"Adventuring Party" Starships

[Giorgo]

There are a lot of good ideas for Starships in that thread, here,
and also over here on page 2 where the thread diverts to the topics of automation and crew sizes.

With the release of the SF rules soon, I have been giving some thoughts on the subject of what kind of "hero ship" I would like to have my future PCs use, that is appropriate for adventurers/freelancers/private contractors and the like, for a PC group in the 3-6 size range.

Some kind of small starship (frigate size?), suitable for independent operations, with decent weapons, shields, armor and defense systems, an electronics suite (sensors/targeting/communications), a solid level of automation & ship AI, and "starship modules" that will help them in achieving their quests/missions.

Without having the starship construction rules on hand, this is just a starting point, but I would like to see something along the lines of:

Key Starship Modules:
Cockpit, Sensors, Life Support, Cargo Bay, Engines
Weapon Systems, Defensive Systems/External, Defensive Systems/Internal

Mission Specific Modules:
Gunnery Stations, Drone Bays, Shuttle Bays, Meditation Chambers (for spellcasters), Machine Tools Workshop, Armory, Medbay, ECM Module, Science Lab, Holding Cell, Xeno Lab, Training/Exercise room, Research Lab... and so forth.

What other systems/modules would be of use for the races, classes and themes already described for Starfinder, and that is geared for the type of adventures/quests/missions that a space faring adventuring party of 3-6 PCs is most likely to get involved with?

[Steelfiredragon]

I had a post here, but when I hit post it said page unavailable... pesky goblins.
nitpick: cockpits are for shuttles and fighters, anything else its a bridge
basic ship: crew quarters, airlock, escape pod
mission: lounge,flight deck with hangers, 2 to 5 fighters, mech bay with 1 or 2 mech, observation deck extra quarters for extra crew and pilots, 1 shuttle, and bathroom

[Giorgo]

@Steelfiredragon,

Thanks for the correction, I was indeed referencing a Bridge, not Cockpit.

+1 to the other systems​/components

[Lord Fyre]

A related questions to this are:

• Do we know yet how the PC group will gain possession of a starship?
• Will the PCs need to have NPC crew to run the starship?

Consider that Serenity had a crew of 5 (or 6 depending on how you count Dr. Tam); the Millennium Falcon had a crew of 2, but star frigate will have dozens of crewmembers.

[Fardragon]

I think the answers have been implied to be:

It's up to the GM, but there are suggestions in the core book;

No, and the size of the player's ship will match the size of the group.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Imagine you are captain of the starship Enterprise, what is the sensible thing to do? Go down in that landing party yourself, or send down a squad of red shirts to secure the area first? If you look at a typical episode of Star Trek, the funny thing is, the Bridge Crew mostly ignores them, and goes on landing party's themselves, what does all the rest of the 500 crew members do when their command officers go out on those landing parties and put their lives in danger, perhaps bringing a few red shirts along with them so hostiles can have some target practice. In Star Trek, Red shirts substitute for hit points. I can imagine the captain calling on his communicator, "I need some reinforcements quick, I running out of red shirts, pretty soon they will start targeting me!"

[Fardragon]

Crew as ship hit points is pretty much what happens in FASA Star Trek RPG.

One way that game got around the problem of the entire bridge crew beaming down is to encorage players to create secondary characters, so they could have one on the away team and one on the bridge.

But it's pretty clear that Starfinder will go for the party = whole crew as the standard.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Well at least at low levels, but what about high levels? You know in the original D&D 10th level was called "name level" it was the level at which characters got their own keeps, they got to rule their own parcel of land and with the treasure they accumulated over the past 9 levels they hired retainers and henchmen. What do you think a starship for a 10th level Star finder character should look like? Would the 10th level character sit in the captains chair and order a squadron of NPC piloted fighters to attack the enemy ship. Would the character simply sit and make command level decisions, formulating the battle strategy that his subordinates carry out? I know of a few Traveller campaigns that turned into something like that. Basically the player and the GM play a strategic level war game, the GM controls the enemy ships, while the player has control of the PC fleet. The PC is usually nice and safe aboard the command ship unless the battle strategy goes terribly awry, and the PC needs to use all his skills and abilities to get away quick or else get captured. What do you think a high level Starfinder campaign should or would look like? Would it look like what I just described here?

