Looking at the latest info on Spelljammer coming out through an interview with Lead Designer Chris Perkins it appears that we will not be getting much, if any ship combat rules at all.
"For ship engagements in this setting, we're basically using the core rules of the game. [...] ship-to-ship engagements is, in Fifth Edition—which is more a theater of the mind — there aren't things like Facing or Turning or anything like that. We're not trying to create a game-within-a-game where suddenly you're no longer role-playing, you're engaged in some tactical, "Where's my ship exactly in space" kind of game.
It's kind of like two groups on two small islands, separated by shooting arrows at one another. A ship becomes a platform on which the encounter takes place, like a dungeon room a room in a castle. You can attack the ship, of course, and the ship can take damage, but for the most part, ship-to-ship engagements really have to do with the crews on board. And, despite the fact that your ship may have a catapult and ballistae and whatnot on board, it's still pretty hard to trump a Fireball spell or a Lightning Bolt spell. The characters have so many other options at their disposal for disposing of shipboard enemies. We stay very much in the theatre of the mind with this product for the sake of keeping encounters fluid and fast."
This puzzles me in two respects - first, what is the existing combat system except 'where is my PC exactly' and second, why on earth am I shelling out $65 a pop for the boxes of ship minis for if they don't do anything?
I think there is a core point I agree with in that people sat to the table to play D&D Spelljammer, not some tactical space combat game, sure. However, I think giving people a frame to understand how to stage awesome ship-on-ship combat, when that can be 3D, when it can be two ships flying upside-down over one-another, when it can include ramming from weird angles, all the wrinkles and weirdness - that would be fun.
Looking at the rules as much as has been deciphered from the images of the Spelljammer DM screen, we could read it as pointing to a 'range bands' approach to distance (ships can appear 250, 500 or 1000 ft away at the start of an encounter) or just thats how far out the foe appears, take it from there.
The stat-blocks as they appear in the Spelljammer Academy adventure on D&DBeyond strongly resemble what we have seen in Ghosts of Saltmarsh - AC, Hit points in the 100's (not hull points in the 10's), a damage threshold, speed in feet, cargo capacity, crew and keel/beam dimensions. Key is the fact that the siege weapons just need crew and can fire every round with them. From testing ship combat rules before, this was the major 'speed bump' in AD&D Spelljammer.
Ship schematics and stat blocks from Spelljammer Academy on D&DBeyond
Do these stats imply a really slow, boring combat? How long would it take these ships to fight one another to destruction?
Doing a quick bit of math using the stats appearing in Spelljammer Academy Chapter 3 - if a foe Squidship appears 250 ft out, has a speed of 30 ft, lets say for argument I am another Squidship dead in space but undamaged with 300 hit points. They have 8 rounds to close, they will ram/board as they please on the 9th. They have a Mangonel on the front - +5 to hit against my AC 15, average damage 27 which exceeds my threshold on 15 so if they hit me, it penetrates. Assume 50% hits; 4 lots of damage for 108 as they close then they ram for another 88 damage - 196 of my ships hit points are gone, now we are in a hand-to-hand boarding action.
Change it up a bit, say they circle a little, bring their ballistae to bear in a broadside and take 4 extra rounds to close - 2 more mangonel hits, and 2 ballistae hits at 16 damage each - total 27 x 2 + 16 x 2 for 86. Do that again (another 86, leaving me with 20 hit points) and then they can ram and smash my ship to splinters. My point here is, this is not dull, this is mortal peril. Ship-borne weapons are throwing out damage sufficient to break up similar ships in pretty short order.
Do similar with a Hammerhead from Chapter 2 and it looks the same - a faster ship, it can close in just 8 rounds but has 2 forward facing Mangonels for 7 hits, 189 damage dealt on the run in. Follow that with a ram and a Squidship is down to ~40 hitpoints, or circle and just smash them at range. Ships are a *threat* with these stats. The core stats to have a good space combat system *are here*.
Spelljammer ship-combat should be the best of both old naval combat (ships are slow enough that people have time to react, hulls colliding is not an auto-kill event like it would be in harder sci-fi) and early aerial combat (ships could pull off fancy dog-fight maneuvers) - with the odd configurations of weapon pits, things like flying inverted over your foe are things you want to pull off, bringing all your weapons to bear.
