# The Q-Ship: Obsidian Trident - Q-Ships in Starforged tags: #articles #game/rpg/starforged ![[MV Ocean View Before After..jpg]] Re my last thought *[[I Think I Know What My Starforged Ship Will Be]]*, now that I'm not spinning slowly into unconsciousness and can access my faculties, let's see what I can put together sensibly. This is going to be a little harder than it sounds since you really can't build a bells-and-whistles Q-ship right out of the gate as a solo character.^[Technically, this is a lie, but we'll take that up later.] That said, just like every other rule in the game, if you want to take enough modules to have a fully-fledged Q-ship, you do that! It's your game. Play to find out. Nobody is going to come breaking in your windows, swinging from repelling gear, shouting and screaming, telling you to step away from the notebook or the laptop because you violated the rules of tabletop role-playing by doing something that made you happy. Only OSR folks do that. We're beyond it. ## The Setup In this case, what we're going to do is put together a starting character who might plausibly end up piloting a Q-ship, put together his initial ship, and then talk about what modules he upgrades going forward in order to move closer to what we envision. ### Chargen This is where I would normally walk you through this step-by-step and talk about why things are like they are along the way, but we're not doing that.^[This is also *kind of* a lie, but how can I resist?] I will say that we are going to pull a couple of things from **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Sundered Isles]]** because there are some pretty amusing modules over there with a hint of refinement. Don't be afraid to mix and match assets however you like because your windows are perfectly safe. ### Paths ![[Starforged - Assets - Courier.png]] ![[Sundered Isles - Assets - Crew Commander.png]] We've already started the mixing and matching right here. Obviously, Courier *has* to be taken because we start out as a straightforward and sensible cargo captain looking to make a few bucks here and there, maybe with a little bit of a down and dirty streak. Certainly not a smuggler, at least as a primary concern, but a man who knows how to run a sizable cargo ship. The **Starforged** asset is perfectly appropriate. For the second, however, we go over to the **Sundered Isles** selection. and notice there is a nice path asset called Crew Commander, which gives us a little more margin for dealing with unpleasant situations. Besides, it's a cargo ship, so you're going to want some of your own men to load and unload things on the docks. Being in deep space doesn't change that. ### Backstory We've already started thinking about this a little bit just as a necessity for picking out our first two path assets. But if we go with something straightforward and reasonable, I actually like 82-87 on the **Starforged** Backstory prompts. *"You were taken or lured away by someone."* Linking in from the **Sundered Isles** side of the game, being Shanghai'd at a young age to join a cargo crew, working your way up through the ranks, and eventually being captain of your own, that's a pretty good story. That's a good place to start. ### Background Vow We're going to go very classic **[[Traveller]]** with this one to suggest that we are in serious debt to the guys who shanghaied. Given that this is a background vow, that means we will probably *never* be out of debt. But it's a good source of character motivation nonetheless. We are probably going to be on the lookout for almost any source of funding that we can find. I'm not saying we could be shady; we *could* probably be *fairly shady*.^[By that I mean **we're shady as fuck**.] > [!help] Background Vow > > Dig out from under the debt I'm into with the Scarlet Corsairs. (EPIC, 1-/t) > > OOOOOOOOOO > > **Possible Milestones:** > > - Regular payments of "cargo that fell overboard". > - "I've got a job for ya." > - Provide some muscle in an out of the way location. > - Just deliver this box to a guy. > - Hide a Corsair from unnecessary [Imperial Entanglements](https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/4/28/imperial-entanglements/). I didn't start out thinking that the Scarlet Corsairs were straight-up smuggling and piracy, but it makes sense. Never be afraid to let things pile up and get explored while you are in the process of creating your character. *Process is play.* As you create your character, you are *playing the game*. Don't let anyone tell you differently. In this case, you can absolutely be forgiven for giving a good chunk of the Scarlet Corsairs an Italian accent. I won't hold it against you and your windows are safe ### Starship ![[Starforged - Assets - Starship.png]] It was a significant challenge to decide between the **Starforged** Starship asset and the **Sundered Isles** Flagship asset. Practically, it makes no difference, but subjectively that last ability is really good on both of them. On the Starship card, you can effectively tank damage to the ship with your emotional state. When you're smacking the dashboard and saying, *"Come on, baby, hold together!"