Giving a party a ship

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:04 am

I'm going to try running Dragonstar, a very early third party Space Fantasy setting for D&D. It's literally Dungeons and Dragons IN SPACE.

But because it was so early, it wasn't done as well as it could have been and I don't think it got more than ten books, total.

The set up is that the party will be working for the Dragon Empire, and are going to be given a ship. I want to let them build the ship together, but Dragonstar doesn't really have ship building rules so far as I can tell, and is limited in actual ships. Also, the prices are complete asspull territory. Their corvette class ship could be sold for enough to buy five corvette class ships from SWSaga.

My friend who is much more familiar with Star Wars suggested a budget of 50-100K for building a ship using SWSaga rules. I'm thinking about taking a look at Mutants and Masterminds and d20 Mecha, but does anyone have any advice on how to handle this?

mlangsdorf · Post by **mlangsdorf** » Wed Nov 30, 2016 1:40 pm

I'd just give them a list of options that look fairly balanced to you and let them choose from a list.

ie, their base ship is a YT-1300 with a crew of 2, 10 passengers, 100 tons cargo, speed 12, and armor +14.

Extra armor plating is +10 armor, -2 speed, -20 cargo.
Faster engines are +4 speed, -10 cargo.
More cabins are +10 passengers, -10 cargo.
Smuggling compartments are -10 cargo per 5 tons of concealed cargo.
A turret is -10 cargo.

And so on and so forth. Some options might be exclusive - for example, faster engines can't be taken if you take more powerful engines. You might even give them a small cash budget and use that to balance some options but I suspect that would be tricky and annoying.

I've used this approach of customizing off a list and my players seemed to appreciate it because it minimized the cognitive load for them.

Harshax · Post by **Harshax** » Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:23 pm

Yeah, unless you plan to play ship-dragon-wars, CarWars but with ships, but in D&D, but in space, I would just give the group a list of ship options that let them theme their boat for exploration, smuggling, blockade-running, etc.

Shady314 · Post by **Shady314** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:59 am

Id just give them a couple ships I either chose or built so I am familiar with its capabilities and know it will be powerful without being broken and their choice can keep the group on the same page. If they pick the smuggler cargo freighter there will be different expectations than if they pick the upgunned corsair and I can adjust the campaign accordingly.

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:07 am

Harshax wrote:ship-dragon-wars, CarWars but with ships, but in D&D, but in space,

Yes, I realize the typography is all over the place. That just added to my own personal amusement.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:47 am

Uhm....

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 11:15 am

I think Harshax hit the nail on the head. Unless (by some miracle) playing with the vehicle rules is just as much fun as playing actual D&D, you're better off just hand-waving it as much as possible.

My main beef with ship combat rules is that it tends to turn into one player piloting the ship and the rest of the players going off to play Super Smash Brothers because there's little for them to do.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 11:27 am

hogarth wrote:I think Harshax hit the nail on the head. Unless (by some miracle) playing with the vehicle rules is just as much fun as playing actual D&D, you're better off just hand-waving it as much as possible.

My main beef with ship combat rules is that it tends to turn into one player piloting the ship and the rest of the players going off to play Super Smash Brothers because there's little for them to do.

That's my experience as well, even in cases where supposedly each character would have their own role, crewing the ship.

Are there any systems out there that handle vehicle combat well?

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 11:40 am

Dungeons the Dragoning book 2 (found somewhere on this blog) actually has some pretty good ship rules that integrate the whole party, like they're the bridge crew of a federation starship. It's gonna be a kludge because the base resolution system is an actual April's fools joke, but everything on top of it is above board and actually pretty awesome.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 11:59 am

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Fri Dec 02, 2016 11:03 pm

Hicks wrote:Dungeons the Dragoning book 2 (found somewhere on this blog) actually has some pretty good ship rules that integrate the whole party, like they're the bridge crew of a federation starship.

So you mean Kirk and Spock get to go off and do stuff while Uhura and Sulu get the shaft?

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sat Dec 03, 2016 9:39 am

hogarth wrote:
Hicks wrote:Dungeons the Dragoning book 2 (found somewhere on this blog) actually has some pretty good ship rules that integrate the whole party, like they're the bridge crew of a federation starship.
So you mean Kirk and Spock get to go off and do stuff while Uhura and Sulu get the shaft?

Sounds like a fanfic I'd read

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Dec 03, 2016 12:02 pm

Sulu's the pilot and Uhura's the comms officer(?). They're bridge crew, so if there's something ship-focused happening, they should be involved at least as much as Spock. Though Uhura's role might need to be expanded a little.

Aryxbez · Post by **Aryxbez** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 5:55 am

I seriously conflated the name of that game with This One, because apparently I feel like they're the same idea (D&D in space). I recall space being a thing in that game as well, so surely could take the ideas that worked (if any) from there?

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Tue Dec 13, 2016 5:16 pm

Dragonmech does not have adventures in space so much as it has moon dragons from space that occasionally eat you, and space rain that rains down rocks from space on your head every day. You still adventure on earth highpoint, but the campaign world is just as terrestrial as any other setting, until you just planeshift somewhere else or greater teleport accross the universe or whatever.