Airships of AMSP

Airships of the Line

The following are a list of Airships that are available for use in the campaign Air Marshals and Sky Pirates

Besides the ACS Shenandoah, there many kinds of airship plying the dangers of the Rocky Mountains and the pirates therein. Because Mexico will not grant access through the Rockies, there are no rail lines to carry goods and cargo through them. The only choice is by air. So giant airships ply the skies, some massive cargo airships, others are a train of airships, joined together end to end.

Since the border is ill defined in the region, ships of the Aerial Constabulary sometimes find themselves in Mexican airspace by accident. (At least their log books indicate it was an accident.)

Here are some of the ships you'll encounter in the foothills of the Rockies:

Airships of the Aerial Constabulary

ACS Shenandoah

Pride of the Aerial Constabulary fleet, the ACS Shenandoah is the class airship for the Heavy Airnaught class of combat zeppelins. She serves out of Providence, Colorado, and is part of Task Force 1, which consists of the Shenandoah, the ACS Wellington (a missile Zep), the ACS Mississippi (a Light Airnaught), and the troop ship ACS Arapahoe. Pirates take note, you never take on the Shenadoah by herself, her mates will stand beside her.

Chassis: Huge, ACC/Top Speed: 15/100, Climb: 25, Handling: +0, Toughness: 14/20 (3/1), Engines: 8, Crew: 23, Cost: $72,100

Notes: 2x Extra Engines, Lift Adjustment +10, Increased handling +2, Captain's cabin, 11x crew cabins (double occupancy), 2x searchlights, Armor gondola +1, Armor envelope +1, Cargo Bay 3 spaces (Holds one reload of all weapons + 2 weeks' supply of food)

Weapons:

2x Rockets, Right side, Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d8, RoF 1, Burst 2 ea., AP 8 (small burst template)

2x Rockets, Left side, Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d8, RoF 1, Burst 2 ea., AP 8 (small burst template)

3x 30mm autocanon, Right side, Range 75/150/300, Damage 3d8, RoF 3, Bursts 8 ea., AP 4

3x 30mm autocanon, Left side, Range 75/150/300, Damage 3d8, RoF 3, Bursts 8 ea., AP 4

1x 30mm autocanon, Bow, Range 75/150/300, Damage 3d8, RoF 3, Bursts 8 ea., AP 4

1x 30mm autocanon, Aft, Range 75/150/300, Damage 3d8, RoF 3, Bursts 8 ea., AP 4

2x .6" Cal MG, Top, Range 60/120/240, Damage 2d10, RoF 4, Bursts 12 ea., AP 3

ACS Wellington

Chassis: Large, ACC/Top Speed: 15/100, Climb: 15, Handling: +0, Toughness: 12/18 (3/1), Engines: 4, Crew: 20, Cost: $39,600

Notes Gondola armor +1, Envelope Armor +1, Captain's Cabin, 10x crew cabins (double occupancy), Extra Engine +5/+20, Increased handling +1, 3x Searchlights

Weapons

5x Rocket, right, Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d8, RoF 1, Burst 2 ea., AP 8 (small burst template)

5x Rocket, left, Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d8, RoF 1, Burst 2 ea., AP 8 (small burst template)

2x .4" Cal MG, top, Range 40/80/160, Damage 2d8, RoF 3, Burst 16 ea., AP 2

Civilian Airships

City of Providence

The City of Providence is a typical single envelope airship locomotive. It can cruise at speed 100 pulling 5 large air cars, 10 medium air cars, or 20 small air cars.

Chassis: Large, ACC/Top Speed: 30/200, Climb: 15, Handling: +0, Toughness: 12/18, Engines: 6, Crew: 8, Cost: $48,100

Notes Captain's Cabin, 4x crew cabins (double occupancy), Extra Engines (4) +20/+80, Increased torque +40, airship coupling

Weapons

None

Large Air Car

Chassis: Large, ACC/Top Speed: 0/0, Climb: 0, Handling: +0, Toughness: 12/18, Engines: 0, Crew: 0, Cost: $24,000

Notes 2x airship couplings, 39 space cargo bay

Weapons

None

Medium Air Car

Chassis: Medium, ACC/Top Speed: 0/0, Climb: 0, Handling: +0, Toughness: 10/16, Engines: 0, Crew: 0, Cost: $11,600

Notes 2x airship couplings, 19 space cargo bay

Weapons

None

Small Air Car

Chassis: Small, ACC/Top Speed: 0/0, Climb: 0, Handling: +0, Toughness: 8/14, Engines: 0, Crew: 0, Cost: $5,400

Notes 2x airship couplings, 10 space cargo bay

Weapons

None

Pirate Airships

Santa Maria

The Santa Maria is your typical pirate vessel, cobbled together from different airships, she has a pine wood skeleton, as opposed to the bamboo superstructure of more expensive ships. Because of that, it has 2 less cargo spaces for her size. She uses her airship coupling to tow away an air car full of booty.

