[Spaceships] High-End Spaceships

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by scc

I'm thinking the these personalities normally get to use better then normal craft. Some of this could be accomplished by selecting better systems like using Hot Reactionless Engines instead of standard ones, or picking better weapons for them, but they should defiantly have better defenses as well, particular armor, and that's not possible for organic armor with the current options.

I'm thinking that personalities have a variety of psychic powers.

I'd actually work on combining these two thoughts. The main difference between normal drones and those designed for sapients might be the inclusion of a Psionic Amplifier*, letting the personality use its psychic powers on the scale of spaceship combat. So an elite fighter isn't tougher because it has more armor, but because the pilot is projecting a psychokinetic force-field strong enough to protect against enemy weapons. Other powers could make a ship faster and more maneuverable, guide projectiles towards their targets, or even teleport in combat.

Assuming that these hive ships are all NPCs, I wouldn't worry about precise stats for the powers or amplifiers. Just note on the sheet for a particular pilot what the effects of his powers are. Some may be passive (shield and maneuverability enhancements) while others may require a skill roll to activate. These powers might (though don't necessarily have to) scale with the size of the ship being piloted - a bigger ship means a bigger amplifier.

*I thought I saw one of these in Spaceships 7, but can't find it now. Anyone know if it was from somewhere else, or did I just make it up?