Spaceships SW

These are the rules for creating, fighting, and upgrading spaceships in Fate Core. They were created for the setting of "Star Wars".

Spaceships behave like any other character: they have skills, stress slots and stunts. However, they can be controlled by more than one character simultaneously, as long as each one is the operator of a "combat station". Thus, multiple characters can have meaningful actions during a space conflict.

## Character actions during a combat turn

Any character who is in a combat station can perform an action during a turn. If a character is in the pilot's seat, they can control the ship's movements and perform the ship's evasive maneuvers.

More than one character can command the same combat station. In that case, both can roll against their effective ability, and the better value becomes the final result for that station's action.

If a character is controlling more than one combat station, they can perform multiple actions at the same time, although this is very ineffective. The character chooses the lowest ability score among all the combat stations and divides that score among the actions they want to perform.

## Fate Points

Characters can use fate points during spaceship combat as usual. In almost all cases, ships themselves do not have fate points. However, some unique and iconic ships may have fate points, and perhaps even a refresh value. In this case, a ship's fate points may be spent by any character taking an action at one of its combat stations, rather than using one of its own fate points.

## Spaceship Skills

The skills a spacecraft may have also indicate the effectiveness of its own systems. When a character is controlling a combat station, if their ability score is lower than the spaceship's, they can use the ship's ability.

Also, some of a spaceship's skills are interpreted differently than a character's skills.

Each skill listed has names specific to a "spaceship", but the skill a character uses on this battle station is also listed in parentheses.

### Shoot

The main skill used to attack other spaceships. Shoot is the skill to use the ship's weapons effectively. In addition, each point in a spaceship's "Shoot" skill allows the choice of one more installed weapon type. Point-Defense Cannons (abbreviated PDCs), which are the main defense against missiles, are also used with this skill.
### Thrusters (Drive)

Indicates how fast a ship can accelerate with its main thrusters. This is also the ability to use the ship's maneuvering thrusters to try and evade attacks. This skill indicates the base opposition of attack tests against this ship.
### Sensors (Investigate)

This ability allows an operator to detect other ships in combat, identify an opponent's situation, its weaknesses, and track fleeing ships. This skill is required to lock on torpedo or tractor-beam attacks onto other skips.
### Stealth

This is the skill used to take advantage of the blind spots of the opponent's sensor to approach them, disappearing from their radar for a while. Stealth is countered by Sensors, and an advantage created with this ability can be used to enhance all attacking and defending actions.
### Cargo

This value indicates how much cargo space a ship has. This is important in a conflict because this space can be filled with special artillery that can be reloaded during a skirmish.
Depending on its size, a ship's cargo bay can also house other ships, transforming it into a hangar. The number of ships that can be housed in the cargo bay depends on the size of the ship (explained below).
* Size 3 ship: Each cargo point can carry 1 size 1 ship.
* Size 4 ship: Each cargo point can carry 1 size 2 ship or 10 size 1 ships.
* Size 5 ship: Each cargo point can carry 1 size 3 ship, or 10 size 2 ships, or 100 size 1 ships.

The cargo compartment can be used to transport supplies and increase the time the crew can remain on board before having to resupply. A ship, by default, carries enough supplies for 1 month, with a full crew. Each cargo hold used by supplies increases this time by 1 more month.
### Size

This is not a skill used in the traditional sense. Indicates the size of a spaceship. It can take 5 values:
* 1: Very small ships that accommodate a maximum of one to three people. Measure up to 10m.
* 2: Small ships that usually they are light, maneuverable and fast. The crew is up to 10 people. Measure up to 30m.
* 3: Medium ships used for a variety of combats. The crew is from 3 to 30 people. Measure up to 100m.
* 4: Large ships used mainly as command centers, with lots of equipment and resources. The crew is from 10 to 100 people. Measure up to 300m.
* 5: Very large ships that can operate independently and are the backbone of an engagement's control structure. The crew is over 100 people. Measure more than 300m.

To find out the size of a ship, add all its other abilities and divide the value by 7, rounding up.
This value imposes a penalty on all attack rolls when facing ships of different sizes. Thus, a size 1 ship attacking a size 3 ship has a +2 to its rolls, as the larger ship is easier to track, while a size 3 ship would have a -2 to all its attack rolls, as their weapons are bulkier and heavier.
However, this value also imposes a negative penalty on a smaller ship's damage when attacking a larger ship. When a smaller ship attacks a larger ship, its final damage is lessened by the difference in sizes. Therefore, if a size 1 ship attacks a size 3 ship, it must have a final damage value of 3 or more to inflict 1 point of physical stress on the larger ship.
## Stress Points: Hull and Armor

Every ship has at least 1 "hull" point, which are its "physical stress" points. Larger ships have a higher "hull" value. A ship's "hull" is equal to its size.

