Components of Cinematic Starship Scenes

These examples are some different approaches to victory conditions you can add to an encounter. The difficulty of the victory conditions often determines the difficulty (and length) of the scene. You might have more than one set of victory conditions for a specific scene, depending on the overall complexity.

Defeat a Threat: Overcome a specific threat in the scene by reducing its Hit Points to 0 or otherwise overcoming or removing it from the encounter.

Victory Points: Use the Victory Point subsystem to create a system of gradual successes or metrics for the PCs to achieve in an encounter.

Survival: A simple condition that requires the PCs' starship to survive for a set number of rounds or until a specific condition in the encounter is met.

You can create a variety of different starships for the PCs to pilot during their encounter. The following are examples of common starship hull types you can base a scene around. You can also use these general starship types as inspiration for threats.

Fighter: Typically, this example is the smallest starship available and can seat one or two creatures of up to Large size.

Shuttle: A smaller starship that can contain up to six or eight creatures. Shuttles travel between different locations and rarely have amenities to be comfortable for extended missions.

Explorer: A vessel used by adventurers and mercenaries across the galaxy to explore. It can operate with up to 12 crew for prolonged periods of time.

Transport: A larger vessel used primarily to move crew and cargo from one area to another. It has some amenities but isn't intended for long-term missions.

Cruiser: A starship intended for war. Cruisers act as the faster vanguards of most fleets, alongside slightly smaller destroyers. A handful of corporations and mercenary companies have vessels of this size, while many militaries operate these vessels.

Battleship: Enormous vessels that act as the mainstay of most militaries. Some factions might possess only one of these behemoths. They primarily fill the role of projecting power in a region of space, and many act as carriers that can unload swarms of smaller vessels.

Most starships have a common array of roles, though depending on the scene, you might create new or niche roles that are appropriate to the narrative. The following are examples of common starship roles the PCs can occupy.

Captain: A leader in a tense situation. The captain's role is to provide instruction and guidance to their crew while also reciting some inspiring speeches or demoralizing quips to enemy starship crews.

Engineer: A technical expert who focuses on keeping the starship running. They divert power to specific starship systems and can complete battlefield repairs.

Gunner: Gunners fire starship weapons. Whether it's unleashing a swarm of missiles or letting loose with a crackling blast of magitech electricity, gunners operate the myriad weapon systems of a starship and target threats in most starship scenes.

Magic Officer: Some starships possess esoteric systems powered by one or more of the magical traditions. Operating a magical scrying sensor or taking part in a ritual within the bowels of the vessel to increase combat capabilities are just some of the many actions this special crew role might take.

Pilot: Pilots move the ship and dictate its course. Most of the time, this movement will be achieved through a Piloting check, which might be attempted to navigate a hazard or to perform a specific maneuver in tense scenes. In longer starship scenes, a pilot might Plot a Course to navigate to a region to trigger an additional phase of a scene.

Science Officer: Employing high-tech sensors or personal knowledge, the science officer manages the tasks of scanning interstellar objects and operating certain technical aspects of the ship. They might use Computers as part of these actions or a specific Lore skill to Recall Knowledge to assist in an encounter.

Niche Roles: A catch-all for different roles onboard a starship that might not be common in most scenes but could be important to a specific scene. You might have a cook role representing the actions of a favored NPC onboard the ship who provides a small bonus or a corporate representative who can use their negotiating skills to assist in an encounter.

Threats obstruct the PCs from achieving their victory conditions in a cinematic starship scene. There are many different approaches you can take to adding threats, whether it be direct opposition or less overt complications. The following are types of threats you can include with some specific examples.

Enemy Starship: The most common threat in a cinematic starship scene is another starship. There could be one or more starships that oppose the PCs through combat or compete for similar victory conditions in an encounter. Examples: a Corpse Fleet raider, a hot-shot racer, a rival corporation science vessel, a Swarm battleship.

Environmental Effect: Though space is vast and mostly empty, there are many natural effects that can complicate a cinematic starship scene and provide the PCs with challenges to navigate around or overcome. Examples: asteroid fields, Drift storms, planetary atmosphere, solar flares.

Magical Effect: In a science-fantasy setting, there's always something magical around the next turn. Strange effects related to the different traditions of magic can have an overt impact on starship scenes or even act as time pressure, or have a more mental effect. Examples: a magically animated landscape that reaches up through the atmosphere to strike a starship, a mental compulsion on another threat in the scene, another plane of reality transposed into the scene.

Megafauna: Though similar in almost every respect to enemy starships, some foes are simply so large they can be treated as starships. Examples: dragons, omas, swarms of alien fauna.