Ultimate Spacecraft

[Asperion]

With the great abundance and variation of spacecraft that exists in the different scifi stories,  games,  and other methods that people have to entertain each other, they have developed many different abilities,  styles,  functions,  features,  and other elements.  Due to the extensive list,  I will not attempt to make a list and allow everyone to mention their preferred craft and give the reason for it. The only requirement that they must share is that they allow reasonable transport from one planet to another. Weapons,  armor,  FTL, sensors,  and other abilities will all be special features unique to the vehicle and system and need to be described. 

[Duke Bushido]

You know, it's really, _really_ funny that you asked this question!

 

I was telling Chris Goodwin just a couple of nights ago about that very thing: memories of my favorite starship.

 

And because just earlier today I sword to lay off the Traveller references, so now I'm hesitant to talk about the ol' Glassie!   

 

 

 

[Chris Goodwin]

Everyone deserves to hear this story!  😁

[Duke Bushido]

Let me tell you about The Glassie....

 

 

 

As everyone here knows, I started in RPGs with a group that alternated between Traveller and Tunnels and Trolls.  So yes: I played a bit of T and T, too, but mostly I was in the group of folks that showed up for Traveller.  I _loved_ Traveller!  I was still hard in my "I can't believe this wonderful thing that you can do with dice!" phase, and I am a sci-fi junkie; Traveller was perfect for me.

 

I participated in two or three campaigns, during which time the group swelled up to... I seem to think there were a dozen or so, but only about six that played in both games.  By the time of the Glassie, we had eight regular players for Traveller and it seemed that every couple of weeks there was a new face who wanted to "try it out" for a session or two.

 

 

Anyway, we were preparing for another campaign-- the third or fourth since I had joined the group.  The GM had worked up some background stuff, but he also wanted to use some of the "great new stuff that was coming out"-- the Mercenary book, High Guard, etc.  This was all very exciting to us-- "new character classes!" to use the vernacular of the day (because everything was colored by D&D back then.  It was hard to shake terms like "character class" and "level," etc.)

 

At any rate, we were doing character creation-- the lot of us: the eight Traveller regulars plus a new guy (who stayed for about four months, if I recall.  I think we lost him to a military PCS, but it's been a long time ago).  Anyway, during the Mustering Out portion of play, one of us _immediately_ rolled "Ship."

 

Now I am sure you remember how that works: if you roll "ship," you are given a ship that is 10-25 years old and 1/4 paid for.  If you hit it twice, add 10-25 years to the age and another 1/4 to the "portion paid for" column.   If you are very lucky, you can walk away with a forty (or one hundred)-year old ship that is entirely paid for.  Then, someone else rolled "ship."  Right away, this lead to a conversation:

"Can I add _my_ result to his?"

 

GM: What do you mean?

 

Can we co-own the ship, kind of?

What?
Okay, so he has a ship that is 20 years old and a quarter paid for.  I am in the same service, and I rolled "ship."  Suppose we served together, and we're mustering out together, and they are giving _us_ a ship, instead of one ship to each of us?

The GM  was surprisingly intrigued, but at this point he knew us extremely well, so he remained very, _very_ wary....  But we could see the wheels turning..... 

 

Finally, he capitulated: Okay, but it's going to be 30-40 years old, and you still owe 50 percent on it....

 

It seems he didn't know us well enough, however.  As soon as he passed his ruling, it began.  From the first guy to roll "Ship:"  How about we get a bigger ship?

You can't do that--

 

No-no-no; hear me out.  They are talking about an x-size ship (I don't remember, but I _think_ it was a 200 or 400 ton ship; it was bigger than the 100 ton scout ship).  How about we get a ship that's big enough for all of us, and we apply the "ship" to that, but there's more left to pay off?  Even if it has to be older or something; it would be cool to have a campaign where we actually owned the ship instead of hiring on or buying passages all the time--!

 

This was true: it _would_ be kind of cool!  It would also be super convenient for the GM-- the temptation was _visible_, even through his poker face.  He thought long and hard about it-- I mean _really_ hard.  We all sat there, almost unto boredom.  Twenty soundless moments later, he agreed.  He would agree that the first ship could be either 40 years old and half paid off, or a ship of twice the tonnage, 20 years old, and 1/4 paid off.

 

We were _delighted_ at the idea of that!  Awesome!  And 800-ton ship!  Super-cool!  Incredible!  This is going to be the greatest campaign _ever_!!!!!

