The process of creating a fully functioning starship is ultimately a very rewarding experience, though it can be rather long and drawn out (particularly if its designer goes into a lot of small details about the craft). In combat and exploration, all that detail comes down to a very few critical stats.
Players and Gamemasters should feel free to create their own ships as the need arises during the course of a campaign. A GM may wish to build a "boss" ship for the final adversary in a campaign, for example, or perhaps a customized ship to act as an ally. Perhaps an industrialized race will achieve starflight during the course of a campaign, and a new starship class will become required. All of these are valid reasons for building scratch starships.
Most of the time, however, the following set of rules will be needed to modify an already existing ship. Indeed, this was a very important part of the original games; outfitting the ship with higher levels of equipment was really the only way to maximize the ship's capabilities and prepare for the final battles.
Outfitting a starship done is generally conducted at the Ship Configuration area at Starport (
see Chapter 12.2). The Ship Configuration area is also where characters will need to go if they are interested in trading up for a new ship (presumably a more capable one) if such a trade-in is allowed under the current rules of the campaign. The Ship Configuration area at any alien Starports included in a campaign may or may not be accessible to the players; generally if it is accessible, then the alien race and the players are in a very tight relationship (a formal alliance, or otherwise genuine friends). Even then, it's entirely possible that not every piece of equipment that would ordinarily be available to a member of the host species would be available to the characters. GMs are highly encouraged to consider what equipment will be available where before an adventure or campaign begins.
The basic procedure for creating a starship is as follows:
- Build a design concept for the ship.
- Select the species that primarily uses the starship.
- Select a starship chassis and chassis weight, and determine if it is a military ship.
- Select the starship’s default basic equipment and determine its cost.
- Select any accessories for the ship.
- Determine the starship's crew and passenger complements and its cargo capacity.
- Figure up the starship’s total cost.
- Record the starship’s vital stats.
- Put finishing touches and any desired additional traits to the ship.
Note that this is the procedure needed to create a brand new starship from a previously non-existing starship type. Creating a starship of an existing type is as simple as copying the information provided from whatever source is available (usually from the GM’s own notes). As time goes by, however, the characters may wish to make modifications to that starship. In this case, they have to perform whichever step affects the systems they wish to modify, re-figure the starship’s cost, and finally re-compute the starship’s vital stats. There is also an
Engineering sub-discipline Check involved in modifying the ship (
see Chapter 12.2); which sub-discipline is required for the Check depends entirely on what system is being modified.
Creating a starship is a lot like creating vehicle
(see Chapter 6.2), and for the most part the two procedures are similar to one another. There are a few key differences, though. Special emphasis will be placed on those sections that are significantly different. Starships also use the Vehicle Record Sheet to record their vital stats.
Build a design concept for the ship.
Having a design concept for a new starship type is a step that is often overlooked, and yet is quite important for the overall design process. Simply put, a design concept is just an idea, put down on paper somehow. For the SFRPG, this can be a drawing, a set of desired stats, or some any other mechanism that helps a designer focus their thoughts and directs them in the course of creating a vehicle. Before a designer actually begins to build a ship, they should take a little time to think about just what exactly it is they want to create. As with vehicles, the purpose of the design concept is to direct the designer as they go through the creation process, and to help them think about ways they may work around situations that the system may be a little fuzzy about.
The starship creation process is generally straight-forward, even more so than vehicles. Nevertheless, in the interest of fairness, an example of each step will be provided at the end of each step in the process.
For our starship example, we're going do to something interesting and create an Old Imperial warship, say a missile cruiser. That'd make it an Uhlek fighter, or perhaps a ship of the era of the first wave. Heavy shielding and a strong missile complement are going to be the cornerstones of our design. We can also make it fast; perhaps a deep strike penetration cruiser of somre sort.Select the species that primarily uses the starship.
Species selection is perhaps one of the easiest things that can be decided about a starship. Simply select a race that uses the ship, based upon the need of that ship for an adventure. Species tend to operate starships in a specific sphere of influence, though some starfaring societies (such as Arth) may have exploratory fleets that do not operate in a specific area. It is a very rare occurrence when a starship is sold into the service of an alien fleet. Those that do serve in alien fleets are often captured prize vessels.
