Long-range Scanner (Provides a variety of EM spectrum and gravimetric readings, giving the crew advance warning up to a dozen light-minutes away
Engines: 1/4
Jump Drive (A special engine that can activate Ur gates that connect systems and translate ships into hyperspace lanes)
Hull: 0/2
Weapons: 1/3
Grappler Arm (Officially for latching onto asteroids and netting cargo, it's an array of nets, grappling lines, and arms that can tie two vessels together for towing or boarding. Legal.)
Starting Upgrades Auxiliary
Brig (Space jail. Not meant for long-term incarceration. Will prevent most attempts to escape.)
Training
Prowess (When training Prowess during downtime, earn an additional XP.)
Pick two of the following to improve by 1: Engines, Hull, Comms, Weapons.
You can choose to improve your Crew quality instead, but it will cost all of your starting Cred.
Ranked choice voting seems to be working well so far, so same deal: give me your preferences for upgrades in descending order of preference. If Crew quality is the top choice, we'll roll with that; otherwise, it'll be the top two systems.
(But also don't feel like you have to vote right away, if y'all want to spend some time discussing your choices.)
When you say instead, do you mean instead of both of the choose two options or just one of them?
Instead of both.
You choose two additional ship systems to improve. Your choices are between engines, hull, comms, and weapons.
You may instead choose to improve crew quality, but it’ll cost your crew 2 CREd and you will owe the folks that helped you improve it. A higher crew quality refers to the quality of gear and equipment of the crew. You’re able to take on more powerful factions on equal footing, and can therefore handle harder jobs more easily. Not to mention, your crew will just have nicer stuff!
Sounds like Engines are a lock. Comms has more votes at the moment--@POOHEAD189,@rush99999, would either of you like to make the case for Weapons (or another subsystem), or are you ok going with that?
Alright--to keep things simple, then, I'll go with the majority vote of Engines and Comms.
Updated Stats:
Crew Quality: 0/3
Comms: 3/4
Long-range Scanner (Provides a variety of EM spectrum and gravimetric readings, giving the crew advance warning up to a dozen light-minutes away
Engines: 2/4
Jump Drive (A special engine that can activate Ur gates that connect systems and translate ships into hyperspace lanes)
Hull: 0/2
Weapons: 1/3
Grappler Arm (Officially for latching onto asteroids and netting cargo, it's an array of nets, grappling lines, and arms that can tie two vessels together for towing or boarding. Legal.)
Starting Upgrades Auxiliary
Brig (Space jail. Not meant for long-term incarceration. Will prevent most attempts to escape.)
Training
Prowess (When training Prowess during downtime, earn an additional XP.)
Next we get into some actual roleplaying, albeit at a remove. The Wreckers--a gang of scavengers who provoke battles between other factions and then swoop in to pick over the wreckage--helped you out with the parts and expertise for the upgrades to your engines and sensors, out of their spare parts stocks.
In return, did you:
Pay them off--it was purely a business transaction. Lose 1 CRED.
Owe them one--instead of exchanging money, you exchanged favors. Gain +1 status with the Wreckers--but you'll owe them a one, and they'll call in that marker at some point.
Stiff them--it's their fault they didn't take payment up front. Lose -1 status with the Wreckers.
Next we need to choose a special ability. The game does recommend the following starting ability:
Licensed:You are licensed bounty hunters. Take -2 heat on any legitimate bounty hunting job. You are legally allowed to mount particle weapons on your ship, and can legally use heavy blasters in pursuit of a target. You may also be able to use your license to get into places you otherwise shouldn't be, or carry weapons when you might otherwise need to give them up.
I've listed the other choices in the hider. As you level your crew, you'll have the opportunity to pick up more of these.
On The Trail:Your crew gains an extra downtime activity that can be used to work on long term projects or acquire assets to track bounties. Anyone in the crew may use up this extra action and make the appropriate roll.
Light Touch:You gain potency when tailing a target or when gathering info at a target's previous location.
Snatch'n'grab:When you use a deception, infiltration, or social plan to execute a kidnapping or extraction, add +1d to the engagement roll.
Loaded for Bear:Your crew can carry +1 load. They have distinctive and high-quality armor. When you wear armor, it counts as heavy armor (two uses).
Play Both Sides:Some targets may offer you a reward for letting them go, or at least promise one in the future. When you release a bounty target, make them a crew contact. How this affects your status with the client depends on your actions.
Deadly: Each PC may add 1 action rating to Command, Scrap, or Skulk. You may not increase an action rating past 3 this way, but if taken during initial character creation, you may increase a skill past the starting limit of 2.
While we're at it, let's knock out the last two items as well. You'll need to choose two upgrades, and a favorite crew contact. I've listed the crew contacts below; there are a bunch of available upgrades (pages 116-120 for general upgrades; page 131 for ones specific to your ship/crew) so I won't type them all out, but I will highlight the Stun Weapons crew upgrade as something to consider.
Stacey Weathers, ace reporter
Arlox, Ashen Knives underboss
Ishi, weapons dealer
Lix, xeno tracker
Jerzi, fixer
For the starting ability and favorite contact, go ahead and give me your top three or four and we can determine them that way. Since there are so many upgrades, tho, let's have everyone give their two personal choices, and then we can vote off of that short list.