SWADE Atomic Rockets Pulp!

This game is a weird mix of Pulp and Rocket Age but with magic, psionics, aliens and weird science gallor!!!!

ROCKETSHIPS

The great wonders of the age are the mighty rocket ships that have carried humanity from its earthly home to distant planets, and hold out the hope of penetrating to the farthest reaches of the Solar System. Powered by radium-fuelled rocket engines, rocket ships are by far the fastest and most impressive vehicles humanity has ever developed. In the seven years since the first Einstein-Goddard-Tesla design, the rocket engine has undergone a rapid development becoming more efficient, providing greater thrust, and capable of reaching speeds that boggle the mind. Hundreds of companies build rocket engines and rocket ships, as well as all the other secondary components such as life support, communications, armor, and weaponry. The competition to build a better engine or other ship component is great. This has lead to a range of dirty tricks, industrial sabotage and espionage, and the scouring of the Solar System for ancient technologies like those found on Mars. So far, the basic radium engine is the norm, but experiments are being carried out with cesium, uranium, and other exotic elements.

Rocket Ship Basics

The core component of a rocket ship is the rocket engine, without this the vessel is just a silver spear floating through space. Rocket engines work by accelerating radium (or other elements) to a higher energy state, and then expelling these atomic and sub-atomic particles out the back end, thus providing thrust. By altering the flow rate out the nozzle or the mix ratio in the acceleration chamber, the velocity of the ship can be increased or decreased. It should be noted that rocket ship exhaust is hot, both in temperature and radioactivity, and a person caught in the blast of a landing or take-off will likely die.

A rocket engine without some sort of control would just be a missile launched into the void, never to return. In an atmosphere, normal aviation control surfaces, such as wings and rudders, can be used, but this is not an option in the void between planets. While travelling through a vacuum, adjusting the angel of thrust controls rocket ships, basically the nozzle or nozzles at the end of a rocket engine are angled, directing the thrust in a different direction and the ship on the opposite vector. This is not as fine a control system as aviation rudders and flaps, but allows for maneuvers. Fine control outside of an atmosphere relies on a series of thruster plates, small conventional rocket engines spaced around the outside of the hull. These thruster plates are not powerful enough to launch the vessel out of atmosphere and break a gravity well, but are more than capable of creating small course and attitude alterations.

Beyond the systems need to move and maneuver the vessel, there is a great deal of diversity with regards to rocket ship design. All have some kind of life support system, as well as landing gear, communications equipment, and a hull.

Many have armor or weaponry for the Solar System is a dangerous place and far out among the planets there is little or no law. Mining ships have specialized compartments for cargo as well as processing facilities. Merchant ships have a lot of cargo space, though most of the cargo that is profitable to transport by rocket ship is of the small, but expensive variety, bulk shipments being generally limited to rare ores such as radium. Warships have more weapons and armor, but also more crew, as well as redundant systems in case of damage. Finally, the broad class of personal rocket ships, the kind used by freebooters, private explorers, and the idle rich, knows no limits to the variety of components installed.

ROCKETSHIP FRAMES

Basic overal Frame and Size of the Rocketship which provides it basic speed, handling, etc.

Structure	Size	Speed	Handling	Toughness	Mods	Crew	Energy	Cost	Examples
Tiny	6	6	+3	25 (6)	20	1	25	$1M	Light shuttle or starfighter
Average	8	5	+2	30 (7)	30	5	40	$2.5M	Bomber, heavy shuttle
Great	12	5	+1	35 (8)	40	15	60	$5M	Light freighter, partol boat, scout
Greater	16	4	+0	40 (9)	60	40	100	$20M	Corvette, freighter
Giant	20	3	-1	50 (12)	80	80	200	$100M	Destroyer, light cruiser
Garganturan	24	3	-2	60 (15)	100	200	300	$500M	Battle cruiser, bulk freighter
Behemoth	30	2	-3	70 (20)	150	400	500	$2B	Dreadnaught, starship carrier
Leviathan	40	2	-4	80 (25)	250	1K	800	$5B	Super dreadnought, supers carrier, colony transport
World-Class	60	2	-5	100 (40)	400	2K	1,500	$25B	space station, generational colony transport

Rocketship Notes
For Tabletop combat in Space the squares are basically the same as table top personal combat. This is how may squares (or inches) it can move each round. Also the Space Scale speed of a vessel is about how may AU it can travel in a day. If measured in planetary scale x the Speed by 100 to get miles per hour.

Rocketship Mods

These are the basic Modifiers that can be added to any vessel that can exist and travel in space!

