Openframe Ship Catalog ยท Chapter 4
Openframe Builder Rules
Openframe's Signature benefits and Weak drawbacks, the Licensed-slot rule, and how an upgrade works. A benefit or drawback applies only when the system is used in a situation its entry names (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Five, How Builder Benefits Work).
Signature Benefits
Benefits follow the component. An Openframe Signature system gains its benefit when it is installed in an Openframe hull or in a hull from one of Openframe's Partners: Crown Meridian, Kharos and Viridian (Chapter 11). In a Safa hull, or any other, it works as a Standard system. One benefit applies per check, and a benefit that adds a Boon Die to an attack counts toward the limit of 2 free Boon Dice per attack (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Fifteen, The Boon Limit).
| System | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Cargo Handling | Add 1 Boon Die to checks to load, unload, secure, hide, or organize cargo. For creative stowage, treat cargo capacity as 10 Cargo Units higher than listed |
| Mission Modules | Installing or removing a clean commercial module at an authorized yard takes half the normal time and needs no check. For a salvaged, illegal, or incompatible module, remove 1 Bane Die from the installation check |
| Communications | Remove 1 Bane Die from communications checks: relay access, encryption, signal analysis, and message routing |
| Transponder Systems | Remove 1 Bane Die from transponder checks: identity verification, spoofing, licensing compliance, customs declarations, and manifest integrity |
| Support Craft and Workshops | A support craft launched from the ship adds 1 Boon Die to its first Pilot check after launch. Remove 1 Bane Die from Craft checks made in the ship's workshop |
Integrated Architecture. An Openframe hull with Integrated Architecture (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Five) gains the general benefits listed there and Openframe's own: swap one compatible minor module during normal port service without an installation check.
Weak Drawbacks
Drawbacks follow the hull: they apply whoever built the installed system. Each drawback applies once per situation.
| System | Drawback |
|---|---|
| Armor and Combat Durability | While the ship's Hull Damage is at or above half its Hull Points, all Pilot and Craft checks aboard add 1 Bane Die |
| High-Output Fire Control | Attacks with Heavy and Capital weapons mounted on the hull add 1 Bane Die |
| Thermal Control Under Extreme Load | While the ship's Heat is at Threshold +4 or higher, it gains 1 additional Heat at the end of each round |
Grade and Build Costs
Every Openframe hull is built to the Civilian operator tier. In the hull build rules (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Thirteen) that means the Civilian caps on Armor, hardpoint points, Power Capacity and Heat Threshold and on Hull Points, System Points, Speed and Handling; the Civilian Heat Dissipation for the Scale; Open-Availability systems as standard, with at most one system above it; and a Civilian Directive AI as the standard AI Core (a hull may fit a lower grade at no cost).
Openframe's builder prices follow its Signature and Weak ratings.
| Cheaper at Openframe | Costlier at Openframe |
|---|---|
| Cargo (1 per block instead of 2) | Armor (7 instead of 5) |
| Module Slots (2 instead of 3) | Hull Points (3 per block instead of 2) |
| Heat Threshold (3 instead of 2) |
An Openframe hull has a great deal of room and not much plate. The versions in Chapters 5 to 8 spend their points on the cheap side.
Licensed Slots
The slots a hull has in its first version are Open. Every slot a later version adds is Licensed.
-
A module in a Licensed slot works only while the hull's Openframe license is current.
-
The license costs 0.4% of the hull's catalog price per Licensed slot per year. Each line's Version Table prints the fee.
-
When the license lapses, modules in Licensed slots shut down at the end of the round an audit finds it. Open slots are not affected.
-
Stripping a license lock is a Hard Craft check and raises Authority Heat.
-
An upgrade at an Openframe yard adds its Licensed slots with it.
This is how Openframe sells the ship twice. A crew that keeps a v1.0 owes nothing. A crew that wants the room pays for it every year.
Version Upgrades
A version upgrade is a retrofit at an Openframe yard. It costs double the build points of the same change made at build time, and 2.5 times the credit value of those build points at the Scale's rate (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Thirteen, Upgrading After the Build). The points come out of the hull's unspent budget. The designation takes the next version. Scale and operator tier cannot change.
- Find the cost on the line's Version Table, or in Chapter 12, Version Upgrades.
- Check that the hull's unspent points cover it.
- The yard takes the hull for a number of weeks equal to the points spent, divided by 10, rounded up.
- The Licensed slots the version adds begin to owe their fee at once.