However, ships may have an outer layer of reinforced plates, a "shield". Any ship can be armored, up to its "hull" value. Thus, a ship with “hull” 2 could have, at most, “armor” 2.

Armor works like an increase in a ship's stress points. A ship with "hull" 3 and "armor" 2 would actually have 5 physical stress slots. Larger battleships, when fully armored, have 10 physical stress slots.

## Shields

In addition to "hull" and "armor", ships can have energy shields.

Shields act as a new layer of stress, which must be taken down before the ship sustains damage to its armor.

Energy shields are equally resistant to all types of damage, with the exception of ion damage. Against an energy shield, ion damage counts as 2 points higher.

When taking damage, shield stress behaves the same as physical stress. If damage is high enough to overwhelm the current stress slots available to a shield, the whole shield collapses and ceases to function entirely, losing all of its remaining slots.

Each turn, a character at the ship's engineering station can make a "Crafts" check to recover the highest slot of lost shield stress.

## Cost of a ship in credits

To determine the cost of a starship in credits, add the cost of each skill to the cost of the ship's hull, armor, and shield. Each skill point has a cost that depends on its value. A skill of 1 costs $100, and each skill point beyond that increases that cost by 5 times. So a skill of 2 costs a ship $500, and a skill of 3 would cost 2,500. The highest skill score of 8 would cost $7,812,500.

Hull, armor, and shield follows a different formula. For the hull, use the size of the ship as a basis. A size 1 ship's hull costs $1,000, and each size category thereafter increases that price by 10 times. Thus, the hull of a size 5 ship costs $10,000,000.

For armor and shield, each point costs 1x the ship's hull. A size 3 craft, for example, costs $100,000. Each point of armor and shield would also cost another $100,000.

Each stunt increases the ship's final cost by 50% of its original cost.

## Stunts

Spaceships can have special equipment that changes some of their capabilities or adds others. These are counted as a ship's stunts. Below are some examples of stunts:

***Aerodynamics*** This craft can enter and exit a planetary atmosphere, and even fight effectively within the confines of a planet's atmosphere.
***Spinal-Mount Weapon*** Choose one of the ship's attack weapons (not its PDCs). This weapon can hit larger ships as if they were 1 or 2 sizes larger. Only 1 Spinal-Mount mount weapon is allowed per ship.
***Heavy Weapon*** Choose one of the ship's attack weapons (not its PDCs, not its torpedoes). When this weapon hits a target, its final damage is increased by 1.
***Cloaking Field*** This ship uses meta-materials in its hull that can create a cloaking field that renders it, for all practical purposes, invisible. However, while the cloaking field is active, all the ship's personnel and instruments lose contact with the outside, such that a cloaked ship is not normally able to function in combat. Any large concentration of energy on the ship, such as using any weapon or charging the hyperdrive, disables the cloak.
***Superconducting Hull*** This ship's hull provides greater protection against ion attacks. When hit by such weapons, they only deal system damage if the attack roll succeeds by 4 or more.
***Hidden Compartments*** 1 point of this ship's cargo space is hidden, visually and electronically, and can pass inspection scans without revealing its contents.
***Intelligent Weapon*** Choose one of the ship's weapons. This weapon has an intelligent tracking system and can ignore 1 point of the enemy's evasion when shooting.
***Stealth Compounds*** This ship is coated with nanotechnology compounds that can effectively render it invisible to enemy systems. This is sensor invisibility, not optical invisibility. It gains the "Stealth" aspect, which can be invoked to gain +2 on Stealth checks or to grant -2 to opponent attempts to track it. It can even be invoked twice to get both benefits.
***Repurposed Space*** This ship has repurposed one of its cargo points to install another weapon. This does not increase the ship's "Shoot" value, but gives it another attack option. If a ship with this stunt does not have cargo space, it can be determined that it repurposed space used for escape pods instead.
***Hyperdrive*** This ship has a hyperspace engine capable of propelling it at several times the speed of light, entering a parallel sub-dimension called "hyperspace". A ship needs a number of turns to initiate its hyperspace jump equal to its size. On these turns, the ship cannot move, attack, or defend. It is not possible to use a normal hyperspace engine within the gravitational field of a planet, or near a star.
***A.I. Combat Station*** This ship's computer can function independently of an operator and act as if one of its combat stations was manned, even if it is not. This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time, the ship can operate independently of one more operator. If this stunt is selected enough times, it can create fully autonomous ships.
***Hyperspace Interdictors***: Only for ships of size 4 or 5. These ships are equipped with powerful gravitational distortion devices that prevent other ships from entering hyperspace, or can pull ships out from hyperspace if they pass close to their interdictor field. An interdictor can affect a field of 20,000 km around the ship it is installed on, if it is a size 4, or 100,000 km if it is a size 5.
***Afterburners*** This ship can cause a retroactive exhaust feedback of its fuel that greatly improves its acceleration, for a limited time. Once per scene, it can burn her exhaust and increase her "Thrusters" value by 2. Make a "Thrusters" roll. This increased speed lasts for 3 turns plus 1 per success shift.
***Combat Thrusters*** This ship is maneuverable! It can attack smaller ships as if it was 1 or 2 size categories smaller. Cannot be selected for size 5 ships.
***Masked Transponder*** A ship's transponder is its unique identifier. This ship can mask its original transponder with a host of other signatures, allowing it to assume many different "identities". This is generally considered illegal.
## Ship Weapons

