Viridian Ship Catalog ยท Chapter 4
Viridian Builder Rules
Viridian's Signature benefits, Integrated Architecture and Weak drawbacks, in one place, and the rules this book adds: the Service Seal and revision upgrades. Each benefit and drawback applies only when the system is used in the situation its entry names. The full rules for every builder are in the Vehicles Manual, Chapter 5.
Signature Benefits
A Viridian system gains its benefit when it is installed in a Viridian hull, or in a hull from Viridian's Partner, Openframe. In any other hull it works as a Standard system, with no benefit and no penalty. A benefit applies only when the system is used in the situation its entry names (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 5, How Builder Benefits Work).
| System | Benefit |
|---|---|
| AI Core | The AI Core has 1 additional Active Channel. When an assigned Directive Package covers the task, its assistance also removes 1 Bane Die |
| Navigation | Add 1 Boon Die to Astrogation checks: seam location and entry, corridor transit, offset exits, route analysis and orbital positioning |
| Sensors | The ship's sensors detect one Range Band farther than their grade (never beyond Extreme). Remove 1 Bane Die from detection, scan and identification checks |
| Life Support | Species-specific environmental needs are met without adjustment or checks. Life-support faults are flagged 1 round before they take effect |
| Medical Bay | Add 1 Boon Die to Medicine checks made aboard. The medical AI can assist 1 Medicine check per round without using an Active Channel |
| Stack Vaults and Clone Support | Add 1 Boon Die to continuity-stack preservation and restoration checks. Damage to a stored pattern is flagged as soon as it occurs |
One benefit per check. When two Signature systems could apply to one check, choose one.
Integrated Architecture
A Viridian ship has Integrated Architecture when its hull is Viridian's, at least 10 of its 12 core systems are Viridian's, it has no system recorded as Forced or Forbidden, and its firmware and service certification are intact (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 5, Integrated Architecture). It then gains the general Integrated Architecture benefits in that chapter, including the 75% maintenance price at a certified yard, and Viridian's own:
- Viridian Integrated Architecture. Once per encounter, add 1 Boon Die to a native Navigation, Sensors, Medical or Life Support check the ship's AI assists.
Service certification is the Service Seal (below). A lapsed seal takes the Integrated Architecture away.
Weak Drawbacks
Drawbacks follow the hull: a Viridian hull carries them whoever built its systems. Each applies when the system is used in the situation its entry names.
| System | Drawback |
|---|---|
| Field Repair and Improvised Upgrades | Craft checks made with improvised tools, with non-Viridian replacement parts, or outside a certified Viridian facility add 1 Bane Die |
| Non-Native System Installation | Installing a non-Viridian system adds 1 Bane Die on top of the integration modifier |
| Heavy Armor | Reinforced Hull Plating or heavier armor reduces Handling by 1 more than the upgrade lists |
| Crude Weapon Integration | Attacks with Heavy and Capital weapons mounted on the hull add 1 Bane Die , and each firing generates 1 additional Heat |
No hull in this book carries a weapon above Standard or Armor above 2. A crew that adds them pays the drawbacks above.
Grade and Build Costs
Every Viridian hull is Civilian grade, except the VN-53 liner, which is Professional. In the hull build rules (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 13) that means:
- Armor, Weapon Hardpoint points and Deflection cost their full listed cost. A Professional hull pays 85% of that.
- The caps on Armor, Hardpoints, Power Capacity and Heat Threshold are the Civilian row for the hull's Scale (the Professional row for the VN-53).
- Heat Dissipation is the Civilian value for the Scale (the Professional value for the VN-53).
- The standard AI core is Civilian Directive AI. Viridian buys two steps above it: Advanced Directive AI (the VN-53 buys one step above its Professional standard). The shuttles fly on Basic Automation.
- Viridian's signature allowance raises the System Points cap by one block and the Handling cap by one step (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 13, Tier Caps).
Viridian's builder prices make the same shape as its Signature and Weak ratings.
| Cheaper at Viridian | Costlier at Viridian |
|---|---|
| System Points (1 instead of 2 per block) | Armor (7 instead of 5) |
| Handling (2 instead of 3 per step) | Weapon Hardpoint points (4 instead of 3) |
A Viridian hull has a great many System Points, good Handling and little armor, with its weapons kept small. The revisions in Chapters 5 to 9 spend their points on structure, slots and thermal margin because the cheap stats are already at their caps.
The Service Seal
The Service Seal is Viridian's answer to a ship that is hard to repair with anything but its own parts: the way the maker keeps the ship after it sells it. It adds no fee. It uses the annual overhaul and the maintenance price a hull already owes (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 12, Maintenance).
- Current. A new Viridian hull ships with a current Service Seal. The seal is the certified yard's record that the hull's annual overhaul was done at a certified Viridian facility. The Seal Terminal (Chapter 10) shows it.
- Lapsed. If the annual overhaul is skipped or done elsewhere, the seal lapses. While it is lapsed, the hull loses its Integrated Architecture, and its Advanced Directive AI loses the extra Active Channel the Viridian AI Core benefit gives it.
- Read at the dock. A lapsed seal is a signature of its own. Viridian dealers and Concord customs officers read it. A crew that cannot explain a lapsed seal adds 1 Bane Die to Negotiation checks with Viridian dealers and to checks to clear Concord customs.
- Restoring it. A certified yard restores the seal with the next overhaul at no penalty in Concord space. Outside the Concord a yard with a dry dock restores it with a Hard Electronics check or a surcharge of a quarter of the overhaul price.
- Skipping. Skipping an overhaul also advances the Maintenance Clock as usual (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 12, Deferred Maintenance).
The seal is the cost of an owner who preferred cheaper service and a ship that, as the saying goes, may not explain itself.
Revision Upgrades
A revision upgrade is a retrofit at a certified Viridian yard (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 13, Upgrading After the Build).
- Points. The upgrade costs double the build points of the same change made at build time. The points come out of the hull's unspent budget: its Scale's budget less the build points in the line's Revision Table. A hull without enough unspent points cannot take the upgrade.
- Credits. The change costs its build points times the Scale's rate times 2.5. An added weapon mount costs its price in the Hardpoints table instead (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 12). Modules the newer revision adds to its factory package are bought separately at their module price and installation fee (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 12, Modules).
- Time. The yard keeps the hull one week for every 10 retrofit points, rounded up.
- Registry. The hull's designation takes the next C-spec number. The Vehicle Sheet changes; nothing else about the hull's registry does.
- Where. A revision upgrade done anywhere else is a custom retrofit and carries the Field Repair and Improvised Upgrades Bane Die.
The Revision Table of each line, and Chapter 13, give the points, credits and yard time of every upgrade. An upgrade cannot change Scale or grade.
Viridian Components in Other Hulls
A Viridian system fitted to another maker's hull, or another maker's system fitted to a Viridian hull, is an integration (Vehicles Manual, Chapter 10, Installing a Module, and Chapter 5, Builder Integration). Chapter 12 lists the modifier by maker.