Starfinder Starship Operations Manual

Do any of the weapons allow non gunners to have attacking options?

Did they expand on the chase scene in Attack of the Swarm #1 to let spaceships interact with vehicles and on foot characters?
Or rules to fight kaju monsters with spaceships?

I also second the question for out of combat starship stuff.

So are orbital attacks a new mechanic or are they their own weapons.

magnuskn wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

Capital weapons cannot target ships smaller than Medium in size.

See, I didn't notice that rule. That already helps with playing a fighter pilot.

Micheal Smith wrote:

The other issue that would present itself is Damage Threshold (DT). Only Huge or larger ships have a DT and only when shields are depleted. So if you don't do enough damage nothing goes through. Unless I misinterpreted it. If a ship has DT of 10 and I do 11 all 11 goes through but if I don 9 damage nothing goes through. So really unless your fighter does damage they are really good at depleting shields.

Hm, okay. Would fighters have something like "proton torpedoes", which they could use to damage large ships after the shields are down?

To be honest at some point tiny fighter will come very difficult to take on the larger ships. This ism't really the forum to discuss this. I mean we look at the Dreadnought with has a DT of 15. You have to do a minimum of 15 points before you can even damage the hull. Tiny fighters can only have 2 weapons per arc no bigger than small. 6d4 - Chain cannon, is the biggest direct fire weapon (minus the Starship Operations Manual SOM). The tracking weapons can deal more damage but have a limited number of shots. Your best bet is to get 2 identical weapons and link them. Dual linked chain cannons will do 12d4 per shot. The SOM may have better raw damage weapons or have ways to help with this. But look at the base hp of a dreadnought 400. That doen't take into effect the increase at every 4 tiers. Taking on one of these bad boys with a fighters is almost impossible. You really need some good heavy weapons, maybe a capital weapon or 2 to take one of those things out.

The best light tracking weapon is Tactical Nuclear Missile Launcher at 5d8. Again limited 5.

When I say best, I mean highest die count, highest raw damage. Other weapons have other effects that do different things for different situations.

Thanks for the info and sorry for the slight derail. However, I think "can we simulate playing X-Wing / Tie Fighter in Starfinder" kinda is pertinent to this book, since, as you point out so cogently, so far we really can't.

I mean, if we thing of x-wing vs death star, that is clearly less of a boss battle and more of a scene <_<

Like if tiny sized ships could take on ultranaughts with enough big guns, why would anybody build ultranaughts instead of just thousands of super fighters?

I mean, if we thing of x-wing vs death star, that is clearly less of a boss battle and more of a scene <_<

Like if tiny sized ships could take on ultranaughts with enough big guns, why would anybody build ultranaughts instead of just thousands of super fighters?

Again as I stated you can only put light weapons and have a max of 2 per arc. You can only do so much damage, assuming you roll enough. Then if you really want to run a scenario with that much. That’s a lot of pilots. You can only outfit the smaller ships with so much. Then if you go buy the BP you are limited. I mean you do you. Number advantage is always going to be a strong play. I mean if you are building like a cut scene cool mechanically it’s too much unless this book does something for it.

CorvusMask wrote:

I mean, if we thing of x-wing vs death star, that is clearly less of a boss battle and more of a scene <_<

Like if tiny sized ships could take on ultranaughts with enough big guns, why would anybody build ultranaughts instead of just thousands of super fighters?

Again as I stated you can only put light weapons and have a max of 2 per arc. You can only do so much damage, assuming you roll enough. Then if you really want to run a scenario with that much. That’s a lot of pilots. You can only outfit the smaller ships with so much. Then if you go buy the BP you are limited. I mean you do you. Number advantage is always going to be a strong play. I mean if you are building like a cut scene cool mechanically it’s too much unless this book does something for it.

Yeah, but I meant it wouldn't make sense if fighters had weapons that cut big space bases like butter, point of "tons of corvettes vs dreadnaught" is that there are TONS of them and not single one that solos big ship because its piloted by pcs

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

How many lifeboats do you think battleships carried? No retreat, no surrender.

Senko wrote:

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

How many lifeboats do you think battleships carried? No retreat, no surrender.

