Starship Components

Introduction

Many of these rules are derived originally from the guidelines published in Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters. However, these rules are significantly modified from the rules presented in that book. As a result of these modifications, these rules need to be playtested and revised to ensure they are reasonable.

Defensive Components

Hull Plating

Hull plating can be repaired or added to an existing craft to improve the Hull rating of the craft. To calculate the cost of the additional hull plating, multiple the ship's hull rating to be achieved (rounded down) by:

1. Speeder: 500 credits; 8 hours.
2. Starfighter: 1,000 credits; 16 hours.
3. Space Transport: 5,000 credits; 80 hours.
4. Capital Ship: 20,000 credits; 2,000 hours.

Each pip must be purchased separately. Adding the hull plating is relatively easy, requiring an Easy repair roll of the appropriate type.

For each pip of hull rating added to the ship, the maneuverability rating of the ship decreases by 1 pip. For each full die of hull rating added, the ship's Space speed also decreases by one step (due to the additional weight of the ship). Only 2D of hull plating can be added to a given ship by default; additional hull plating is at the GM's discretion.

Shields

All space-capable ships contain particle shields; without these shields, the ship would likely be destroyed by high-velocity particles within a relatively short period of time. Some ships also equip defensive shields, also known as ray shields, that protect them from blasters, lasers, and other energy weapons. Ships without ray shields are assumed to have 1D-rated particle shields, which are perfectly sufficient to deflect incoming micrometeorites. Ships will ray shields generally operate with 1D-rated particle shields active at all times, though their shield projectors are capable of generating particle shields of the same strength as their ray shields. Shield systems are made up of the following components:

1. Two or four shield coils that project ray shields out from the ship;
2. Four or eight particle field projectors that emit particle shields in lobes around the ship;
3. Two shield generators, one each for particle and ray shields; and
4. Two or more energy sinks, which absorb and dissipate the energy impinging upon the shields themselves.

Shield coils absorb feedback from the impact of weapons or particles on the shield itself. They are designed to overload and pop, saving the rest of the system (like a fuse). Coils are inexpensive and quick to replace as a result.

Starfighter Shields

Rating	Weight	Cost
1D	1.5 tons	4,000 credits
2D	2 tons	10,000 credits
3D	2.5 tons	25,000 credits
4D	3 tons	75,000 credits

Space Transport Shields

Rating	Weight	Cost
1D	6 tons	8,000 credits
2D	8 tons	20,000 credits
3D	10 tons	50,000 credits
4D	12 tons	150,000 credits
5D	15 tons	400,000 credits

Capital Shields

Rating	Weight	Cost
1D	60 tons	80,000 credits
2D	80 tons	200,000 credits
3D	100 tons	500,000 credits
4D	120 tons	1,500,000 credits
5D	150 tons	4,000,000 credits
6D	200 tons	10,000,000 credits

Repair Costs

Component	Cost %	Repair Difficulty	Repair Duration
Shield Coil	1%	Very Easy	2 rounds
Field Projector	10%	Easy	10 minutes
Shield Generator	75%	Moderate	2 hours
Energy Sink	15%	Moderate	1 hour

Engine Components

Components listed here affect vehicle speed, hyperspace transit times, and vehicle maneuverability. Both upgrades and system repair components are listed.

Ion Drives

Ion drives provide primary sublight spaceflight (and in-atmospheric flight, for atmospheric-capable ships). Ion drives consist of the following components:

• A powerplant used to generate the power required to propel the ship;
• One or more thruster coils, used to channel the thrust and keep the flow laminar and efficient;
• A flow controller computer, used to control the amount of power fed to the engine for smooth flight;
• One or more thruster actuators, used to control the engine bell shape and direction to maintain the desired flight profile; and
• One or more engine housings, shielded plating to contain the thruster output and deflect hard radiation from the crew compartment.

Though some ships do mount single engines, most starship manufacturers rely on multiple engines to keep costs down and improve ship reliability. Mounting two identical engines on a ship improves the space rating by 1 step; mounting four improves it by two steps; mounting 8 improves by 3. In practice, many starfighters mount 2 engines, and many space transports use 4, though there are exceptions. Capital ships often use larger clusters of engines, some mounting as many as 8 large engines. For simplicity's sake, assume that dissimilar engines use only the power rating of the largest-mounted engine(s). Clusters of more than 8 engines do not improve the speed of a vessel.

