User:Eiji-kun/Not-Spelljammer

It's not spelljammer. I don't know what to call it, because honestly I don't know the rules of the original spelljammer enough to actually convert it. Instead I'm taking the base concept, as well as drawing from resources many I have run across while on the internet, and making something of my own. As such though it is clearly spelljammer I'll need to find a new name. Maybe Spherejammer.

This isn't a book, this is actually just a large notepad of random ideas and stuff, just in case I can make something out of it. Unlike my other sourcebooks I'm not publishing this and putting it into any format until it's done. No more unfinished projects.

=To-Do List/Mission=

In order to get a playable model as soon as possible I need a few things addressed....


 * Ship to Ship Combat Rules
 * Weapons (Already provided, use pre-existing siege weapons)
 * Ship Models
 * Upgrades (Not technically required, but useful)
 * Faction Information (Not technically required, but useful)

=Setting=

The way I put it, this is fantasy RPG in space. As a result I'm handling world to world travel as such; you have an airship which goes into "Oddspace" so I don't have to use the term wildspace and can step away from Spelljammer a bit. When in wildspace you see tons and tons of spheres, corrisponding to large gatherings of mass in the material plane and other planes, or even other dimensions/campaign settings. Thus, you can just handle trips from Earth to Mars, or you can make it a story of trips between Eberron and Faerun, or trips between the Ethereal and the Plane of Fire, or whatever. It also gives me an ability to limit landing zones. Perhaps a sphere only envelops the state of Texas. Thus the only way for ships to come in and out is by entering through Texas, and thus you have settings where countries fight over lands currently linked with Oddspace. And like leylines, while stable, they might change, grow, shrink, or vanish all together making transport impossible. They might even lead to inhospitable places like within the mantle of the planet, so entering a sphere directly into the molten depths of the earth is kind of useless.

The spheres are "barriers" instead of "crystal spheres", because it makes more sense to pass through an energy field than something implied to be solid. The purpose of Spelljammer ships is their ability to enter and exit these barriers, as well as navigate Oddspace.

Oddspace is based on direction and travel time rather than actual distance. Thus you navigate to fly to the Abyss, and from your location (Earth) it may be a 15 day trip at Speed Rating 1. From the Ethereal Plane it's only a 7 day trip. And from Pluto, it's a 4 day trip. But this doesn't imply any maps and one day Pluto may be on your left and Abyss dead ahead, and another day Pluto isn't even visible and the Abyss is behind you.

Oddspace looks like outer space, but "stars" are spheres of variable brightness depending on if they're stars, portals to bright planes like fire, positive, or radiant, or rocky bodies. Typically spheres cluster together in patterns similar to their real world counterparts; Earth would be clustered with many spheres including a sphere to the sun, the moon, Venus, Jupiter, etc, but that's not a hard rule. Maybe the sphere for Saturn is orbiting the sphere to Eberron for some reason.

Traveling to the sphere, the sphere looks very far away until you get close to it, in which case it zooms up and grows much much larger until its the size of the portal to whatever place it leads. As a result spheres can easily be planet or star sized. One needs to slow down doing so, ramming a sphere at high speed will just result in you exploding. That prevents "orbital bombardment" situations, the ship has to pass into realspace and be exposed.

Because its fantasy RPG in space, I'm expecting wooden ships and whatnot over iron juggernauts. As a result most aren't actually spaceworthy, and finding spheres which don't land you in space are a plus. Spheres which don't land you in solid matter is good too, since trying to pass through it will cause you to appear in solid matter, and just be shunted out. Though Oddspace resembles outer space, it had a something something in the air. It's not breathable, but it can be flown through and when dense enough forms nebula. Otherwise its frictionless and unopposed to the possible superlight speeds you travel at. Ships should have an oxygen bubble thing to produce, but don't have to worry about pressure damage. I may go back on this and just make it void like outer space...

Spelljammer ships in realspace are nowhere near as maneuverable or good as they are in oddspace. Unless the ship is a good airship AND a good spelljammer I shouldn't have to worry too much. There's the issue of PC to ship combat, but no more than currently exists. I can wave it off by treating them as the moving fortifications they are.

