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Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition)

Mechs | Terrestrial Vehicles | Starships | Vehicle Modifications

Starship Examples

Armor | Armor (Bulkheads) | Armor (Hulls) | Base Frames | Computers | Crew Quarters | Defensive Countermeasures | Drift Engines | Expansion Bays | Interstellar Drives | Manufacturers | Other Systems | Power Cores | Security | Sensors | Shields | Special Materials | Thrusters | Weapons | Weapon Properties

Expansion Bays

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 298
Most starships have room within their hull for one or more expansion bays, each of which can be converted to function in a wide variety of roles. Unfilled, these bays are simply storage space (and count as cargo holds), and for many large transport vessels, they remain this way. If a starship’s bays are instead used for guest quarters, the ship can serve as a transport vessel for soldiers, travelers, or refugees. If its bays are filled with medical bays and guest quarters, the ship becomes a mobile hospital.

The following options are available for most ships that have available expansion bays. If an option requires multiple bays, this is noted in its description; if it must consume PCU to function, the amount is listed in the table on page 300. An entire expansion bay must be used for a single purpose, even if it gives you multiple instances of that option. For example, if you select escape pods, that expansion bay gains all six escape pods—you can’t combine three escape pods and one life boat.

The PCU requirement and the Build Point costs of the expansion bay options can be found on page 300.

Docking Canopy

Source Starfinder #20: The Last Refuge pg. 48
PCU 15; Cost (in BP) 4
A docking canopy is a branch- or vine-like formation that allows up to four Tiny or two Small starships to attach to a Huge or larger biomechanical starship. The canopy takes up two expansion bays, and one can fulfill the hangar requirement for a carrier-class vessel. The starships attached to the docking canopy move with the larger ship, and the canopy provides a narrow passage between each docked starship and the larger vessel. Moving through this passage to the vessel to which the docking canopy is attached or back to the attached smaller ship takes 1 round of starship combat or 10 minutes. In addition, if the larger starship benefits from self-repair while vessels are docked, an engineer attending the process can amass the repair capabilities of the starship and any docked biomechanical craft as a pool of Hull Points; the engineer can then distribute these Hull Points among the starships linked by the docking canopy.

A docking canopy doesn’t enclose docked ships the way a hangar bay does. Therefore, a science officer can use the target system crew action to target a docked vessel instead of a specific system on the starship that has the docking canopy as an expansion.