What makes you think every ship is a warship bulk freighters are going to be civilian run. Harrington book series - escape pods, star trek - escape pods and saucer section, starwars - escape pods, modern ships - lifeboats. Its quite a common idea that you just cant do with the rules as written and thats just one example hangar bays, hydroponic gardens, tech bays, conference rooms, sealed chambers, synthesis labs, brigs, guest quarters. There's already a large range of options and difficulty in making certain concepts if we get more bay options but the bay sizes don't change its going to get harder and harder to actually use them.

Xenocrat wrote:

Senko wrote:

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

How many lifeboats do you think battleships carried? No retreat, no surrender.

What makes you think every ship is a warship bulk freighters are going to be civilian run.

You brought up dreadnaughts. If you want to discuss issues related to something else, bring those up instead.

In the ships in which I served (Cruiser, Destroyer, Frigate) between two ship's boats and a number of life rafts, we had enough capacity for the entire crew. I I would think that would be the goal for all warships.

Note also that warships are crew intensive. Freighters have far fewer crew than even much smaller warships.

I wonder what the big passenger liners have.

In the ships in which I served (Cruiser, Destroyer, Frigate) between two ship's boats and a number of life rafts, we had enough capacity for the entire crew. I I would think that would be the goal for all warships.

Note also that warships are crew intensive. Freighters have far fewer crew than even much smaller warships.

I wonder what the big passenger liners have.

Icebergs. They have icebergs.

Senko wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

Senko wrote:

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

How many lifeboats do you think battleships carried? No retreat, no surrender.

What makes you think every ship is a warship bulk freighters are going to be civilian run.

You brought up dreadnaughts. If you want to discuss issues related to something else, bring those up instead.

I was discussion an issue with the number of expansion bays vs the number of systems needed and i used dreadnaughts as an example but if you want non warship ones I know off the top of my head the bulk freighter needs 4 of its 10 bays dedicated to escape pods for minimum crew and 9 to provide enough capacity for the full crew leaving 1 bay to be used as a cargo hold. The heavy freighter needs 1 for minimum crew and 4 for maximum. Great thats only half its expansion bays. Of course that means if your provide enough escape pods for the maximum crew the heavy freighter can transport more cargo than the bulk freighter with 4 cargo bays holding 100 tons of cargo vs the bulk freighter with 1 cargo bay holding 25 tons.

Nor is the issue solely escape pods again i only used them as an example tmsince their usually something dropped from starship design in favour of other expansions that are deeemed more important. The bigger ships cant land on a planet but a hangar bay for a shuttle costs 4 slots (if i remember right) and the new book is adding more options.

That was discussed here before. Escape Pods are very situational and hardly a requirement.

If you want to keep someone alive short term in space a space suit is enough (1 day). Or spell gems casting life bubble. If you use the animal collars in AA3 you can survive space for weeks.

If the ship does not explode hollywood style or otherwise suffers catastrophic damage you probably stay alive as long or even longer when closing off the damaged sections and survive on the remaining atmosphere in the ship than when floating around space.

The only situation where you need escape pods is when suffering catastrophic damage around an uninhabited or low tech planet.
If the planet is high tech it could send help within a day, so space suits is enough.
And even then, you could just have a shuttle bay instead and everyone else using spacesuits to float around in space while the shuttle picks them up and delivers them to a planet.

So with how situational escape pods are, why should everyone carry them? People have to stop confusing space with oceans. Starships do not sink, so the need for lifeboats is a lot less.

Xenocrat wrote:

Senko wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

Senko wrote:

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

How many lifeboats do you think battleships carried? No retreat, no surrender.

What makes you think every ship is a warship bulk freighters are going to be civilian run.

You brought up dreadnaughts. If you want to discuss issues related to something else, bring those up instead.

I was discussion an issue with the number of expansion bays vs the number of systems needed and i used dreadnaughts as an example but if you want non warship ones I know off the top of my head the bulk freighter needs 4 of its 10 bays dedicated to escape pods for minimum crew and 9 to provide enough capacity for the full crew leaving 1 bay to be used as a cargo hold. The heavy freighter needs 1 for minimum crew and 4 for maximum. Great thats only half its expansion bays. Of course that means if your provide enough escape pods for the maximum crew the heavy freighter can transport more cargo than the bulk freighter with 4 cargo bays holding 100 tons of cargo vs the bulk freighter with 1 cargo bay holding 25 tons.

