Starship Combat Crew Roles

[Chris Clay]

I apologize of I'm repeating a question, but I haven't been able to find the answers on the boards so far.

Concerning roles on a ship, I have seen it said a few times that the Captain and Pilot roles can't be unoccupied but I haven't found the actual rules that say that. I see the ones about only one person being in the role, and the specific example if of a single-occupant ship meaning either the Captain or Pilot role is unfilled.

Additionally, the rules for moving into the Pilot position says a "character can assume that role only if it is currently vacant". This sounds like the role of captain can be vacated, or just not filled.

Concerning Minor Actions - specifically, Snap Shot. It says "You can take this action only if no other gunner actions have been taken during the gunnery phase (including snap shot)." Does this apply to actions taken by anyone with any weapon, or only with each specific weapon? Here's the example where it would have come in handy:

Example:

In Yesteryear's Truth, we didn't have enough people to man all the guns, while keeping the Pilot and Captain roles filled. There were several times where a weapon had a valid target, but wasn't fired due to manpower. Could the captain have snap-fired one of the unfired weapon at -2? We played it as no, because other people fired other guns during the gunnery phase.

I'd like a clarification, if possible. There are times when the free attack could be useful, or when the captain can provide much more help to the ship by going to engineering and trying to repair a system/bring shields online rather than just granting a +2 to the guy already trying.

[Gary Bush]

There is nothing saying that the captain or pilot role has to be filled. A pilot is critical however. Without a pilot the ship will always move last and then at half speed and a +2 to turns.

A captain can always step into another role at the beginning of the engineering phase.

If no other gunner action has been taken a captain could make a snap shot. That would be the only action in the gunnery phase.

[GinoA]

Gary Bush wrote:

There is nothing saying that the captain or pilot role has to be filled. A pilot is critical however. Without a pilot the ship will always move last and then at half speed and a +2 to turns.

I believe you mean move first. Although, I believe it would just be very likely to move first, since the computer would be piloting the ship and roll initiative with that same +2.

BTW, I'm 905% certain that the Quests scenario states that a Pilot and Captain are required. However, that would be specific to that encounter.

[Gary Bush]

Thanks Gino. I did mean move first.

CRB Page 317 wrote:

If a starship has no one in the pilot role, that starship acts as if its pilot had rolled a 0.

That would certainly mean the ship would move first.

Then someone could do the minor crew action of Glide.

So yea, really bad not to have a pilot.

I looked at the Quest again and it does not require a Captain or Pilot. Just that a PC "can" take those roles.

[GinoA]

Thanks Gary, I missed that line in the CRB. I could have swore I read something about the computer acting as a role somewhere...

I had parsed that line as must have one of each. It's certainly fair to parse it the other way. For reference (from Into the Unknown): "The Loreseeker can have one captain, one pilot, and any number of engineers, gunners, and science officers."

The following paragraph says "A group of four PCs can leave the engineer or science officer role vacant if they agree to have more gunners." This kind of implies the must-have for Captain and Pilot. Hmm. Should probably be FAQed, in my opinion.

[Chris Clay]

Gary Bush wrote:

If no other gunner action has been taken a captain could make a snap shot. That would be the only action in the gunnery phase.

Gary, I'm still trying to get a clarification. If the ship has 4 weapons and two are fired, does that mean I can fire an unfired weapon using Snap Shot, or I can't? The vagueness is that two other people DID take gunnery actions (though not with the weapon I want to use), so as written it seems that I'd be unable to.

But to me, it feels like the intent is to keep everyone on the ship from using snap-shot to fire the main gun as a free action. Maybe add a clarifying line to the ability?

Recommended update wrote:

You can fire one of your starship’s weapons with a –2 penalty to the gunnery check. You can take this action only if no other gunner actions have been taken during the gunnery phase with that weapon (including snap shot).

Bolded text is my suggestion, if that's how it's supposed to work.

[Aaron C. Malone]

Chris, your bolded text is not how Snap Shot works. The minor action is for those ships that don't have a gunner. Their example used a Tiny starship that has a crew of one as the Pilot. That person could use Snap Shot as nobody else is a gunner.

If one person takes a gunnery action during the Gunnery phase, Snap Shot can not be used even if that means one or more weapons remained un-fired.

[Gary Bush]

There are two basic gunner actions, fire a weapon or fire two weapons. If a character, acting as a gunner, fires a weapon, that is an action taken by a gunner during the gunnery phase.

I think part of your confusion is the use of the words "gunner" and "gunnery". You seem to be using them interchangeably. They are not same thing in space combat. One refers to a character, PC or NPC, firing a weapon (or two). The other refers to a phase of the space combat where gunner(s) take their actions to fire weapon(s).

The Snap Shot minor action is intended for smaller single pilot craft where the pilot can also shot the weapon on the tiny/small starship.

This was clarified by Thurston for I can't recall if it was on the forums or on a different place that GMs who signed a NDA (no longer valid) got the rules early to study them before GenCon.

Edit: Partly Ninjaed by Aaron :)

[Chris Clay]

Concerning the terms "Gunner" and "Gunnery", I'm not sure where I gave the impression that I was interchanging them. Unless I'm misreading, "Gunner" is a role and "Gunnery" is a phase.

As I did say, the ruling at the table was because someone acted during the gunnery phase snap shot couldn't be used.

My two questions overlapped a bit concerning the starship combats I was in. The GM in question said that the Captain position couldn't be vacated, so all I got to do was sit up top and try and grant the +2 gunners or pilot. Given that I didn't have piloting trained, I had to do the DC 19 Diplomacy to assist either of those. The fact that they were having a bad roll day didn't help, but there were targets available to other firing arcs that I wanted to know if I could use Snap Shot to assist that way. I had already used Demand on all 3 people, so I wasn't able to use that again.

Snap Shot being intended for a single-occupant vessel is fine and understandable. I didn't find anything in a quick search I did before posting this, but it's possible that I missed it.

My question stems from what the rule feels like it's trying to accomplish. If it really was meant for a single-occupant vehicle, why aren't there options for doing an Engineer or Science Officer role? Surely, in an emergency, a single pilot would be more concerned with getting shields online or boosting his engine rather than firing a weapon.

Once I get an official ruling on whether the Captain role can be vacated, that may make this a moot question, anyways. At least now, though, I used my level 1 rebuild to make sure that I have all the ship crew skills so my role to Encourage is much better.

[Aaron C. Malone]

Chris, look at pg 322 under Changing Roles. Your answer is there. You can change roles in the middle of combat (ex: captain to gunner).