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