Ship to Ship Hits & Crits (Paging FRANCISCA)

Hey gang, I could use some help.

I'm putting together a set of rules for ship to ship combat for use with Warhammer FRP. I'm going to be running a Pirates of the Caribbean game as my next campaign and there will be plenty of ships blasting broadsides at each other and I want a system to handle it.

Thus far I've put together the rules for the sailing/maneuvering part of things and I've got a mechanic for ships shooting at each other. Both are fairly simple and meant to maximize fun and speed of combat. I've even got a system to determine which part of the ship was hit and whether there was a critical inflicted. Now comes the fun part.

For each part of the ship that can take damage, I want to include 10 possible critical hit effects to add variety and fun to the system. My hit locations are Crew, Cargo, Sails and Hull. So I'll wind up with a total of 40 critical hit effects. I want some creative ideas of the kind of stuff that might happen when cannon balls start hitting important stuff. I'll include a few examples below as guidelines.

You'll notice that I use a couple terms (slashed and crossed) that are meant to jibe with my damage tracking mechanic. Slashed means you put a slash across the box on the sheet where damage to the hull and crew is tracked and indicates a crewmember or point of hull that is "hurt". Crossed is when you place a slash across that box in the other direction (making an "X" in that box) and that point of hull or crew is "out of action" for the rest of the combat.

Crew Hit Example: "Shot blasts a hole in the hull sending deadly splinters flying. An additional 1d10 crew are immediately slashed."

Cargo Hit Example: "Shot hits the galley stores and destroys 1/4 of the food and water on board the ship."

Sails Hit Example: "Shot shatters the topmast. Ship's speed is reduced by 1 until a repair roll is made and any crew in the crow's nest are crossed."

Hull Hit Example: "Shot below the waterline. Ship will sink in 5 turns. For each Crew assigned to pump out the water, extend this by 1 turn. If 10 crew are dedicated to this task then the ship will remain afloat indefinately."


For anybody willing to help me out with this, I'll be happy to pass along a copy of the completed rules. Though they are being written for Warhammer FRP, they are very basic and easily adapted to d20.

Thanks in advance.

You need one that knocks out the captain's cabin and destroys all charts and maps on board (that weren't on his person).

How about one that destoys any lifeboats, if applcable (though, admittedly a possible rare thing in the first place, depending on the era).

Other specific crew being killed, like the captain, first mate, etc. might be good things to cover by crits.


(Be sure to allow me to help with the OGL version and the licensing info, please. I'm keen to utilize some of this info in future releases of my own, if I may.)

Wooden Ships & Iron Men

edit: casts summon francisca

- Rudder hit: reduced maneuverability (can still maneuver somewhat using the sails) until a crew of X men has been able to spend Y turns fixing it (and/or or until a repair roll has been made?)

- Wheel hit: as above, except that the crew manning the wheel is crossed, and you can alleviate the reduced maneuverability by having 2 or 4 crew dedicated to pulling on the rudder chains to move the rudder.

- Bow shot: treat as shot below the waterline, unless speed is reduced to X

- Main mast hit: On the first hit, the main mast is only damaged (slashed). Reduce speed to below X or risk the change of the main mast breaking (roll each turn when the speed is too high?). On a second hit, the main mast topples into the water, the drag from rigging and sails drastically slowing the ship. Reduce speed by Y (3-4?). After a crew of Z men has spent Q turns cutting the rigging (and/or until a repair roll has been made?), the speed penalty drop to Y-1 (Y-2?).

- Infirmery hit: up to 1d10 slashed crew are immediately crossed.

- Water damage: a lucky hit on the cargo area does minimal structural damage, but reduces the value of any trade goods by 50% due to water damage and/or spoilage.

- Shot makes a barrel of gunpowder explode on the gundeck. 1d4 crew are crossed, and another 1d4 slashed.

- Shot makes an almost-empty barrel of gunpowder burst into flame on the gundeck. 1d6 crew are slashed, and a fire blazes that disables 1d3 cannons, until a repair roll is made (or X crew spend Y turns, etc.)

- Direct hit on a cannon. Cannon is permanently disabled, and 1d4 of its crew crossed.

I'm not familiar with Warhammer FRP, but I would like to help. (Also, how is that? What's it like?) I'm vaugely familiar with warhammer so I assumed there were psychology and fear effects, so i tried to avoid those sorts of saves.


Crew-
Resounding Hit- 1d10 crew are throw in to the wash.
Cravening Hit- 1d10 crew are unharmed but refuse to fight.
Exact Hit- All crew slashed this round are crossed instead.
Belching Hit- Double the number of crew crossed by this shot.
Important Hit- The First Mate is crossed. All cannon firing time is doubled and the crew attacks at -1.
Captain Hit- The Captains been shot. The crew attacks at -2.
Oarsman Hit- This shots damage is dealt solely the oarsman, along with an addition 5. Slow ship speed and manueverability by 1 for every 10 lost.
Crewman Hit- This shot does damage only to Crewman, plus an additional 2 are slashed. For every 2 crewman lost it takes 1 more round to turn,up, or lower sail.
Cannoneer Hit- Each cannon slashes 1 man. For ever 1 man missing, that cannon takes 1 more round to fire.
Limb Shot- Any crewman crossed by this hit lose a limb even if they survive.