Needless to say, starships should only be utilized by starfaring age species. If an industrial age species needs a starship, it's recommended that a vehicle using the Transport chassis be substituted instead. If a true starship chassis is desired in this case, it is recommended the designer pick from the available Corvette chassis only.
We've pretty well determined this step for our cruiser in the design concept (more proof of the importance of the concept). This will be an Old Imperial craft, so Humans will be the primary species using the ship.Select a starship chassis and chassis weight, and determine if it is a military ship.¶
The next step in creating a starship is to select a
chassis, the
weight of the chassis, and determine if it is a military starship or not. This is a crucial step, as it will determine several of the starship’s basic statistics, including its cost, its base HD, its size (which in turn determines the ship's potential cargo capacity and crew complement), and the number, classes and types of systems and accessories that can be used aboard.
Starships typically aren't as flexible with the available size classes as vehicles. In most cases for smaller starships, simply picking a chassis will determine the ship's size class. For those that are not determined this way, the designer will need to assign the starship a size class from the classes available for the chassis type and weight. Starships must fall within the prescribed size class range for a given chassis weight. Unlike with vehicles, however, picking above the minimum level has no HD penalty; size has already been factored into the chassis' base HD ratings.
As with vehicles, size classes are dependent upon a
bounding box volume, the minimum size a rectangular prism (a box) would have to be in order to fit the whole ship inside of it. A ship is said to be of a certain size class so long as it is at least as large as the minimum required size for the size class. The bounds for available starship size classes are listed in the table below. Starships also have a
safe accommodation space and a
safe cargo space volume, used to determine the ship's complement and cargo capacity.
SFRPG Starship Size Class Conversion Chart| Size Class | Size (times an Intrepid-class Scout) | Approximate Minimum Bounding Box Volume (m3) | "Safe" Accomodation Space (m3) | "Safe" Cargo Space (m3) |
|---|
| 13 | 0.09375 | 22,500 | 375 | 6.3 |
|---|
| 14 | 0.1875 | 45,000 | 750 | 12.5 |
|---|
| 15 | 0.375 | 90,000 | 1,500 | 25 |
|---|
| 16 | 0.75 | 180,000 | 3,000 | 50 |
|---|
| 17 | 1.25 | 300,000 | 5,000 | 100 |
|---|
| 18 | 2.5 | 600,000 | 10,000 | 200 |
|---|
| 19 | 5 | 1,200,000 | 20,000 | 400 |
|---|
| 20 | 10 | 2,400,000 | 40,000 | 800 |
|---|
| 21 | 20 | 4,800,000 | 80,000 | 1,600 |
|---|
| 22 | 40 | 9,600,000 | 160,000 | 3,200 |
|---|
| 23 | 80 | 19,200,000 | 320,000 | 6,400 |
|---|
| 24 | 160 | 38,400,000 | 640,000 | 12,800 |
|---|
| 25 | 320 | 76,800,000 | 1,280,000 | 25,600 |
|---|
| 26 | 640 | 153,600,000 | 2,560,000 | 51,200 |
|---|
| 27 | 1,280 | 307,200,000 | 5,120,000 | 102,400 |
|---|
| 28 | 2,560 | 614,400,000 | 10,240,000 | 204,800 |
|---|
| 29 | 5,120 | 1,228,800,000 | 20,480,000 | 409,600 |
|---|
| 30 | 10,240 | 2,457,600,000 | 40,960,000 | 819,200 |
|---|
| 31 | 20,480 | 4,915,200,000 | 81,920,000 | 1,638,400 |
|---|
| 32 | 40,960 | 9,830,400,000 | 163,840,000 | 3,276,800 |
|---|
| 33 | 81,920 | 19,660,800,000 | 327,680,000 | 6,553,600 |
|---|
| 34 | 163,840 | 39,321,600,000 | 655,360,000 | 13,107,200 |
|---|
| 35 | 327,680 | 78,643,200,000 | 1,310,720,000 | 26,214,400 |
|---|
| 36 | 655,360 | 157,286,400,000 | 2,621,440,000 | 52,428,800 |
|---|
| 37 | 1,310,720 | 314,572,800,000 | 5,242,880,000 | 104,857,600 |
|---|
| 38 | 2,621,440 | 629,145,600,000 | 10,485,760,000 | 209,715,200 |
|---|
| 39 | 5,242,880 | 1,258,291,200,000 | 20,971,520,000 | 419,430,400 |
|---|
| 40 | 10,485,760 | 2,516,582,400,000 | 41,943,040,000 | 838,860,800 |
|---|
| 41 | 20,971,520 | 5,033,164,800,000 | 83,886,080,000 | 1,677,721,600 |
|---|
| 42 | 41,943,040 | 10,066,329,600,000 | 167,772,160,000 | 3,355,443,200 |
|---|
| 43 | 83,886,080 | 20,132,659,200,000 | 335,544,320,000 | 6,710,886,400 |
|---|
| 44 | 167,772,160 | 40,265,318,400,000 | 671,088,640,000 | 13,421,772,800 |