Engine scale matters considerably when discussing ion drives, since ion engines are essentially reaction drives, though they are highly-efficient reaction drives. For each jump in scale, add 3 steps to the effectiveness of the engine; for example, mounting a single capital-scale ion engine rated for Space 4 on a starfighter-scale ship grants a space rating of 10.

Starfighter-Scale Ion Drives

Atmosphere	Space	Weight	Cost
cell	1	2 tons	750 credits1
cell	2	2.5 tons	2,500 credits
cell	3	3 tons	5,000 credits
cell	4	4 tons	12,500 credits
cell	5	4.5 tons	25,000 credits
cell	6	6 tons	125,000 credits
cell	7	7 tons	250,000 credits
cell	8	8 tons	500,000 credits
cell	9	10 tons	750,000 credits
cell	10	12 tons	1,000,000 credits
cell	11	14 tons	1,250,000 credits
cell	12	16 tons	1,500,000 credits
cell	13	18 tons	2,000,000 credits
cell	14	20 tons	2,500,000 credits
cell	15	25 tons	3,000,000 credits
cell	16	30 tons	3,500,000 credits
cell	17	35 tons	4,000,000 credits
cell	18	40 tons	4,500,000 credits
cell	19	45 tons	5,000,000 credits
cell	20	50 tons	6,000,000 credits

Space Transport-Scale Ion Drives

Atmosphere	Space	Weight	Cost
cell	1	8 tons	3,000 credits
cell	2	10 tons	10,000 credits
cell	3	12 tons	20,000 credits
cell	4	16 tons	50,000 credits
cell	5	18 tons	100,000 credits
cell	6	24 tons	500,000 credits
cell	7	28 tons	1,000,000 credits
cell	8	32 tons	2,000,000 credits
cell	9	40 tons	3,000,000 credits
cell	10	48 tons	4,000,000 credits
cell	11	56 tons	5,000,000 credits
cell	12	64 tons	6,000,000 credits
cell	13	72 tons	8,000,000 credits
cell	14	80 tons	10,000,000 credits
cell	15	100 tons	15,000,000 credits

Capital-Scale Ion Drives

Atmosphere	Space	Weight	Cost
cell	1	40 tons	7,500 credits
cell	2	50 tons	25,000 credits
cell	3	60 tons	50,000 credits
cell	4	80 tons	125,000 credits
cell	5	90 tons	250,000 credits
cell	6	120 tons	1,250,000 credits
cell	7	140 tons	2,500,000 credits
cell	8	160 tons	5,000,000 credits
cell	9	200 tons	7,500,000 credits
cell	10	250 tons	10,000,000 credits

Repair Cost

Component	Cost %	Repair Difficulty	Repair Duration
Powerplant	95%	Very Difficult	200 hours
Thruster Coil	1%	Easy	1 hour
Flow Controller	5%	Moderate	2 hours
Thruster Actuators	2%	Very Difficult	4 hours
Shielding	2%	Moderate	40 hours

Ship's engines require annual overhauls costing 1% of the base engine cost and requiring a base 10 hours of work. Failure to perform the overhaul introduces gremlins to the engine until the engine can be overhauled and repaired (doubling the cost of the overhaul).

Upgrade Cost

Ion drives may be upgraded up to double their base speed value by running the engine hotter than recommended. For each increase in speed desired, roll the appropriate repair skill at a base Moderate difficulty; 5 successes are needed. Each additional step beyond the base rating of the engine adds +10 to the difficulty of the modification. Each step in speed requires components costing 5% of the base engine cost for the desired speed rating and requires a base 40 hours of work. Any failed rolls or mishaps during this time introduce gremlins to the engines (specifics left to the GM).

Example Gremlins

TODO example gremlins for Ion Drives

Maneuvering Thrusters

Maneuverability repairs and upgrades use the same system, since any damage to a ship's maneuverability results in loss of maneuverability dice. When repairing a ship using purchased components built for that type of ship, the repair roll difficulty is reduced to Moderate and the cost is reduced by half.

