Vehicle Tactical Rules

Which direction creatures are facing on a grid is generally irrelevant in Starfinder, but vehicles aren’t as nimble, so you need to monitor a vehicle’s heading each time it moves. If you’re using miniatures, rotate the vehicle’s miniature to face the correct direction whenever its heading changes. The vehicle has to face toward one of the edges of its space, not toward a corner.

When a vehicle has to move at its current heading (such as during a race action or when uncontrolled), it has to move in a straight line. This line is measured from the center of the vehicle on its front edge, and it can be straight ahead or at an angle, as shown in the diagram on page 279. The angle can’t be greater than 45 degrees diagonally from the heading.

When you’re piloting a vehicle during a combat on a grid, the vehicle moves on your initiative count and you have to spend your actions to pilot it. Creatures can take the following actions to drive or interact with vehicles, in addition to the normal combat actions described earlier in this chapter.

It takes a move action to board, drive, start, abruptly stop, or take control of a vehicle, as detailed below.

Speed along in a straight line or attacking with the body of a vehicle takes a full action, as detailed below.

It takes a swift action to engage or disengage a vehicle’s autocontrol or autopilot or to relinquish control of a vehicle, as detailed below.

The following does not require an action.

If you are knocked out or cease actively piloting, your vehicle becomes uncontrolled. If you delay your action, the vehicle becomes uncontrolled and continues to act on the same initiative count as it did before. This separates your initiative count from that of the vehicle, and the vehicle continues to move (see below) at your previous initiative count until a pilot takes control of it or it crashes or otherwise is brought to a definitive halt.

Unless otherwise specified, an uncontrolled vehicle moves straight ahead at its most recent heading as if taking two drive actions on its turn. It slows down incrementally with each action taken (usually to three-quarters the speed of its last action) until it comes to a stop or crashes. At the GM’s discretion, it could slow down more if it’s on uneven terrain or an upward slope, or it could stay at the same speed or even accelerate if it’s in a zero-g environment or on a downward slope.

Some vehicles have autocontrol, which enables you to spend your actions on tasks other than piloting, but is far less capable than an autopilot. You can engage autocontrol as a swift action after taking a drive or race action, and it lasts until it is disengaged (also a swift action) or until the vehicle is no longer capable of moving. When you’re using autocontrol, the vehicle becomes uncontrolled, but each round it moves in a straight line for the same distance and at the same heading and speed as the last pilot action (moving as if taking two drive actions if drive was the last action the pilot took, or as a race action if that was the last action the pilot took). The autocontrol uses the result of the pilot’s most recent Piloting check as the result of its Piloting checks.

Some vehicles have an autopilot AI that can control the vehicle in place of an actual pilot. You can engage or disengage an autopilot as a swift action. You can input a destination into an autopilot as a move action, and the autopilot attempts to reach that location if doing so is possible (provided the autopilot isn’t locked by a passcode or otherwise programmed not to obey).

A vehicle is considered controlled when the autopilot is engaged. An autopilot’s actions are dictated by the GM, and an autopilot can take any of the actions to pilot the vehicle that an actual pilot can. However, autopilots tend to be cautious, rarely risking the integrity of the vehicle and never attempting to ram or run over a target unless specifically programmed as a war machine (indicated in its stat block).

The Systems entry in a vehicle’s statistics (see page 228) lists the autopilot’s modifier to the Piloting skill. For Piloting checks attempted for the Autopilot, apply this modifier first and then apply the vehicle’s modifier (listed in the vehicle’s Modifiers entry) to the Piloting checks.

Anyone attacking while on a vehicle takes that vehicle’s penalty to attack rolls, as listed in the Modifiers entry of the vehicle’s statistics (see page 228). It’s especially difficult to attack from a vehicle that’s moving at high speed, so a vehicle might have a higher modifier on attacks (shown in parentheses) when traveling at full speed. The penalty for moving at full speed applies if the vehicle moved at full speed during the last round. The attack penalty doesn’t apply when the vehicle is stopped.

Because vehicles have a top speed that’s far faster than most creatures can run, creatures in a vehicle can usually escape from a battle with enemies who are on foot, if they want. The GM has final say on whether a vehicle can escape. Usually, once a vehicle is beyond the range that the enemies on foot can run, those enemies get one more volley of attacks, and then the vehicle and everyone on it escapes. However, if the enemies also board a vehicle, they can usually pursue and the battle transitions to a vehicle chase (see page 282).