Best Way to Implement 'Ships as Characters'?

[Stan Shinn]

I'm gearing up for a Firefly QuestWorlds game for a convention in the fall, and I like the idea of a ship having its own abilities and flaws. The Serenity in Firefly and the Enterprise in Star Trek are both examples where I feel like the ship deserves special attention.

 

I am considering a simplified stat block for ships with fewer abilities than characters. Here's an example:

 

 

Quote

 

Name: The Eclipse

Abilities:

Blockade Runner 17

— Laser Canons +1

— Decoy/Chaff (launch to confuse enemy sensors) +1

— Twin Engines +1

Hidden Compartments 13

Flaws: Old Ship (Constant Need for Maintenance) 17

 

 

 

 

I am conflicted about how you'd roll for the ship and also roll for the character operating the ship.

 

One idea is to roll for the ship's ability and use the PC's skill as an augment. Or you could do the reverse. But since augments aren't rolled, it would remove the benefit of one or the other of the stat blocks rated since you don't roll for augments.

 

Another approach is to have the ship's abilities not be rated, and they would only be used as an automatic augment when it made narrative sense.

 

Yet another idea is to re-introduce the mechanic from prior editions of having to roll to see if the augment happens.

 

Any thoughts on how to approach all this? Thanks in advance!

[el_octogono]

I would leave the full stats because you never know when you might use them. For example, a virus might be introduced to the ship's system and try to disable its defenses. In that case you'll probably roll the virus ability to infiltrate, directly against the ship, or its system stat.

Edited July 17, 2023 by el_octogono
typos

[Mameluco]

Instead of stating the ship as a character, I'd use the community rules - are they still a thing in QW? - and stat the ship as the player's community.

[David Scott]

We treated starships as companions (3 Keywords/skill 17, 13, 13 & 15 points):

Aged Starship 1M

• Laser turrets +1
• Sensors +1
• Cargo hold +1

Nimble 13

Aged 13 (Flaw)

[Ali the Helering]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:48 AM, David Scott said:

We treated starships as companions

I would do it the other way round, with the 'bridge' and 'away' folk as supporting characters

[David Scott]

11 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

I would do it the other way round, with the 'bridge' and 'away' folk as supporting characters

We assumed that supporting crew were part of the keyword, although I'm pretty sure at one point we added a better pilot as a breakout (I wasn't running the ship so I don't have the card). We did give the crew names though (like a +0 breakout).

[Akhôrahil]

You could also treat it as a Community, even if it doesn't include any people apart from the PCs.

[g33k]

I'd have the ship augment the characters.
You want it to be the players' rolls, so they get augment'ed by the ship, not augment the ship's rolls (then it's also the ship augmenting the NPC's, for consistency).

Unless you're moving to something like McCaffrey's Ship Who Sang 'verse (or other ship-as-PC setting), of course!
 

On 7/20/2023 at 1:55 AM, David Scott said:

We assumed that supporting crew were part of the keyword, although I'm pretty sure at one point we added a better pilot as a breakout (I wasn't running the ship so I don't have the card). We did give the crew names though (like a +0 breakout).

I think crew-as-keyword works (with breakouts for particularly-skilled crew).
I don't know the community rules well enough to comment, but intuitively that "should" be a good approach.