Starfinder Starships

 While you could theoretically run a Starfinder game without the party getting a ship, where's the fun in that?

I've been hopping around the Starfinder core rules, and I've just read through the rules on putting together the party's ship.

Initially, I was surprised that there wasn't a cost in credits (money) for the various models, but then it occurred to me that the point here is that the party should get a ship as soon as possible - they're here to have space adventures, not spend however many levels saving up money to buy a ship.

Instead, the party can get a ship of a certain "tier" based on the average party level. Tier is essentially the ship's level, and as you level up, your ship gains tiers, which then gives you more "Build Points" that you can use to upgrade the ship's systems.

This basically would be the subject of a session 0 kind of game, or perhaps if you want to start your campaign on the ground level, you could take a break once the party gets their ship to have the players put together what they want.

Build Points are a kind of currency for what you can put in - more advanced systems will cost more BP, and you get more BP as your ship progresses in tier. So, for example, when you're level 1, you'll only be able to afford a dinky power core, weapons, shields, etc. But as you gain levels, you can upgrade your little laser blaster mounted on the starboard side into, like, a tactical nuke launcher.

Upgrading a power core gives you more PCU (power core units) to provide the juice for your various systems, meaning that it's a good thing to upgrade first. You've also got a ship's computer that can aid in various checks made on the ship, and works the same way that other computers in the game do (which I haven't fully read about, but have various systems for hacking and countermeasures.) Then, beyond weapons, armor, shields, thrusters, and "drift" drives (which is your FTL transport system,) you can also add various facilities like extra guest quarters, hangars or shuttle bays, labs, or even entertainment like a freaking holodeck.

Similar to a player character's Stamina Points (SP) and Hit Points (HP,) ships have Shield Points and Hull Points (with conveniently the same abbreviations) that work in a similar manner. However, the shields are actually spread out between four quadrants, and can be rearranged by a crew member each round to provide more protection to the side of the ship that's getting hit by more things.

I have yet to read about starship combat, but I actually think that the starship building rules are pretty fun, and while it was a little shocking to see that you don't actually spend any of the PCs money on the ship, the more I think about it the more that feels like a way of getting rid of an impediment for fun. I mean, I'd want to get my character the coolest weapons and armor and not worry that I wasn't contributing to the ship's badass-ness.

One of my favorite current TV shows is The Expanse. In one of the first episodes, the main characters get a hot-shot Martian warship through "legitimate salvage" (technically the ship was given to them by a dying officer while its mothership was about to blow up,) which I sort of think of as being like if a level 1 or 2 party suddenly got their hands on a Tier 10 destroyer.

A starship often acts as "home" in a sci-fi story. The Enterprise (original, -D or -E, or the NX one,) the Roci from the Expanse, the Millennium Falcon - these are iconic but are also kind of beloved, a character in their own right. It sounds to me like a Starfinder campaign would really benefit from such a thing (also, the AI in the ship's computer tends to actually develop a personality, so you could have a lot of fun with that as a GM.)

We'll have to see how the combat rules work, but honestly, I was worried this system would be too complicated, and now I'm fairly pleased with how setting up the ship, at least, works.