TACTICAL STARSHIP RULES

Tactical starship encounters take place in encounter mode and function just like any other combat encounter in many ways. In a tactical starship encounter, PCs and their adversaries act in sequence, using initiative and playing out a series of rounds. Each round has turns that function the same as a normal combat encounter, with each PC having the usual number of actions and reactions.

The key difference between a tactical starship encounter and a typical combat encounter is that starship encounters take place on board the players' starship; they use a starship map depicting the parts of their starship as well as a sensor map displaying other starships and hazards in the vicinity. When acting as crew members during a tactical starship encounter, PCs can use most of their abilities as normal, but if they want to interact with starship-scale objects on the sensor map, they'll need to helm a battle station (such as gunnery or scanners). Starship stations grant special actions that can only be used while helming that station, but a crew member isn't confined to a single station. A crew member might begin combat at a gunnery station, then move to the engine room to fight off boarders or fix a malfunction, then return to the gunnery station to finish off an enemy starship. Meanwhile, another crew member might spend the whole time at the pilot's console performing desperate maneuvers to evade enemy fire!

A character-scale combat encounter might take place on board the player starship—such as if a rampaging garaggakal phases through the hull and begins stalking the crew. The starship's battle stations won't have any effect against the garaggakal, and a sensor map would be useless to track its movement. To change this scene to a tactical starship encounter, the same combat with the garaggakal might occur during a deep space skirmish with Aeon Guard starships, or the garaggakal's presence might alert a nearby Hellknight patrol sworn to purge the monster at all costs—even if it means battling the crew trying to contain it!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

To use tactical starship combat in your game, you'll need everything you use for a typical combat encounter, as well as:

• A starship sheet with details about the crew's starship, its customizations, and its statistics. A blank starship sheet can be found on page 260.
• A starship map depicting the player starship, such as a Starfinder Flip-Mat, a custom map from an adventure, or a map of your own creation. More information on creating starship maps can be found on page 167.
• A sensor map that's easily visible to the GM and all players; see page 168 for a sensor map example.
• A list of the station actions granted by the battle stations on the player starship (pages 178-183).
• Statistics for one or more enemy starships or starship hazards, such as those on pages 210-255.
• Familiarity with the new rules for tactical starship combat on pages 170-174, such as new conditions, terms, and traits.

STARSHIP SHEET

Adventurers who have decided to take to the stars on their own terms need a starship. A starship isn't only the crew's primary mode of transportation between planets, but it's also their home and refuge during long journeys exploring the vast galaxy of Desna's Path. As the crew levels up, their starship grows more powerful as well. Battle stations on higher-level starships grant additional benefits and might even grant additional upgrade slots. The crew can enhance and rebuild their starship to suit their needs without any extra cost while at a port, allowing them to experiment freely with various battle stations and upgrades. Like any adventurer in the party, the starship has a character sheet describing its capabilities and tracking its upgrades.

A player starship sheet has a similar structure to player character sheets. It lists the starship's Hull Points, Shield Points, AC, Speed, sensor range, size, traits, and saving throw modifiers. Many of these statistics are derived from the starship frame chosen (page 196). The starship's AC and saving throws can improve when crew members helm certain battle stations on the ship.

The starship sheet lists the number of expansion bays available on the player starship. An expansion bay is a room or deck that can house facilities such as a medical bay or leisure spaces like a holo den, which can facilitate certain downtime activities or give other boons. These facilities are listed on the sheet, along with the benefits they provide. You can find the list of expansion bays on pages 194-195.

The starship sheet also lists the starship's battle stations and other equipment like weapons and upgrades.

You can find a blank starship sheet in the back of this book or on paizo.com as a free PDF. While you might have one player or the GM handle the work of tracking and updating the starship's statistics, it's a good idea to keep a copy of the crew's starship sheet for each player as well as for the GM so everyone knows the most up-to-date statistics, options, and other important information about the ship's capabilities during tactical starship combat.

START SMALL

Most starships have a limited number of stations and station upgrades, especially at low levels, so there's no need for everyone to familiarize themselves with every single rule in this book. It's better to start small and learn the rules that are most relevant to any given starship or player, then expand your knowledge as your party levels up and upgrades their ship.

STARSHIP MAP

During tactical starship combat, players represent their character's position and movements on board their starship using a battle map with a square grid, the same as any other combat encounter. Most tactical starship encounters occur on board the player starship, but they might also occur on board enemy starships.

Every crew should create a starship map indicating the position of each battle station. Each crew member typically begins starship combat helming a battle station, as determined by their exploration activity (page 174). Battle stations enable crew members to affect distant enemies detected by the starship's sensors, but sometimes, enemies board a player starship, or hazards appear on deck to represent malfunctions and other dangers. A map is essential for tracking encounters between the crew and boarding enemies or deck hazards.

Creatures and hazards might appear on the player starship. During an invasion or malfunction, the crew might choose to leave their battle stations to deal with these threats or ignore the problem until the threat comes to them. If left alone for too long, these threats can cascade into greater problems as invaders wreak havoc in an engine room or a hull breach begins to suck more and more air out from the starship's interior.

The players and the GM need to work together to build a wonderful home for the crew. Further guidelines for choosing or creating a suitable starship map can be found in the Starships in a Campaign section (pages 202-205).

A player can spend every turn helming one battle station, or they can switch to another battle station during the encounter. Reasons to switch battle stations include needing a new approach against a tough enemy, not having the means to repair your malfunctioning battle station, stepping in for a teammate who goes down, or simply wanting to change things up.