[Steelfiredragon]

as for the size of party ships, if we were to look at star trek, none of the large ships would work, for aparty of 3 to 6, or even 8. a party getting in star trekish sized ship would likely get a freighter sized ship, small crew size... etc. modify it at your leisure.( miranda class would actually work for a party of 3 to 6 or 8 if one were so inclined, even though it is a warship and not a freighter)

and look at star wars capital warships. these too require a large crew to operate from any of the star destroyer class ships, to carriers, to larger freighters..
the the heavy freighter( think episode 7) the ship han was on with chewbacca, would actually work even it would require a good sized crew and could be modified as well.

that said, the ship size that a adventuring party might be able to get as their own would be the freighters the size of hte falcon, the ebon hawk, the ships of star wars the old republic, and other light freighters and personal ships( ie lando's ship from the expanded universe)

no hanger, no flight deck.. jsut the basics.

otherwise its joining the hellknights in space, or other organization to get attached to one.

the one other way to get a capital ship for your own is to steal it and depending on said ship's size the crew might still be a problem.....

[CKent83]

I was in a Saga Edition Star Wars game back in 2009 or so when I was able to sell some really valuable tech for enough credits to buy a "small" Star Destroyer (Venator-Class). There were only a few of us in the game so I was told it would be rigged for 1 jump to a system of my choosing.

Went to the game's version of Tython (I was a Jedi), and offered my services to the Jedi Council there in exchange for enough Jedi to crew my Star Destroyer. The game quickly fell apart after that. No coming back from giving your players a Star Destroyer crewed by Jedi.

A lot of GM's will watch Firefly/Serenity or Star Wars and think, "Aww, a ship that is falling apart and held together by duct tape and hope is awesome." Then the reality of starship combat sets in and TPK because the ship is a piece of junk that vented everyone into space. What you really need to do is give your players The Normandy or The Tempest.

It isn't a small ship, so you can have lots of cool things in it (eventually) like a laboratory, armory, even a place for a couple of land vehicles or smaller shuttles. It also isn't so big that it can trade blows with capital ships. You could strike a nice balance between having a cool ship that's powerful and upgradeable, and making the crew need to upgrade it to really get it's full potential. Plus if it looks pretty, players will develop, "Ooh, shiny," feelings towards it. So find out your player's favorite colors, paint the ship that way, and watch them fall in love.

[Fardragon]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Well at least at low levels, but what about high levels? You know in the original D&D 10th level was called "name level" it was the level at which characters got their own keeps, they got to rule their own parcel of land and with the treasure they accumulated over the past 9 levels they hired retainers and henchmen. What do you think a starship for a 10th level Star finder character should look like? Would the 10th level character sit in the captains chair and order a squadron of NPC piloted fighters to attack the enemy ship. Would the character simply sit and make command level decisions, formulating the battle strategy that his subordinates carry out? I know of a few Traveller campaigns that turned into something like that. Basically the player and the GM play a strategic level war game, the GM controls the enemy ships, while the player has control of the PC fleet. The PC is usually nice and safe aboard the command ship unless the battle strategy goes terribly awry, and the PC needs to use all his skills and abilities to get away quick or else get captured. What do you think a high level Starfinder campaign should or would look like? Would it look like what I just described here?

I think a ship for a 10th level party will look like (and be) an upgraded version of the ship of a 1st level party. Serenity = low level ship, no weapons, no shields, slow; Millenium Falcon = high level ship, flies like a fighter, shields, huge guns, missile bay.

Massive warships are like dragons. They exist to be blown up by high level 6 crew ships piloted by high level characters. And sure, a GM might choose to give players a capital ship, in the same way as a GM might alow dragons as player characters.

A story may put the players commanding a fleet of capital ships, but that is just for the story, only the player ship would "level up".

