Travelling the hyperspace in an A-wing

[wolfe]

[garhkal]

I would say removing the cargo compartment to put in a small nav comp could add say 5-7 additional jump storage capacity to the A wing..
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[ninja42]

Thanks a lot, that was certainly a lot of useful ideas.

I am not too fond of A-wings myself, but as the GM it is not my duty to protect the players from their own choices. He went through some lengths to get the starfighter he likes the best, and his character will either live or die depending on wether or not it turns out to be a good choice. Personally I think that the X- and Y-wing starfighters are better options on many diffrent levels.

I really like the docking port option, especially as the party is already shopping for a new freighter to replace their Ghtroc 720.. All I have to do is basically to nudge them in the direction of a freighter that of a design that lends itself well to this kind of modification. Not that I fully understand why they actually want to replace their Ghtroc 720 at all, but thats just me.

Have you got any suggestions for a docking port friendly freighter?

I also have two bonus questions, if you can spare the time.

1) I understand that heavily modified starships are usually quirky and unreliable, but what exactly constitudes 'heavily modified'? For instance, how quirky would this guys A-wing become if he:
- Improve the hull code to 3d
- Improve the shield code to 2d
- Improve the starfighters space rating by 2 units

2) The player have asked if he can avoid some of the quirkyness if he uses the advanced skill Starship Engeneering instead of Starship Repair to make the modifications. It makes sense to me, as thoroughly engineered modifications would obivously lead to fewer malfunctions. But would it break the game?

Thanks.

[Akari]

Well, in my experience, players rarely like to keep the starship they first have, so in my games, I make a habit of describing it as a barely space-worthy pile of debris, kept together by rust, paint and sticky tape. Something where you need a mechanic with a hydrowrench in the engine room if you want to swerve downwards and the starbord engine needs a firmly installed droid leg to kick it every few minutes. Just so the players will be happy when they finally get their real ship (and usually get sentimental about the lack of all the lovable little knacks).

Anyways, pretty much everything built by Corellian Engineering Corps almost screams for some heavy modification, but virtually any ship that isn't "state of the art" can be modded quite well. If you have a certain ship in mind that you wanna hand out, let it become available.

Modification of a fighter however is something alltogether different. You have amazingly little space to work with (if any at all), and usually they already got the best parts in them that money can buy. That doesn't mean the can't be modded, just that you will need to resort to "experimental" engines/shields/whatever, which in turn will make it quirky and unreliable.

Of course nobody likes his favorite toy to go boom when they need it the most, so prescious few players will opt for anything that has even a remote chance of failure.

On to your examples:

In order to increase the hull, you will need to resort to heavier plating. This will usually reduce their space rating, unless they will find an alloy that allows them better damage resistance with the same weight.

Increasing shield output however, is pretty simple, as it might be as easy as removing the safety fuses and increasing the applied power. That however is jury-rigging, and any attempt to power up shields where the wild die comes up a 1 might be short circuiting them.

The hardest part by far is the increase of space speed. The A-Wing was literally a cockpit mounted on engines. It would be hard as hell finding more powerful engines working reliably. Again, jury-rigging seems the only thing plausible (like boosting the engine output over the allowed max).

The advanced skill allows you to create new spaceships. Its not (technically) about modifying them, but might be used as such. Its certainly possible for an engineer to reliably enhance whatever they have, but they will need access to a nicely fitted lab, a staff of assistant engineers, and LOADS of credits. As in millions...

With proper knowledge through the advanced skill starship engineering, jury rigging will likely become more reliable, but slower to execute and more costly.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.--Benjamin Franklin

[Esoomian]

[Raven Redstar]

I recommend that you simply increase the difficulty numbers for each of the modifications by 1 to 2 levels based on what sort of quirk he's trying to avoid. (A) X Engineering adds to the appropriate skill when making modifications or doing repairs. So, if it's a Heroic roll already to push his engines or whatever, make it heroic +10 or Heroic +15. Making the difficulty 41 or 46 or something that's pretty high up there. If the player has time to invent new engines, or has a lab and such, then let them spend the time and credits to research the thing. But, I'm pretty nice about players modding ships up, cause they won't always be inside of it or someone will notice the heavily modded star fighter and alert the rebellion, empire, or crime syndicate that wants awesome fighters for their raids. Just some ideas to keep in your mind if the player's fighter gets out of hand.

Technically speaking, the modifications that your player is asking for are actually about middle of the row for how much can be pushed out of existing technology. The reason why they add the mishaps and such is for fun. Giving your ship some personality and keep game balance instead of munchkin gaming where you can deck a ship, or vehicle out so it can never be damaged, super quick, ect...
They use the mishap system for when players roll 1 on the wild die. It's meant to be dangerous, lol, I'm reading in GG6 that manufacturers are aware that their systems can be improved, but they have disclaimers that modifying beyond original design specifications is dangerous, unreliable and not recommended. Voids all warranties blah blah blah.

So, depending on the system being used.

Space +2 - Difficult installation +15% cost +1 Mishap Modifier
Mishaps go from conduits blowing out (-2 space) to engine overloads and is destroyed (possible 4D damage, or crashes: 5D damage)

Hull +1 - Moderate installation +10% cost +1 mishap modifier
Mishaps range from power surges wiping out sensors and comms for 1D rounds to Hull breach or power surge permanently knocking out a vital system.

