Games, all sorts

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===== Of Ships and Such =====

Yes, there are 2 tables.  They're for reference by pretty much me.

==== Glossary and Terms ====
  * Ships Rating (SR) : Number of movement points that can be spent in a round.  Ships rating is also maximum tactical speed a ship can travel.  
  * Maneuverability Class (MC) : A characteristic of a ship that encapsulates maneuverability and nimbleness.  It serves as the maximum number of movement points that can be spent in a hex, per round.  
  * Hull Points / Hit points, for ships :  Unless otherwise stated, a ship has 10 HP / ton.  
  * Armor Rating / Armor class, for ships : A property that determines how resistant a ship is to being damaged
  * Helm : A chair that allows its user to focus his or her will into moving the vehicle it is attached to through the expenditure of mental energies.  There are many types of helms.
  * Spelljamming Speed : The speed attained by a ship using any helm **when no gravitating bodies are within 30 hexes**.  This is about 400 million miles per hour, and is a universal constant.
  * Tactical Speed : When near a gravitating body, the speed of a ship is dependent on the helm types and users.  Each point of ships rating translates to a max speed of 17 miles per hour, or 1 hex / turn.  
  * Gravitating body : An object or creature whose mass exceeds 10 tons.
  * Helmsman/woman Fatigue : Driving a ship with your mind is hard work.  Upon synchronizing with a helm, a character suffers a level of exhaustion for every 8 hours (round up) of use.
  * Helmsman Shock : A helmsman feels damage to the ship as pain.  If the pain is too severe, the pilot de-synchronizes from the ship.  The ship is out of control at this point and will continue on its current trajectory, acted upon by gravity and friction.  Usually fatal in an atmosphere.
  * Helm Synchronization : The gradual process of a helmsman's consciousness permeating a ship, allowing it to move.  It takes a minute per 50 tons.

==== Maneuverability Class ====

Sails, oars and wings all serve to provide control surfaces.  Larger control surfaces relative to a ship's tonnage provide higher maneuverability.  The Delta / Hex is the number of points that can be spent to change speed.  The Facings / Hex is the maximum number of hex facings that can change in a single hex without moving forward.  A value of 0.5 means it takes 2 rounds to effect a change of facing or speed.

Changing a z-axis facing counts against Facings / Hex, but only a jerk would do that.

^^ Class ^^ Delta / Hex ^^ Facings / Hex ^^ AR Bonus ^^ Notes ^^
|| A || 5 || 3 || +4 || ||
|| B || 4 || 2 || +3 || ||
|| C || 3 || 1 || +2 || ||
|| D || 2 || 1 || +1 || ||
|| E || 1 || 0.5 || 0 || ||
|| F || 0.5 || 0.5 || -2 || Nobody flies like this on purpose.  This means something is wrong or a ship has been mauled || 

==== Space Fighting ====

=== Weapons ===

Almost per the DMG, but a tad different.  Crew served weapons suffer a fire rate penalty (it doubles) if they're undermanned.  If a crew served weapon has less than half the crew, it is non-functional if it isn't loaded.  

Range is as martial weapons (range/max).  Weapon attacks are made against the target ship's AC, with damage being applied against the hull points.  The primary weapon operator applies his or her intelligence bonus to the equipment bonus provided the weapon.  Targeting an individual or specific point (such as a mast, weapon mount, etc) increases the range increment by 1 (nearby shots are made with disadvantage, beyond that, called shots are impossible).

Jettisons are catapults loaded with special shot that doesn't do hull damage.  Rather they pepper an area with debris and sharp objects to injure or drive off the the crew.  Exposed crew make a dex save, with the DC being equal to 10 + intelligence bonus.  Failure means the poor crew member takes full damage, success means half.  Characters with cover (such as a specially fortified weapon mount) have advantage on this role.

Proficiency in siege weaponry can be applied to catapult and ballista fire.

