Star Traders RPG The Abbreviated Guide

Assembled by Jason Stengren of PlayDroid Game Reviews. Based on the Official Players Guide, various Trese Brothers blog postings, and email communications. Created and last updated on Nov 23rd, 2010.

Attributes
Strength Wilderness Survival, Boarding Ships, Suppressing Mutiny. Quickness Ship Defense, Guns, General Combat. Wisdom Patrols, Gathering Resources on Planets, Space Travel. Charisma Exchange Prices, Crew Morale, Entering Urban Zones.

Skills
Warrior (STR) Surviving Encounters, Subduing Enemy Captains, Boarding Ships, Suppressing Mutiny. Stealth (QUI) Combat Movement, Space Travel, Avoiding Encounters, Boarding Ships, and Targetting/Evading Torpedoes. Tactics (WIS) Blockades, Surveillance, Wilderness Landings, and Suppressing Mutiny. Explorer (WIS) Searching for Artifacts on Planets.
1 Pilot (QUI) Wilderness Landings, Entering Urban Zones, and Combat Movement.

Negotiate (CHA) Entering Urban Zones, Suppressing Mutiny (bribe), Defense vs. Being Searched, and Exchange Prices. Intimidate (CHA) Spice Halls, Enslaving Enemy Crews, Resist Being Searched, Boarded, and Looted.

Classes
2 Merchant Make your profit by trading goods, following rumors, and taking advantage of alliances and trade wars.

Smuggler Make your profit by sneaking into docks and trading illegal goods (trade permits). Pirate Sneak-attack merchants and smugglers, then sell your stolen goods in the market. Bounty Hunter Track, capture, and kill fugitives while defending your favored factions. Military Officer Assist in faction conflicts and rise through the military ranks to purchase larger, more powerful ships. Explorer Seek out riches on the surface of wild planets, and strike a fortune by selling at the exchange. Captain Proverbial jack of all trades archetype; starts wil 4 more points in Attributes, but less in skills.

CHA Merchant Smuggler Pirate Bounty Hunter Military Officer Explorer Captain 15 12 15 9 12 9 14

WIS 9 9 9 12 9 14 9

QUI 9 12 9 9 9 10 14

STR 9 9 9 13 12 9 9

Explorer 1 1 1 1 1 6 1

Pilot 6 1 6 1 1 6 2

Negotiate 6 6 6 1 1 1 1

Tactics 1 6 1 6 1 1 2

Stealth 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Warrior 1 1 1 6 6 1 1

Intimidate 1 1 1 1 6 1 1

1 2

Hull should be less than Pilot skill for smooth operation. Stats arent related to Difficulty or Faction; Attributes cost 6 xp to train and Skills cost 3; New pilots start with 6 xp and $7,530.

Gameplay
Planetary Actions
Urban Zones The Palace Rumors, Contracts, Trade and Bounty Hunter Permits, Military Promotions. Stardock Repair, Upgrade3, Buy New Ships, and Resupply Ammunition. Trade Exchange Buy and Sell Goods (Trade Permit needed for illegal goods). Spice Hall Entertain Crew (morale), Rumors, and Contracts.

Wilderness Zones Explore Find banned goods and artifacts. Success based on Strength, Wisdom, and Explorer. Harvest Find common goods. Success based on Strength, Wisdom, and Engines. Cache Stash goods to pick up at a later time.

Space Actions
Travel Spaceflight consumes water-fuel. To be fuel-efficient, be sure engines and sails are repaired, and youre piloting a ship with > 20, if not >30 points in each. A fully-staffed crew will help, and ships with larger hulls will use more fuel than smaller ships. The crew will fall-back on Luxury Rations if you run out of fuel, and Negotiation skills will help them last longer. In addition, red spaces cost more fuel than green spaces. Being Searched When approaching urbanized planets, youll (more likely than not) be approached by the local military and they will expect you to surrender to a search for contraband. If you opt-out and Retreat, expect to lose a little bit of Reputation with that faction every time. Patrol Search the area for smugglers, merchants, and pirates. Success based on Wisdom, and bonus given when Electronics are in your ships hold. Surveillance Monitor transmissions and gather Records for sale at the Exchange. Success based on Tactics, and bonus given when Electronics are in your ships hold. Blockade Intercept in/out-bound ships to steal their cargo (hostile). Success based on Tactics, and bonus given when Weapons are in your ships hold. Mutiny If Crew Morale reaches zero, the crew will revolt. Your options are either to Bribe or Intimidate (Strength, Warrior, Tactics, and Negotiate).

