The document you posted has a couple of sample ships that could work fine, but I'd like to at least make an attempt at building one unless you want to get started immediately.
Nope, not at all - take your time!
One of the first things that Lyrr will probably look to upgrade on himself is an integration module (ie. give him the ability to communicate and/or control computers and devices simply by jacking in). It would be good if the ship provided the capability for him to do that pretty much anywhere that it makes sense.
@Lyrr I don't see any options that would boost your ability to control the computers on the ship.
If you were looking to hack into opposing ships, I'm not sure that is a thing during combat. I doubt there is a network for you to jack into out in space.
If you find something that I am not seeing, let me know.
@Everyone Options are pretty limited and upgrading the ship isn't done with credits. You just get more build points that you can use to reconfigure/buy a new ship as you level up. All pieces can be swapped in and out at price, so it is more like building an old school eidolon than purchasing gear.
There are example builds of an Explorer and a Small Transport in the rulebook (linked by the GM earlier). Those, with some minor tweaks, are about what we are going to be able to accomplish.
The small transport saves us a few points on the frame and the power core which can be used to get slightly nicer weapons/defense. It also has two gun ports at the front that can be linked together.
The explorer has a turret, which is nice as it can target all four quadrants (and we have a limited size crew for manning guns).
The missile launcher currently on that explorer is probably a bit too beefy. We could downgrade that and maybe get a bit nicer with some other things.
I am leaning toward the explorer, and I'll take my best stab at something that is at least a little nice, but input from others would be great.
I’m totally fine with whatever you guys decide. I’m not that interested in ships or ship combat, but that may change over time.
As for our crew-style, again, I’ll leave that to the others as I’m more of a found item than tacit individual. I won’t be playing my character as an unwordly naif, a la Aventail in the RotR game bruno and GM are in, but I will be a little un-directed at times.
I am excited and looking forward to see how the tech weapons work in combat! Hopefully look over the character generation rules tonight...
Using the really cool spreadsheet linked in that tool, I modified the basic explorer to come up with THIS SHIP
Recouping the 6 points from the Drift engine allowed for upgrading the shields and computer. One step down on armor (3 points) allowed for an increase of 2 steps in tracking defense and better sensors.
The weapons were actually already about as basic as they could get. I really wanted to get more comfortable crew quarters and a recreational room, but couldn't justify the cost. I also wanted to increase the thrusters but couldn't without upgrading the core.
Feel free to make suggestions for modifications. We'll need a name for the ship as well.
This is OSW's Borai Witchwarper, Eschade Arqaia. Her backstory is a gloss of my first SF character's backstory on these boards - I spliced her in and it actually made a lot of sense.
Just need to make purchases [EDIT - done] and choose spells [EDIT - done]
R34DY T0 G0!
@Urian: thanks for the work on the ship. I had a look, but it's all gibberish to me at the moment!
@Lyrr I don't see any options that would boost your ability to control the computers on the ship.
If you were looking to hack into opposing ships, I'm not sure that is a thing during combat. I doubt there is a network for you to jack into out in space.
If you find something that I am not seeing, let me know.
Guess it has more to do with the cybernetics that ship upgrades. As long as it has a computer, I can connect to it with a datajack.
Awesome, thanks Urian! That'll work; I'll link the sheet under the campaign info.
Is it three players in this game?
Unless Adderyn gets a character together, yes - Lyrr, Urian and Eschade.
The plan is for 4-5; right, just waiting on the last to round out the initial team before we start!
@Adderyn: how you coming along?
I'm sorry for the hold up, I've been slammed at work, and at home and could not get the time to sit down and even start putting a sheet together. I've been barely able to check my other PBP games daily.
I have had the SF rule book for a bit but hadn't ever started looking at them them, and it's showing :)
With that said, I'm most of the way through creation of the character so far. (A Vesk Solarian using a melee type solar weapon.) I've got stats, feats skills, and found a starting equipment guide list that I'll steal and use for the gear stuff.
I hope to be completed and have a full profile/ sheet for GM to review by this coming Sunday.
As I know this isn't quite fair to the rest of you, I had messaged GM about this, and I did offer to have you start without me.
If the time frame isn't acceptable to you all, I can also (reluctantly) bow out.
I honestly don't think that any of us are in any particular hurry. :)
All good Adderyn, and as above, no hurry! Make that best Vesk!
No hurry at all man, and no worries! Just let me know when everyone's ready and we'll get into it. Honestly, the more time you give me to think about it, hopefully the better it'll be...or perhaps more convoluted...we'll see.
Done (I think. . .)
I'll be honest it's likely not my best work as I'm not really familiar with the system, but I think I covered the important parts.
GM please feel free to review and let me know of any issues.
Also, for some reason I get an error page when I try to add a profile avatar, I hope it won't be a long term issue, but if so I'll think of a work around.
I’ve seen other folks having avatar issues over the past few days...
I’ve seen other folks having avatar issues over the past few days...
There's a couple threads up in the website issues forum.
They have replied, but no date on a fix.
Something involving bandwidth.
Sorry guys, now I got crazy busy! I'm back in town and back at it this week, so we'll get started soon. Thanks Adderyn! And, no worries, we can tweak as we go.
I don't know if you guys coordinated it or not, but you managed to build a really well rounded crew! We're ready to roll and I plan to have our initial post up this weekend, but again - take your time. A few things:
Eschade - love that backstory
Lyrr - mind if I embellish a bit and give you a contact on Absalom station - a purveyor of cybernetics perhaps?
Bal'nak - can't wait to see the first supernova! Just for a quick idea - did you come from a Vesk home planet, or were you born in Absalom?
Hamster - Are you local to Absalom? Have any interesting habits in the station?