^^ Weapon Type ^^ Range ^^ Attack Bonus ^^ Damage ^^ Reload ^^ Crew ^^ Notes ^^
|| Light Ballista || 4/8 || +5 || 2d10 || 2 ||  || ||
|| Medium Ballista || 3/6 || +4  || 3d10 || 3 ||  || ||
|| Heavy Ballista || 2/4 || +3 || 4d10 || 4 || || Double Sized ||
|| Light Catapult || 3/6 || +4 || 4d10 || 3 ||  || ||
|| Medium Catapult || 2/4 || +3  || 5d10 || 4 ||  || ||
|| Heavy Catapult || 1/2 || +2 || 6d10 || 5 || || Double Sized ||
|| Light Jettison|| 3/- || - || 3d6 || 3 ||  || ||
|| Medium Jettison|| 2/- || - || 4d6 || 4 ||  || ||
|| Heavy Jettison|| 1/- || - || 5d6 || 5 || || Double Sized ||

=== Rams and Ramming ===

Ramming requires a specially constructed ram.  A ramming attempt without a ram is merely a crash (which inflicts equal damage on the rammer and rammee).  There are 3 types of ram: piercing, blunt and grappling.   A piercing ram can result in ships becoming grappled, whereas a blunt weapon doesn't.  Grappling rams inflict no damage, but result in the ships being grappled.

Hitting with a ram requires being in the same hex, and the attacker making a piloting check against the target's AR.  On a miss, both ships proceed about their business.  On a hit, however, the target helmsman needs to check for shock, and the target hull takes 3d6 points of damage for ever 10 tons (round down) of the attacker.  This means, a 45 ton squidship will inflict 12d6 points of damage on a successful hit.  

A hit with a piercing or grappling ram requires the target helmsman (if not shocked) to make a piloting check with a DC equal to the 10 + attackers bonus. A critical hit requires this check to be at a disadvantage. Failure means the ships are locked (neither can move), success means the target can move away as it sees fit.  A ship can attempt to break a grapple with a successful piloting check with the same DC (the critical hit penalty is gone after the attackers next turn).

Depending on the direction of travel, speeds, and relative sizes, course and speed may be adjusted as dramatically appropriate.
==== Build Material ====

The material a ship is built of serves to provide basic protection and MC limits.  Further armor plating can increase a ships armor, potentially at the cost of MC bonus.

^^ Material ^^ AR Bonus ^^ Max MC Bonus ^^
|| Thin Wood || +1 || +2 ||
|| Thick Wood || +3 || +1 ||
|| Organic/Living || +0 || +4 ||
|| Ceramic || +3 || +2 ||
|| Stone || +5 || +0 || 

Ships cannot be critically hit by anti-personnel weapon, and further, are //resistant// to damage inflicted by them (unless dramatically appropriate -- like some jackass gnome paper airplane ship).

==== Movement ====

=== Helms ===

A Major Helm provides an SR equal to character level divided by 2 (round up).  A Minor Helm is the same, except it is divided by 3 (round up).  Other helms exist and may be discovered.  Beings without character levels lack the force of will to power a ship (so pets, summoned elementals, etc can only be passengers).

It is rumored that helmsman that spend o'er much time in a helm can become attached to it, and suffer psychological problems with their senses pull back to their physical body.  

Every 8 hours (or fraction thereof) of synchronization will cause a level of exhaustion.  Perversely, the helmsman doesn't feel the exhaustion until they disconnect, with some falling over dead after 40 hours of piloting. 

=== Helmsman Shock ===

Trauma to the hull of a ship will be felt by the helmsman.  While most minor bumps and scrapes manifest as a minor headache (and indeed are a component to the exhaustion the helmsman feel), some damage provides a sudden shock to the system that isn't as easy to shrug off.

The following events will cause a check for helmsman shock:
  * Critical Hit by a siege weapon
  * Being struck by a ram
  * Ship catching fire
  * Any event that does 30 or more points of damage to the ships hull
  * Any event that seems like it **should** cause a check, even if it causes no damage (examples obviously missing)

A shock check is much like a concentration check.  It has a minimum DC of 10, with the target being 1/2 the number of hull points worth of damage inflicted to the ship.  Any ability that helps with concentration checks would apply.

On success, the helmsman gets the clock cleaned, but is otherwise fine (assuming the ship survives the encounter).  On a failure, the helmsman is stunned for a round, and is desynchronized.  If the same helmsman resynchs, he or she suffers an additional level of exhaustion.

=== General ===

A ship can speed up, slow down, turn, bank, roll, engage in evasive maneuvers with an active helmsman.  The ship itself provides a limit to these endeavors as bulky ships make it hard to dodge a ram, even for the most experienced captain.  At tactical speed, the usage of the SR provided by the helm is limited by the MC of the ship.  At spelljamming speed, these concerns disappear.

While space is three dimensional, most civilized races agree to fight on a plane.  Pirates and barbarians will deviate from this rule.

Unless a helmsman provides directions to the contrary, a ship move forward at its current speed and heading.  It takes active effort to speed up, slow down, or turn.