[Steelfiredragon]

you know there is one type of capital warship that a party can get.
Heavy escort ships, the ships that escort the heavier capital warships, like that immortal.

it can trade a few blows with a heavier capital ship, though one should consider leaving when one shows up.
it could have a flightdeck with hangers, armory, party and
crew quarters, etc.
one odd thing though when a party gets a capital ship of any sort , is that while the players have a good amount of control of their own characters, the crew are under the control of the GM, and a capital warship has alot of corridors. the ship can have a side quests too like a female pc/important npc goes missing in the ship....( mugged by crew for ...)

and as for fardragon's story that has players controlling a fleet. a fleet controlled by players is no bigger than the party. 6 players, 6 ship fleet, each ship under the command of a pc. prepare for micro manage ....

fighter squadrons from each ship,damage dealt by capital weapons and fighter weapons...

I do wonder what the rules for that would be.

[Fardragon]

Micromanagment has to happen anyway. Remember the GM has to control ALL the ships the players are fighting.

I expect a simplified system without skill rolls for controlling multiple ships is pretty much essential.

[Bluenose]

Fardragon wrote:

Micromanagment has to happen anyway. Remember the GM has to control ALL the ships the players are fighting.

I expect a simplified system without skill rolls for controlling multiple ships is pretty much essential.

Something similar to the difference between X-Wing and Armada, for people familiar with those games. In the first you have individual fighters, shuttles, and occasional small ships about the size of the Millennium Falcon, and the pilots and special equipment on each craft is an important part of how it operates. In the second, you have squadrons of small craft and capital ships, and no-one cares that your second Y-Wing mounts a torpedo. In theory they deliver similar results, but you wouldn't use the first for a fleet action because it brings too much detail and you shouldn't use the second for small ship fights because it hasn't enough detail.

[Steelfiredragon]

that goes without saying.

well as far as the micro manage squadron damage rules could go.

1:chose weapon per each ship in squadron.
2: roll dice for damage
3: numder from damage roll is base for each ship.
4: add modifiers if any to damage( even if its on individual ship.

well something like it,

[Thorian Landara]

We do have a solution already for fighting lots of small level ships.

Swarms!

Think about it: a vermin swarm vs a group of PC is pretty much the GM controlling tens/hundreads/thousands of enemies at once, so why not have a swarm of small goblin-piloted fighters used likewise? Easy to use, full of RP flavour!

Same can be said for cohorts on a frigate-sized ship: the PC ship launches a swarm of fighters they command, not much differently as a Pathfinder druid summoning a swarm.

[CKent83]

Lately, I've been thinking of designing a ship for my PC's to use, and I've had thoughts. I think I'll use a corvette (smaller than a frigate, only 55–128 meters long according to wikipedia) as a base for this thought project.

A typical gaming group would have 4-6 characters of varying specialties. There are 7 Classes in Starfinder. That's close enough, so let's design a ship that has space for up to 7 people with specialties similar to the Starfinder Classes. I'll list the classes and their specialties/ship roles below.

Envoy- Captain
Mechanic- Engineer
Mystic- Medic
Operative- Pilot
Solarian- Boarding Party/Internal Security
Soldier- Gunner
Technomancer- Sensors/Cyberwarfare

Now obviously there can be some overlap. The Envoy will probably act as the copilot, the Technomancer can help the Mechanic with repairs, the Solarian can be a second gunner, and the Mystic can go where needed. Also, I'm pretty sure the classes and roles can be switched around depending on how you build them; I'm just going for stereotypical roles.

OK, so let's assume everyone is going to want their own bunk and their own workspace, so let's list those rooms.

Captain, Pilot, and Cyberwarfare can all use the Bridge.
Medic should have a medbay to work from that should be able to hold 2+ patients.
Engineer should work in the engine room.
An armory would be nice.
A gun turret or two, maybe one on top and one on the bottom, but that wouldn't really count as a room (too small).

That's 4 rooms that aren't bunks (and two hatches). I've seen a lot of games where the mechanic sleeps in the engine room (and who says any one character should get a bigger room than the rest? No captain's cabin!). So 3 bunks with everyone doubling up except for the engineer who has a hammock in the engine room (current total of rooms: 7). Alternatively, if you're OK with a bigger ship, the "captain's cabin" can be the only double room with 5 single rooms (putting the total at 9 so far, the engineer isn't sleeping in the engine room in this one).

