Tiny ships and Roles


Rules Questions


Something I've not been sure about considering how roles work is how exactly it applies to tiny ships; specifically the Racer type and the Interceptor type, since at least the Fighter has two seats so they can have a pilot and a gunner.

If I'm not mistaken, it seems like the only way to use those ships effectively in combat is to have a higher initiative (otherwise there's a good chance its a waste of effort), and line up the shot beforehand, then in the second turn switch roles to gunnery before the engineering phase to shoot. Then when they get out of range, you have to switch back to pilot in the next turn.

This feels like a significant inconvenience for solo campaigns, in that you can't move and shoot in the same turn, making them effectively less "agile" than a ship with more crew, but it could be that I'm reading the rules wrong or something.

… I don't know, what am I missing here? Or is this the rules working as intended?

Sczarni

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Minor Crew Actions, Core Rulebook pg. 326, wrote:

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 a minor crew action 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.

Glide (Helm Phase, Minor)

You move the starship at half its normal speed. The starship can take turns during this movement, but the starship’s distance between turns increases by 2. You can add your ranks in the Piloting skill to the starship’s AC and TL for this round. You can only take this action if no other pilot actions have been taken during the helm phase (including glide).

Snap Shot (Gunnery Phase, Minor)

You can fire one of your starship’s weapons with a –2 penalty to the gunnery check. You can take this action only if no other gunner actions have been taken during the gunnery phase (including snap shot).


That last sentence of the rule, 'A minor crew action can be performed only once per round and doesn’t count as your action.' seems a bit vague to me. I think it means that each character can only take one of the Minor crew actions each round.

So as a solo crew, I could pilot as primary role and use Snap Shot to fire. I could also spend one round as Science as primary role in order to adjust the shields while using Glide to move the ship around.

But I don't think I could take Captain as primary role in order to taunt the enemy ship and use both Glide and Snap Shot that round to move a bit and take a shot.

But if I was part of a two-person crew of a Fighter class ship, I think I could be Engineer as primary and use Glide to move, while the other crew member could be Science as primary to scan the enemy ship and use Snap Shot to fire a weapon.

Sczarni

Good question.

Sovereign Court

Yeah you can only take one minor action a round. Typically you are piloting and shooting and not bothering with the other roles.

Sczarni

I guess that's what R2D2 is for ^_^


agreed.. one minor, per character, per round seems to be the best interpretation


Yeah, basically. You can move and shoot, or do something else and glide.

Basically what single man fighters in every sci fi trope everywhere do.

The two man fighters tend to be more capable, because the second guy can balance the shields/scan the target, while the pilot can move and shoot. Or if they need accuracy, the second guy can man the guns (assuming he's a better gunner than the pilot at -2, not always the case)

This makes me want to create an R2D2 SRO to be the second man in a two person fighter now.


Nefreet wrote:
I guess that's what R2D2 is for ^_^

Like the Mechanic's AI robot?

Which brings up my next question. The rules don't have anything about what the Mechanic's AI can do during starship fights - only during combat rounds. (At least as far as I am aware of)

Which seems a bit odd considering that at high levels, the robot AI gets as much action ability as a regular player.

So couldn't a Mechanic's AI also be taking a role on a starship during combat? Perhaps if trained for the role with a training module?


The rules as such forbid such, because its a class feature that does not specify how it can be used in ship combat. I suppose there could be a mechanic trick or whatnot introduced in the future that lets your drone do supplemental skill checks of certain kinds.


Depending on your groups size I would allow mechanics AIs to help in space combat (as long as they have the appropriate Skill Subroutines (Ex)).
Especially with things like R2D2 or Romy/Andromeda in mind.

Since I only have a three player group I gave them an AI to their ship, which count as crew member and fill a role.


Note that R2D2 or Andromeda would not be drone sidekicks, they would be PCs/NPCs in their own right.


Metaphysician wrote:
Note that R2D2 or Andromeda would not be drone sidekicks, they would be PCs/NPCs in their own right.

A SRO and an Android specifically.

I'd let the mechanic's drone take minor crew actions, it fits well with him having to spend an action to direct the drone.


You could have a crew of NPC droids. There's no rules forbidding the type of crew you hire and those crews can serve in specific roles.

When our game began we had 6 players and our GM allowed us to "acquire" a heavy freighter. It's got a minimum crew of 6. Over the past months 2 of our players have had to drop the group and 2 more are starting to attend less and less due to life obligations. We have recruited however it looks like we will need to hire some crew to fill the roles so that our starship can stay operational.

Hopefully we can pick up a captain and a crew to keep us in the air.


Metaphysician wrote:
The rules as such forbid such, because its a class feature that does not specify how it can be used in ship combat. I suppose there could be a mechanic trick or whatnot introduced in the future that lets your drone do supplemental skill checks of certain kinds.

Yes. Current rules don't allow this. The Mechanic's drone gets to sit in the closet during starship fights no matter how good a shot it is on the ground.

In fact, I doubt that anything official would be brought in because it would unbalance starship contribution per player - mostly for Starfinder Society games.

But for home games...


Actually skill unit seems to give a drone the ability to use a skill while not under your direct control (any type of action move, standard, full) and could give your drone either computers or engineering ... I see no reason RAW you could not use as either the science officer or a engineer other than not having enough crew capacity on your ship..... However does not seem like it can take a shot in any in any case (no pilot skill unit, can't take standard while not under you control other than to attack or use skill with skill unit,... so can't make gunnery check)


although if it is serving as a science officer, i guess snap shot wouldn't be an action.....humm......not so cut and dry after all .....maybe it could snapshot


Xoshak4545 wrote:
although if it is serving as a science officer, i guess snap shot wouldn't be an action.....humm......not so cut and dry after all .....maybe it could snapshot

If the mechanic was piloting and wanted to take a snapshot I'd let him use his drone's bonus over his own.

Rules as written, probably not, but it's not game breaking.


RAW it seems to work as long as you have the crew capacity but most starfighter size ships won't ...it seems clear it can be a science officer or a engineer with the right skill unit ...and i see nothing that says a member of the crew must be a character or that only a character can use a minor crew action ...if anyone can point to language that debates this.. Please Do

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