=== Ramming, Landing and Complex Maneuvering ===

General maneuvering is as simple as walking.  Even most combat maneuvers require no special training.  Complex maneuvers, however, may require a sail check.  Characters with an appropriate proficiency can use their bonus as normal.  A semi-related proficiency can be used, but it provides no bonus.  A character with no experience in the maneuver suffers disadvantage on the role.

Ramming is always a complex maneuver.  Maneuvering in an atmosphere with high wins can result in a check as well.  Landing in or on a terrestrial body not properly equipped for spell jamming vessels is complex given the myriad of sails and control surfaces that have to be protected.  Docking in space, however, is not.

=== Drifting / Pilotless / Falling ===

A ship that has lost its helmsman due to Helmsman Shock, a fireball, or being stunned is pilotless.  If in doubt, if a creature is unable to form words to speak (should its physiology allow), said creature is unable to provides the force of will to pilot the ship.

A pilotless ship in wildspace or the flow will lose 1 hex of forward movement per round.  Near a particularly large gravitating object, the ship will accelerate towards said object at a dramatically appropriate speed.

As it takes a minimum of a minute to take over or reestablish control of a ship, atmospheric travel is extremely dangerous.  On an earth sized planet, it takes under 6 seconds to fall 500 feet.  You can do the math if you want.
 
==== Crew Concerns ====

=== Minimum Crew ===

It takes a lot of people to run a big ship.  The default minimum crew is equal to half the tonnage of a ship.  Going below this provides a MC penalty of category as the workers to run the sails and oars are simply not there.  Going below a quarter of the minimum crew results in the MC being reduced to F, as there are simply not enough bodies to run the ship effectively.

Weapon crews are not counted here.  A wise captain will have sufficient crew to serve the sails, the ballistae, and have a few left over to plug holes.

=== Air Quality ===

A ship normally carries with its gravity well sufficient fresh air for 1 crew member per ton, for 90 days.  Over or under crewing will use proportially more or less air.  

After all the fresh air has been consumed, the air becomes //fouled//.  Fouled air provides disadvantage on all rolls immediately.  The air will remain fouled for an amount of time consistent with the above calculation (which may change as people arrive/leave/die/are born).  

After fouled air has been consumed, it becomes //deadly//, and is treated as a suffocation hazard (PHB183).

Air mixes proportionally when air envelopes overlap.  Certain effects can increase or reduce this type of hazard.

==== Space ====

=== Gravity ===

Gravity is convenient, and seems to honor traditional views of up and down, with larger gravitating bodies providing the frames of reference.  In wild space or the Flow, a ship's gravity is defined by a plane that runs through its barycenter.  The bottom of a ship can be walked on just as easily as the top, that is, until a larger body changes the equation, completely reorienting gravity (possibly making people fall off the top of a ship).

Along the barycenter of the ship there is no gravity.  Most races lay out their ships so sails and what not extend below the plane to make the contained space of the ship have the same gravitational orientation, but this isn't strictly required.  An object thrown overboard will oscillate across the gravitational plane until it is no longer relevant.

Gravity is what holds the breathable air to the ship. Because gravity is directional, you tend to get an imperceptible but constant breeze from the top/bottom of the air envelope to the gravitational plane.  Along the gravitational plane itself, there is no gravity, so there is a very slight movement of air away from the ship, resulting in a small circulation pattern.  This circulation pattern pushes away objects away from the ship along the gravity plane, which can be exceedingly dangerous for those that fall overboard.                                     

=== Phlogiston ===

This is not the space you are thinking of.  This is a multicolored, softly glowing, barely tangible fog between systems.  It is highly explosive, and impedes items (like bags of holding) and spells (like conjurations/summoning) that reach across planar boundaries.  These spells and items simply cease functioning.  

The Flow has rivers that course through it between the spheres.  Navigating these rivers allows you to visit other spheres.  Maps, however are key.

Air quality in the Flow never becomes deadly.  When this would happen, the ship effectively shuts down, with the crew falling into a torpor that lasts until they can be awakened.  If this happens away from the main travel lanes, crews, and ships, may be lost forever in a state of suspended animation.

=== Wildspace ===

Is the airless void you think of when you consider "space."  Wildspace is enclosed by a Crystal Sphere, that keeps out the Phlogiston.  The temperature varies from sphere to sphere, with some being hot and some being cold.  It is usually very dark.  A character in wildspace without a ship will run out of air in 20 minutes.  After that, his or her personal air bubble will become fouled... then deadly.