For extra rooms, there should be a lounge so everyone isn't cooped up in their rooms all day (if a ship doesn't have one because it's a freighter, you can convert cargo space towards this, and other, purposes). A mess hall for everyone to prepare food and eat in. A laboratory for studying things found during extra-vehicular activities (adventuring). Hygiene rooms are a must, but they can be incorporated into the crew quarters; I'd say have one in every room if you've got a bigger ship with a communal shower, or three communal hygiene rooms with built in showers if you have a smaller ship with lots of double bunks). That brings our total number of rooms to 13-14.

Finally, a big cargo hold is mandatory. It's where you store everything you pick up adventuring, it can serve as a workshop/garage for ground vehicles, and it's a good place for an entrance/exit ramp (also, you should put a holding cell here if you need one).

Now for the layout. I prefer ships that are look like they're at least a little aerodynamic, so how about a triangle shape? I think it's OK for there to be two decks with ladders being how you get between them, but with stairs going up and down the sides of the cargo bay. Speaking of the cargo bay, it should be near the back/middle/lower deck of the ship, right below the engine room. If it comes up, the crew quarters should be on the outside, while the more important rooms like the med bay and laboratory should be protected from hull breach by being on the inside (this also gives you a nice view from your room... until you get a breach ^_^). I put the bridge on the upper deck with the lounge, then mess hall following behind it. The double room is followed by the lab, then med bay. I found that I've got an extra room on the outside (I've been sketching the larger version of this ship I'm describing on a notepad while typing this), so I'll make that the brig/holding cell instead of taking up cargo space.

And that's that. Done with a pretty nice ship for a party to begin upgrading. It has everything an adventuring party needs, and it is system agnostic so it could be adapted to anything (including Starfinder). It could be run with a crew of three, but the more specialities you've got on board, the more useful it becomes. Better yet, it can really pack a punch if you switch out some of the science parts for more guns!

Also, I think I should note that this isn't a military vessel. I think a military vessel would definitely have a captain's cabin, and the crew would probably be 4 to a room. This ship seems more like a ship for a team of mercenaries or explorers; like what an adventuring party would be.

If you guys want, I can see about uploading a copy of what I drew here, but just be warned, I really can't draw well at all, but I think it'd be really cool if someone that is an artist looked at what I put together and did it justice. :)

[Moghediena]

Generally it depends on the GM which ship the party will get. And it will definetely depend on the characters they play.

The campaign also is very important. Maybe the lvl 1 chars start on one planet without own ship and they will get one later during the campaign.

On the other hand they maybe have one small ship for them which allows them to travel through space.

In my opinion the characters should only have one ship for the whole party. If its really necessary to split up they can pay a merchant for passage but its always difficult for a GM to handle separated partys.

The ship itself will be mostly automatic. Intelligent computer systems will handle the main operation. On board they have everything what they need... quarters, kitchen, storage rooms and so on and maybe 2-3 guest quarters and a hand full of multi functional rooms which are emty at the beginning. There they can install a laboratory or whatever they need for crafting stuff later on.

Attack and defense systems are also already installed. While defense systems are operating automatic after activation, the weapons have to be operated manually by the characters.

Regarding leveling up i think the space ship will not be very different on higher levels. Only the systems itself werde upgraded. Maybe more or better energy shield so that they last longer during fight and better weapons with more damage or better accuracy. The KI may be upgraded too so that movement is easier or faster which also may result in some bonus points for different checks. But in general you can not really see a difference from outside.

If the players make it to generals of a whole fleet (maybe only temporarely) then the fight is totally different. Then they only give commands and are no longer involved in close combat. Then its more a tactical play with dozens of ships on a map.

I would see my party stay in a small ship as discribed above. I would try to avoid space combat but if its unavoidable i would (as a GM) handle it more or less like in star Wars where the milenim falcon tries to hide or escape. Agains a small single ship a fight can be exciting but agains several ships i would try do describe a hide and run tactics.

[Fardragon]

People seem to be forgetting stuff which has already been confirmed, or at least strongly hinted at. It's possible things may have changed late in development, but we have been told that in a standard champaign the party have exactly one ship, and it is paid for with "ship points" rather than currency or tonnage displacement. The number of ship points depends on the number and level or the PCs (and hence increases as the players level up). The way it was described sounds like the Summoner's eidolon.