|---|
| 45 | 335,544,320 | 80,530,636,800,000 | 1,342,177,280,000 | 26,843,545,600 |
|---|
| 46 | 671,088,640 | 161,061,273,600,000 | 2,684,354,560,000 | 53,687,091,200 |
|---|
| 47 | 1,342,177,280 | 322,122,547,200,000 | 5,368,709,120,000 | 107,374,182,400 |
|---|
| 48 | 2,684,354,560 | 644,245,094,400,000 | 10,737,418,240,000 | 214,748,364,800 |
|---|
| 49 | 5,368,709,120 | 1,288,490,188,800,000 | 21,474,836,480,000 | 429,496,729,600 |
|---|
| 50 | 1 |
|---|
0,737,418,2402,576,980,377,600,000 | 42,949,672,960,000 | 858,993,459,200 |
For the purpose of most of the starships in the Starflight canon, the first column (comparison to the size of an
Intrepid-class Scout) is sufficient to find the ship's size class. For reference, the
Intrepid itself is squarely in the center of Size Class 16.
Most of the time, this data sets the basic properties of the starship's design. The stats imparted to the ship by the chassis weight can't never be directly changed, unless certain accessories or traits are given to the starship later in the design process.
There are only two types of "users" of starships, non-military and military. The only real difference between the two types of users is the amount of weaponry the ship is allowed to carry. Military starships have no major restrictions on weaponry that may be mounted on the ship. Non-military starships, on the other hand, are limited in their weapons selection. Special weaponry and traits are not allowed aboard a non-military ship (
for specifics, see Chapter 7.2.2.). Non-military ships also have a defined number of missile shots before they run out of missile ordinance. Finally, a non-military starship is not allowed more than a dozen weapons mounts of any type, and must stick to the default versions of any weapons types (i.e. no weapons "options"). Note that these rules count for design purposes only. It is possible for a non-military user to use a military-designed starship in the course of game-play, though these are usually either starships that have been bought by a corporation for extra muscle, or pirated starships.
Since we're trying to build a cruiser, we want our final design to be at least as large as an Intrepid
-class ship. Since we're gunning for defensibility, let's say it's just a little larger at one size class up (SC 17), say 1.3 times the size of an Intrepid
. That narrows down our choices quite a bit; we can either select a Heavy Frigate or Very Light Destroyer chassis. Since we're gunning for a cruiser (and since it gives us more accessories to pick from), we'll use the Very Light Destroyer chassis. We're dealing with a warship, so naturally it's a military vessel. Note how much information we already know about our craft: at SC 17, we know it's got at least 5000 cubic meters of accommodation space and a hundred cubic meters of internal cargo space. Since it's an SC 17 Very Light Destroyer, we know the base cost is 1,000,000 MU, its base HD is 51/53/51, and it can have up to 27 accessories. We also know that we can't have Weapons and Engines above Class Six or Defenses above Class Seven installed without a Starship Systems Adapter, since we're working with a Destroyer. Select the starship’s default basic equipment and determine its cost.¶
Once the basic stats for a starship have been determined, it's time to select the ship's basic equipment. This includes its Engines, Armor, Shields, Beam Weaponry, and Projectile Weaponry. Starships always have positions reserved for these five items; none of them count against the ship's accessory count.
A starship's chassis determines the maximum allowable equipment class for the ship in question. Unlike vehicles, there are no default equipment ratings, so a starship can have as low of a class of equipment as the designer wishes. The trade-off for no defaults is less of an HD benefit from engines and armor. If equipment higher than the maximum allowable for the chassis is desired, the designer can put either the
Reinforced Chassis accessory (for armor) or the
Starship Systems Adapter accessory for everything else (
for the Starship Systems Adapter, apply the additional HD penalty for all starships below Size Class 20 instead). Each piece of basic equipment works almost exactly like its vehicle analog, with a few minor changes.
