| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
From what I have read, Starfinder lacks a starship to function as a dropship for the PC party
Inspiration for such a vehicle comes from real world examples of the Blackhawk/Hind helicopters, as well as BMP/Bradly IFVs
Fictional examples include Star Wars LAAT, Battlestar Galactica's Raptor, Halo's Falcon, and Mass Effect's shuttle.
A shuttle can fit the passenger seating expansion bay clearly designed for landing infantry, but with 3 expansion bays it is large enough to accommodate 48 medium creatures. I consider this overkill and an awkward amount of space for deploying a lone PC group. The "small" size for starships is also larger than what I personally envision as a dropship.
Also, While I respect the drop pod and boarding pod additions, they are not what I am looking for here.
I have 2 homebrew proposals that could fill what I perceive as a large operational gap.
The first is the creation of a new starship. Essentially, a fighter with 1 turreted light weapon and 1 expansion bay. Other roles could also be fulfilled by the flexibility of a single expansion bay.
Ex: medevac, patrol scout, smuggler, prisoner transport, luxury camper, neutral negotiation space, etc.
The second is the creation of a "weapon" that allows seating for 4 medium sized creatures instead of offensive capabilities, a historically common tradeoff for vehicles such as helicopters that have served in both attack and transport roles. This would allow a fighter starship to transport a common 6 person party at the cost of a weapon option. Alternatively, dropping two weapons would allow an NPC to deploy any conventional party size wherever needed.
If I have missed something that could fill this role, I look forward to learning more about this game.
Otherwise, I welcome feedback on my proposals, preferences people may have toward one solution or another, and any related stories or similar solutions where DMs have handled such a situation themselves.
I'm not positive you can't get what you want from a small frame, that you
would have to, stick with a tiny frame.
An option you might not have seen, I don't know it is in the base books.
https://www.aonsrd.com/Starship_BaseFrames.aspx?ItemName=Pioneer
Lets just suggest you want an option to make a Tiny frame be able to work.
I think using a weapon point seems potentially problematic as those are just BP to add additional ones.
You might be able to apply a slight alternation and tweak the rules for an External Expansion Bay and say that you can have a tiny vessel (with the weaker HP and such) be able to be fitted with a single 'external expansion bay' and limit it to perhaps specific types of expansion bays. Potentially Passenger Seating and Brig. Potentially, you might be able to offer Guest quarters. You might also say the Tiny bay can only hold half the normal capacity of a normal small or larger bay.
The adding of an external expansion bay would increase the number of spaces before turns by one. Perhaps to account for the adding it to a Tiny, one m ight consider dropping the Speed by 2, and reduce the Piloting modifier by -1.
However, it is possible, you may just want a mall, Small craft, instead of a Tiny craft.
Option A) use the dropship as a vehicle rules that came with attack of the swarm: dropships downside: not capable of anything short of orbit to ground and back again, upside: is a vehicle and can be mounted with standard weaponry to avoid starship vs ground targets awkwardness
Option B) adapt the Nebulor Skymedic to be a troop carrier. Upside: is capable of interplanetary travel & interstellar travel like a mass effect shuttle. Downsides: if you are in the default setting a lot of people will look down on you using a recognized and respected space ambulance to transport troops, and it's a starship with starship bulkheads to deal with when shot by guys on the ground. So you'll have to make rulings dealing with that.
I'm not positive you can't get what you want from a small frame, that you
would have to, stick with a tiny frame.
An option you might not have seen, I don't know it is in the base books.
https://www.aonsrd.com/Starship_BaseFrames.aspx?ItemName=PioneerLets just suggest you want an option to make a Tiny frame be able to work.
I think using a weapon point seems potentially problematic as those are just BP to add additional ones.
You might be able to apply a slight alternation and tweak the rules for an External Expansion Bay and say that you can have a tiny vessel (with the weaker HP and such) be able to be fitted with a single 'external expansion bay' and limit it to perhaps specific types of expansion bays. Potentially Passenger Seating and Brig. Potentially, you might be able to offer Guest quarters. You might also say the Tiny bay can only hold half the normal capacity of a normal small or larger bay.
The adding of an external expansion bay would increase the number of spaces before turns by one. Perhaps to account for the adding it to a Tiny, one m ight consider dropping the Speed by 2, and reduce the Piloting modifier by -1.
However, it is possible, you may just want a mall, Small craft, instead of a Tiny craft.
The Pioneer seems like a wonderful solution for what I was looking for. Slightly larger than my proposal, but a truly flexible little ship without the extra baggage of a homebrew. Definitely easier to implement.
Option A) use the dropship as a vehicle rules that came with attack of the swarm: dropships downside: not capable of anything short of orbit to ground and back again, upside: is a vehicle and can be mounted with standard weaponry to avoid starship vs ground targets awkwardness
Option B) adapt the Nebulor Skymedic to be a troop carrier. Upside: is capable of interplanetary travel & interstellar travel like a mass effect shuttle. Downsides: if you are in the default setting a lot of people will look down on you using a recognized and respected space ambulance to transport troops, and it's a starship with starship bulkheads to deal with when shot by guys on the ground. So you'll have to make rulings dealing with that.
Wow, I clearly need to become more familiar with named vehicles in setting. I understand the negatives of using what is essentially a space ambulance to transport troops, but a change in paint job may be all that is needed to make this function as the zippy little Mass Effect shuttle of my dreams.
Wow, I clearly need to become more familiar with named vehicles in setting. I understand the negatives of using what is essentially a space ambulance to transport troops, but a change in paint job may be all that is needed to make this function as the zippy little Mass Effect shuttle of my dreams.Option A) use the dropship as a vehicle rules that came with attack of the swarm: dropships downside: not capable of anything short of orbit to ground and back again, upside: is a vehicle and can be mounted with standard weaponry to avoid starship vs ground targets awkwardness
Option B) adapt the Nebulor Skymedic to be a troop carrier. Upside: is capable of interplanetary travel & interstellar travel like a mass effect shuttle. Downsides: if you are in the default setting a lot of people will look down on you using a recognized and respected space ambulance to transport troops, and it's a starship with starship bulkheads to deal with when shot by guys on the ground. So you'll have to make rulings dealing with that.
As long as you aren't in the pact worlds or veskarium, you'll be fine. They're the ones with the history of 'don't shoot this ship, it's here to help.' that you would be undermining by using it for something else.
From what I have read, Starfinder lacks a starship to function as a dropship for the PC party
There's literally a ship called the Norkikama Dropship though.