Each point in the "Shoot" skill allows selection of a different weapon type. Each ship's weapon has different uses and stats, and opens up a different combat station. Therefore, the "Shoot" skill allows as many combat stations as its value. When selecting weapons for a ship, each weapon type can have more than one single weapon. Thus: "4 Laser Cannons" occupies only one ship weapon selection. Each time a weapon type is selected, a new combat station is added, allowing for a new operator.

Ships can be equipped with coordinated weapons. Coordinated weapons can be used simultaneously, with a single roll. The effect of coordinated weapons on a ship is that they gain a "Rate of Fire" value equal to the number of linked weapons. The damage dealt by a weapon is fixed, but can increase depending on its RoF.

Coordinated weapons require a single combat station, and take up only one attack "option" due to their "Shoot" value. The maximum number of coordinated weapons of the same type is equal to the ship's "Shoot" value.

Each of a ships' weapons have their own attributes.

### Range

This is the range of a weapon in conflict zones. A range of 1 means the weapon can only effectively attack targets that are 1 conflict zone away. Sometimes the value can come in a range, separated by a dash, like: 2-4. This lists the minimum and maximum ranges of a weapon. Attacking targets that are closer than the minimum range imposes a -2 penalty on the attack roll for the difficulty in tracking those targets.

### Damage

Indicates the fixed damage dealt by a weapon. If an attack roll succeeds, the damage dealt is equal to this value, regardless of the success shifts. However, coordinated weapons can increase damage based on the success shifts, since multiple shots can hit the target simultaneously.

### Type

Indicates the type of damage dealt by a weapon. It can be plasma, ion or explosive (for missiles). Ion damage does not physically stress a ship, but can be used to disable a ship's systems (see the "system damage" section below).

### Armor Penetration

Particularly powerful weapons can sometimes penetrate armor more easily. When a weapon with this stat hits an armored opponent, it ignores a number of points of armor equal to its "armor penetration". So, for example, a ship with "Hull 3" and "Armor 2" would only have 4 stress points against a weapon with "Armor penetration 1" and only 3 stress points against a weapon with "Armor penetration 2". If a weapon had greater armor penetration, it would have no impact on such a ship, as all of its armor would already be ignored.

### Tracking

Tracking weapons specialize in locating elusive targets. A weapon's tracking ignores part or all of an opponent ship's "Thrusters" in its attack rolls (see below). If a weapon has a negative tracking value, it adds to the opposition of your attack rolls.

### Weapon list

If the weapon's name contains the letters LH in parentheses, it means that the weapon can be found in either a "Light" or "Heavy" version. The light version does 1 less damage and has 1 more tracking point, while the heavy version does 1 more damage. Light weapons are half the listed price, and heavy weapons are twice as much.

* ***Laser Cannon (LH)***

These are the "standard" weapons of a ship. Despite the name, they actually fire self-contained plasma cylinders within a strong toroidal electromagnetic field.

**Range:** 1

**Type:** Plasma

**Damage:** 2

**Tracking:** 0
**Cost:** $4000
* ***Ion Cannon (LH)***

A cannon that shoots electrified ions that disrupt the operation of electronic equipment.

