Starships

Characters are nothing without their ships, which serve as a great source of inspiration and motivation for their adventures. The starship can even be the adventure itself.

The first step is acquisition.

Acquiring a Ship#

Many parties might see fit to merely obtain passage on a vessel as a part of their adventures, and there's nothing wrong with that. Others will want to obtain their own ships as fast as possible as it is a core component to their character. It is at the discretion of the GM to determine when a party should obtain their first starship using one of the following options.

Joining a Faction#

Joining a large faction, such as the Galactic Republic or the Empire might merit the acquisition of a personal starship. Generally, the faction still owns the ship and allows the party to use it as long as they are in accordance with the faction's wishes. Refusing missions or violating the faction's rule may lead to disavowment, pursuit, and eventual repossession of the ship.

Shipjacking#

The most nefarious (and frankly most enjoyable) way to acquire a starship is to steal one. Shipjacking is an old and extremely dangerous profession. Starport authorities (as well as the original owners) are constantly on the lookout for stolen ships, and if the heroes fail to adequately falsify documentation identifying themselves as the ship's owners, they can find themself in an uncomfortable position.

Purchasing#

The most common method of acquiring a ship is by purchasing. The cost of a brand new "stock" starship can be found below, on the Starship Size Stock Cost table.

Starship Size Stock Cost#

How the players afford the ship varies as well. They may be patient, earning the credits to make the purchase over time. Alternatively, they might seek a backer, or a loan through a financial institution.

Newly constructed starships come with a number of vacant modification slots, which can be filled with modifications, which are discussed in Chapter 4.

Financing#

The party could seek a loan from a bank to purchase a starship. Generally, 20% of the starship's cost is required as a down payment, with monthly pay-ments equal to 2% of the cost for the following five years.

A Wealthy Sponsor#

Alternatively, the party may work for a wealthy individual or group, such as an aristocrat. Convincing such an individual to finance you, however, can be quite the adventure in-and-of itself. Can the party prove that the relationship will be mutually beneficial?

Loan Sharks#

As a more dangerous option, a loan shark or an afflu-ent gangster could finance a ship. Usually requiring less money up front, this loan has steeper loan pay-ments (~10% of the total cost each month for 3 years).

Building a Ship#

Building a ship is generally cheaper than buying it, but takes time and necessitates use of a shipyard and a substantial workforce. If players elect to build a stock starship instead of purchasing one, it requires half the cost of the finished ship in facilities, raw materials, and labor. The minimum workforce size is shown below on the Starship Size Construction Workforce table. Ship construction also has a maximum practical workforce, beyond which no time gains are readily made.

Starship Size Construction Workforce#

Because workers generally craft at a rate of 250cr/day, the base time it takes to build a ship is:

time (in days) = ("Starship Size Stock Cost") / (500 x "size of workforce")

For instance, to build a Small ship, with a workforce of 5, would take 20 days. To build a Huge ship, with a workforce of 1,000, however, would take 400 days [100,000,000 / (250 x 1,000)].

It is assumed each member of the workforce works 8 hours per day. A workforce more than double the min-imum workforce must work in shifts for further gains.

STOCK MODIFICATIONS#

At construction, your ship comes with a number of stock modifications that you can choose from. These modifications must be Grade: 0 modifications. Although they come without cost, they do count against your maximum modification slots and your maximum suite systems.

Upgrading a Starship#

Once the party has acquired a ship, they can add equipment and modifications to it and upgrade its basic systems. Upgrading a ship is a matter of workforce, time, and skill. This assumes the starship you are upgrading has no missing hull points or damaged systems, the requisite resources and tools are freely available, and you are docked at a spaceport or shipyard. Under less optimal conditions the time, money, and skill required could be increased by as much as 100%, or be ruled impossible by the GM.

Upgrading a Ship's Tier#

In addition to the cost of modifications and equipment, players can invest credits into their starship's basic systems, increasing the tier of the ship. As a player increases the tier of their starship, they unlock add-itional Hull and Shield Dice, and unique size-specific features. The material and personnel costs in credits that a party must invest in their ship varies based on the tier they are trying to obtain, as show below in the Base Upgrade Cost by Tier table. The costs detailed here include hiring the required workforce. However, if PCs can provide the workforce directly and invest their time, the final costs incurred are only half that shown.