Chassis: Medium, ACC/Top Speed: 20/140, Climb: 15, Handling: +0, Toughness: 10/16, Engines: 1, Crew: 4, Cost: $21,400

Notes Captain's Cabin, 3x crew cabins (double occupancy), Extra Engines (2) +10/+40, airship coupling

Weapons

1x 20mm autocanon, Forward, Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d8, RoF 3, Bursts 10 ea., AP 4

1x .30" Cal MG, Left, Range 30/60/120, Damage 2d8, RoF 3, Bursts 20 ea., AP 2

1x .30" Cal MG, Right, Range 30/60/120, Damage 2d8, RoF 3, Bursts 20 ea., AP 2

1x Grapnel Cannon, Aft, Range 5/10/20, Damage 2d8+2*, RoF 1, AP 2*

* Envelope ripper head

New Modifications

If you want to build your own, you'll need a copy of Savage Worlds Pulp Gear Toolkit. There are some changes to the build rules. Zeppelins can use rockets and missiles just like airplanes. There are no airplanes in this world as of yet. Airships dominate at this time and it will take years before someone invents a feasible heavier than air aircraft. Because of that, no Airstrips, Flying Platforms, Hooks and Cranes, or Hangars can be used as modifications.

Airtrain Couplers: Cost: $200 per chassis size, Spaces 1 per chassis size. These allow zeppelins to connect to another so equipped zeppelin, forming an air train. The nose coupler doubles as a docking probe for use at an airfield or shipyard.

When you assemble an air train, you need a "locomotive" zeppelin and several air cars. The locomotive zeppelin's top speed and acceleration drops depending on the size of air car that is attached to the air train. For every air car of the same size as the airtrain, speed drops by 20, acceleration drops by 5. For each envelope size one smaller, speed drops by 10, acceleration drops by 2. For each envelope that is 2 or more sizes smaller, speed drops by 5 and acceleration drops by 1.

Tandem Envelopes: Cost $800 per chassis size, Spaces 2 per chassis size, -1 Handling (Maximum -4), ACC/Top Speed -2/-10. (The spaces required are for both airship frames) Need a bigger airship that Gargantuan? Put two of them together! However, it's not going to be as maneuverable as a single envelope airship. You can join up to three envelopes in this manner. You can also join different size envelopes together, as long as the second and third envelopes are only one chassis size different from the center airship's chassis size. Acceleration and top speed are calculated from the larger chassis size. If you add an extra engine, you must add an extra engine to all envelopes to gain the benefits of having an extra engine.

For example: You can mate two Huge chassis airships on either side of a Gargantuan chassis size airship. Each Huge chassis would use 8 spaces and the Gargantuan would use 20 spaces for the tandem connections. But, you'd gain a total of 270 spaces, less 36 spaces for the connections, and of those spaces, 70 can be used as weapon spaces. Handling would bottom out at -4, and speed would drop to 20, and acceleration to 1.

Grapnel Cannon: Cost $800, Spaces 2. This contraption is used to snare and grab other airships. Uses two different grappling heads: A cable grabber head, designed to snare and grab a hold of cables, struts or other open air structures. The other head is the envelope ripper, a collection of blades that can slice open the envelope of an airship and then snag the tatters, holding on to the other ship. This head can also be used to snag cables and superstructure, though the blades can slice cables and wooden or bamboo superstructure if not used right.

To use, you must first hit the other ship and the roll to see if the grapnel caught. Catching cannot be bennied.

It is a -2 to hit the cabling and open superstructure of an airship. There is no modifier for hitting the envelope of a ship. Once you hit, roll a 4 or under on a d10 when using the cable grappler head, and a 4 or under on a d8 for the envelope ripper head on cables and superstructure. On a roll of 1 envelope ripper does d6-1 points damage to the airship's structure and doesn't catch hold of the airship.

The envelope ripper head does 2d8+2 damage to penetrate the envelope of another ship. If it penetrates, roll a 6 or under on a d10 to grapple. If you roll a 1, the grapnel rips a bigger hole in the airship's envelope for another d8+2 points of damage.

Grapnel Cannon, Range 5/10/20, Damage 2d8+2*, RoF 1, AP 2*

* Envelope ripper head