Rogue Trader Space Combat Cheat Sheet

Preface: This sheet is meant to simplify and make a more cohesive explanation of space
combat. It is not meant to replace the rules in the books or be used as a book replacement. Also
there are aspects not touched on here because they are not the most common cases. Finally I
am not a lawyer and also don't want to be sued. I don't own the rights to Rogue Trader and
those rights stay with their original owners. I will promptly and gladly remove this cheat sheet if
they contact me. I can be reached with questions or concerns at lurkeroutthere on the Fantasy
Flight Games forums or lurkeroutthere@yahoo.com. Please do not reproduce this guide without
at least attributing it to me and the above pseudo disclaimer.
In Space Combat there are three types of actions, maneuver, shooting, and extended:
Maneuver Actions: Relating to moving a ship. By default all ships move in combat by taking one
maneuver action, this action decides how quickly a ship moves and also other actions it takes
(evasive, faster turns etc).

Movement in brief. Every turn a ship must either move half it's movement or it's full movement.
At the end of it's movement a ship may turn left or right. Small ships (raiders and such) can turn
up to 90 degrees. Light Cruisers, Transports, and larger can only turn up to 45 degrees. This is
considered a standard movement and requires no test. If the crew wants they can make more
complicated maneuver actions by making some pilot (spacecraft) plus the ships maneuverability
tests to do the following. These actions can be combined to gain the effects of multiple different
actions, however all modifiers are cumulative.

Name Test Effect Notes

Adjust 0 On success may turn in 1 less VU then Must move

Bearing chosen speed and 1 less for each at least 1
additional degree. After turn is complete VU to turn.
move the rest of speed value.

Adjust Speed 0 Increase or decrease speed by 1 on Min. speed

success plus degrees. 0 Max <
Ships
speed x2

Adjust Speed -20 As adjust speed and adjust bearing

& Bearing

Come to New -10 Make 2 moves, one after half move and the Performing
Heading other on completion of move. ship suffers
-20 to
ballistics
tests.
 Disengage 0 Make opposed test vs all enemies within 20 Cannot
VU's Scrutiny + Detection on success leave re-engage
combat. Must have no enemies within 8 in combat.
VU's. Cannot fire
this turn
even if test
fails.

Evasive -10 On success and each degree of success Same

Action anyone targeting ship suffers -10 to penalty
ballistics. applies to
shots made
from the
ship.

Shooting Actions: After movement is done shooting actions are taken. All guns must be fired in
the same shooting action but they can be fired at different targets.
Extended Actions Actions that can be taken by those not taking part in maneuver or shooting
actions are extended actions. There are a long list of them to include leading boarders onto the
enemy ship, fighting fires, treating wounded, The section on extended actions starts on pg. 216
of the rogue trader core book. Extended actions can either be performed by PC explorers, or
the ships crew. using the crew rating in place of skill. To simplify matters a fully NPCd ship can
perform a number of extended actions equal to its crew rating tens digit or one action per PC on
board whichever is greater.

Shooting things in brief

All guns have the following ratings
Strength: This is the maximum number of hits a macrobattery can land on an enemy ship.
Damage: This is the Damage each hit deals. If multiple hits occur from macro batteries all are
totaled up before applying to the armor. Lance damage is not added together but ignores armor.
Crit Rating: This is the number of degrees of success the shot must have to score a critical hit
on the target. If the shot didnt do any damage (due to shields or armor) it does other 1 point of
damage directly to to Hull Integrity. If it did deal damage in addition roll 1d5 on the critical hit
table.
Firing Arc: This determines which direction a starship weapon may be mounted in.
Range: This is the range of the weapon. Starship weapons may be fired at targets no farther
away than twice the weapons range Anything over the range applies a -10 penalty to the
ballistics test. Anything under half the range adds +10.

Defense in Brief:
Void shield rating is subtracted from hits. Each time a ship is fired on by a separate enemy they
get the full void shield rating. Attacker chooses the order hits are applied and taken away in. It
generally behooves an attacker to hit with macrocannon's first (to bring down void shields) and
then lances.
Armor value is then subtracted from all damage from a single gun/broadside/whatever and the
remainder is applied to hull integrity.
Exception 1: Lances ignore armor.
Exception 2: Torpedo's (are stupidly complicated! See pg. 6 BFK) count ships armor against
every individual missile instead of totaling up first.
For each point of hull integrity lost one damage is done to both crew and morale.
Crippled Ships
At 0 or less Hull Integrity ships become crippled. Reduce detection and maneuverability by -10,
speed by half, and all damage done by weapons components by half, round up.
Critical Hits:
In addition to the critical hit chance mentioned above if a crippled ship takes damage any
damage not soaked up by armor generates a critical hit result equal to the amount of damage
taken. Needless to say, a ship that's gone critical isn't guaranteed to blow up instantly, but
probably will very soon.
Critical Hits Table P. 222
Ship Components Are: Intact-Normal, Unpowered-Cant be used, Damaged-cant be used until
repaired, or Destroyed-Irrevocably lost or at least needing a heavy refit.
Depressurization: Causes 1d10 damage to crew population and 1d5 damage to morale. The
component can still be used but all inside will need to wear void suits.
Fire: 1d5 damage to population and 1d10 damage to crew morale. If the fire is not brought
under control in one turn it damages the component and moves onto the next (including pop
and morale loss). Fires can either be brought under control by using an extended action to
organize fire fighting teams (-10) command test. Alternatively the captain can order the void
seals blown. The fire is extinguished, the component becomes unpressurized, and an additional
1d5 population damage and 2d10 morale damage.
Version History:
1.0 12/12/12 Cleaned up what I'd made for my home group and posted to Google Docs for
linking on the FFG forums.