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The Starship Operations Manual has some interesting rules for having the PCs fly individual ships. This looks like it could make starship combat more engaging for the whole party. But I’m curious about how it feels in practice.
Has anyone tried these squadron rules out? If so, how did it go? Were there any unexpected problems or modifications you needed to make?
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Not directly dealing with your question, but I'm playing through Dawn of Flame which has a McGuffin starship (it can fly in the sun) and so the Squadron rules wouldn't work well at all here.
That's the first thought I had on this.
Otherwise I am also curious to know if anyone has tried them and how they compare to the standard rule set.
I feel like my main issue as a player would be not having all the required skills to effectively do the things you will absolutely need to (piloting, engineering, and computers). Being able to divert power to the shield, balance shields, and do piloting maneuvers feel pretty non-optional and unless the squadron rules somehow eliminate that for a single character I'm not sure I'd have fun unless the whole group was just playing Operatives who were a fighter squadron group as their background.
Which actually does sound like it could be an interesting campaign premise.
Or maybe the group has a couple 2 man fighters, so that no one person needs to fulfill all skill roles. And if you had 5 people instead of 4 or 6 you (as a GM) could maybe give an astromech droid type character to the odd man out for starship comabt.
I feel like my main issue as a player would be not having all the required skills to effectively do the things you will absolutely need to (piloting, engineering, and computers). Being able to divert power to the shield, balance shields, and do piloting maneuvers feel pretty non-optional and unless the squadron rules somehow eliminate that for a single character I'm not sure I'd have fun unless the whole group was just playing Operatives who were a fighter squadron group as their background.
Which actually does sound like it could be an interesting campaign premise.
Or maybe the group has a couple 2 man fighters, so that no one person needs to fulfill all skill roles. And if you had 5 people instead of 4 or 6 you (as a GM) could maybe give an astromech droid type character to the odd man out for starship comabt.
Yeah, I was thinking that you’d probably want to give everyone free ranks in piloting and allowing them to treat it as a class skill.
Using the other skills would be hard with single player ships, requiring a real cost/benefit analysis as to whether it’s worth it. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad (making it hard to rebalance or boost shields might speed combat up), but it would require skill point expenditure to even be an option.
That said, maybe this is lust a reason to encourage players into spending some BP on Virtual Intelligence systems (SOM, p35). Then they could use the VI to make those checks.
The two-player ship option is also something to consider. As long as each player gets to play an active role each round (whether it’s piloting, gunnery, or an emergency rebalance/boost shields check), it would be enough to keep everyone engaged?
I’d be curious to see how it plays...
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The two-player ship option is also something to consider. As long as each player gets to play an active role each round (whether it’s piloting, gunnery, or an emergency rebalance/boost shields check), it would be enough to keep everyone engaged?
I’d be curious to see how it plays...
Yeah, I think having one player pilot and one be a gunner, and then split rebalance and divert actions as needed.
It's also possible to do a "snap shot" or "cruise" actions (or whatever the minor crew actions are for piloting and gunnery) that let you do those things but with/penalties and restrictions while one of you might rebalance and the other might divert.
Honestly the more I think about this, the more I think the two man fighter options sound better and better.
Looking into this more the fighter, light freighter, explorer, and transport all seem like they would be great options for two man crews to use.
Really, you'd take the medium frames for extra HP, expansion bays, and possible heavy weapons mounts.
On the other hand, I'd probably ask my players to stick to shuttle sized frames and build my enemies around that assumption.
Really, you'd take the medium frames for extra HP, expansion bays, and possible heavy weapons mounts.
On the other hand, I'd probably ask my players to stick to shuttle sized frames and build my enemies around that assumption.
I agree, as a player I'd absolutely want to go to a medium frame for the extra HP, but if the GM said specifically "I'm limiting you to tiny/small frames and will design encounters with that in mind" I would accept it.
Really, you'd take the medium frames for extra HP, expansion bays, and possible heavy weapons mounts.
On the other hand, I'd probably ask my players to stick to shuttle sized frames and build my enemies around that assumption.
The shuttle size restriction sounds reasonable for many campaigns. Then again, I can imagine a “space truckers”-style campaign which would work thematically with several medium sized PC ships...
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The shuttle size restriction sounds reasonable for many campaigns. Then again, I can imagine a “space truckers”-style campaign which would work thematically with several medium sized PC ships...Really, you'd take the medium frames for extra HP, expansion bays, and possible heavy weapons mounts.
On the other hand, I'd probably ask my players to stick to shuttle sized frames and build my enemies around that assumption.
Was on the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
The oliphant was pullin logsCab over pete with a cryo on
and Jimmy flies analog
We clipped uplifted bear an said uh oh.
Bout a click over Akiton
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck
And I'm about to slam the throtle down
'Cause we got a little ol' convoy
Rockin' through the night
Yeah, we got a little ol' convoy
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
bound for Apostae
This does remind me, when I get my Starfinder game running again ( the efforts to do it on Roll20 kind of floundered, sadly ), I do plan on trying to use. . . no, not the squadron rules, but the *fleet* rules as a variant for simplify ship encounters. Basically treating their ( single ) ship as a slightly unusual capship unit, and work from there.
Was roll 20 the problem or players not getting together until yo physically get them together?