 

Oooohhhh, but that's going to be a lot of money to have to earn regularly...  Not just the _Payments_, but the fuel, too....  We want _adventure_, not commerce!  Suppose....  I don't know-- suppose we make it 20 years older and we apply my benefit  (A third guy had rolled "ship), and say it's half paid for?
Two-thirds paid for.
Okay; cool.
But it's Sixty years old!
All right; we can live with that.

It was the beginning of the end.  We smelled blood in the water, and suddenly we kind of wanted to know just how far we could go with this.....

 

 

--Suppose it's a decommissioned ship that's not going to be replaced because it's like a discontinued model line or something, and and and and and and...

 

It doesn't help that between the eight of us, "ship" was rolled eleven times on the mustering out charts  (No cheating, but a House Rule got horribly, _horribly_ abused once we'd gotten the agreement to let the first three "Ship" results combine to a single ship     ).

We _all_ piled in......

And, four hours later, we had a ship, free and clear!

She was one-hundred and sixty ( maybe a hundred and sixty?) years old and 1200 tons of adventure-enabling device!  (if you're saying "there were no rules for anything over a thousand tons in the LBBs, you are _correct_!  But once Lars (the GM) had established a rough sliding scale of age / tonnage / payments, it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.....

 

Never create a mechanic!  Never!  If you create a mechanic, anyone can use it, and you've made it that much more "mean GM" to say 'no.'     

 

 

The agreements got so very awful....  The GM made us surrender _all_ money benefits that were rolled, but we had a ship!  By the time it was all over, and this ship was so sad.  According to the GM when we met mid-week, it took him two hours after we left to figure out just how he was going to meet all the requirements of the bargain (and cobble some rules for 1200 tons), and he admitted that he came very close to saying "screw you guys; you get what you rolled, now start selling or paying for it!"

Fortunately, he persevered!

 

 

And we ended up with a ship.   He had to fudge some things, and typically when we came up short, he made it up by increasing the age and dropping the condition of the ship.  We ended up with a ship so bizarre and so old that he had to work it into the backstory! 

 

 

Eight parsecs off of a main trade route there existed a "chain" of systems, all Jump 2 from each other.  Both "ends" of the chain were eight parsecs from "civilization," but this zone of habitable worlds (referred to as "The Chain;"  I hope I didn't ruin the surprise) had been colonized a couple centuries before, but all of them were pristine and beautiful, and The Chain was something of a tourist attraction for the mega-rich.

 

Alas, a trade of nothing but yachts and high-end liners meant lots of rich people relatively undefended at least two jumps from civilization.  Piracy began in earnest.  Not too long after that, valuable ores were discovered on one of the worlds of The Chain, and suddenly megacorporations began pouring in and buying and building and mining and doing all kinds of things that no one in the Chain actually wanted---

 

System Defense boats weren't much good against the resources that a mega corp could pile in, but eventually it came to a war.  Seeing the end of their way of life, even the pirates pitched in with the locals, and fighting began in earnest.  The military from the established Confederation (remember: no Third Imperium at this point, and even when it began to dribble out, it's not like we could really afford to keep up with it) didn't have any interest in getting involved because what good were fissionables that so many jumps away when they could be had much closer to home?

 

Soon the corps were sending in militarized ships and _troops_ to "assist" the locals with defense and securing their ground locations (which were being secured against the corps, but the corps were fighting to essentially steal large chunks of the settled continent).

 

Now let's back up a bit.

 

To make everything work and stay within the "pricepoint" allowed, the ship was not streamlined.  This ship was an "airframe."  We weren't entirely certain what this meant.  Finally we figured out "like the Eagles on Space: 1999.  Okay; that's fine.  Didin't see that coming, but we'll work with it!"

 

Well, it's not _technically_ an airframe; it just.... it kind of counts as one.

 

Uh....  Well, since we're not seeing any kind of difference, we're still pretty okay with it.

 

Let me continue; the ship is pretty rough.

 

Okay; we're all pretty jazzed to be learning about our ship!  You go right ahead, Bubba!

 

Before the war-- oh, the war has finally ended, just recently.  That is the military event from which you are retiring, which is why you are all here, together.  You will like that because of how much it helps me."

 

Again: sure!  Now tell us more about our glorious, glorious gigantic ship!

 

Okay, prior to the war-- just before the war started, an SDS managed to catch a pirate vessel tethered to a luxury liner in mid-space.  They attacked, and the pirate ship was badly damaged!  The pirates forced everyone on the liner onto the pirate ship, and they escaped in the liner, which was fueled to jump, and the SDS could not follow.

 

So... we're getting a pirate ship?  With _guns_?!  Sweet!

 

Please let me finish.

