While each vessel within a given starship class is created from the same design, individual ships within a class can vary widely based on their talents. These talents provide advantages during certain circumstances and can represent anything from specialized technologies to modified construction elements.
Every starship begins play with a number of talents equal to its Scale, some of which are provided by the ship’s class and its mission profile. Talents are separate from any special rules specific to the vessel.
Some talents have one or more specific requirements. These are conditions that must be fulfilled before the talent can be selected. Some requirements are tied to a particular year, representing a specific technology introduced in that year—these talents cannot be taken if the date of the game is prior to that year unless the gamemaster makes an exception.
Most talents have a condition and a benefit:
None of these talents may be selected more than once unless otherwise noted. If two different talents have benefits that can be combined, their benefits stack.
The vessel’s hull plating has an additional ablative layer that disintegrates slowly under extreme temperatures. Increase the ship’s Resistance by 2.
The ship’s subspace engines are state-of-the-art, using the latest developments, and it's grav vanes are specially tuned for defense. The ship’s maximum defense capacity is increased by 5.
The ship gains the Advanced Medical Ward or Advanced Sickbay trait, which applies to all tasks related to medicine and biology performed within the ward or sickbay. This stacks with the normal benefits of being in a sickbay.
The vessel is equipped with additional laboratories and long-term research facilities.
Whenever a character performs a task roll assisted by the ship’s Sensors, the ship may roll 2d20 for assistance rather than only one.
This talent cannot be used if the ship is suffering one or more breaches to Sensors.
At the end of a round, if no attacks were made using the ship’s weapons, the ship may make an energy weapon attack using its Weapons + Security (without assistance) against a target within Close range. Momentum may be used and generated as normal for this attack.
When a character on the ship succeeds at a Leadership task to create a trait, they may always be assisted by the ship’s Communications + Command, and they may confer the trait to allied ships, landing parties, or away teams with whom the ship maintains a communication link.
Choose a single department. The ship gains 2 additional Crew Support, which may only be used to establish supporting characters who are part of that department.
While most ships can act as a subspace relays, this ship has hardware specifically designed to act as a full subspace relay, allowing it to intercept or transmit subspace messages. These are considered highly illegal without proper licensing, however that doesn't stop some crews from installing them anyway.
Any tasks involving sending, receiving, or intercepting subspace or subspace communications have their Difficulty reduced by 1.
The ship’s mess hall is equipped with top-of-the-line food preparation systems as well as vast stores of non-replicated food.
Once per adventure, you may create a Fine Dining trait for free when the ship is visited by a VIP, diplomat, or other important guest. When a character attempts a task using Presence and/or Leadership and benefits from this trait, the character receives 1 bonus Momentum, which may not be saved.
The ship has numerous high-quality staterooms for hosting VIPs, as well as briefing rooms and other facilities that allow the ship to serve as a neutral ground for diplomatic summits, trade negotiations, and similar functions, including making environmental adjustments to make alien diplomats more comfortable.
When hosting negotiations, members of the crew may be assisted by the ship’s Computers + Command or Structure + Command.
Whenever a character at the communications station on the ship creates a trait to represent intercepting enemy communications, or to create interference or jamming signals which would hinder enemy communications, they may spend 1 Momentum to:
Whenever a character attempts a task to identify specific illnesses or injuries, or to determine the severity of a patient’s condition, they may diagnose a number of patients equal to the ship’s Medical rating. If the character also has the Triage talent, they may diagnose two additional patients by spending 1 Momentum (Repeatable).
During an extended task to process and treat many sick or injured patients, a character aboard the ship increases their Impact by 1.
The ship may add one weapon to its profile: either an energy weapon (choose an energy type and a delivery mechanism) or a missile/torpedo type.
This talent may be taken multiple times, adding a different weapon each time.
When you select this talent, select a single department on the ship with a score of 5. Whenever a ship assists a task roll using the chosen department, you may ignore a complication by spending 1 Momentum (Immediate, Repeatable).
The ship has been configured to operate on a much smaller crew, relying on automation to handle tasks normally performed by personnel. Even purely physical tasks can be replaced by automation, using compact technical drones.
