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This may be an FAQ candidate, but I see a possible unintended interaction with the Anchoring weapon property described in the Starship Operations Manual (SOM) and the Minor crew action rules in the Core Rulebook (CRB).

The SOM introduces some melee class starship weapons and the Anchoring property on tether weapons ties ships together mainly for boarding activities. The rules discuss how to break free of someone else’s anchoring weapon, but mention that your own anchoring weapons are easy to detach. The entire last paragraph for Anchoring states:

A starship’s gunner or engineer can detach any number of their own weapons’ anchors as a minor crew action.

Minor Crew Actions

Minor crew actions are computer-aided actions that allow a starship limited functionality if it doesn’t have the necessary crew to fill all the roles (for instance, the lone crew member aboard a Tiny starship might always be the pilot but may need to fire one of the vessel’s weapons in an emergency). You can take one minor crew action per round regardless of your current role, but only if no other action was performed this round for the role associated with that minor crew action. A minor crew action can be performed only once per round and doesn’t count as your action.

I take that to mean if there’s no one acting in the gunner role that round (as on a one-person fighter), you can have the ship’s computer do a Snap Shot action for you as an automated gunner, but not if there’s someone else on the ship actually filling the gunner role by taking a gunnery action.

If detaching an anchoring weapon is a gunner’s or engineer’s action, does detaching your anchoring weapon then mean you have to forego either all Engineering or all Gunner actions that round? (Because of the bolded text on Minor crew actions.)

Here is an update which adds a Boarding Actions tab (from the Starship Operations Manual) to a Google spreadsheet.

Starfinder Starship Reference Sheets v1.2

The first tab of the spreadsheet has instructions. The advantage of google sheets is that as one player updates the Critical Damage tab, the DCs of various crew actions are updated for all viewers sharing that sheet. The intended audience is for gaming groups where the players have access to computers and internet (especially groups playing remote or VTT).

Please let me know if you find any errors or have suggestions for improvement.

In the Character Operations Manual, there are some Open Crew actions added to starship combat

Open crew actions occur at the beginning of the engineering phase, before any other actions occur. All open crew actions occur simultaneously and can be resolved in any order the GM sees fit. Each open crew action can be performed only once per round.

Furthermore, taking an open crew action counts as your action during a starship combat encounter.

The Open Crew Actions are:

• Erratic Maneuvering
• Feign Disaster
• Prioritize Calculation
• Range Finding
• Ready Weapon System

Then along came the Starship Operations Manual and on page 41 added

• Lead Boarding Party
• Subdue Boarding Party

It seems to me like three additional Open Crew Actions are needed, because in the Injected Pathogen description another Open Crew Action is mentioned (bold added)

In addition to fending the pathogen off as though it were a boarding party, a defending officer can use environmental controls to weaken the pathogen as an open crew action with a Life Science check (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × the creature’s tier). If successful, all pathogen boarding parties take a –4 penalty to their next boarding attack before the end of the next round.

So a "Subdue Pathogen with Environmental Defense" action seems to be needed as a new open crew action since the mechanics involving a science check makes this somewhat different from the "Subdue Boarding Party" choice.

Also, in the Ramming description, another Open Crew Action is mentioned (bold added)

When a starship successfully rams and deals damage to another starship’s Hull Points, an officer can direct a boarding party to invade the targeted starship as an open crew action during the gunnery phase that round.

In this case an "Initiate Boarding after Ramming" seems to be needed, as this action specifies it takes place during the gunnery phase, making it different from the new "Lead Boarding Party" action. One thing to note, since this is an Open Crew Action, then it will use up someone's action during the round, while the other methods of initiating boarding such as Anchoring Weapons, Breaching Pods, and Injecting Pathogens don't need an additional action.

Finally, in the Security Modifier description a third possible new open crew action is mentioned

Antipersonnel weapons provide their BR modifier only against the first boarding attack attempted against the starship, after which the weapon exhausts its ammunition and must be reloaded as an open crew action.

