Lair of the Dusk Witch

Voidship Combat

Voidship Combat Procedure

In order for combat to begin, there must be two hostile ships, and one must be aware of the other and within a reasonable range (100 Void Units). If the distance between the ships has not been established, the ships or fleets start off 1d20+20 VUs apart.

At the start of the combat, roll for Surprise (Notice/WIS against each ship's Detection, if this applies. Gotta play this one by ear.) If one ship is Surprised, it does not get to act in the first Strategic Round.

Each ship rolls initiative, 1d8.

The first strategic turn starts. In each turn, the ship with highest initiative goes first, takes first Strategic Turn. In a Strategic Turn, a Ship must make a Movement Action and can make a Shooting Action. Other actions, if there is crew available to do it, can be taken as well. On a player ship, only 3 NPC Officers can take actions each round.

Once this ship finished, the ship with next-highest initiative goes, until all ships have taken a Strategic Turn. After the last ship finishes their Strategic Turn, the Strategic Round ends and a new one begins.

Combat ends when all ships on one side surrender, successfully disengage, or are blown to smithereens.

Strategic Rounds and Turns

Strategic Turn - one ship action in a Strategic Round Strategic Round - About 30 min

Void Units

The battlefield is measured in void units (VU), represented as squares on a grid map. Each VU is approximately 10,000 kilometers end to end. Whenever distance is referenced in this document, it will be in squares or VUs, but these refer to the same thing.

A voidship's Speed represents how powerful the engines are, and how much they can move in VU.

Degrees of Success

Voidship Combat Statistics

Hull Combat Statistics

Voidship Weapons

A voidship can mount weapons up to its listed Weapon Capacity. (e.g. if a hull has Dorsal 1 and Prow 1 Weapon Capacity, a voidship can have 1 weapon in its dorsal slot and 1 weapon in its prow slot.)

Weapons Arcs

A target of a weapon must be within the weapon's arc in order to be fired upon. The four arcs are Fore, Port, Starboard, and Aft. Shooting Diagram Each weapon mount has an arc it can fire in:

Starship Defenses

Actions in Combat

Each round, a ship must take a Maneuver Action and may take a Shooting Action. The Shooting Action must occur after the Maneuver Action.

Maneuver Actions

Every turn, a ship must choose whether to move half or full Speed in number of squares.

The starship may turn after it moves. Transports, raiders, frigates, and light cruisers can turn 90 degrees, larger ships can only turn 45 degrees.

A ship's helmsman or whoever is flying the ship can take a Pilot/DEX test against the ship's Maneuverability (plus certain modifiers) to take one of the following maneuver actions that grant additional options:

Silent Running

A ship may attempt to avoid notice by shutting down all of its systems and masking its presence. When Silent Running, a ship's Speed is halved, and difficulty of all Maneuver actions increase by 1. Standard movement requires a test against Manuverability. If this test is failed, ships within sensor range become aware of it. Otherwise, a vessel on Silent Running can only be detected by the Active Augery action.

Shooting Actions

Shooting actions occur after the maneuver action. Any number of weapons may be fired and at different targets, but all targets must be chosen and all weapons fired simultaneously. Each weapon component makes its own attack roll.

To make an attack roll, roll a 1d20 plus attack modifiers against AC 12. On a success, the weapon scores a hit, plus additional hits based on the type of weapon. Record the degrees of success. The degrees of success on an attack roll is equal to the difference between the modified roll and AC 12, divided by 2, rounded down. (I.e. a modified roll of 17 would indicate 2 degrees of success.)

Subtract the void shields from the number of hits from the weapon until the void shields have overloaded. Then, roll the damage for the weapon, subtract the target's Armor (except for certain weapons), and then subtract any remaining damage from the target's Hull Integrity, Crew Population, and Crew Morale.

Critical Hits

If the number of successes equal the weapon's Crit Rating, the weapon scores a critical hit. Roll a 1d4 (or 1d6 for lances) on the Critical Hits chart.

Additionally, if a ship is crippled with no hull integrity is hit by an attack, it automatically incurs a critical hit at the amount of damage received.