Also some apologies in advance. I ran across this website and I'm sure to steal a good many things from it. I am a shameless thief, but many of these things are good ideas I wish to incorporate.

Game Mechanics
The AC of a ship is 10 + size modifier + pilot Dex or Wis + armor bonus + engine bonus + misc bonus.

Example: 10 - 4 for gargantuan + 4 wis + 2 engine + 4 armor. The resulting AC is 16.

AC tends to be lower than most PCs, so I'm thinking ship armor must be higher. For engine bonus, it's a bonus the engine gives, and is effectively a dodge bonus.

Given the following assumed chart of average attack bonuses (using medium BAB)...


 * 1-+2 (AC 12)
 * 2-+3 (AC 13)
 * 3-+4 (AC 14)
 * 4-+5 (AC 15)
 * 5-+6 (AC 16)
 * 6-+7 (AC 17)
 * 7-+8 (AC 18)
 * 8-+9 (AC 19)
 * 9-+10 (AC 20)
 * 10-+12 (AC 22)
 * 11-+13 (AC 23)
 * 12-+15 (AC 25)
 * 13-+16 (AC 26)
 * 14-+18 (AC 28)
 * 15-+19 (AC 29)
 * 16-+21 (AC 31)
 * 17-+22 (AC 32)
 * 18-+24 (AC 34)
 * 19-+25 (AC 35)
 * 20-+26 (AC 36)

I expect the average ship to be gargantuan, which means we start out at -4 already. As a result let's try adding 4 to all armor bonuses...

Using the paddle steamer, we have AC 6 (-4 size). Assume a level 6 captain (average +4 wis) for AC 10 (-4 size, +4 wis).

If I add "chain shirt", it is AC 18 (8 armor, -4 size, +4 wis) which seems like too much. At a +2 bonus it's a better 16. Then if the engine bonus is +1, then it's a 17, or average.

Attackers at 6th, assuming rogue, have BAB 5 + 1 enhancement + 4 dex = +10. Which hits an average of 20. But with nonproficiency, an average of 16.

This seems right...

What else..............................................

Time to clarify distances. Positioning is abstracted into "cells", and cells making a distance of melee, close, medium, long, and extreme. Melee is being in the same cell as the opponent, close within 6 cells, medium in 12, long within 18, and extreme anywhere beyond. Most combats don't, and can't, happen in extreme range. Beyond that are megacells, which is what planet to planet distances are measured in.

The average ship speed rating is 4-6, 12 is fast, and 20 is insane.

Thus combat is determined by how many cells away you are from your target. I'll rejigger seige weapon ranges to apply to the new system. In realspace they act like normal.

Long distance speed covers megacells. A Speed 6 ship can cross 6 megacells in a day of travel at full speed, or 2 days of travel at cruising speed (half speed). Most ships go at cruising speed since its more efficient.

The example ship "Tortuga" is speed rating 2, it's slow as hell.

Melee focused ships, boarders, and ramming ships desire high speeds. Ranged ships may also want high speeds to play keep away. Heavy armor ships can afford to be slow (and probably are by their armor anyway) so they don't care if they get in melee.

Being at farther and farther ranges means both ships have a harder time hitting each other.

For ship initiative, the pilot uses his Dex, but having someone act as a watchguard is good for keeping the battle starting as far of a range as possible. Usually by the time a ship enters medium range, they are noticed.

What else...................................................

Generally the crew is safe from harm and only the ship can be targeted, save for collateral damage (an effect of some weapons). For things like spell ranges, spells really only work in "melee" range cells, where you can actually say you are X ft away. Usually by that point ships are actually ramming each other and boarding has commenced.

Boarding fights are a bit complex, as its two fights running side by side. I figure you handle boarding fights (normal D&D) and then changes in the ship fight at the end of the round.

If a ship needs to save vs a spell, use the helm's saves or the pilot's, whatever is better. It's an object, so by virtue its typically immune to a lot of things.

The ship can be targeted as a whole, or target subsystems. Still working on it, but subsystems are either "exposed" or "concealed". You can't hit concealed subsystems unless you know where to aim (Knowledge Engineering is useful!) and even then it's hard. Concealed things would be like the Cockpit, Life Support, and other internal bits. Exposed systems are things on the outside like Weapons and Engines. Not only does AC go up, but you only deal half damage. On the other half, this applies status effects to the ship such as shutting down weapons, engines, or other parts.