As with vehicles, starship armor sets the number of
armor hit points (AHP) for a starship, and has a negative effect on the starship's HD ratings as the armor Class increases. AHP can be arbitrarily set by the designer when the ship is first being built; the ship's official armor class is the next armor class down from the amount of AHP that has been indicated on the chart in
Chapter 7.2.2, similarly to vehicles. When modifying a starship's armor, the values and classes of armor must correspond to the chart; the AHP cannot be arbitrarily set. For purposes of HD calculation, any starship with 3,000 AHP or over is considered to have Class Twenty armor; in all other respects it is considered Class Ten armor. Subtract one point from the ship's base HD ratings (HD/BHD/FHD) for each equipment Class (
e.g. subtract 7 from the ship's base HD rating if Class Seven armor is installed.)
Engines are another system that behaves similarly for starships as they do for vehicles. Engines affect the ship's HD, and also have a direct effect on the fuel efficiency of the starship (
see Chapter 8.1 for details). Add one point to the ship's HD and BHD ratings for the primary engine's equipment Class (
for example, add 4 for Class Four Engines, 6 for Class Six, etc.). Engines also directly set the
Initiative rating for the ship. Starships fall into the general category of
space vehicle. As such, they all have a maximum speed of 10,000 kph in the atmosphere regardless of what Class engine is installed. The cost of the ablative material on the ship's hull has been figured into the cost of the ship's chassis. Starships can go without other equipment, but they MUST have an engine installed in order to function.
Note that there is a Class Zero engine that can be installed on a starship while it's being designed, but cannot be selected when the ship is being modified. In this case, the Class Zero engine denotes a sub-standard quality superphotonic drive system, rather than some kind of external propulsion source as with vehicles.Shields are usually considered a vital part of a starship's equipment, as they are as handy at blocking out harmful cosmic radiation and curtailing micro-meteoroid damage as they are at blocking enemy laser blasts. Because of this necessity, space is always reserved on a starship chassis for the installation of shield systems. Unlike vehicles, the installation of shields does
not count against the ship's accessory count. Starship shields are otherwise functionally the same as vehicle shields. Like armor, at the time of design an arbitrary number of shield hit points (SHP) may be set for the ship; the ship is considered to have the shield class of the next indicated level downward. Shields have no effect on a starship's HD.
Weapons systems for starships come in the same two varieties as vehicle weapons, namely beam and projectile weapons. Starship chassis come with one spot for beam weaponry and one for projectile weaponry. If a starship carries more than one of the same type of weapon (i.e. two beam weapons or two projectile weapon types), only one system can be carried without taking up accessory slots. In addition to the weapons themselves, mounts for the weapons must be added to the starship, in the same manner as vehicles. Like vehicles, a starship can carry multiple Classes of a single weapon type (for example, a ship could carry both Class Three and Class Two lasers), but each Class of weapon will require its own distinct mount (
for example, Dual Beam Turrets for the Class Three Lasers with Beam Racks for Class Two Lasers). The amount of damage or effect of a weapon should be recorded in the appropriate boxes on the Vehicle Record Sheet (Beam for beam weaponry and Proj for projectile weaponry). In the case where multiple Classes or types of weapons are installed on a vehicle, only the highest damage amount should be recorded in the box.
There is a third type of weapon that is available to starships, called
special weaponry. This kind of weapon is any weapon that does not behave like either a beam or projectile weapon. As a general rule, a starship can carry at most one type of special weapon. Special weaponry can give a starship some truly awesome capabilities; naturally the addition of special weaponry tends to jack up the price of the ship substantially.