Ship Combat
Guns Short range damage to Crew Decks or Engines. Affected by Quickness and Engines. Torpedoes Long range damage; automatic rearming. Affected by Quickness, Stealth, Solar Sails, and Engines. Range Close or open range to maneuver in combat. Affected by Quickness, Stealth, Solar Sails, and Pilot. Board Attempt to overthrow enemy ships Crew. Affected by Strength, Warrior, Stealth, and Intimidate. Bonus given when Weapons are in your ships hold. Enslave Attempt to force enemy Crew to join yours. Affected by Warrior and Intimidate. Take Ship Steal enemy ship and jettison your own. Be sure to transfer cargo to the new ships hold!

Certain upgrades require Military Rank. You cannot purchase two upgrades in the same category. Upgrades confer a straight-number bonus (+10) or a percentage of existing (10%); some provide both!

Nations
The nations of the galaxy are divided into two primary factions The House (feudal) and the Syndicate (beaurocracy). Historically speaking, the House has been more willing to form and maintain internal alliances than has the Syndicate.

The House
House Thulun 3 worlds, leader of noble alliance, strongest amongst the Great Houses, best starport, operator of a vast mining and naval command. Sells best merchant and smuggler ships. Clan Javat 3 worlds, operates large array of mining and spacing operations, best source of goods and vital source of trade. Best high-powered smugglers economies. Steel Song Clan 2 worlds, most powerful military, and more likely to give-out assassin contracts.

The Syndicate
De Valtos Syndicate 2 worlds, best economy, and +5% missions in the capital. Cadar Syndicate 2 worlds, operates UTF (trade front which opposes the De Valtos), and best Syndicate navy and starport. Sell the best military and pirate ships. Syndicate Rychart 3 worlds, uses rumors and hunters to challenge De Valtos for trade-dominance, best spies, and best spice hall.

Reputation and Conflict

Contracts Gain reputation and reward ($$) by running contracts. Most contracts are self-explanatory, and either involve meeting a contact on a planet, or destroying an enemys ship. The more complicated contract, Bounty Hunter, require you to engage, board, and capture the captain of a ship. To make sure the captain is kept alive, you mustnt reduce the Crew or ships Hull ratings to zero (destruction). This can be accomplished by doing just enough damage to the Engines to slow the ship down, then cutting-down the crew (Deck) with some gunfire to the point where you can easily Board and overwhelm them. When taking and running contracts, be aware of the distance involved (AU) and whether or not the destination is in, or crosses, Deep Space (fuel consumption). If you select multiple contracts, try and run them in order of distance to the ship. Trade Permits Protect you from all pirates of that nation and allow purchase/sale of restricted goods. Bounty Licenses Double reputation of Bounty Hunter contracts, protects you from Bounty Hunters of that nation, and allows you to participate in Assassin Duels. Reputation Reduces all costs related to dealing with that nation, increases contract pay-outs, and reduces the chance of being attacked by hostile nations. Buying a new ship will result in a universal pardon and reset all Criminal Warrants that have been placed on your ship and its crew. Rank Rating from 1 to 12 (highest). At lower ranks, it will protect you from warships of that nation. At higher ranks, Surrender doesnt require Search, and high ranks increase bonuses of Faction Conflicts. Rank also reduces costs related to dealing with that nation (larger bonus) and raises the reward for same-nation Contracts. Should your rank fall below -10, enemy factions will begin to send mercenaries to kill you, and youll find even neutral factions sometimes turning on you for reward. Spy Battle Double reputation bonus for selling Records to either nation, with a chance of reputation-loss when selling to the opposing nation. Duel of Assassins Doubles reputation bonus for Bounty Hunter missions. Trade War Reputation bonus for defeating Merchants of the opposing nation. Solar War Doubles reputation bonus for any action taken against opposing nation. Alliance Reputation penalties for attacking either nation. Trade Alliance Doubles reputation bonus for selling licensed goods to either nation.

The Fringe
Those more adventurous pilots may choose to dabble in Dark Age technology (ie. Artifacts) or hob-nob with alien species out in Deep Space. Artifacts tend to have some unpredictable side-effects when carried through Deep Space.
Artifacts Find Artifacts by Exploring planets, especially those with Ancient Ruins, Narvidian sites, or Space Hulks. Be careful, however, as carrying such items aboard your ship could prove disasterous. Alien Species Aliens tend to be quite rare, and quite dangerous. To find them, youll need to spend a good deal of time in the red sectors of Deep Space, specifically the Independent dead planets (purples and Jupiters).

Star Map

Green The old zone (original Star Traders map). Orange The Farfallen Belt (dangerous, void-space) Blue Galactic Core (Syndicate HQ) Red Incursion Zones