Ship Combat and Repairs

Reference: Movement and Combat (CAS p.55). Plan to use chase rules instead, but may need to reference.
Generally ship combat uses the standard Chase and Vehicle Rules for Savage Worlds, with a range increment of 25' per card, with some modifications.

ENCOUNTERS, EVASION AND PURSUIT

(CAS p.69) Given the nature of space movement, an opposing craft may appear suddenly in the distance, then slow to combat speed almost immediately. Since it is the nature of the spelljamming helm to stop when it nears the gravity plane of another body, many encounters will occur without the desire of either side.
The opposing ship(s) will appear 9-14 (1d6 + 8) cards away in a random direction. Heading is usually toward the player's ship. (Cards use a 25 yard range increment).
For ships and smaller asteroids, the "capture" distance is 20 range increments on the map, counted at the start of the ship's movement. That is, if there is nothing within 20 increments of the ship (including debris fields and asteroids) at the start of its movement, the ship can accelerate to interstellar speed and leave the map. The ship can maneuver before this acceleration, but once the player declares his intention to accelerate he cannot turn the ship again. The ship is simply picked up and removed from the map.
A faster ship can usually outdistance a slower ship so that such an escape is possible, but often a slower but more maneuverable ship can put an opponent far enough out of the way that it can reach the 20-increment radius and escape. More likely, the fleeing ship often unloads a few potshots or jettison loads before escaping in the hope of either damaging something that will prevent pursuit or slowing down the pursuer.
If embedded in some sort of cover (an asteroid field, a gas cloud, the murky atmosphere of a planet), a ship may be able to use the Flee maneuver to escape at a much short distance--not to spelljamming speed, but simply out of sight and lost.
A determined pursuer can often follow an evading target even at high speed. Because the SR of a ship matters little when moving at the speed of 100 million miles per day , a slower ship can keep pace with a faster one if the captain is clever enough. Since both ships are moving at very high speed, when one ship stops the other overtakes it almost immediately and stops as well, if that it passes closely enough. Aiming the pursuing ship this precisely is the department of the ship's navigator, and requires an Astrogation check.
Time is important in pursuit. For every round of delay since the departure of the first ship, inflict a -1 penalty to the Astrogation role.
When pursuing, the trailing craft does not know if it is on the same track as its quarry unless the crew is aided by magical means. Depending on the situation, a pursuing ship may lose interest in the chase quickly or hang on until the lead ship reaches its destination or another encounter which will slow it down.

New Maneuvers

SHEARING ATTACK

A shearing attack is a close pass against an opposing ship with the intention of dragging rigging, steering equipment, and other devices overboard to cripple the ship's maneuverability. Treat similar to ramming maneuver. A successful attack reduces the target’s handling by 1 (or 2 on a raise). The attacking ship must be on the same initiative card as the target to attempt this maneuver and make a successful Force maneuver with a –2 penalty

CLIMBING THE VOID

Sailing through the void as they do, ships can move in three dimensions. In combat, then, it is very often the captain who can best take advantage of the vertical that emerges victorious. This is a special stunt called “climbing the void”. A ship that successfully climbs the void is in an advantageous position—the ship’s crew adds +2 to all Shooting and opposed Boating rolls against the target. It is also impossible for the other ship to initiate a boarding action.
The disadvantaged captain may attempt to equal the altitude by attempting a Parallel stunt. However, even if this is successful, the crew cannot attempt a boarding action. The ship has been restored to a more or less equal altitude as its antagonist. A further successful Parallel stunt will enable the crew to attempt a boarding action.
A ship cannot climb the void twice to gain additional bonuses or make it harder for an enemy to level the altitude. At best, a ship is just one “climb” above his opponent. Similarly, both ships cannot benefit from climbing the void, only one captain can seize the advantage.

BOARDING

If a crew wants to board another ship, a successful Parallel stunt must be attempted. Rather than recklessly throwing themselves into the void in an attempt to reach the other ship, crews can make a group Throwing roll. Success means the target is grappled and drawn close enough to board.
The opposing crew can attempt to sever the grapples by making an opposing Agility roll This roll is modified depending on the number of crew the grappled ship has in relation to the attacking ship. The penalty is –1 if they have fewer crew, and –2 if they have half or less the crew of the attacking ship. Conversely, they get a +1 if they have more crew, and +2 if they have twice as many crew as the attacking ship.

