Today I continue talking about running Star Trek with Fate Accelerated. Let's get to some starships!
Part 1, Characters HERE!
And once again, credit where credit is due...
Influences
Resources
Star Trek Online wiki: http://sto.gamepedia.com
STARSHIPS
Starships are created like Fate Accelerated characters. Thank you, Fate Fractal!
A Starship has aspects, refresh, stress, and consequences, but it has no approaches.
Aspects
A starship has four aspects
Classification: This is the ship’s class and primary purpose. Nova class science vessel; Constitution class heavy cruiser; Danube class runabout
Assets: What makes your particular ship special, above and beyond its standard classification? Experimental transwarp drive; A distressing large number of phaser banks; Just damned massive
Weakness: No ship is perfect. What problem plagues your starship? Constant maintenance problems; Weak shields; Unresponsive controls
Reputation: What do people think about your ship. What have they heard about the ship and its crew? The pride of Starfleet; The scrappiest little frigate in Alpha Quadrant; Ragtag crew of misfits.
Approaches
A ship has no approaches of its own. Crew members will make all the rolls for their ship using their own Approaches.
Refresh and Fate Points
Like a character, a starship has refresh and Fate Points. These Fate Points can be used by any crew member to tag or invoke the ship’s aspects or aspects that have been placed on the ship or its crew. Refresh starts at 3 and can be reduced in order to purchase extra stunts.
Stress and Consequences
Like any character, the ship starts with 3 stress boxes and 3 levels of consequences. This is adequate for most cruiser-sized ships, the most common size of ship in Star Trek. Unusually large ships like a Borg Cube or the Doomsday Machine may have considerably more stress boxes, and maybe even an extra mild or moderate consequence available.
Typically, stress represents shields and other ablative defenses, while consequences represents structural damage, system failures, and crew casualties.
Example Mild Consequences: Sparking control panels; Crew knocked around
Example Moderate Consequences: Casualties reported on decks seven through twelve; Shields collapsed
Example Severe Consequences: Reactor breach; Life support off-line
Stunts
A starship starts with 2 stunts and can purchase more by spending Refresh.
Example Starship Stunts
Because our overcharged phasers are deadly at long range, our ship gets +2 to quickly attack another ship that is at least two zones away.
Because our quantum torpedos devastate unshielded hulls, our ship gets +2 to forcefully attack another ship that currently has at least one consequence.
Because our starship has many luxury accommodations, the crew gets +2 to flashily create advantages while impressing visiting dignitaries and other VIPs.
Because our ship has expert emergency engineering crews, once per session the ship can clear out all its stress and/or its mild consequence.
Because our ship has reinforced shields, it has an extra stress box.
Because our ship has an advanced sensor array, it gets +2 to carefully create advantages when discovering aspects on a planet or another starship.
Because our ship has point defense lasers, it gets +2 to quickly defend against torpedoes.
Because our ship has a Romulan cloaking device, it gets +2 to sneakily create advantages related to stealth or invisibility.
Example Starship
U.S.S. Avalon
Classification: Miranda class science vessel
Assets: Highly-adaptable deflector dish
Weakness: Doesn’t carry torpedoes
Reputation: Nothing escapes the Avalon’s eyes
Stunts
Because the Avalon has an advanced sensor array, the crew gets +2 to carefully create advantage when discovering aspects on a planet or another starship.
Because the Avalon is fast and scrappy, the helmsman gets +2 to quickly overcome obstacles when moving from zone to zone.
Refresh: 3
Stress: OOO
NPC Ships
Instead of statting out the complete bridge crew for an NPC ship, you can just give each important bridge position a score (captain, tactical, engineering, communication, helm). On the NPC ship’s turn, each position makes a roll using its score. Tactical makes attacks, and helm defends against attacks from other ships.
Bridge Position Descriptions
Captain: Issues orders, rallies the crew, makes tactical decisions
Tactical: Makes attacks
Helm: Moves the ship around, avoids attacks
Engineering: Buffs the ship, repairs damage, does weird things with the deflector dish
Communications: Runs scanners, analyzes data, and coordinates crew activities
If your PC crew has less than five players, you might want to reduce the number of stations on an NPC ship, so your players aren’t outmatched.
