The Starfinder Starship Operations Manual is coming on July 30, but you don’t have to wait until then to start playing with the amazing new toys it provides for Game Masters! Here’s an encounter that uses just a few of the new ships, weapons, hazards, and rules found in the book, designed by Starfinder Developer Jason Tondro. All the rules you need have been summarized below, so you can play this encounter right away, even if you don’t have the Starship Operations Manual.
Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy
A SINGULAR NOTION — CR VARIES
This encounter is Average difficulty for a group of PCs flying a tier-8 starship, but your PCs may be higher or lower in level. A Singular Notion is an Easy encounter for 9th-level PCs, Challenging for 7th-level PCs, Hard for 6th-level PCs, and Epic for 5th-level PCs.
The player characters are traveling through the Drift when they receive a distress signal.
“This is an emergency transmission from the Steward vessel Harrowstone. We have been attacked by kasathan pirates and have sustained serious damage. Our power core has been destroyed and our thrusters are non-functional. We are in need of assistance. Please, if you can hear us, this is the Steward vessel Harrowstone...”
The Harrowstone can be detected on sensors; it is a Large freighter outfitted as a prisoner transport. It has indeed lost all power and is floating helpless in the Drift amid clouds of time-eaters, a bizarre hazard unique to the Drift (see below). Player Characters who communicate with the ship will be answered by Third Officer Daneel Ris (LG female human), who is doing her best in a very difficult situation. “If you can rendezvous with us,” she says, “our modular passenger section can disconnect from the ship and attach to your vessel. You mind giving us a ride home?” A PC suspicious of officer Ris and who succeeds at a DC 22 Sense Motive check can tell she’s hiding something. If pressed, Ris admits, “We have a very high-profile prisoner on board, a kasathan cult leader who calls himself Singulos. I think the attack might have been an attempt at a jailbreak, I don’t know.”
If the PCs agree to help the Harrowstone, place the prison ship in the middle of a starship combat map and place the PC starship along a short edge. The few remaining Stewards aboard the Harrowstone have already separated the passenger section from the rest of the ship and stand ready with a docking clamp to attach to the PC starship.
Hazard: This region of the Drift is infested with time-eaters, who have gathered together into massive colonies known as ganglions. Time-eater ganglions and many other space hazards are detailed on pages 134-137 of the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual, but the rules for time-eater ganglions are briefly summarized here.
Place 6 time-eater ganglions on the map, each occupying 1-3 hexes. They move toward the nearest starship 3 hexes every round at the start of the Helm phase. A ganglion that ends its movement next to a starship, or when it shares its space with one, tries to grab it; the pilot can avoid this with a successful Piloting check (DC = 15 + 1-1/2 x the starship’s tier). Starships grasped by the ganglion lose shields in a random quadrant; if that quadrant’s shields were already depleted, the ganglion consumes the ship’s time energy, reducing the ship’s speed by 2 for 1d4 rounds. For the duration of this effect, the ganglion moves 1 additional hex. This effect is cumulative, to a minimum starship speed of 0 and a maximum ganglion speed of 10 hexes, and the duration is refreshed each time a ganglion grabs the starship. A ganglion can be targeted by starship weapons and has an AC and TL of 15. If a ganglion takes a total of 20 damage per hex it occupies, it breaks apart into individual time eaters, harmless to starships.
Third Officer Ris urges the PCs to hurry, saying, “That kasathan ship could be back any minute!” If the PC starship reaches the Harrowstone, the crew aboard it attach their drifting section of the ship to the PC starship at the beginning of the next Engineering Phase.
Starship Combat: On the third round or as soon as the Harrowstone’s passenger section attaches to the PC starship (whichever comes first), another starship enters from a long edge of the map. “Look out!” Ris says over the comm, “that’s the same ship that attacked us before! They must have repaired whatever damage we were able to do.”