Some sort of "Reload Antipersonnel Weapon" would then be needed to fulfill this open crew action, probably at the start of the engineering phase with the other open crew actions since the phase is not specified.

Just curious if other people interpret this the same way I'm seeing it.

I'm working on a Starship Combat spreadsheet, calculating crew role DCs and reference pages.

Starfinder Starship Reference Sheets v1.1

Building off the work of a previous post by u/uasutton (credit also given in notes tab of sheet), I've made my own enhancements and included many of the Starship Operations Manual updates.

I found that

Turret Weapons count as being in all weapon arcs. For example, if the port arc is malfunctioning and the other arcs are normal, then a turret weapon firing on targets in the port arc receives a -4 penalty, but the turret can be used normally for targets in other arcs.

is getting some push-back.

So it boils down to the table at the top-right of

Randomly determine one arc containing

weapons; condition applies to all gunner
actions using weapons in that arc (a
turret counts as being in all arcs)

Which I took to mean

...condition applies to all gunner actions using weapons in that arc as well as turrets firing on targets in that arc

My reasoning being that the standard ship sheet tracks critical damage to weapons by arc, but does not have a distinct spot to track the critical damage level on a turret, which is in all arcs.

But, as I'm collecting feedback, I've discovered

...condition applies to all gunner actions using weapons in that arc as well as a turret fired in any arc

Following a convention that the 4 arcs collectively at each level should count as the turret penalty if any of the quadrants are marked (on the standard starship sheet critical damage tally for weapon quadrants, CRB p.524).

I will adapt my sheet to match the majority concensus, so do people have a preference for Option A or Option B?

In the Starship Operations Manual (SOM) there are new actions for the science officer that occur during the gunnery phase (SOM page 15). Some of the new actions like Rapid Jam and Insidious Electronics are marked "Push", so they don't work if their key system is Malfunctioning or Wrecked.

My question is, WHAT system interferes with these actions when Malfunctioning or Wrecked (Sensors or Weapons array)? These ECM modules target through quadrants and are mounted on hardpoints, so would you say they are affected by critical Weapons damage? That would give the science officer something to do during starship combat if the Sensors are wrecked but there are still some ECM modules on functioning weapons quadrants.

On the other hand, would you say all science officer actions are dependent on working Sensors?

The ECM module description says

ECM modules follow the same rules for range and quadrant targeting as conventional starship weapons.

I'm starting to read through the Starship Operations Manual (SOM) and on page 13 there are some properties of "Automated" and "Deployed" described. But then on the following weapons table (pages 18-19) none of the weapons have those properties listed in the "Special Properties" column like I'd expect.

Am I missing something here?

I'm curious how others would play this.

True Seeing

You confer upon the target the ability to see all things within
120 feet as they actually are. The target sees through normal
and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic,
sees the exact locations of creatures or objects that are
invisible or displaced, sees through illusions, and sees the true
form of changed or transmuted things. Further, the target can
focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into
extradimensional spaces).

True seeing, however, does not penetrate solid objects. It
in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not
negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like.
True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane
disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice
secret doors hidden by mundane means.

The first sentence says you see things "as they actually are" but I'm a little surprised technological aids to disguise are not mentioned more directly later.

Holoskin

This holographic projector is generally mounted to a belt or
arm strap. It can be programmed using the Disguise skill to
project a different appearance. When you use a holoskin, you
can disguise major features, race, or creature type without the
DC of your Disguise check increasing, except
against Perception checks that involve
physical examination.

Being that True Seeing sees through normal darkness, I'm inclined to say it sees through Holoskin projections, being a light manipulation effect.

I’ve seen the discussion on Can you take 20 on Treat Deadly Wounds? I am inclined to allow a Take 20 on Treat Deadly Wounds. Can you also Take 20 on the other medical tasks that don’t explicitly forbid it?

