Combat

Combat in The Black on a Space Galleon follows the same combat rules as any engagement in SYR. Each ship is considered a party for purposes of rolling initiative and the player party can continue to alternate who rolls initiative each round or designate that the helmsman rolls each round as desired. Since combat is mostly played in the Theater of the Mind or on simple Zoned Terrain the GM and Players will have to work a bit harder to ensure everyone understands where each ship is in relation to the others so they can determine what ships weapons can come to bear on a target and what modules can be hit by the enemy. The use of miniatures, tokens, or other ship proxies to show relative position can be very helpful to running Space Galleon combat.

Each side designates their actions before initiative is rolled as normal, and when their turn is active they perform the necessary skill and to hit rolls to determine the outcome of their attacks and actions. When firing on an enemy vessel the attacker can either roll a normal attack roll and then roll a die to randomly determine which module they damage on a successful hit, or they can designate a specific module to damage beforehand and take -2 on their to hit roll as they try to aim precisely.

When a module takes enough Damage to match its Hit Points, it is given the out of commission condition and can no longer function. If the Helm is out of commission, the vessel stops moving and begins drifting in space. If a Weapons Deck is out of commission, the defender rolls a d20 check and on a 1 or 2 the ammo dump explodes for 1d10 DMG to the adjacent ship modules. If the Cargo Hold is out of commission and contains flammable cargo, the defender rolls d20 and on a 1 - 5 the material starts a fire that causes 1d6 DMG to adjacent ship modules until the fire is put out by the crew.

Repairs

During combat, available crew whether PC’s or NPC’s can attempt to repair damage to the ship. The GM determines the appropriate skill check (usually Feats of Strength or Technology) and the crew member rolls against a DC 15 to repair one HP of DMG to that module. Only 1/3 of the modules maximum HP can be repaired in combat, any additional repairs will require safety and or docking facilities. As stated in the module mechanics, any ship fitted with a functional Craft Shop module gains ADV on any crew member repair rolls.

Speed Checks

The optional Chase rolls can be used to determine how close or far each ship is during the frantic movement of combat. If one ship is trying to escape than the regular chase rules are in force and should they reach 0 or 6 they are either caught or escape. If they are both trying to stay in combat, then the chase distance can be used to determine how far apart the ships are and what kinds of weapons can be used. As stated in the Stats section, the ship’s Speed Rating is applied to the helmsman’s Driving skill roll during the opposing Chase roll.