cbullard

My Battletech mercenary group is named "Kzin Cousins" in honor of the Kzinti race and their emblem is a tiger's paw print.
 
I wish that Paramount could have used Kzinti but the legal battles surrounding THAT would have blown anyone's minds since they'd have had to deal with SFB and Niven (and maybe Niven's publishers).

Well to explain I need to fill in some background info.  Now this is with a very broad brush and not intended to cover everything.  We all know original Star Trek ran three seasons in the 60’s and then basically disappeared.  It would run on syndicated TV, but was mostly forgotten.  Gaming was a very very niche hobby, ignored at best, ridiculed at worst.   In 1979 a company came out with a combat game based on Star Trek ship to ship combat.  The details of their license/rights are another story and will not be covered here beyond that at the time they had creative control to expand things.  The game was called Star Fleet Battles and over the years they identified and then expanded pretty much all the factions of the Star Trek universe with particular details for their fleets.  A lot of care was given to the concept of “form follows function” or each races starships structural designs were due to that races technology and science.  Like all aircraft tend to resemble each other if they have similar tech, all jets in the 50’s tend to look alike and so on.  The fleet lists they built up closely followed the logic of real world navies in that they had small ships like patrol vessels and corvettes up through various cruisers to battleships and dreadnoughts.  Science vessels, scouts and cargo ships plus bases and outposts were all covered as applicable to that “race”. 
 
Key point was “as applicable to that race".  In order to answer that, they had to develop a background for each race or faction.  Federation, Klingon Empire, Tholians, Gorn, Kzinti, Hydrians, Romulans, etc were all built out.  And they were all closely based on the original series and the handful of books at the time.  The SFB Universe timeline runs for hundreds of years and multiple wars.  When Paramount revived Star Trek they did not anticipate the existence of SFB.  There was a legal battle, of which I do not know the details, but the company that owns Star Fleet Battles is still there and they cannot use the term Star Trek and except for a handful of Starships in the original show, Paramount wasn’t able to use any of SFB’s ship designs beyond general shapes.  In the original Trek universe (TOS and early books) Klingons were a the descendants of a slave race that were their masters security and slave overseers that revolted and overthrew the “masters”.  They didn’t destroy the empire, but took over and maintenance control over all the other slave races.   That is why all the earlier Klingon ships designs had all those security stations and separate Klingon quarters and control centers from the rest of the ship.  Their technology wasn’t actually theirs, but appropriated from their previous masters and they were expansionist driven because they needed conquest to maintain power and resources.
 
I suspect that because of all the details and “history” established by the SFB Universe, when Paramount kicked off TNG they were not able to use any of it.  So, we saw radical changes to things. Klingons became a honor based warrior culture with cloaking devices as native tech instead of jealously guarded “loans”.  Most of the logical hull progression could not be used so we see ones that are similar in basic shape.  I think this is why FASA’s Star Trek game came up with so many bizarre designs. Don't get me wrong, while I really like the SFB ships concepts and tech, I also really like a lot of Paramount's Trek such as Klingons.
 
All of this digression leads me to the Gorns.
 
In SFB the Gorns are one of the powers.  They are not fast or nimble, but they make up any lack of finesse by being big and very very tough.  No starship wants to get within grips of a hostile Gorn warship.  In SFB, a ship that is tractored cannot launch missiles or small craft, but it can fire weapons with only restriction being they may only fire at the tractoring ship.  SFB is also a game that hinges on power management and you only have so much power to go around.  Since Gorns are slow and ponderous, a common tactic by other races is to make fast passes and wear them down from range.  Enter the “Gorn Anchor”.  As the enemy vessel makes its pass, a Gorn ships will divert all power to facing Shields, the Tractor Beam and Drives.  Lunge out and slap a tractor on the passing ship.  Once locked on, the Gorn then reverses drives and drags the target to a slow crawl while hunkered down behind its usually large reinforced shields.  This of course allows the other Gorn ships to waddle up and pound the former starship into scrap in short order.  Rinse, Repeat.   When a Gorn squadron or flotilla turtles up, it is very expensive proposition to try and engage them. Not to mention if you get too close you suddenly find yourself snared and shortly thereafter a cloud of expanding gas and debris.
 
