This page contains all of the additions and rules tweaks that we have decided to apply since the game was released. The GM chooses whether to use these rules in his/her/it's campaign.

New and Revised Rules:

You will always take a minimum of 1 point of damage from any starship weapon hit, regardless of how much the damage has been reduced.

If you win a piloting roll by 6 or more points, you may change the range by 2 categories (long to short or vice-versa).

You can never use any maneuver more than once in response to the same action. (i.e. you cannot use Damage Control more than once against the same weapon hit, nor can you use Chest Shot five times on one attack, even if you have five copies of it.)

Revised Maneuvers and Skills:

Improvise (Chargeless Mojo Maneuver): This maneuver gains the additional ability 'Once per battle, add a crew's mojo to his thuggery, piloting, or engineering for the duration of one action.'

Redshirt (Chargeless Thuggery Maneuver): Redshirt's ability is now considered to read 'Injure a crew to absorb an amount of starship weapon damage equal to his thuggery times 3.'

Combat Pilot: This skill no longer allows the enemy to use Accuracy an additional time.

Structural Design Specialist: This ability does not stack when combined with other instances of the same skill. You should be ashamed that you even tried it.

ECM Expert: The total bonus from all crew who use this skill cannot exceed the ship's sensor intensity.

New Maneuvers:

Dramatic Splatter (Chargeless Maneuver): Kill one of your crew to absorb an amount of starship weapon damage equal to all of his combined stats times 3. This damage cannot be reduced to less than an injury, including by Spiffiness Points. All players may use this maneuver.

Mook Squads:

Mook squads now take up a single crew capacity slot for every crewman who is in the squad, rather than a flat 2 per squad. (Note that they still count as a single crew for purposes of the 10-per-player crew limit)

Mook squads which are being formed lose all of their equipment unless all crew in the squad have that equipment. Equipment bonuses can be increased in the same way as stats at the GM's discretion.

Mook squads lose their skills unless all of the members of the squad have the skill.

E-mail Combat:

You may now spend more than 12 points on a single die roll. Any roll of 12 or higher is considered a natural 12. Extra points do not increase the actual roll, but the enemy must spend additional points to reduce it below 12.

You can spend dice points to add to enemy's rolls if you wish. Each point by which you raise their roll costs you 1 DP.

You now gain 6 dice points after each roll (up from 5).

When a player spends himself down to 0 dice points by reducing enemy rolls, his next die roll is automatically a 1, after which he will be raised to 5 DP.

Special Rules for Deathmatches

If you're playing a single battle outside of the context of a greater campaign, there are several changes that should be applied to reflect changes in the value of certain items:

Any crew items which are destroyed after a single use, such as stimpacks and grenades, have their purchase cost doubled. Missiles and starship-based one-use items remain the same.

Crew cost is handled differently. Crew cost $500 for every character point that would be required to make them. (Crew in the book are priced according to the in-character economy of the Star Thugs world and not their value in combat)

You cannot trade in character points for money.

System Errata:

All shield systems now have 50% more shield points and regen than is listed in the book (rounding up). Their prices have not changed.

Point defense systems now roll only if the incoming missile hits. (This is to prevent DP-farming during e-mail games.)

Book Errata:

There are a few spots where the price of a system is listed differently in the description and the price list at the end of the book. In all cases, the price list has the correct price.

If a character wants to raise a stat beyond 6, it costs a number of experience points equal to what they want to raise it to. (To raise something from 6 to 7 costs 7 points, from 7 to 8 costs 8, etc.)

F.A.Q.

When a player boards a mook ship, how much damage do they take from shields?

This is up to the GM, but a good benchmark is to use is their armor rating or 1/10th of their hit points, whichever is more. (We formerly said 1/4th. We were morons.) Typically a mook which has lost more than half of it's hit points shouldn't cause any damage to a boarding ship.

What happens to a mook when it's hit by a weapon bypasses armor?

The best way to handle this is to ignore damage reduction and allow the player to direct it to a mook facing of their choice.

Why did shields just get cranked up so much?

Origionally, we balanced each system so they were all roughly equivalent in combat. Unfortunately, the equations we used did not account for a few specific things. While shields are equivalent in value to armor in terms of raw hit points, they are less effective overall because there are so few ways to reduce damage to them (for example, you can't use Damage Control on shields). The fact that lost shield points cost no money to repair was the only incentive to buy them. We had origionally meant for shields to be the primary defense on a ship, whereas the skilled players (ourselves included) have stopped using them entirely, opting instead for rampant armor abuse. Taking everything into account, we figured a 25% increase would place shields roughly on par with armor. However, we want shields to be the first choice, so we decided to make them a bit better than armor.

If two ships on the same side retreat, are they retreating as a side, or do they have to retreat individually?

Generally, they retreat as a side. If one guy chooses to run by himself, he will get away unless everyone decides to chase him, thus taking the battle with him. If multiple ships run in different directions, the battle will typically switch into several smaller battles according to who chases who.

In an e-mail game, if you use Accuracy to raise a die roll or damage, then an opponent lowers it with dice points, do you still have to use Accuracy even if it would miss anyway?

No. When an event is modified by another player, you have the option of changing how you reacted to that event. Because the die roll changed, you can change your actions that took place after that die roll. However, this is only true of the specific event in question--while you can decide not to use accuracy when a roll is reduced (because accuracy reacts to the die roll), you cannot do the same thing if, for example, the opponent uses Hard Dodge to make the attack miss or uses an ability that reduces the damage, because neither of those affect the die roll itself. Likewise, you cannot retract an action due to something that would have taken place afterwards (such as an opponent using EMP after you boost a missile's to-hit roll).

Are bonuses doubled or quadrupled for heavy and super-heavy systems?

No, unless the bonus specifically states otherwise.

Do you need to keep track of where each of your shield generators' points are allocated in case they are destroyed?

No. If a ship has multiple shield generators and one of the generators is lost, it reduces the ship's shield max but the player can reduce the maximum shields on the facings of their choice. (This is done for simplicity.) Shield points are only lost if the ship now has more than it's maximum shields on a facing.