Space Ships

T he galaxy’s calling to you. Ancient artifacts to find, untouched worlds to explore, raiders to defeat, military to outwit. Got a craft to travel the depths of space? In “Galactic Travel,” “Space-Faring Authorities,” “Starship Operations,” and “Space Combat” you’ll get details, including game mechanics, on what happens in inhabited systems. You’ll find out about chartering a ship (in case yours breaks down), how the law might deal with you, and how to handle your ship in a fight.

Should you be looking to upgrade or replace your ship — or you need to get a new one — go for the custom model and create your own with “Revised Ship Design.” With greater flexibility, this chapter offers three related ship design guidelines, more modules, more weapons, and more options. Follow all of the steps for detailed ship creation, or use the information as inspiration for your own freeform ships.

If those options aren’t enough, “Quirky Ships,” shows you how to include Disadvantages, Advantages, and Special Abilities in your vessel to make it truly unique. (Game Masters may also find this section helpful for adding flavor to used ships that the players’ characters want to purchase.)

“Ship Entries,” gives well over a dozen different basic ships, including sample examples for each type of ship design guideline. You can use them as they’re presented, or modify them to suit your needs. Of course, with a ship, you need something to do with it.

In “Adventures in Space,” “Alien Encounters,” “Interstellar Hazards,” and “Politics and Contraband” you’ll find out just what’s waiting for you. There’re tons of adventure seeds, plus details on gearing campaigns toward specific types of characters, including pirates and the military. If you’re not sure what kind of ship you want, this is a great place to get some ideas.

“Planet Creation,” provides Game Masters with the means of quickly creating planets for their players’ characters to explore.

“Templates” includes one for advanced ship design, one for freeform ship design, and one for planet creation. Though broad in its scope, this section is slanted toward the space opera subgenre, but Game Masters may include equipment restrictions, additional action modifiers, and other details as appropriate for their setting.

A System Reference Document and Development Forum for OpenD6.