Using the Profit System to run naval engagements in the Age of Sail

Battles between ships at sea begin when the lookout of one ship spots the sail of another ship on the horizon, and the lookout’s ship elects to give chase and become what is referred to in these rules as “the Hunter”. Following this, one of three logics obtain:

• The pursued ship (referred to henceforth as “the prey”) elects to close for battle immediately, or
• The prey attempts to flee, either in a genuine attempt to escape or in an attempt to find an advantageous place to do battle
• The hunter attempts to approach by stealth instead of force, and effect a surprizal (see below)

Logics 1 and 2 are the most straightforward, and are handled the same way. Logic 3 (surprizal) works a little differently and is discussed after the straightforward rules.

1. Engagement Tracker and the notion of “Gage”

This tracker is used to model the competitive sailing contest that was ship-to-ship combat in the Age of Sail. A key element of this contest was the pursuit of the “weather gage”. A ship with the “weather gage” had successfully used wind, currents, landmarks and even wave height to maneuver itself into an advantageous position relative to its opponent, and this position sometimes made the difference between a relatively cost-free victory, and a suicide run into the guns of a waiting foe. “Gage” thus replaces “Sway” as it appears in the standard RM rules. Other deviations and addons are outlined below. 

This layout assumes the players are the Hunters and the Market Forces are the Prey. Simply reverse the positions of the starting dice if the opposite is true.

2.1 Prep work

Prep work takes place ahead of the chase, and focuses on characters doing something to increase the effectiveness of their crew and vessel, or gather leads for a good ship to attack, or make and maintain contacts with the fences who shift stolen goods on to the American colonies. In port, appropriate skills for prep work tend to draw from CHA and ADP pools; at sea, more from INT skills and specifically Profession skills like Profession: Seamanship, Profession: Gunnery, and Profession: Carpenter. Each character gets one Prep work action; each success gives +1 Gage for the confrontation to follow, or increases the eventual Plunder value of the prize by +2.

• Port Prep Actions: gathering intel about ship capabilities in taverns (Networking), intimidating other crews, discovering the sailing schedule or intended route of a target (Research), careening the ship (P:Seamanship), upgrading combat stores (P:Gunnery or spend-a-Bounty)
• Sea Prep Actions: bolstering the crew, seeing to the sails, bracing the mast (P:Carpentry), adjusting the load of the cannons

2.2 Sail Ho!

Roll Black and Red and consult the table below to generate a potential prize, including the value of its cargo and its nationality:

	Black (value)	Red (ship type)	Difference btw the dice
1	Timber	Trading canoe (.5)	Spanish
2	Dry goods, preserved foods	War canoe (.5)	French
3	Ginger / Cacao	Barca longa (1)	English
4	Passengers	Armed pinnace (1)	Dutch
5	Sugar / Molasses	Fluyt (1-3)	Portuguese
6	Alcohol / Tobacco	Sloop (1-2)	Buccaneer
7	Slaves / Soldiers	Brig (2-3)	Danish
8	VIP / personal effects	Galleon (2-3)	Swedish
9	Bar silver / situado	Frigate (3)	Genoan
0	Bar gold / payroll	Man of War (3)	False flag: roll again in secret

2.3 Leadership Opens

As per RM core rules, the result of this opening Leadership roll determines not only number of Pursuit Rounds in the chase (approx 2 hours of chase time per duration rolled), but also the range at which the prey notices the hunter, i.e. where to place the Hunter at the start of the engagement. On a roll of a Crit success, the the Hunter starts at Extreme range; on a roll of a Crit failure, the  hunter starts at Horizon. All other results begin at Spyglass range. The prey always starts at Boarding range on Engagement Tracker. 

2.4 Pursuit round

Each round, the Captain (designated leader for this engagement) rolls a skill from the pool given by their range band on the Engagement Tracker. Success moves the Hunter up one range band. 

The Prey, in the meantime, moves down one band if it chooses to. Moving down the tracker in this fashion doesn’t mean slowing down or even getting closer; the distance between the two ships is always read off the Hunter’s position. Instead, moving down for the Prey means choosing a style of sailing which permits the use of gunnery and prepares for a fight. Well-armed vessels that want to provoke an exchange of cannon fire will move down, ensuring that the Hunter will encounter them sooner but will face them broadside on; ships which would prefer just to put their heads down and escape, or who are deficient in cannons but seeking to win in a boarding action, will instead stay high on the Engagement tracker and bank Gage points instead of moving (much like a Client electing to find out Taker spots in conventional RM).

2.5 Market Forces

Each target vessel comes preloaded with 0-3 Gage to reflect the difference between fighting a panicky merchant and a hardened privateer. If the Market Forces fought the characters and/or their ship before, they get +1 Gage. If they’re veteran fighters, they get another +1. If they have the better ship (any two of: faster, bigger, better armed) they get another +1. 

