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Straxus
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 30 May 2017
Posts: 105
Location: Norway
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 Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:59 am Post subject: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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I was thinking of giving my players a speeder to keep on board their freighter, in case they have to get around on a planet, and flying/landing with the ship is difficult. Originally I was thinking a pickup truck/van equivalent, or something like the one they use in Firefly, but when I started looking at vehicle stats I saw that most of them wouldn't even fit in the cargo hold. (The ship is about 30m)
So instead I'm giving them a small landspeeder, but now I'm beginning to question even that... What do you guys think? Would there be room for a speeder on a light freighter? To be specific, it's a Corellian XS-800 from "Stock Ships". |
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Zarn
Force Spirit
Joined: 17 Jun 2014
Posts: 698
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:12 am Post subject: |
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I'm looking at https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/f/f0/XS800schematic-SS.png/revision/latest?cb=20110217133541
It seems that it's about 30 squares long, which indicates that each square is about 1m to a side.
Speeder bikes? Yes, definitely.
The loading elevator seems to be about 2m x 2m, but is circular - which means that you might have trouble placing an entire landspeeder on something like that.
With some modifications to the loading elevator and how it mates into the hull, fitting a medium speeder like an XP-34 or even an airspeeder like a Mobquet Shark should be pretty simple. |
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MrNexx
Rear Admiral
Joined: 25 Mar 2016
Posts: 2248
Location: San Antonio
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:09 am Post subject: |
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I had a design for a freighter that included a speeder bike for getting around planetside, but, yeah, most ships are smaller than you really need if you're going to haul a speeder.
You know what might work well? A STAP, or something similar. They're about the size of a big person when set up, and they look to fold down, so you could probably stick a couple of them in a closet or on a wall without taking up too much space, and still let you do local jetting around fairly easily.
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Straxus
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 30 May 2017
Posts: 105
Location: Norway
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| Zarn wrote: | I'm looking at https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/f/f0/XS800schematic-SS.png/revision/latest?cb=20110217133541
It seems that it's about 30 squares long, which indicates that each square is about 1m to a side.
Speeder bikes? Yes, definitely.
The loading elevator seems to be about 2m x 2m, but is circular - which means that you might have trouble placing an entire landspeeder on something like that.
With some modifications to the loading elevator and how it mates into the hull, fitting a medium speeder like an XP-34 or even an airspeeder like a Mobquet Shark should be pretty simple. |
Yeah, I was thinking they had constructed some kind of cargo door to get the speeder in and out. The one I had in mind is 6m long. The PCs are a pilot and a gunner, so it would be cool to have them on the same repulsorlift.
Does STAPs looks feasible, MrNexx, I might have to consider those. (Though I tend to stay away from prequel stuff) |
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MrNexx
Rear Admiral
Joined: 25 Mar 2016
Posts: 2248
Location: San Antonio
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:12 am Post subject: |
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| Straxus wrote: |
Does STAPs looks feasible, MrNexx, I might have to consider those. (Though I tend to stay away from prequel stuff) |
Personally, I'd lean towards a civilian version, switching out the cannons for headlights, but I think they work as a personal transport... sort of like Segways for the spacey set. 
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"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
Commodore
Joined: 07 Apr 2017
Posts: 1448
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:22 am Post subject: Re: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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| Straxus wrote: | | So instead I'm giving them a small landspeeder, but now I'm beginning to question even that... What do you guys think? Would there be room for a speeder on a light freighter? To be specific, it's a Corellian XS-800 from "Stock Ships". |
Your choice. It seems a bit more "Traveller" to me than "Star Wars," but I wouldn't blink an eye if I saw a freighter with a support vessel or vehicle.
OTOH, the Falcon is a decent sized ship, and it doesn't have anything like that. Have we ever seen anything like that on any freighter in Star Wars? Did Dash Rendar's freighter have a support vehicle?
Since your ship is small, maybe consider a rocket pack instead of a speeder bike?
Another idea, and maybe a fun one, would be to add a flying droid to the crew--where it is sent out in place of the PCs. Have a player run him. He stays with the ship most of the time. Could be practical and comic relief, too. |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14166
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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With most land speeders in the films/pdfs being rather thick, and most cargo ramps on ship schematics seeming to be a lot smaller, i've often wondered why MORE ships don't have side opening docking bays, that way you could have a ramp to load via a lift, and you can get in/out a land speeder..
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ForbinProject
Commander
Joined: 16 May 2016
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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Razalon FC-20
Craft: Razalon FC-20 Speeder Bike
Type: Speeder bike
Scale: Speeder
Length: 1.5 meters
Skill: Repulsorlift operation: speeder bike
Crew: 1
Cargo Capacity: 2 kilograms
Cover: 1/4
Altitude Range: Ground level-0.8 meters
Cost: 4,000 (new), 1,000 (used)
Maneuverability: 2D+2
Move: 60; 180 kmh
Body Strength: 2D
Note: Passive sound dampers dramatically reduce noise, adding +2D to the difficulty to detect the speeder bike by sound.
Source: Arms and Equipment Guide (page 75), The Dark Side Sourcebook (pages 61-62) |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16282
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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For a stock light freighter, where space is at a premium, the ideal vehicle would be something that can perform as many functions as possible, from heavy lifting to light transport...
