New ships from old

Copyright 1985© By Stefan Jones

A frequent complaint about FGU’s SPACE OPERA game is the lack of variety in the ships produced by the game’s starship design system. Because the armaments, armor, and engines of the various ship sizes are rather rigidly set, such diverse ship types as merchant vessels and warcraft tend to resemble one another. The following rules are an attempt to expand the ship design system and, consequently, to increase the variety of ships possible.

The ship attributes are given for ships of roughly cylindrical layout. This configuration is a compromise between defense (the less surface area, the smaller the ship’s profile and tighter the structure) and offense (the more surface area, the more guns can be mounted safely). By changing the shape of a vessel, it can be tailored to various needs. The following basic configurations are possible:

Cylindrical: The standard design.

No. weapons × 1

Armor cost × 1

Hull cost × 1

Critical hits 1136 per penetration.

Hard points limited in field of fire.

Spherical: A sphere or thick disk shape.

No. weapons × .75; +1 level to NG Main battery size allowed.

Armor cost × .75

Hull cost × .9

Critical hits 1/72 per penetration.

Hardpoints and main batteries limited in field of fire.

Slab: An oblong tablet shape.

No. weapons × 1.5

Armor cost × 2

Hull cost × 1.1

Critical hits 2/36 per penetration.

Hardpoints limited in field of fire.

Modular: Open modules linked by bracing and access ways.

No. weapons × 2; -1 level to maximum

NG battery size; no megabolt turrets allowed.

Armor cost: No armor over base armor rating allowed.

Hull cost × .85

Critical hits 1/12 per penetration.

No limits to field of fire.

Open cargo holds option (see below).

Explanation of terms

No. weapons: The number of weapons of a particular type carried by a standard cylindrical ship is multiplied by this number to get the number of weapons that may be mounted on the variant ship type (round fractional results up). Additional crew may be required to man the guns and missile launchers if more guns are carried than on the basic cylindrical design.

Armor cost: The cost of armor added to the standard ship type is multiplied by this number to get the cost of the armor for the variant ship type. The volume of armor mounted on the variant ship type is also increased by this number. Note that the modular configuration doesn’t allow additional armor to be added.

Critical hits: In the SPACE OPERA game rules, each penetrating hit has a 1/36 chance of causing a critical hit. Ships of spherical design are less exposed to damage by fire and thus have a smaller chance of suffering a critical hit. Conversely, the loosely-built modular configuration exposes more components to damage and thus has a greater chance of suffering a critical blow.

Field of fire restrictions: A weapon which is restricted in field of fire must be specified as firing to either port or starboard. Note that any weapon can fire straight forward or aft.

Open cargo holds: These are semi-permanent cargo holds that are mounted on the outsides of the modules of modular-design ships. They are made of flexible or collapsible plastic, and are covered with a metallic mesh that allows the TISA and FTL drive fields to flow over the break in the ship’s hull.

When designing a ship with modular design, any or all of the existing cargo holds may be built with such an extension outside of the hull; the extension may be up to the interior hold’s volume in size, and costs .01 MCR per ton per cubic meter in capacity. The extension may hold cargo as normal, but it is not counted in the volume of the ship. If the mass of cargo carried is greater than 20% over normal hold limits, the TISA speed will be decreased proportionally. Lastly, open cargo holds are very vulnerable to damage; each penetrating turret has a 1/16 chance of destroying each open hold not retracted into the «parent» cargo hold (both must be empty to do this).

Weapons listed in the rules are assumed to be the largest possible for any given ship size. These may always be exchanged for smaller sizes of guns, but there are severe limits on switching smaller guns for larger weapons. Main batteries: Any ship may install main NovaGun batteries one size larger than usual, for triple the cost of the new weapons.

Hardpoints: Ships may not install secondary batteries larger than allowed.

Type changes: Entire turrets may be removed to make room for other types of weaponry on ships larger than 25,000 tons. A MegaBolt Torpedo launcher may be removed to make room for two main batteries with a maximum size of one size smaller than normally allowed, or another full set of StarTorpedo launchers (equal to the number already carried), or four hardpoints. A main battery may be eliminated to make room for one additional StarTorpedo launcher or two hardpoints. A StarTorpedo launcher may be eliminated to make room for two additional hardpoints.

The power plants listed are assumed to be the standard sizes for a ship of the given size. It is possible to install smaller reactors; larger plants may also be installed, and must be if the guns on the spacecraft are larger than average. Smaller plants may be installed on ships that have TISA and FTL drives that are less than half the maximum size, or which have a combined NovaGun/Mega- Bolt caliber (total the caliber of all the guns carried) less than 50% of the normal maximum. If both the drives and guns are smaller than the values given above, the plant may be half the listed size and cost. If only one of the conditions applies, the plant may be 75% of the listed size.

