Character Creation
General
Character sheets should represent the Star Racer in their ship as a single character (as though piloting a battlesuit). Do not use vehicle (equipment) rules.
- PL 10, 160pp
- Tradeoffs limited to +/-2
- At least half (rounded DOWN) the value of your skill bonus, attack bonus or resistance rank (except Toughness) should come from the base ability.
Hiro, an Ace, decides that he wants to be really good at piloting, so he wants a Vehicles skill of 12 (the maximum tradeoffs permit). This means he needs at least Dexterity 6.
Liria, a Scientist, wants her ship to have Dodge 9 and Parry 9. This means she needs at least Agility 4 and Fighting 4 (9 / 2 = 4.5, rounded down to 4).
K'Tharr, a Brute needs an attack bonus of +8 for his Close range weapons. This means he needs at least Fighting 4, with the remainder coming from Advantage: Close attack (he's not allowed to have the skill Close attack, since he only has 1 weapon array). K'Tharr decides to buy Fighting 8 since he needs parry defense anyway.
- Actions: You can use extra effort to get a Standard action for as long as you are not under the effect of a 3rd degree condition. This is intended to make conditions such as Stunned less punishing in the absence of teammates to help you and provide room for counterplay.
Kaylee, an Engineer, is stunned after her ship has been hit by a concussive Shock Cannon. A stunned target normally has no actions, so on her turn Kaylee uses extra effort to gain a standard action. This allows her to jury-rig repairs to her ship and break free of the condition (see Skill: Technology below).
Revan, a Rocket, is under the effect of Liriel's Hypno-Beam and compelled to take no action. A compelled target normally has only a standard action determined by the controller. Revan surges for a standard action which he uses to attack Liriel in an attempt to disrupt her control over him.
- All racers are affected by Affects Objects powers. If your racer has no mechanical parts (e.g. a bio-ship, or riding a living creature) you need Immunity: Affects Constructs for 5pp.
Free traits
All racers receive the following at a cost of 0pp. You can't buy alternate effects for these traits, nor stunt off them.
- Spaceworthy: Immunity [environmental cold, environmental radiation, vacuum, all suffocation]
- Comm systems: Communication 3 [radio]
- Languages: Galactic Standard and 1 other free language.
- Background skills: Up to 10 ranks of the following skills: Acrobatics, Investigate, Sleight of Hand, any expertise except for Magic, Science, expertises used for invention or ritualist, and skills that you find some way to consistently get game mechanical advantage out of (such as being used for the check required flaw).
Required traits
- Defenses: Will and fort defense are required, even if the pilot is a construct.
Yes. Attacks targeting Fort represent attacks on the ship's engineering, power and computing systems.
Examples: Corrosive acid, Hyperdrive jammer, EMP blast, Capacitor drainer, Nano-virus
Attacks targeting Will represent attacks on the racer's mind, soul or morale.
Examples: Mirage projector, Psychic blast, Fearsome roar
- Combat: At least one PL-capped attack.
- Racing: The sum of your vehicles rank and movement power rank must be 20, and are subject to tradeoff limits of no more than +/-2.
- Movement: Your ship must have either Flight or Teleport as its movement power.
Limited traits
Combat attacks are limited to a
maximum per-rank cost of 2pp/rank. Exception: The Increased Range: Ranged extra does not count against this limit, but Increased Range: Perception does.
- Counters point-accounting by restricting the single largest source of arrayable points in most builds.
- Encourages powerful (linked, perception, multiattack, etc.) but specialized attacks that are forced to take flaws to afford the point cost, making them more situational and increasing tactical diversity.
- Extra: Increased Range (Perception): Perception attacks are capped at rank = PL-2.
- Extra: Area: Area attacks are capped at rank = PL-2.
- Advantage: Improved Critical: Limited to 2 ranks.
- Advantage: Luck: Limited to 1 rank and must have the limited flaw.
Example: Luck 1 [limited to recovering 1 level of fatigue when in the last position] • 1pp
Banned traits
- Advantage: Equipment : Too point-efficient; 27th century technology indistinguishable from Devices.
- Effect: Concealment [visual]: Invisible ships are lousy contestants in a spectator sport.
Exception: Partial visual concealment is allowed. Non-visual concealment is always allowed.
- Effect: Immunities more than 10 ranks (Example: Immunity to Fortitude): reduces the diversity of attacks in play.
- Effect: Summon/Sidekick/Minion: Extra action and damage track are too advantageous in racing. Summons or minions as a descriptor (e.g. attack drones) are fine.