2.6 Crew actions

These replace “Scams”. In between rounds, characters other than the Captain can roll any skill from the skill pool to provide the captain with either +1 Gage, or a +2 to their next roll.

2.7 The Moment of Truth

After the number of pursuit rounds generated by the opening Leadership roll have elapsed, check the position of the dice.

If the dice are not heads up, the prey has managed to keep the chase going until nightfall or the arrival of bad weather, and has a chance to slip away. The Hunter should roll Seamanship.

• On a Critical Fail: spend 1 from the ship’s Rations, lose 1 Morale, and the prey is lost. 
• On a simple Failure: Spend 1 Ration OR lose 1 Morale, and the prey is lost. 
• On a Success, the chase is back on: spend 1 Ration, and roll Leadership to generate a new starting position and number pursuit rounds. 
• On a Critical Success: spend 1 Ration, maintain current positioning, but roll Leadership again to generate a new number of pursuit rounds.

If the dice are heads up: roll Leadership to determine if hunter moves up to prey (success) or prey moves down to hunter. Accumulated Gage should be spent at this point to see who actually has the weather gage in this fight. If the Hunter is not at least at Long range after the heads up is resolved, the chase is over and the Prey escapes.

2.8 Coming to Blows

Consult range category to determine how each round of the fight plays out. Unspent Gage can be used like Will points at this stage. Each character gets to take one action over the course of the combat - either leading the attack (see directly below) or rallying the crew to resist incoming violence (see after the "Leading the Attack" section). If the combat persists after all characters have acted, the ships crew continue to fight using their ship default skill of either 2 (if the skill was prepared during the last rest between voyages), or 1.

2.8.1 Leading the Attack

Only one character can roll per round, and they must pick an appropriate skill from the skill pool for that range band. This represents how they are contributing to bringing the Hunter into range of the Prey. In any given round, unless it is specifically stated that combat ends, the Hunter should keep rolling until the Prey surrenders, combat ends, or they move up to a new range band.

For each of these rolls, the ship with more cannons (and long or broadside range) or more fighting crew (at boarding) has advantage, meaning that after success or failure are resolved, the player(s) or the Market may flip the dice, for free, in whichever way suits them best to resolve damage on their own ship.Remaining Gage points can, of course, be used to flip any or all of the dice back. This flipping can be used to target specific ship areas (sails, hull, crew, etc.) and to maximize or minimize damage in strategically useful ways.

Example: Hunter ship has advantage. At broadside range, Hunter rolls R8B7 (failure) and spends 1 Gage to flip to R7B8 (success). Normally this would do result in both ships taking 8 points of damage to Location 7 (guns) - but the Hunter player has the option to switch the damage to their own ship, to 7 points at hit location 8 (hull). Seeing as guns are more expensive to replace than hull planks, the player switches the locations accordingly, and tacks hard into the swell to take the Prey's incoming fire to their sides while raking the Prey's gundeck. The Hunter is now taking on water, and will suffer another 2 points of Hull damage per round until combat is over.

At Long Range: Hunter’s roll is resolved as follows:

• Crit Fail: Hunter vessel takes full gun damage, combat ends
• Simple Fail: Hunter vessel takes half damage, OR combat ends
• Success: Hunter inflicts half gun damage on Prey, and moves up 1 range band if desired
• Crit Success: Hunter inflicts full damage on Prey, and moves up 1 range band if desired

Broadside: Hunter’s roll is resolved as follows: 

• CF: Hunter vessel takes double gun damage, and drops back 1 range category
• F: Hunter vessel takes double gun damage, OR takes regular damage and combat ends 
• S: Hunter vessel takes and inflicts full damage, move up 1 range category if desired
• CS: Hunter vessel inflicts double damage, takes regular damage itself, and moves up 1 range band if desired, OR inflicts regular gun damage on Prey, takes no damage itself, and moves up 1 range band if desired

Note that Prey may surrender before boarding if crew or ship trackers drop too low; see ship damage tracker. In this case, move to 2.8, Taking a Prize.

Boarding: Hunter’s roll is resolved as follows: 

• CF: take double damage (choose; two hits on crew or one on crew, one on ship) and roll Leadership to prevent surrender. 
• F: Take regular damage to Hunter crew or ship (Market’s choice).
• S: Inflict regular damage to Prey crew or ship and roll Leadership to force Prey surrender. 
• CS: Inflict two hits (choose as above) and roll, OR inflict regular damage and guarantee surrender.

Damage

Regular damage inflicted during a ship-to-ship engagement is Stun damage. Heavy cannon and heated shot do "heavy" damage, which means that the black die is applied both as Kill and Stun damage. When a location is full of Stun damage, it begins to take Kill damage. Special effects (e.g., under sails, -1 to Seamanship) apply regardless of Kill or Stun.