Base Upgrade Cost by Tier#

Cost Modifiers#

It costs more to upgrade the hull of a capital ship than the hull of a starfighter; bigger starships are simply costlier to improve. Consequently, each starship has a cost modifier depending on the ship's size, as shown in the Starship Size Upgrade Cost table below, which is multiplied by the value for that tier in the Base Upgrade Cost by Tier table.

Starship Size Upgrade Cost#

For instance, to upgrade a Small size ship from Tier 0 to Tier 1, it costs 3,900 credits. To upgrade a Huge size ship from Tier 2 to Tier 3, however, it costs 29,700,000 (297,000 x 100).

Upgrade Workforce#

Additionally, bigger ships require more people to perform these upgrades. For a Small ship, a single person can do everything necessary (though additional workers will reduce the time taken), while a Medium or larger ship requires a more extensive workforce, as shown below in the Starship Size Upgrade Workforce table below.

Starship Size Upgrade Workforce#

Upgrade Time#

With sufficient workforce, a snubfighter can be upgraded in no more than a week's time. However, upgrading a freighter can take up to a month, and an overhaul of a large ship such as a cruiser might take a year. It isn't practical for a smaller workforce to make changes to such big ships, regardless of how much time the workers have.

The base time needed to upgrade a starship is calculated as follows:

time (in days) = ("Base Upgrade Cost by Tier" x "Starship Size Upgrade Cost") / (500 x "size of workforce")

For instance, to upgrade a Small size ship from tier 0 to tier 1, with a workforce of 3, would take 2.6 days. To upgrade a Huge size ship from Tier 2 to Tier 3, with a workforce of 500, however, would take 118.8 days [(297,000 x 100) / (500 x 500)].

It is assumed that each member of the workforce works 8 hours per day.

Starship features are generally only usable once per round. Once they have been used by a crewmember, they are not available for use again until the start of that crewmember's next turn.

Starship Tier Features#

Once players have upgraded a ship to tier 1 or higher, they unlock additional features, determined by the ship's size.

Tier features that grant modifications come at no cost and do not take up a modification slot or count against your ship's Suite Capacity unless otherwise stated.

Roles#

At Tier 0, Tier 2, and Tier 4, you will have your choice of abilities to add to your ship by choosing a Role. These choices allow your ship to become more specialized by gaining an ability exclusive to that Role.

At ship construction (Tier 0), your choice of Role grants one or more Ability Score Increases, a base Speed and Turning Speed (see Chapter 7: Adventuring for rules on Speed and Turning Speed), and stock equipment. This stock equipment, like all equipment, may be removed and/or replaced using the rules found in Chapter 5: Equipment.

VARIANT: STARTING EQUIPMENT

In lieu of the equipment granted by your ship's chosen Role, with your Game Master's permission, you can elect to choose your starting equipment. If you do so, you may substitute equipment of the same category for that given by your Role at Tier 0. For example, you may choose any one of each of the following for a new ship in lieu of that given by your chosen Tier 0 Role:

• (a) deflection armor (b) lightweight armor (c) or reinforced armor
• (a) fuel cell reactor (b) ionization reactor (c) or power core reactor
• (a) direct power coupling (b) distributed power coupling (c) or hub & spoke power coupling

Additionally, for Large or Larger ships you may also choose one of the following:

• (a) directional shield (b) fortress shield (c) or quick-charge shield

At each of these tiers you may choose a new Role. For example, when your advance to Tier 2 with your small ship, you may choose to gain the Attack Fighter bonus ("your ship gains a +1 bonus to the attack rolls and save DCs of its ship weapons.") even though, at Tier 0, you had chosen the Shuttle role (granting a +1 to Constitution, various starting equipment, and a base speed/turning speed pair).

First Time on a Ship?

