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