The Price of Leadership

There are plenty of safe places to hide on a wooden ship under cannon fire, but being where the crew is and directing operations exposes one to potential danger. Each round that the Hunter ship takes damage, regardless of range, the acting player (i.e., the one who is making the Hunter’s rolls that round, as above) should roll Athletics: 

• CF: Roll black and red. Take Red die as killing damage to Black location and stun damage to all others
• Fail: As above, but choose the killing OR the stun
• Success: As above, but it’s stun damage to one location OR half damage as stun to all locations
• Crit Success: No damage suffered.

2.8.2 Rallying the Crew

Rallying the crew mid-fight to reset upended guns, patch holes in the hull, hoist fresh sails, or tend casualties is treated like a First Aid roll using Profession (Gunner) or (Carpentry), Seamanship, or First Aid / Profession (Doctor). On a success, the Black die can be applied to one damaged location. If a location is rendered damage-free, any penalties associated with damage also disappear.

Remember that each character only gets one action - leading the attack or rallying the crew - per engagement. If there are no more characters on hand to perform Rallying actions, then that's that: no more Rallies while the cannonballs fly. 

Unlike those leading the attack, characters rallying the crew are not exposed to personal damage.

2.9 Repairing after Combat

In a port, Plunder can be used to remove ship damage as laid out in the Ships, Crew and Plunder rules. Should the company find themselves with Bounty but no Plunder, a 10-1 ratio applies.

Pulled up on a beach, limited (or "Jury-Rigged") repairs can be done by the crew at the cost of time and Thirst. Each location can only be targeted for repair once. The cost to the company is (Ship's Scale) in Thirst; a single black die should be thrown and applied to that ship location to remove Stun damage or convert Kill to Stun. Any stun damage that remains after the die is applied should be marked as Kill damage.

If at sea, the same rules apply as above, except that the Thirst cost is doubled and Kill damage may not be converted to Stun damage. 

3. Surprizal

Wherever possible, combatants in the Age of Sail preferred to take prizes by guile or stealth rather than costly and dangerous chases. However, while the payoff for such “surprizals” was high, the costs of being discovered mid-surprize were high, and the costs of trying to surprize a foe who had in fact seen you coming and was priming its weapons as you approached were almost inevitably fatal. N

(still being written up)

Card laying system for postapocalyptic chase scenes or urban crawl

The system presented here is intended to assist an RPG narrator for a postapocalyptic game (in my case, Red Markets by Hebanon Games) in two main situations:

• Characters are slowly picking their way through a low-density urban area, looking for stuff
• Characters are panickedly fleeing from point A to point B, or chasing someone 

With this system, you'll be using a standard poker deck (minus Jokers, for now) to lay out a kind of brick-pattern grid, and then letting the characters choose a path forward.

This approach is a development of/hack for Steve Winters' 2012 post about doing chase scenes in a tabletop game, with a few inspirational elements provided by polarizing/problematic OSR dude Zak S's really cool Vornheim supplement, which I own.

How It Works

Use Steve Winters' steps 1-7 as written, but substitute the following table for his:

I've tried to have this system do more than the original Winters system, which is where the last 2 columns come from. To decode the weird shorthand that appears there, here's a breakdown:

Linkitecture: You won't always need these if you can visualize or narrate on the fly how one location segues into another, but this is my shorthand to handle the fact that a lot of postapocalyptic action scenes in media seem to not happen at a location as such, but in the spaces between locations. I originally had these as a whole suit, but that made the urban area feel boring and too open. In addition, I wanted to model the way that urban area usage "as designed", and usage "when there are goddamned zombies" means that you might need to cross space in a somewhat unusual way. Parkour, baby! So, when you go from one location to another, the "difference between cards" tells you HOW you get from one to the other. If you're going from a 6 of Diamonds (Gas Station) to a 4 of Hearts (Slum Housing), for example, you're crossing railway tracks to do so because the difference between those two cards is 2. If something ever doesn't make sense, and you're on the spot, just say the two locations are linked by a parking lot instead. Face cards inherit the value of their parent location. 

Note: This also tends to group like buildings "together", narratively - i.e. you just walk along roads ("use as intended") to go from a hotel to a park to a ritzy McMansion, or from an apartment to a clinic to the DMV, but you have to do increasingly egregious and weird detours ("goddamned zombies") to get from one place to another if they probably wouldn't be next to each other IRL. In these cases, you should assume that there IS a direct route, but it's too dangerous or its obstructed, hence you're climbing into a sewer or clambering down an embankment or whatever. 

