How to use the ship sheet

Creating and using the Ship sheet

In the ‘Actors directory’ of the FoundryVTT UI click on the Create Actor tab. This will open up a new window with options of Name: Type: and Folder:

Name and Folder are user options and can be as you wish. The Type option gives a drop down of either Character or Ship; you need to choose ship. This will create a new actor in your selected folder.

Left clicking on the name of the new ship will open up the ship sheet

Top left hand corner of the sheet show the ship’s image. This can be changed by clicking on the image or via various modules such as Art Galley, just as you would for an actor’s Character sheet. The image is not usable with Tokenizer.

To the right of the image is the name as selected when the sheet was created. This can be edited from the sheet.

Also to the right of the image there are a number of data fields

• Displacement - The hull size (displacement) defined during the build process. It represents the maximum mass the ship can carry.
• TL - the technical level for the ship
• Jump - the jump drive rating for the ship (in parsecs / hexes)
• Thrust - the thrust rating for the m-drive in G
• Fuel - current and maximum fuel available. Currently, this field is a manually updated. The bar can be clicked to toggle the label between "Refined" and "Unrefined".
• Overdrive - a checkbox to indicate ship is in overdrive
• Ship Hull - current and max hull points designated during the build process, according to which rule set you have opted for
• Armor - type of armor installed (description) and the current and max armor points
• Power management or Power and Weight Management section that contains further data on ship components

Power management

• Power Used and Max generated (based on all installed and operating power components)
• Systems - all systems power usage other than dives, sensors and weapons components
• M-Drive - sum of power draw for all drive components with "m-Drive" or "m drive" in name
• J-Drive - sum of power draw for all drive components with "j-Drive" or "j drive" in name
• Sensors - all sensor components power usage
• Weapons - all weapons components power usage

Note that power is only included for those components that have an on or damaged status. Also, power draw / generated is assumed to be per unit. So the calculation of the total power used by a component is the quantity * power draw/generated

Power and Weight Management

• Power Used and Max generated (based on all installed and operating components (consumed show as used and generated show as max)
• Systems - total weight for all systems that are not cargo, fuel, or vehicle components
• Cargo - the total weight for all cargo components
• Fuel - the total weight for all fuel components
• Vehicles - the total weight for all vehicle components
• Avail. (Available) - weight (mass) available to be carried by the ship. It is equal to the displacement minus the total mass of components.

Below these you will find a tab bar showing:

• Crew
• Components
• Locker
• Cargo
• Finances
• Notes

Tabs

Positions: This allows the creation of ship’s stations predominantly, but not limited to, use during ship to ship combat

Crew: Shows the crew roster

Components: The different component parts of the ship as described in the build process

Locker: The ship locker and allow the cataloging of equipment stored in the Ship’s Locker

Cargo The manifest of cargo components and notes for tracking cargo

Finance: A basic text field to allow the tracking of funds. At the top are the ship hull's basic costs: purchase value, 40-year mortgage value, and monthly maintenance costs. If auto calc is enabled, these values are calculated based on the component data. Otherwise the fields are manual entry.

Notes: This is a simple text box to allow the GM or player to add reference notes about the given ship

The ship sheet is under review and development and many of these current sections or for tracking purposes only with manual input. The Positions tab does enable some automation as described below

Positions Tab

Clicking on the Positions tab will show a box allowing the creation of a bespoke position/station for the ship’s crew

Click on the + sign (Add Ship Position) and a new new position will be created

Clicking on the spanner icon will open a new window:

Position Name: As it says on the tin, type in chosen name for the position eg Sensor Op, Captain, etc Order: A simple numeric value to show the order of the positions shown on the ship sheet, ie. 1 will be top left , 2 will be top center, 3 top right

Travellers: Ignore this for now, this will populate automatically as you drag and drop the Character

Actions: click on the + and it will add a new action.

