship suffers due to size, unless their own ship is not moving.

The above applies to spellcasting as well, if it is a factor for a given spell. Otherwise spellcasting works as

normal.



Affecting Other Ships

It is rarely worth the bother to attack a ship with personal ranged weapons, but casting spells against enemy

ships is common.

Targeting enemy ships with a spell is not any different that targeting a creature. Spells that automaticallyhit creatures also automatically hit ships, such as polymorph any object . Area effect spells targeted on a

ship also hit automatically, unless they require an attack roll. Ranged touch attacks work as normal; all bonuses from the ships hull are armor bonuses, and do not apply. Bonuses from move actions are dodge

bonuses and do apply.

Attacking a ship with ranged weapons works as if the ship was a creature with the given AC, including

defense bonuses from the ship’s move action.

Whenever a creature targets a ship with either spell or weapon, they receive a bonus to hit based on their

size. This size is their ship size, not their creature size. Each creature size has a corresponding ship size.See Table 7-4. For example, a halfling wizard wishes to hit a ship with a ranged touch spell. Halflings are

small, and Table 7-4 shows that small creatures are equal to very fine ships, which grants a +16 to hit.

Grappling and Boarding

Ships are expensive, and when they clash, the victor often takes the other ship as his prize. Because of this,

boarding actions are quite common in space. It allows marines and other crewmen, an expendable and

renewable resource, to take the brunt of the damage in ship combat.

In order for one ships crew to board another ship, both ships must be relatively stationary; both ships mustnot be moving, or one ship must be grappled with another. There are three ways to grapple another ship:

grappling ram, piercing ram, and crew grappling. Grappling and piercing rams are covered in previoussections.

With the right tools, a ship’s crew can grapple another ship. This involves strong rope and grappling

hooks. The crew stands ready with the rope and hooks, then the ship moves up next to the target vessel.

Getting to an enemy like this is not easy, since the ship will typically move away. In order to bring a ship

close enough to grapple, the attacking ship needs to succeed in a contest of maneuver rolls. The attacking

ship adds its attack modifier from its move action, and the defender adds its defense modifier from its move

action. Failure means that the defending ship manages to stay out of range of the grappling hooks.

Getting a grappling hook to properly grapple the ship is a ranged attack against the ship’s AC. The riggingand enclosure of the target ship can grant a circumstance bonus to AC against this attack. Ships with

minimal rigging gain a +1 to AC, while a ship with no rigging gains a +2. Ships with partial enclosure gain

an additional +1 to AC against this attack, while ships with fully enclosed decks gain an additional +2 toAC. Characters with 5 or more ranks in Rope Use allows for a +2 synergy bonus to the attack. There is no

non-proficiency penalty for using a grappling hook in this manner. When trying to grapple a mobile ship,

the crew typically take ready actions to throw their grapples when the target ship comes within range.

With a successful hit, the grapple is lodged somewhere on the enemy ship. The crewman or someone

assisting him must tie off the rope to a strong point on the ship. Most ships have strong points up and downthe sides in order to tie off to docks, so this typically does not pose a problem. If the crewman has five or

more ranks of Rope Use, then he can do a quick, but adequate tie off as a free action that provokes an

attack of opportunity, otherwise it is a move-equivalent action to tie off the rope. A crewman can also

throw a grapple whose rope is already tied off, but this is more difficult, imposing a -4 penalty on the strike

roll.

In order to reign in the target ship, the attacking ship must have a number of successful grapples equal to

the maximum speed of the target ship, plus one. Otherwise the target ship can tear away on its next turn,

breaking the ropes.The crew on the target ship can cut the ropes if they have a cutting weapon available and have the time.

This is why most ships who are about to grapple have crewmen ready to swarm over onto the enemy ship,to eliminate the opportunity for them to do so. Cutting a rope follows the normal rules for attacking

objects.

Boarding a ship is typically straightforward. The men on one ship move over to the other. This can

sometimes be complicated by the position of the two ships, and getting to the enemy ship may require

jumping, climbing, or both. This makes hooked boarding planks common.

.



Loss of Crew

Losing crew members on a ship can have serious repercussions. Losing riggers reduces the

maneuverability of the ship, losing weaponeers reduces the firing rate of the ship, and losing the helmsman

renders the ship immobile.

Weaponeers: For every man under the listed crew, add one round to the reload time, down to a minimum

of one man. A weapon cannot be reloaded or fired without at least one crewman to operate it.

Riggers: Whenever a rigger is lost, recalculate the average of the crew’s Profession (sailor) skill, with each

lost man's skill equaling zero. For example, a ship that requires six riggers to operate loses two men. The

other men have skills of +10, +10, +8 and +12. This totals to +40, divided by six (the number of men

required to operate the rigging), for an average of +6. This is then averaged with the helmsman’s Pilot

Spelljammer skill.

Any time a ship does not have enough working riggers to meet the minimum requirements for the ship, the

ship cannot take 10 on any of its maneuver rolls.

Helmsman: If the helmsman dies or is rendered unconscious, the ship comes to an immediate stop (and its

move action, by default, becomes the Still action) If someone is standing by to step into a lost man’s

position, the detrimental effects may be reduced or eliminated, though the ship always suffers at least one

round of the detrimental effects.

Movement In Atmosphere

Travel within planetary atmospheres is a very tricky business, spelljammers are not really designed to stand

up to the stress caused by wind and weather and in many ways landing on a planet is the most dangerous

maneuver a spelljammer might routinely attempt.

