Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[GranFalloon]

I'm unsure how to apply the Out of Control table to ship combat in my 50 Fathoms game. While cannonballs are obviously pretty devastating, they're not going to push a galleon clear off course, and certainly aren't going to cause it to flip end over end, or roll completely over multiple times. I could just ignore the table, but I would like something to happen when the ship is "shaken" (I know it's not quite the same thing, but you get the idea).

[GranFalloon]

Oh. I guess I could just read pg. 41 more carefully where it says what happens...

[Dylan S]

One of my players flipped a frigate last night with an overclocked Bolt.

[GranFalloon]

Please tell me the enemies stayed on board by running on top of the rolling hull, like Scooby-Doo escaping on a rolling barrel.

[Dylan S]

No (I wish I'd thought of that!) - but when I realized I'd forgotten about the 50F amendment to Flip and Roll, I had the enemy wind mage lift the ship clear out of the water and flip it right-side up again. The players didn't want to tangle with him after that.

But going back to your original point, I'm also scratching my head over Out of Control in a ship chase. As it stands, snake-eyes and double-sixes dumps 1d10 hands, but otherwise there's no effect. Can we come up with one?

I remember from somewhere - it might've been the SWEX chase rules - that 'out of control' incurred a -2 penalty to the captain's next action. Maybe that could apply to the Out of Control captain's next Maneuvering roll, the same way his being personally Shaken does. Or maybe we can come up with something better.

At any rate, 'Shaking' a ship should do something.

(I'm specifically talking about SWD Chases here, 'cause that's how I do ship-to-ship combat).