Starship

**Starship** is the Endowment of the Void Engineers, and represents a vehicle used to travel between worlds.

Upon gaining her first dot of Starship, a hunter gains a free dot in Hull.

Hunters may possess any number of Starship dots, but only five in any one Merit.

### Sidebar: Doctor McCoy to the Bridge!

The Starship Endowment is one that can be (and usually is) communal; a Cell can be a squad of space marines, but being a crew on a space vessel is more common. Starship Merits may be bought as group Merits or individual Merits, similar to Safehouse. One exception is that all aspects of the Starship use only the highest rating.

If a Cell with a shared Starship breaks up, the ship is lost and the Merit dots are refunded as per Sanctity of Merits, with the exception that they may only be spent on Starship.

At all times that someone is aboard the Starship, one person aboard who contributed Merit dots, chosen by the Cell, is the pilot. The pilot's dice pools are relevant for certain tasks. The pilot also makes any decisions about actions taken using the Starship.

## Hull

The **Hull** of a Starship indicates how many people it can carry.

X: No one. The Starship is an automated probe. Minimum Size: 3.

O: One person. The Starship is a vacuum suit or powered armor. Minimum Size: 6

OO: Five people. Minimum Size: 9

OOO: 25 people. Minimum Size: 20

OOOO: 625 people. Minimum Size: 30

OOOOO: 390625 people. Minimum Size: 100

## Shields

A Starship's **Shields** protect its crew and passengers against direct attack.

X: The Starship provides no extra armor.

O: The Starship provides Armor 1/0.

OO: The Starship provides Armor 2/2.

OOO: The Starship provides Armor 3/3.

OOOO: The Starship provides Armor 5/5.

OOOOO: The Starship provides Armor 7/7.

### Magic Shield (O-OOOOO)

Each dot of Magic Shield acts as a dot of Supernatural Tolerance.

### Active Defense (OO)

**Prerequisites:** Shields 2, Weapons 1

Instead of applying Armor against an incoming attack, the Starship makes a reflexive bashing attack against each attacker, using the Armor rating as a dice pool. Each level of damage inflicted applies a -1 penalty to the attack roll.

If the Starship also has Set Phasers to Kill, the damage may be lethal or aggravated as per that Merit.

### Cloaking Device (O-OOOOO)

The Starship's Cloaking Device rating is applied as a penalty to all attempts to find it, and provokes a Clash of Wills against (pilot's Stealth)+Cloaking Device if a supernatural power is used to find the Starship.

### Ablative Armor (O-OOOOO)

The Starship gains Structure equal to its total Merit dots (other than Ablative Armor) times Ablative Armor, which must be destroyed before any person on board may be attacked from outside the Starship. Each time the Starship takes (Ablative Armor) damage, it loses one Merit dot chosen at random until it is completely repaired.

## Weapons

A Starship's **Weapons** allow it to make attacks against others. When taking Weapons, the hunter chooses between close-range (Intelligence+Weaponry) or long-range (Intelligence+Firearms). Each attack has a Damage rating equal to the Starship's dots in Weapons, and inflicts bashing damage.

### Variable Range (O)

**Prerequisite:** Weapons 1

The pilot may make both long-range and close-range attacks with Weapons.

### Set Phasers To Kill (O-OO)

**Prerequisite:** Weapons 2

The pilot may make lethal attacks with Weapons.

At two dots, the pilot may make aggravated attacks with Weapons.

## Helm

A Starship's **Helm** rating determines how quickly it can travel. In practical terms, a Starship cannot effectively travel outside the distance provided by this rating.

### Restrictions on Travel

Without the Voyager Merit, a Starship can only travel between "known locations". A location is considered known if a Cell with the Trailblazer Merit has spent a day making it known to themselves, and a hunter who knows the location has shared it with the hunter making the journey. All non-secret and undefended locations on Earth are considered "known".

A Starship can only travel unhindered to places that are not defended against travel, and can only leave places that do not prevent things from leaving. Any attempt to travel to or from such places provokes a Clash of Wills against whoever or whatever is preventing travel, using the pilot's Intelligence+Helm. No confirmed accounts exist of a Void Engineer leaving the Hedge by anything other than a normal exit or flying out of Hell.

X: The "Starship" can only go as far or as fast as the pilot.

O: The "Starship" can travel anywhere on the same planet in a day.

OO: The "Starship" can travel anywhere in the same solar system in a day.

OOO: The Starship can travel anywhere in the same galactic arm in a day, and anywhere in the same galaxy in a week.

OOOO: The Starship can travel anywhere in the same galactic group in a day.

OOOOO: The Starship can travel absolutely anywhere in the observable universe in a day.