The new arrival is the Aphelion, an Idaran Thunderbolt crewed not by kasathan pirates, but by solarians intent on the rescue of their cult leader, Singulos. The Thunderbolt is a small but advanced kasathan design specialized for boarding enemy starships. The Thunderbolt is detailed on page 95 of the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual; its statistics are duplicated below and its special abilities summarized, but for full details see the Starship Operations Manual.
In battle, the Aphelion fights the PC starship while launching its breaching pod at the Harrowstone’s passenger section, attached to the PC vessel. The passenger section has an AC and TL equal to 15 + the Pilot ranks of the pilot aboard the PC starship; it has no shields. If the PC starship is grabbed by time-eater ganglions, the Aphelion maneuvers to take advantage of this, attacking through a lost shield.
A PC Engineer can attempt to extend the ship’s shields over the Harrowstone’s passenger section, protecting it from attacks. This requires a successful Engineering check (DC = 15 + 1-1/2 the tier of the PC starship) and reduces the PC starship’s shields by half. As long as the PC starship has shield points remaining in a given quadrant, the Aphelion’s breaching pod cannot hit; a lost shield, however, leaves the Harrowstone’s passenger section vulnerable in that quadrant.
If the Aphelion cannot land its breaching pod on the Harrowstone’s passenger section, it attempts to ram, boarding on a successful hit. The Aphelion has a boarding party of 16 individuals, carried in the ship’s passenger seating, but only 8 fit in a breaching pod.
Illustration by Eelco Siebring
THE APHELION TIER 6 Idaran Thunderbolt
Small shuttle
Speed 12 Maneuverability perfect (turn 0); Drift 1
AC 24; TL 25
HP 40; DT —; CT 8
Shields medium 200 (forward 80, port 40, starboard 40, rear 40)
Attack (Forward) decorative ramming prow (2d4; 1 hex)
Attack (Turret) laser net (2d6; 5 hexes)
Power Core Pulse Red (175 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems advanced medium-range sensors, crew quarters (common), extra weapon mount (turret), mk 7 armor, mk 8 defenses, mk 1 trinode computer, security (antipersonnel weapon [static shock caster]; Expansion Bays breaching pod, combat training facility (specialized), passenger seating
Modifiers +1 to any 3 checks per round, +4 Computers (sensors only), +1 Piloting; Complement 4
Crew
Captain Bluff +13 (6 ranks), Computers +13 (6 ranks), Diplomacy +13 (6 ranks), Engineering +13 (6 ranks), gunnery +11 (6th level), Piloting +13 (6 ranks)
Engineer Computers +13 (6 ranks), Engineering +18 (6 ranks)
Gunner gunnery +11 (6th level)
Pilot gunnery +11 (6th level), Piloting +19 (6 ranks)Special Abilities
Breaching Pod The Aphelion can fire its breaching pod as a seeking weapon. It can only hit a target if the shield in that quadrant has already been lost. If it does hit, the boarding party within the pod boards the PC vessel. If it does not hit, it drifts in space and can be recovered by the Aphelion after combat is over.
Ramming The Aphelion’s pilot can attempt to ram during the Helm phase, as a stunt. This requires a successful DC 24 Piloting check. The Aphelion’s Turn increases by 2, but the ship can enter the same space as the PC starship and attack the Harrowstone’s passenger section with its ramming prow, requiring a gunnery check against AC. On a hit, the Aphelion deals no damage to the PC starship, but it takes 4d4 damage to its front quadrant, ends its movement, and can board the Harrowstone’s passenger section. If the PC starship is Medium or smaller, it moves 1 hex in the direction the Aphelion is facing; if the PC starship is Large or larger, the Aphelion moves back 1 hex and is still facing the target.
Development: If the crew of the Aphelion successfully board the Harrowstone’s passenger section, looking for their leader Singulos, move to the tactical encounter “Escaping Gravity” (appearing on the Paizo Blog next week).
XP: Use the table on page 390 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook to determine the appropriate XP for this encounter, based on the encounter’s difficulty.
STARFINDER ENCOUNTER: A SINGULAR NOTION
Friday, July 24, 2020
