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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells - Vehicle and Starship Combat - Part I

In all respects, except the ones on which we elucidate in this section, combat with vehicles and starships work the same way as combat between characters.

The Overlord will adjudicate any Surprise situation, Initiative will be resolved normally, attacks will be made and damage will be taken. But some details are slightly adjusted by the following rules.

Maneuverability


Some vehicles and starships are capable of sharp turns, and daring maneuvers with little effort. Others, however, are sluggish and take some time to change its direction, even under heavy fire. In game terms, this is represented by a vehicle's or starship’s Maneuverability.

Maneuverability functions as a limit to the pilots Agility for when he is trying to maneuver the ship or for when enemies are firing their weapons against it. That means that when he needs to make an Agility test to dodge asteroids, his effective Agility is limited by the vehicle’s or starship’s Maneuverability. Or that an enemy ship attacking the character’s vehicle or starship, he will need to roll against either the pilot’s Agility or the Maneuverability, whichever is the lowest.

The Crimson Nebula is a light transport ship, heavily modified to survive the perils of the universe, but it’s still a light transport. It’s not as agile as a starfighter, but not as bulky as a heavy transport. It has an Maneuverability of 14, thanks to some modifications the crew made to the propulsion drives, so even if the pilot has an Agility greater than 14, he will make tests as if it was 14.

Targeting


Not every ship and vehicle was made to face battles. Firing lasers against incredible fast moving targets is not an easy task, so most battle ready ships have a targeting system to assist gunners, and sometimes even pilots, hit their enemies. In game terms, this is represented by a vehicle’s or starship’s Targeting score. This score effectively limit the Intellect score used by anyone firing mounted weapons on said vehicle or starship.

So whenever a gunner tries to shoot an enemy vehicle with his own vehicle mounted weapons, he makes an Intellect test (using the Powerful Opponent rule as normal). However, his Intellect score is limited by the Targeting score of the weapon’s systems, meaning some starships and planet bound ships have a easier time in combat than others that were not projected to these situations.

Not being a starship projected to intense combat, the Crimson Nebula doesn’t have a high Targeting score, even though it was modified to handle itself in small confrontations. The weapon’s system has a Targeting of 13, which means character firing the ship’s guns will test either against their Intellect score or 13, whichever is lower.

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