Mods (x) is how many times a specific Mod maybe taken; i.e. 1=Once, U=unlimited, etc. (up to all the mods the vehicle has)

Rocketship Mods	Mods	Cost
Advanced Controls (2): Requires 'Rocketship Controls' modifier. Advanced controls add +1 to Science for Navigation of space route and +1 to Repair and Science to fixing systems onboard. If taken a second time these bonuses increase to +2 each	0	$500K
AMCM (1): Anti-Missile Counter Measures are integrated jammers and decoys. They add +2 to Electronics or Hacking checks made to evade missile and torpedo locks and attacks plus Piloting checks to avoid Tractor Beams.	1	$5K xSize
Armor (U): Increases a ship’s Armor value by +4. Due to the nature of space and the size and shape of starships, all Armor is considered Heavy Armor.	1 per 10 Size	$5K xSize
Rocketship Controller (1): Required for any rocketship that plans on directed movement in space, such as plotting a Navigation course to another world, landing and taking off from a planet's surface, etc.	1	$5K basic, $10K standard, or $25K military xSize
Atmospheric (1): Allows the ship to enter planetary atmospheres. This includes heat shielding and additional work to handle the stress and strain of entry. All starships have vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability (max size 20?).	½ Size	$50K xSize
Bomb Bay (U): Each bomb bay may drop up to four Small, 2 Medium, or 1 Large (or larger) bomb per round at no penalty. All use the same attack roll. Dropping bombs uses the Electronics skill.	1	$50K
Crew Space, Low-Berth (U): Living space for 8 additional crew or passengers, including bulk-bed sleeping area, kitchen, rec area, etc.	1	$50K
Crew Space, Standard (U): Living space for 4 additional crew or passengers, including sleeping area, kitchen, rec area, etc.	1	$100K
Crew Space, Luxtury (U): Living space for 1 additional passengers, including luxery sleeping area, kitchen, rec area, etc.	1	$250K
Deflector Shields (1): The vessel is protected by an energy field that deflects incoming metories and ballistic attacks (it has no effect against lasers). Attackers must subtract –2 from their Shooting checks. Mod cost is 2 for Tiny to Great ships, 3 for Greater to Gargantuan vessels, and 4 for all larger vessels.	2/3/4	$10K xSize
Drill Spike Drive -Mark I (1): A Spike Drive allows a vessel to enter hyperspace and travel at fantastic speeds there. A Mark I allows a vessel to travel at a speed of 1 lightyear per 48 hours in hyperspace. This Drive uses 1 energy times the Size of the vessel's size per 24 hours in hyperspace. Minimum Size of ship that can mount a Mark I Drive is Great	½ Size	$100K xSize
Drill Spike Drive -Mark II (1): A Spike Drive allows a vessel to enter hyperspace and travel at fantastic speeds there. A Mark II allows a vessel to travel at a speed of 1 lightyear per 36 hours in hyperspace. This Drive uses 1 energy times the 1½ xSize of the vessel's size per 24 hours in hyperspace. Minimum Size of ship that can mount a Mark I Drive is Great	¾ Size	$250K xSize
Drill Spike Drive -Mark III (1): A Spike Drive allows a vessel to enter hyperspace and travel at fantastic speeds there. A Mark III allows a vessel to travel at a speed of 1 lightyear per 24 hours in hyperspace. This Drive uses 1 energy times the 2 xSize of the vessel's size per 24 hours in hyperspace. Minimum Size of ship that can mount a Mark III Drive is Greater	Size	$1M xSize
Drill Spike Drive -Mark IV (1): A Spike Drive allows a vessel to enter hyperspace and travel at fantastic speeds there. A Mark IV allows a vessel to travel at a speed of 1 lightyear per 12 hours in hyperspace. This Drive uses 1 energy times the 3 xSize of the vessel's size per 24 hours in hyperspace. Minimum Size of ship that can mount a Mark IV Drive is Greater	2 xSize	$10M xSize
Electromagnetic Shielding (3): Adds +6 to the ship’s effective Toughness vs. EMP attacks.	1 per 10 Size	$5K xSize
Energy Reserves (U): Extra fussion/fission powercores can provided additional energy to the ship. Each energy reserve adds 100% of the standard Energy rating to the ship	¼ Size	$50K xSize
Fewer Crew or Passengers (U): For every 4 fewer crew the ship has it gains an additional +1 modifer.	n/a	n/a
Fixed (U): “Fixed” weapons cannot rotate. On the table-top, they have a 45° firing arc. Fixed weapons must chose an arc -- Forward, Port (left), Starboad (right), Aft (back). For ships that are 14 or greater can only fire at most craft with weapons facing that side (arc). Smaller ships can make a contested Pilot skill test, beating the target ship grants two arc or they face the worst arch of weapons (winner's choice), a raise three aches and two raises all arch in the same round. Total all like Fixed weapons first, then halve their combined Mod cost.	n/a	n/a
Garage/Hanger (U): A hangar (or garage) within a vessel of at least Great size can carry two a vessel of 6 or less. For a vessel of Greater size can carry up to three size 6 vehicles or two size 8 vessels or vehicles. For a vessel of size of Giant can carry up to ten size 6 or five size 8 vessels two size 10 or one size 12 vessel. Includes tools for replair and maintance of the vessels. A external lift-hooks can carry a veseel that is one Size bigger then normally allowed for half the mods and cost	8/10/14	$500K, $1M, $2M