To increase a ship's maneuverability by one pip (or from 0D to 1D), multiple the ship's hull rating by the die of maneuverability to be achieved, both rounded down. This gives you a cost multiplier. Multiply this by the following value to determine the cost and duration of the resulting modification:

1. Speeder Scale: 100 credits, 8 hours
2. Starfighter Scale: 500 credits, 8 hours
3. Space Transport Scale: 1,000 credits, 20 hours
4. Capital Scale: 10,000 credits, 100 hours

Improving maneuverability requires a Difficult repair check, and each pip must be purchased and installed separately. The maximum maneuverability for a given ship is 3D higher than the base maneuverability rating for that ship type. Failures and mishaps during the upgrade process result in gremlins, the details of which are at the GM's discretion.

Example Gremlins

TODO example gremlins for Maneuvering Thrusters

Hyperdrives

A full hyperdrive unit allows the vehicle in question to transit hyperspace, travelling between solar systems. Hyperdrive units are available in three scales: Starfighter, Space Transport, and Capital. Though a larger hyperdrive can be placed in a smaller vessel (taking up a considerable amount of space in the process), this provides no mechanical benefit; a larger hyperdrive only allows for the controlled movement of more tonnage through hyperspace, not for faster transit speeds.

Hyperdrive components are listed separately here as well. In general, a hyperdrive unit consists of:

• A motivator, which modulates the field that pushes the ship into and through hyperspace;
• 2 to 4 field generator coils, which project the hyperspace field around the ship;
• A mass detector array, which scans for mass shadows in hyperspace along the transit path of the ship; and
• A mass detector interrupt, which cuts in to collapse the hyperspace field if a mass shadow is detected in the path of transit.

Starfighter-Scale Hyperdrives

Multiplier	Weight	Cost
x1/4	as base	N/A2
x1/2	as base	N/A
x1	9 tons	30,000 credits3
x2	7.5 tons	20,000 credits
x3	6 tons	14,000 credits
x4	5 tons	10,000 credits
x5	4 tons	8,500 credits
x6	3.5 tons	7,500 credits
x8	2.5 tons	7,000 credits
x10	2 tons	6,000 credits
x12	1.5 tons	5,000 credits
x14	1.2 tons	4,000 credits
x15	1 ton	3,000 credits
x18	500 kg	2,000 credits
x20	250 kg	1,000 credits
x25	50 kg	500 credits

Space Transport-Scale Hyperdrives

Multiplier	Weight	Cost
x1/4	as base	N/A
x1/2	as base	N/A
x1	18 tons	60,000 credits
x2	15 tons	40,000 credits
x3	12 tons	30,000 credits
x4	10 tons	20,000 credits
x5	8 tons	17,500 credits
x6	7 tons	15,000 credits
x8	5 tons	14,000 credits
x10	4 tons	12,000 credits
x12	3 tons	10,000 credits
x14	2.5 tons	8,000 credits
x15	2 tons	6,000 credits
x18	1 ton	4,000 credits
x20	500 kg	2,000 credits
x25	100 kg	1,000 credits

Capital-Scale Hyperdrives

Multiplier	Weight	Cost
x1/4	as base	N/A
x1/2	as base	N/A
x1	180 tons	600,000 credits
x2	150 tons	400,000 credits
x3	120 tons	300,000 credits
x4	100 tons	200,000 credits
x5	80 tons	175,000 credits
x6	70 tons	150,000 credits
x8	50 tons	140,000 credits
x10	40 tons	120,000 credits
x12	30 tons	100,000 credits
x14	25 tons	80,000 credits
x15	20 tons	60,000 credits
x18	10 tons	40,000 credits
x20	5 tons	20,000 credits
x25	1 ton	10,000 credits

Repair Cost

Component	Cost %	Repair Difficulty	Repair Duration
Hyperdrive Motivator	75%	Difficult	40 hours
Field Coil	5%	Easy	1 hour
Mass Detector Array	25%	Moderate	10 hours
Mass Interrupt	10%	Difficult	4 hours

Upgrade Cost

Hyperdrives may be upgraded up to 2 steps from their base level. Performing these upgrades requires custom-treating the motivator and coils to withstand higher energies during transit. This requires a shop environment and takes a base of 200 hours of work for the first step (e.g., x2 to x1). To succeed, you must make 5 Heroic repair rolls. For each missed roll, the modified hyperdrive acquires a gremlin (at the GM's discretion); any mishaps also grant the hyperdrive a gremlin. Hyperdrives modified below x1 automatically gain one gremlin per step. For the second step of modification, the base duration and number of rolls required are doubled, and all rolls are at +10 difficulty. To attempt each step costs 25% of the base value of the hyperdrive (for component modification).

