A good pirate ship

[Darth_rockdawg]

I need some ideas for a good pirate ship for a new charater starting out.
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[masque]

Could you be more specific? How big are the ships you want to raid, how many crew do you think the character will have?

If you're talking a sizable crew and you want to haul off a big chunk of cargo, I'd say a Corellian Corvette. They're the most versatile of the smaller capital ships, and are fairly common amongst pirates. Good for raiding light freighters and somewhat larger cargo ships. If, however, you're talking more about a small ship that will be part of a pirate fleet, or you want to go after primarily smaller targets like other light freighters, I'd recommend the YT-2400, particularly the one statted out in Pirates and Privateers. It's cargo capacity isn't great, but it's pretty quick and I like the ease of customization for its weaponry and engines.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Gry Sarth]

I would also highly reccomend the Katarn Boarding Shuttle for boarding operations. It's fast and sturdy and can carry a big boarding party. The plasma torch boarding device is excellent for a quick invasion, though you will need another ship to carry the loot since it has a very small cargo area.

On the larger scale of things, the Corellian Gunship packs a helluva punch.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

I like the idea of a Corellian Corvette simply because it's a very versatile ship.

Plus, if your crew can lay hands on the materials and extra ships, the Vette can be converted into a makeshift Carrier. Rogue or Wraith Squadron took over an Imperial Vette and did the conversions themselves, so that in addition to the very tightly-packed X-wings in the bay, they had replaced the escape pods with TIE fighters. It was a very sweet setup, and allowed them a great deal of flexibility for their missions.

For more details, check out the whole X-Wing series of novels; I forget the exact one it was in, but that whole series is a really great read.

[Gry Sarth]

The Darkstryder Campaign has the modified Corellian Corvette Far Star, which has a custom built landing bay that can hold at its maximum capacity up to 5 X-Wings and 4 NR Defenders. Plus the docking tubes can hold 3 extra fighters and 1 light freighter.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

See? A very versatile ship.

[Kayle Skolaris]

'Best pirate ship' very much depends on how much money your characters have to spend.

[Pel]

Starting characters don't have to begin as Captain Jack Sparrow (Arrr. Lots of weaving about). If money is an issue, they could start as crew on a capital ship and then purchase or capture their own vessel as the campaign progresses.
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Aha!

[Kayle Skolaris]

There is one ship I especially like for pirating and privateering. It's the KDY Class-7 Repair Vessel. Full stats may be found on page 80 of the D6 adventure Supernova. Without going into too much detail or giving out full stats, I'll say that it's got good cargo capacity, low crew requirements, strong hull, and if you absolutely have to pay for a ship, it's damned cheap for a capital ship.

[Hellcat]

I'd think a good pirate ship would first depend on the number of pirates in the crew. You probably don't want them to all be in the boarding party, say maybe one or two minimum staying back to pilot the ship, repel potential counter boarders, and operate the ships weapons, if that is possible, should anyone show up to lend aid to the craft being attacked. A smaller pirate crew is less likely to have a large number that could be used in boarding, so more likely to go after slightly smaller targets. That is to say targets that will not have so many crew or passengers that they could so easily over power the boarders. Would be one thing if you were talking like two or three to one in favor of the ship being boarded and entirely something else when the odds are like fifteen to one when the pirates could only send four or five boarders.

So for a small crew you'll probably want to start by looking at a light frieghter, modified for boarding operations. You'll loose some cargo space in the modifications, but then you probably won't want to take all the cargo. Just that which would bring the most credits. As you get a larger crew, moving up to something like a captured military transport may be in mind. It might not be able to carry the same cargo capacity, but it should have a larger passenger capacity, and maybe some airlocks or some other boarding feature. Plus it may have more weapons, stronger shields, and a thick hull.

Of course getting out of starfighter scale you'll probably want to look at smaller cap ships, looking for a fairly small skeleton crew needed to operate. This is for when you've got what you consider plenty of folks for boarding and only need a handfull to operate the ship. Of course as your crew gets bigger you can worry less about how small the skeleton crew has to be.
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[Kayle Skolaris]

The Class-7 Repair Vessel is perfect for small groups due ot its very light crew requirements. If I knew the forum views on posting official stats (I.E., whether it's okay or not) I might post them for all to see.

[Darth_rockdawg]

Thanks for all the info.

