Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 036 - Feb 5th

Chaos Symbol is appropriate for when
Random gets you.

I'm a couple of hours early, but why not get ahead. This post is for Feb. 5th. 

We can start making our 5 rolls for the day. Right off the bat we get a 4, which means no more rolls for the day.

Sigh.

My inventory is: 

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 TL-1 Ship’s Guns.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.

10 Fuel Units in the Ship’s Boat.

12 Repair units,

14 Life Support Units, 5 in the Ship’s boat.

1 U-bot in Engineering,

7 PS-bots, 1 per character,

6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,

205 Side Arms for sale,

13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges.

I have 2,561 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Time for a commercial. 

Check out my post on The Gardens of Ynn. There are a lot of great reviews of the product, it is one of my favorites. I love that it was written to correct writer's block. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 035 - Feb 4th

Time to go. We boost to orbit and make for Palatek.

On entry to the Palatek system, we are jumped by two frigates, with shields and ECM. Our guns are better, but we are outnumbered. Plus they have shields and ECM that I don't have. Time to go. We are now wanted in the Palatek system.

We get a better response in the Imperia system. After a brief radio message, we are permitted to land. We head for the Slums to sell of these side arms.

We make a system contact in the Slums. We spot a rich man guarded by 9 body guards, he is carrying 5,000 secs. If we attack him, we become wanted in this system. If we kill them all in 5 rounds or less, we can take his money and equipment.

Side arms do no damage against Starships or Hoppers. Starship guns to 10 points of damage per person hit. Ship and Hopper guns will hit a person on a roll of 11 or less on a 2d6. There are 10 targets, so I would need to hit with both guns every round. 

IF I missed in the first couple of rounds, I could increase my chances of victory by landing the ship and sending several characters out with heavy hand weapons, while still blasting away with the ship and hopper guns. I played out this combat 12 times and found that I kill everyone with just the Ship and Hopper guns 9 out of 12 times. By landing the troops, I win 11 of 12 times but have 1 or 2 characters injured, one of which is always Duke. I am virtually assure of victory.

I don’t do this, because I can’t stand to be wanted in two different systems. The day is over.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 TL-1 Ship’s Guns.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.

10 Fuel Units in the Ship’s Boat.

12 Repair units,

14 Life Support Units, 5 in the Ship’s boat.

1 U-bot in Engineering,

7 PS-bots, 1 per character,

6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,

205 Side Arms for sale,

13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges.

I have 2,561 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 034

Ok, I need to move cargo around to make sense of all of this. I need to Hopper to hold 7 characters, 10 fuel units plus 5 Life Support Units and 3 Repair to clear space in the main bay. The U-bots is being placed in Engineering. That leaves 9 CU in the Cargo Bay.

I intend to sell off all of the extraneous gear on Imperia. Option one, I can jump directly there or take the slower route risking trouble in the Palatek system. I think I will spend one more day on Regari and have Ratchet swap the Tech Level 1 guns on the Hopper with the TL-3 Guns. I can also shop for more items.

I get a roll for Star Ship guns. They cost 200 per TL and they are Tech Level 5. If I buy them, I have a problem with storing the old ones. I buy them, because now I am looking for trouble. By mid-day, I sell my extra hopper guns for 30 secs. Sad, but necessary. I now have 8 CU in the Cargo Bay because I have an extra set of Ship’s Guns.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 TL-1 Ship’s Guns.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.
10 Fuel Units in the Ship’s Boat.
12 Repair units,
14 Life Support Units, 5 in the Ship’s boat.
1 U-bot in Engineering,
7 PS-bots, 1 per character,
6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,
205 Side Arms for sale,
13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 2,561 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 033

Alternate Hopper Designs

I forgot to buy hypercharges, yesterday. So let’s make those 10 rolls. 

11, 10, 10, 6, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, and lucky #7. I’m able to refuel in the last hour of the day at a cost of 1,500 secs. Nothing else looked tempting, except the Pilot/Navigator and Engineer crewmen. I'll pass.

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-1.
1 set of boats guns, TL-3.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.
10 Fuel Units (in Ship’s Boat).
12 Repair units,
14 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots, 1 per character,
6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,
205 Side Arms for sale,
13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 3,531 secs. left over.

If you like the ships above, I have them stat'd out here.
I also have a generic drawing of all three for any sci-fi campaign, plus a double sized Blockade Buster. The Blockade Buster also has stats for Star Smuggler. And finally, I am working a completely different ship. This one is far to large for Star Smuggler, but would be great for Traveller or Star Frontiers.

Generic Starship and Small Craft Deckplans

As promised, here are some generic deck plans for the Blockade Buster and associated Boats. The Orbiter Bay can hold a Hopper class boat, an Intercept or a Fast Boat, but the Boat Bay is limited to Hoppers, Interceptors and Fast Boats.

I designed these ship's boats with the idea that the Orbiter is 20% bigger than the Interceptor or Fast Boat. The Fast Boat has more fuel than the Interceptor, but the Interceptor is quicker and more agile than the other two.

Starship Deck Plans for Hopper Alternates (Star Smuggler)

I came up with three alternates for Ship's Boats. One is a completely new product, an Orbiter, which takes up 50 CU inside a 60 CU cargo bay. It really not a good choice for the Antelope, but it can be done.

The Orbiter is roughly 25% bigger than a Hopper Ship's Boat. It is able to carry a skimmer. This ship is big enough to provide it's own Life Support just like a Starship. Even though it has enough cargo space for guns, there is no way to mount them due to the wing configuration. It is always unarmed.

