Starships (Dev)
v.2023-02-21
Chapter 01 | Starship Basics
Fighting Spaces and Sizes
Strategic Spaces: Starships do not use standard 5-foot fighting spaces. Instead, space encounters use Strategic Spaces. A Strategic Space is a square measuring 1 mile on all sides.
Starship Size: All Light Craft are assumed to be Gargantuan unless otherwise stated. All Corvettes and above are Colossal. Supercruisers are Colossal+. Starships come in six categories:
A Light Craft can be up to 64 feet long. Any number of Light Craft can fit in one Strategic space. (Technically 348,913 if you’re a pedant.) Its minimum fighting space 75x75x75 feet.
A Corvette measures 65–200 feet in length. Any number of Corvettes can fit in one Strategic space. (13,824 since you’re so persistent.) Its minimum fighting space 220x220x220 feet.
A Frigate measures 201–500 feet in length. Any number of Frigates can fit in one Strategic space. (884; now leave me alone.) Its minimum fighting space 550x550x550 feet.
A Cruiser measures 501–1,000 feet long. Any number of Cruisers can fit in one Strategic space. (110; please stop.) Its minimum fighting space 1100x1100x1100 feet.
A Capital craft is 1,001–2,000 feet long. Up to 32 Capital craft can fit in one Strategic space. Its minimum fighting space 2200x2200x2200 feet.
A Supercruiser is 2,001 feet long or longer. Unless specified otherwise, only one Supercruiser may occupy a Strategic space, though it can share it with other vessels. A supercruiser’s fighting space is always 10% greater than its length. Thus, a 2,500-foot Supercruiser’s minimum fighting space would be 2750x2750x2750 feet. Supercruisers over 1 mile in length can occupy two Strategic spaces in a line and have rectangular fighting spaces rather than square/cube ones.
Starship Purchase Units
SPU Value: Starship Purchase Units—usually abbreviated as SPU—are equivalent to 100,000 CR in value. SPU are used to pay for starships as well as their equipment, ammunition, supplies, provisions, and crew wages. SPU have negligible weight aboard a starship and do not use cargo space unless stated otherwise.
Using SPU: SPU are not CR and cannot be converted to CR. If you have a problem understanding this, reread the first sentence of this paragraph as many times as necessary. They represent a mixture of spare parts, monetary credit, buyer reputation, and equivalent-value exchangeable goods or services. Attempting to sell or exchange SPU will reveal that they have little to no value to anyone outside the starship market. Hence, CR can be converted to SPU, but cannot be converted back. This means that CR can be used to buy starships and any related goods. SPU can be used to hire crew or buy large quantities of items or ammunition for starship use. Additionally, SPU can be used for on-the-fly starship repairs—as their value includes spare parts.
Why can’t I sell my SPU for CR?: Few sane people wish to even own a 2-ton ablative radiator the size of a dinner table for vacuum use only—let along have any use for it. The same goes for your 8-inch thick gem glass canopy or 10 ton container of snacks you packed for your road space trip. Now stop asking and quit trying to launder your SPU by turning them into potato chips as a middle step.
Starship Statistics
Each starship description includes the following statistics:
Hull Armor: A starship’s Armor Class determines how hard the ship is to hit, factoring in size and armor protection.
Maneuver Penalty: The penalty to Pilot checks, Initiative rolls, spinal weapon attacks, and Reflex saves when piloting the starship. All starships have an autopilot capable of completing simple tasks and aiding in flight. Disabling it imposes an additional -4 penalty and indicates that you’re a moron. Ships with fully optional crew can be piloted by their autopilot without penalty.
Hardness: A ship’s hardness from hull plating. If the starship has asymmetric side armor, the sides will be labelled.
HP: A ship’s Hitpoints (HP) determines how many hit points it has.
Acceleration: Acceleration represents how much movement distance the starship can add to its current velocity as a move action using its thrusters. Speed is listed in miles.
