Ships and space travel

The Commonwealth issues every team a ship. It's not representative of the cutting edge so much as of the available budget. Figure it's about the size of a Boeing 727, a modular design that you can configure a bit.

Out of the box, it holds 8 people comfortably, but you could pack in a few more before the air scrubbers burn out. It needs 3 to operate.

It has a jump drive that takes about 15 minutes to charge up for each jump.

Here's the one bit of technobabble in the game: The jump drive doesn't work at all if local gravity is too high, like if you're in close orbit or on the surface. It works better and better the farther you get from a planet or star.

It has a full sensor suite so you can make scans and stuff.

It has both a standard radio dish and a tight-beam comm laser.

It includes a light autocannon, which is 2-harm close against anything the ship's own size.

It also has a gas scoop and fuel processor so you can skim a gas giant or dump in ice/water

It has a lifeboat, a small workshop, and external spotlights for those cool scenes where you float past a derelict and train the spotlights across it.

Ship stats
When you’re operating a system on the ship that corresponds with a move, you add the ship’s stat or your stat to your roll, whichever is lower.

• Performance. how much power the ship puts out, combined with the effectiveness of its engines. Good for pushing a ship to its limits, outmaneuvering enemies.
• Electronics. The ship’s sensors and computer systems. Good for generating tactical data, confounding enemies.
• Profile. How well the ship is designed, the arrangement of its systems. Good for emergency repairs and targeting weapons.

Your ship’s stats start at +0 each.

Choose three from the list below:

• Enhanced Engines: increase performance by +1
• Sensor Package: increase electronics by +1
• Redundant systems: increase profile by +1
• Accommodations and L/S for 6 additional  passengers
• Laboratory
• Missile Launcher (2-harm far)
• Cargo bay
• Vehicle bay
• Hull plating (1-armor)

The Rest of the Crew
The ship includes 3–4 secondary crewmembers who handle less complicated operational tasks. They can operate the ship under non-stressful circumstances and perform some basic maintenance. If they have to fight, count them as a gang (small, 1-harm, 0-armor, vulnerable: desertion). Hopefully you won’t ask them to fight.

GM, make sure you give them names and personalities, hopes and dreams. Because you know why.

So doing anything in a ship is, overall, more prone to catastrophe than the equivalent thing on land? (This is my understanding of the stat limitations/base ship stats.)

Can ships get further improvements?

The thing about ship stats is that you're really all in the same boat -- OMG PUN -- when trouble arises. So I want to try and encourage that need for helping, following through, and moves that create opportunities.

And yes you can totally improve your ship stats. Especially as a result of your adventures. Ally yourselves with an alien tribe and maybe they'll share some secret polymer that gives you extra armor. Wipe out the pirate base and maybe you can salvage stuff that gives you better electronics.

AW seems to have hit a sweet spot for allowing "I have cool stuff" without feeling all bloaty. The ship needs to get in on that.