Cargo-
Perilous Hit- A non-vital food store is wiped out. Incease chance disease/sickness by 2. (or 5%)
Food Hit- 1/4 the food and water is destroyed.
Rum Hit- 1/2 the rum(or some other item non-vital but still needed for moral,) is destroyed. Incease chance of mutiny by 2. (or 5%)
Treasure Hit- 1/4 of the treasure on board is destroyed. If less than 1/4 of the crew is lost in combat, increase the chance of mutiny by 4 (or 20%)
Gunpowder Hit- Cross 6 crew, and roll again twice on this table.
Charter Hit- Any writs of passage or marque, maps, journals, and the deed to the boat not on the capatain are destroyed. (Ganked from Mark)
Flaming Hit- Some gunpowder or oil are struck and start a fire. Every round the fire is unchecked it grows. Roll % every round. Below 30=roll on this table again. It takes 5 crew to hold the fire when it starts and 2 more for every time it grows. If a fire is not completely check it takes 2 rounds to grow.
MacGuffin Hit- The McGuffin is hit, and destroyed is possible. If not, then something valuable (painting, sculpture, something real expensive) is lost. If not, then treat as a Treasure Hit.

Sails-
Up Sail- This critical is always and the only critical used when the sails are up. The masting for the sail is shot loose, and falls to the deck, crossing 3 crew, and breaking the mast.
Netting Hit- The ship may not use ropes to board with, may not use them to load or unload cargo or cannons, and the fall to the deck creating a lot of rubble. Slash one sailor. They hit him on the head.
Rope Hit- The sails can not be raised, and you may not use sails to steer, and lose its bonus to your manueverability.
Mizzen Hit- Reduce manueverability by 2.
Shearing Shot- This sail may not be repaired. The sail must be replaced.
Swiss Shot- The shot makes swiss of all the sails, but they can still be used. Increase penalties to manueverability, and speed by 1, and all checks made to use the sails increases by 2.


Hull-
Brig Hit- Any prisoners on board are freed, but each has a 1/4 chance of being hatched.
Quarters Hit- 1/4 of the pirates sleeping quarters and personal effects are destroyed.
Cannon Hit- Lose 1-6 cannons, and cross that many sailors x4.
Sundering Hit- Any repair rolls made are made a -4 penalty.
Oh Snap- The chain from helm to rudder's been hit. The ship can't be steered using the helm. (Hope you have oars and good crewman buddy)
Tearing Shot- The shot tears through the ship. Roll once on one of the other tables, and once again on here.(Choose randomly)
Neutering Shot- The ships ram and anything cool they may have on the front of the ship is blasted off.
Rocking Shot- The ship rocks violently. Any cannons not at full crew roll to the opposing wall, and must be pushed back which takes 5 rounds-1 per man pushing. All boarding platforms between the 2 ships are knocked off and anyone standing on them goes in to the wash.


I think some cool ones wouldn't be readily apparent like the kitchen one. During battle no one would know or care but afterwards its like "Oh crap".

Also, have tou taken in to account the different shots? instead of cannonballs they load gunpowder or a chainshot? then you could modfiy which table or the % based on the shot used.

Great stuff so far guys! Keep it coming!

Mark, I'll definately be including the one about hitting the captain's charts and such. I'm not entirely sure what you mean about the OGL stuff but feel free to e-mail me about it. I didn't go into this thinking of publication but thus far I've not found a published set of ship v. ship rules that I'm thrilled with.

FrostedMini1337, I'd already considered including Grape and Chain shot as well as Round shot. I think I'm going to handle that as follows:

Grape Shot has a range of only 3 inches (Round shot has a range of 6") and any hits on the Hull or Cargo are ignored. But hits on Crew or Sail inflict 3 dice of Crew casualties instead of 1.

Chain Shot has a range of only 4 inches but any hit on the sails does twice as many dice of damage as Round Shot.

FrostedMini1337 said:

Rocking Shot- The ship rocks violently. Any cannons not at full crew roll to the opposing wall, and must be pushed back which takes 5 rounds-1 per man pushing.

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I assume there'd be some sort of minimum, say 1 round.

Also, how about something like a Hull Hit with Grapeshot: 1d3+1 cannons are jammed, and take 1d6+1 rounds to fix (-1 per two men working on it, to a minimum of 1 round). The 1d3+1 could be modified up or down, depending on the size of the ships.

Edit: You could add that 1d4 crew per cannon get slashed or crossed.

I also don't know anything about Warhammer, but I'd definitely be interested in seeing how this turns out!

Edit2: What size ships are you talking? How many crew, on average?

Some very interesting stuff here. Looks like it would run fairly smoothly without a huge learning curve for the players.

One issue I see with targetting specific crew members like the captain and whatnot is that players may be a tad miffed when they die instantly from a cannon shot just because they happen to be the captain.

Rel said:

Mark, I'll definately be including the one about hitting the captain's charts and such. I'm not entirely sure what you mean about the OGL stuff but feel free to e-mail me about it. I didn't go into this thinking of publication but thus far I've not found a published set of ship v. ship rules that I'm thrilled with.

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Just figured we might as well put it together in a document that includes an OGL and section 15 with proper accreditation, at the least. That way if anyone wishes to utilize it, such as myself (and I would, but others could also), then it would be all in order and easy to do.

Hussar said:

Some very interesting stuff here. Looks like it would run fairly smoothly without a huge learning curve for the players.

One issue I see with targetting specific crew members like the captain and whatnot is that players may be a tad miffed when they die instantly from a cannon shot just because they happen to be the captain.

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This issue is not lost on me.

What we did in the playtest was to roll damage against PC's and Named NPC's rather than instakill them. The damage was open ended so that it could reflect anything from catching a few splinters (that may well be absorbed by your Armor and Toughness) to taking a direct hit from a Round Shot that will vaporize you. All I can say is that sometimes that's just the way the dice fall. Plus, Warhammer has a Fate Point mechanic that can save your bacon from certain death.