Starship Combat Rounds

[Low-G Vagabond]

I've got a question about space combat, Im hoping someone can clear up for me.

On page 159 of the PHB, under "The Combat Round", it states: "When combat involves only starships and small craft, the length of each combat round is 20 minutes under these basic rules."

But on page 168-169 of the PHB, under "Making a battlefield repair" it states, "Take 20: Increase time required to 1 hour ( 1 ship combat round, 60 vehicle combat rounds, 600 personal combat rounds), reduce DC by 20.

So, is a starship combat round 20 minutes or 1 hour. Or is there something else here that I am missing?

Also, the whole battlefield repair DC seems to be a little confusing. It also states on the same page, "These DCs assume 6 second personal combat rounds. A repair check is a full round action for both chief engineer/DCO and the membrs of the engineering crew applied to the task."

Am I correct to assume, that to determine a battlefield repair would only take 6 seconds? But to repair it would take the full round ( either 20 minutes or 1 hour depending on the above answer)? Or should it take the full starship combat round( either 20 minutes or 1 hour) and at the end the crew was either successfull or not successfull depending on the battlefield repair DC?

Anyway, I hope this is not to confusing for someone to answer, or maybe im just confusing myself. Thanks in advance for any answers or any suggestions on how you handle battlefield repairs and the time they take.

tmondragon

 

[Spyder_GS]

The vehicular combat and ship combat generally had problems in my game. BVR combat used a 20 minute round with all damage assessed at the end of the round. Visual range combat used normal personnel combat rounds (6 seconds) limited by the firing rate of the weapons.

This has worked pretty well for us, though I know others have used different house rules to adjust the playability. Generally, given that my players are running around in a one turret, 200dt ship with no armor, they like to avoid space combat.