Due to the fluff, the ship's subsystems can be repaired on the fly (manually) and put back together Aurorum style, so the crew must be busy. This removes the status effect. A subsystem can be so badly damaged that it is "busted" and retains a penalty even after its been fixed, requiring far more intensive fixing.

Ships have a lot of hp, but I expect "bloodied" statuses, either at 2/3 and 1/3rd, or 50% and 20%, which cripples the ship more and more. Most fights likely end before a ship is destroyed completely. 0 hp implies its not even a ship, its a debris field.


 * Bloodied 50%: -2 on all things, breach occurs.
 * Bloodied 20%: -4 on all things, half speed, unrepairable breach occurs.
 * Bloodied 5%: -8 on all things, impulse speed.

Possible Ship Sheet (Drone)
Name: Generic Drone Scout

Frame: Generic Scout Ship

Ship Size: Huge

Ship Dimensions: 28 ft wide x 14 ft long x 7 ft high

Mass: 1 Ton

Hull: Steel (Hardness 10, 180 hp)

Crew: 0/2

Speed Rating/Maneuverability: 5 (+3 engine bonus)

Landing: None.

Helm (Name, Capacity, Extra): Generic-Co Helm with AI. Int -, Wis 12, Cha 1.

Subsystems: Generic-Co Engines (Thrust 5), MADAR, 2x Large Cannons

Attacks: 2x Large Cannons (6d6, 20/x4, 2 cell range increment)

Defenses: Chain Shirt (AC 6); AC 18 (armor 6, engine 3, wis 1, size -2), touch 11, flat 14

Cargo: None.

Built By: Fluff.

Used Primarily By: Fluff.

Ship CR: 6?

Fluff Stuff
Things about fluff. Specifically I'm stealing some of the spelljammer stuff. Spelljammer helms (the important part to make things go) are basically common but non-reproducable minor artifacts that are still made by the occational creation engine in control by the Arcanium, mysterious uber wizards who don't do much and basically act the part of the Lady of Pain minus the absolute the DM invulnerability. The Arcanium fly around in their ivory towers and occationally sell more helms or ask for special requests which drive PC campaigns. Beyond them there are many other races, some which come from lands entirely dominated by them or from campaign settings very different, like a setting where the drow won, or where beholders live, or where everyone is human and no fantasy races had ever existed. And so on and so forth. And then some things that just live in Oddspace.

I found an interesting workaround to the issue of looting ships and the mass wealth that brings. Helms are expensive (well, priceless, but you get the idea) because its what makes a spelljammer a spelljammer. But its not the helms itself. It's the programming. The progress of programming or reprogramming a helm to work with a new ship is expensive and time consuming, so selling a helm is not as valuable as it gives the programmers the raw materials, but not the ship its supposed to be linked to.

There's still the issue of selling a whole intact ship though. I don't yet have a fix for that, but I suppose if the PCs grab a ship in its entirely, good for them? No, there needs to be something besides "make the ships so cheap as to be worthless". Assistance welcome.

Anyway more on fluff I know of several factions I want to make an appearance.


 * Arcanium, as defined above.
 * Planet where drow took over.
 * Beholders obsessed with roundness and art (their own twisted art).
 * Neogi. They're pretty much already a spelljamming race.
 * Illithids, and their sunless planet.
 * Gith, and their war against illithids.
 * Space dwarves (mining ships), space elves (from a planet of elves), space halflings (explorers), space gnomes (super tinkerers), space orcs (Klingons).
 * Thri-Kreen and their mantis warriors. Damn you FTL!
 * Space kobolds and their dragon gods. A race of space zealots.  In space.
 * Hints of Lovecraftian shinanigans.
 * At least one Oddspace-only race.
 * Planet of Tarrasques.

Also a giant spelljammer city akin to Sigil. The home planet of Arcanium is hidden and/or gone. Don't ask questions, spooky arcanium assassins will find you.

Environment
Environment and hazards and stuff.

Should Oddspace be a void?

Should sphere emit gravity?

Should there be "space whirlpools"? I think I'll go full navy.