Elevation: I like the idea that you can see what's ahead in a chase or scavenge scene, but the Winter model doesn't allow that. So, I like to lay cards out in advance. When the cards are the same color, great, you can see what's ahead, so deal that card face up. When they're not, it's because there's an obstruction (e.g. highway sound barrier) or topography that blocks line of sight. I've used "hill" here for parsimony, but it just stands for "rising terrain so that you can't properly see what's up there" - could be just a four foot embankment. 

Condition: Five years of neglect means at least fifty percent of the world looks like an actual warzone, in my mind's eye. So whenever you go from an even to odd card, or vice versa, here's what the condition of the place you're headed to is. Condition doesn't affect locations based around face cards, but when you're going from a face card to a number card use the face card's parent location to determine lootedness.

Other stuff: Chases are going to turn into "the character with high Athletics rolls a lot and everyone else sits around like idiots" if you're not careful. So I take a leaf from the Negotiation minigame; one person rolls Athletics on behalf of the characters, and then everyone else gets to do something constructive - cut off an exit, try and get ahead, boost others over an obstruction, rip a gate open, shoot an obstruction or hazard, slam a door closed, call out a route, whatever. Each success gives the main roller a +1. The Market forces also get to modify things, if they're sapient - so the chaser rolls Dodge to avoid something they've thrown behind them, or whatever. If they fail, they lose ground, perhaps even despite the assistance of their teammates and their own Athletics roll. Use the basic Gridiron, and take your cue from your favorite chase scene, but I like this one from Casino Royale a lot.

Face Cards: Face cards are treated as a continuation of whatever terrain the chase scene just left, so if you run from a 3 of Clubs into a Queen of Diamonds, there's construction out back of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Must have been putting in a new youth hall or repaving the parking lot. In general, Aces and Kings are super bad, while Jacks and Queens represent a genuine opportunity for a Salvage roll and some good stuff (if you have the time to stop, or are willing to risk doubling back).

Example:

Characters are chasing a runner, so they're the pursuer. First card draw is a 9 of Hearts with two exits. I drew a queen of Spades for exit one and a Jack of Clubs for exit 2. So:

• the first chase location is a Town Hall (or 4H Club, or Scout Hall, or whatever)
• both exits are blind exits, because they're an exit from a red card to black cards.
• both exits also don't take the chase out of the town hall, because they're face cards.
• Exit 1 leads through a closed door past a Wailing Wall (perhaps on the municipal bulletin board)
• Exit 2 leads past a side room where bottled water was being distributed during the Crash.

The quarry flees through Exit 1, past the wailing wall (Stress check to just run past all that wealth!), and again I generate exits and lay new cards. 3 exits this time; one back to the Jack of Clubs, one to a six of Diamonds, one to a 2 of Spades. So:

• The first exit is blind due to a black-to-red elevation change, so I know that there's a gas station back there over the hill behind the church, but the characters don't. Maybe even the quarry doesn't, unless this is their home turf. Linkitecture from the Town Hall to the gas station is a (9-6=3) bridge or skyway, so let's make it like a wooden walkway with a guard rail going from the town hall tourism pamphlet section, to a lookout site on the hill with one of those coin-operated viewfinders, and then back down to the gas station on the other side of the hill. 
• The second exit is visible (black to black) and leads through a FEMA tent city. Definitely getting the sense that this Town Hall was where people sheltered in the first few days of the crash, between the wailing wall, the water distro, and the tents. Linkitecture is a (9-2=7) cut-through, meaning you need to go in the front entrance of something and then out the back, so that's easy: the kitchen of the town hall.
• The Town Hall card was odd, and the gas station and tent city are both even, so we know that both exit locations are fire sites. Maybe someone siphoned gas clumsily and started a fire, or maybe incendiaries were used sanitize both locations?

Again, quarry flees - let's say through the kitchen and the tent city (because quarries will avoid blind exits when possible). Two unique exits this time: 4 of Spades, 9 of Diamonds. In condensed notation (elevation, linkitecture, condition), that means:

• Tent city (2 of Spades) to Extant Barrier (4 of Spades) via level ground, railway tracks, lightly looted. So: one side of the tent camp is up against railroad tracks (or a bike path, or a canal), but on the other side of the tracks there's barbed wire, sawhorses, and Jersey barriers.
• Tent city (2 of Spades) to Police/Sheriff's Office (9 of Diamonds) via blind exit (hill), cut-through, heavily looted. So: there's a big tent linking the FEMA camp to the back entrance of a looted building whose function can't be determined from down here because it's up an embankment from the level the camp is on.

Lather, rinse, repeat until the quarry is captured or your characters get eaten, and happy card laying!

Post Publishing Thought: 

I wrote this to use cards because I always have a deck on hand to handle turn action in combat, and because I like the de facto town map you get from laying the cards, but you could totally just use dice instead and do this as a straight up point-crawl. For instance - if you have a d4 in your dice bag, just roll a "d40" for location, with rolls of 11, 21, 31, and 41 representing a face card, and so on.