**Range:** 1

**Type:** Ion

**Damage:** 2

**Tracking:** 0
**Cost:** $3000
* ***Point-Defense Cannons***

Small guns with good tracking that are basically used to defend against missiles. Without PDCs, a ship can hardly defend against missiles. It could be used to hit another ship directly, but would do minimal damage.

**Range:** 0

**Type:** Plasma

**Damage:** 1

**Tracking:** 2
**Cost:** $4000
* ***Turbo Laser (LH)***

Big guns with good range, can only be mounted on ships of size 3 (Light version), 4 (Medium version) or 5 (Heavy version).

**Range:** 2

**Type:** Plasma

**Damage:** 3

**Armor Penetration:** 2

**Tracking:** 1
**Cost:** $10000
* ***Concussion Missiles***

Concussion Missiles need to be locked onto a target before they can be used. To lock onto a target, a character must make a successful "Sensors" roll against the ship's Thrusters. If one character is at the sensor station, and another at the missile station, the lock and the shot can be fired in the same combat turn.

**Range:** 3

**Type:** Explosive

**Damage:** 3

**Tracking:** 3
**Cost:** $1000
* ***Proton Torpedoes***

Proton torpedoes need to be locked onto a target before they can be used. To lock onto a target, a character must make a successful "Sensors" roll against the ship's Thrusters. If one character is at the sensor station, and another at the missile station, the lock and the shot can be fired in the same combat turn.

**Range:** 1-7

**Type:** Explosive

**Damage:** 5

**Tracking:** 4
**Cost:** $4000
* ***Proximity mines***

These ships can launch an explosive mine programmed to detonate whenever another ship enters their zone. They can be set to ignore any friendly ships, but once they detonate, any ships within the conflict zone will take damage, regardless of whether they are friendly or enemy. This damage cannot be defended.
**Range:** 0

**Damage:** 4

**Cost:** $4000
* ***Tractor Beam***

Used to set a fixed distance between two ships. If used on a smaller ship, it can either pull or push it. If used on a larger ship, it can pull or push itself towards it. If used against a ship of the same size, can keep the distance between them fixed, creating an advantage on successive "Shoot" rolls. Using the tractor beam requires a Sensors roll against the opposing ship's Thrusters.
**Range:** 0

**Damage:** 0

**Cost:** $10000
## Managing weapon ammo

For simplicity, players don't need to keep track of how much ammo each of the ship's weapons has or consumes.

A shot aimed at a ship's cargo bay can be used to "Create an Advantage", which applies an Aspect called "Out of Ammo" to an opposing ship. If this aspect is invoked, the opposing ship loses access to one of its attacking weapons for the duration of the combat.

## System Damage

Whenever an attack roll manages to hit a ship by a margin of 3 or more and deals at least 1 point of damage, system damage occurs. System damage causes one of the ship's systems to be disabled or even destroyed.

Dealing damage to the system is an attacker's choice. If the attacker chooses to damage the system, they can determine which system on the ship is being damaged. The defender then has the option of accepting the system damage or negating it by spending a fate point. If system damage is accepted, the defender gains a fate point.

System damage causes a specific ship's system to stop working until the end of the conflict. If the same system is damaged again, it will be completely destroyed.

Any individual weapon can be considered as a system. Any of the ship's other abilities also count as a system (Shields, Thrusters, Sensors, Stealth, and Cargo).

There are two additional "special" systems that every ship has. They are the "Generator" and the "Bridge" (or "Cockpit" for small ships). These systems are usually the most protected on a ship and can only be attacked if 2 other systems have already been disabled or if another system has been destroyed. If the ship's generator is disabled, the entire ship is dead in space, and is effectively out of combat. If the bridge is attacked, each character at a combat station takes 2 points of un-defendable physical stress damage.

Ion shots do system damage without causing any stress to a ship's hull. Furthermore, they always cause damage to the system, regardless of their success shifts.

## Combat Mechanics

Combat between ships follows the same mechanics for conflicts between characters, with some alterations.

