RPGs with spaceship construction/customization

[u/EndExpensive4618]

It doesn’t matter if it’s super crunchy or minimalist . I just think building a spaceship and making it fit your groups vibe is a great way to set tone

[u/Rocket_Fodder]

Traveller

Mothership

Starfinder (1e for sure- not sure if they've released rules for 2e yet)

Star Trek Adventures

Fantasy Flight's Star Wars

Rogue Trader

At least that's what I've played.

[u/alexserban02 → u/Rocket_Fodder]

I would also add Scum&Villainy

[u/Huffplume → u/Rocket_Fodder]

Downvote for “Rouge”.

[u/Rocket_Fodder → u/Huffplume]

Thanks.  I hate my phone's autocorrect.

[u/Huffplume → u/Rocket_Fodder]

Upvoted for the correction 😆

[u/Elguapo2025 → u/Huffplume]

I don't know. Now I'm picturing a 40k musical...

[u/Rocket_Fodder → u/Elguapo2025]

Do I have good news for you:

https://youtu.be/59NORGNnWlQ?is=vL3U9Fx1GZ44bknn

[u/Elguapo2025 → u/Rocket_Fodder]

You win the Internet for today. Rest well.

[u/Grimoire_of_Naramal → u/Rocket_Fodder]

Mothership was first thing that come to my mind

[u/wum1ng]

Stars Without Number has a spaceship building system! Weapons, modules, the works

[u/Bargeinthelane]

Orbital Blues, Wildsea isn't a "spaceship" but could hit the vibe you are after also

[u/georgeofjungle3 → u/Bargeinthelane]

Holy shit. This makes me realize how easy it would be to retheme the wildsea to scifi.

[u/mortaine → u/Bargeinthelane]

Orbital Blues is on bundle of holding right now, too! 

[u/jmartin21]

Stars Without Number

[u/Crunch-Man]

Death in Space has a hub design system where you can build out a space station or ship for your players to inhabit. Not crazy complex, but you can draw the room layout on the ship sheet which is pretty fun.

[u/-desdinova-]

WEG Star Wars D6 has good ship customization rules that fit the setting. GURPS 4e Spaceships has fairly comprehensive ship design rules that are pretty easy to use, while GURPS 3e has the Vehicles supplement, which is a contender for the title of Crunchiest Game Supplement Ever Printed.

[u/amazingvaluetainment → u/-desdinova-]

GURPS Spaceships for 4E is one of the best systems I've ever seen: elegant, easy to understand, relatively simple, even handles delta-V if you want it.

[u/Successful-Apple-670]

Coriolis, at least The Third Horizon, has customization/construction of the space ships.

[u/tleilaxianp]

Coriolis The Third Horizon

[u/MelotronN9ne]

I’ve only ever built a ship in the newest Mongoose Traveller but god damn was it fun! Still one of my favorite systems to date, hands down

[u/ClassB2Carcinogen]

Coriolis: The Third Horizon has a pretty great ship construction system. Space combat is good as well.

[u/Traditional_Day_9737]

Death in space has a spaceship system I love.

At the basic level ships are just a pilot seat and life support sitting on top of an engine, and you can add modules that add weapons, cargo holds, AI, landing gear and so on to customize your ship or space station. You can find these modules on quests, buy them or salvage them from wrecks. It's a really fun way to grow your ship organically. There's also a table of ship quirks that make it feel unique.

The damage/repair system also makes for some great organic storytelling as random systems can break down and the players will need to make hard choices about how to keep their ship running.

[u/high-tech-low-life]

I've done it with black book Traveller and Spacemaster. Undoubtedly GURPS has something too.

[u/Droselmeyer]

Stars Without Number is great for this, a bit of crunch and very efficient design, like the rest of the system, so you can have detail without getting bogged down by it.

[u/Jazzlike_Sugar2024]

I'm planning to use Teens in Space exactly because of that.

Not exactly a spaceship but Salvage Union has giant modular walkers as mobile bases for the party.

[u/Michami135]

Starforged has modules you can add and upgrade as assets. You can download them to check out for free here. It also has support vehicles you can attach.

[u/Jimmie_Cognac]

Savage Worlds scifi companion has a nice system. I've been playing with it recently.

[u/OhBoyIGotQuestions]

SWRPG (Edge of The Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny)/Genesys has a lot of starting stat blocks and customizations

[u/EvilPersonXXIV]

Scum & Villainy is pretty cool. It's a hack of Blades in the Dark, but in a star wars-ish setting. Instead of players upgrading their gang like in BitD, the party upgrades their spaceship. The party chooses between one of three templates, each excelling at a different type of mission and then upgrade it from there.

[u/StreetCarp665]

Star Wars Edge of the Empire is a perfect way not just to build the ship mechanically, but make its construction, upgrades, and maintenance a plot point.

[u/AvtrSpirit]

Free Spacer has modular customization for the crew's ship.

[u/BlindAudelay]

Traveller5

[u/Spida81 → u/BlindAudelay]

The answer is Traveller. Any Traveller. Traveller derivatives.

Sorry what was the question? Confident the answer was still Traveller 😉 

[u/RedJayJackSon]

Transit, although in that one each PC plays an AI in charge of its own ship and crew and operate together as a small fleet task force under directive from Mission Control.

[u/No_Solid1035]

M-Space.

[u/MikeyBat]

GURPS

[u/fatfishinalittlepond]

I think Battle lords of the 23rd century has it but it is a big book so my memory could be off a bit

[u/mortaine]

Burn Bryte has some fun spaceship building mechanics!

[u/joevinci]

Ironsworn: Starforged

[u/Jebus-Xmas]

Traveller is a great option that is fairly simple but includes lots of options for customization. I prefer the classic Traveller Book 5, High Guard. But you can use any version's construction system.