### Piercing the Veils (O-OOO)

The Starship can travel to a single other reality, such as the Shadow or the Astral Realm. At one dot, the Starship can only access "nearby" realities such as Twilight or the Underworld. At two dots, the Starship can access further realities, such as the Primordial Dream or Arcadia. At three dots, the Starship can access any reality, including the Supernal Realms or alternate timelines.

This provides no protection against the hazards of another reality; see Life Support for details.

### Voyager (O)

**Prerequisite:** Helm 3

The Starship may travel to and from unknown locations, at half its normal speed. Use the normal travel rules.

### Trailblazer (OO)

**Prerequisites:** Helm 4, Voyager

The Starship may make its current location "known" with one hour of work.

### Evasive Maneuvers (OO)

**Prerequisites:** Helm 1, any Shields Merit

The Starship may treat (pilot's Dexterity+Drive)+Helm as Defense, and adds that to the Defense of any being on board against any outside attacker.

## Scanners

**Scanners** represents the Starship's ability to detect phenomena not normally visible to the human eye. In addition to the effects of the Merit itself, the pilot adds the Starship's Scanners rating to all perception rolls.

X: The Starship provides no detection ability beyond that of the pilot herself.

O: The Starship allows the pilot to see in ultraviolet and infrared, and to hear in ultrasound and subsonics. In addition to other effects of this ability, the pilot gains night vision and the benefits of the Danger Sense Merit.

OO: The Starship can scan the spectral lines of anything present. The pilot can make Intelligence+Science rolls to identify unknown substances as a reflexive action.

OOO: The Starship detects all forms of electromagnetic radiation, vibration, and chemical release. The pilot adds the Scanners rating to all attempts to track, locate, or uncover anything not hidden by supernatural methods.

OOOO: The Starship's sensors work faster than light. Speed, even FTL travel, applies no penalties to detect a hidden object, and the pilot automatically acts first on the initiative order.

OOOOO: The Starship can detect supernatural phenomena. The pilot gains the benefits of the Unseen Sense (All) Merit. In addition, the pilot may attempt an Intelligence+Occult roll as an instant action, with each success revealing one aspect of any supernatural phenomenon detected.

### Active Scans (OOO)

**Prerequisite:** Sensors 1

The pilot may, if finding something is more important than not being found, make use of active scanning. For the remainder of the scene, any mundane attempt to prevent the pilot from detecting that a specific target exists and is present is reduced to a chance die, and supernatural attempts provoke a Clash of Wills using the pilot's Wits+Scanners. Note that this provides no benefit for picking out a specific object out of a large number. Also, this only applies to things that the pilot would normally have a chance to detect; something on the other side of a wall opaque to every sense the pilot has is unaffected.

**Drawback:** An active scan generates light, sound, and every other form of signal the pilot detects. Stealth attempts automatically fail.

## Life Support

**Life Support** represents the protection a Starship grants against environmental danger. Any environmental hazard that the Life Support protects against is negated for each person aboard the Starship.

X: The Starship provides no protection against any kind of environmental danger. Hold your breath.

O: The Starship provides protection against most Environmental Tilts.

OO: The Starship provides protection against hard vacuum, toxic and corrosive atmospheres, and mild radiation.

OOO: The Starship provides protection against heavy radiation, weightlessness, and immersion in plasma or similarly dangerous substances.

OOOO: The Starship provides protection against minor supernatural environmental dangers, such as the morally-corrosive effects of the Hedge or Hell.

OOOOO: The Starship is proof against a specific major supernatural environmental danger, such as the toxic natural laws of the Abyss.

### Where No One Has Gone Before (OOOOO)

**Prerequisite:** Life Support 5

Pick an additional major supernatural environmental danger. The Starship protects against it as well.

## Comms

**Comms** represents the ability of the Starship to communicate with other vessels and beings.

X: The Starship's communication is limited to the range of the pilot's voice.

O: The Starship may receive and transmit short-range radio signals.

OO: The Starship may access cellular networks and satellite communications.

OOO: The Starship may send signals across its solar system.

OOOO: The Starship has FTL communications, and may communicate with anything in the same galactic arm.

OOOOO: The Starship may communicate with anything in the observable universe.

### Remote Operations (OOO)

The Starship may control a number of automated probes (see Hull) equal to (pilot's Intelligence+Computer)+Comms.

### Universal Translator (OO)

Upon encountering an unknown language, the pilot may reflexively roll Intelligence+Academics. Every two successes grant one dot of Language for the rest of the scene. If the "unknown language" is actually secure communication, the roll may suffer appropriate penalties or be contested.

## Ops

**Ops** Merits represent other abilities of a Starship: a maintenance scow's ability to repair damage quickly, an exploration vessel's well-stocked science lab, a luxury cruiser's onboard amenities, a medical ship's healing facilities, and other things. These should be created using the normal rules for Endowment research and development.