To play back the references in the article, we are throwing away the core insight of the Wrath of Khan; even a splash of 3D in your ship combat is a lot of fun. As an old Homeworld player, using the third dimension to out-flank opponents was a joy. Now, I am not looking for AD&D Spelljammers hexagon/octagon rules like in the War Captains Companion, but I think one of the core components of this set should be a block of advice on how to make 3D space combat awesome - from people who have had the time to put serious thought into it.
I have heard that Roll20 is pushing Nautiloid ship maps to premium subscribers - and sure, fighting your way through a ship is a nice change of pace - but I think hand-waving that point of getting to contact does people a disservice. We throw away fun like a light ship having to outmaneuver a heavy ship by keeping out of their weapon-arcs until they can close and land a boarding party. Sure, that could be done as a skill challenge or something - and fine if that is included in the box but I would be dissappointed for Spelljammer to skip the fun of skyship combat completely.
Looking at the range of effects that can be achieved with the systems out there, while recognising that fully theater of the mind is *an* approach, it feels disappointing that this is it. If we look at the 'feel' we get from other D&D systems we can see what can be achieved with lighter or heavier systems:
5e - Aces High from Arcadia magazine - very light, very fast, no actual grid just 'altitude' - stripped down, high energy rules set, built for flyers and people on flying mounts. Here's a system that adds very little book-keeping weight, something like this properly adapted to ships instead of flying mounts would be the minimum effort solution I think. I use Aces High at my own table - since we are mostly working with monsters and very small flying vessels.
AD&D Spelljammer - the original - ships are very tough to kill, it all serves as a platform for adventurers to sling spells, fight boarding actions - 'fights to the death' take a lot longer in this as weapons fire every 2, 3 or 4 rounds. The new approach sounds like it keeps a lot of the feel of tough ships being platforms for fighting but even so,just weapon arcs and maneuver adds a layer of cunning for players to collectively work with.
OD&D (updated) - Calidar, available on Bruce Heards blog in sections, most complex because it has wind influencing movement and damage is not just hull points, you can knock out masts, weapons, kill crew and so on. Feels really age of sail in that direction matters, ships are big & tough. Also accommodates flying creatures as written. Written with OD&D in mind but with guidance on how to adapt it to whatever system you are using (3.5e, 5e). This is probably more crunch than most would want but it *feels* substantial, the navigation decisions feel meaty.
3.5e - Shadow of the Spider Moon from Polygon #151 - 3e update of Spelljammer, chunky, tactical action, about the middle between Calidar and Aces High for crunch.
I think stripping out a ship combat system entirely robs players of some fun agency; succeed or fail, that thrilling bit in Age of Sail and Pirate movies of jockeying for advantage as the distance closes to weapons range and then boarding.
Being very generous in interpretation, I think there is a correct point in that ship-to-ship action needs to be at least as much fun as the players just running their own characters but I do not think it is correct to say ship to ship should never be attempted because people want to only run their characters. I have gotten great mileage with ship-to-ship as a change of pace - something that breaks players out of their standard, polished tactics and gives them a new challenge.
(Update 1: While this sat in draft, the tables of contents from review copies got posted with one (1) page worth of how to do ship-to-ship combat noted. I wait to see exactly what appears on the second page of all the 2-page ship descriptions - one will be deck plans, the other - like Saltmarsh? All the actions of the various parts of the ship? If so, and those include the weapons, then I will be interested to see how lighter ships - Wasps, Dragonflies - fare against mediums and heavies like Hammerships and Nautiloids. If the small ships cannot duck and weave through fire arcs somehow then they will get smashed coming anywhere near a heavier ship. Maybe it will all be done with contested piloting rolls? To be seen...)
(Update 2: Some thorough soul went and paused the video of someone flipping through the book and transcribed the ship rules - I have not yet read them as this is posted but I think when I do it will be with red pen clutched firmly in hand and the attitude of "what am I going to have to kludge on to get the feel that I want.")
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