I don't think it will cover things like Bridge, Computer, Life Support, etc. I expect ships will automatically be assumed to have these things. Ship points will buy speed, manouverabiliy, shields, cargo space, armour and weaponry. Everything else will be abstracted.

It is also confirmed that the crew positions are: Captain, Gunner, Science Officer, Engineer and Pilot, and that they are completly independant of adventuring class. The mechanic can be the gunner, the envoy can be the engineer, and the mystic and be the pilot, without any penalties.

[Tom Kalbfus]

What about what Traveller calls Smallcraft? shuttles fighters etc. Some stsrhips might not be capable of landing, and thus the crew and passengers will need smallcraft to get to a planet's surface.

[Fardragon]

There is a two-man fighter described (BMC Mauler) but I doubt Starfinder will make a hard distinction between starships and small-craft. Or indeed worry about displacement at all. I expect a huge freighter like Nostromo would cost the same ship points as Serenity or a DS9 Runabout.

Starfinder and Traveller might both be space opera, but Traveller is much more "hard" space opera than Starfinder.

[Shisumo]

Reality touchstone: we have an actual starship stat block to pick over now.

[Steelfiredragon]

fighter. great looking beter than the mauler

anyway for ship design for me
the ones here
ships

the defender, phantom, and thunderclap designs would be my type for a corvette style ship.

still corvettes are not long range ship without refuel/ resupply stations
light to medium combat capabilities... and in custom choices stealthy designs,

[Fardragon]

Looks like there is some kind of energy budget, but no range, apart from does or does not have a drift drive.

[Bluenose]

Speed rather than acceleration implies no conservation of momentum from turn to turn; and also that you can change your velocity at will. Manoeuvrability as it appears suggests also that you can't move in one direction while facing another; there may be some sort of 'Crazy Ivan' piloting trick to change that. Very definitely meant to be played on a square grid, else the shields and attack direction wouldn't make much sense (a hex grid would suggest two different flank shields, for instance). I'm surprised AC appears to be based entirely on armour, as I'd have expected highly manoeuvrable ships to also be hard to hit. Perhaps the intention as that they'll stay out of firing arcs, but that won't work with vessels using turrets. I wonder if shields provide DR, or whether that's the number of hits they take before collapsing. If it's the second, a fighter attack against a heavily protected ship is going to be a very slow process. 1d8 damage against a Shield DR twice or more what we see here isn't going to get quick results - it's not even going to get fast results against another voidrunner.

[Fardragon]

You might like to read the starship combat preview...

Yes, we already know that there is no conservation of momentum, there is a "crazy ivan" manoeuvre (but with a different name), and that starship combat is played on a hex grid, not a square grid.

Also, the "Target Lock" number might serve the role of dodge AC.

[Shisumo]

Bluenose wrote:

I wonder if shields provide DR, or whether that's the number of hits they take before collapsing. If it's the second, a fighter attack against a heavily protected ship is going to be a very slow process. 1d8 damage against a Shield DR twice or more what we see here isn't going to get quick results - it's not even going to get fast results against another voidrunner.

In another thread, someone commented that the combat demo suggested that the shields are basically temp hit points, which can be refreshed/renewed (maybe moved around?) by the ship's engineer.

[Shadrayl of the Mountain]

Here's the demo https://youtu.be/_CHblfcG56Y

[David knott 242]

Linkified.

[CKent83]

The Dead Suns AP gives the players a starship. Does anyone know if we're getting a mini of that ship from Ninja Division?

[Shadrayl of the Mountain]

David knott 242 wrote:

Linkified.

Thanks, I must be getting spoiled by Facebook's auto-linking. :)

[Tom Kalbfus]

I wonder why they considered it important in Star Frontiers to model inertia, why did we have to track velocity as well as position?

[Tom Kalbfus]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

I wonder why they considered it important in Star Frontiers to model inertia, why did we have to track velocity as well as position?

Here's a map that will help track each ship's velocity. Just maneuver your ship's counters on the velocity map the same way the rules call for ship movement on the battlemap, then this velocity chart will tell you how t move your ship's 2nd counter on the battle map, just by tracking the number of hexes and direction from the vector map's center hex, to whatever hex your velocity counter is in, and that is the direction and magnitude of your ship's movement on the battle map. Pretty clever huh?

