CHIEF MATE
The Chief Mate assist characters in a other roles on the ship, making the other characters' jobs easier and allowing them to accomplish more in their primary duties since they no longer need to focus on physically manipulating machinery or equipment. A Chief Mate acts during the same phase as the crew member he wishes to assist that round. Despite the role's name, a ship can have any number of Chief Mates.
CHIEF MATE ACTIONS
As a Chief Mate, you can take any of the following actions, some depending on your number of ranks in the Acrobatics or Athletics skill, whichever you favor. Each of these actions can be taken only during a particular phase, as noted in parentheses next to the actions name. You must decide at the start of each round which phase you will act in, usually by deciding which other role you're supporting that round. Unless otherwise noted, each action can be performed only once per round, no matter how many Chief Mates are on a Starship.
Hard Turn (Helm Phase, Push) You manually adjust additional thrusters and bypass safety systems, shouting for fellow crew members to brace themselves for a stomach-turning tactical maneuver. This bit of risky co-piloting might overtax The starship's turn radius, but it can also help the pilot get significantly more maneuverability out of the vessel when their crew finds itself in a lurch. Attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1 and 1/2 your starship's tier). If you succeed, the pilot can make one turn during the round as though the maneuverability of the starship were improved by one step. It has no effect on a ship with perfect maneuverability. If you fail your check by 10 or more, you overheat and temporarily degrade the effectiveness of the Starship's maneuvering thrusters, causing the ship's maneuverability to worsen by one step for the rest of this round.
Maintenance Panel Access (Engineering Phase) You start ripping open access panels, turning secured valves, and manually by passing safety systems to help the engineer get more out of their systems when they take the divert or overpower action. Attempt and Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1 and a half times your starship's tier). If you succeed and the engineer also succeeds at their check to divert, they can provide the normal benefit from divert to 2 different systems instead of only 1. If the engineer instead succeeds at their check for the offerpower action, they can choose four different systems to differt power to instead of 3. In either case, no system can benefit twice in the same action. If you feel you check by 10 or more you overtax the ship's systems without adding useful capacity, and all engineer actions performed this turn to get -2 penalty.
Manual Realignment (Helm Phase) Manual realignment of the ship's sensors to better focus on an opposing Starship can help the science officer get better results when using the ship's sensors to glean information about the other vessel. Attempt and Acrobatics or Athletics check (DC = 10 + 1 and 1/2 x your Starship's tier). If you succeed and the Science Officer also succeeds at their check to perform the scan action, they receive one additional piece of information, as though their results were five higher. If you fail the check by 10 or more,you knock the sensors out of alignment altogether, and no check to scan can be attempted this round as the system recalibrates.