*, that's classic science fiction. On the Flagship card, waiting until a critical moment and then raising the flag, sending the message, identifying yourself as belonging to a particular faction or being a known force in the world? That's pretty cool, too. I can't lie, I would be very tempted to allow you to take the standard two abilities on your asset for your command vehicle and then either or both of the other abilities, which would put four abilities on a single card. But again, I feel like my windows are pretty safe. I'll play the game any damn way I want. You should too. #### Envision your Starship | | | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Name** | обсидиановый трезубец (obsidianovyy trezubets)<br>"The Trez" to her friends. | | **Description** | A medium-sized cargo vessel of middling distinction. Like many, it consists of a long, strong central core with a control deck at the front with a cone-like shape, giving sensor access for 180 degrees forward. <br><br>Branches come off the core in multiple directions for the support of modular hexagonal cargo units, which can be independently powered and even atmospherically pressured. Two module slots on each of the core pylons, coming off of each of the six directions, are fitted with powerful maneuver engines. <br><br>At the rear of the stack is the majority of the heavy engineering and storage for crew quarters, water, fuel, general supply, and the immense acceleration thrusters necessary to get reasonable intrastellar speed. | | **Quirk** | Strange symbols are scrawled on the deck and bulkheads in the<br>main corridor.^[Yes, I really rolled that and yes it's really going in. It's perfect.] | | **Crew** | A novice crew put together on short order from relatively respectable station crew. Effectively a deniable resource for the Scarlet Corsairs. | ### Final Asset ![[Starforged - Assets - Expanded Hold.png]] This one is going to take a little bit of an explanation, because it came as a result of me noticing that there is a difference between the Starship and the Flagship: the latter comes with five slots for cargo by default, and the Starship does not. This shouldn't really surprise me since Starships in fiction aren't usually thought of as cargo vessels. So when they are, it's a special exception. Fair enough. That'll just eat some XP that will come along later. Stay tuned for more on where that's going. But for the moment, we have three cargo slots and can use it when we need to burn resources. If you are playing such that the Starship comes with an automatic five cargo, which would be perfectly reasonable, and which I was tempted to do anyway, the first module that we take with some XP is going to be what you would have taken instead. Perfectly reasonable. ### Stats | | | | ---------: | :-- | | **Edge** | 2 | | **Heart** | 1 | | **Iron** | 1 | | **Shadow** | 2 | | **Wits** | 3 | This is a man who is not particularly fond of fighting his way out of a situation at all at any point if he can avoid it. He's relatively new to leadership (thus the low +heart). But he is quick-witted and has an inclination toward sneakiness. Just don't ask him to punch anybody or take a punch. It's a bad idea. It will not end well. ### Envision the Character 5'2", a little bit rangy. Could be anywhere between 18 and 26 at a first glance, but he's 33. He has the look of a longtime spacer because he's been living in starships in one capacity or another for almost his whole life. Short hair, shrewd glance. He likes doing the numbers and keeping the ship, turning a steady credit. There's probably a dozen like him in every port looking to move cargo from one station to another, trying to keep enough in his pockets to pay the crew, but he does all right. Nobody's tried to throw him out an airlock yet. There's something a little bit shifty about the way he looks, but there aren't enough ships to really be particular in some sectors. Everybody's got to eat. Jumpsuit's a bit worn at the neck seals, but a lot of guys put their money into the crew before themselves. Jump patches from all over the place, little hole-in-the-station drops here and there. ### Gear and Personal Items - Sealed environment suit - Flashlights / headlamps - Toolkit - Medkit - Personal communicator - Dataslate with real-time readouts on local trade rates and the Trez ### Name Marcus Alexi ## Kickoff That's our starting state. It's pretty solid. We have a ship with expanded cargo, which allows us to make some money doing some courier work, a background with shady smugglers, an underground of nasty people, and mobsters. A crew that doesn't hate us. We are ready to get some action going. Normally this would be where you started setting up your local sector and maybe even putting together a couple of nearby sectors in your region or your nearest