Ship Sheet: Instructions v1.7 · 31 Oct 2026

1. Quick start

1. Open your Star in the Character Generator first (in the same browser).
2. Here, pick the ship's Class, type a name or press Random.
3. Tick My Star is the Captain and press Add my Star and Band.
4. Press Put on my Star's sheet so the ship shows in your Star's Vehicles.

The ship is kept in this browser, so it's still here next time.

Or roll one up: press Random ship. Ships you can own picks a Trader, Light or Heavy Freighter or Pirate ship (Cutters and Slavers can't normally be owned, p.148); Any ship rolls Who Are They (p.84). It also rolls the flag (Whose Flag, by the Ring in the form), a name, and a Captain: your Star if one is open in the Character Generator, otherwise an NPC Captain (Rep by race, p.85). With Fill the crew ticked, your Star and Band come aboard first, then NPCs made with the book's NPC tables fill the rest: Pirates are Criminals, a Cutter's crew are Mercenaries, Slavers are Hishen with one Grath, and Traders and Freighters are Joes.

2. The ship and its Class

The Class fills in Thrust (speed and handling), Firepower (the damage it deals), Hull (the damage it can take) and Crew (the most people aboard, Captain included), from the book's Ship Specifications. Choose Custom to type your own numbers, for a ship from another supplement or one you've upgraded. The tool reminds you that Cutters and Slavers can only be owned in certain ways. Faction is the crew's nationality or race, as on the book's Ship Roster.

3. New Beginnings or Known Space

Crew size: New Beginnings gives each Class a fixed crew; Known Space says the crew is limited by the Captain's Rep. Upkeep: New Beginnings charges 1 Decreasing Rep d6 per Hull point a month; Known Space charges 1 per Hull point in Rings 1–4 and 2 in Rings 5–9, so choose the Ring you're in. New Beginnings is the starting choice for both. Choose them with Ship rules at the top of the form (you can still mix them in Rules to use).

4. Shipyard ships

Choose Shipyard in Ship rules to build and fit out your ship with 5150: Shipyard. Your other ships aren't changed, and you can switch back.

• Start from: any ship on Shipyard's list (Traders, Wayfarer Merchants, Freighters, Runners, Pirates, Slavers, Raiders, Ravagers, Exotic ships, Cutters and Frigates, and small SubGate craft), which brings its Thrust, Firepower, modules, Risk and Cargo Slots; or a bare hull (Hull 1–6) to build yourself. Hull 1–2 ships are SubGate: they can't travel between Rings.
• Ship Hard Points (SHP): a ship has SHP equal to its Hull, plus 1 for each Risk Conversion. Every point of Thrust and Firepower, every Cargo Slot and every module uses 1. The form counts them and warns you if you're over. Thrust is 1–4, Firepower 0–4.
• Modules: choose one and press Install it. It costs 1 Decreasing Rep d6 (a military one +1 more, an illegal one +2 more), written in the log. ✕ takes it out again (a month's refit, docked).
• Risk Conversions: Roll a Risk (2d6), or choose one and press Add it. Each gives +1 SHP, costs 1 Decreasing Rep d6 now and 1 more every month, and brings a drawback. A ship from the list that comes with Risk shows it as "Risk (unnamed)": press Roll which. A ship can take as many Risks as its Hull. The more Risk, the more the crew feels it (Crew Strain), and from 3 the authorities take more interest.
• Crew: the ship's crew is Hull + 1. The form works out the System Crew it needs to run properly (Captain, Operations, Engineers, Gunners and some modules' crew) and its Crew Capacity, and tells you what to do when you're short.
• Each month: 1 Decreasing Rep d6 per Hull point, per Risk Conversion and per crew member (not your Star), +1 for a Military ship, +1 if it's leased, +1 if it's stolen. Pay this month's upkeep works it out and writes it in the log.
• The hold: Cargo Slots carry 1 Cargo or Supply each, or 4 Passengers; Passenger Quarters seat 4 Passengers each first; a Brig holds 2 Captives.
• Page 3, Ship Systems: Hard Points, System Crew, every module and Risk Conversion with what it does, and the month's costs, like the book's Ship Design Worksheet. If it's too much for one page, the rest goes on page 4.
• Random ship picks from Shipyard's list ("Ships you can own" = Civilian and Exotic; "Any ship" includes criminal and military ships) and rolls which Risk Conversions it has.

Where the book isn't clear, the sheet makes a "for now" choice (listed for Ed Teixeira): Cargo Slots come from each ship's own line, module strain is paid once when it goes in, and "Sensors" on the list are Advanced Sensors on combat ships and Long-Range Sensors on civilian ones. Shipyard's modules and Risks are used in Guided Ship Combat, the NPC Fleet and Boarding Action.

