Building Starship Scenes
Source GM Core pg. 228
Every scene starts with a vision: what exactly are the PCs doing inside of a starship? Are they battling an enemy starship in the atmosphere of a planet or attempting to escape the jaws of some predatory interstellar megafauna before becoming trapped inside? Designing these encounters should always begin with a basic concept of what situation the PCs will be part of, how to overcome the scene, and how the scene ultimately concludes.
Victory Conditions
Source GM Core pg. 228
Along with the details on the PCs' starship and the threats relevant to the encounter, there are two notable elements of a cinematic starship scene: the victory conditions and ending the encounter.
Victory conditions represent the ways in which the PCs overcome the encounter and measure their success. This might include something as simple as “destroy the Corpse Fleet starship” with that starship being one of the threats in the encounter. There might also be an objective of “escape the asteroid field by gaining 5 or more Escape Points,” which can be earned by actions the PCs take during the encounter. Some scenes might even provide the PCs with multiple means of achieving victory, such as combining the idea of a Corpse Fleet vessel attacking the PCs inside an asteroid field—the PCs might win the encounter by either of the two options listed above!
Ending a starship scene can be determined by a variety of factors. It might be timed based on a number of rounds that pass, until the PCs or one or more threats are disabled, or when the PCs (or a threat) achieve a certain threshold of successes on relevant checks.
Victory conditions represent the ways in which the PCs overcome the encounter and measure their success. This might include something as simple as “destroy the Corpse Fleet starship” with that starship being one of the threats in the encounter. There might also be an objective of “escape the asteroid field by gaining 5 or more Escape Points,” which can be earned by actions the PCs take during the encounter. Some scenes might even provide the PCs with multiple means of achieving victory, such as combining the idea of a Corpse Fleet vessel attacking the PCs inside an asteroid field—the PCs might win the encounter by either of the two options listed above!
Ending a starship scene can be determined by a variety of factors. It might be timed based on a number of rounds that pass, until the PCs or one or more threats are disabled, or when the PCs (or a threat) achieve a certain threshold of successes on relevant checks.
Additional Objectives
Source GM Core pg. 228
Some scenes include additional, optional objectives the PCs can accomplish during the encounter. This might include performing daring maneuvers during a widely broadcast starship race or obtaining additional (but not integral) information on a stellar anomaly or a new model of enemy warships. Accomplishing these optional objectives doesn't contribute to the scene's victory conditions or end the encounter but is likely to earn the PCs additional story awards, information, or other narrative advantages beyond the scene.
Player Starships
Source GM Core pg. 229
The first element of designing a starship encounter is to determine the appropriate statistics for the PCs' starship.
Available Roles: Each starship the PCs operate has several different starship roles PCs can occupy. This typically includes captain, engineer, gunner, magic officer, pilot, and science officer. Not every starship in a starship scene has every role available; a smaller shuttle might not benefit from a specialized captain, while an organic space whale might not benefit from a mechanical engineer. Generally, there should be at least four roles available (the average assumed party size in Starfinder) with a potential for up to six to eight to allow for allies or other NPCs to contribute. Some starship scenes have entirely unique roles a PC can occupy with niche applications.
Starship Bonuses: Different starships might provide different bonuses to skills that the PCs can utilize during a cinematic starship scene. A high-speed fighter might provide a bonus to Piloting, while a scientific research vessel might provide a bonus to Computers checks. This area compiles the bonuses and details them. They should be treated as item bonuses to the relevant skills, though there might be situations where a different bonus is applied, and that can be indicated in a parenthetical. Skill bonuses provided here should match skills required for the scene, whether as part of starship actions or in response to the actions of threats.
AC: The effective Armor Class of the PCs' starship in the encounter, representing how difficult it is to hit. You can use the AC presented on the Armor Class table in Building Creatures, selecting the extreme, high, moderate, or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter. A lower AC should correspond to the PCs' starship having higher Hit Points and Shields.
Saving Throws: The saving throws associated with a PCs' starship. This will generally only include Fortitude and Reflex saves, though sometimes a Will save might appear if the PCs are piloting a living creature like an oma or a starship with a sentient intelligence that's susceptible to mental effects. You can use the saves presented on the Saving Throw table in Building Creatures, selecting the extreme, high, moderate or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter.