And nebula, of course. Blocking sight and limiting speeds to a maximum.

Ecology for Oddspace-only beings. What are the base plants? What do they eat? Maybe oddkrill, eaten by planar whales. Because spacewhales.

Hazards to cover...


 * Black Holes
 * Nebula
 * Re-Entry
 * Space Tsunami
 * Space Whirlpool

Ships
Stuff, as according to major races.

More specifically talking about the helms (and where I steal much from the website) in that they are magic charged, but have capacitors and batteries so you don't need a zombified mage hooked up 24/7 to fly it, and low level mages are much better for the quick fix. Helms will have a charge capacity for how much energy it can store, a maximum output for how much it can expend at one time, a motive force which shows its maximum speed in Oddspace, and maneuverability in Oddspace. In realspace all ships are clumsy (but can hover) and their speeds translated into the normal ft per round, which is much slower than in Oddspace. In Oddspace, you have a Speed Rating, and you travel X virtual distance in Oddspace.

Some ships will have AI. I'll go over AI, but they range from mindless, to Int 1, to higher and higher (able to give non-instinctual replies at Int 3). AI is a bit of a crapshoot since an AI is the helmsman and may take over unless given some kind of limitation. As a result most AI is limited to Int 2. It's immune to mind-affects regardless, because AI.

Ships should start being affordable by level 5 with party help for junk craft, normal ships at ECL 10, and expensive ships at ECL 20.

As before, ships don't need a wizard hooked up all the time. You charge it, then anyone can be the helmsman. Some ships don't even have wizards and rely on batteries and recharging at ports. Still deciding if I want to base the charge amount on level, or spell levels drained, though I'm keeping the full drain thing.

When it comes to ship and ship purchasing and augmentations, I think the easiest thing to do is to to have a base frame like "Manisvan Warbird" or "Eijilund Doomcharger", and that'll determine how many hardpoints you have, base cargo space, and then like. Then if you want to change the sails to better sails, add cannons, increase cargo space, or the like then they can replace/add them.

That should balance the desire for customization while avoiding nonsense making a ship with a cockpit and 10000 engines for the ultimate speed machine, or the like.

Considering partial syncronization one can do for free, given time. So if you find a ship you can partial sync, pilot it, but not access its cool gadgets until you spend the gp on getting it full-synced. Plus I can use that as a debuff status effect. You're fighting pirates and you hit them with a de-syncer, dropping them to partial sync and causing them to be not as cool.

Ship Parts to Consider: Cargo Space, Communications (see the recent Communications Grid), Escape Pods, Helm, Living Quarters (bedrooms, kitchens, misc rooms), Life Support (see the recent Orbs of Clear Air), Gravity (see the recent Global Gravity Disc), Propulsion, Radar (see the recent MADAR), Weapons.

Maybe escape pods could generate a barrier throwing you in a random point in Realspace? Which may be "safer" if you run out of power... I dunno.

Ship Combat
The hard part, but basically being ported from Steamspace and the corpse of Complete Transportation. The key here is attempting to do it mapless, and instead basing it on relative distance to each other and circumstance bonuses.

I'm considering a Ship Armor Class. The actual AC of ships is almost universally low (usually below 10) because they're pretty big, even fighter sized ships. SAC will be fore ship to ship, and take into account shields, piloting ability, maneuverability, construction, and the like. I imagine maneuverability acts like armor's Maximum Dex, a limit, while piloting ability is one's Dex, and construction and shields are your armor/shield/etc bonuses.

Commentary welcome.

Test Combat
The Situation: One ship (AC 17, SR 5, 700 hp/hard 5, crew of 10, four weapons and a helmsman, leaving one "free", general attack roll of +7, three heavy ballistas and one cannon all advanced) vs two ships (AC 15, SR 6, 400 hp/hard 5, crew of 6, 3 weapons and helmsmen, general attack +5, 3 heavy ballistas). They detect at Long range (18 zones). The enemies are Close to each other. There is a nebula on the field.

Treating cannons as 10 zones, ballista at 18.

Testing a new idea out by letting the helmsman mass-reload all weapons at once. Testing out new idea of hp totals for subsystems.