 

The pirates of course kept their prize-- the luxury liner, but they had no real need for a flying hotel, so they began to add hardpoints and to rip out bulkheads they did not need, and make many sturdy but unprofessional changes to the boat.

 

okay, but what about the pirate boat?

 

This is the pirate boat; their old boat was captured.  This converted liner became their new home, and when the war came, it was the single biggest ship the Chain had operating in its defense.  Alas, her Maneuver Drive is not too fast, in spite of being pushed up by the pirates (maneuver 2), but she has tankage for three Jump 2.

 

Why does this matter?

 

This ship lead many valiant defenses against corporate aggressors, and even launched raids on moon stations, taking out much equipment and many ships.   Alas, she was attacked many times, and very easy to hit because she was so big and so slow.

 

How did she become an asset to the defense, then?

 

She was very hard to destroy.  She has been holed many times, but doing so has done nothing but expose empty staterooms and cargo holds to space.   The swimming pool water was sucked out into space with the air.  No matter where she was targeted, there were seldom vital parts hit.  (I can vouch for that: we took a complete through-and-through in one battle.  Absolutely nothing vital was damaged.  HA!)

 

large portions of her hull have been torn and peeled away, but her frame is still sturdy, and if you have enough cables and nets, you can keep the cargo completely inside.  This is why she is qualified now as an airframe.

 

Wait... what-- what are you saying?

 

 

Your troop-- your characters-- were distinguished warriors in the fight against the corporations, even taking part in the final charge to seize the last moonbase.  This is why you, as a group, have been rewarded with a ship of your own upon your retirement, and why you were given a massive ship that could accommodate and possibly provide for all of you a future.  However, you were also known for your constant insubordination and disregard for orders, and doing things "your own way."  Your superiors would not dream of refusing to give you a ship, as it is by long-established tradition, your right as retiring war veterans with such distinguished careers.  But just to show you their appreciation for all you have put them through, they have decided to award you one of the captured pirate ships you helped to liberate from the salvage port on this remote moon.  Congratulations, Soldiers.  Enjoy your retirement.

 

And then he went on at great length, taking a delighted pleasure in describing the ship and its condition-- how it was "sort of bent just a bit, probably because of the removed stanchion to make room for the missile launcher and the missile that was used to target it"  and "the bridge is fine, but you should not move from location to location without having a suit handy.  When passing through any bulkhead, you must roll a die.  If it is six, the the life support or the gravity is not functioning in this area; roll odd or even to determine which, and it must be repaired before it will work again.  If it is gravity, high number is no gravity; low number is too much gravity.  There are four staterooms scattered about that have reliable life support, so you don't have to worry unless you are leaving it.  If you wish to use the kitchen or the fresher, you must roll a die.  If you roll an even number, then it works.  Otherwise, it will need to be repaired.  There is a fresher behind the bridge that works reliably; there is no kitchen that works reliably, so you should have many canned goods available--

 

at this point, one of the guys wants to kind of move things along, a little tired of hearing how horrible this ship actually is.  As we are supposed to be observing the ship from an observation deck, looking down on the ship where it was moved in preparation for salvage just before being "liberated," he points and asks, in character "What about that golden area along the center of the roof there?  Is that laser damage?  Reflective armor?--"

 

Without missing the slightest bit of rhythm, Lars interrupts with "that is the linoleum of the floor beneath, I am certain."  (Lars spoke english beautifully, but with odd mannerisms that let you know it wasn't his first language). 

 

Linoleum?!

 

Congoleum, I am certain.  It is a very quality brand to still be available a thousand years from now, of course.  But it is yellow and ugly because it has been too close to the sun so many times.

 

What about weapons?  What sort of weapons do we have?

 

There are no weapons.  There are four hardpoints that were installed by the pirates, and they are all non-standard because this ship is a luxury hotel and not a navy vessel, and had no hardpoints.  The corporation has already removed the guns and used them to repair their own ships. 

 

 

 

And on and on....

 

Finally, done with "making sure we understand that we asked for this."  he changes characters.

 

"There she is, Captain (the guy who rolled "Ship" three times was defaulted to captain).  There's your ship.  _Enjoy_...." he sneered.

 

She's not the prettiest ship in the sky, is she?

 

No.  No, she is quite possibly the most miraculously ugly thing ever to fly.

 

Yeah... but she can fly, right?

 

Probably.

 

That's more than we had an hour ago.

 

"You will _keep_ her, then?!"  Lars beautifully feigned shocked disbelief.

 

Oh yes!  Absolutely!

 

You will be rechristening her for the registry?