### Zones

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. Therefore, space combat is basically "open" space combat. There are not many "obstacles" in space. If, by some chance, combat is taking place next to an obstacle, such as an asteroid, you can be absolutely sure that there will be no other obstacle next to it. The only exception would be combat within the rings of a gas giant, but that would be less of a combat and more a suicide.
Therefore, combat zones are all drawn the same size. We recommend using a hexagonal grid, where each zone is a hexagon. Many ships could occupy the same zone, but the zones would all be effectively identical.
### Movement

A ship's "Thrusters" skill indicates how fast it can accelerate. It is, first and foremost, used to determine whether or not combat takes place. If a ship is being chased and has a higher "Thruster" value than its pursuers, combat will most likely not take place.
Ships can move to an adjacent zone and attack in the same turn only if their "Thrusters" value minus their "Size" is greater than 0. If this value is 0 or less, they can only move if they don't attack in a given turn.
### Attack Tests

When a ship fires one of its weapons towards another, this is resolved as an operator's "Shoot" check against equal opposition from the opposing ship's Thrusters. This opposition, called "evasion", cannot be negative. However, it can be subject to modifiers that make it negative, such as due to the relative size between ships.
## Modifying ships

Upgrading or modifying a ship when you have access to a shipyard is just a matter of paying the fee and waiting for some time. The fee to be paid is the difference between the new configuration and the old one. If the new configuration is cheaper, the work is often done for free because the workers themselves can profit from the switched materials. The time required to perform the changes is 1 day per point of skill difference, 1 week per stunt.

If you don't have access to a shipyard, it is possible to modify a ship if its cargo contains "spare parts" that can be used to perform the modification. Spare parts are measured in their monetary value. Each ship size can contain a certain amount of spare parts for each cargo point:

* Size 1 Ship: Each cargo point can carry $10,000 worth of spare parts.
* Size 2 Ship: Each cargo point can carry $100,000 worth of spare parts.
* Size 3 Ship: Each cargo point can carry $1,000,000 worth of spare parts.
* Size 4 Ship: Each cargo point can carry $10,000,000 worth of spare parts.
* Size 5 Ship: Each cargo point can carry $100,000,000 worth of spare parts.

Modifying a ship without the support of a shipyard is much more complex, even with the necessary spare parts. Modification time is multiplied by 5. No roll is required, but at least one character must have a "Crafts" skill that equals or exceeds the highest skill level of the ship being modified. Modification of stunts requires "Crafts 4".

Regardless of how a ship is being modified, it cannot increase or decrease its size category. If modifying a ship reduces its size category, add the "Cargo" skill until the ship's size remains the same.

# Spaceship Examples

## Galactic Empire Ships

 Cost: $30,650
 Shoot: 2
Shield: 0
Thrusters: 4
Sensors: 1
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 0
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics

 Cost: $20,250
 Shoot: 2
Shield: 0
Thrusters: 2
Sensors: 3
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 0
    2x Coordinated Laser Cannons
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics

 Cost: $26,650
 Shoot: 3
Shield: 0
Thrusters: 3
Sensors: 1
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 0
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics

 Cost: $177,893,000
 Shoot: 6
Shield: 5
Thrusters: 4
Sensors: 6
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 8
    5x Coordinated Heavy Turbo Lasers
    5x Coordinated Heavy Turbo Lasers
    2xProton Torpedo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Hyperdrive

## Rebel Alliance Ships

 Cost: $151,200
 Shoot: 4
Shield: 2
Thrusters: 3
Sensors: 2
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 1
    4x Coordinated Laser Cannons
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $124,000
 Shoot: 3
Shield: 2
Thrusters: 3
Sensors: 3
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 2
    2x Coordinated Laser Cannons
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $143,200
 Shoot: 3
Shield: 2
Thrusters: 4
Sensors: 2
Stealth: 0
Cargo: 1
    2x Coordinated Laser Cannons
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $157,400
 Shoot: 3
Shield: 3
Thrusters: 3
Sensors: 2
Stealth: 1
Cargo: 1
    3x Coordinated Laser Cannons
    Proton Torpedo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Aerodynamics
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $14,165,150
 Shoot: 4
Shield: 4
Thrusters: 3
Sensors: 5
Stealth: 1
Cargo: 6
    5x Coordinated Turbo Lasers
    2x Proton Torpedo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $197,768,150
 Shoot: 5
Shield: 7
Thrusters: 5
Sensors: 4
Stealth: 1
Cargo: 7
    5x Coordinated Heavy Turbo Lasers
    5x Coordinated Heavy Turbo Lasers
    2x Proton Torpedo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Hyperdrive

## Clone Wars Ships

 Cost: $15,245,000
 Shoot: 4
Shield: 5
Thrusters: 5
Sensors: 2
Stealth: 1
Cargo: 5
    6x Coordinated Laser Cannons
    Proton Torpedo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Hyperdrive

 Cost: $1,766,000
 Shoot: 3
Shield: 4
Thrusters: 4
Sensors: 2
Stealth: 2
Cargo: 5
    Light Laser Turbo
 *Accomplishments:*
    Hyperdrive
    Combat Thrusters