Hit Points & Shields: The Hit Points of a starship represent the physical damage it can take, while Shields are akin to temporary Hit Points that regenerate at the start of every round. You can use the Hit Points presented on the Hit Points table in Building Creatures, selecting the high, moderate or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter. You'll generally want the PCs' starship to have at least moderate Hit Points. For shields, the value should match the maximum value found on the Resistances and Weaknesses table in Building Creatures, such as 5 Shields for a 2nd-level scene starship or 18 Shields for a 15th-level scene starship.
Starship Actions: This lists the actions the crew of a starship (likely the PCs plus any NPCs aboard) can perform as part of the encounter. Actions are usually a 2-action activity so that a PC can perform only one of these actions during their turn. If there's an expectation of combat, such as fighting another ship, the starship should have at least one weapon the PCs can fire. Other actions might include special ship actions or actions related to the scene, like scanning or using a magical aeon stone console.
Available Roles: Each starship the PCs operate has several different starship roles PCs can occupy. This typically includes captain, engineer, gunner, magic officer, pilot, and science officer. Not every starship in a starship scene has every role available; a smaller shuttle might not benefit from a specialized captain, while an organic space whale might not benefit from a mechanical engineer. Generally, there should be at least four roles available (the average assumed party size in Starfinder) with a potential for up to six to eight to allow for allies or other NPCs to contribute. Some starship scenes have entirely unique roles a PC can occupy with niche applications.
Starship Bonuses: Different starships might provide different bonuses to skills that the PCs can utilize during a cinematic starship scene. A high-speed fighter might provide a bonus to Piloting, while a scientific research vessel might provide a bonus to Computers checks. This area compiles the bonuses and details them. They should be treated as item bonuses to the relevant skills, though there might be situations where a different bonus is applied, and that can be indicated in a parenthetical. Skill bonuses provided here should match skills required for the scene, whether as part of starship actions or in response to the actions of threats.
AC: The effective Armor Class of the PCs' starship in the encounter, representing how difficult it is to hit. You can use the AC presented on the Armor Class table in Building Creatures, selecting the extreme, high, moderate, or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter. A lower AC should correspond to the PCs' starship having higher Hit Points and Shields.
Saving Throws: The saving throws associated with a PCs' starship. This will generally only include Fortitude and Reflex saves, though sometimes a Will save might appear if the PCs are piloting a living creature like an oma or a starship with a sentient intelligence that's susceptible to mental effects. You can use the saves presented on the Saving Throw table in Building Creatures, selecting the extreme, high, moderate or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter.
Hit Points & Shields: The Hit Points of a starship represent the physical damage it can take, while Shields are akin to temporary Hit Points that regenerate at the start of every round. You can use the Hit Points presented on the Hit Points table in Building Creatures, selecting the high, moderate or low value depending on the type of starship the PCs use in the encounter. You'll generally want the PCs' starship to have at least moderate Hit Points. For shields, the value should match the maximum value found on the Resistances and Weaknesses table in Building Creatures, such as 5 Shields for a 2nd-level scene starship or 18 Shields for a 15th-level scene starship.
Starship Actions: This lists the actions the crew of a starship (likely the PCs plus any NPCs aboard) can perform as part of the encounter. Actions are usually a 2-action activity so that a PC can perform only one of these actions during their turn. If there's an expectation of combat, such as fighting another ship, the starship should have at least one weapon the PCs can fire. Other actions might include special ship actions or actions related to the scene, like scanning or using a magical aeon stone console.
Designing Player Starships
Source GM Core pg. 229
Player starships must be built to provide the necessary tools to overcome the scene.
Necessary Tools: Make sure the starship can satisfy the victory conditions for the scene. If there's a need for Computers checks to obtain successes to end the encounter, there should be at least one role and associated action that enable the PCs to obtain those successes. To give the PCs more of an edge, you might decide to grant a starship bonus to Computers, which can assist the PCs and compensate for groups that might not have full mastery of one or more necessary skills.
