Naval Combat for Cairn
Ship rules for Cairn, partly based on my Space Ship Rules from Meteor. My Space Ship rules are about creating a ship occupied only by the players, where you're going to treat the ship as a sort of extra character and spend a lot of time upgrading bits and pieces and repairing things when they go wrong. For naval combat I wanted something snappier, where its more about the players directing a crew and hitting the notes of cinematic combat where actions are on a grander scale than you as an individual.
These rules assume the players are in control of a ship that has its own Crew beyond the PCs themselves.
If you’re in a ship by yourselves, use the normal Cairn rules to adjudicate the situation.
If you’re engaging with a ship significantly larger or smaller than yours, see Ship Scales.
Ship Attributes
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HP: As HP for a player. A ship’s ability to avoid or compensate for incoming damage.
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Hull: The ship’s durability and structural integrity.
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Sails: The ship’s speed and maneuverability. Includes masts, sails, rowers, rudders.
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Crew: The ship’s crew, and ability to support its crew. Includes food and water stores, as well as crew morale.
Ship Combat
On each round of combat, each Player Character may direct the crew in a single action. These will usually be Maneuver!, Fire!, Board!, or Repair! but could be anything else appropriate.
Actions are limited by the ship’s facilities. For example, if you only have a single set of cannon on board you can only Fire! once per round.
If an action is risky, make a Save as usual. If success depends on the ship’s capabilities use the ship’s attributes, if it depends more on personal skill use the character’s attributes.
Combat is simultaneous with both ships acting at once. If a ship is ambushed or taken by surprise in some other way, make a Crew Save to see if the Crew can prepare fast enough to act in the first round.
Maneuver!
Move the ship! Try to line up the optimal shot for you cannons, “cross the T” of the enemy ship, becalm them by blocking the wind with your own sails.
Fire!
Make an attack with one of the weapons on board the ship.
Attacks are done as usual for Cairn combat :
- Roll damage die
- Subtract armor
- Reduce HP
- Deal remainder to Attribute
- If the Attribute is reduce, make a Critical Damage Save
Unlike normal Cairn combat, an attack can be directed at a ship’s Sails, Hull, or Crew depending on the weapon being used. Critical Damage Saves are made with the impacted attribute, and each have differing effects.
Board!
Applicable only when close enough to plausibly do so.
Treat this as normal Detachment combat, with damage being dealt to a ship’s Crew attribute.
Repair!
Attempt to patch a hole, put out fires, calm a panicked crew, or any other such thing.
Depending on context this might require a Save, promises made, bribes, or anything else that might be appropriate.
If
a specific problem exists (such as those caused by taking Critical
Damage) this fixes it. Otherwise this action will restore 1d6 HP (but
not any Attribute loss).
Ship Harm
A ship at zero HP has its crew already stretched to the limit. Any further damage will start causing permanent harm to the ship.
Hull
Critical Damage to Hull means a significant breach. Lose 1 Hull per Round until repaired.
Hull at zero means the ship is taking on water and sinking fast.
Sails
Critical Damage to Sails means the ship is becalmed. Unable to maneuver until repaired.
Zero Sails means the ship is unable to maneuver under its own power, stuck drifting with ocean currents until repairs are made.
Crew
Critical Damage to Crew means the crew is panicked! Unable to command the crew to take actions until calmed.
Crew at zero means the ship’s company has been killed or disabled. There are no longer sufficient crew members to operate the ship.
Ship Scales
Under normal circumstances ship weapons are instantly lethal against individual targets, while personal weapons are completely ineffective against ships. If applied cleverly, powerful personal weapons or explosives could bypass this restriction.
The same is true for ships of dramatically different scales. A small ship’s weapons are ineffective or impaired against a massive ship, whereas the massive ship’s armaments are likely to be instantly lethal, or at least enhanced, in return.
Example Ship Weapons
This is where I’d list a bunch of different naval weaponry and example ships but unfortunately I am both not a naval buff and also too lazy to go look things up. I have, at best, a vague recollection of a single Horatio Hornblower book and I don’t think that’s enough to work with.
Instead have a Cannon with a few different kinds of shots.
Cannons
- Standard Cannonballs: d6 damage
- Chainshot: impaired against Hull, enhanced against Sails
- Grapeshot: imparied against Hull, enhanced against Crew
- Heated Shot: enhanced against Hull, risky to use on a wooden ship
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