I'm picturing something along the lines of a small forklift, repulsorlift driven, with switchable attachments. Want to load or unload cargo? Use the heavy grappling arms. Want to drive into town with a couple friends? Switch out the grappling arms for a bench seat across the front. Want to move some goods from the town to the spaceport? Replace the bench seat with a cargo box.
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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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Naaman
Vice Admiral
Joined: 29 Jul 2011
Posts: 3191
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| Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 4:32 pm Post subject: Re: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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| Straxus wrote: | I was thinking of giving my players a speeder to keep on board their freighter, in case they have to get around on a planet, and flying/landing with the ship is difficult. Originally I was thinking a pickup truck/van equivalent, or something like the one they use in Firefly, but when I started looking at vehicle stats I saw that most of them wouldn't even fit in the cargo hold. (The ship is about 30m)
So instead I'm giving them a small landspeeder, but now I'm beginning to question even that... What do you guys think? Would there be room for a speeder on a light freighter? To be specific, it's a Corellian XS-800 from "Stock Ships". |
In my OPINION, this is totally acceptable as a thing to just hand wave and allow.
A freighter is two scales larger than a speeder, and it's even much bigger than the "starfighters" that fall within the same scale group.
If we look at real world examples, cars are shipped across the ocean on freight ships all the time. There are even some cars that are transported by airplane. A C-17 could easily fit a car or pick up truck into its cargo area with plenty of room to spare for passengers or other cargo (going strictly by cubic volume, here: how the space is configured certainly plays a role).
Even "walker scale" tractors can pull 8 or so cars at a time on a carrier rack. I see no problem having a speeder bay inside a ship that is more or less the size of a house... it would be like having an attached 1-car garage.
If you are really concerned about sticking with the ship's layout, perhaps you could create a sort of trailer or cargo box that is designed to attach to the hull of the ship and the speeder can be transported in there. |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14166
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 12:05 am Post subject: Re: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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| Naaman wrote: |
If you are really concerned about sticking with the ship's layout, perhaps you could create a sort of trailer or cargo box that is designed to attach to the hull of the ship and the speeder can be transported in there. |
While an external box would work, it would also drag the ship's speed and maneuverability down, and cause it's external, it also makes it easier to Lose the speeder (the box gets hit and jettisoned).
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16282
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 1:18 am Post subject: Re: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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| garhkal wrote: | | While an external box would work, it would also drag the ship's speed and maneuverability down, and cause it's external, it also makes it easier to Lose the speeder (the box gets hit and jettisoned). |
Why would it drag the speed / maneuverability down? So long as it weighs less than the ship's maximum cargo capacity, and the box is properly secured.
The bigger issue, IMO (depending on what sort of campaign you are running) is how much the weight of the speeder would cut into the ship's usable cargo capacity.
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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.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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RyanDarkstar
Commander
Joined: 04 Dec 2014
Posts: 351
Location: Chambersburg, PA, USA, Earth
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:18 am Post subject: |
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If you go the route of Star Wars Rebels, the crew only needs speeder bikes as many of the cargo crates on the show have repulsors (should you allow such things in your game).
My personal favorite is the Undicur-class Jumpspeeder, which is collapsible and easily stowed aboard ship.
With such a small cargo footprint and at 3000 credits a piece, your PCs could probably afford at least two Jumpspeeders and a couple of repulsor cargo sleds to pull.
In games I've run, the players loved the freedom of piloting their own vehicles, since most don't want to be a passenger. It also gives the GM more opportunities to set up different obstacles, such as swoop gangs and Imperial patrols.
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Naaman
Vice Admiral
Joined: 29 Jul 2011
Posts: 3191
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: Speeder onboard a light freighter? |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Naaman wrote: |
If you are really concerned about sticking with the ship's layout, perhaps you could create a sort of trailer or cargo box that is designed to attach to the hull of the ship and the speeder can be transported in there. |
While an external box would work, it would also drag the ship's speed and maneuverability down, and cause it's external, it also makes it easier to Lose the speeder (the box gets hit and jettisoned). |
This is one of those things where the "rules" can make sense or not. For example, in the source book that details all the different engines that can be installed in ships (for players to modify their own ships... I forget which GG it is). Anyway, the engines and hyperdrives are rated as providing a certain amount of "space" movement without regard to which ship they are installed in (anything from a bulk freighter to light, sporty cruiser). The engine itself (and ONLY the engine), according to WEG, dictates how fast the ship is (regardless of it's total mass, for example, disregarding the thrust to weight ratio, etc).
In any case, I'm totally fine with a group of adventurers having a means by which to transport their speeders since SW is generally assumed to take place across not only various planets, but various star systems.
For a ship that has 50 metric tons of cargo capacity, a 1.5- or 2-ton speeder should (in my opinion) not be a problem, however the players and GM decide to make it work. |
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Ray
Commodore
Joined: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 1743
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, North America, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Sol, Western Arm, Milky Way
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| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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I'm reminded of the Mule from Firefly.
A speeder version of that for pulling repulsorlift trailers wouldn't be out of the ordinary at all. A wheeled version with a multi-option trailer hitch would be useful for Tramp Freighters, as it would likely be able to operate on planets where repulsorlifts aren't able to operate, and would be easier to maintain and cheaper to operate. |
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