Good morning everyone! We're excited to announce that the first of our unlocked Stretch Goal miniature sets is now available for purchase! The Starships Set is a range of miniatures approximately 1:270 scale (e.g. approximately 2" - 5" long), perfect for representing your party's ship(s) as well as those they encounter! 

You can view the Add-On here and can amend your Pledge to include it as desired!

We're excited to be working on the models now, whilst also adding to the range based on community feedback!

Ships within ZOR are as varied as the individuals crewing them. From the sleek lines of Venorathi frigates to the brutalist functionality of the Brask shipyards, there is a craft matched to every individual requirement and taste.

Given that Players will spend a great deal of time in space, we've created a comprehensive ruleset for these vessels and how they are operated! Here's a very brief (and WIP) excerpt of some rules below:

Each Starship or Orbital Platform has its own profile, including Class, Designation, Size, Crewing, Berth, Shields, Armour/HP, Hardpoints, Armaments, Hull Space, Facilities, Attributes, Fuel, Power, & Signature.

Ship Class 

Ship class (and size) has a bearing on gameplay, where some ship upgrades may only be available to certain classes or sizes of ships, whilst player or NPC skills and abilities may also apply in the same manner. Similarly, some ship classes and sizes may be difficult to pilot without requisite experience - this will be detailed in the individual ships entry if applicable.

Has no bearing on rules, however provides additional flavour and information as to how these ships might typically be utilized - for example, a luxury vessel, asteroid miner, electronic warfare variant, planetary garrison, etc.

Size

This is provided in general terms and is indicative depending upon the Class of ship - for example, a heavy shuttle will still be smaller than a light Corvette.

Crewing information is provided for specific ‘Stations’ available within the ship, with a value that reflects the minimum and/or maximum crew that can be allocated to each Station. All ships require a Pilot, and for small ships like Fighters or Bombers this will be the only Station.

Stations reflect physical locations within a ship, for example the engine room or targeting desk, and require Player or NPC interaction to utilise (‘crewing’). Entering a station is a bonus action. A station may have a single purpose, or offer multiple depending upon the ship.

A crewed station may make one of the following actions for each action that entity could normally make, unless that player or NPC elects to use their ships ‘Power’. One point of Power may be used to make one additional action, unless it has a specific bonus depending upon the station. For example, Power may instead be allocated to increase armament damage or shield strength.

Berthing reflects the amount of crew that may comfortably live and sleep within the ship, and this value may be doubled assuming the crew work split shifts to share the same space. Additional Hull Space (below) can be dedicated to sleeping space as necessary.

Shield strength is expressed as a numerical value. Shields will absorb incoming damage, however once damage equal to the shield strength value has been incurred, the shield will no longer be active during that round of combat. Shields reset to their original value at the top of the next round unless Player or NPC actions, abilities, or otherwise affect this.

Incoming damage is reduced by the Armour value of the ship. Unlike shields, armour always affects incoming damage unless a Ship condition, weapon, player action, or other condition negates it.

Akin to hit points, this reflects the integrity of the ship hull. When HP reaches 0, the ship is rendered inoperable and drifts in space on its last bearing and speed. Any further damage will likely destroy it at the DM’s discretion.

Certain ship upgrades or items might require hardpoints to be affixed to. For example, a heavy cannon might require two hardpoints per cannon. Certain ship upgrades or Player skills may provide additional ship hardpoints.

This value refers to how much raw space the ship has for carriage of goods. The value is expressed as raw tonnage for ease of gameplay, whilst volumetric space is at the DM’s discretion / within reason.

Larger or more specialty ships may have dedicated areas for medicine, science, electronic warfare, boarding actions, or otherwise. Facilities may also be added to ships as required depending upon the size/class of ship and available Hull Space.

Fuel is measured in terms of jumps before a ship is required to be refueled. Some ships can be considered to contain some manner of backup or rechargeable fuel cells, powered by solar, fusion, Arcai, or other sources of energy.

Our intent with Crewing & Stations is that each player will take a unique and meaningful role in interactions, exploration, and combat.  After all, some of the most exciting 'set pieces' in RPGs occur when everything comes together as a result of teamwork!

Ship to Ship Combat
Noting existing rulesets such as those within SF2e Player Core, we also propose some alternatives (also WIP)

All whilst this is occurring, perhaps additional hostile ships have entered local space whilst the party is distracted… 

We present a brief WIP excerpt of Boarding rules below too!

Boarding requires the following conditions:

Boarding actions originate between the hull space of docked ships, unless the DM, scenario, or specific rules dictate otherwise. The below rules will make reference to Intruders (those boarding) and Defenders (those being boarded).

Boarding actions may occur during an existing combat encounter, and if so, continue original initiative order, with the intruders / defenders taking turns accordingly. Intruders will be placed within 5ft of the entry at the beginning of their turn unless they choose to remain within their ship. 

Intruders can utilise hard knock methods such as breaching charges, including those that create irreparable holes or spalling; as well as soft knocks - beam cutters, spells, lockpicking & hacking... Their assault is nothing easy however, facing all manner of counter-intrusion equipment - Blast shields, mines, IR trip wires...

It goes without saying that we look forward to presenting multiple Subclasses related to this too! The Intrasolar Marine, Privateer, Smuggler, to begin with, let alone a range of specific Feats, Backgrounds, Skills, and more!

You might also remember our $30k Stretch Goal; the free Galaxy Starmap! This foldable map is intended for Hexcrawls - the process of procedurally exploring locations divided into hexagonal tiles (hexes), where each hex represents a distinct area or location.  The Starmap has no set scale, and could reflect an entire solar system, or a small area of space where players find themselves in combat! We hope that it's a fun addition not only for GMs, but those players who see themselves as budding navigators... More on this soon!

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We hope that these snippets give you an indication of the thought and depth we are putting into this project, and want to thank you again for all the support now and in the future!!

Cheers as always,

Bags, Koinu, & the ZOR team