Support United Paizo Workers! Click here for more details!
These new rules focus on altering the way PCs can obtain Build Points (BP)
for building and upgrading starships. In the normal rules, Build Points are
a pool that constantly increases as the PCs level up, but in this subsystem,
Build Points become a form of currency. The PCs spend BP to buy a starship and
cargo, and they earn BP whenever they make a sale.
The PCs’ starship becomes
an investment like any other piece of equipment, but bought with BP instead
of credits. As the PCs complete jobs, they get more Build Points to spend on
upgrading their starship. They can do so gradually, installing one new system
at a time, or they can hoard BP and then spend them all at once. However, the
PCs should always keep some BP on hand to buy the cargo for their next job.
If the PCs’ ship is destroyed, they also lose the BP they invested in it! (Many
crews insure their starships for just this eventuality; see page 54 for details.)
But if the PCs’ business flourishes, they’ll find themselves living in the lap
of luxury, hiring additional employees, or even buying a second starship to
ply the interstellar trade routes.
The Starfinder Core Rulebook includes
some guidelines for how PCs can acquire the BP they need to build and upgrade
their first starship—via salvage, favors, or an arrangement with a friendly
spacedock, for instance. In this case, Build Points represent much more than
simple credits and become exclusively useful through the starship creation system,
staying separate from the methods by which PCs buy their personal equipment.
This separation provides an important distinction because if PCs had the ability
to exchange Build Points for credits, they could end up underpowered in starship
combat while simultaneously overpowered in all their other encounters.
In
the rules presented here, Build Points roughly represent the party’s business
capital. That capital has many components, including the PCs’ available credit,
loans they’ve taken out, and assets they might use as collateral. PCs use this
capital to make big purchases, like cargo or starship modifications, often with
financing help from a bank or other establishment.
To begin, the PCs receive
a number of Build Points determined by their Average Party Level (APL) as noted
in Table 9–1: Starship Base Statistics on page 294 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook.
They should use this BP to build their starship; you might want to remind the
PCs that their vessel needs plenty of room for cargo and that they’ll have to
spend a few BP to purchase that cargo. (The PCs in “We’re No Heroes” receive
a prebuilt starship and earn a few extra BP by the end of the adventure.)
Website owned by Mark von Drake. All content on this website owned by Paizo Inc. Privacy policy can be found here.
Contact: markvondrake@thehiddentruth.info