• Order is a numeric value again showing position
• Name (New Action by default) name the action e.g. Electronic Warfare, Command and Control, Fire Beam Laser
• Macro/Skill This is what is given to the action type
  • For "Chat" it is simply what should be outputted in the chat when executing the action. You can also specify a roll formula by starting the chat string with '/r' or '/R'. The action will make a chat roll as the normal chat box when the roll formula is valid.
  • For "Skill Roll" The skill name has to be provided. Optionally one can also override the default characteristic for that skill or override the difficulty. The skill name will need to be as typed on the character sheet with the same capital, space etc e.g. Electronics (Sensors). If you want to override the characteristic add /CHR after the skill name, for example Electronics (Sensors)/INT. To override the difficulty you add it by typing a space and a number followed by a plus, e.g. Electronics (Sensors) 10+. You can both override the characteristic and difficulty at the same time as well (Electronics (Sensors)/DEX 6+). Multiple skills and multiple characteristics can be configured by separating them with the pipe "|" character. The most advantageous skill and/or characteristic for the Actor will be used by the action. A hull repair action might be configured as Engineering|Mechanic/INT|EDU 6+.
  • For "Fire Energy Weapons" you put in a skill (as described above) and select a component to use in the "Component to use" dropdown to the right. Currently, this feature is quite limited and will make a skill roll and output as a chat message that you hit with the component that was given. The format is the same as a skill roll, e.g. Electronics (Sensors)/DEX 6+ (the characteristic and difficulty is optional). Note that the old style of specifying a component (by appending an "=COMPONENT_ID") still works.
  • For "Execute Macro", you enter the name of the macro you want to execute. The following documents are passed as context to the macro to make creating the macro easier. actor is the selected actor document for the position. ship is the ship document. component is the selected component.
• Component to use drop down list of the non-cargo components to use for Fire Energy Weapons or Skill Roll.
• Action Type drop down list for the action types described above (Chat, Skill Roll, Fire Energy Weapon, or Execute Macro).

This process will need to be done for each position. Each position can have single or multiple action and is totally bespoke

Once positions are created the Character can be dragged to the new position. This will link all actions to the individual character and utilise their skills for the action.

A position can have more than one Character but a Character can only be at one given position at a time. To remove the Character from the position either drag him/her to another position or to remove totally drag to a neutral area of the ship sheet (do not drag over to the screen/canvas as this will place the token there)

Component Data

The component data is used to auto calculate ship weight, power and cost information (if the option is enabled). To make such calculations work correctly, one needs to understand some important concepts. Key to all these calculations is the hull displacement value (ship size). Several calculations need this value to work correctly, so it is important to enter a displacement value in the upper right corner of the main sheet.

Component Weight

Weight is assumed to be per unit. So the calculation of the total power used by a component is the quantity * unit weight. For armament and fuel, the calculation uses available quantity and not total quantity. However, unit weight may also be expressed as a percentage of the ship displacement weight (e.g. armor). To calculate using percentage, enter the percentage form (e.g. 10 for 10%) and check the box "Weight is Percentage?". For example, this calculation method is the typical method for components such as drives. For systems such as Cepheus Deluxe, the percentage value to enter can be a bit tricky as there is both a base percentage and a scaling factor due to TL. For example, a TL 11, m-drive rated at 2G has a base weight of 1.5% of the hull displacement and an associated scaling factor of 1.1. The % displacement weight value to enter on the component sheet is 1.65 (1.5*1.1).

For hull components, there is a special designation possible: "Is Baseline Hull?" (a checkbox). If this box checked, the calculations assume that the component designates the displacement of the hull and the weight is not included as part of the carrying capacity (as it defines the maximum carrying capacity). If autocalc is enabled and there is no valid displacement value entered, the sheet will fill in a displacement value based on a hull component that is the baseline hull.

Component Power

A component may either consume power or generate it. The default is that a component consumes power unless it is a power component (then it assumes it generates power). The "Generates Power?" checkbox may be changed to override these defaults. For the single-line components listing, power generating components are listed with a "+" before their power values.

Component Price

There are four different ways to calculate a component price:

1. "MCr per unit": This method prices a component as the price value entered times the total quantity.
2. "MCr per component ton": This method prices a component as the price value entered times the component's weight. Note that this weight may be dependent on the hull displacement, so it is important to enter a valid displacement value.
3. "MCr per hull ton": This method prices a component as the price value entered times the hull's displacement weight. Again, a valid displacement value is necessary.
4. "MCr per 100 hull ton": Similar to the above method, for each 100 tons and not each ton (generally good for small values).
5. "Percent of base hull value": This method prices a component as percentage of the base hull value (the hull component designated as "Is Baseline Hull"). This is typical for components such as armor. It is independent of quantity.
6. "Percent of base hull value per unit": This method prices a component similar to the above method, but now quantity plays into the calculation. For example, with a component quantity of 3 and percentage of 5, the net percentage calculated is 15.

For the base hull (i.e. Is Baseline Hull), be certain to include any factors that affect the baseline cost as part of the hull. For example, a streamlined hull cost 10 percent more. Enter a value of "0.11" MCr/ton if hulls cost 0.1 MCr per ton, generally.

One thing to note is that Vehicle component costs are not included in ship price - per community recommendation. Enjoy!