When it comes to representing starships with unique and advanced equipment/technology, the base rules only provide four Talents: Advanced Research Facilities, Advanced Sensor Suites, Advanced Shields, and Advanced SIckbay. As players and GMs alike might know, Advanced Sensor Suites is one of the most powerful Talent you can give a Player-controlled Starship. It reduces the Difficulty of all Tasks assisted by the ship’s Sensors, down to a minimum of 0. Quite a number of Tasks utilize Sensors, making this a no-brainer.
However, I got to thinking: What about the other five Ship Systems? Sure, Advanced Sickbay gives you an advantage similar to Advanced Sensor Suites, but it’s only for Tasks performed in sickbay itself. That leaves Communications, Computers, Engines, Structure, and Weapons without Talents to buff them like Advanced Sensor Suites. This led me to come up with the following Talents. They are designed for TNG+ Eras of Play, but can be easily re-fluffed to suit earlier eras.
MIDAS Pod
This ship is equipped with hyper-subspace communication technology first utilized in the MIDAS Array. Unless the ship’s Communications have suffered one or more Breaches, whenever a character performs a Task assisted by the ship’s Communications, they may reduce the Difficulty of the Task by one, to a minimum of 0.
Cyro-Neural Gel Pack
This ship is equipped with modified bio-neural gel packs that have been turned into cryo-arithmetic engines. This is a type of quantum computer that, when certain algorithms are executed, leads to a local violation of the second law of thermodynamics: The computer gets colder instead of hotter. Unless the ship’s Computers have suffered one or more Breaches, whenever a character performs a Task assisted by the ship’s Computers, they may reduce the Difficulty of the Task by one, to a minimum of 0.
Class 10 Warp Drive
This ship is equipped with the latest type of warp drive developed by Starfleet. It allows a sustainable cruise velocity of warp 9.98 and can produce a maximum output of six thousand teradynes per second. Unless the ship’s Engines have suffered one or more Breaches, whenever a character performs a Task assisted by the ship’s Engines, they may reduce the Difficulty of the Task by one, to a minimum of 0.
This ship is equipped with advanced armor and shield emitter technology that is capable of generating a nearly-impenetrable layer of armor around the hull. Unless the ship’s Structure has suffered one or more Breaches, whenever a character performs a Task assisted by the ship’s Structure, they may reduce the Difficulty of the Task by one, to a minimum of 0. This also increases the Resistance of the ship by 1.
Type-XIII Phasers
This ship is equipped with the latest phaser emitters developed by Starfleet. Unless the ship’s Weapons have suffered one or more Breaches, whenever a character performs a Task assisted by the ship’s Weapons, they may reduce the Difficulty of the Task by one, to a minimum of 0. This also adds +1 CD to all Phaser-based attacks.