Nor is the issue solely escape pods again i only used them as an example tmsince their usually something dropped from starship design in favour of other expansions that are deeemed more important. The bigger ships cant land on a planet but a hangar bay for a shuttle costs 4 slots (if i remember right) and the new book is adding more options.

Again i was giving an EXAMPLE of a larger issue with the number of bays vs the number of expansion slots. The issue is NOT limited to just escape pods whose value is subjective there's plenty of scifi warships with escape pods in star wars, star trek, mass effect EVEN this system includes them on pregen ships.

However If you want another example the bulk freighter is Huge with 10 bays. It can't land so if you want a way to access planets you need a shuttle bay dropping you from 10 bays to 8 giving you the same number of bays as a heavy freighter which can land. Carriers must have a hanger bay (makes sense) which takes up 4 of their 10 slots meaning they really only have 6 expansion bays for other modules.

Even now you have to choose which things you want because even the dreadnaught struggles to fit most modules in and now we are apparently getting more choices in expansion bays we can choose from amking the issue worse.

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

There are several ways to get lots of expansion bays in the book.

1. You can make a colony ship or space station framework from any base frame for a ship that’s Large or larger. Among other things, this triples the number of expansion bays, though these extra bays can only be used for things like cargo holds, escape pods, guest quarters, life boats, recreation suites, and other “civilian” expansions (GM discretion).

2. You can add as many external expansion bays as you have internal expansion bays. Together with the above modification, this gives you up to x6 the number of expansion bays listed in the base frame.

3. Both of the super-colossal ship frames have unlimited expansion bays. So your only constraint with these ships is how many BP you have.

Senko wrote:

I'm hoping the expansion bays gets an expansion option because currently it's already a struggle to fit things in and usually things like escape pods aren't an option especially for the bigger ships where even if you used every slot for escape pods there wouldnt be enough. A dreadnaugh has 20 slots and 150 to 300 crew. If every bay is an escape pod thats enough for 120 crew less than the minimum.

There are several ways to get lots of expansion bays in the book.

1. You can make a colony ship or space station framework from any base frame for a ship that’s Large or larger. Among other things, this triples the number of expansion bays, though these extra bays can only be used for things like cargo holds, escape pods, guest quarters, life boats, recreation suites, and other “civilian” expansions (GM discretion).

2. You can add as many external expansion bays as you have internal expansion bays. Together with the above modification, this gives you up to x6 the number of expansion bays listed in the base frame.

3. Both of the super-colossal ship frames have unlimited expansion bays. So your only constraint with these ships is how many BP you have.

Hmmm that external bay one sounds promising and I like the precedent of colony ships trippling the bays with restrictions. Thanks for the reply.

Good book, great art and love the different types of drives and weapons and supercolossal ship super neat. But nothing about power core except for the breach. Not even in the building of starships nothing about power cores. I find this very frustrating.

Huh, starship sized Aeon.

Also confirmation that in starfinder AU the aeons are still neutral aligned xD

I like how they handled orbital weapons. Instead of dealing that ridiculous x10 damage to creatures/vehicles in the area, they deal x10 to unattended objects in the area and function as a trap against anything else. Not surprised at all, since I've been saying this was the intended way that starship attacks function originally by functioning as a trap (hazards) against creatures, because no game developer in their right mind is going to allow x10 damage for free against everything. Big surprise xD

Squadron rules are everything I wanted! Anyone looking to get into space with me soon? :D

Squadron rules are everything I wanted! Anyone looking to get into space with me soon? :D

Would love to if I could get over onlinegameaphobia... :(

VixieMoondew wrote:

Squadron rules are everything I wanted! Anyone looking to get into space with me soon? :D

Would love to if I could get over onlinegameaphobia... :(

I've got so much Starfinder stuff I want to try out and every book just adds to the list. A squadron focussed game would be terrific fun!

Hey, me too! We can be phobia buddies!

Hey, rules question, apologies if somebody already asked this elsewhere. Does the Algal Shielding, which doubles as a hydroponics garden, also take up to expansion bays?

I love those Squadron rules SO. MUCH.

Thank you! I was watching a butt load of the Netflix Voltron show at the time I was watching them, and I wanted to make sure that the Squadron rules felt as cool as the fights in Defenders of the Universe. (That's partially what inspired the Unification Matrix, but Voltron has so many great moments where the lions are split and the crew is fighting as a squad that I wanted to make sure those elements were in the game.)