My group will be a bunch of noobs who are just getting together. So, I am thinking something in the small frieghter sect. 4 or 5 guys. Maybe a few NPCS, but not many. They are quite low on funds, for now.
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Impressive, Most Impressive.

[Kayle Skolaris]

Yeah, if they're low on funds they may have to wait awhile to get their manipulatory appendages on a Class-7. Still, it's worth every credit!

[Ray]

Whatever can hold all the crew you got, and has cargo space!

Modified Medium Freighters are great!

Just be ready to add guns. Lots and lots of guns.

[Hellcat]

My personal favorite medium freighter for modifying is the HT-2200. As stock it really sucks and is pirate bait itself. But it can carry eight hundred metric tons stock, so you rally have a lot of room to play with on modifying where you're replacing the exsisting equipment or adding on. A bonus on the tonnage is that you have four seperate cargo bays with which are enviromentally controlled, so you can carry four types of cargoes that require different enviroments at once. Manuverability and speed being the first two areas you want to look at for mod since it has no manuverability dice and only a space rating of 3. Then you'll want to add some weapons, maybe loose the pair of two pulse laser turrets turrets it comes with or just compliment them with some extra, especially some kind of ion gun. It does have a pretty strong hull rating at 5D, though you might want to think about changing the shields, their only 1D. It's hyperdrive is a Class II, not the fastest but still not too bad for starting out. It will take twice as long to reach your destination than a Class I, so you may want to eventually look at replacing it with a Class I. You'll need two crew members, and can carry upwards of eight passengers. After mods you should still be looking at a pretty high cargo capacity. Plus it's Corellian in design and their notoriously easy on the modding. Biggest drawback is the price tag, 240,000 new and 110,000 used.

On light freighters I'd probably start looking at look at something like a DeepWater-class, a Class 720, or a XS-800. The DeepWater-class is a Mon Cal design, so it comes with 3D worth of backup shields. Not counting the backup there's 2D in shields. It's faster than the HT-2200 at sublight, with a space rating of 6 and has 1D in manuverablity. Crew is one or two, and can carry 6 passengers. But it's lacking on cargo space with only 85 meteric tons. so there's not much room for making too many mods where you're replacing the exsisting equipment or adding on, but still there is room. It's only got 3D in hull rating, so it can't take as much punishment as the HT-2200. It only as a single laser turret, so you'll probably want to make weapons a priority on modding. Again the hyperdrive is a Class II on the stock model. And the price tag is 99,000 for a new one, which is still cheaper than a used HT-2200. The biggest draw is that it can operate underwater, which could give your pirates a place to hide beyond the usual.

The Class 720 is a Ghrotc light freighter. Like the HT-2200 it sucks on speed when stock with a space of 7, but it does have 1D in manuverability. Crew is one and one gunner, with upwards of ten passengers. As far as modding with an eye towards replacing and adding on, the Class 720 has 135 meteric tons to play with, so you can do more on modding than you can with the DeepWater-class though obviously not as much as the HT-2200. Hull is slightly better than the DeepWater-class with 3D+2 with shields at 1D. Again the hyperdrive is a Class II. It only has a forward facing double laser cannon, so you'll definately want to add some extra weapons with at least one being turreted. Cost is 98,500 new and 23,000 new. The advantage here is the escape pods, they can be used as shuttles for a boarding party. Though unmodified they can't carry very much cargo, only 200 kilograms. So instead of a pilot and 5 or six passengers, you may want to loose the seats and cut down on the number of passengers. But keep in mind they need to be refueled.

The XS-800 is another Corellian design, and looks like the little brother to the Corellian Corevette. So it's easily modified. Like the DeepWater-class it only has a hull rating of 3D, but it's shield rating is greater than the Class 720 at 1D+2. It can carry 115 meteric tons, again giving you a little more room to play with mods concerning replacements and add ons. Like the Class 720 you'll want to start looking at weapons as a high priority as it only has a forward facing double laser cannon. Speed is 6 and manuverability is one of the greater draws at 2D on the stock model. However, the hyperdrive is a drawback as when stock it has a Class III, so like weapons you'll want to look at the hyperdrive early on. Keep in mind that a replacement Class II hyperdrive will cost you 10,000 new, and that's without instillation costs. Crew is one or two and it can carry upwards of eight passengers. Brand new it's the cheapest of the four at 37,500.
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