---

Round 1: Initiative is rolled. PC ship wins, followed by enemy ships. Situationally it is in a bad way, as it only has one weapon in range to their 3. The crew acts, six dedicated to firing and reloading the ballistas to attack once a round. 3, 9, 18. That's +10 (miss), +16 (hit), and +25 (hit) at Enemy A.  Damage is 23+3, 27+3, 31+3, bypassing 5 hardness. Enemy A cannot make a pilot check to avoid, it is flatfooted. Total 90 damage! PC ship pilot double moves in to only 8 zones away to Enemy A, hoping for a quick kill. Still 18 away from Enemy B (ALERT: The lack of map may actually complicate things, especially if given multiple ships.) This actually lets 2 additional crew fire/load the cannon. 8 or +15 (hit), 32+3 damage, total 125. So far 9 crew are used. The last one decides to use his actions to fortify the cannon and one ballista against ranged attacks, giving it +2 AC.

Enemy A goes "holy crap" since they lost like 1/3rd their hp. The pilot is going evasive maneuvers, raising AC by +4. That leaves  2, 2, and 1 to man weapons, firing them all. 15, 8, 12, or +20 (hit), +13 (miss), and +17 (hit). This deals 29+1, 27+1, 29+1, or 88/73 after hardness. Ouch. (ALERT: These damage numbers are actually a bit higher than I expected. It may or may not be a problem.  I may not need to deal with the Bloodied at 50% thing after all.  I also may make an attack penalty to evasive maneuvers.)

Enemy B thinks he needs to disable their weapons. He fires, aiming for the weapons with the helmsman helping reload for 2, 2, and 2 as weapon crew, so the spare 2 weapon crew aid another for +2 to attacks. 12+2, 7+2, 16, or +19 (hit normally, but AC for the weapon is 21+2 from fortification so miss), +14 (miss), and +23 (hit). This deals 30+1 or 31/16 after hardness. Total damage to PC ship is now 89, and 31/21 post hard to a cannon. I've determined the cannon has hard 10/70 hp, so its now 49 hp. At 45 hp it is "damaged".

---

Round 2: That hurt. Still, got to keep up the pressure. PC ship continues to focus fire on Enemy B. Full fire, that's 8 crew on weapons, and the pilot moves in 5 zones (now in 3 zones) and helps aim (+2 aid another). The remainer crew fortifies the cannon and one ballista again. Attack! 4, 14, 2, 17. +11 (miss), +21 (hit, their current AC is 19), +9 (miss), +24 (hit). However this time Enemy A makes a piloting check at +15. Result 12, or +27. It's new AC is 27 vs one attack, which it uses to dodge the last hit (the cannon). Really it needs to decide to do this beforehand, but whatever. One hit means 22+3 damage bypassing their hardness. Total damage is 150.

Enemy A really needs to take out that cannon, it hurts. When only one ballista is hitting a round it does pretty well. It also goes full fire, with everything aimed at the cannon. After all last round the PC ship did not take any defensive measures except for the fortifying, so it needs to hit AC 19. Attack! Unfortunately one of the weapons is still reloading (ALERT: The more I do this, the more I am convinced this should be played with playing cards which are "tapped" and to keep track of hp totals.) So two attacks, one reload, and this time the pilot uses his actions to get into an avantageous position, moving into nearby nebula after its done firing (20% concealment). Attacks 6, 9. It's not very lucky, at +11 and +14 it misses twice.

Enemy B gets the idea though, all attacks on the cannon! Same actions as before, so all three attacks. 17, 6, 10, for +24 (hit), +13 (miss), +17 (miss only due to cannon AC being 21). Deal 29+1/20 post hardness, enough to drop it to 29 hp and "damaged". The cannon now deals half damage, a nasty hit. PC ship is hurting at 30/25 damage post hardness, or 114 damage. (ALERT: I take it back, damage seems to be just right.)

---

Round 3: The cannon is taking a beating, you know what this means. No, not Hostess Filled Fruit Pies, ramming speed! The pilot makes a ram attempt (with no ram). Let's say that's 6d6 for a gargantuan ship again a huge ship, for a bonus +1d6 damage, and +5 damage from engines. So 7d6+5 is 24+5, with a Pilot check (DC = 10 + damage?) for avoiding a breach. Attack roll 15, or +22 (hit). Enemy A takes 29/24 after hard, PC ship takes half at 14/9 after hard. Enemy ship total 174, PC ship total 123. Save vs breach would be DC 34. Pilot check 15, total +30... not enough, there is a breach in the enemy hull! PC make a check vs breach, DC 19. They also have a +15, so... NAT 1, they also are breached! Sucks for them!