We're going to make our craft a little more reliant on shield power than armor, but we don't want it to go completely naked, so we're going to set the AHP at 100; this corresponds to Class Zero armor, which will add 500 to the basic cost and have no effect on the ship's HD ratings (naturally, we're going to assume basic armor in this case). Next, we're going to want a decent engine...let's go ahead and say a Class Four engine for the default. That adds 40,000 to the cost, sets the Initiative rating at four, and adds 4 to the ship's HD and BHD (making the current HD ratings 55/57/51. For the shields, we'll just put on a set of basic Class Fives as the default, adding 125,000 to the ship's cost and giving it 2500 SHP. That brings us to weapons. We said we want a missile complement, so we're going to ignore lasers and other beam weapons entirely. We're also going to ignore Mass Drivers and Plasma weaponry; we're going to go with strictly missiles. Since this is going to be the ship's sole defensive system, we're going to want the missiles to strike hard and we're going to want to see about having the ability to "shoot again" in the event of a miss. Seeker Missiles seem to be a good way to go; to suit our power purposes, we're going to make a note to add the Starship Systems Adapter to the accessories and go with Class Eight Seeker Missiles. This will add 1,920,000 to the ship's cost (!), and make the ship's projectile damage capability 1440. Hopefully these expensive missiles are going to pack the punch we really want. Total cost of all this combined is going to be 2,085,500; we'll need that figure down the road.Select any accessories for the ship.
The starship’s accessories should be selected next. All ships are capable of capable of supporting accessories, though larger chassis can handle more than smaller chassis (at the cost of being more expensive and easier to hit). As with vehicles, a designer does not have to add accessories if they don't want to add them to the vehicle (
though the wisdom of going without at least weapons mounts is a matter of conjecture). Unlike vehicles, a starship is stuck with the number of accessories indicated by the chassis; the Modified Chassis
cannot be added to ships. Starships use their own list of accessories, which includes some of the same accessories available to vehicles
(see Chapter 6.2.3) as well as a few accessories that are only accessible to starships
(see Chapter 7.2.2); vehicles are never allowed to have these unique accessories installed on them, no matter the circumstances. Ships are considered space vehicles for purposes of restrictions. While a starship technically has access to Sublight Engines and Superphotonic Engines, both are considered part of a starship chassis already (so adding them is a bit of a waste). Accessories can change a lot of the basic characteristics of the ship, and these should be noted in with the accessory’s effect. The cost of accessories should also be taken into account. NOTE: All accessories added to a starship cost as much as is listed; there is no cost multiplier for starships.
Larger starships in particular are well suited to act as carrier craft for smaller vehicles, such as shuttles or fightercraft
(see Chapter 6.2). As with carrier craft vehicles, small craft do not count against the ship's accessory count, but the cost of the vehicle is added to the final cost of the ship if the vehicle is carried as standard equipment. Stats for the small craft should also be made available.
Accessories, aside from modules, cannot be sold off or exchanged once indicated as standard equipment for a ship, unless given the
Modular Design bonus, which comes with a cost multiplier (see below).
We've already determined that we're going to need a Starship Systems Adapter in order to handle the Class Eight missiles. At 1000 times the size class, it'll cost 17,000 by itself. We're also going to want some mounts so we can fire those missiles; let's say eight Projectile Racks forward, which at 25 a mount comes to a total of 200. We'll also add a pair of Auxiliary Reactor Modules with Class Four Engines installed; that's going to boost the ship's Initiative by another two points and add a whopping 83,400 to the price. We're also going to add a Cloaking Device to add in the ship's survivability; that's going to cost 8500 and add 25 to the ship's HD and FHD (bringing it to 80/57/76. Finally, we can add a couple of extra "standard" modules for imperial and Arth starships...say a Hospital Module (costs 850), Industrial Manipulator Module for salvage (255), ECM Module (340), SWACS Module (510), Countermeasures Pod Dispenser with a thousand shots (costs 1010), Emergency Stasis Module (1700), Backup Sensor Array (500), Backup Comm Array (500), and five Expendable Pod Mounts (75 total) with Escape Pods attached (500 total). Total cost here is 115,340, ever so slightly less than basic equipment.Determine the starship's crew and passenger complements and its cargo capacity¶
A starship's crew complement and cargo carrying capacity are determined in the exact same manner as vehicles
(see Chapter 6.2). The ship's Size Class will indicate an amount of the ship's volume that can be used for accommodation space, assuming one-sixth of the ship's minimum bounding box volume for its size class is actual inhabitable space on the ship and only 10% of that space is used for accommodations. To determine a complement, the accommodation volume will need to be filled in with accommodation spaces; the spaces used on starships are the same sizes as those available for vehicles
(see Chapter 6.2). Some of these spaces can be assigned to crew, and some to passengers. A designer is welcome to assign how ever many spaces they desire to crew, though they should keep in mind that larger starships will probably require significantly larger crews. As with vehicles, not all of the accommodation space need be filled in; some can be transferred over to cargo carrying volume, transferred to hangar space if the ship has any Hangar Bay Modules, or left empty. Cargo capacity for starships is determined in the same manner, by adding up the total volume of space from the ship's chassis to the amount that can be carried by all of its cargo carrying accessories. As with accommodation space, a designer may transfer any cargo space to accommodation space or hangar space,
provided that the space transferred comes from the reserved amount and not from modules. The ship's complement and cargo capacity should both be recorded in their respective boxes on the Vehicle Record Sheet.