The second ship is a regular sized Hopper, but reconfigured for longer trips. It does not provide Life Support, so some cargo will have to be used for that.

The third ship is called an Interceptor, because... well, it's an interceptor. It has integrated guns. They can be upgraded or downgraded, but never removed. It has a dedicated space for Fuel and Life Support Units. These spaces can't be used for other things, just like the gun space.

Each and every one of these ships have the ability to break out of gravity wells. See r214b. The Orbiter must use it's cargo for fuel to escape, while the other two ships can do it with just their fuel tanks. The Orbiter has a max power of 15, the Fast Boat has a rating or 16 and the Interceptor has a rating of 20.

In order to boost to a speed of 20, the Interceptor must purchase external fuel tanks on the planet is is leaving. Each tank holds just enough fuel to break orbit from that planet and are jettisoned on take-off. These tanks can be purchased for standard price 500 each and are available from ground based areas which offer offer Hypercharges (eg. e025). These tanks are extraordinarily dangerous and can only be stored on a planet or on a military vessel, like a carrier. They are never available at space stations.

All three of these items can be purchased or sold from e034 or e035. They can never be found in the Ruins.

Prices are:

Orbiter, e034. 1800 secs. base price. e035 is 2400 secs.
Fast Boat, e034. 1000 secs. base price. e035 is 1500 secs.
Interceptor, e034. 2500 secs. base price. e035 is 5000 secs.

Starship Deck Plans for Antelope Alternates (Star Smuggler)

A few weeks ago, I brainstormed an Antelope-class starship alternate. I inked out a Buffalo-class starship. I really didn't like how it looked, but did like some of the ideas.

Last night, I busted out the Wacom Tablet and gave it another go. It turns out I am really not good with either Inkscape or a Wacom Tablet and had to resort to mouse and keyboard. However, the results were nice. I came up with one new design I call a Blockade Buster, which is designed to fight and fly. It is more than twice the size of an Antelope-class starship and has a couple of different options for cargo and ship's boats.

First, the ship. The Antelope-class has 126 CU of space. The Blockage Buster has 256 CU of carrying capacity, but some of it is limited. The Boat Bay, Cargo Bay 1 and turrets are identical to those of the the Antelope-class.

However, the Blockade Buster has two turrets. Engineering, and Pilotage is twice the size of the Antelope's. There is a Bay for an orbiter, which is a larger shuttle that can carry a skimmer. The Cargo Bay 2 is specifically designed for consumables. It can hold one skimmer and has 36 racks for any type of consumable unit, such as Life Support, Repair or Fuel. In the corner is space for 4 Utility Suits. There is a locker for weapons near the officer's quarters. On the opposite side of the ship is a large suite of rooms for crew quarters. The Blockade Runner holds 12 hypercharges.

Special Rules for this ship: There are no hidden storage places. Cargo Bay 2 cannot be reconfigured to hold other items, the racks are a part of the hull. The ship has no installed Stasis Units. This ship has 12 hits.

If you would like to incorporate this into Star Smuggler, I have pricing and other information here to mix into e001 and e036.

Next post, we'll look at the Alternate Hopper Class Boats. I will also post some generic deck plans for any game system.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 032

Today is Feb 1st. It makes me wonder what sort of calendar they had in mind for this game. Not important. It’s day 32, records day and shopping day because I plan of trouble in the next few weeks. 

Let’s look at the ship first. The non-cargo hold areas are: 

Crew Quarters: 16 CU, reduced to zero by the Stasis Units. These 8 Stasis Units hold a total of 8 people. That is my max crew. I have two more crew slots here. The pilotage holds one 2 CU Stasis Unit. It can hold two people at a time, but there is no reason to do that. There are two crew slots here. The turret holds a 2 CU Stasis Unit, which means only one person can sit here. There are no slots available. Engineering holds a 2 CU unit, which takes 3 CU of space. That area is down to 3 CU of storage. 

A ship with a lot more space.

As I mentioned, my current crew is 7. My max crew size is now 13 or 14, but one of those people won’t have stasis protection. So, 13 then. 

I need a boat and more RU, LSU and FU. I’ll get more chances for these things at the Spaceport, so off we go. 

I get an 11, 10, 8 and 5 by mid-day. That is a pilot/navigator, an engineer or gunner, U-suits or RU and a ship’s boat. I pass on the crew people and take 10 RU, 8 U-suits and the ship’s boat. The suits were 15 each, a premium, but I don’t want to waste anymore time, so I pay it. That’s 1030 secs. 

In the next series of rolls, I manage to get both LSU and Fuel Units, so I buy 10 of each. That is another 20 secs. spent. 1050 secs. total. 

I also want to distribute gear. Duke, Emily, Lefty, and Deadeye get a heavy sidearm each and a regular sidearm. Ratchet gets a regular sidearm. Everyone gets a u-suit and PS-bot. This is a record keeping nightmare as all of my characters are now storing items in the hold because of those blasted stasis units.

Damn. I forgot to buy hypercharges.  

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-1. 

1 set of boats guns, TL-3. 

2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery. 

10 Fuel Units (in Ship’s Boat). 

12 Repair units,

14 Life Support Units,

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots, 1 per character,

6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use, 

205 Side Arms for sale,

13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.  

and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges. 

I have 5,031 secs. left over.