Airship Combat Rules

AIRSHIP COMBAT RULES

First and foremost, the system we will be using is Mutants and Masterminds 3e, but I'm going to do my best to explain it here if you don't want to grab the PDF yourself. The MOVEMENT system we'll be using however will be shamelessly carved from Leviathans/Monsters in the Sky like your weirdo aunt, uncle, and cousins carving all of the turkey breast for themselves and leaving only scraps for you. I'll do my best to explain it here.

First of all, this is hex-based movement with units (your ships) taking up two or more hexes in a line. Facing is important as you'll have weapon systems on certain sides of the ship - more on that later. To cover things in full detail, we should start with defining the two general types of ships:

Type 1: Two hex ships, lighter. Base 10 MP (Movement Points). Generally have more Dodge than Toughness. These ships have better initiative than Type 2 ships in addition to better movement speed.
Type 2: Three hex ships, larger, typically more durable. These are usually flagships, but not always.  Base 7 MP. Generally have more Toughness than Dodge. These ships have more PP available for heavier weaponry.

Movement: A ship must expend 1 MP per hex they advance into. To advance into other hexes, a ship must first turn to face the direction it wants to head. Turning itself costs 1 MP, and you must advance at least two hexes to turn. When you turn, the ship has a pivot point that stays in place during the movement. For Type 1 Ships, this is the front of the ship and for Type 2 this is the middle.

A ship can also drift a bit to the side while moving forward. This is called Sideslipping. To Sideslip, you must move forward, in the direction the ship is facing, then pay 2 MP to shift the entire ship one hex left or right. You may sideslip as many times as you like provided you have the necessary MP to do so.

SHIP CREATION

You can choose either a type 1 or type 2 ship.

The ships are basically Power Level 10 but have no attributes to speak of. All this really means is a change on the caps of your abilities, so it isn't of importance if you're not familiar with the system already.

Your ship is divided into four parts: Bow (front), Port (left), Starboard (right), and Stern (back). Each part of the ship has its own power point pool (for choosing powers for your ship). You also have 20 points to spend between Dodge and Toughness for the ship. Basically, the more evasive you are, the easier you go down when hurt, and vice versa on both. While Dodge and Toughness apply to the entire ship, each of the four parts of the vessel tracks damage (which are applied as certain afflictions and penalties to Toughness checks) separately.

Type 1 ships have less heavy weaponry than Type 2 ships, so they have less PP available to customize themselves with. This will be shown in an A/B format, where A is Type 1's amount of PP and B is Type 2's.

Bow: 30/40 PP available.
Port: 45/60 PP available.
Starboard: 45/60 PP available.
Stern: 15/20 PP available.

You must be facing an enemy with the proper side to attack with a Power. As long as you can draw a straight line from a hexside on that side of the ship to a hexside of the side of an enemy ship you're attacking, you are facing them. From there, make sure the enemy is within the Range of the weapon you're using.

You can also choose like, 10 points worth of appropriate Advantages (feats) as well, in a separate pool from your Power Points.

Some types of Powers may call for Fortification or Will checks. These are directed at the ship's integrity. Your ship's Fort and Will saves, like your Dodge and Toughness, may be any combination that adds up to 20.

RANGES

Personal: Unchanged. This affects only the ship.
Close: A range of 4 hexes.
Ranged: Up to 16 hexes. Past eight hexes, these actions take a -2 penalty to hit. Past twelve hexes, this is instead a -5 penalty.
Perception: Unchanged. Anything within sight, with no penalties for range.

Range can be increased with the Increased Range extra.

The Stern is a particularly important part of your ship, as it's where the engine clusters are located on a typical airship. Single target attacks targeting a Stern gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Attack and Damage (AOE attacks do not get this bonus). Captains typically like to put extra protection in this part of the ship, backup weapons to fight enemies who get behind them, or shrouding tactics like smokescreens. If the Stern is Incapacitated, the entire ship will be forced to make an emergency landing.

Attacks with the Area extra may target up to two adjacent areas of a ship. One of the areas targeted must be a side facing the weapon. The Bow and Stern are adjacent to Port and Starboard, but not each other, while Port and Starboard are adjacent to Bow, Stern, and each other.

ACTUALLY MAKING ATTACKS

This is a d20 system. To make an attack with a particular weapon, verify that you're both facing your target and that they're within range. Then, roll 1d20+attack. This must beat your opponent's Defense Class, which is their Dodge+10. On a successful hit, the opponent then rolls 1d20+Toughness versus your attack's damage+15. On a success, they take no damage. On a failure, they take stacking penalties which increase in intensity as they are continually damaged or roll poorly.

