Starships for Edge of the Empire

If you look at the Star Wars Universe, one of its most iconic elements has always been the starships. Fantastic machines that give characters the freedom to explore the universe, a means to strike a blow for freedom, or the tools to wage war on a scale that defies imagining. Starships give characters a host of options and access to ideas that allow them to go on amazing adventures. This is the power of Starships in the setting, and one of its most iconic aspects.


Whether it’s a freighter like the Falcon, slipping cargo past unsuspecting customs agents, or a snubfighter like an X-wing, starships take part in some of the most exciting and amazing aspects of the Star Wars experience. Let’s take a look at how these wonderful machines (and to a lesser extent vehicles) function inside Edge of the Empire from Fantasy Flight Games.

Starships (And the really awesome stuff you can do with them)

Starships are an amazing resource for a character (or group of characters) and the Game Master. A starship is a plot device, a conveyance, an encounter area, and in some cases a weapon all rolled up into one tight little package. I have a hard time thinking of another plot element in an RPG that has the same range of potential as a starship, and Star Wars has used them masterfully since the start. Let’s talk about the characteristics of Starships (and vehicles) and try and teach ourselves what they mean in the context of Edge of the Empire.

Characteristics

Handling

Handling is a measure of the ship’s agility and/or its responsiveness to the pilot’s actions to change its orientation/facing/positioning. Some of this is determined by size, but there are some vehicles that are nimbler than they should be, and others that are much more sluggish. Every starship and vehicle has a handling rating.


Mechanically, this is expressed as either blue advantage dice or black setback dice that are added to every check the pilot makes with the vehicle/starship. The more nimble or responsive the ship, the more advantage dice are added to the check. The less responsive the ship is, the more setback dice are added.

Speed

Speed actually represents a combination of speed and acceleration. From a game perspective it keys up to a couple of different things. First, it determines how fast a given vehicle (or starship) travels in its current environment. The second thing it determines in what special maneuvers (if any) are usable by the pilot. Speed is rated at a number between 1 (a slow walker or a hover truck) to 6 (a crazily modified Tie Fighter or an A-Wing), and the number listed is the maximum speed. (Note, Atmospheric and Space speeds represent different levels of speed, even if they are the same number).

Silhouette

Silhouette is an abstract representation of the relative size of a vehicle or starship. It factors into scale, and can be thought of as the footprint of a specific object, and the amount of space it can take up. Humans, and humanoid sized species are all Silhouette 1, whereas a jawa or an astromech are Silhouette 0. Most of the starfighters and freighters in Edge of the Empire are size 3 or 4. Planets and planetary scale space stations are the top of the scale at Silhouette 10. Most of the time larger objects are easier to hit than others, but this is not always true.

Hull Trauma Threshold

Starships and vehicles both have a capacity to sustain physical damage. The Hull Trauma Threshold (HTT) represents this for Edge of the Empire. It represent a combination of durability, spaceworthiness and integrity for the vehicle/starship. It is analogous to the Wound Threshold for people, but remember it’s calculated at planetary scale (people scale weapons/objects are 1/10 the value of planetary scale).

System Strain Threshold

A vehicle or a starship is an incredibly complicated piece of hardware and there are a lot of internal systems that keep it working at full capacity. Those systems are capable of breaking down and suffering strain, and when that happens, they’ll need to be repaired. This Threshold is similar to the one for people, but it requires repair and maintenance to fix the strain suffered to a ship or vehicle’s systems.

Defense

Many vehicles and starships have a variety of devices and systems that protect them from being hit by other objects. Most of the time this is representative of ray or particle shielding and these systems both divert incoming fire or prevent it from getting through to the vehicle or ship itself. Ships that are Silhouette 4 or less have two defensive zones, each with their own defense rating. Larger vessels have more zones, again, each of which has its own defense rating. Most defenses can be assigned or (angled) to cover a specific area at the expense of the defense rating of other locations.


(Say you’re being chased by four TIE fighters because you found an experimental battle station that just wrecked a planet. They’re behind you, so you assign your defenses to the rear zone, because that’s where the shots are coming in. If you get hit in the front, you are probably going to take some damage because your efforts are being used elsewhere.)

Armor

If something gets past the shields, there’s still a chance that it won’t cause any serious damage. Armor is the primary way that a vehicle (and in some cases Starships) protect themselves from damage. Armor works just like armor worn by people and reduces the damage taken by a vehicle or starship on a 1 for 1 basis, remembering scale.

Customization Hard Points

Star Wars is a game of customization and options, and these can turn a stock version of a ship into something legendary. It can turn a simple YT-1300 Freighter into a legendary ship like the Millenium Falcon, or a Firespray System Patrol Craft into the Slave I. There are limits to the amount of customization and modification any given vehicle or starship can handle, and that’s what the Customization Hard Points represent.



Conclusions

Vehicles and Starships are incredibly complex elements that add a ton of depth and potential to a game of Edge of the Empire. This is a basic rundown of some of the elements needed to describe one of these things. Next time we’ll explore a little deeper into how they interact with other ships, and some of the actions and maneuvers they are capable of. Game On, Games Fans.