Starship Encounter Mode
Source Tech Core pg. 204
When it’s time to roll initiative in space, the GM has a lot of choices. When planning an encounter that pits a player crew against fearsome foes, you might create a tactical starship encounter against an Azlanti klokworx nexus. Or you might decide a klokworx nexus is too difficult for the crew’s level and create a cinematic starship scene in which the goal is to escape it. If that’s too easy, you can add boarding creatures to the encounter when a squad of Sihedron Guard drill through the hull. Maybe you don’t have time for all that and decide to skip straight to the combat encounter with the boarders, so you leave the starship element out (other than the encounter taking place on the starship map).
Knowing when to deploy which tools takes a lot of practice, but here are some suggestions. Remember that fighting enemies on the sensor map and starship map at the same time tends to be more difficult and time consuming than a normal encounter of the same challenge level. It’s a good idea to begin with trivial and low encounters and add moderate and harder battles as the players gain more experience.
If you want the players to encounter a powerful enemy that’s beyond their level (but might be a fightable enemy later), consider using a cinematic starship scene. If you want something simpler, or plan to place the overpowered enemy in an encounter with other challenges, consider creating a starship hazard that represents the dangers of proximity to this enemy. For example, the Azlanti flagship’s capital aeon cannon might damage the player starship’s shield as it buzzes past, or the ship’s presence might make it difficult to target smaller foes using it as cover.
Knowing when to deploy which tools takes a lot of practice, but here are some suggestions. Remember that fighting enemies on the sensor map and starship map at the same time tends to be more difficult and time consuming than a normal encounter of the same challenge level. It’s a good idea to begin with trivial and low encounters and add moderate and harder battles as the players gain more experience.
If you want the players to encounter a powerful enemy that’s beyond their level (but might be a fightable enemy later), consider using a cinematic starship scene. If you want something simpler, or plan to place the overpowered enemy in an encounter with other challenges, consider creating a starship hazard that represents the dangers of proximity to this enemy. For example, the Azlanti flagship’s capital aeon cannon might damage the player starship’s shield as it buzzes past, or the ship’s presence might make it difficult to target smaller foes using it as cover.