 

Yes.

 

She will be a freighter ship or passenger ship?

 

I'm thinking freight.  Those holes don't look passenger-friendly.

 

Her name, for the Registry?

 

The captain looked down on her, and studied her long and hard (by glancing over the notes and long list of "here's what's wrong with it" that Lars had presented to him).  Finally, he looks him in the eye and says "She will now and forever be known as the IFV (Independent Freight Vessel) "Still Better than Glasgow."

 

And never once, throughout the entire campaign, attempted to explain or assign any significance to that name.

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun with that ship....

 

As you roll over to chance attitude, you notice that she fights you when you try to stop, as if her balance has changed--

 

Are the winches secure?  Someone get a vac suit on and go see what's hanging out this time....!

 

Glassie, this is Orbital Six; you are cleared for-- Jesus!  Is that gold plating--

No; it's just the linoleum--

On the outside?!

on the inside, Orbital Six; we're don't have any outside right along there....

And that crater in the deck--?

Ah; that's the swimming pool.  Thanks for noticing!

Glassie, recommend that you change vector and heading for Orbital Two.....

 

 

or

 

Glasgow we are not equipped for the repairs that you ne--

Repairs?  You jackass, we just want fuel!

What about the damage--?

What damage?  Wait...  Holy Hell!  What did you do to my ship?!  I swear, I will sue!  Sue!

 

And

 

Okay, we did it!  We bought a skimming pinnace!  We can refuel ourselves now!

Sweet!  Okay, I am preparing to dock--

Where do you wish to dock it?

I don't know...  I guess either in the first cargo hold--

you don't have a large enough door there to accommodate the pinnace--

Okay, then... the shuttle dock?

You don't have a shuttle dock.

"Uhmm, Captain...."

"Go ahead, Shuttle"

"We don't have a shuttle dock..."

"Why the Hell not?!"

Player, catching on immediately: "You haven't told me where you'd like one, Sir...."

Find a matching pair of holes, and shove 'er through sideways, Pilot!

Yes, Sir, Skip!

 

 

And of course, I've already told you about getting shot completely _through_ the ship and not even slowing down.

 

Oh!

 

The final bit with the Glassie:

 

Lars decides he wants to do a riff on parts of Star Wars (still a fairly recent movie back then).  We have to rescue the diplomat's daughter.

We rescue her and lead her to the ship (which has been pinned down by "gravity beams" that half the party has found and disabled).  We caught on really, _really_ quickly just how this "moonbase rescue" was going to go: Lars was quite taken with Star Wars, and I think he had been itching to do this for _months_.  At any rate, we were kind of annoyed to be on rails, so we were, jackasses that we were, doing everything we could to out-guess the action and steal the thunder:

 

 

You came in _that_?!

Yeah.  We're braver than you thought--

You're F*&^ing IDIOTS!

 

 

For every ship and campaign before and since, I have never enjoyed any ship so much as the always-being-repaired-by-at-least-one-PC Still Better than Glasgow.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chris Goodwin]

Oh, that name!  That's the cherry on top!

[Duke Bushido]

Yeah, I wish I could take credit for that, but that was entirely-- of all people, Davien.

 

Yes: the Davien of all the horror stories I have told over the years.  But that's the story of our nearly-two-hundred-year-old luxury liner cum airframe. 

 

Oh!

 

I left out one that amused me:

 

Paying passengers (on the lamb while some criminal organization hunts them) as we creep out to 100 diamaters at Maneuver 2 while being pursued by a pair of corvettes with Maneuver 4:

 

Can't this thing go any faster?!

Well, we have kind of an escape pod feature that makes us a lot faster, but it's kind of a final solution; we like to keep it in reserve.

You have an escape pod that goes faster?

Well, the Bridge can, if the drive is intact.

So the Bridge is a separate ship or something like that?

Well, not exactly--

What then?  How can we outrun them?

Well, the closer they get, the more likely they'll hit us!

That's why we need to faster!

But the more parts they shoot off, the lighter we are, and the faster we can run!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shadowcat1313]

I have plenty of material/ideas to contribute to an Ultimate Spacecraft book, I just am not the person to write the book itself

 

[shadowcat1313]

picked up some old Silent Death stuff not long ago... some really nasty ideas come about with the brood alone

 

[Duke Bushido]

Oooh!

 

Silent Death!

