Ironbottom Sound

Familiar faces...

Familiar places...

But... why?

The Concept

That which humanity has poured its hearts into will, one day, come to have hearts of their own as well.

Ships are no exception.

When the Enemy emerged from deep within the abyss of the oceans, in all their terrible, maddening splendour, humanity was not prepared. Ships and sailors alike gave up their lives gallantly, but they were forces created to fight each other, to follow certain paradigms. The Adversary was not; the twisted black tide that reached out for the surface played by its own rules, strange and eerie, numberless and incomprehensible. Slowly, with each passing month, mankind was being pushed out of the seas.

Then, as if response to a desperate plea, what came to humanity's rescue were beings that came to be called "shipgirls".

The ships of old, those who sunk and those who lived alike, awakened in mankind's direst moments, to once more travel the seas and fight for those who believed in them, letting the bolstered navies once more contest the waters against the black, tireless Adversary, able to fight the monstrous armada on its own terms.

Many have questioned how such a miracle could occur. However, mankind has given ships names, created traditions and rituals, talked of them as if they were people in their own right. Is it then such a wonder that a bond of the heart was formed between those faithful ships and those who put that faith in them, to awaken in the moment when all is lost and nothing but bitterness remains?

Each awakening is unique; the prayers of the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square that roused Roma from the bottom of the sea as the Black Fleet started its vicious bombardment, the awakening of Arizona when a fleet of refugees gathered within the Pearl Harbor to defend them against a dreadful pursuit, the Shinto rituals that awakened Yamato and Musashi after half the JMSDF sunk to the bottom of the sea in a single terrible night, the fleet lost at Tsushima finally arriving at Vladivostok just in time to prevent its fall, Bismarck and Orzeł guarding the entrance to the Baltic back to back as the EU naval squadron burned. But all of them share a single element.

They all arrived to protect humanity, those who gave them life.

Old enemies fought alongside each other bravely; after all, who can blame a ship for the cause she fought in? They all just wanted to make their crews and admirals proud.

In the place known as the Ironbottom Sound, a squadron of shipgirls finally goes on the offensive against the Adversary, deep into the heart of their endless raging storm. This is the first step on the way to finally reclaim the seas.

This is the story of shipgirls beloved by humanity, and who were loved in return.

The Ship

A shipgirl is, at heart, a girl with the soul of a ship, given form and purpose by the faith put in her. Although for Russians, boy versions are available.

The exact appearance of a shipgirl can vary - the common shape is that of a human girl who can raise her true ship-self from the sea, but a variety of other peculiar forms exist as well. A shipgirl is created and shaped by the human hearts, and as such, her form is going to correspond to the feelings and thoughts about her.

There are five basic classifications of a shipgirl for our purposes. Presented here with difficulty modifiers.

• Destroyer (-1 evasion, -1 to-hit, +1 to damage, special: torpedoes)
• Cruiser (no difficulty modifiers, special: 1 extra free pick!)
• Battleship (+1 evasion, +1 to-hit, -1 armour, -2 to damage)
• Submarine (-2 evasion, +1 to-hit, +2 armour special: torpedoes, submersible)
• Carrier (+1 evasion, +1 to damage, +1 armour, -1 to C&C, special: aircraft)

You have 25 points to disperse between various stats.

• Armour
• Evasion/Speed
• Accuracy
• Firepower
• Command&Control
• Special

Armour determines shipgirl durability. Each point offers 2 HP. Every other point allows you to ignore 1 success from enemy attack as well.
Evasion/Speed determines the ship's speed. Evasion can be used to lessen - and potentially negate entirely - enemy barrages.
Accuracy determines the firing accuracy, rolled against enemy evasion.
Firepower determines the sheer destructive power of your cannons, rolled against enemy armour.
C&C is the fleet equivalent of Mental and Perception stats, pretty much. Also used to attack with and defend against planes.

Specials:

Torpedoes: you can launch a salvo at +1 to-hit that deals double your firepower in damage. The number of Special points determines how many times you can do it.

Aircraft: you can use C&C to attack. C&C is accuracy equivalent here, damage would be Special. Armour is half as effective against aircraft.

Submersible: you're stealthy now! Enemies get a +2 modifier to detecting you until you attack. If undetected, your next attack of any type is rolled at -1 to-hit. Resubmerging after an attack takes a turn.

In addition to this, each shipgirl has a Special ability of her own! This can be a "normal" special (such as an aviation battleship having aircraft) or a specialty that adds an extra difficulty modifier to your ship type. Don't feel restricted by the examples provided, though - coming up with your own is fine. (gravity beams might be a bit much though! The weather's only somewhat foggy around these parts)

How do guided missiles work here? For simplicity's sake, same as cannons. It was pondered to make them a special that uses C&C for accuracy and firepower for damage, but that would likely just needlessly complicate things.

Have an idea for a special for battleships? Fire ahead! For now they have nothing since their stats are already plenty strong, though.