These are

• Long-Term Stability,
• Treat Disease, and
• Treat Drugs or Poison

Also, would you require a Med Kit (or better, like Advanced Med Kit, Med Lab, etc.) before characters can apply Long-Term Stability?

The reason I’m asking these questions is to put together a Starfinder Medical Reference sheet for players (just in case anyone gets hurt while adventuring). See the “Starfinder Medical Reference Share” Google sheet in http://bit.ly/StarfinderShare

Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

As I see it, if you have medical ranks, Sprayflesh let’s you get around the daily limit on healing as long as your wallet and patient’s Resolve points hold out.

So the new Armory book has these creepy Sting Pistols on page 16, with ant, yellow jacket, wasp and hornet varieties. There are some pictures on page 19. These are derived from swarm technology and I imagine they look and feel like holding the body of a two pound insect in your hand. These are listed as having a capacity of 20 or 40 charges like battery operated weapons. There is no special ammo listed in the ammo table (pg.25) and the weapon category description on page 54 doesn't specify anything on ammo either.

The ant sting pistol uses up 5 of its 20 charges per shot, so only 4 shots before you need to reload. The higher level models use fewer charges per shot and/or take a higher capacity cartridge.

So my question is, would you say these can use standard battery packs? Or would you be more colorful and say that you buy special nectar pouches? Same price as a battery, or maybe the advantage is that these are cheaper to "feed"--a 5 credit fruit smoothie instead of a 60 credit battery?

If I'm GMing a starship combat, should I allow a ship to escape into the Drift? Suppose the crew wants to chance leaving the thrusters off for a minute in order to prepare to enter the Drift. I'd assume very sensitive navigation equipment needs to synchronize with the currents in the drift and calculate travel without the added interference of thruster induced motion and vibration. Would you allow it?

If it's possible, I'd need to know about how many rounds of starship combat need to be survived to pass the 1 minute threshold of drift entry preparations. I found one other thread about the Length of a Starship Combat Turn, in fact this tactic was mentioned as a possible reason for needing to know the length of a starship combat round, but as far as I could tell, there was no conclusive answer.

As a GM, I'd like to say yes, it can be done; and you need to keep the thrusters off for 2 rounds (putting a starship combat round at 30 seconds, although the rules specify rounds are not an exact amount of time, CRB 317). If it's a PC ship, then all players should be filling roles to hold the ship together or maximize the shields facing the enemy (or praying to Triune). What do others think, is 2 rounds too long, too short, or should it be somewhat random (2d2 rounds?) in keeping with the inexactness indicated by the rules?

Can Medical skills (CRB page 143) such as First Aid, Long-Term Care, Long-Term Stability, Treat Deadly Wounds, Treat Disease/Drugs/Poison be applied to a character wearing armor? (By a Medic or doctor also in armor.)

Why? Maybe you are taking a break from combat and regaining some HP, but you are in a situation where you need to keep your suits/armor on because a room with normal air-pressure/temperature is not available.

I'm inclined to say you can. I like the idea of simpler rules for ease of gameplay, and the rules don't specify you have to wear a revealing hospital gown to receive treatment. So I'd also allow players to make use of the Medical Gear on CRB page 220 normally in a vacuum and/or on an armored patient. Has anyone played this differently?

I think I've found a small omission. On page 300 (Core rulebook), the Antipersonnel Weapon entry states

An antipersonnel weapon must be mounted near the boarding ramp of a Medium or smaller starship.

But on page 296, the discussion of Thrusters says "Large and smaller Starships generally have little difficulty landing on and taking off from a planet with low gravity or standard gravity."

So, I'm inclined to assume Large starships that land on planets also use boarding ramps, and thus they too are entitled to have Antipersonnel Weapons for security. (Or did I miss the part that Large starships are too fancy to use boarding ramps and use tractor beams or large elevator pads that just don't allow undesirables to enter, making Antipersonnel Weapons an unnecessary option. ;-)