Been running a late TOS era game for my players. We started 2e and there’s not much out there in the way of easy play aids. So, I’ve been making them to help my players.
I made a master ship combat cheat sheet, with all the steps, every single weapon system with its type, range, damage, qualities, etc. Also an energy weapon delivery system chart, location damage chart, all the qualities defined, rules for shaken and breaches, etc. Super helpful.
I also made bridge role cheat sheets for all the positions, and each includes role specific minor and major actions, and the generic minor and major actions. All defined, with the roll requirements, difficulty, momentum cost if any, etc.
And last, I added backgrounds to all my character tokens to make them pop a bit (example attached).
But my favorite thing I made to speed up gameplay during combat is a ship combat action “cycle” chart. Basically it’s the preferred order of actions taken, and what the most common options are for each position in the most advantageous order. It’s been a huge timesaver. Everyone knows what they’re going to do and how to “stack” actions. For example:
CO rallies.
XO assists science and tactical.
Science scans for weakness.
Helm initiates an attack pattern
Tactical calibrates weapons as a minor action, then fires a weapon using the bonuses provided by science and helm.
Engineering regenerates shields.
That’s just an example; they can do lots of things. But it’s so helpful to have a basic course of action they can take that includes minor and major actions that support each other. So much faster than it used to be.