An NPC ship should only have a Reputation aspect if the specific ship is notable for some reason.
Example NPC Ships
ROMULAN WARBIRD
Classification: Vas Hatham-class cruiser
Assets: Powerful plasma torpedoes
Weakness: Overtaxed power core
Bridge Positions
Captain: +3
Tactical: +2
Helm: +2
Engineering: +1
Communications: +1
Stunts
Because the Warbird has a Romulan cloaking device, it gets +2 to sneakily create advantages related to stealth or invisibility.
Because the Bird of Prey is equipped with disruptors, it gets +2 to sneakily attack while under the effect of a cloaking-based aspect.
Refresh: 3
Stress: OOO
KLINGON BIRD of PREY
Classification: D7-class cruiser
Assets: Burly workhorse of a ship
Weakness: Weak belly plating
Bridge Positions
Captain: +2
Tactical: +3
Helm: +1
Engineering: +2
Communications: +1
Stunts
Because the Bird of Prey also has a cloaking device, it gets +2 to sneakily create advantages related to stealth or invisibility.
Because the Warbird is powerful and well-built, it has an extra stress box.
Because the Warbird is bristling with weapons, It gets a +2 to forcefully attack another ship under a “Focused Fire” aspect.
Refresh: 2
Stress: OOOO
GORN DESTROYER
Classification: Naga-class destroyer
Assets: Unusually powerful shields
Weakness: Slow to maneuver
Bridge Positions
Captain: +1
Tactical: +2
Helm: +2
Engineering: +3
Communications: +1
Stunts
Because the destroyer’s deflector screen are incredibly powerful, it gets +2 to cleverly create advantages when creating “Increase shield strength” or similar aspects.
Because the destroyer has powerful, long-range disruptors, it can make ranged attacks from up to 4 zones away, instead of 3.
Refresh: 3
Stress: OOO
ORION SCOUT SHIP
Classification: Drell-class corvette
Assets: Incredibly fast
Weakness: Small and lightly armored
Bridge Positions
Captain: +2
Tactical: +1
Helm: +3
Engineering: +1
Communications: +2
Stunts
Because the scout ship’s hull is made of high-density trititanium, it gets +2 to carefully defend or overcome obstacles when resisting detection from ships’ sensors.
Because the scout ship can enter combat at Warp Factor 10, it gets +2 to quickly defend against beam and torpedo attacks.
Refresh: 3
Stress: OOO
Space Combat
Unlike personal combat, in ship-to-ship conflicts all crew characters on one ship will take actions, then the crew an opposing ship will act. To determine the turn order, the captains of each ship make Clever rolls. The highest result goes first, followed by the second highest, etc.
A ship can only make one attack roll per round. This attacks is usually made by the tactical officer and opposed by the target ship’s helmsman. Other crew PCs make create advantage or overcome rolls and take other support actions. Typical bridge orders like “Reroute power from lise support to phasers,” “Execute defense maneuver Delta,” “Readjust shield harmonics,” are all create advantage actions. Once every character has taken an action, that ship’s turn is over, and we go to the next ship in the turn order.
A typical ship-to-ship exchange goes something like this:
The captain issues orders and rallies the crew, making create advantage rolls.
The helmsman moves the ship--one zone for free or he makes and overcome roll to move further. Alternately he might make Create Advantage actions to set up his crewmates. Communications, engineering, and other stations make Create Advantage or Overcome rolls to set up or remove aspects.
The tactical officer makes an attack. Hopefully he’ll have some nice new aspects he can tag for free. The opposing ship’s helmsman makes a defend roll.
And then we switch to the next ship...
Zones in Space
Each zone is about 100,000 kilometers (about half the distance from Earth to the moon).
Starship weapons have an effective range of 3 zones.
Teleporters have a range of 1 zone.