I'm not looking for more than a sentence, really, for above...just want some ideas for the intro.
I wasn't originally planning on being from Absalom station, but that seems to be where all of the humans live, so that is what I decided.
None of the other planets in the system seem to be a good fit.
He's an auto tuner, loves talking about ships and his favorite racers (which is going to be hard for me to fake as I try to avoid those people) and he plays old Rat Pack recordings all the time.
Nice, that works. Thanks!
I was thinking a Vesk world, but am flexible.
From my reading, the Vesk have sort of Klingon (maybe closer to Romulan given the lawful tendencies) or Trandoshian vibe culture wise, so it would make sense for someone seeking to prove themselves would go for the bigger playing field.
If it helps with the setup I'm happy to have the character be from wherever you would prefer.
Lyrr - mind if I embellish a bit and give you a contact on Absalom station - a purveyor of cybernetics perhaps?
That's fine. I left it purposefully vague to adapt to whatever game he wound up in.
Hamster, did you go with the small transport build?
We'll need to iron out the roles on the ship:
Captain
Gunner
Pilot
Engineer
Science officer
Since you're at 4 Pc's and not 5, you'll have to choose what systems are powered freely while outside of combat. Then, when entering into combat, we have to decide what is powered on your ship when we begin. So, if you have an engineer but no science officer, he can't hop back and forth as it requires too much fiddling with wires, switches, programs, and such
The medium explorer that I posted earlier is the as-yet-unnamed ship, I think. Nobody posted any issues with the build, so it should be good to get started.
Maybe once we move up to a level 2 ship, we'll have a better idea of where we should focus resources.
I think the current power supply has enough juice to keep everything running, so I would assume all systems would be powered most of the time. The concept of turning some things off is a good one to keep in mind for the future. We might be able to acquire more systems than we can power at one time if they are designed not to be used together.
Space combat is still a partial mystery to me and the small amount I have heard on Androids and Aliens has not clarified it for me too much.
I would be the Pilot. We definitely need a Gunner. I think a Science Officer to man the sensors would be important at the beginning of combat at least. Engineer seems more important than a Captain, though it depends on the skill sets remaining, I suppose.
Awesome, thanks! I scrolled through and lost the link
Likewise; I'm sure it's going to take some getting used to...but we'll get to practice pretty quick!
I can probably do either Engineer or Science Officer, if I'm looking at the appropriate skills.
Science Officer would probably be the better choice, but I'm flexible.
Side note: I thought we had one already, but I can't find it anywhere. I figured that we should probably have ready access to this document, as we'll probably need it on a fairly regular basis.
https://www.starjammersrd.com/game-mastering/starship-combat/
Thanks Lyrr! I will link it in the campaign tab.
Side note - anyone know why they call it starjammer? Just curious...I used to love the Spelljammer books from D&D and reminisce every time I see the SRD name
Probably for that very reason.
And you're welcome. :)
Probably gunner for me, I think it's the one roll I don't have a penalty in.
To be honest I’m not really keen on the starship side of things so I guess I’ll try to do best where I’m put. Not sure what skills you need for each of the positions, nor if Eschade actually has any of them.
As for the “starjammer” in that SRD, the owner was forced to scrub the Pathfinder/Starfinder names from them once he turned the site into “also a store”.
Not sure what skills you need for each of the positions, nor if Eschade actually has any of them.
For Captain, Charisma based skills.
For Science Officer, Computers.For Engineer.... Engineering.
For Pilot.... Piloting.
For Gunner, Dex+BAB or Dex+Piloting.
DCs for most actions are 11 with a tier 1 ship, 16 for some more complicated actions. I'm not sure if you can perform the actions untrained.
I don't see any reason that we need to have a captain, if nobody wants to take that role. There are two sets of guns, we could have two gunners.
I've got a positive Cha mod, but not sure, he'd be a good captain role model.
Yeah; I don't think you need a captain either.
Thanks Eschade, for the inside scoop!
Right off the bat, we need a name for the ship. I generated some random names at [url]https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/spaceship-names.php[/url]. Here are some that sounded good to me:
Horizon
Lightning
Ravana
Shade
Navigator
Harbinger
Open to anything. Horizon in particular sounds cool.
All the best names use two words, often that have odd interactions.
How about "Horizon's Shadow"?
I like Horizon’s Shadow. Or Shadow Horizon. Given “Eschade” is supposed to be both a play on “Shade” and “Escher” (as in the artist M.C. Escher) it would work really very nicely.
Good ideas. I like both. Bal'nek, you get the final choice.
Horizon's Shadow works for me!
Sorry guys; stomach bug laid me out over the weekend. Better today, so catching up
Hope you're feeling better.
There's a ton of stuff going around this year, and that's even without the one everyone is talking about.
Even the flu this season has been hitting hard.
Hope everyone out there is healthy and safe! Turbulent times, so please excuse any unexpected absences of players and GM's alike.
Sorry guys, feel like I've been completely neglecting you...been an interesting few days with work, trying to develop new plans and safety guidelines to deal with the virus. I'm updating today!
I'm also quite disappointed in the library of Starfinder maps and ship icons...if anyone has a resource let me know; I'm happy to purchase them
There are various icons found with a quick search.
HERE and HERE are some examples.
The ship icons you found look pretty good though, so I imagine that isn't the problem you are trying to solve.
THIS MAP PACK has some decent looking maps with hex markings. Any space background can have a hex grid added to it with Gimp or something similar, I imagine.
Not sure exactly what you are looking for.
Will try to find some time to check the Ship Combat rules online and familiarise myself with them...
We should probably solidify what Eschade's position is.
I can easily fill Science Officer or Engineer (or both, if that's the need). But if you want to take care of one or the other, that's okay with me.