With a BREACH, their insides are exposed and concealed things are no longer concealed (alternatively one random concealed subsystem is exposed). More importantly the ships can now invade each other in hand to hand combat. A traditional combat starts now, or I may have a "quick" determination later. For now, I'll just roll d20s + the average level of the crew to determine victories and failures. When crews hit "0", the battle is lost. As is, it's PCs d20+10 vs Enemy A d20+6.

They are in melee range and "grappling". Pilot vs pilot check to determine if the ships remain stuck together. They don't have a ramming prow, so the ships don't naturally stick. PC +25 vs Enemy A +22, they are stuck for a round.

The crew of the PC ship starts invading! +22 vs +11, PCs win.

Enemy A is in grapple! The crew abandons posts and starts fighting, down to d20+5. +25 vs +9, PCs win.

Enemy B may end up firing on an ally ship. They risk it, trying to aim for the PC ship engines. First, 50% miss. two go wild, one hits true. Attack rolls 8, 1, 4. What misfortune, or maybe fortune. At least +13 and +9 don't hit their ally ships, even flatfooted as they are.

---

Round 4: The PC pilot maintains grapple. +19 vs +26, fail! The enemy ship breaks free, stranding the PC crew. Since it cannot help the crew yet, it holds action to match speed if the enemy tries to go away.

PC crew attacks, +29 vs +13. PCs win.

Enemy A crew tries to get the upper hand, at d20+4! +25 vs +23, so close but that's a loss! Survival seems low, it seems wise for them to surrender now.

Enemy A helmsman tries to flee! It moves 12, the PC ship moves 5, total 7 distance between them.

Enemy B is seeing this. It's not worth it, calls for a retreat, in hopes that it can pick up survivors later. Departing battle!

---

Round 5: PC pilot double moves to close distance and ram. Attack 13, or +20 hit. 21 damage/16 post hardness, DC 26. Check result from enemy A 31, no additional breach, total damage 190. 10/5 post hardness to PCs, DC 15. Can't fail the check, no breach. Total damage to PC ship 128.

PC crew attacks, +22 vs +19. PCs win.

Enemy B surrenders. PCs accept.

Enemy B ship weapons remain, as the PCs have no space. They take ammo, gold, and one crew prisoner. The rest are permitted to leave.

Battle over.

---

Thoughts: This is much more complex than I expected.

To expound, the damage seems tobe fine, and I can keep "bloodied", but I have concerns over the mapless system working properly. This also relies on not facing a high hp/very hard ship who will fight to the death. The total PC result was 128 damage out of 700, which isn't huge but given that repairs are a bit hard to come by, dangerous. Even so, 700 may be a bit on the very high side of ship hp totals. It still has the danger of higher level PCs just getting into melee right away and tearing things apart with 200 damage strikes, which negates the need for ships. Unsure how to handle that other than "halve PC damage, because helm magic", which may be the answer.

There is a bit of dullness and repetition, but this is expected. This was, basically, Fighter vs Fighter. I haven't made maneuvers yet.

Equipment
Various things and actions...

About Seige Weapons: After a detailed analysis I have determined seige weapons, as written, are slow as shit. Now, that's fine when a "seige" is days and days of multiple ballistas firing every minute for hours on end, and your target has an AC of 0. Not so good for ship to ship combat. So there will be changes.

For one, I just made some Advanced Ballista Bolts, so that helps.

Another is that ships really "break" at 1/2 their hp, so their imposing hp totals are actually not all that imposing. More of a problem with drones really who are apt to fight to the death, but drones tend to be weakish anyways.

Another is that I think I will have the following changes, because Helm Shinanigans: Damage size up one catagory. Weapons cost 1/2 the cost of a non-seige weapon, because wondrous architecture rules and because I expect ships to have a lot of weapons. And several seige-weapon-only enhancements which really help put some umph in the attack.