Failure by 4 or less: That side of the target's ship takes a -1 circumstance penalty to further damage checks (stacking).
Failure by 5-9: They take a -1 circumstance penalty to further damage checks and the crew of that section are dazed.
Failure by 10-14: They take a -1 circumstance penalty to further damage and the crew are staggered. If they are staggered again, then that side of the ship becomes incapacitated.
Failure by 15+: That area is flat-out incapacitated.

Status Effects:

Dazed: The crew's concentration is thrown off and that side of the ship can't make an attack if their ship moves from its position (including changing facing) that turn.
Staggered: Changed from base Mutants and Masterminds to be identical to Stunned, essentially. This side of the ship can't make an attack the round its crew is staggered, as the damage has become severe enough to scatter the cannoneers, knock them down, etc and will have to take some time to pull ranks back into position.
Incapacitated: That side of the ship is so damaged that it's completely out of the fight.
MORE ON THE WAY

TURN ORDER

Movement Phase
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At the start of combat, each player and the GM roll 2d6+Systems to determine turn order. In this sort of system, the loser is actually the one who has to move their ships first, allowing for the winners of initiative to take advantage of the enemy's positioning better. Once initiative is rolled, starting with the lowest initiative, all Type 2 ships are moved. Then, again, starting with the lowest initiative, all type 1 ships are moved. This gives type 1 ships a positional advantage over their heavier counterparts.

Combat Phase
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Airship Combat is simultaneous. This means that once movement is over, no particular group shoots first. Keep this in mind! Turns might still be taken in initiative order to reduce chaos, but this also means that even if you incapacitate a target that turn, they can still counter-attack! This is also important for ELEMENTAL EFFECTS.

Each ship gets the equivalent of two standard actions, though there are some rules to this. First, no particular ship side may attack more than once a turn. Second, opposite-facing ship sides can't both fire on the same turn. The airship pilots can only really focus on lining up for particular kinds of shots, so shooting out of both the Bow and Stern or both Port and Starboard in the same turn is unlikely to work well.

Each player also gets a CREW ACTION which can be spent on doing things like using your typical player abilities (Geomancy, Darkside, spells, etc etc) or on common actions (like repairing, taking aim). This will get fleshed out before Zoof leaves for TI4 hopefully.

ELEMENTAL EFFECTS:

~Under Construction~

HERO POINTS

Some actions and features in M&M require HERO POINTS to represent good fortune, extraordinary effort, or the like. Each player has FIVE hero points during airship combat that they can use towards actions or Advantages that need them. Here are some of the example things you can do with Hero Points:

Heroic Feat: You can spend a hero point to gain an Advantage you don't have (or an extra rank of one you do) until the end of your next turn. Can't be used on Fortune advantages.

Improve Roll: Spend a hero point to reroll a die and take the better of the two rolls.

Recover: Spend a hero point to immediately recover from being Dazed, Fatigued, Staggered or Stunned.

Extra Effort: Extra Effort can be used WITHOUT spending a hero point, but it's very exhausting if you don't (you become Fatigued if you're not already, and Exhausted if you're already Fatigued) so spending one to offset this is recommended. You can use Extra Effort to gain an extra Standard Action (or Crew Action) which CAN be used to attack twice with the same ship side, gain a +2 bonus to any check or improve an existing bonus to +5, negate circumstance penalties for one check, increase a power by one rank for a turn, do something unexpected with one of your existing powers (Power Stunt), gain an additional resistance check towards an ongoing status, retry a power you normally can't retry, or increase your ship's MP by 2 for one turn.

(Edit Scene, Inspiration and Instant Counter are unavailable as Hero Point options)

You can replenish hero points in the same manner you would normally earn Destiny - by pulling off badass stunts. Think of these Hero Points as representing your Phantom Destiny!


BY THE BY

Lenore has been asked to accompany the newly promoted Admiral Erin on a model Hilda Garde MP, named "The Sunstriker" rather than Erin's usual post of the Hilda Garde 3, due to the placement of modified anti-eidolon cannons that now convert and amplify arcane energy instead.

Theta has been asked aboard the Blue Rose, a sister ship to Garnet's Red Rose and a holder of experimental barrier and laser technology based on the Invincible's schematics - because to be honest they need someone more familiar with these technologies.

Ammy, is of course on the Ark.

All three ships will have custom abilities along these lines, don't feel you need to account for them.