F.3 Taking Ship Damage
Ships suffer damage and vital wounds much like characters do.
F.3.1 Ship Vital Wounds
Ships gain vital wounds just like characters (see Vital Wounds). However, ships have different vital wound effects.
| Vital Roll | Effect |
| 0 or less | The ship gains a leak (see ??) |
| 1 | The ship takes a -2 penalty to future vital rolls |
| 2 | The ship’s weapons take a -1 penalty to accuracy |
| 3 | The ship has a -10 foot penalty to its speed with all movement modes |
| 4 | The ship’s turning cost increases by 10 feet |
| 5 | The ship’s maximum damage resistance is halved |
| 6 | The ship takes a -1 penalty to all defenses |
| 7 | The ship takes a -2 penalty to its Fortitude defense |
| 8 | The ship takes a -2 penalty to its Reflex defense |
| 9 | The ship takes a -2 penalty to its Mental defense |
| 10 or more | No extra vital wound effect |
F.3.2 Taking On Water
Damaged ships can begin taking on water through leaks. This will eventually sink the ship without intervention by its crew. However, even a hole in the hull is not necessarily fatal to a ship. With constant effort to remove excess water, a crew can often keep a ship afloat long enough to repair it or reach dry land.
Time to Sink
A Medium ship with a leak becomes unusable after one minute. After that point, the crew cannot perform any ship tasks, and the ship is immobile in the water except for natural drifting. It generally takes another minute for the ship to fully sink. For each size category larger than Medium, the time required for the ship to become unusable and sink increases, as described below:
- Medium: Ten minutes
- Large: Thirty minutes
- Huge: One hour
- Gargantuan: Two hours
- Colossal: Four hours
- Galleon: Eight hours
- Titan: One day
Each additional leak multiplies the rate that the ship sinks. For example, a ship with three leaks would sink three times faster.
Bailing the Ship
A ship’s crew can remove water from the ship to keep it from sinking. In general, it takes one quarter of the ship’s minimum crew, working constantly, to counteract incoming water from one leak. This simply maintains the amount of water currently in the ship. With twice that many crew dedicated to the task of bailing, existing water in the ship can be removed at the same rate that a leak would add water in, allowing the crew to catch up on existing leaks.