GG6 says that shields are almost impossible to improve beyond their initial strength.
2D shields costs 10,000 credits and weights 8 tons.
If you did decide to allow player to mod shields, I would just make a mishap table of things power/shield related.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Most of the mishaps are completely harmless on their own. There are a few which your characters can get sucked into the vacuum of space. But if your player is a pilot who's prepared, that shouldn't be an issue.

[Rerun941]

Personally, I would never allow a PC to modify a starfighter. They are (by definition) tight designs. It's the equivalent to a modern pilot going "hey, I'll just tweak my F-15 here..." In the Tramp Freighters book, it clearly states that those rules are for light freighters only. If I did allow mods to starfighters, the difficulties would be in the +20 range because they're working on a tight design. Aside from possible quirks, I might even rule that mods will change the performance parameters of the starfighter. "Ok, so you want a better Hull Code. Fine. So you're basically going to be slapping extra metal (weight) on your ship. That will reduce the Space and Manuever codes of your ship by 1 for every 1 pip you improve the Hull code."

Starfighters have been designed, built and tested by TEAMS of skilled engineers. They've squeezed every last ounce of performance out of the fighter for the mission the starfighter was designed to perform.

The A-Wing is a hit-and-run interceptor. Armor and shields have been sacrificed for speed and manueverability.

It's going to be modification enough for the A-Wing to be able to attach to a freighter docking port. (Again, something it was NOT designed to do.)

The more interesting fun should be had when he tries to land at any civilian facility. Starfighters are strictly military spacecraft and operated by recognized armies or by pirates. The fact that a private citizen has one should be enough to raise eyebrows and give starport controllers cause for concern.
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[garhkal]

[Whill]

[wolfe]

[ninja42]

Ok, modifying state-of-the-art starfighters are a no-go then. Understood.

Now that I have your attention, I may as well try to take further advantage of your knowledge, if that is ok, regarding the Stalwart class freighter, which the party seems to like.

Is there any information anywhere on how this ship looks? It has quite a bit of cargo space for its length, so I could imagine that is quite bulky, but then again it is fast and manuverable. I would really like to see a drawing of the ship, and a deckplan if at all possible. Also, sinse there is only one freighter pilot in the party, they want to modify the controls so that a single pilot can operate the ship if need be. Is that possible?

They have also looked at the Ghtroc 580 as a repacement for their 720, and that made me wonder.. how is the 580 not supirior in every way to the 720? Fluffwise it is not supposed to be so, but the stats for the 580 just outclasses the 720 by several lengths.

[Rerun941]

[Akari]

Stalwart class freighters are in Gry's Starship Stats. They look kinda fighter-like with four wings on the back and a tubular body.

There are a few pointers you have to look at, which might not immediately aparent:

Crew: 2 means whatever you do, you will not be able to pilot the ship with just one person. However, you can replace the second pilot easily with pretty much any standard astromech droid. They know what they are doing! Also it shouldn't really be very difficult to modify and reroute the controls to the pilot.

However, only one weapon system means apart from the pilot and the guy at the guns, players might be left out in a space fight. It's not fun twiddling your thumbs while the rest has all the action...


Have you taken a look at the YV-330 (one of my favorites)? Not really a lot of cargo space, but a rugged hull, good speed and sensors and a bunch of weapons, so nobody has to sit and wait. With the Autoblaster, even someone unskilled can hit something (or someone skilled can hit something small!). And the design IMHO lends itself very well to a small docking port between the main part of the ship and the engines.

Also cool is the YV-929, but that is released much later during the New Republic. Lots more cargo space to store land/airspeeders and equipment that players love to haul around.

The YKL-37r Nova Courier is also a great choice. It features tremendously fast space speed (as quick as an X-Wing!), strong hull and shields and one of the best sensor packages. The weapons might not be very accurate but pack a good wallop. Apropriately modded, this is a beast!

Another real beauty is the Banshee Heavy Transport, even though its hidden in the Bulk Freighters section. Its pretty huge (50m long, 350 ton cargo space!!) but if you have a lot to haul around a bunch of stuff (swoops for every player, an AT-ST or whatever) this is the way to go! Its also extremely well armored, features a tractor beam and can be piloted by one person in a pinch.
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.--Benjamin Franklin

[Whill]

[ninja42]

I know, Im the GM, and I have the power. I just happen to agree with your arguments about how not everything can be upgraded and modified.

And wow... those ships are completely bunkers! A 22 meter long ship with 150 tonnes of cargo space, weapons enough to blow most capital ships out of the sky AND the speed to outrun starfighters.. In a stock configuration! I am begining to doubt why anyone would even use starfighters for starfighting, when freighters offer so much more bang for hteir buck, both in regards of their credit cost and the space they take up on their carrier ships.

I was thinking more in the lines of letting the players install a turret or an extra pair of forward fireing weapons on their freighter, just so everyone got to roll dice during space combat, but ships like those YV-series freighters would overpower my villans quite easily. You see, I use Vangars Pirate Corvette from the 2nd edition rulebook as the ship of my players nemesis, and for the moment my campaign sort of require that the enemy is strong enough to keep the players on the run.. for now.

But thanks for the input either way, I sure am enjoyig to read through it. Perhaps in the future I will work in an YV-class freighter, I really like their 50s style retro look.