Crew Playbooks (IB)

Starfox's Blades Hack

For what is more sacred, or more strongly protected by every sanction, than the home of each citizen?

— Cicero, De Domo Sua 109

All services except the Instruction Net are available from other sources; habitats, ships, and so on. What the upgrades do is give you guaranteed private access even when isolated.

Base

The standard base is a Spin Pod, a independent living unit meant to connect to a ship or spin habitat to gain spin gravity and other services. A starting base generally needs to rely on its host for life support, energy, and security. As you invest in the base you become more and more independent and can end up as an interplanetary carrier.

With enough investment a base turns into a spaceship. Any base can move between two adjacent host habitats with the help of a tug. ☐ investment in Life Support, Power, and Maneuver allows maneuvers around a planet and its Lagrange point. ☐☐ investment in Life Support, Power, Maneuver, and Gravity allows interplanetary travel.

☐,☐ Life support

Basic life support recycles air and remains stable for a few days. ☐ indicates you sustain air and water for a prolonged time. ☐☐ extends this to full life support. The food may not great, but it is there.

☐,☐ Power

Basic power is batteries for a day of isolation, sufficient for moving from dock to dock. ☐ Serious battery reserve that can supply you for weeks. ☐☐ D-D fusion reactor provides full power for years at a time.

☐,☐ Maneuver

The starting base has arcjet thrusters for docking maneuvers. ☐ Fusion rockets allows maneuvers and fast short-dustance travel. ☐☐ Ion engines for station-keeping and slow far-ranging travel.

☐,☐ Gravity

This allows you to use a bolo ring to generate Artificial Gravity on Ships. Docking at a habitat provides more comfortable artificial gravity than a a bolo ring does. ☐ Wire tethers and a fabric transfer tube. Functional but vulnerable to operator mistakes. ☐☐ Telescopic truss which is much more stable and less accident prone.

☐,☐ Streamlining

When operating as a spaceship the base can enter atmosphere. ☐ Allows air breaking and landing on trace atmospheres like on Mars and Triton. ☐☐ Needed to land on Earth, Venus, and Titan. Lifting off from a planet with atmosphere also needs ☐ Maneuver.

☐,☐ Camouflage

The starting base has a nondescript front and registration that outlines its abilities. ☐ Adds a front camouflaging as a different kind of installation, including schooled registration entries. A deep database search will uncover the deception. ☐☐ A false front and registry entries from a polity, leaving no paper trail to be detected. Requires the help of a friendly or corrupt polity.

☐,☐ Security

This is about physical protection and electronic hardening. The starting base is environmentally sealed with basic protection from physical and electronic intrusion. ☐ Defensive shell provides a buffer against any connection to the host and a central defense around the control room. ☐☐ Defense in depth with layers and weapons.

☐,☐ Drones

Every base can maintain a few drones for surveillance and communication links. ☐ A number of personal-scale drones equal to Tier squared and a number of drones swarms equal to Tier. ☐☐ Drones can now be vehicle scale.

Assets

☐,☐,☐,☐ Investment

Reduces the base cost of improving Tier, before multiplication. The normal cost to advance in Tier is 8 Credits times the Tier you want to advance to. Investments reduce the base costs, it now becomes (8 - Investment) x Tier. You can have a maximum of four upgrades in Investment, this includes Crew Special Abilities that allow you to count other things as if they were Investments.

Installations

Utilities inside your base.

☐,☐ Quarters

The crew and expert cohorts can camp out in the base with little comfort. No living space for teams of cohorts. ☐ Staterooms for crew and experts, barracks for cohort teams, limited communal areas. ☐☐ Apartments for crew and experts, staterooms for teams.

☐,☐,☐,☐ Training

☐ Data drills; allows training of Insight actions. ☐ Gimballed facilities, allows training of Prowess actions. ☐ Networked facilities, allows training of Resolve actions. ☐ Open virtual world, allows Playbook training. Having filled out all four: Instruction Net, allows learning actions to rating four. This service needs to be adapted to your crew, you cannot rely on a habitat.

☐,☐ Venue

Social areas. ☐ Venue with focus in one area, such as gambling or stage performances. ☐☐ Multi-venue supporting several types of entertainment.

☐,☐ Prison

Without this you can lock prisoners in a stateroom, but they can access ventilation ducts and electronic connections fairly easily. ☐ A prison block with a number of cells equal to your Tier. ☐☐ A prison block with a number of cells equal to your Tier squared.

☐,☐ Workshop

Every base has simple 3D printers limited to personal gear of Quality appropriate to each crew member. ☐ Multiple 3D printers increase capacity, and larger ones allows the printing of personal vehicles. ☐☐ 3D printer robots can build structural frames in vacuum, allowing large construction and repair work, tough much slower than a true wharf.

☐,☐ Medical

Everyday medicine includes spray skin used for bandages, various medicines, and hardening spray for bracing broken bones. ☐ Basic Medical Pod, promotes healing and can handle cosmetic therapy and age rejuvenation. Can install Posthuman upgrades that have been used before. ☐☐ A number of basic medial pods equal to your Tier and one Advanced Medical Pod. Required for more radical generic alteration, body sculpting changes in height, and first time use of Posthuman upgrades.

Indulgence

This allows indulgence inside the base, important for long voyages and to entertain guests.