- Flaw: Removable: Not a significant disadvantage in racing.
Easily Removable is still allowed, to represent pilot-wielded weapons. Weapons lost in space are lost for the duration of the race.
The new flaw Easily Destructible is added. On inflicting a 2nd degree or higher toughness failure, an attacker may choose instead to remove an Easily Destructible power for the remainder of the race. Use this to represent things such as turrets that can be shot off.
Traits that function or are priced differently
- Skill: Treatment/Technology: As a standard action, these skills can be used to remove conditions (from Affliction, Damage etc.) caused by harm to the racer and damage to the ship respectively. DC is 10 + rank of the effect that caused the condition.
- Advantage: Artificer/Inventor/Ritualist: Once per scene, you can spend 1 HP and immediately produce a power with a power point cost equivalent to your skill bonus, representing an invention or ritual that you prepared before the race. This power lasts until the end of the race, like a long-lasting power stunt. This can be used to produce a backup power in event you encounter a racecourse your ship is poorly suited to, or your primary array is nullified. You can buy advantages that function similarly but use skills other than Technology/Expertise: Magic, as long as they are flavored appropriately.
- Effect: Healing: By default, range is Self and Affects Objects. Only restores 1 damage condition per use; DC is 10 + rank of the attack that inflicted that condition.
- Effect: Transform: Costs 3pp/rank for any to any. Apply Limited flaws for more restricted versions.
- Extra: Selective Area: Selective, when applied to area attacks, is now its own shape, at a cost of +2pp/rank.
Create
You can no longer trap enemy ships with Create. Instead, you can create obstacles to hinder their progress.
Cover only lasts 1 round by default, because your created objects are left behind in the vastness of space as the racers accelerate onwards. You must re-create your objects every round as a standard action to maintain the effect. For cover that persists for as long as you wish, buy the Movable extra for 1pp/r. This is equivalent to Sustained duration cover.
Create Obstacle
You create an obstacle in front of a single enemy ship.
Create Cover
You can create total cover around a target ship, protecting it from attacks; this replaces the use of a "create bubble" that surrounds a character to protect it. Total cover provides a +5 circumstance bonus to defense and +5 on resistance checks against area effects.
Cover applies in both directions, i.e. shooting from behind cover has the same penalty as shooting into it. Use Selective Create for cover that only applies in one direction.
By default, your cover surrounds the target ship in all directions. For cover that only applies in certain directions (e.g. Limited to attacks from front), apply the limited flaw.
Dropping Objects
Grab
Grab behaves differently depending on range. Grab usually can't have the area extra.
Close Grab
Two ships in a Close range Grab are considered a single ship for the purposes of overtaking, passing for free, and scoring. The ship with the higher speed rank is considered the maneuvering ship, regardless of whether it is the owner or target of the Grab power. Only it can attempt to overtake for as long as the Grab is maintained; if it overtakes other ships, the ship with the lower speed rank piggy-backs along with it. When other ships attempt to overtake the pair, the ship with the higher speed rank resists the attempt.
Ranged or Perception Grab
Two ships in a Grab that is Ranged or Perception in range maneuver independently and are not overtaken or passed as a unit (even if there are no other racers between them). Instead, the owner of the Grab can "reel in" the effect as a standard action:
- If the owner of the Grab power has a higher Speed rank than the target, then the target is moved 1 position closer to the owner. This can be used by a high Speed rank ship to prevent an enemy ship from accelerating away from them even if the enemy ship is better at overtaking.
- If the owner of the Grab power has a lower Speed rank than the target, then owner is moved 1 position closer to the target. This can be used by a low Speed rank ship to advance in the race without needing to make overtake checks.
- If both ships have the same speed rank, the owner of the Grab power decides which effect they want.
Environment
The environment effect creates hazards (see Hazards, below). Each time you use Environment, you spend 1 HP. The hazard appears at the start of the next turn. This means there may be more than one hazard in play, if the next turn already had a GM-designated hazard.
Your environment effect creates one of the following hazards. To create more than one, add alternate effects.
- Asteroid Field
- Dense Nebula: All ships benefit from concealment. Rolls to attack have a -5 penalty on the attack check. Perception attacks need a successful Perception check vs a DC of 10 + target ship's stealth.
- Electromagnetic Storm:
- Cosmic Radiation:
- High Gravity:
Hazards affect all racers, including yourself. If you don't want to be affected by your own hazard, you need Immunity 1 (your own powers).
You generally aren't allowed to have Favored Environment of a hazard you can create.