We already know that we have 5000 cubic meters of space for complement, so we need to divvy that up. Let's say there will be six luxury staterooms for the senior officers (at 200 a piece, that'll be 1200 cubic meters total), 3 regular staterooms (300 total, since they're 100 a piece), and 50 double cabins (50 a piece goes for 2500 total). We've used up 4000 of our available 5000 cubic meters of accommodation space; we can shove the remaining space over to cargo. That'll give us 1100 cubic meters of cargo space (and that's without any external pods). Since we can add a second member of a crew for cabin-sized spaces, we're going to double the number of spaces up for purposes of determining crew complement. We won't do the same for the staterooms, even though technically we could. We've got a total complement of 109. Let's say the staterooms are for senior officers and passengers; that'll make the complement 106/3, which is where we'll leave it.Figure up the starship’s total cost.
Once the accessories have been selected and any weapons systems have been mounted on the ship and the ship's complement and cargo capacity is known, it's time to start figuring up the ships vital statistics, starting with its cost. To calculate the ship's cost, simply add together the cost of the ship's chassis, all basic equipment added, and all accessories added to the ship. Unlike vehicles, starships have no cost modifier; all starship equipment is sold at cost.
At this point, a designer may decide to give their ship positive traits, including weapons resistance or damage reduction bonuses (
see Chapter 7.2.2 for full details). If the ship has been given a resistance or reduction, a multiplier to the ship's total cost will be given. If the ship is given multiple bonuses, sum those bonuses into a single multiplier. Multiply the tallied cost of the ship and its equipment by this multiplier. The final result is the total cost of the starship, in MU or SP (depending on the campaign). Record the final result in the "cost" box on the vehicle record sheet.
We've been keeping track of the ship's cost as we've been going along. To recap, the chassis cost 1,000,000, the total cost of the basic equipment was 2,085,500, and the total accessories cost was 115,340. Totalling those all up gives a final result of 3,200,840. This is probably expensive enough as is, so we're not going to add any additional bonuses to the ship.Record the starship’s vital stats.
Once all the equipment has been selected and the ship’s cost has been calculated, it’s time to figure up the remainder of the ship’s vital stats. The designer should have been keeping notes as they were designing the starship; if not, then it's important for them to go back and record the effects of the equipment that they've installed. From these design notes, it is possible to determine the ship’s combat modifiers (SI, SHP, AHP, Init, HD, BHD, FHD, Crew, Passengers, and Constituents). Here is an overview of these stats:
- Strength Index (SI): Strength index is a measure of how powerful a ship is and how well it rates in combat alongside other starships. A ship’s strength index is a combination of its shield hit points, armor hit points, and strength of its strongest available weapon. This value is the most basic method for "keeping score" and helps determine whether or not the vehicle will withdraw in combat, if given the opportunity and if a battle comes to a premature end.
- Hit Difficulties (HD/BHD/FHD): Several factors determine how difficult it is to actually hit a ship, including the ship’s size, mass, and ability to accelerate. How hard it is to hit and cause damage to a starship is represented by its hit difficulty. The higher the hit difficulty, the higher the dice roll needed on a d% roll in order to damage the ship. Starships, like vehicles, have three hit difficulties: normal (HD), "blast" (BHD), and "flat-foot" (FHD). Each ship chassis has a base HD rating, which is modified by armor effects, engine effects, and the ship's Size Class.
- Initiative (INIT): As with characters, Initiative is used to determine the order in which different ships engaged in combat situations will fight. The higher the ship’s initiative, the more likely it is that it will get to deliver damage before other ships. Initiative also determines how much the ship can move during "grid" combat(see Chapter 9.4). A ship’s initiative modifier is determined directly from it's engine class, taking into account any modifiers from any accessories or traits that modify initiative.
