Starship Combat

Void battles are fought simultaneously in two different scales: a creature scale and a starship scale. If you use combat maps to facilitate your battles, set up two maps: one regular map of the starship using a 5 ft. square grid, and one starship map of the void using a 100 ft. square grid. In the starship map, position the tokens for each starship participating in combat.

Each player rolls to determine their character's initiative as normal, and the GM rolls for each crew member on an enemy starship. Alternatively, the GM can choose to either group all the rolls from a starship, or roll for each active weapon manned by the enemy crew. These options simplify starship combat, especially if enemy crew position and health are not important.

At the start of each combat round, before any creature acts, participating starships take a turn in a special phase called the Starship Phase. During this phase, starships regain any lost Shield Points as determined by the type of Shields installed, and then pilots who have taken an appropriate Helm action can move the starship.

Each starship's pilot makes a roll to determine the starship's initiative for this round by making a Dexterity check using the starship's Dexterity modifier. The pilot can also use their own Dexterity modifier in place of the starship's modifier. If there is no pilot at the helm, the check result is 0. The GM ranks the starships in order, and the starship with the highest initiative moves first for this round. In the event of a tie, the GM decides the order.

Once all ships have taken a turn, each participant in combat takes their turn as normal, such as moving between stations or taking actions. Once all combatants in the round have taken their turn (and combat has not ended), the Starship Phase begins again, and so on.

Fighting from a starship grants you certain benefits and drawbacks.

Station Actions

Stations on a starship grant special actions you can take while you operate them. These actions are especially complex and take time to complete; only one station action can be taken at each station every round.

Targeting Starships with Spells

Starship weapons are designed to attack other starships, but spells are not. Vehicles constantly weave at incredible speeds and it is difficult to target a moving ship through a window. Unless the GM allows it, you cannot target an enemy ship or a space inside the ship with a spell. However, the GM may allow you to attempt to cast the spell with certain penalties. For instance, if you attempt to catch a glimpse of an enemy vehicle to cast a spell, you might roll a percentile die to determine whether the spell succeeds.

A starship that takes major damage suffers from additional problem. Once per turn, when a starship suffers a critical hit or takes damage that exceeds its critical threshold, it gains a critical effect from the list below. The attacker can choose the effect. Some weapons may create specific critical effects detailed in their descriptions.

Breach. The damage tears 1d3 small breachs in the ship's hull in a random location. Each breach can be patched as described in the Starship Repair section.

Disrupt. The damage impairs a starship station. 1d3 randomly chosen starship stations are disabled. (see Disabled Stations).

Fire. The damage starts a fire, creating 1d3+1 circular areas of fire at random locations inside the starship not occupied by equipment. Each area is 5 feet in diameter. The fire ignites any flammable objects inside it not being worn or carried and may spread to adjacent spaces (at GM's discretion). When a creature enters a circle's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it takes 1d6 fire damage. The fire lasts for 1 minute or until extinguished. A creature may use an action to extinguish a circular area of fire adjacent to it.

Hinder. The damage destabilizes the starship. Until the end of the next Starship Phase, its speed is halved.

Impact. The damage rocks through the starship. Each creature within 30 feet of a random point in the starship must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 3d6 thunder damage and is knocked prone. A creautre that fails this save by 10 or more is stunned until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is not knocked prone.

While you are in a weightless environment, such as the vacuum of the cosmic void or a starship whose life support station is disabled, movement can be difficult. Your speed is reduced to 0, and if you have a climb speed, it is halved. If you have a fly speed, you can still move normally, though a GM may rule otherwise for certain cases, such as using physical wings in a vacuum with no air resistance.

You can still drift in a weightless environment with directional launches. As a bonus action, you can push against a stable surface you are adjacent to and propel yourself in a straight line in a direction of your choice, traveling up to a number of feet equal to three times your Strength score. This movement ends early if you hit another creature or obstacle. If your velocity is not interrupted by the start of your next turn, you continue drifting and moving the same distance (no action required), repeating this movement until you are interrupted.

If a starship rams or crashes into another object at high speed, both the starship and the target object take 2d6 bludgeoning damage for every 100 feet the starship traveled in a straight line immediately prior to the crash, up to a maximum of 20d6. The GM may adjust the damage based on factors like the relative velocities of both objects.