Also, Voltron is totally why the HQ exists. Can't have Voltron without the Castle of Lions!

John did an amazing job playtesting and developing my scribbles, as always. ^^

From the little I've read in the core rules of starship combat, it appeared to me that piloting a small fighter is pretty much a death sentence for a PC, since there is little one can do to evade the high-attack roll big weapons from large starships. Is this addressed somehow or did I misread those rules in the first place?

It'd be interesting to know if the kind of "X-Wing pilots vs. a capital ship" playstyle is supported in SF.

You misread the rules in the first place. Starship bonuses to attack rolls are set solely by the gunner's base attack bonus / ranks in Piloting, so the rolls are only bigger if the person firing at you is significantly higher level than you. Gunnery check bonuses are exceedingly rare and aren't associated with a starship's base frame.

Smaller starships tend to have fewer Hit Points than larger ones, but larger starship frames penalize AC and TL, so they're easier to hit.

Time to come up with starfighter squadron pilot call sign names.

Time to come up with starfighter squadron pilot call sign names.

I’m in hot water here. My name is already two call signs jammed together! ...and my interceptor is another three.

I'm somewhat disappointed that I can't use the Robotic Appendages to attack other ships. I want grappler ships, consarn it!

magnuskn wrote:

From the little I've read in the core rules of starship combat, it appeared to me that piloting a small fighter is pretty much a death sentence for a PC, since there is little one can do to evade the high-attack roll big weapons from large starships. Is this addressed somehow or did I misread those rules in the first place?

It'd be interesting to know if the kind of "X-Wing pilots vs. a capital ship" playstyle is supported in SF.

You misread the rules in the first place. Starship bonuses to attack rolls are set solely by the gunner's base attack bonus / ranks in Piloting, so the rolls are only bigger if the person firing at you is significantly higher level than you. Gunnery check bonuses are exceedingly rare and aren't associated with a starship's base frame.

Smaller starships tend to have fewer Hit Points than larger ones, but larger starship frames penalize AC and TL, so they're easier to hit.

Alright, thank you for the clarification! :)

Hey, rules question, apologies if somebody already asked this elsewhere. Does the Algal Shielding, which doubles as a hydroponics garden, also take up to expansion bays?

Nope its a separate system. Very useful.

Good book, great art and love the different types of drives and weapons and supercolossal ship super neat. But nothing about power core except for the breach. Not even in the building of starships nothing about power cores. I find this very frustrating.

Thank you for the comment about the different types of drives. I wrote that section! I also wrote the power core breach section that you mentioned.

Now... What were you looking for in a power core? I always thought that in the alternate drives the power cores themselves were variable depending on the drive. I saw the power core of the Archon drives to be right in the center of their main place of worship, powered up on prayer. And I imagined that Hellknight drives ran on fuel condensed from damned souls (especially Hellknights who forsook their vows.)

SAMPLE POWER CORES IN CANON

I may have missed it if this got brought up in another discussion, but is there a reason the pdfs are STILL formatted so that the star system is a double-wide page? The older pdfs were lovely with the system divided in two pages that didn't ruin mobile-viewing-experiences.

Some of skymetals do contain alternate power core and thruster options. I'm not sure power core and thrusters warrant their own section on their own but I could be wrong

Acho que vai adicionar um pouco mais dr emoção nos combates espaciais.

This is one of those books I've been wanting to review for ages, but I haven't gotten convinced my players to check out this book and use options in it so bit hard to review stuff I haven't seen in practice since this IS mostly a mechanic book :'D

Download free character, ship, mech, vehicle, and exploration log sheets for your campaign on the "additional materials" section of the Starfinder landing page.

How is the Derelict Shade supposed to Teleport?

The Teleportation property is explained on page 17.

None of the Derelict Chade's weapons seem to have that property; but it's Shadeswarm ability implies that it has some way of teleporting itself.

The Teleportation* ability is listed in the Other Abilities section so it appears to just have teleportation independent of any actual weaponry.

pocket edition please!

for the love of gawd where is the pocket version?????

for the love of gawd where is the pocket version?????

With the announcement of Starfinder Second Edition in 2025, we also announced the we will keep rulebooks in stock as long as there is demand. Once we sell through all our hardcover Starfinder Starship Operations Manual copies we may reprint it as a Pocket Edition. This is what we have done with Pathfinder First Edition.