If an upgraded hyperdrive is damaged, you will need to either acquire modified parts or modify the replacement parts to work with your modified hyperdrive unit. Modifying the part in place doubles the base repair duration and adds a +10 to the repair difficulty.

Example Gremlins

TODO example gremlins for Hyperdrives

Repulsors

TODO repair and replacement costs for various repulsor systems, including speeder-grade repulsorlifts and repulsor control units

Electronics

Ships contain a wide variety of electronic components, from personal entertainment devices to shipboard health monitoring servers to military hardware.

Sensors

Main sensors: Ratings bought separately. 500/unit passive; 1,000/unit scan, max 2.5x passive; 1,500/unit search, max 2.5 scan; 5,000/unit focus, max 1/4 passive. Tonnage based on passive, requiring 100 kg/unit.

Fire Control sensors: 1,000/1D; 4,000/2D; 9,000/3D; 16,000/4D; 25,000/5D (guns only). Cost of fire control for missiles is built into cost of missile system.

Sensor Jammers

Weapons Jammers: penalty to opponent's Fire Control; 10,000/1D, no higher ratings available
Sensor Cloaks: interferes with opponent's Sensors; 15,000/1D; 40,000/2D
Communications Jammer: floods comm waves with interference; range 20, 10,000/die interference, max 5D; +1,000/unit range, max 150. Base mass 1 ton/10 range and multiply by number of dice.
False Transponder Code: 15,000, highly variable due to black market nature
Deployable sensor decoy ("chaff"): 1,500 each for passive; see also Copycat Pod for active decoy, 10,000.

Communications Arrays

Hyperway Signal Interceptor: 2,000
Signal Crytoprocessor: 20,000/1D; 50,000/2D; 150,000/3D
HoloNet Node: 150,000, 10 tons
Standard Communications Array: 500
High-Power Communications Array: 2,500; broadcasts through interference much better (compensates for 2D of interference)
Encryption: +500/1D, +1,500/2D, +7,500/3D

Other Electronics

Navicomp: 500/single jump, 2,500/10 jump, 5,000/20 jump
Crystal Gravfield Traps: May detect incoming hyperspace signatures 1D rounds before ships appear; 3,000 credits

Weapons

Basic Weaponry

Weapon	Scale	FC	Dmg	Atmo	Space	Weight	Cost
Turbolaser Battery	Capital	3D	xD	xx	xx	35 tons	100,000 credits
Mini-tractor	Starfighter	2D	4D	xx	xx	3 tons	8,000 credits
Tractor Beam Emitter	Capital	2D	5D	xx	xx	15 tons	24,000 credits
Heavy Turbolaser	Capital	3D	xD	xx	xx	16 tons	40,000 credits
Light Laser Cannon	Starfighter	2D	3D	100-300/1.2/2.5	1-3/12/25	1 ton	750 credits
Laser Cannon	Starfighter	2D	4D	100-300/1.2/2.5	1-3/12/25	2 tons	1,500 credits
Heavy Laser Cannon	Starfighter	3D	5D	100-300/1.2/2.5	1-3/12/25	4 tons	4,000 credits
Turbolaser	Capital	3D	xD	xx	xx	10 tons	20,000 credits
Light Ion Cannon	Starfighter	2D	3D	100-300/700/3.6km	1-3/7/36	500 kg	3,000 credits
Ion Cannon	Starfighter	2D	4D	100-300/700/3.6km	1-3/7/36	1 ton	4,500 credits
Heavy Ion Cannon	Starfighter	2D	5D	100-300/700/3.6km	1-3/7/36	2 tons	6,000 credits
Proton Torpedo Launcher	Starfighter	2D	N/A	N/A	N/A	2 tons4	5,000 credits
Proton Torpedo	Starfighter	N/A	9D	50-100/300/700	1/3/7	4/launcher	2,500 credits
Concussion Missile Launcher	Starfighter	2D	N/A	N/A	N/A	2 tons5	4,500 credits
Concussion Missile	Starfighter	N/A	8D	50-100/300/700	1/3/7	6/launcher	1,500 credits
Proton Bomb Launcher	Capital	xD	xD	xx	xx	4 tons6	7,500 credits
Proton Bomb7	Capital	xD	xD	xx	xx	4/launcher	4,000 credits
Blaster Cannon	Speeder	xD	xD	xx	xx	200 kg	750 credits
Repeating Blaster Cannon	Speeder	xD	xD	xx	xx	500 kg	1,500 credits
Brushfire System8	Speeder	xD	xD	xx	xx	1 ton	3,000 credits
Plasma cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Rail gun	Capital	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Meson cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Magnetic grapple lines	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Fuel-Air Missiles	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Tank Cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Artillery Cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Plasma Artillery Cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Flamethrower	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Mortar	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Gatling Cannon	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Heavy Machine Gun	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Light Machine Gun	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
HiX Missiles	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Plasma Torch	Capital	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits
Laser Cutting Torch	xx	xD	xD	xx	xx	xx kg	xx credits

