Example of Starship Combat

Elidu

Crystal the Game Master is running a group of five players. Linda is playing Rose-5, an android mechanic

Koranwa

and the ship’s engineer; Adam is playing Twitch, a shirren operative whose reflexes make them the perfect pilot; Jessica is playing Elidu, a human envoy and the ship’s captain; Chris is playing Koranwa,

Rose-5

a kasatha mystic and the ship’s science officer; and LJ is playing Wothar, a dwarf soldier who acts as the ship’s gunner. Aboard their starship, the Amethyst (a Kevolari Venture–style starship; see page 311),

Twitch

they have just exited the Drift to find a Corpse Fleet Necroglider (see page 306) closing in on them. The Necroglider is 15 hexes directly behind you, but

GM

with its sleek design, it looks poised to make up that distance with ease. Your starship is currently facing away from it. We start the first round with the engineering phase.

Rose-5: Since our shields are at full power and nothing’s broken yet, I use the divert action to boost our weapons.

Since the PCs’ starship is tier 1, the DC of the Engineering check to perform this action is 17. Rose-5 rolls a d20 and adds her modifier of +7 to the result, getting a total of 20. A success! If any of the Amethyst’s weapons hit this round, any 1s that come up on the damage dice will be treated as 2s.

GM Next is the helm phase. Please attempt a Piloting check for your ship, while I attempt one for the Necroglider.

The GM gets a total of 13 for the Necroglider’s pilot, while Twitch gets a total of 18.

GM Since the Necroglider got the lower result, it moves first. I think it’s just going to close, using the fly action and its speed of 12. The Necroglider is now only 3 hexes behind the Amethyst.

Twitch: Well, that’s much too close. I might try some evasive maneuvers, but I’ll keep that flying corpse within range.

Koranwa: Before you do that, let me try to target its engines. Maybe we can slow it down a bit.

Koranwa takes the target system action. The GM informs him that with the Necroglider’s bonus from its defensive countermeasures (+3), the DC is 19 (even though the Necroglider is a tier-1/2 starship, a minimum of 1 is added to the DC for the target’s tier). Unfortunately, Koranwa rolls poorly: even with his +7 bonus, his result is only an 11.

Koranwa: These bony ships are too weird. I can’t even tell where the engines are!

Twitch: No worries. Now it’s time for my fancy footwork. Finwork? Never mind.

Wothar

Twitch attempts the evade stunt, and since the DC is only 12, they easily succeed with their +8 bonus. The Amethyst gains a +2 bonus to AC and TL until the start of the next round. Twitch also turns the starship so it’s nearly alongside the enemy’s starboard.

The gunnery phase is next. You’ve managed to

GM

maneuver the Amethyst so that you’re outside of the Necroglider’s forward firing arc, but it can use its gyrolaser to fire into an adjacent arc with a penalty.

Let’s see how that goes.

The pilot of the Necroglider must take the snap shot minor crew action to fire, compounding the penalty from the broad arc weapon. With a final gunnery check modifier of +1, the GM doesn’t hold much hope for it working. She’s right to be skeptical, as she rolls a total of 9—not enough to hit the Amethyst’s AC of 16 (including the bonus from the evade stunt).

Wothar: But our missile launcher is on a turret, so it can fire in any arc! Okay, let’s make this dead thing even deader!

Elidu: One second, let me give you some inspiring words with the encourage action. Ahem. “Let’s make this dead thing even deader!”

Elidu isn’t so great at gunning, so she attempts a DC 15 Diplomacy check hoping to grant Wothar a bonus. Rolling a 12 and adding her +7 bonus, she succeeds. The gunner receives a +2 bonus to his next check.

Wothar: Truly inspiring, captain.

The Amethyst’s high explosive missile is a tracking weapon, so Wothar targets the Necroglider’s TL with his gunnery check. With the captain’s help, he has a gunnery check modifier of +6. He rolls a 16, so his result is 22. The GM informs him that this is a hit! Wothar then rolls 4d8 for the damage, getting a 1, a 3, and two 5s. Thanks to Rose-5, that 1 counts as a 2, making the total damage 15. Looking at the relative positions of the vessels, this damage is applied to the Necroglider’s starboard quadrant, depleting its 2 Shield Points. The remaining 13 damage is applied directly to its hull. The Necroglider’s Critical Threshold is 6, so the vessel takes two critical damage effects! The GM rolls a d% twice, getting a 9 and an 86, meaning that both the Necroglider’s life support and its power core are now glitching.