Missile Launch Pod

[CRMcNeill]

I discovered the Honor Harrington novel series several months ago, and have really enjoyed it, as well as having gleaned some new and interesting ideas for incorporation into my own SWU. The idea of missile pods is part of the evolution of military weapons and tactics in the Honorverse, representing a shift from energy weapon based combat to extended range missiles. This is my version of the same for the SWU.

Craft: Missile Pod
Type: Drone Missile Launch Platform
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 10 meters
Skill: Space Transports
Crew: None, automated
Crew Skill: Space Transports
Gunnery 4D
Piloting 4D
Consumables: 1 day
Maneuverability: 2D
Space: 1
Hull: 3D
Weapons:
1 Concussion Missile Launcher
Fire Arc: Front (the pod itself functions as a Turret in relation to its mothership)
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Scale: Capital Ship
Fire Control: Equal to mothership's Focus dice.
Space Range: 3-12/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 6km-24km/60km/120km
Rate of Fire: Singly, or in volleys of 2-12
Damage: 9D
Ammo: 12
1 Tractor Beam Projector
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-2/3/5
Damage: 5D
Capsule:
Roughly the size and shape of a standard capital ship escape pod, a missile pod is an innovative design that allows ships equipped only with energy weapons to carry and fire missiles and torpedoes without extensive modification. Unmanned, and controlled by a droid brain slaved to the launching ship's tactical command, a missile pod deploys just outside the shield perimeter of its mothership. It has minimal propulsion ability, and uses a tractor beam projector to latch onto its mothership, which in turn pulls it along. A capital ship may tow 1 pod for every 1D of Hull without any decrease in performance. However, for every additional pod above that number, the ship's Space is reduced by -1 and its Maneuverability is reduced by -1D.

The standard pod carries twelve Capital-Scale concussion missiles, which can be fired singly or in volleys. Any capital ship equipped with hangar bays may carry pods at a rate of one pod per starfighter slot. While pods have no crew or life-support requirements, they require roughly the same size ground crew and spares storage due to their reload requirements. Once a pod has launched all of its missiles, it is tractored back into the mothership's launch bay and reloaded, but the reload takes time (approximately 1 minute per missile). This slow reload rate limits the effectiveness of the pods, but experimental mass pod-laying capital ships are in the initial planning stages. Other experiments that show promise include pod-laying starships passing off pods to other ships in close proximity, allowing those ships to retain their standard starfighter complement and be able to deploy missile pods, as well. Even more ominously, recent advances in guided weapon technology are being incorporated into newer varieties of missile pods which can engage starfighters or hit enemy capital ships at greatly increased range.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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