Survivability: A player starship should generally skew to higher Hit Points if its AC is low and slightly lower Hit Points if the AC is higher. You'll want to compare these values to the damage output of the threats in your scene as detailed later in this chapter. A starship should be able to survive for multiple rounds in an encounter, unless the encounter is intended to be short or the PCs critically fail several key checks.
Action Variety: Create starship actions that use different skills and can be spread among different roles. Letting a pilot role focus on checks that involve Piloting is obvious, but you might combine that with an Escape the Area action that allows the science officer to perform the same action but using Computers instead. This lets multiple PCs contribute to the encounter.
Try to make sure that most actions, with the general exception of ranged gunner attacks, have multiple skills that a crew member can employ. Include some basic skills like Crafting and Athletics for some engineering tasks while also keeping Perception in mind as something most classes have training in. More esoteric skills, like Lore skills and skills related to magical traditions (Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion), should generally tie to a magic officer role or bespoke actions like scanning related cosmic events
Necessary Tools: Make sure the starship can satisfy the victory conditions for the scene. If there's a need for Computers checks to obtain successes to end the encounter, there should be at least one role and associated action that enable the PCs to obtain those successes. To give the PCs more of an edge, you might decide to grant a starship bonus to Computers, which can assist the PCs and compensate for groups that might not have full mastery of one or more necessary skills.
Survivability: A player starship should generally skew to higher Hit Points if its AC is low and slightly lower Hit Points if the AC is higher. You'll want to compare these values to the damage output of the threats in your scene as detailed later in this chapter. A starship should be able to survive for multiple rounds in an encounter, unless the encounter is intended to be short or the PCs critically fail several key checks.
Action Variety: Create starship actions that use different skills and can be spread among different roles. Letting a pilot role focus on checks that involve Piloting is obvious, but you might combine that with an Escape the Area action that allows the science officer to perform the same action but using Computers instead. This lets multiple PCs contribute to the encounter.
Try to make sure that most actions, with the general exception of ranged gunner attacks, have multiple skills that a crew member can employ. Include some basic skills like Crafting and Athletics for some engineering tasks while also keeping Perception in mind as something most classes have training in. More esoteric skills, like Lore skills and skills related to magical traditions (Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion), should generally tie to a magic officer role or bespoke actions like scanning related cosmic events
Threats
Source GM Core pg. 230
The next element of a cinematic starship scene is the inclusion of one or more threats that contend with the PCs as they perform their actions. The values for many of a threat's entries, including AC, Hit Points, Initiative, Saving Throws, Shields, and Skills, should correspond to the numbers presented in Building Creatures, with the threat's numbers matching the scene's level.
Threat Name: A name and general description of the threat the PCs face.
Initiative: The statistic and appropriate modifier the threat uses to determine its initiative.
Skills: A list of skills relevant to the threat in an encounter. This should be filled in only if the threat has some means of using the skill or the skill is relevant to an ability the PCs might possess in the encounter.
AC: The Armor Class of the threat, if any. Some threats might be intangible (such as a computer virus affecting the PCs' starship during the scene) or too large in scope to attack (like an asteroid field) and won't require an AC entry.
Saving Throws: The relevant saving throws of the threat. In most cases, this indicates a Fortitude and Reflex save, but sometimes (such as with a living creature) a Will save might be necessary.
Hit Points & Shields: The Hit Points and Shields of the threat when relevant. Generally, a threat should have no higher than moderate Hit Points and only have Shields equal to the minimum resistance of the scene's level, if shields are appropriate on the threat.
Threat Routine: Like a complex hazard, each threat has a routine it performs on its turn in the initiative order. This routine lists the specific actions the threat takes during its initiative as well as relevant rules.
Threat Name: A name and general description of the threat the PCs face.
Initiative: The statistic and appropriate modifier the threat uses to determine its initiative.
Skills: A list of skills relevant to the threat in an encounter. This should be filled in only if the threat has some means of using the skill or the skill is relevant to an ability the PCs might possess in the encounter.
AC: The Armor Class of the threat, if any. Some threats might be intangible (such as a computer virus affecting the PCs' starship during the scene) or too large in scope to attack (like an asteroid field) and won't require an AC entry.
Saving Throws: The relevant saving throws of the threat. In most cases, this indicates a Fortitude and Reflex save, but sometimes (such as with a living creature) a Will save might be necessary.