isles. However you want to do things. None of that is interesting to us right now in the context of this article, but what we can do is figure out a good initial vow to get us motivated and moving. Being a courier gives us an easy end to figuring out a good place to start, because we're going to need money to maintain the ship anyway. The crew wants to get paid. I'm sure we want to get paid. For the sake of sanity, we're just going to go ahead and take a transport mission. Just a bit of cargo. How hard can it be, right? We need a place to start; just assume we rolled this up during our Sector config. > [!info] Whisper's Deep Sector > > **Region:** Terminus > > **Stellar object**: Glowing orange star. > **Star Name:** Apelsinovyy > > **Settlement name**: Enigma. > **Location**: Planetside. > **Settlement authority**: None / lawless. > **Population**: Dozens. > **Settlement project**: Automation, Agriculture > > **Planet Name:** Gelida > **Planet type**: Ice. > **Atmosphere**: None / thin. > **Planet's settlement**: Multiple settlements. > **Observed from space**: Rocky glacial islands. > **Planetside feature**: Steaming hot springs. > **Life**: Diverse. > **Planetside peril**: Drastic environmental change. > > **Settlement name**: Forlorn. > **Location**: Orbital. > **Population**: Thousands. > **First look**: Built within repurposed ship. > **Settlement authority**: Corrupt. > **Settlement project**: Pacifism, Salvage. You need two things if you want a haul. Firstly, you need someplace to start from. Secondly, you need someplace to go. Luckily, the random generation system in **Starforged** is up to the task of creating our first sector, and it's probably good enough that we kick off just by generating what the places are and where we're at. So where are we? > [!quote] Setup > > We are in the *Whisper's Deep* sector that contains at least one planet, *Gelita*, an ice world with a thin atmosphere, multiple settlements, covered with rocky glacial islands, and the occasional erupting hot spring from deep within the core of the planet. Shockingly, it has a diverse biosphere, all living within the liquid ocean deep below the surface, near the heated core. > > Unfortunately, having an extremely warm core and an icy exterior means that there are frequent explosive uprisings of hot water and steam which squirm, boil, and burn their way up through the ice to the surface. > > It looks like on the long term this planet is heating up, which is going to be bad for anybody who depends on there being a thick crust of ice, like several of the settlements. > > Unfortunately for them, the one that we are currently parked in, *Enigma*, is exactly one of those settlements. Though calling it a settlement is probably much too grandiose. At best it's a bit of an agricultural station: working automated aquatic farms, which extend through a massive pit down into the subsurface ocean, doing their best to raise a mix of local life and aquaculture to feed a good chunk of the rest of the system. > > There's less than 40 people here keeping it running. Lucky for us, there are plenty of other people who need a cargo hold full of food. You can find a lot of them up on *Forlorn*. > > Once upon a time, it was a colony ship. Now it's a massive cobbled together space station, where several thousand people live in conditions not even a cargo spacer would consider worthwhile. > > The local authority probably has some contacts with the Scarlet Corsairs, which explains why we are doing milk runs to break in the crew. It's not *in* the middle of nowhere, but you can *see* the middle of nowhere from here. > > Money's too thin on the ground to bitch too much about it, though. A load's a load. We need a connection out here too, because somebody's got to be the one we get in contact with on a regular basis. I think it's fairly obvious who it needs to be, or at least what they need to be. > [!danger] Contact > > **Name:** Marlon Djykstra > **Role:** Trade Contact > **Location:** Forlorn, Whisper's Deep > **Rank:** Dangerous > > **Character first look**: Graceful, Sickly. > **Goal**: Repair a technology. > **Revealed character aspect**: Determined, Intolerant.^[Have I mentioned how much I appreciate the ease of the **Starforged** generation oracles? Because I really do. So much time and effort saved.] > > Marlon is a *trade factotum* on the *Forlorn*, responsible for making sure that the populace is fed, watered, overly irradiated, entertained, and well-supplied. > > There is no doubt that he's elbows deep in blood and involved with the Scarlet Corsairs, but it doesn't seem to be what he concentrates on, even out here in Whisper's Deep. > > He *does* seem to know everything about anything being sold in the sector, which is good because almost all of it needs to be moved from the place that it's made to the place that it's making money. > > He's a tall guy, almost willowy, you might say. Clearly grew up in extremely low gravity conditions, which isn't entirely unusual. However, because