- Shield Hit Points (SHP): This is a measure of the strength of the ship’s shields. Shields are an outer layer of defense for a starship. Shields can regenerate in combat, at a rate determined by the ship's chief engineer's Applied Relativity sub-discipline score. If a ship’s shield HP is reduced to zero, any excess damage points are applied to any armor the ship may be employing (or straight to systems damage if the ship has no armor).
- Armor Hit Points (AHP): This is a measure of the strength of the ship’s armor. Armor is an inner layer of defense for a starship, consisting of extra thick hull plates. Armor does not regenerate in combat. If a ship’s armor HP is reduced to zero, any excess damage points go directly to systems damage.
- Crew: This lists the number of personnel required to operate the ship. Crew listings can be filled out by any type of character, including character players, specific NPCs, or “disposable extras”. A ship that does not have enough personnel aboard to fill all of its crew slots may end up taking a general penalty for being undermanned (see chapter 9).
- Passengers: This lists the number of personnel the ship can transport as passengers. Unlike crew, passengers are not essential to the successful operation of the ship, though a vehicle may take a general penalty for being overcrowded (see Chapter 9) if there are more personnel aboard a craft than listed in the ship’s crew and passenger ratings. Passengers can come in many forms, including travelers, troops, and prisoners, to name just a few examples.
- Elements: This final statistic is simply a listing of the types of minerals that are used to make the ship and the amount of material that can be expected to be extracted from the ship in the event that it is destroyed. In general, larger ships will throw out more material and more expensive ships will throw out more valuable minerals. There are no hard and fast rules for determining constituents for a starship, but in general, the amounts of materials should not exceed .5 cubic meters per size class, and there should not be more than four minerals comprising the ship (one of which is whatever material the ship uses for fuel). Space stations are an exception; the amounts of materials should not exceed 5 cubic meters per size class, with no more than six minerals.
We can now begin to calculate the ship's derived statistics. With 100 AHP, 2500 SHP, and 1440 as the maximum potential damage of an onboard weapon, the SI of the ship will be 4040. The HD we've determined up to this point is 80/57/76; nothing else will change those numbers, so they're good as is. We've got three Class Four Engines installed, a main and two auxiliaries. This will give us a final Initiative of six. We've determined SHP, AHP and our crew complement already, leaving elements. For the heck of it, we'll say five cubic meters of Tungsten, four of Titanium, one of Platinum and ten of Endurium.Put finishing touches and any desired additional traits to the ship.¶
After a ship’s vital stats have been recorded, its essential statistics are complete. If the designer is only designing a general ship class, they may stop there, and call the ship done, though a general-class name should be assigned to the ship if one has not been selected already. This can be something as generic as the species name and general purpose of the craft (like 'Humna Humna Transport', or something similar), or it could be named after the first ship of the class (
Intrepid-class, for example). If, however, the designer is creating a specific ship (such as one the characters are trying to buy), then they can add details to the ship. Such details may include the color of the paint, any scratches or dents in the ship’s hull or armor, and particular flaws it has picked up due to abuse or neglect, and so forth. Flaws in a starship may be particularly important, as they can affect the ship’s modifiers and/or the ability of the characters to fix the problem. If a designer wants to add flaws to the starship, they may choose their own, or they may use the chart below. A designer can, if they so choose, add flaws and other characteristics to an entire class of starship. The same flaw can be given repeatedly to starships; it has a cumulative effect in those cases.
