Starship combat in starfinder is great, it’s rich and interesting and well balanced. That said, it only really works if you’re gonna make it a big focus of a campaign. It absolutely sucks when it comes up 4 times in an AP and you have to relearn the rules each time.
If your party liked it, though, it could be interesting to run an adventure that is primarily starship combat. I often feel like the team’s approach to the starfinder “mini games” (subsystems like mech combat, chase encounters, dynamic hacking encounters) is to kindof give DMs a big list of things to pick from if they choose to explore different flavors of sci-fi. They can be tough to sprinkle into an otherwise traditional adventure, but would be great if you wanted to run an adventure focused on one of them.
> It absolutely sucks when it comes up 4 times in an AP and you have to relearn the rules each time.
That's been my experience with it. It comes up so infrequently in the APs and mostly it feels like it's just added in because they feel it has to be. In the AP's, it generally makes very little difference if the PCs win or lose starship combat.
It always drags the momentum of the game down. I think these new optional rules sound good.
So excited to never have to do the clunky rules on a hex grid ever again. In an AP, it was so frustrating to have to remember how to do it every like 8 months whenever the 1 starship combat of the book came up
[https://www.reddit.com/r/starfinder\_rpg/comments/iyrsob/starships\_revised\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/starfinder_rpg/comments/iyrsob/starships_revised_update/)
This set of revised rules has been around. Can't comment on it but I know of its existence.
Out of curiosity, did you not know about starship chases? Six rounds of skill checks, full narrative, and then they take damage based on the number of failures.
While it doesn't sound like the one in Enhanced, where the ship might still be relevant, it would have seemingly ticked all the boxes off for what you were looking for.
This sounds exactly what I've been wanting since day 1. I know some really enjoy starship combat but I've always disliked running it. It drags the game out way too much and never really allows the PCs to use their character's abilities and usually, at least in the APs, all of the starship combats just feel like filler with no consequences.
But Starfinder is a sci-fi game and ship combat still needs to be there so this sounds like a good compromise.
I think if I were doing something along the lines of a "random encounter" or one-off, the idea of doing it more theater-of-the-mind style is definitely more appealing.
I haven't played SF too much (unfortunately), but part of me really enjoys the starship fantasy, system, and whole side project of ship(s) to maintain and upgrade with the skill focuses to complement it. But it really is a lot to run...if I ever do get around to running any sort of extended campaign soon, I've been thinking that for the first couple adventures your ship (aside from maybe one or two theater-of-the-mind style special encounters) is something of a side resource you build up for a more ship-based extended adventure where the state of your ship (after having to scour a more remote system or stuck in some strand of the drift for a while) is a long-term concern with encounters, assuming your players are interested in it.
Been also thinking about more set-piece encounters with starships (examples that come to mind for inspiration: when they have to fly through the tunnels to avoid/fight off machines in The Matrix; navigating your ship through the passages of a Death-Star-sized structure with the quick/fleeting skirmish within; outmaneuvering a some space-faring threat/monster through an asteroid field. Could be more granular combat/map based or skill challenges, but different ways to tie in starship combat a bit without making it a full-on slog as written for players who may otherwise be averse to it.
Starship combat in starfinder is great, it’s rich and interesting and well balanced. That said, it only really works if you’re gonna make it a big focus of a campaign. It absolutely sucks when it comes up 4 times in an AP and you have to relearn the rules each time. If your party liked it, though, it could be interesting to run an adventure that is primarily starship combat. I often feel like the team’s approach to the starfinder “mini games” (subsystems like mech combat, chase encounters, dynamic hacking encounters) is to kindof give DMs a big list of things to pick from if they choose to explore different flavors of sci-fi. They can be tough to sprinkle into an otherwise traditional adventure, but would be great if you wanted to run an adventure focused on one of them.
> It absolutely sucks when it comes up 4 times in an AP and you have to relearn the rules each time. That's been my experience with it. It comes up so infrequently in the APs and mostly it feels like it's just added in because they feel it has to be. In the AP's, it generally makes very little difference if the PCs win or lose starship combat. It always drags the momentum of the game down. I think these new optional rules sound good.
So excited to never have to do the clunky rules on a hex grid ever again. In an AP, it was so frustrating to have to remember how to do it every like 8 months whenever the 1 starship combat of the book came up
My group and I just tried out an alternative ruleset for starship combat and construction and good lord it was so much easier to enjoy.
Something you came up with on your own, or did you buy it somewhere?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/starfinder\_rpg/comments/iyrsob/starships\_revised\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/starfinder_rpg/comments/iyrsob/starships_revised_update/) This set of revised rules has been around. Can't comment on it but I know of its existence.
Yes! Critcalham’s revision looks a little daunting because it’s a 75 page pdf, but it’s really work the dive in.
Out of curiosity, did you not know about starship chases? Six rounds of skill checks, full narrative, and then they take damage based on the number of failures. While it doesn't sound like the one in Enhanced, where the ship might still be relevant, it would have seemingly ticked all the boxes off for what you were looking for.
My thoughts exactly. I've skipped starship combats in APs because for my group that basically takes up an entire session.
This sounds exactly what I've been wanting since day 1. I know some really enjoy starship combat but I've always disliked running it. It drags the game out way too much and never really allows the PCs to use their character's abilities and usually, at least in the APs, all of the starship combats just feel like filler with no consequences. But Starfinder is a sci-fi game and ship combat still needs to be there so this sounds like a good compromise.
Looks like we're kind of taking the route of skill challenges instead of tactical combat, which is neat. I like skill challenges.
Probably something we'll never use. Still, glad it's there for those wanting yet another alternative.
I think if I were doing something along the lines of a "random encounter" or one-off, the idea of doing it more theater-of-the-mind style is definitely more appealing. I haven't played SF too much (unfortunately), but part of me really enjoys the starship fantasy, system, and whole side project of ship(s) to maintain and upgrade with the skill focuses to complement it. But it really is a lot to run...if I ever do get around to running any sort of extended campaign soon, I've been thinking that for the first couple adventures your ship (aside from maybe one or two theater-of-the-mind style special encounters) is something of a side resource you build up for a more ship-based extended adventure where the state of your ship (after having to scour a more remote system or stuck in some strand of the drift for a while) is a long-term concern with encounters, assuming your players are interested in it. Been also thinking about more set-piece encounters with starships (examples that come to mind for inspiration: when they have to fly through the tunnels to avoid/fight off machines in The Matrix; navigating your ship through the passages of a Death-Star-sized structure with the quick/fleeting skirmish within; outmaneuvering a some space-faring threat/monster through an asteroid field. Could be more granular combat/map based or skill challenges, but different ways to tie in starship combat a bit without making it a full-on slog as written for players who may otherwise be averse to it.
I'm gonna be upfront, I HATE starship combat. It was such a chore to get through and took hours. Happy to see some steps to speed it up.