The SFU has it's own RPG, several wargames and a really interesting history. 

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year
 

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year
 

 
So your supplies include long-storage MREs (or the equivalent) sufficient in quantity to see you through a crop failure, and...plenty of seeds with different pedigrees in case of a blight. A single point of failure is always bad design, but there are work-arounds.

Re: Feeding a starship crew for a year
 

 
I know your main question is with weight and bulk, but I have a suggestion for the mechanic itself. Have it cost END and run on a battery. Peg the speed and recovery on tech level. ie enough food (measured in END points) for twenty five people for say six months, but the recovery would take say a year, at "early" tech, while better tech would bring it down to nine, then six months (the break even point); Then at higher tech you actually have a bit of "spare" - until you invent replicators, and the problem goes away.
 
This allows your characters to go on "half rations" at need; and to barter surplus, if that interests them, later.

Ah, okay.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

As for the limitations, almost every single one that could be applied to TK would also be applicable for Clinging, and you're starting with such a significantly lower AP value.
 
Regardless, the point was never meant to be, "TK for Tractor Beams is bad!"  It was just meant as, "Here's another alternative to consider, that costs WAY less."

The primary issue with Hero and vehicles is they, just like several RPG's out there, chose to use the "vehicles as characters" method. 
Or as I like to call it "cop out method".  
 
The easiest way to avoid the issue is to outline a basic less than minimum vehicle/ship "character sheet" and then say "build them like a character".   Maybe toss in a few charts with vehicle'ish stuff in it.  That is pretty much the approach of the modern RPG.  It kinda works in rules lite games, especially ones that are just this side of coin flipping like Fate.  But in the end you usually fine droves of people in those systems home brewing "ship" rules.  The days of games taking the time to actually design vehicle/ship rules appears to be behind us.  Which is probably the reason we see so many people "borrowing" from games like Traveller.
 
My "new" personal approach is a complete paradigm shift for me. 
 
For smaller personal vehicles (motorcycle, speeder, car, fighter) the vehicle is a direct extension of the player "operating" it than a "character". 
For larger vehicles (ships) the vehicle is more like a location the PC move around in.  Like a Inn, Tavern or Castle.
 
Why try to write them up as characters. 
I have started experimenting with ships as "locations" that the players occupy and can perform functions at different stations.  Ship movement is more of a narrative descriptor than moving around on the map. 
 
An example of what I mean in the Star Wars universe of the OP. 
 
PC's are flying X-Wing's versus a IMP Frigate. 
The X-Wings (being one person small cockpit no room to walk about fighters) are represented just like I would do Ironman's suit as a added unified power on their regular character sheet. 
The Frigate is a ship.  Very large when compared to people and PC's.  It is just a location (with at least a general deckplan so the PC's can board and run around if they wish).  While narrative'wise it will be described and zooming along and maneuvering, the only actual on the table moving it can do is roll or change direction S L O W L Y.  Instead the PC's X-Wings will swoop around the Frigate, because they are FAR faster and maneuverable.  For "stats" I don't really go to far into details and I don't point it out at all.  I just assign values.  Six shields each at X ED.  So many turrets at X EB.  And so on.  For my players I need ot devote far more details to the crew because as soon as the Frigate Drive is disabled they will be boarding. 
 
But the main point is the "ship" is really not much different than a D&D Inn or Dungeon.  It is a location that has defenses that the PC's have to enter and move around in and do stuff.  Try to match up Player movement and action with ship/vehicle action is where most things fall apart.
 
Small vehicles = add-ons to the PC themselves.
Large vehicles (ships) = locations that narratively move
 
Just some thoughts and ideas.

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party.  Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by.
 
Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?"
 
Guard: "That's right.  None may pass."
 
Monk:  "That's okay, then.  I'm a nun."  and quickly stepped around him.  His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...