The Shipyard Broker (from the supplement 5150: Shipyard) is in the form under the log: buy, lease, steal, sell or salvage a ship there. A ship you get there replaces the one on the sheet (the old one stays in your Star's Vehicles), and the price comes off your Star's Lifetime Rep d6. A ship you sell stays on the sheet as a record, marked sold in its log.

5. Captain and crew

With My Star is the Captain ticked, the Captain's name, Rep and Attributes come from your Star (Attributes such as Crack Shot or Born Leader matter in ship combat). Untick it to type another Captain. Add my Star and Band puts your Star and every Band member on the roster, and updates anyone already there. Add others by hand. The sheet warns you when there are more aboard than the ship can carry.

6. Damage, upkeep and repairs

Use + and − to mark Thrust and Hull damage. The sheet crosses out a square for each point, works out the repair cost, and reminds you that damage costs Rep on Continue On. At Thrust 0 a ship can be boarded; at Hull 0 it explodes.

Pay this month's upkeep works out the month's cost and writes it in the log. Repair it all (on a planet) costs 1 Decreasing Rep d6 per point of Thrust or Hull, clears the damage and writes it in the log. Add these costs to the month in your campaign log.

If you've skimmed fuel at a gas giant (see below), the credit is taken off the next upkeep and the Costs box shows it until then.

7. Where it is, jump drives and Long Jumps

Where: the Ring, Sector and the planet or station the ship is at (Known Space's Nine Rings and eight Sectors). The Ring also sets the upkeep under the Known Space rule. Each month a ship can move up to its Thrust: one Ring in or out, or one Sector round, per point, with a PEF (Contact in Space) for each point used (p.21).

Jump drive: ships are assumed to have Jump Engines. Known Space mentions ships with none, which use Jump Stations and cost "up to 50%" less to run, but gives no rule. Choosing Jump Stations only halves the upkeep (rounded up) as a house rule.

Make a Long Jump (p.21–22): go farther than your Thrust in one month. Choose 2, 3 or 4 moves per point of Thrust (−1 to the roll for each move past the first) and who navigates. They roll 2d6 against Savvy, and it costs 1 Decreasing Rep d6 per point of Thrust. Pass 2: you make it. Pass 1: Trouble, rolled for you: Equipment failure (someone aboard takes a Shooting Damage roll), Hull stress (−1 Hull) or Engine stress (−1 Thrust), each unless a Difficult Challenge is passed. Pass 0: Boom! Trouble, then a Black Hole, a rough exit (all three stresses), too close to a planet (crash: Marooned) or too close to a star. Damage goes straight onto the sheet, and everything goes in the log.

Skimmed fuel at a gas giant: after a voluntary Contact in Space at a gas giant, the month's maintenance is 1d3 + 1 less (p.13). Refit for new Jump Lines: a Heavy Freighter refitted (1d6 + 1 Decreasing Rep d6) can open its own Jump Line to an uncharted system, for an Expedition.

8. The cargo manifest

Everything in the hold: Cargo, Supply, Passengers and Captives held for ransom, each with how many, where it's going, its value (or the wages) and whether it's Contraband. The hold is the ship's Hull: 1 Cargo or Supply per Hull point, or 4 Passengers per Hull point not carrying Cargo; captives fill 1 Hull point (New Beginnings p.93; Known Space p.42–46). The form warns you when it's over. Delivered takes a line off the manifest and writes it in the log. Page 2 shows the first five; the rest go on extra pages (see below).

9. The ship's log

Write what happened to the ship, by month. Damage, upkeep and repairs add their own lines. Page 2 of the sheet shows the latest entries that fit (a long entry takes two lines). Older entries go on extra pages, oldest first, so nothing is left off the sheet.

10. Your Star's sheet

Put on my Star's sheet adds the ship to the Vehicles tab of your Star in the Character Generator, or updates it if it's already there. If your Star already has ships on their sheet (for example from the Gear Shop), pick one and press Open that ship here to make it this sheet.

11. Saving, PNGs and printing

Save file downloads the ship to load again later on any device. PNG page 1 and PNG page 2 make pictures for videos. When the manifest or log is too long for page 2, the sheet adds extra pages (the rest of the manifest, then the earlier log, oldest first), numbered "Page 3 / 5" and so on; PNG pages 3+ appears then and saves one picture per extra page. Print / PDF prints every page on A5 paper on its side (choose Greyscale colours first to save ink). Save log as text saves the ship, crew and whole log as a .txt file, ready for a blog post.