Starfinder2e Ship-Building

I thought it was weird that this didn't exist in the base game... so I did it myself. This project is a comprehensive subsystem designed for Starfinder 2nd Edition, developed by Paizo. It provides players with rules for making custom starships, upgrading them, modifying them, and fighting with them. The entire system was written over the course of a few days, and then it was peer-reviewed and polished to be legible to people other than me. You can read through the entire system below, or at this link.

This project, more than most, really pushed my game design muscles. I had seen and read through add-on subsystems for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) before, and am quite familiar with the concept, but I had never taken on the challenge of designing one by myself. It’s an interesting concept, because while it is very heavy on the game design thought, it is also intrinsically an addition to someone else’s structuring, and as a result, requires a certain analytical lens put toward the basic systems. Especially with a system as large as Starfinder 2nd Edition, having knowledge of, and doing research on, different parts of the system is so important for the ability to ask questions like “how does this aspect of the subsystem I am designing interact with an ability that a certain type of solarian could get if they were at least level 8 and had a specific ability?” Additionally, having a deep understanding of the system you are designing for allows for the joyous ponderance from the designer of, “I know the rules… how can I break them?” In working in tandem with Starfinder 2e, there was also a consideration that it needed to slot in with the rest of a much larger system, so all of the Mods and upgrades needed to be balanced around slotting in to existing treasure reward structures. As a result, a lot of time was spent comparing tables and making calculations based on values given in the Starfinder GM Core. 

Sizing

I made some bold choices in this system’s design, namely the jump to 10x10ft. squares for combat. Starfinder is deeply rooted in a 5x5ft. grid system, namely for the sake of character sizing, movement, and spell effects. With giving players the ability to shape their ship to their desires using the Cells system, it felt janky to have 10x10ft. Cells overlaid onto a 5x5 grid, and additionally, with the smallest size possible for a vehicle to be being a single 10x10ft. Cell, it just felt awkward to try and shoehorn the system into being laid on a 5x5ft. grid. Additionally, I think that changing some of the core tenants of combat will put players in a different headspace for ship combat than they would be for normal combat. I am curious to see how this change will work in playtests; I predict that for the most part, it will feel good and intuitive, but there will be edge cases where the GM will have to jump in and make decisions, but I think that is something that is just generally fine to rely on within any kind of tabletop game design.

Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew

Something that I felt was incredibly important to capture in this subsystem was the feeling that all of the characters are working together to run the ship, which I feel like is such a crucial aspect of both science fiction media and ship media in general. When the vehicle is taking fire, you have Han Solo leaving the cockpit, telling Chewbacca to take the wheel so he and Luke can go man the guns. All of the characters are operating different stations, each of them communicating over their comlinks to keep everyone up to date. Nearly all of the narrative texts we read in class this quarter had some level of emphasis on the smallness of a single person on a large vessel, and how only with a combined effort could they succeed.

This was one of the more difficult goals to accomplish, because I had trouble figuring out how to make sure players felt like they were both active in the encounter while feeling restricted to being part of a whole. Eventually, I came to the combat structure that made it into the system, where the ship is able to enter initiative as its own combatant, and giving a fulcrum, being the ship’s turn, to be leaned on for any once per round effects that players activated on their turn. 

With that in place, I thought it would be important to designate “Roles” for the characters to be able to fall into, giving some guidelines for what stations are available for players to commit themselves to. Realistically, without Roles the combat system would still stand, but I have found that oftentimes when options are not laid out and presented in front of the player, they may freeze up and sit aside, feeling like they do not have any way to help. With Roles, then, I needed to ensure that there were enough options for players to not feel restricted, while also making them mutable, allowing players to pick different Roles to fill in each round of combat. 

Hazards

Along with this teamwork, I thought that messing with that structure by the ability to throw in problems, different parts of the ship breaking or going offline, by using the Malfunction system, is super fun. I think that those hazards will really add to the roleplay, feeling like you need to shout down hallways to communicate a fire in the engine room, or running through the ship and discovering that a massive hole has torn everything in your cargo bay out into space feels like a really fun chaos to throw at players. Hazards, as well, are really good for kicking the player into action, by saying, “hey, your engines are down, if you’re not doing anything else that should probably get fixed ASAP.”

All Different Shapes and Sizes

My other main goal to see included in this subsystem was a tenant of science fantasy media that I feel is so important to the genre that not reflecting it in my design would be a disservice to the genre. That aspect, of course, is the vastly different shapes and sizes a spaceship can take. The idea that every encounter with a ship is a toss-up of what abilities it might have. Could they send a raiding party to our ship? Can they scramble our communications? Do they have any hidden weapons systems? That, along with the simple fact that one ship looks so different from another is such a fun aspect of science fantasy that I knew that I simply HAD to include it. 

In Starfinder 2e, as well as its companion system, Pathfinder 2e, vehicles follow similar rules to players, being represented by a series of squares depending on its size. A large horse-drawn wagon would look the same on a battlemap to a small tank, because they fill a similar size. Those are completely different vehicles, though! Especially when getting to spaceships, I thought it would be a shame to not be able to represent that while a Millenium Falcon and the Razor Crest are a similar size, they look completely different. 

This is what led me to the Cell system, where players are able to customize the shape of their ship. A large-sized ship can be a giant square, a big old fork looking thing, two rectangles connected by a bridge, or a whole slew of other things. Asking players to place down squares and actually build their ship, and then asking them to designate where on their ship they are attaching things, really adds to the play experience. Along with that, I thought that the Mods system was equally as important, designating a space for players to say, “well MY ship has a harpoon gun attached to it so that I can catch prey that’s trying to run from me.” I also think that providing options for new features as you level up your ship is really fun, and leads to players paging through the options and discussing, “guys, what if we bought a hangar?” 

Conclusion

There is so much simple fun in modification and customization, and that is something that I really wanted to reflect here. While designing this system, I was enraptured by the possibilities for play, and really felt at times that I was playing myself, building little sections of a Lego set that my players will then be able to use to construct their own custom ship. I will definitely be bringing this to my Starfinder table for playtesting, because I honestly do feel like what I have here is really good, and playtesting will allow me to work out any kinks that might exist. I have been so happy to pour hours and hours into this, and I feel like it has been a very fun challenge that has made me a better game designer.