[Shadrayl of the Mountain]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

I wonder why they considered it important in Star Frontiers to model inertia, why did we have to track velocity as well as position?

Here's a map that will help track each ship's velocity. Just maneuver your ship's counters on the velocity map the same way the rules call for ship movement on the battlemap, then this velocity chart will tell you how t move your ship's 2nd counter on the battle map, just by tracking the number of hexes and direction from the vector map's center hex, to whatever hex your velocity counter is in, and that is the direction and magnitude of your ship's movement on the battle map. Pretty clever huh?

Honestly, I'm not getting it right now. Also, with movement speeds we've seen so far, you can shoot right off that map. Do you spin back around like Asteroids?

[Tom Kalbfus]

Shadrayl of the Mountain wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

I wonder why they considered it important in Star Frontiers to model inertia, why did we have to track velocity as well as position?

Here's a map that will help track each ship's velocity. Just maneuver your ship's counters on the velocity map the same way the rules call for ship movement on the battlemap, then this velocity chart will tell you how t move your ship's 2nd counter on the battle map, just by tracking the number of hexes and direction from the vector map's center hex, to whatever hex your velocity counter is in, and that is the direction and magnitude of your ship's movement on the battle map. Pretty clever huh?

Honestly, I'm not getting it right now. Also, with movement speeds we've seen so far, you can shoot right off that map. Do you spin back around like Asteroids?

You would need a larger map or with smaller hexes. Notice the hexes are labeled, the first two digits are the radius of the hex, the last three digits are the angle in degrees. Velocity magnitudes are from 0 to 5 with 0 being stationary. You need two counters for every ship, one to place on the velocity vector chart the other to place on the position chart. The velocity vector chart is just a way to remember at what velocity and it what direct the ship if going in. I made the hexes extra large so you can fit multiple ship counters in them, for the battle map, the hexes can be smaller. The velocity vector shart shows you where the ship is going to go in the next round, Just count the hexes from the origin (The liht green hex) to where the counter is located on the velocity chart, and then count the same number of hexes from the current position of your counter on the position chart, and that hex it leads to is where that counter will go in the next round (unless you move your counter on the velocity chart before the next movement phase in the position chart. I don't know what scale these hexes are, as the rules are not out yet.

[Shadrayl of the Mountain]

Okay. So if I understand right, this would then change your ship's speed rating into an acceleration rating? I think if you added a counter of some sort, and just start back at 0+counters each time you go off the edge, that could work pretty well. Also, you'd probably want to alter the scale of the position map, or change the speed ratings, or things could get crazy.

Edit: noticed you created a thread for this, so I moved my other comments over there.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Yes I'm awaiting details on the final core rules when it comes out, but I think its kind of like a position map moving spaceships on the board, I shift that over to the velocity board, we move spaceships there, changing their velocity instead of their position. It is their velocity which determines where the ship is going to go next.

[Giorgo]

Given the recent SF information updates, anyone has any additional "modules" or "system" they think would be use for starships geared for small adventuring parties?

[Lord Fyre]

Giorgo wrote:

Given the recent SF information updates, anyone has any additional "modules" or "system" they think would be use for starships geared for small adventuring parties?

Well there is ... Firefly; specifically, "Ghosts in the Black" by Robin Laws.

[Fardragon]

Giorgo wrote:

Given the recent SF information updates, anyone has any additional "modules" or "system" they think would be use for starships geared for small adventuring parties?

Spaceship equipable magic items. Cloaking device is the most obvious.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Shadrayl of the Mountain wrote:

Okay. So if I understand right, this would then change your ship's speed rating into an acceleration rating? I think if you added a counter of some sort, and just start back at 0+counters each time you go off the edge, that could work pretty well. Also, you'd probably want to alter the scale of the position map, or change the speed ratings, or things could get crazy.

Edit: noticed you created a thread for this, so I moved my other comments over there.