Roll Result
1 Holed: The attacker selects one Component (only choosing ones he knows of) that is not the bridge or plasma/warp drives. This Component is depressurized.
2 Internal Damage: Attacker selects one Component (only choosing ones he knows of) that is not the bridge or plasma/warp drives. This Component is damaged.
3 Sensors Damaged: Auspex arrays have been knocked out, leaving the vessel blind. Until the damage is repaired, all shooting tests suffer a –6 to hit, and all sensory tests to detect anything beyond the ship’s immediate engagement range automatically fail. Additionally, as the arrays are located outside the hull, any repairs must be attempted in the void.
4 Thrusters Damaged: Roll 1d10. On a 1-7, the ship can still maneuver, albeit slowly. Increase the ship’s Maneuverability bonus by 2. On an 8–10, the thrusters are completely damaged. The ship cannot turn. This damage can be repaired.
5 Fire!: Attacker selects one Component (only choosing ones he knows of) that is not the bridge or plasma/warp drive—this Component is now on fire. The fire follows all the rules for shipboard fires.
6 Engines Crippled: Roll 1d10. On a 1-7, the plasma drives are still usable, though heavily damaged. Reduce the ship’s Speed by half. On an 8–10, the drives are completely wrecked. Reduce the ship’s Speed to 1. This damage can be repaired.
7 Surly Techsprites: Roll 1d10 for every Component. On a 4 or higher, the Component now counts as unpowered. Each Component must be repaired individually before it can receive power again. Morale takes 1d5 damage from the spooky atmosphere.
8 Decapitation: All crewmembers on the bridge must make a Dodge reaction or be hit by shrapnel doing 2d10 Explosive damage. If the damage result is 12 or higher, the bridge Component is also depressurized. If the damage result is 16 or higher, the Component is damaged.
9 Hull Breach: Attacker selects 1d4 Components (only choosing ones he knows of, and not including the bridge). Roll a d10 for each; on a 1-7 the Component is damaged and depressurized. On an 8–10 the Component is destroyed, and all crew inside are killed. Instead of rolling for Crew Population and Morale damage separately, the ship reduces both of its current values by half.
10 Catastrophic Damage: A succession of powerful blows and explosions rip through the ship, causing horrendous damage. Roll 1d10. On a 1-7, the ship is hulked. On a 8-9, the ship’s plasma drive explodes. On a 10, the ship’s warp drive explodes instead (or plasma drive if the ship does not have a warp drive)

Macrobatteries

A macrobattery scores 1 additional hit for every degree of success.

Lances

A lance scores 1 additional hit for every 3 degrees of success. Lances ignore a ship's Armor.

Torpedoes

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Attack Craft

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Boarding and Ramming

Astropath Actions

Astropaths have specific actions they can take during a battle to provide support for their ship, taken in concert with their choir and amplified through the psionic spire-nest sported by most Rogue Trader ships.

Navigators also have specific ways they can use their powers during a battle, weaving the Warp with their third eye.

Other Actions

Other actions are those taken by the various members of the crew not at the helm or gunnery stations.

Damage and Destruction

Damage Effects

Crew Population

Population Effect
80 The ship increases all travel times by 1d4 days.
60 All skill checks involving Boarding Actions, repulsing Hit and Run attacks, fighting fires, and making Emergency Repairs suffer a -1 penalty.
50 The ship increases its Maneuverability by 2.
40 The ship loses any bonus to Achievement Points it would normally receive for its Components.
20 In combat, the ship counts as Crippled. If the ship actually becomes Crippled, it may only take a Strategic Turn on every other Strategic Round.
10 The ship may not perform Boarding Actions, or Hit and Run attacks. Anyone attempting to repulse a Boarding Action, or Hit and Run attack, fight fires, or make Emergency Repairs suffers a -2 to their skill checks.
0 The ship becomes an empty tomb, populated only by the dead. If any still live within its bowels, their only hope is to escape the vessel before they slowly suffocate or freeze. The ship cannot operate again without at least some crew to run it.

Crew Morale

Morale Effect
80 All skill checks to command or lead the ship or its crew take a -1 penalty.
60 All ship attack rolls take a -1 penalty.
50 All skill checks to command or lead the ship or its crew take an additional -1 penalty (-2 total).
40 The ship increases its Maneuverability by 2. Additionally, all ship attack rolls take another -1 penalty (-2 total).
20 The ship may no longer perform Boarding or Hit and Run attacks. The crew may still resist Boarding Actions as normal. Whenever the ship reaches port, lose 1d5 crew population due to deserters.
10 All skill checks to command or lead the ship or its crew take an additional -1 penalty (-3 total). The ship also suffers increases its Manoeuvrability and Detection by 2 again.
0 The ship’s crew rises up like a single, enraged organism, killing everybody in authority they can catch. Unless every single crew member is put to the sword, they will take control of the vessel and elect a new captain from the survivors.

Components

Repair and Restoration

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