the Forlorn is kept at a standard 1G he always looks like he's laboring to breathe and the blood just keeps draining out of his face. He'd love to have his office space tuned to 0.1G but he hasn't gotten around to it; always something else to do. > > He hates cops. You may never find out what his favorite food is, but within 35 seconds of meeting him, you know he hates cops. Luckily for us, if we ever need to do anything mechanically that involves trade within the Whisper's Deep sector, Marlon will give us a nice little bonus. Since we are probably going to be working out of here for a while, this is not a bad situation to find ourselves in. > [!help] Inciting Incident > > Run a cargo full of algae, Gelidic fish, and mail from Enigma to Forlorn. (TROUBLESOME, 3*/t) > > OOOOOOOOOO > > **Possible Milestones:** > > - Load up the goods at the outpost > - Make orbit > - Unload the cargo at Forlorn > - Get paid This should be more than fine to get started. We've got a place to haul cargo, a place to unload cargo, an excuse to get profit when we get there, a contact on that station, some hooks dangling in the water, and a good time ready to be had by all. ## Evolution But we're not a Q-ship yet. We're just a cargo ship in a bad situation, which is undoubtedly about to get worse. What we're really missing is ship modules in order to bring things to bear. I mean that literally. Since an Advance move requires 3 XP in order to allow you to add new modules^[As well as some money or solid cargo to trade for the work.], you're looking at a fair amount of running cargo, getting into trouble, and keeping the crew happy along the way before you can really start refining things. ### The Pieces Playing the game is fun, however. That's the point. Thinking ahead and figuring out what sort of thing you might want to pull down next is never a bad idea. So what is it that we need before we're properly Q? #### Improved Hold ![[Sundered Isles - Assets - Improved Hold.png]] Odds are good that the next thing we need to pick up is from **Sundered Isles**: Improved Hold. Then we are going to want to spend the next 2 XP on unlocking that ability at the bottom, which gives us beautiful, wonderful smuggling compartments. Why are we going to want smuggling compartments? Why would you ever *not* want smuggling compartments? This also gives us a nice boost when we are resupplying, which is going to give us an advantage on making longer cargo runs. Longer cargo runs mean more money. More money means more goodies, and the world goes round. #### Improved Gunnery ![[Sundered Isles - Assets - Improved Gunnery.png]] This is where the good time starts rolling, and no mistake. This is what sets the big boys aside from the little boys (with one possible option, which we'll get to). Why did I pick *Improved Gunnery* from **Sundered Isles** over *Heavy Cannons* from **Starforged**? Mainly because with Improved Gunnery, you start with that Compel unlock, which I envision as literally popping the outer shell off of a few of those cargo containers on the outside of the ship, revealing terrifyingly large weaponry ready to rock and roll. It just fits with the imagery so perfectly for a Q-ship that it's the one I had to go with. There is an alternative, however, and it's definitely worth looking at… #### Missile Array ![[Starforged - Assets - Missile Array.png]] Here is where things start getting properly spicy. Sure, by default, you are assumed to have some sort of defensive armament on any starship, but here we are seriously upgrading the thing to be an absolute terror. In exchange for effectively one supply, you can take an automatic progress on a hit with *Strike* or *Clash*. That's kind of a big deal. I envision this as replacing some of the cargo modules on the external side of the ship with breakaway missile launchers that effectively eject away from the vessel, blow the walls off, revealing a space-borne missile. Then it roars off after the target to go smash them right in the face. Tell me that's not a good time.  #### Chase Guns ![[Sundered Isles - Assets - Chase Guns.png]] I know, it seems weird to be pulling this from the **Sundered Isles** asset list, but bear with me. Chase guns are fantastic, especially if you are going to be an ambush predator. You know pirates are going to be sneaking in from behind you. They are going to be pursuing you aggressively. Wouldn't it be fun to pop open one of those cargo containers and open up with a rearward-facing death beam right in their unsuspecting faces? You know it would. You know you want to do it. The ranging ability is also quite nice; that ongoing rolling plus one to hit is fantastic, especially if you combine it with the missile launcher and pile on an additional advance every time until you're out of ammo. Larger targets will be reeling. You'll be smiling. #### Sensor Array ![[Starforged - Assets - Sensor Array.png]] If you want to engage in electronic warfare, or get out there and be on the forefront