Acquiring Your Starship
Source Tech Core pg. 202
Most of the time, the crew gets a starship as part of an adventure hook. If you’re running a premade adventure, the introduction and players’ guide likely provide narrative guidance about how the starship fits into the story and how the crew acquires it. If you’re adding tactical starship encounters to a Starfinder adventure published before Tech Core, or telling your own story with custom encounters built for your crew, you’ll need to figure out how to fit a starship into the game.
Starships and starship equipment aren’t part of a character’s or party’s wealth. You should never force characters to pay for a starship or its gear, nor should you deduct its value from their rewards.
Many campaigns begin with the crew of PCs already owning a starship. The GM handles starship creation as part of their game’s session 0 or provides a premade option that lets players ease into the rules and story before asking them to build their own starship. If you want the crew to earn their first starship as a reward or play out how they acquired it in-game, consider running a one-shot adventure that ends with a wealthy benefactor gifting a starship to the party or a sketchy acquaintance handing them its security codes. If the PCs are members of a faction, like the Starfinder Society or the Stewards, they might get assigned to the crew’s starship at the end of their initiation mission. If they’re Free Captains, they might board and steal a starship as part of the session and either plunder it for themselves or trade it for a different model.
Starships and starship equipment aren’t part of a character’s or party’s wealth. You should never force characters to pay for a starship or its gear, nor should you deduct its value from their rewards.
Many campaigns begin with the crew of PCs already owning a starship. The GM handles starship creation as part of their game’s session 0 or provides a premade option that lets players ease into the rules and story before asking them to build their own starship. If you want the crew to earn their first starship as a reward or play out how they acquired it in-game, consider running a one-shot adventure that ends with a wealthy benefactor gifting a starship to the party or a sketchy acquaintance handing them its security codes. If the PCs are members of a faction, like the Starfinder Society or the Stewards, they might get assigned to the crew’s starship at the end of their initiation mission. If they’re Free Captains, they might board and steal a starship as part of the session and either plunder it for themselves or trade it for a different model.
Starship Backgrounds
Source Tech Core pg. 203
If you’re ready to get right into the action of your epic campaign, there’s no need to play out how the characters acquired their starship in a full game session. You might work with the players to create a background explaining how the crew got their starship (and who owns it). As you think about the origins of the starship, you and your players might use one of the following options as inspiration.
Divine Gift: A god or another powerful entity gave your crew the starship… but nothing in this galaxy is ever truly free. This scenario works best when all characters worship the same god, but creative players might come up with other arrangements.
Faction Resource: The crew’s faction loaned them a starship for a purpose. Factions are one of the best ways to introduce a player starship into your campaign, as most factions of the galaxy have starships to spare for their agents and allies. If all crew members share the same faction, they’re an official squad or team who travel to and from missions on board a starship belonging to their organization. If they’re members of different factions, they’re part of a cooperative expedition launched by several factions with a shared goal.
Inherited: The crew inherited their starship from a benefactor or mentor. There’s a dozen different scenarios to consider—perhaps a crew member’s pirate aunt left a starship to one of the characters in her will, or the party’s former ally vanished, leaving only their old starship behind. Maybe a crew member won it in a lucky bet.
Stolen Starship: The crew stole their starship from a faction or person. A stolen starship is the perfect option for a pirate crew or a gang of outlaws. If most of the group likes the idea of stealing their starship but one or more don’t want to play lawbreaking characters, they might find alternative ways to fit in with the crew, perhaps as stowaways, captives who prove their worth, or secret agents!
Divine Gift: A god or another powerful entity gave your crew the starship… but nothing in this galaxy is ever truly free. This scenario works best when all characters worship the same god, but creative players might come up with other arrangements.
Faction Resource: The crew’s faction loaned them a starship for a purpose. Factions are one of the best ways to introduce a player starship into your campaign, as most factions of the galaxy have starships to spare for their agents and allies. If all crew members share the same faction, they’re an official squad or team who travel to and from missions on board a starship belonging to their organization. If they’re members of different factions, they’re part of a cooperative expedition launched by several factions with a shared goal.
Inherited: The crew inherited their starship from a benefactor or mentor. There’s a dozen different scenarios to consider—perhaps a crew member’s pirate aunt left a starship to one of the characters in her will, or the party’s former ally vanished, leaving only their old starship behind. Maybe a crew member won it in a lucky bet.
Stolen Starship: The crew stole their starship from a faction or person. A stolen starship is the perfect option for a pirate crew or a gang of outlaws. If most of the group likes the idea of stealing their starship but one or more don’t want to play lawbreaking characters, they might find alternative ways to fit in with the crew, perhaps as stowaways, captives who prove their worth, or secret agents!