TODO writeups for ballistics (Vulcans, artillery), simple missile types, plasma weaponry, mass drivers, mines and mine launchers

Special Weaponry

Gravity well projector: hugely capital scale, prevents hyperspace jumps w/in certain radius, massive warmup time
Anti-missile systems: close-in lasers with droidbrain targeting and firing capabilities; sized for capital ships; only somewhat effective

Weapon Modifications

Fire links: 250 credits per weapon linked in group
Mini-turret: holds up to 4 tons of weaponry; weight 5 tons; 1,000 credits
Turret: holds up to 16 tons of weaponry; weight 20 tons; 5,000 credits
Battery: capital turret, holds up to 100 tons of weaponry; weight 120 tons; 40,000 credits
Retractable mini-turret: holds up to 2 tons of weaponry; weight 4 tons; 5,000 credits
Retractable turret: holds up to 4 tons of weaponry; weight 8 tons; 10,000 credits
Hidden weapon: thin false hull plates cover weapon opening, concealing weapon from view until fired; adds 200 kg, 250 credits

Pylon Rules

TODO summarize rules for external stores; pylon size, capacities; non-weapon stores

Example Gremlins

TODO write up example gremlins for weapons systems

Special Equipment

Solar Converter: 12,000/10 tons
Concealed cargo compartment: 200/ton, detectable by Moderate search
Hidden cargo compartment: 500/ton, detectable by Very Difficult search
Scanner-resistant cargo compartment (adds to concealed/hidden): 2,000/ton
Automatic Cargo Jettison: 1,000/compartment; 1 ton of equipment required
Passenger conversion: 2,400+/person; requires 1 ton/person basic, 10 tons/person fancy
Refrigeration equipment: 1,200/ton converted
Environmental converters (methane atmosphere, etc): 4,000/ton converted
Magnetic coupler: 1,000/docking ring
Liquid storage modification: 500/ton converted
Airlock: 5,000; requires 2 tons cargo space
External Cargo Sling: remote-controlled reinforced netting attaches to magnetic couplers on exterior of ship, requiring at least 2 couplers; adds hull x20 tons of cargo capacity (exposed to vacuum) at 1/2 speed, no atmospheric entry permitted, +15 hyperspace roll or lose cargo; 10,000 for sling unit.

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• Star Wars RPG (WEG)

Footnotes

1. Used Ion Engines can usually be found for 25% to 75% of the "new" cost, though they will generally have gremlins (particularly those on the low-cost end of the scale).

2. Hyperdrives with a multiplier of less than 1 are always custom-built jobs built on a x1 or a x2 hyperdrive. These units always have at least 1D gremlins, the specifics of which are at the GM's discretion. No hyperdrive yet manufactured can fully withstand the energies required for <1 transit durations.

3. Used hyperdrives can be found for 10% to 70% of the "new" price, though they will generally have gremlins (particularly for the less expensive units).

4. For each additional ton allocated, a Proton Torpedo Launcher can hold an additional 4 torpedos.

5. For each additional ton allocated, a Concussion Missile Launcher can hold an additional 6 missiles.

6. For each additional ton allocated, a Proton Bomb Launcher can hold an additional 2 bombs.

7. A Proton Bomb dropped in atmosphere has an area of effect of roughly 1 square kilometer; in space, the area of effect is only 100 square meters.

8. The Brushfire system is a fire-linked array of 12 repeating blasters that walks fire over an area of effect of 5m x 5m per shot. I discovered the original description of the Brushfire system in some old paper notes, and I do not know the original source; it was likely found online circa 1995.