 

Man, I havent played that in _decades_!   Loved it at the time, though, even though I am nit much if a wargamer.  (I enjoy it; I just suck at it.  )

 

 

[shadowcat1313]

if somebody else wants to help write it, count me in, lets talk to Darren, maybe we can put something together akin to the HD vehicle packs already on sale

 

[Tjack]

   Hearing the tale of the Glassie made me long for the days spent on the Far Venture.
   She was part of a Star Wars campaign I was Co-GM for.  She was a YT-1300 and I was her Engineer.  (A Dwaarf from the Gaigax system) Over the course of time we hade some “special modifications” done for her.  The most noticeable were the landing skids and thruster installed on the roof...Those went in after the third time we crash landed upside down. But my favorite was the torpedo tube installed at the rear of the ship. We called it the “Take that with ya”, since we saved it for ships locking a tractor beam on us as we hauled a$$ out of yet another bad situation.  Normal torpedo speeds times the velocity added by the beam made it too quick for anybody to react to.

   For roleplay I included a list of protocols that automatically went into effect during a “red alert” situation.  All lighting and life support was cut by 1/3 to save power.  All airtight doors closed but did not lock in case of hull breach. And I stated that drawing extra power to the engines, weapons and shields caused the motion dampeners to go a little out of synch so the inside of the ship rocked like standing up on a moving bus. (Safe enough to walk, if you keep one hand on a grip of some kind but a little chancy if you’re doing repairs or emergency surgery)

    No matter what we went up against, she always pulled us through....The Far Venture!  May The Force always be with her!

[Duke Bushido]

Dude, I _love_ the rear-mounted torpedo. 

 

alas, the only "tractor beams" that ever came up in our games were modified grav plates built special for one particular one-off adventure, so it wouldn't have been as effective. 

 

 

[Asperion]

Let's get a discussion going involving our wonderful group of misfits:  FIREFLY 

 

We will attempt to maintain the talk about their ship,  not the crew (but they are all one in the same). The entire nature of the series is more solarpunk than full SF, but Serenity still meets all the criteria stated in the OP.

[Scott Ruggels]

Was working up for a Solarsystem limited game, before the players decided for me, that I would be running Cyberpunk Red.
 

The ships in the game were varied, with most ships being a "Torch Ship", but some being "rack ships" which were basically radio tower structures with a reaction engine on one end, vacuum tight shipping containers all up and down it, and the living quarters and bridge on the other (though many of them were robot * radio driven). Rack ships were the slowest and cheapest way to get from point A to Point B. , Then there were landers, and those were everything from winged shuttles, and space planes, to Space-X style  up and down rockets. I didn't get too much further with this, but that was kid of the framework.  IT was influenced a lot by "The Expanse", though.

 

I also played a lot of Traveller, and Space Opera, and very briefly an FGU Offering called "Other Suns", which had incomprehensible mechanics so we dropped it. Other Suns was also the Genesis of the furry fandom.

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

I found this YouTube channel very good in evaluation Ship interiors:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiPdjrLoUsyJh3XS7Aw7rzg

Yes, it's mostly star Citizen, but his professional evaluation of ship interiors as a working architect make a lot of logical sense.

[Duke Bushido]

Thanks for the info on Other Suns: I accidentally dodged a bullet just by not having enough cash on me when I first saw it in the nor-so-local game store.  By the time I gor back that way, both copies were gone.

 

oh, hey:  tell your furry buddies that one of the core concepts of Expendables made it into our first Traveller campaign:  the idea of beta-humans custom tailored to specific environments, etc:  they were our replacement for true alien races.

 

 

[C-Note]

Many years ago, my group was dedicated to AD&D and Traveller.  When I discovered the 4th Edition BBB, I saw the light and immediately converted our campaigns to the Hero System.  Some time later, the Traveller characters acquired an old, beat-up Gazelle Close Escort, the "Windfall Prophet".

 

Over several years of gaming and technological advances in my Traveller Universe, the characters made a number of upgrades and enhancements to their ship.  When shadowcat1313 and FFE released Traveller Hero, I picked up a copy and, using his Gazelle Close Escort as a template, was able to upgrade the characters' Gazelle to 6th Edition.  Attached is the current iteration of the ship.  Included deck plans were obtained from the Web.

 

The ship itself was based on shadowcat1313's Gazelle build.  I imported it into my own Hero Designer template which combines the features of a Vehicle with those of a Computer, without having to design both separately.

 

 

[shadowcat1313]

one wonderful legit free resource for Traveller Hero and Star Hero in general is the Starship Geomorphs book, its all deckplan modules, akin to the old Dungeon Geomorphs sets for AD&D. 

http://travellerrpgblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/starship-geomorphs-20.html while not official Traveller, it has the permission of Marc Miller... and the older version is available from his site