Science, Huh? Ain't It a Thing

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

With any new game system, and associated organized play campaign, there are rules questions that even the designers and developers could not predict. I was surprised to find out that batteries are one of the more discussed issues in Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. There have been several discussions, both on the forums and among the venture-officers, about how to handle some of questions that came up with regards to handling batteries in Starfinder.

So, let's start with some new rulings!

New Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Rulings

The following rulings are official for the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild and go into effect immediately.

• Any equipment a PC owns that comes with a battery is automatically recharged to its full number of charges between scenarios. The same applies to any individually purchased batteries a PC owns. It is assumed that PCs have access to free recharging stations within the Lorespire Complex or from their starship.
• Starfinder Society starships, unless otherwise noted, can recharge batteries. If a scenario involves a starship, and the PCs have access to the ship, they can use the recharge station onboard at no cost.
• The current number of charges on a battery does not impact the sale price of an item. Any items that are sold with a battery (such as energy weapons) must be resold with the associated battery, regardless of the battery's current charge.
• Update the Pulsecaster Rifle (Starfinder Core Rulebook 176) statistics as follows: Capacity 20 charges, Usage 1.

Character Updates: If you previously purchased recharging services on your character between scenarios, you can reclaim any credits spent on these services. If you purchased a pulsecaster rifle for a character, prior to the publication of this blog post, you must use the new statistics, as presented above, or immediately exchange the weapon back at full credit value (instead of the standard 10% resale cost).

Moving Forward

After reading various forum comments, receiving private messages, attending conventions where I discussed this matter with players, and hearing from our venture-officers, the Organized Play team decided the above rulings worked best with our campaign. Tracking charges on batteries (beyond just weapons) between scenarios was cumbersome on players, and it just added another layer of complexity to GMing a scenario. There were some rightful fears that PCs might spend more time using the transfer charge cantrip to completely drain obtained equipment, to bypass having to purchase replacement charges—let alone the final impact on how equipment sharing would work with that cantrip.

As currently written in the Starfinder Core Rulebook, the pulsecaster rifle comes with a battery that's more expensive than the actual weapon purchase. The update above is in line with an upcoming FAQ/Errata from the Starfinder team that will address this issue. This future FAQ update should also include some other rules clarifications and updates, so keep an eye out for a future Starfinder FAQ

I suspect that these rules should alleviate most concerns with regards to tracking battery charges for a character. Players are still expected to track charges during a scenario, but I suspect that most PCs relying on energy weapons will pick up a secondary battery and have ample charges to get through even the most grueling encounters.

Now, go forth, and pew pew pew with all the lasers!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer