Anywhere I can find consistent spaceship rules for RP use?

[Jcook119]

Good evening,

I am running a Fading Suns adventure for my gaming group as a sample to see if they want to play it as a campaign. I am looking over the current rulebook (Revised Ediiton Players Guide), my old copies of Second Edition FS, Forbidden Technologies, and a few other books. I cannot find any list of starship stats for RPG use (as opposed to miniatures rules) that is consistent with any other books or that is comprehensive. I don't have the original Noble Armada rules, but I did buy the ACTA:NA rulebook at it isn't really what I am looking for.

As an example, the Revised Edition rulebook gives the Ship Class chart on page 350. It then gives a few specific examples of ship builds, such as the Wayfarer Explorer, the Hornet class frigate, etc. Did anyone ever put out any design rules that work well with the RPG side of the game?

Thanks,
James

[angelicmadrigal]

Our GM does a lot with spaceships. I know for combat he uses the Noble Armada rules. I can ask him tonight over AIM what he uses for everything else. However, just to keep in mind my group plays 2nd Edition.

[Anunnaki]

Hiya,

The FSR Player's Guide (and the FS2 rulebook) have an (somewhat) abstract system for handling combat. The FSR Player's Guide includes some content related to what player characters can do aboard a starship.

Noble Armada (the HDI version) primarily covers the miniatures battles side of things. The NAEE (Expanded Edition) book has a chapter on roleplaying and integrating FS characters into the NA game. HDI also produce and sell floorplans for some starship designs (http://www.holistic-design.com for details on those).

However, there isn't a comprehensive set of RPG starship stats for all of the ships in the FS milieu.

Hope this helps!

Kind regards, James

[Bogie]

Just as an aside: How are you looking to integrate the spaceship rules into your game? Will it be characters as part of the crew with actions happening inside the ship or will you be breaking out of the character level interaction and moving to a starship level of interaction?

[Jcook119]

Both levels, but I am mainly just looking for RP-based stats for the various Houses ships. I don't want to turn my game into a wargame, but I'd like a bit more detail than the rules have given so far. For example, the rulebook gives stats for 7 different ships (Al Malik and Hawkwood Explorers, Hawkwood Frigate, League Sentry Escort, etc.) I would like to see similar statblocks on the rest of the ships from the Noble Armada lists. Also, there can be significant differences between ships of the same class/size rating. Some have more guns, more passenger space, etc. than others. I'd like to see some more detailed rules on building/modifying ships to reflect this. While I am comfortable hand-waving these things to a degree, my group mainly consists of miniatures gamers who like a more detail.

[Bogie]

Thank you for the input. I'll see what we can do to make that happen. As it stands right now, unfortunately, we just have what is in the PG and the GM guide isn't going to have the space to expand on that.

For me personally, spaceships are what it is all about in Science Fiction games so I get where you are coming from.

[Jcook119]

Thanks Todd. Maybe this would be a good idea for including in a future book. Or even better as a low-cost PDF you could sell through RPGNow or other venues.

[Angelman]

[jaynapavlin]

consistent rules would be great but I think so far we have handled it with the rules on hand. Looking forward the the GM's guide in the meantime. I am sure it will be worth the wait!

[Bogie]

I am working on a couple of ships that are mentioned in the GM's guide to post up on the web with the bossman's approval.