looking out for trouble, or just keep an eye on those nasty pirates you're trying to lure in without them noticing, you're going to want a sensor array. There's no way around it. Of particular interest is dropping another 2 XP on grabbing that last ability, which is going to be the good time when it comes to *being* an ambush predator. *I* would allow you to use that when you are doing the ambushing and thus I will allow *myself* to use it when I am doing the ambushing. That's the way these things go. #### Vehicle Bay ![[Starforged - Assets - Vehicle Bay.png]] Eventually, you're going to want one of these bad boys. This is where you start making the transition from being just another Q-ship with guns on it to being a full-fledged carrier, ready to bust out whatever nightmare scenario the target is simply not ready for. You want flying machines/snub fighters? You want to pop out an array of ground vehicles which go Voltron on the poor idiot target? How about your own *lance of mechs*? This is how you get there cheaply. That repair upgrade is not going to hurt your feelings either once you unlock it. ### Putting it Together Obviously, you can't have *all* of these things at the beginning of the game — *unless you decide that you want to*. Your windows are safe, I promise. If you want to throw all of these modules on your first ship, you just go right on ahead. Build yourself a full-on built out Q-ship and start your crazy adventures any way that you want. I encourage it.^[Remember ships break, too, and *nothing* I've suggested adds to the survivability, just the hitting power. You're flying an armed cargo ship, not a tank. You can lose the whole shebang to a poorly thought out engagement. But that's part of the fun, right?] I would also point out that it gives you a whole lot of bonuses across a whole lot of things and you should probably keep in mind the *Rule of Three* if you're going to have that much fun, I'm definitely not saying you shouldn't because you absolutely should try it at some point but there is a limit to the stacking. ![[Sundered Isles - Rule of 3.png]] If, however, you want to *build up* to these kinds of shenanigans, then the key thing to understand is buying a new asset costs 3 XP, filling in a legacy track box generally takes a couple of decent quests at minimum, with a *Dangerous Expedition* giving you just two ticks, it needing four ticks to fill a box. Still, a few *Formidable Expeditions*, contacts turned to Bonds, or Vows fulfilled can stack up pretty fast at a full box each. Running down the list will bring you to Q-Ship status very quickly. One could argue, reasonably so, that all cargo vessels in **Starforged** are technically Q-ships, since they all are assumed to come with weapons, but that ignores the fact that if there's no fictional reason for them to have a thing, they don't. Being a player character/protagonist has its perks, and one of them is being able to choose right out of the gate. If you want to be a proper Q-ship, *plan* on it. Think about how you could acquire better equipment for your ship, complete rebuilds, or even new ships to expand and enhance the what you have into the ship you want. Think about it in terms of the fiction. Is the place you're at likely to have the ability to refit your ship with the modules you want to bolt on? If not, do some research in-game. Ask questions. Feel around. Find out where you can get such a thing and if nobody knows, strike out into the black and look for it yourself. Maybe you can find a disabled ship floating in a graveyard orbit, just waiting for someone to come in and reheat the reactors. Maybe it has all those modules already installed, just waiting to be repaired and refit so that they can come online. Or maybe the ship that you start with is a ramshackle bolted together nightmare so sticking a few modules on the side with tape and baling wire isn't a problem at all. It's *your* game. It's *your* story. The one thing to keep in mind is, *"play to find out."* ## Exunt There you go, probably more than you wanted to think about as regard to Q-ships and **Starforged**, but really only scratching the surface. Think about in what situations you would really want to have a Q-ship. Is there regular piracy going on along a known transport path (like the [Strait of Hormuz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz))? Is the local authority offering *[Letters of Marque](https://www.law.georgetown.edu/constitution-center/constitution/marque-and-reprisal/)* to interested captains in the area to deal with some annoying political opponent? Are you out there in the space lanes plying a little bit of piracy yourself, lying in wait for first responders or just the local citizenry to come by your fake distress beacon? I'm sure you can come up with any number of other shady or perfectly legal uses for such a thing. The one thing you shouldn't do is *sail responsibly*. Get out there, find your story, and tell us about it. Everything else is moot.