Hit Points & Shields: The Hit Points and Shields of the threat when relevant. Generally, a threat should have no higher than moderate Hit Points and only have Shields equal to the minimum resistance of the scene's level, if shields are appropriate on the threat.
Threat Routine: Like a complex hazard, each threat has a routine it performs on its turn in the initiative order. This routine lists the specific actions the threat takes during its initiative as well as relevant rules.
Designing Threats
Source GM Core pg. 230
Threats should all be designed and balanced together. The most basic threat is an enemy starship, and a one-on-one combat with a PC starship should be roughly comparable, with the multiple actions of the PCs' starship giving them an edge in the encounter. Designing multiple threats in a scene means you'll want to balance the encounter around exactly how each threat contributes.
Complications: Some threats should exist to complicate the PCs' actions. In a scene where the PCs act to obtain Victory Points, then consider having a complication that exists to stymie their efforts by imposing a skill penalty unless a crew member acts to negate the complicating hazard. In combats, this complication might be a nebula that scatters targeting and imposes a flat check on attacks akin to concealment, unless a crew member acts to overcome the effect. This works best with environmental effects and provides a good way for less direct roles, like magic and science officers, to interact with the encounter.
Indiscriminate Threats: One way to add an additional threat without breaking the overall balance of the encounter is to include a threat that targets everyone in the encounter indiscriminately. An example might be a magical effect that blasts the area with energy and blinds sensors (possibly requiring a crew action to counter) or an environmental effect that damages every side in a conflict. Having a hazard-like threat within the encounter that deals damage with a basic saving throw and affects the PCs and other present threats generally balances a combat-focused encounter but could have more ramifications in a timed event, as extra damage means the PCs can't remain operational for as long.
Multiple Starship Threats: Battling against a squadron of enemy fighters is an iconic scene, but if you include multiple enemy starship threats, the PCs can quickly find themselves overwhelmed. Instead, you might consider looking at the appropriate Hit Points and damage of one threat, then dividing it into groups. An appropriate 4th-level threat in a cinematic starship scene could have a moderate Hit Points of 60 (as per the Hit Points table in Building Creatures), which you could break down into groups of 15, giving you a total of four fighters. The damage of a moderate 4th-level threat is 2d6+5 damage per round, so you might consider having each fighter deal 1d6+3 damage with their attacks, meaning if each enemy fighter hits the PCs, they take more damage than moderate; however, the PCs compensate by being able to remove smaller threats at a faster rate.
Complications: Some threats should exist to complicate the PCs' actions. In a scene where the PCs act to obtain Victory Points, then consider having a complication that exists to stymie their efforts by imposing a skill penalty unless a crew member acts to negate the complicating hazard. In combats, this complication might be a nebula that scatters targeting and imposes a flat check on attacks akin to concealment, unless a crew member acts to overcome the effect. This works best with environmental effects and provides a good way for less direct roles, like magic and science officers, to interact with the encounter.
Indiscriminate Threats: One way to add an additional threat without breaking the overall balance of the encounter is to include a threat that targets everyone in the encounter indiscriminately. An example might be a magical effect that blasts the area with energy and blinds sensors (possibly requiring a crew action to counter) or an environmental effect that damages every side in a conflict. Having a hazard-like threat within the encounter that deals damage with a basic saving throw and affects the PCs and other present threats generally balances a combat-focused encounter but could have more ramifications in a timed event, as extra damage means the PCs can't remain operational for as long.
Multiple Starship Threats: Battling against a squadron of enemy fighters is an iconic scene, but if you include multiple enemy starship threats, the PCs can quickly find themselves overwhelmed. Instead, you might consider looking at the appropriate Hit Points and damage of one threat, then dividing it into groups. An appropriate 4th-level threat in a cinematic starship scene could have a moderate Hit Points of 60 (as per the Hit Points table in Building Creatures), which you could break down into groups of 15, giving you a total of four fighters. The damage of a moderate 4th-level threat is 2d6+5 damage per round, so you might consider having each fighter deal 1d6+3 damage with their attacks, meaning if each enemy fighter hits the PCs, they take more damage than moderate; however, the PCs compensate by being able to remove smaller threats at a faster rate.