While in medbay, when an extended task is attempted to study an unknown medical condition, or to develop a treatment for one, the characters performing the extended task each adds 1 to their Impact.
The vessel’s shuttlebays are large, well-supplied, and able to support a larger number of active shuttle missions simultaneously.
The ship’s Small Craft Readiness is increased by an amount equal to the ship’s Scale minus 1.
When you use the Targeting Solution minor action, you may gain both benefits:
The vessel’s sensors can gain large amounts of accurate data, though they are extremely sensitive. While the vessel is not in combat, any successful task assisted by the ship’s Sensors gains 1 bonus Momentum. Bonus Momentum may not be saved.
When a character takes the Damage Control action aboard the ship:
The ship’s hull has been reinforced to better endure stress and damage. The ship’s Resistance is increased by 1.
When a character uses the Impulse minor action while on this ship:
When a character uses the Launch Probe minor action:
Whenever the ship attempts to move through difficult terrain, reduce the Momentum cost of the difficult terrain by 1, to a minimum of 0.
NEEDS PORTED This needs to be ported to the new Dive rules.
Whenever the ship takes the Dive major action, roll a d20; if you roll equal to or under the ship’s Engines, you do not spend Reserve Power for the ship.
This ship's systems have been replaced with military-grade hardware (or in the event this was a decomissioned hull, there's a chance the systems were never properly removed). Your ship's Scale is increased by 1.
This talent may be taken even if the ship's talents equal it's current scale (as this talent would take up the slot opened by the scale increase).
The opportunity cost of establishing a science lab is reduced to 0 for the first laboratory established, and to 1 for the second.
While it didn't originally come with one, this ship has been outfitted with a system of small energy weapon turrets that operates independently from the main weapons systems. (If the spaceframe was designed with a PDS, look at the Special Rules version instead.)
The ship is considered to have Cover against projectile attacks, increasing the Difficulty of the attack by 1. This talent stops functioning if the ship has suffered one or more breaches to the Weapons system.
The vessel’s missile/torpedo launchers are designed to allow the ship to fire multiple torpedoes much more quickly and accurately. When the ship fires a torpedo salvo, the character at Tactical may re-roll a d20 on the Attack. Additionally, the weapon’s Damage rating is increased by 1.
Through a combination of advanced alloys, EM shielding, and electronic countermeasures, the starship is difficult to detect via electromagnetic radiation and subspace sensors. Tasks attempting to scan or detect the vessel increase in Difficulty by 1.
Select a single system when this talent is chosen. When that system suffers a breach, the crew may choose to activate this talent in response; doing so immediately patches the breach inflicted. These redundant systems may only be activated once per episode.
Whenever a task roll is attempted to patch or repair a breach, a d20 may be re-rolled. Further, if the task is successful, the crew may spend Momentum to patch a second breach; this will cost 2 Momentum, plus +1 per additional step of Potency on that second breach.
When a character in the stellar cartography laboratory or at navigation attempts a task to plot a course or map a large region of space, they may re-roll a d20. Further, if such a task creates a trait to represent a planned course or knowledge about the region, this trait automatically increases its Potency by one step.
The ship’s mines are equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technology, making them almost impossible to detect. Mines that the ship places have the Hidden 2 Weapon Quality.
This ship has special designed systems to mask it from sensors. Unlike ECM / ECCM, these systems do not actively emit anything, instead looking to mask or hide the ship's emissions as well as absorb incoming active sensors. To activate this a Reason + Systems task with a Difficulty of 2, assisted by the ship’s Engines + Security, as this task must be done from the tactical position. If successful, the vessel gains the Stealth trait. While stealthed, the vessel cannot use any Helm Major actions and if you use the Impulse action, you may only move 1 zone up to Medium range.
Deactivating the Stealth systems requires a minor action.
A ship with a variable geometry grav field can adjust its subspace field in highly turbulent spacetime and can continue to provide propulsive force even then. When you attempt a task to go to dive, you may select one trait in play which negatively affects the task roll, and ignore its effects.
When you select this talent:
When you make an attack using that energy weapon, you may use the alternate energy weapon type for the attack, but the complication range of that attack is increased by 1.
You may select this talent multiple times, choosing a different energy weapon type each time.