Critical Hits

(Adapted from 50F, p.41) Damage against ships works as usual but with a few additional details to any Critical Hits suffered.

• Engine: The helmsman is either hit directly, or suffers a Spelljamming Shock! (50% of either if helmsman exposed, 25% of direct hit if hidden within in ship, in which case take armor of ship into account). Helmsman must make a vigor check at -4. On a failure, the helmsman is Stunned, and the ship goes Out of Control. On a success, the helmsman is Shaken, and the ship continues at current course an (tactical) speed until she recovers. On a raise, the helmsman continues normally. On a critical failure, the helmsman is Incapacitated for 2d4 hours, the ship goes Out of Control, and the helm is nonfunctional for for 2d4 rounds.
• Controls: Either a mast, the rudder, the ship's wheel, or some other component of its mundane controls is damaged. The ship may only turn to the left or right, and suffers –2 to its Handling.
• Chassis: Count damage normally but roll 1d6 as well. If the result is a 6, a fire has been started. See the Fire section below for more details.
• Crew: Crew Critical Hits inflict 2d6 casualties scattered randomly among all crewmen. Remove that many crew immediately. See Aftermath in Savage Worlds to recover crew members after the fight. If the 2d6 roll comes up doubles, a random player character or other named personality was hit as well. Subtract the Armor value of the ship from the damage if the victim was below decks.
• Weapon: A single weapon is destroyed.
• System: The vehicle loses an important magical system (such as its Planetary Locator or Portal Detector), or some other system determined by the GM. If it doesn’t have any special features, treat this as a Chassis hit instead.

Other aspects of Combat

Wounds: Vehicles take three Wounds before they’re “Wrecked” as their base. Large (>15' long) vehicles can take four Wounds, Huge (>36') can take five, and Gargantuans (>100') can take six.
Wrecked: Vessels without cannons simply continue in a straight line at their previous (tactical) speed. Vessels with cannons suffer a direct hit to their central magazine (where the powder is kept). This sets off a titanic explosion destroying the ship and inflicting 4d6 damage to every named character on board. Assume the rest of the crew are killed or incapacitated and careen into the void. Any surviving named characters are left clinging to the wreckage of their ship as it disperses in the void. Any ships tethered to the unfortunate vessel or within 18” suffer 2d6+the wrecked ship’s base Toughness (without Armor) in damage.
Spells: Note that spells will not affect ships, unless the caster as used the Heavy Weapon power modification (and perhaps increase the range as well)
Out of Control: When ships suffer damage and are forced out of control, treat a Roll Over or Flip result as a Dip instead. Roll 1d10. This many crewmen (pick randomly from any exposed decks) must make Agility rolls or be thrown overboard and potentially lost.
Towing A ship that has been grappled may also be towed.

• Both ships are considered to be part of the same larger ship; their tonnage is added together to determine if a spelljamming helm or other device can move the whole mass.
• The helm with the higher SR is the only device that functions. If the SRs are equal, then the helmsman make an opposed Spellcasting (not Boating) role, to see which can coax more power out of their helms.

Fire Fires are very dangerous on ships and kill far more men than cannon shots usually account for. When a ship suffers a Chassis hit, it’s actually been hit in the hull somewhere. The shot itself can start a fire, or it might knock over necessary lanterns and candles. Roll 1d6 at the beginning of each round for each fire to see what effect it has on the ship.
Fire Table

d6 Roll	Result
1	The fire burns out.
2-4	The fire continues to burn.
5	The fire causes a wound.
6	The fire spreads, making two fires.

Fighting Fires: Crews can put out fires, but this takes away from their other duties to do so. A team equal to half the ship’s base Toughness (ignore Armor and magical bonuses) is required. The team must assemble one round, and the next may make a group Boating roll at –2 for one fire. With a success, the team extinguishes the fire.
Resolving large scale NPC combat E.g., when having NPC crews fight each other during boarding action. Use Mass Battles rules (SWADE, p.131)
Repairs Damage suffered in combat may only be permanently repaired while docked at a port. This typically takes 1d4 days per wound or critical hit to be fixed. The cost is 100 times the ship’s base Toughness (ignoring Armor) per wound or critical.
Makeshift repairs can be made outside of port and require a Repair roll. Each attempt takes 1d6 days and triggers one of more checks for encounters in the ship’s location. These repairs are only temporary and the ship must still be properly overhauled at a port. Any time the vessel takes another wound, each makeshift repair has a 50% chance of coming undone.