Last Emperor: Starships
This is a the Last Emperor guide to converting D20 Dragonstar to the NWoD/Storytelling/Mage system used for the new game. This article discusses Starships including construction, operation, and combat rules. The construction rules are based upon the simplified starship construction rules in Imperial Supply, a Dragonstar source book.
Construction
| Hull Size |
Handling | Structure | Stealth | Weapons Mounts |
Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 350k |
| 2 | -4 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 400k |
| 3 | -6 | 25 | 1 | 4 | 500k |
| 4 | -6 | 40 | 1 | 10 | 550k |
| 5 | -8 | 50 | 1 | 20 | 750k |
| 6 | -8 | 75 | 1 | 50 | 1,000k |
| 7 | -10 | 100 | 1 | 100 | 1,450k |
| 8 | -10 | 126 | 1 | 150 | 2,200k |
Starship construction consists of two parts, first selecting a hull, then adding options. There are eight basic hull sizes, shown below with their basic statistics. Select one of the hull sizes as the first step.
Note: These rules explicitly break the Structure=Size + Durability recommendation of the nWoD core book. Starships Structure, Size and Durability are treated as independent attributes by these rules.
All starships start with a Durability of 5, an Acceleration of 1, and a basic set of sensors. The hull comes with a set of crew cabins for the basic crew and cargo hold for supplies for the crew on an extended duration mission.
Once the base hull is selected, add modifications based upon the hull size above.
| Modification | Cost Per Hull Size |
Maximum Value |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | 50k | x3 |
| Acceleration | 10k | +5 |
| Handling | 10k | +5 |
| Sensors | 20k | +5 |
| Stealth | 20k | +5 |
| Durability | 10k | +25 |
| Shields | 100k | +10 |
| Stations | 1k | Unlimited |
| Cargo Space | 2k | Unlimited |
Shields are a magic shielding based upon Force spells. They add durability to the ship, resisting damage. Shields are more expensive, but don't have to be repaired after the ship has been damaged.
Stations are space for crew and passengers. This includes the room where they stay, some additinal space for passgeways and common areas, life support for the person, and for crew members, the duty station where they work.
Cargo space, measured in "tons", is a large empty space designed to haul large boxes. In includes the large external pressure doors to get access, plus internal equipment for moving large boxes, crates, and pallets.
Stardrive: Included with starships is a choice of drive for making the ship move between stars. First is a Starcaster. Based upon the Teleport Without Error Space spell, the Starcaster is an enchanted item capable of teleporting the ship across interstellar distances in an instant. Limitations of the starcaster is it only works a limited number of times (usualy 50) before it needs an expensive and time consuming recharge.
The other is an Astral Drive, another magical device which opens a large, temporary gate to the Astral plane. Here the ship is havigated to it's destination where the drive again opens a gate back to the Prime Material plane. The Astral Drive takes longer to get places than the Starcaster, but does not need recharging (or indeed any fuel at all).
Operation
Operating a starship can seem like a complicated taks, but the automation of many tasks make the entire job much simpler.
In general starships move at the speed of plot, that is, the ship takes exactly as long to get somewhere as your story requires it to take.
Normal space navigation requires an Intelligence + Sciences (Space Navigation) roll, generally with one sucess to make sure the ship arrives at the place desired. In general the ships auto-pilot can take care of all the boring details.
Starcaster teleport plotting requires an Intelligence + Sciences (Space Navigation) roll, Every 10 light years of distance imposes a =1 penalty on this roll, as the uncertianties of chages at a distance can cause unexpected results.