This still leads to long battles, longer than what D&D is used to, but this is fine, if not actually desirable. Unless they're mook fighter ships, large craft shouldn't be going down in less than 30 seconds anyway. And now that ships have a nicer AC bonus, battles will be more exciting as you actually have to wonder "will this miss"?

Helm Functions
Time for officalize this...


 * Piloting: Allows movement of the ship. Comes in Impulse, Tactical, Cruise, and High speed (in order of speed).  Impulse and Tactical are pre-warp speeds.  Cruise and High speed are warp speeds.
 * Maneuvers: Access various, mostly combat related, maneuvers based on your current environment (such as open space, nebula, astroid field) and your ranks in Profession Pilot (thus giving you access to better and better maneuvers).
 * Sphere Phazing: Allows movement through spheres.
 * Warp: Allows warp speeds, being able to cross the NI large sectors in Oddspace from Sphere to Sphere.
 * Visuals: See as if you the ship itself. Doesn't see inside the ship unless you have internal sensors subsystem.
 * Subsystem Control: Operate subsystems as if you were there. Generally not as effective as actually being manned.  If someone else is there, you can make it easier.
 * Subsystem Repair: Repair subsystems as if you were there. Generally not as effective as actually being manned.  If someone else is there, you can make it easier.

Todo List

 * Seige-Only Enhancements
 * New Siege Weapons (Macross Missile Spam/Bulletstorm, Explosive Missiles, Long Range Missiles, QAAM, Cluster Bombs, Space Mines, Breach Bombs, Other Status Effect Bombs, Bolo, Wave Motion Gun, Laser for Long Range Sniping/Undodgables, Homing Missiles)
 * Ship Armor List (for ease of use its normal armor +2 AC)
 * More wondrous architecture.

Monsters of Oddspace
Monster bestiary.

Heroes of Oddspace
NPC info. Especially for the next part...

Factions
Ganteka has the best ideas. Focus less on races, more on fations, PF Society style even perhaps with the different "Covenants" (though thats more complex and thus comes later). Lesse what I can think of...


 * Arcanium: The big boys, they're all the quasi-Elan things. Basically Team DM.
 * Silverbrand Guild: Mostly the dwarves, probably. Also gives them an excuse for the massive flying fortresses.  They're bank vaults, and thus prized by bandits, so they need protection.
 * Odders Union: Seperate from the bankers, these are the "everyman" guild, the guys who run the space stations, the docks, the hookers and blow. They are here for business.  Pretty much the Expert's guild.
 * Elder Dominion: Illithid group, mostly lead by illithids and obediance to the elder brains. Possibly also Team Lovecraft.
 * Gith Empire: Aforementioned Gith group, giving illithids their rivals.
 * Enders Guild: Because someone needs to. I imagine halflings and humans abound.
 * PMC; Alabaster Knights, Chaosbane, Starguard, Fenrir, Armsworks Foundation: The local police force/protection groups. There are probably several of these, each effectively PMCs.  I'll probably make one that is kinda LG, LE, CG, CE, and TN flavored.  Five should be enough.
 * Outlaws: Not a group per se, as so much the non-group which bandits go in.
 * Space Pirates: Also a not group, similar to Outlaws but specifically bandit flavored rather than just "lawless" or "mercinary".
 * Orbus: Pretty much all beholders, aforementioned violent artists.
 * The Devoted: A religious faction doing religious things. Possibly made of several religions UN style, some more unstable and insane than others.
 * Exodus Fleet: At least one faction needs to lose their home world, run to Oddspace, and adventure and/or get revenge for the destruction of home.
 * Hivers: Splitting up thri-kreen into two things, these are the FTL style warrior mantids.
 * Greenheart Confederation: And the Steamspace version of Thri-Kreens, the biological tinkerers who are basically Slytherrin or however you spell that aberration.
 * Gears: Of course you need Necrons...
 * Wyrmscale Empire: Aforementioned religious group dedicated to dragons. Mostly kobolds.
 * Slavers Guild: The Neogi are big on this.
 * Blackstar: The black market. Tons of trouble, but they can buy anything for an unfair price.
 * Scrappers: Often accused of being the Black Market, they offically go out and recycle dead ships.
 * Phantoms: "Reapers", they are scary boogeymen no one knows about but apparently exist, and have almost Arcanium-like powers. The Arcanium seem quick to suppress information about them.
 * Hunter's Guild: Lots of monsters, someone needs to kill them. Arcanium likes buying the body parts anyway.

