The Golden Triangle

3 min read

Space Combat

Air/Space to Ground Combat

Humans being hit by a Starship weapon are vaporized, unless they save against death, in which case they are merely mortally wounded and will die without assistance.

Starship weapons deal 10x damage against vehicles.

In the atmosphere starship weapons have an effective range of 10 kilometers. Attacks are resolved via attack rolls. Beyond that they are treated as artillery.

Spotting things without appropriate sensor fitting is hard. Ground targets have a +2 to avoid being spotted by starships, unless they have significant sensor profiles due to heat, energy or size.

Spotted targets can attempt to hide again if at all possible.

Crisis Table

Ships must roll on the crisis table when:

  • When the roll to hit is 30 or higher
  • When the roll is a natural 20
  • The first time the ship takes damage
  • Whenever the ship loses 25%, 50% and 75% percent of its hull points
RollCritical Hit Effect
00-09Cargo destroyed. d10 units of cargo are destroyed.
10-14Reduce the ship’s Life-Support capacity by one “module” (one week for max crew).
15-19Massive hull damage. Crew takes body saves or takes 1d10 damage.
20-24Armor Breach. Armor rating counts as half until repaired.
25-29Data storage wiped. All navigation and research data contained on the ship has been destroyed. The crew no longer knows where they are in space.
30-34Thrusters. Reduce speed by 1.
35-39Random stateroom or other nonessential room destroyed. Anyone inside makes a Luck save or takes 2d6 damage and is trapped.
40-44Random weapon disabled. Weapons can’t function until repaired.
45-49Spike Drive. If power stays on, roll 1d6 each round—on a 1 the drive goes critical and the ship will explode in 3 rounds unless a Tech/Astro 10 succeeds.
50-54Engines. Lose 20 percent Power until repaired; if available Power < fittings’ demand, choose systems to shut down.
55-59System overload. Computer and jump drives cease to work for 1d10 rounds unless repaired. -2 to Combat.
60-64Artificial gravity. The artificial gravity in the ship ceases to work and everyone/everything starts floating. Body saves or take 1d10 damage from the jolt.
65-69EMP. All powered fittings (except life-support) shut down for 1 round.
70-74Crew deck. d10 crew berths depressurize; anyone inside makes Luck save or is spaced (treat as vacuum exposure)
75-79Hull breach. Begin vacuum leak in random section. Each round until sealed, all adjacent compartments lose pressure. Anyone entering/leaving needs a suit; those staying make Evasion saves or are sucked out.
80-84Navigation controls. Ship can’t change direction without repair checks.
85-89Internal fire. Starts in a random room, spreads one room per turn. Destroys room in 1d10 rounds.
90-94System reboot. Everything—including life support—drops for 1d10 combat rounds while reactors hard-cycle. Gunners and pilots are blind; ship drifts.
95-98Cockpit or bridge destroyed. Body saves to escape the room before it’s destroyed.
99Fuel line. Unless a Tech/Astro 10 succeeds within one combat round, the ship detonates in 1d6 rounds, doing 10d6 to everything within 5 hexes. A success instead inflicts 1d10 HP to the ship as engineers vent the tanks.