Vehicles

There are many vehicles in and around the multiverse. Some, decidedly more common than others. The rest? You’ll usually need to find the help of craftsmen to put it together.
In Chromanexus, vehicles are commonly organized into one of three categories: drawn, mekka, or ship. Technically, there is a fourth category - spelljammers - but they are more of an enhancement of existing vehicles than their own unique category.

Vehicle Rules

Regardless of their category, vehicles share a number of common rules. You may notice that most of these rules are adaptations of those laid out in Baldur’s Gate (Infernal War Machines), Ghosts of Saltmarsh (Of Ships and the Sea), and Spelljammer (Astral Adventuring), and for the most part you’ll find we more or less honor the same rules if/when they come up. Those rules listed below are assumed to replace relevant rules from each of these three books when applicable, to avoid conflicts between these systems and those we’ve established in Chromanexus.

Market Availability

Drawn vehicles, basic ships, and basic spelljammers can be purchased directly from the bazaar at their listed market value, and do so with their standard components.
Mekka and custom vehicles must be crafted from scratch with the help of one or more workshops, depending on what you’re trying to make. This will be explained later in this chapter.

Air Envelopes

Generally speaking, air envelopes won’t come up in regular play outside of wildspace sessions where your vehicle is traversing the depths of space, and the size of your vehicle’s air envelope (and quality of the air within it) becomes an important factor. However, even if your vehicle is not a spelljammer, some environments may call for air envelopes and furthermore, some Vehicle Stations have ranges that are dependent on the size of your vehicle’s air envelope (like the Shield Generator or the Refresherator).
While this is explained more in Astral Adventuring, the air envelope of a vehicle extends out from its surface a distance equal to the longest dimension of its form. For example, a nautiloid with a length of 60 feet has an air envelope with a radius of 180 feet, centered on the vehicle (60 feet, with an additional 60 feet on either side).

Vehicle Movement

To move a vehicle, the vehicle must have a driver, captain, or pilot. These terms will be used interchangeably. Just know they all mean the same thing - someone who controls the vehicle itself.
Moving a vehicle is an action on the captain’s turn. When this action is taken, the vehicle can move up to its top speed (if able) and turn no more than 90 degrees in any one direction.
If the captain does not take an action to drive the vehicle, and the vehicle does not have a means of maintaining its own speed (like a ship’s sails), it continues to move in the same direction. Its speed decreases by 10 feet at the end of each turn like this until it reaches a minimum of 0.

Crews & Passengers

Most vehicles are designed to carry more than the captain, and in some cases even support additional working staff to help with tasks and maintenance around the ship.
The captain is special - aside from deciding on the vehicle’s movement, the vehicle’s captain applies their proficiency bonus to the vehicle’s Armor Class and saving throws.
If a vehicle lists a crew, it must have at least half as many crew members as it can support, else its efficiency is significantly reduced. Movement is reduced by half, and the vehicle has disadvantage on all attacks, checks, and saving throws. A vehicle without a crew is inoperable.
In this same sense, some vehicle features require additional crew to operate. While the captain focuses on moving the vessel and issuing commands, other stations - such as siege weapons - need one or more dedicated crew members to use effectively, if at all. Any requirements will be explained in the item’s description.
Some vehicles list additional capacity for passengers. This is the number of creatures in addition to the vehicle’s crew the vehicle can support without interfering with operations. A vehicle can take on more individuals than this, but doing so causes the same problem as not having enough crew to operate the vessel.

Vehicular Exhaustion

Extreme weather, dangerous environments, and other similar conditions can cause a vehicle to stop functioning properly until it eventually breaks down. Such wear and tear can be represented using exhaustion, with the below modifications. Exhaustion is applied at the GM’s discretion, no more than once per day.
When a vehicle reaches exhaustion level 6, its hit points drop to 0, and the vehicle breaks down. The only way to remove the effects of exhaustion on a vehicle are to repair the vehicle.

Hull & Repairs

Vehicles are objects. Consequently, the traditional methods of “just get some rest and slap a bandaid on it” are not enough to repair damage the vehicle sustains when used in the field or on missions.
Repairing a vehicle typically takes time and extensive manual labor. Nonmagical repairs to a damaged vehicle can be made while the vehicle is docked or stowed in a Foundry - repairing 1 hit point of damage to a berthed vehicle costs a minimum of 20 GP for materials and labor. Damage to vehicle stations can be repaired just as effectively, but at half the cost (10 GP). These repairs additionally remove any vehicular exhaustion.
The mending spell is a cheaper way to make repairs, though it is not always necessarily faster. Casting mending on a damaged vehicle or vehicle station as an eight hour ritual restores a number of hit points to the vehicle equal to 1d8 plus the spellcaster’s spellcasting ability modifier. However, this cannot remove vehicular exhaustion.
As most spellcasting hirelings know this latter option is not abundantly available, assume a hireling with the ability to cast mending has a minimum upkeep cost of 100 GP.

Crashing

A vehicle can run into another object or creature by moving into the target’s space and making a special attack roll (1d20 + the captain’s proficiency bonus) against the target’s Armor Class. If the attack roll hits, a crash occurs; otherwise, the target moves out of the ship’s path, avoiding the crash. If the game master decides that a crash is unavoidable, no attack roll is necessary, and the crash occurs automatically.
When a vehicle crashes into something that could reasonably damage it, both the vehicle and the target it struck take bludgeoning damage based on the size of the struck object, as noted in the Crash Damage table below. If the vehicle runs into something that doesn’t have hit points (such as an iceberg or a planet), apply the damage only to the vehicle. The vehicle stops after crashing into an object of equal or greater size, or an immovable creature or object; otherwise, the ship can continue moving if it has any movement left, and whatever it struck moves to the nearest unoccupied space that isn’t in the ship’s path.
If the vehicle is a spelljamming vessel, after resolving the effect of the crash, determine whether the vehicle’s gravity plane is suppressed. If the suppression of a vehicle’s gravity plane would cause the creatures on or inside that vehicle to fall, they fall in whatever direction is appropriate for the sudden change in gravity (taking fall damage as needed).

Notes on Spelljammers & Wildspace

As previously noted, spelljammers more or less operate on the same rules as outlined in Chapter 2 of Spelljammer (Astral Adventuring). If you plan to travel through space with your vehicle, it’s recommended you give these a look over.
Remember - a lack of a spelljamming helm does not mean the vehicle can no longer fly. It simply lacks the ability to do what the spelljamming helm permits it to do, which is primarily to control the ship without using the captain’s actions or travel at speeds up to 100 million miles in 24 hours. Yes, oars still work in the depths of wildspace - don’t ask us how or why. You’re already in a magic spaceship.
Since helms themselves require attunement, it is not unheard of for adventurers to hire a captain for their ship to handle the task on their behalf. A hired captain has an upkeep cost of 100 GP.