A flying ship in the SPELLJAMMER universe moves 150 feet per round for every point of its Spelljammer

Rating (SR, also sometimes referred to as Tactical Speed or TS). This translates into about 17 miles per

hour or 400 miles per day, per tactical speed point. This is a wonderful number when compared with most

ground movement, which is measured in tens of miles. Few characters that spend their lives on the ground

travel 400 miles in their entire lives.In an atmosphere, a ship traveling at any speed over SR four must make a Fort save (DC 10 plus 1 per 20

tons of the ship plus 2 per point of SR over 4 the ship is traveling) each round or suffer 100 damage and a

Collateral Damage Roll. A ship caught in strong winds must make a Fort save (DC 10 plus 1 per 20 tons of the ship plus 2 per point of SR that the ship is traveling) each round or suffer 100 damage and a Collateral

Damage Roll. A ship caught in a storm must make a Fort save (DC 15 plus 1 per 20 tons of the ship plus 2

per point of SR that the ship is traveling) each round or suffer 100 damage and a Collateral Damage Roll.

A ship caught in a gale must make a Fort save (DC 20 plus 1 per 20 tons of the ship plus 2 per point of SR

that the ship is traveling) each round or suffer 100 damage and a Collateral Damage Roll. A ship caught ina Hurricane must make a Fort save (DC 25 plus 1 per 20 tons of the ship plus 2 per point of SR that the ship

is traveling) each round or suffer 200 damage and two Collateral Damage Rolls.

Crew cannot normally work on deck when a spelljammer is moving faster than SR 4. The wind speed is

simply too great. Anyone on the deck of a ship moving SR 4 or faster must make a Reflex save (DC 15 plus

5 per point of SR over four) or be blown clear off the deck.

Spelljammers are inherently less maneuverable within the atmosphere, all MCs are reduced by one level.

All spelljammers can hover, however.

Taking Off and Landing

Only ships capable of landing on water or land can do so and take off safely. Any ship can crash onto a planet or its ocean, but then taking off again is guaranteed to be a problem (see Crashes).

When taking off from a celestial body, some time is required to overcome the force of the body's gravity.

When taking off from a body of class A or greater, a certain amount of time is required to allow the

energies contained within the helm to overcome the force of normal gravity and take off. It takes 1d4

rounds plus one round per size class of the body from the time a spelljamming mage sits upon the helm to

when the ship is ready for takeoff. Once



this warm-up period is over, the magics of a helm automatically corrects for the force of gravity. Taking off

from smaller celestial objects (such as other ships) do not have this warm-up requirement.

For each point of a spelljammer's tactical speed rating, a ship has a movement factor of 150 feet of

movement in air. A ship can move slower than this per round or hover in place, regardless of its

maneuverability class.The amount of time that it takes to get out of a planet's "gravity well" and attain full wildspace movement is

determined by the planet's size, the table below gives the amount of time a spelljamming ship will take toclear the gravity well with only a TS 1 rating, plus the distance the ship must travel straight up to get

outside the planet's air envelope:

Table 8-1: Take off and Landing Time by Planet Size

Time to Distance of Gravity

Size of Body Exit at SR 1 Well From Surface

Size Class A: Less than 10 miles across 40 minutes 60,000 feet

Size Class B: 10 - 100 miles across 80 minutes 120,000 feet

Size Class C: 100 - 1,000 miles across 2 hours 180,000 feetSize Class D: 1,000 - 4,000 miles across 4 hours 360,000 feet

Size Class E: 4,000 - 10,000 miles across 8 hours 720,000 feet

Size Class F: 10,000 - 40,000 miles across 12 hours 1,080,000 feet

Size Class G: 40,000 - 100,000 miles across 1 day 2,160,000 feet

Size Class H: 100,000 - 1,000,000 miles across 2 days 4,320,000 feetSize Class I: 1,000,000 - 10,000,000 miles across 4 days 8,640,000 feet

Size Class J: 10,000,000 or more miles across 16 days 34,560,000 feetThis assumes that the ship is moving in a straight line upward. Time spent jetting about the atmosphere without climbing and such

activities as aerial combat are not part of the time needed to escape from the gravity well. In general, landing takes the same amount of

time.

Table 8–2: Weather Conditions in Atmospheres Table 8–3: Landing and Takeoff Condition

Roll 2d6 Spring/Fall Summer Winter Condition Time

2 Becalmed Becalmed Becalmed Becalmed Normal

3 Becalmed Becalmed Light Breeze Light Breeze Normal4 Light Breeze Becalmed Light Breeze Favorable Normal

5 Favorable Light Breeze Favorable Strong Winds Time x 2

6 Favorable Light Breeze Strong Winds Rain and Snow Time x 2

7 Strong Winds Favorable Strong Winds Storm Time x 4

8 Storm Favorable Storm Gale Time x 49 Storm Strong Winds Storm Hurricane No takeoff or landing possible

10 Gale Storm Gale

11 Gale Gale Gale

12 Hurricane* Hurricane* Hurricane** Hurricanes occur only if the previous day's weather was “Gale”. Otherwise treat as gale force winds.

As a rule of thumb, precipitation (rain and snow) occurs only on a 1 in 6 chance in summer and winter, and 2 in 6 chance in spring and

fall, subject to local conditions. Storms and hurricanes always include precipitation (which is already figured into their modifiers on

the table below).

In the above situations, a modifier reduces movement and the time required to lift off, land or both is increased.

Debris

Debris is a common consequence of battle, but in addition there are often small asteroids, comets, and other

space flotsam that can interfere with the movement of and combat between ships. Debris of sufficient mass

will cause a ship moving at high velocity to slip into normal movement.

Ships moving through debris-strewn hexes do so at risk. Those moving one hex per turn can do so normally

and without danger. Those moving through at speeds of two or three hexes per turn suffer the attack of a

small jettison, while those moving at a speed of four or five hexes per turn suffer the attack of a medium jettison. Anything moving faster than five hexes per turn suffers the attack of a large jettison. These attacks

occur once per debris hex encountered.

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