Starship Rules at a glance

These starship rules are meant to be used with D20 Future and D20 Modern: Future Tech starship combat rules which can be found here:


Starship Notes

Combat is much like character combat, but starships have their own, generally translatable, rules in comparison to standard combat.

Energy damage from elemental energy sources are blocked by the starships hardness (x10 vs foot targets) and halved.

A starship only gains it's hd bonus vs foot targets.

A starship's "square" is 500 not 5 feet.

Attack bonus

Attack roll = Size bonus+ gunner attack bonus (up to maximum) + Targeting AI bonus +d20 roll

as stated vs other starships, against foot targets add 1/2 starship hit dice and multiply other statistics by x10

HP

As stated vs other starships x10 vs foot targets

AC

As stated vs other starships all stats x10 vs foot targets, +1 deflection ac 1/2 hd vs foot targets

Hardness

All starships are made of advanced materials that apply their damage reduction against most attack forms. As stated vs other starships and foot targets, x10 vs foot targets at PL 8 weaponry and above.

DCs

As stated vs other starships add 1/2 hd to DC vs foot targets

Starship actions

A starship's combat actions are slightly different than a character's but run off the same time frame, 6 seconds. A starship can make 2 movement actions and one standard action per round, or a full round action. 1 Swift action can also be made per round.

Shield rating

Like a damage reduction but much higher, (as stated for starships, x10 vs foot targets) ignores this damage first, any damage passing this threshold reduces this number by 5 (or 50) points. Shields can be recharged by spending three swift actions to restore 5 shields.

Active Shield hp

Other shield systems create a bubble of temporary health to absorb damage first this will usually regenerate at a rate of 1/50th the shields total hp/ round.

Screens

Some starships have energy screens which disrupt certain weapon types targeting them. This adds a bonus to the ac of screen to the appropriate damage type. This bonus is x10 vs foot targets

Cloaks and active stealth

Cloaks and active stealth make you effectively invisible or invisible from certain sensors but cannot be used effectively with shields, screens or active shielding in place. An enemy vessel may still learn your relative position if they notice your engine wake or ion trail but may not actively see your ship specifically.

Squares

The basic square for a starship is 500 feet, stellar squares are 5000 feet

Movement

Starships can move in three sometimes four distinct ways
-Tactical speed:
This is the movement of a starship when attempting to preform precision maneuvers, fight, or fly through treacherous terrain. The movement speed is factored in 500 foot squares.
-Stellar Speed:
This is the basic thruster speed allowing for faster though less precise travel through space. The basic stellar speed is 10x the tactical speed provided, if attempting to attack in stellar speed the ship suffers a -4 to attack rolls
- Cruising Speed:
The cruising speed of a starship is a factor of the speed of light. This is the basic travel speed between interstellar objects. Firing weapons with any precision is impossible at these speeds though you may fire upon another ship in cruising speed at a -4 penalty to attack
-hyperspace or warp etc
Some ships are equipped with worm hole generators, magical enhancements, or spatial collapse modules allowing for space to be bypassed to some degree and allowing for much faster travel or even instantaneous travel

Damage

Standard vs other starships x10 vs foot targets. Can also use tactical fire to fire narrow salvo AOE attacks and wide barrage AOE attacks as the situation calls. DCs for these attacks are stated above.

Capital ships

Dreadnoughts, Septentrions, Ghoma Carriers and other massive ships deal catastrophic damage to unarmored or foot targets dealing x100 damage.

Smaller vehicles

Tanks and other ground and air based equipment larger caliber than foot weapons but smaller that ship mounted weapons deal x5 damage and have 5x the stated hp vs foot targets.

Attacks of Opportunity and Point Defense systems

Attacks of opportunity are resolved automatically. Point defense systems will automatically fire upon incoming missiles or close in enemy vessels or targets, this can be actively controlled at the captain or Gunner's directive. Point defense systems have a range of your square and one additional square around your ship (1000 feet)

Magical Effects and Abilites

Magical Effects are generally unable to be used to boost a starships statistics being either too small or too weak to effectively improver their power and a starship is effectively considered an environment for purposes of targeting it with spells. Certain effects and abilites can be used if they affect the environment or otherwise can cover the entire area the ship occupies. A zone of silence for example could silence the entire area a ship exists in if it was small enough to fit within the zone. A gate spell can be used to teleport a starship vast distances as well. A repair spell will repair damage to a starship accordingly but will not restore systems destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Obly99

Hero
Hardness

All starships are made of advanced materials that apply their damage reduction against most attack forms. As stated vs other starships and foot targets, x10 vs foot targets PL 8 and above.
How come more against the advanced ones? Shouldn't they theoretically drill it better with better technologies?
 


This is a snippet too, I need to refine it further so it makes more sense, this was taken directly off my phone so it's pretty shorthand, I'll refine it further in the next couple days.
 



Why is their hardness higher against high tech weapons? Shouldn't it theoretically be more technology = better penetration?
Ah I needed to put a period. PL and above deals x10 damage to foot targets hardness. I just didn't use punctuation so it seems like it's saving the opposite.
 

Obly99

Hero
Ah I needed to put a period. PL and above deals x10 damage to foot targets hardness. I just didn't use punctuation so it seems like it's saving the opposite.
It wouldn't be easier to say this: All starships are made of advanced materials that apply their damage reduction against most attack forms. As stated vs other starships and foot targets, 1/10 vs foot targets at PL 8 weaponry and above. If base hardness 100, against foot targets at PL 8 weaponry and above is considered only 10.
 

It wouldn't be easier to say this: All starships are made of advanced materials that apply their damage reduction against most attack forms. As stated vs other starships and foot targets, 1/10 vs foot targets at PL 8 weaponry and above. If base hardness 100, against foot targets at PL 8 weaponry and above is considered only 10.
Like I said a couple times. This is directly from my phone from my own notes so it's pretty shorthand and needs to be more succinctly put but honestly I had a harder time following that than mine once I corrected it.
 


Remove ads

Top