Is this enough? Or perhaps more? I'll mull on it.

NPCs

 * A scary Arcanium which doesn't act like the others or play by the rules, in a black tower. Very Nylarthotepish.  Possible evil wishmaster.
 * Lex Luthor of the dwarves. Very dwarf centric, and very rich.
 * Han Solo.
 * Mother Brain, one particular Elder Brain with a space-pirate esque plan.
 * Famous gith warlord and pirate captain, dangerous.
 * Captain Kirk, clearly a bard with 1000 illigitimate children. An explorer.
 * At least one, if not all five, leaders of the PMCs.
 * Famous ghost pirate or something. Or maybe a living one.
 * A deformed humanoid who is obsessed with beholders and/or art. One of the few legged things some beholders tolerate.  Crazy.
 * The Space Pope.
 * Lord of Blades/Megatron.
 * And his rival Optimus Prime.
 * One of the "Dragon Gods".
 * Jabba the Hutt.
 * A feared assassin sort.
 * Samus Aran.
 * The Godfatter.
 * Tank Girl scrapper.

Adventures in Oddspace
Stuff. Campaign settings and materials. Notable spheres.


 * Space pirates and a ghost ship.
 * There's a planet inside a sun, the sun is fake.
 * Illithids try to summon Cthulthu.
 * Gith go genocidal, and create a doomsday weapon that threatens everyone.
 * Beholder builds a Death Star. After all, it's nice and beholder-like.
 * Political drama.
 * Find the Legendary treasure of Eiji's Butt.
 * War breaks out between X and Y.

Glossory
GLOSSERY SO FAR
 * Barrier: The "crystal spheres" which allow transport to and from Realspace.
 * Battery: Like a capacitor, but doesn't bleed out. Used to recharge a ship on the fly.
 * Breach: A hole in the ship, needs to be repaired, no longer airtight. A kind of ship status effect.
 * Capacity/Capacitor: How much energy a helm can hold at one time. Bleeds out 1 point per week if not used.
 * Cruising Speed: Movement speed for long distance. Doesn't consume much energy.  It's not your maximum speed.
 * Impulse Speed: Sublight speeds, pretty slow. In realspace you can only move impulse speeds.
 * Leaking: Status effect for ship capacitors, draining energy at a certain rate.
 * Mass: How much matter is in a ship, used mainly by engines to see how large a ship they can push. An engine can push its mass, or twice its mass with medium encumbrance, or three times its mass with heavy encumbrance.  Beyond heavy you can't move in a gravity well, and you move impulse speeds only.
 * Maximum Speed: How fast you can actually go. Going max speed all the time is wasteful.
 * Moderate Damage: Hp remaining at 50%. -2 penalties.  Speed rating is halved.  Obtaining this status grants a breach when first gained if done by a weapon able to make breaches.
 * Obliterated: Reduced to debris, dead.
 * Oddspace: The "outer space" where ships fly around and enter various barriers. The essence there is not breathable, and extremely low friction.
 * Partial Syncronization: It's only half done, giving you limited options. Specifically, Piloting (non-combat), Visuals, and X.
 * Realspace: The usual D&D cosmology, including inner and outer planes.
 * Severe Damage: Hp remaining at 20%. -4 penalties.  Obtaining this status grants a breach when first gained if done by a weapon able to make breaches.  Hardness is halved.  The level above is Moderate Damage, the level below is Critical Damage.
 * Speed Rating: How fast you move in Oddspace.
 * Syncronization: If you sync with a helm, you can control the ship. You don't need to be a wizard to sync with a helm, though you need a wizard to charge a helm.
 * Tactical Speed: Movement speed for combat, consumes a lot of energy.
 * Critical Damage: Hp remaining at 5%. -8 penalties.  Impulse speed only.  Repair can only bring to Severe Damage, intense reconstruction is needed to bring back to full.  Could be considered a form of limb loss.  The level above is Severe Damage, the level below is Obliterated.