[Fred Brackin]

Okay, I promised everyone a starship and I finally may have the time.

These are the voyages of the Starship....... Exit Prize. Boldly going head long into trouble because its' Captain has a Wis of 10 and a alck of knowledge and people skills.

Step one in the build process is to gather up your Build pts or BP. Forget about that money stuff. BP are doled out to parties on a basis of Average Party Level regardless of party size. APL 1 gets you 55 BP.

Oddly it's probable party size that determines the first choice of what to get. You need to select a "frame" first which is mostly like a chassis onto which you put everything else. The frame comes with affixed number of crew accommodations and there isn't really any way to change that. You'd have install passenger quarters for extra crew in the place of a cargo hold and the cost of an extra BP.

A Shutttle only sleeps 4 crewmen and I'd worry about a larger party so we go up one size and get a Light Freighter for 10 BP.

The next thing on the list is a Power Core and for a system that's been simplified as much as Starfinder this looks kind of finicky. You can't tell what size of a Power Core to get yet though because the total of all the Power Core Units (PCU) is later in the design process.

I look ahead and see the most I will probably ever need at one time is 75 to energize the FTL drive. An "Arcus Light" Power Core produces exactly that and costs 7 BP.

I need those 75 PCUs for a Signal Basic Drift engine which costs 4 BP and gives trip length divisor of 1.

Thrusters are next and they don't make trips in normal space shorter but they do determine movement in tactical combat. The ability to run away looks like a much better bet than out-shooting people. Thus I choose to maximize thrusters and get an S 12 unit for 6 BP. It will use 60 PCU.

We leave the cargo bays as is which costs nothing and let's the ship carry about 75 tons.

Next is security gear and it appears as if I do not spend 5 BP on biometric Locks the ship doesn't have any locks. So that's one of the things I've been trying to save BP for.

For Sensors we choose "budget long range" for 6 BP,

Oh, I have to go back and look at armor and see how much I can raise the ship's AC v. Direct Fire weapons (as distinguished from Tracking weapons like homing missiles). 2BP would get me only + 1 AC but it also adds up to 40 out of 55 BP total.

The ship's computer I leave at basic for 0 BP.

Then there's the _quality_ of the crew quarters and if you spend no BP you get a level that amounts to something like "Basic Training Barracks". For 2 BP I can boost that to the equivalent of "college dorm room". So we're at 42 BP spent now.

Then there's Shields and I try for 20 totals pt of damage absorption f0r 3 BP.

Last is Weapons and I have only 10 BP and 5 PCU. Oooh, what do you know I do need more power. If I spend 2 more BP to upgrade to a "Pulse Brown" (what kind of name is that? It sounds like a command code for the sewage recycling system) I'll get 90 PCU and I can fill my 4 weapon mounts with Light Lasers that will cost another 2 BP each and eat up 5 PCU, also each.

I think I'm done and am not terribly happy but if the ship sees combat there might be a gun for everyone to shoot. A bad, short-ranged gun but it might provide hope. I might have more faith in the thrusters.

I might actually try and stay on the space station until we reach 2nd level. :)