For your first time playing on a starship, it is recommended that you ignore Deployment abilities (characters new to ships typically have no Ranks in any Deployments). This means you will, therefore, be ignoring Reactors and Power Couplings, since these are the parts of the ship responsible for generating and storing the Power Dice that fuel your Deployment abilities. New players and GMs, even after adding Deployments (and therefore Power Dice) to their games, may still prefer to play on "Easy Mode." To keep things as simple as possible, choose a Fuel Cell Reactor (which automatically regenerates one Power Die per ship turn) and a Direct Coupling (which allows players to ignore which system their Deployment abilities draw Power Dice from, at the cost of fewer maximum dice to use). Additionally, you can leave shields off of your ship completely or, if you decide to include shields for survivability, choose Directional Shields for simplicity.

Hull Dice#

Your ship starts play with one or more Hull Dice, which are analogous to Hit Dice in the ground game. Tiny ships start with one Hull Die, a d4, while all other sizes of ship start with more than one Hull Die. For example, a Tier 0 Small ship starts play with 3 Hull Dice, each a d6. This is analogous to a level 3 character in the ground game.

In order to calculate the ship's starting Hull Points, you take the maximum of the first die (in this case 6) and add the ship's Constitution modifier, and then roll the two remaining Hull Dice (or take the average: 4) and add the ship's Constitution modifier to each roll.

Shield Dice#

Not all ships have shields, but if your ship has Shields, its Shield Dice are determined by its size and Tier. For detailed information on Shields, see Chapter 5: Equipment.

Variant: Space Stations#

Players may decide they want to invest in a space station. Only size categories Large and larger are appropriate for space stations. If players elect to own a space station instead of—or in addition to—a starship, use the following rules.

Armor Class#

When calculating a space station's armor class, space stations receive a -2 detriment to their AC.

Stock Modifications#

Your space station comes with the Central Computer, Makeshift universal system in addition to the other stock modifications.

Flying Speed and Turning Speed#

The station's flying speed become 50 feet and it's turning speed becomes 100 feet, regardless of any bonuses or penalties. The station's flying speed and turning speed can never be increased or decreased.

Hull Points Per Hull Die#

For each Hull Die a space station has, it gains 2 additional hull points.

Hyperspace Travel#

Your travel time in hyperspace is doubled.

Modification Installation DC#

Space Stations have a -10 adjustment to the DC to install a modification.

Starship Size Maximum Suites#

The maximum number of suites a station can have (based on their size and constitution modifier) doubles. For instance, a Large ship with a 17 constitution (+3) has a maximum of 9 suites, and a Large station with the same constitution score instead has a maximum of 18 suites.

Space Station Tier Features#

When players upgrade a space station to certain tier levels, they can choose from the following feature options, instead of those available only to starships.

Role Specialization#

At 2nd tier, you adopt a particular style of design for your ship. Choose from the following.

Space Station (Large)#

Your station gains the Central Computer, Makeshift modification at no cost. Additionally, when a crewmember on your station has to make an Intelligence (Technology) check, if their Intelligence modifier is less than that of the station's Intelligence modifier, they can instead use the station's Intelligence modifier to Technology checks.

Space Station (Huge)#

Your station gains the Central Computer, Makeshift; Central Computer, Mark 1; and Comms Package, Premium modifications at no cost. Additionally, when a crewmember on your station has to make an Intelligence (Technology) check, if their Intelligence modifier is less than that of the station's Intelligence modifier, they can instead use the station's Intelligence modifier to Technology checks.

Space Station (Gargantuan)#

Your station gains the Central Computer, Makeshift; Central Computer, Mark 1; and Comms Package, Prototype modifications at no cost. Additionally, when a crewmember on your station has to make an Intelligence (Technology) check, if their Intelligence modifier is less than that of the station's Intelligence modifier, they can instead use the station's Intelligence modifier to Technology checks.

Role Mastery#

At 4th tier, you master a particular style of design for your ship. Choose from the following.

Space Station (All Sizes)#

When a crewmember on your station is targeted by the Interfere action, they have advantage on the ship's Wisdom saving throw made to avoid it. If they already have advantage, they can instead reroll one of the dice once.