Here is my battlemap, this is used in conjuction with my Velocity Vector Map to plot spaceship movements while in combat. The scale is 10,000 miles per hex, I find it a very useful scale, as a lot of battles will tend to occur in the vicinity of worlds, and I have included all the standard world sizes

Diameters
S 500 miles
1 1000 miles
2 2000 miles
3 3000 miles
4 4000 miles
5 5000 miles
6 6000 miles
7 7000 miles
8 8000 miles
9 9000 miles
A 10,000 miles
B 20,000 miles
C 30,000 miles
D 40,000 miles
E 50,000 miles
F 60,000 miles
G 70,000 miles
H 80,000 miles
I 90,000 miles
J 100,000 miles

[Giorgo]

@Tom Kalbfus,

Can you kindly move discussions of velocity rules to a separate thread as it doesn't directly​ pertains to the thread subject? Thanks :)

[Giorgo]

@Lord Fyre,

The Serenity, an unarmed Firefly class transport, is not a good example in my view for an "adventuring party" type starship. It lacks many systems to handle the types of encounters PCs are most likely to get involved with, as it's a dedicated cargo transport ship.

The Millinium Falcon on the other hand is a highly customised combat ready light transport that is definitely something a small party of PCs can put to good use. If they are willing to sacrifice cargo space, additional room can be made for further upgrades like additional sleeping quarters, a full med bay, a laboratory and an armory. This ship class is designed to be highly customised, and the above upgrades would make it even better equipped to handle the most likely situations a Spacefaring Adventure Party (tm) will get into.

[Fardragon]

Serenity is fine as a first level ship (provided the GM doesn't have a starship battle planned for the first adventure). It's weaponry and shields can be upgraded as the players gain levels.

The Millennium Falcon is very much a high level ship, with a performance that should be impossible for that class of ship.

[Tom Kalbfus]

That is curious, one wonders why the Empire didn't have a bunchh of Millennial Falcons instead of tie fighters. the Millennium Falcon is a civilian ship, for it to out maneuver the best the Empire has got indicates that the Empire has serious problems!

[CKent83]

It was less about the Falcon's maneuverability and more about Han Solo's skill. The cool thing about the Millennium Falcon was it's astrogation abilities and engines. It could get from one end of the galaxy to the other in less time than any other ship. It was the fastest ship in the galaxy. And it belonged to a random smuggler... The most advanced navicomputer and most powerful hyperdrive were in the possession of a nobody. I always found that to be a little suspicious.

Anyways, characters are supposed to be able to own a starship from level 1 (the game was designed with that in mind). That means you can get into ship combat at level one; I'd bet that some campaigns will start out like that. Therefore, you don't give your players the Serenity as a starting ship, 'cause they'll all die. Now if the Serenity had a missile launcher, or a laser turret or two, anything to fight back with, that'd be OK. It's kind of like saying, you can disarm traps and have social encounters to get from level 1 to 2, so why would players need to start off with weapons and armor? Player ships at level 1 should have guns. Little guns; guns that you can upgrade later. Same thing with shields, missiles, sensors, and hull plating (or whatever you have in Starfinder). 'Cause the system is designed for the ship to "level up" with the party.

You go from a stock YT-1300 and end up with the fastest ship in the galaxy, but even stock light freighters have weapons.

[Fardragon]

If you tried to duplicate the Millenium Falcon from scratch it would never get off the ground. A hundred years of love, attention, tinkering and trial and error (and possibly the Force) where required to make it.

As for what sharting ship the players have, that demends on what first adventure the GM has planned. If the GM isn't planning on any space combat there is no need for the player ship to be armed at first. If there is going to be a space battle in episode 1 then the GM will put the players in a gunship (with minimal cargo capacity). Or the GM may decide that the players aquire the ship during the course of the first adventure (Blake's 7 has a good example of this).

[Steelfiredragon]

er the falcon like the ebonhawk, the twilight( think that was anakin's ship from clonewars), and many others are light freighters...

but yer right, the YT-1300 freighter is highly customizable

[Fardragon]

I'm assuming that cargo space costs "ship points" as well as guns. So if the players want to start with good weapons on their ship they will have less cargo capacity (or less manoeuvrability or less speed).

A "default" starter ship would probably be light freighter with a single beam turret and no missiles, but there are a wide range of possibilities depending on what story the GM is planning on telling.