☐ Debauchery, ☐ Devotion, ☐ Luxury, ☐ Nature, ☐ Performance, ☐ Relationships.

Vehicles

Vehicles available to your crew. This is mainly about hangars and the ability to print vehicles as needed. You can change specific vehicles for each operation.

☐,☐ Runabouts

These are vehicles for local travel. Any base provides scooters for personal travel only. ☐ Personal vehicles. Terran wheeled and fixed wing. Lunar wheeled, gliders, and rocket hoppers. Micro rocket hoppers. ☐☐ Utility vehicles. Terran wheeled trucks & busses, tracked terrain vehicles, helicopters. Lunar heavy rocket hoppers, shape-memory alloy wheeled vehicles for regolith and terrain. Micro larger rocket hoppers, low-powered shuttles.

☐,☐ Shuttles

There are no shuttles in the basic base. ☐ A single shuttle for passengers or cargo, carries 2 crew and passengers equal to scale for your Tier (p 221); every 2 seats taken out allows one ton of cargo. ☐☐ A number of shuttles equal to your Tier. Hard to run such a fleet without a Hangar.

☐,☐ Fighters

Small combat craft. There are no fighters in the basic base. ☐ A single battery-powered fighter. Crew of 1-2. ☐☐ A number of fighters equal to your Tier, Tier 4+ allows T-D fusion.

Quality

This improves the Quality of the crew's gear in certain categories. ☐ provides quality equal to Tier +1. ☐☐ provides quality equal to Tier +2. This does not stack with improved gear provided by playbooks.

☐,☐ Imperio

Weapons and exploration gear.

☐,☐ Limes

Protection gear and tools.

☐,☐ Forum

Gear for communciation and social interaction.

☐∞ Cohorts

Each time you take this upgrade, you may gain an additional cohort or improve an existing one. You can have a maximum of 2 cohorts per Tier.

Each cohort has Actions appropriate to their role, rolling dice equal to Tier (maximum 3d). Judge this generously, factoring in specialty and background. Outside of this their competence, roll dice equal to half Tier, rounded down. Decide whether the cohort is a Team or an individual Expert.

Team — A group of lesser allies with numbers equal to your Tier’s Scale (p. 221). Each Team chooses one of the following types: Agents — social, Engineers — construction, Hands — vehicles, Marines — combat, Scientists — analysis, Security — intrusion. On an operation, a Team provides Scale, improving either Effect or Position as appropriate.

Expert — A single individual providing competence in a specific field, chosen when the Expert is recruited. Experts do not provide Scale, but are more flexible.

Damage Levels

Cohorts use a simplified scale of Harm. ☐ Weak — reduced Effect, ☐ Impaired — cannot act or Assist; still provides Scale, ☐ Broken — cannot act at all; needs help or leadership to withdraw.

Edges and Flaws

A cohort starts with one Flaw. When an additional upgrade is allocated to a cohort, it may remove a Flaw or gain an additional Edge.

Edges

☐ Cross-trained — gains an additional specialty, ☐ Elite — +1d on skilled Actions (may exceed 3d), ☐ Independent — takes initiative, ☐ Loyal — hard to corrupt.

Flaws

☐ Ally — loyal to a friendly faction, ☐ Compromised — reports to someone, ☐ Non-Sentient — expert system or animal lacking judgment, ☐ Principled — lives by a strict ethos, ☐ Rowdy — debauched and loud-mouthed, ☐ Savage — tends to overreact, ☐ Unreliable — Roll 2d: 1–3 unavailable, 4–5 available for downtime only, 6 available.

Operation Types

Each operation has a general approach and a single key Detail the crew supplies to make the engagement roll. Pick a type, give the detail, and cut to the action.

Assault

Kick in the door, break the line, or blow the hatch. Direct action against a target.

Detail: Point of attack (where the hit lands): breaching a habitat bulkhead, ramming a convoy escort, hard-docking a boarding collar, demolishing a power spine.

Deception

Trick, misdirect, or impersonate to reach the objective.

Detail: Method of deception: spoofed transponder and livery, forged cargo manifest, ghost-comm to lure patrols, honeytrap meet at a cantina.

Science

Use research, tools, or prototypes to solve the problem or exploit a weakness.

Detail: Method, device, or hypothesis you're testing: mapping swarm to expose a hidden airshaft, tailored catalyst to foul a refinery loop, resonance scan to crack a safe, countermeasure to blind a sensor net.

Social

Charm, bargain, or lean on relationships until doors open and signatures flow. You work the room—hab lounges, union halls, and magistrate chambers—turning favors and face into outcomes.

Detail: Social connection (who or what gets you in): patron’s letter gets you into the gala; a dockmaster vouches for you; a union caucus trades their vote; a wake becomes a truce parley; first-contact tea at the airlock.

Stealth

Avoid notice while infiltrating, extracting, or planting something.

Detail: Entry point (how/where you slip in): EVA crawl via radiator truss, maintenance shaft from the rimhouse dock, suit-camo through a shadowed crater, silent approach on a dark taxi trajectory.

Transport

Move people or cargo safely through contested space or terrain.

Detail: Route (path and conveyance): sudden change of ballistic window, run the ice-tunnel under the regolith, low-emission drift past pickets, shield a barge through debris fields.