Length: The ship’s length in feet. Use to determine size when necessary.
Weight: The ship’s weight in pounds or tons.
Crew: The ship’s standard crew complement is given here.
Passenger Capacity: The maximum number of passengers that can be safely lodged aboard the ship. More may fit, but emergency seating may not be available for high-G maneuvers.
Fuel: The amount of fuel the ship carries. The AFC value in parenthesis indicates how much fuel is used per one Action Fuel Consumption.
SPU Cost: The cost of the ship in Starship Purchase Units. An x denotes the quantity purchased for 1 SPU. Thus, x5 means 1 SPU buys 5 vehicles.
CR Cost: The cost of the ship in Credit.
Restriction: The ship’s restriction rating.
Subsystem Stats: Starship subsystems have stats for each vessel. What the stats mean and how they are determined are as follows:
Subsystem: The name of the subsystem. Pick it out and put it here, genius.
Level: The level of the listed Module(s). If there are multiple Subsystems of the same type, but different levels, list them separately.
Volume: The volume used by the subsystem with the number of modules in parenthesis.
HP: How much damage the subsystem can take before destruction.
Hit Bound: The boundary determining whether the subsystem will be struck when rolling Hit Chance.
Notes: Other information about the subsystem such as functionality of non-Standard subsystems.
Shields are characterized by the following criteria:
Max Charge: Maximum Stored Charge the shield can reach.
Discharge: The damage reduction provided by the shield.
Recharge Rate: How quickly the shield builds up Stored Charge.
Stored Charge: How much charge the shield currently has. Maximum is limited by Max Charge.
Chapter 02 | Starship Turns
Phases: Because of the large number of characters potentially involved in starship combat, initiative is established in phases. Moving to a new phase does not constitute moving to the next round. Each phase, the specified characters take their turns in Initiative order.
Initiative: For each vessel, the main pilot’s Initiative roll is used unless the Captain opts to use Captain Initiative. For vessels with Advanced Reactors, reactor Power Modifiers may affect Initiative rolls.
Captain Initiative: Before rolling Initiative, a vessel’s captain may instead use their own Initiative roll. Captain Initiative replaces the Captain’s Dexterity modifier with the Captain’s Charisma modifier. Knowledge (Tactics) can synergize with a Captain’s Initiative roll.
Each round of space combat takes place using the following phases in the order listed:
Captains: If present, Captains and Crew Chiefs issue orders and use abilities now.
Pilots: Movement is resolved now along with Spinal Weapon attacks. For one person vessels, this may be the only phase used in a round.
Weapons, non-Heavy: All crew operating Light or Medium weapons and launchers.
Weapons, Heavy: Crew operating weapons Heavy weapons and launchers.
Weapons, Capital / Torpedo: Crew operating Capital Weapons or Torpedo launchers.
Engineering & Shields: While mostly reserved for vessels with Advanced Reactors, any crew serving in the engineering role aboard a ship take their actions now.
Sensors & Comms: Sensor information can significantly sway a battle. As such, sensor operators have their own initiative. If there are no sensor crew positions, the pilot controls sensors. While characters and normal radio communications may be used as free actions in combat, some actions by Comms operators are more complex and require their own initiative.
Other Crew: Hangar crew, medical staff, janitors, passengers, and anyone else aboard takes their turn here.
Boarding actions: Characters involved in boarding actions take their turn here.
New Initiatives: Newcomers to the battle space roll their Initiatives here. See below for details.
New Initiatives in Combat: As fighters are launched and boarding teams disembark, they roll their own initiatives.
Hangar-Launched and newly arriving Starships simply roll their initiative on launch or arrival.
Boarding Teams roll their initiative before disembarking their transport.
Actions in Combat: Each crewmember has their own actions that they may perform. Standard, full round, and other actions apply on a per-crewmember basis. You can rest easy knowing that the entire starship does not have to share the same move action + standard action available in a turn.