Larger plants generally are only installed to power a larger-than-normal complement of weaponry. If the combined NovaGun/MegaBolt caliber is larger than 150% of the normal armament, the power plant must be twice the listed size and cost. If greater than 200% normal caliber, a drive three times larger than normal is necessary. Note that StarTorp weaponry is not affected by power-plant size; these weapons use little power, at least in relation to the power-hungry NovaGuns.

Note that larger or smaller power plants will affect the total engineering crew needed and the number of fuel units consumed per 20 days.

The above rules should come in handy when designing those special ships you need in role-playing and miniatures gaming. Naval vessels in particular will benefit from using the above. Some examples follow.

Carrier: This is a very large spherical ship with a large complement of Star- Fighters. The MegaBolt Torpedo turret is replaced with a set of StarTorp launchers, and some of the main batteries may be traded in for hardpoints. The emphasis is on defensive rather than offensive weaponry, in keeping with the ship’s purpose and nature.

BattleCruiser: Built for high speed and heavy firepower, the BattleCruiser is based on the slab configuration. The additional turrets are often of largerthan- normal caliber, while armor is sacrificed for TISA manoeuvrability. Freighter: This is a huge bulk carrier built for utility rather than performance. It is constructed along the cheap modular format, which also allows it to use open cargo holds. Since it will only be carrying small guns and will travel at slow speeds, a freighter can carry a small power plant and gunnery crew.

Such a ship should stick to well-traveled space, as it would be doomed in the face of stiff opposition. More information on creating large ships can be found in «Big Ships for Space Opera,» by Stefan Jones, The Space Gamer, issue #51.

Rocket engines are to TISA drives as row boats are to jet-powered hydrofoils, but reaction drives are still used when lifting a ship into planetary orbit or flying in an atmosphere. All ships have reaction drives, but they will have little gaming application. If a situation arises when reaction drives are to be used (such as a battle with primitive spacecraft when the players’ TISA drive is shot), use the rules below.

Reaction drives take up about 5% of the TISA drives’ volume. When designing ships, at least this portion of the TISA drive must be adjacent to the hull to allow the reaction drive to work. A reaction drive will have a maximum acceleration equal to the following formula:

Example: A Meteor Miner has a TISA rating of 50 LS. If built on an average tech-level-9 world, it would have an acceleration of (9) × (50/100) = 4.5 Gs.

Reaction drives consume fuel quickly. The amount of fuel used in one day is equal to: (1/20) × (normal fuel consumption/ 20 days) × (acceleration used). The Meteor Miner would use (.125) × (4.5) = .5625 fuel units per day. This figure is for advanced drives, not primitive chemical motors.

Below is a very rough outline of the spacecraft technology available at the various tech levels.

Tech 5: Only primitive chemical reaction drives available. In the normal SPACE OPERA combat system, such ships are virtually stationary. Weaponry consists of crude lasers and machine guns.

Tech 6: Gaseous fission and early fusion drives are available; such ships can be designed by the SPACE OPERA system, but will not have TISA drive capability (not to mention FTL drives). The reaction drives themselves are equal in size to a TISA unit with the same reaction-drive capacity. The excess volume is occupied by working fluid, which must be replaced every (10/acceleration in gees) days.

Tech 7: TISA drives become available. AMC power plants are not available, and fusion power plants cost twice normal prices. The maximum TISA velocity is ½ normal maximum given in the SPACE OPERA rules. FTL technology and battle screens developed.

Tech 8: Fusion drives and power plants common. AMC power plants are available but cost twice the normal amounts.

Tech 9: AMC technology perfected; reaction drives are powered by antimatter- accelerated particles.

Tech 10: Powerful gravity drives perfected, fission drives are half price.

Tech 11: Refinement of all above developments.

The above guidelines should help when designing unique, low-tech spacecraft. Gamers familiar with Orion nuclear drives and Bussard ramjets should feel free to use these and other «oddball» developments for races or cultures that never developed TISA and FTL capability. Battles involving ships using reaction drives may be fought using a vector-movement system. The Ground and Air Equipment booklet may be used to resolve battle situations with primitive laser and blaster armament; these weapons have their ranges multiplied by a factor of thousands in space, with H counted as 10000 km.

To show the effects of internal arrangements which protect the vital functions of any space battle, roll two d20 when rolling for battle damage, and use the higher number. If the ship designer wishes, the components may be arranged differently on the chart, but the items on results 12-20 should be left as is.

An option to the above system allows a PC who makes a critical hit to roll only one d20 for damage. Those gamers who really believe in the power of the PC can roll 2d20 and use the lower of the two results in damage determination. A little imagination and work can add a lot to a rigid system like the SPACE OPERA ship design rules. Game referees should feel free, nay, obligated, to try out new ideas and methods of play.

Comments on the above article may be sent to the author.