Starship Flaws by d%| d% Result | Flaw
(Design) | Flaw
(Acquired) |
|---|
| 01-10 | Design makes inefficient use of interior space. Reduce accommodation, cargo and hangar volume by 10% (adjust the ship's accommodations/cargo/hangar space accordingly). Can be repaired with DC 150 Metallurgy Check. | The ship's paint job is scratched or chipped. No game effect. |
|---|
| 11-20 | Design is not easily modified or upgraded. -1 accessory per two Size Classes (round down). All upgrades and modifications take twice as long to install as normal. Can be repaired with DC 175 Metallurgy Check. | Part of the ship's hull is dented in. No game effect. |
|---|
| 21-30 | Ship has slower than normal throttle settings. -1 to ship's movement value (note this has no effect on the ship's Initiative value). DC 75 Nuclear Physics Check required to repair. | Some piece of equipment takes a bit of minor, irreparable damage (GM's choice). One of the ship's systems takes 5% damage permanently. Cumulative. |
|---|
| 31-50 | Some systems have had to be jury-rigged in order for the ship to operate normally. -20 on all Damage Control Checks to the ship. Repair DC dependent upon specific systems affected, at GM's discretion. | One of the ship's systems malfunctions. Select one system randomly (see Chapter 9.4). That system malfunctions immediately, regardless of its damage level. Add DC 50 to normal Damage Control Check to prevent malfunction. |
|---|
| 51-60 | The ship's engines are badly calibrated, and as a result the ship burns more fuel than normal. Halve the ship's fuel efficiency. Repair with DC 150 Nuclear Physics Check. | The vehicle's sublight engine has overheated. Ship takes a 50% engine damage and cannot move at sub-light speeds (between planets) any faster than a regular space vehicle. Requires a DC 200 Nuclear Physics Check to repair. |
|---|
| 61-70 | The ship’s handling is shaky and or sluggish. Either -1 Initiative, -20 to all Starship Piloting Checks, or both while the ship is in flight. | A maneuvering thruster has been blown loose. 20% engine damage, -1 to ship's Initiative rating and -20 to all Starship Piloting checks. Requires a new thruster to repair, DC 150 Nuclear Physics check. |
|---|
| 71-75 | The ship has been designed with low-quality scanning equipment. +1 Range penalty and/or -10 Check penalty to all Marksmanship and Ballistics Checks. Requires replacement of the scanner pallets to repair, DC 125 Electromagnetism Check. | The ship’s Sensors malfunction. +2 Range penalty and/or -10 Check penalty to all Marksmanship and Ballistics Checks. |
|---|
| 76-80 | The ship was designed with sub-standard shield emitters. Subtract 10% from the ship's normal amount of SHP for its shield class, rounding up. Repair requires the complete removal of the shield emitters and replacement (normal Applied Relativity check for shield repair, but at three times the normal repair time). | The vehicle's superphotonic engine has overloaded. Ship takes a 80% engine damage, d% hull damage and cannot enter hyperspace. Requires a DC 200 Nuclear Physics Check to repair. |
|---|
| 81-90 | The ship was designed with sub-standard armor. Subtract 10% from the ship’s normal amount of AHP for its armor class, rounding up. Repair requires the complete removal of the armor plating and replacement (normal Metallurgy check for armor repair, but at three times the normal repair time). | The vehicle's weapons capacitors short out. All weapons systems are rendered inoperative and cannot be used again until the damage is repaired. The blast causes d% damage to the ship. Repair requires a DC 175 Weaponry check. If the ship has no weapons or if the capacitor has already shorted out, roll again on this table. |
|---|
| 91-95 | The ship was designed with sub-standard structural materials. Subtract AHP as above. Additionally, roll 1d10. Treat the result as permanent hull damage. Repair requires removal of the hull platings and affected members (DC 175 Metallurgy Check at ten times normal repair time). | Serious damage to the ship's internal framework. Reduce all HD ratings by one-half (round up). Repair requires a DC 175 Metallurgy Check, adding one hour for each point of normal HD lost. The GM is allowed to select appropriate secondary effects for this type of damage (such as lowered AHP, hull damage, or system malfunctions). |
|---|
| 96-00 | |
|---|
olspan="2">Other. Some other system is either flawed or has become flawed. The GM/designer is encouraged to be somewhat cruel.
At this point, the starship is complete enough to play an adventure with, but the creation process does not need to end here. Such information as a design programme, the name of the chief designer, the ship’s history and so forth can also be added. This will help give the starship some of the “personality” that all infamous ships seem to have, rather than making it just a collection of numbers and stats. This part of the creation process does not have to be done at the time the ship is created, and indeed, such information about the ship can be added through the course of game-play.
We're pretty satisfied with our ship as is, so we're not going to give it any flaws. In fact, we're going to call it done. There's just one detail left to fill out, and that's a name. We're going to call it the Diamondback
-class Cruiser. This is the same ship that NCCAD submitted for SFRPG, which appears in Chapter 7.4.
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