Handling (2): The vehicle is precision crafted and very maneuverable. Add +1 to the vessel's Handling score.	¼ Size	$25K xSize
Holding Space (Jails) (U): This includes two individual holding cells (can be cammed to hold two persons in each cell).	1	$50K
Life Support (U): A Standard Spacecraft has supplies of food, water, oxygen, waste recycling, etc. to last 30 days for Crew listed (i.e. a crew of 5 would have 150 man-days of supplyies) and twice that in Emergency Supplies (but living off this causes an automatic level of Fatigue after a few days). Extra supplies can be added, that doubling both the base standard and emergency for ¼ Size in mods. Note that the Cost is only paid for extra supplies (and when resupplying). Factor in Crew Space/Holding Cells or Fewer Crew	¼ Size	$5K xSize
Life Support, Short-Term (U): For Spacecraft meant to be lived in for a few days at most adds ½ ships Size back in Mods and has only enough supplies of food, water, oxygen, waste recycling, etc. to last 3 days for Crew listed (i.e. a crew of 5 would have 15 man-days of supplyies) and twice that in Emergency Supplies (but living off this causes an automatic level of Fatigue after a few days). Extra supplies can be added, that doubling both the base standard and emergency for 1 mod. Note that the Cost is only paid for extra supplies (and when resupplying). Factor in Crew Space/Holding Cells or Fewer Crew	See Text	$150 xSize
Linked Weapons (U): Up to four direct-fire weapons (non-missiles) of the same type may be linked and fired as one, increasing the damage by +2 per additional weapon and reducing the total number of Mods required by half -- i.e. total all Linked weapons in a set first, then halve their required Mods (If Linking Fixed weapons, halve the total again)	n/a	n/a
Mercantile (U): Found only on Huge or larger ships that carry a number of 'paying' passengers, this might be a restaurant, commissary, or specialty store. Each generates Size +$1d4K a month for the ship (and the same for the mercantile’s owner). The store has 300 square feet of space. Each additional Mod adds roughly 100 square feet and +$1d4K to revenue.	2	$100K
Missile Launcher (U): Allows up to four Light or two Heavy missiles to be fired at once. Storage space for missiles is 1 hold holds 12 small missiles or 8 large (or AT) missiles	1	$50K
Orbiter (1): Requires Atmoshpere Mod. Shuttle craft and drop ships meant mostly to ferry cargo and people from space oto a planet's surface and meant operate in space for only a limited time. Halve the Space Speed (round down) but count full atmosphere speed, including Speed Mods. Reduce Engergy to Half Size. Most also that the Short Term Life Support Mod. Adds Size back in additional Mods	n/a	50% base cost
Passenger Pods (U): Small and Medium ships only. These are rows of fairly spacious seats with safety harnesses, personal vid-screens, and other amenities designed for short travels (typically less than 24 hours). Full life support and a days worth of food and water is also include for each passenger. Each pod seats 20.	2	$10K
Reinforce Structure (Size): Each time this mod is taken add +2 to the ship's Toughness.	¼ Size	$50K xSize
Sensor Suite, Galactic (1): Light, chemical, motion, and other active sensors allow detection of targets up to one light year away with a Electronics roll. Sensors can also detect Spike Drive warping out to 5 light years with a check (+2 within 1 light-years; or -2 out to 10 light years). Can also aid Science rolls for planetary data when in orbit. Within 10K miles, the sensors add +2 to the roll. Illumination penalties are ignored. Targets don’t have to be in direct line of sight, but asteroid or powerful energy fields may cause inaccurate or false readings at the GM’s. discretion.	2	$1M
Sensor Suite, Planetary (1): This functions exactly like the Sensor Suite, see Gear, but has a range of 10K miles. It can also detect Spike Drive at 1 lght year away.	1	$50K
Shields (3): The craft is protected by an ablative energy field that absorbs its Size in damage each time it is hit before applying the damage to the ships Toughness (and armor). The shields can take a maxmimum of 10×Size per mods (1/2 Size) in points of damage before it’s depleted. Active shields detonate missiles and torpedoes before they hit, reducing their damage total by half. A craft may regenerate its Size in shield points if it makes no attacks in a round	½ Size	$50K xSize
Speed (U): each level increase the base speed by +1.	¼ Size	$50K xSize
Speed Reduction (3): This ship trades power and speed for additional room. Each time this mod is taken, reduces the ship's speed by 1 and gain one-half the ship's Size in Mod slots. Cannot be taken with Speed and the minimim speed is 1 unless it is stationary (like a space station)	n/a	n/a
Statis Field Sleeping Pods (U): These add statis tubes that can sustain a human life for years (theoretically) and can be added to both vehicles and starships (and found in a few medical facilities planet side). Each unit holds 4 individuals whom can be keep within for long term without requiring food, water and oxygen. Each unit of pods uses one Energy of the vessel per month (30 days) that it is running.	1	$50K
Stealth System (1): Radar-absorbing paint, heat baffles, scramblers, and other devices make the ship difficult to detect by vision or sensors. Those trying to spot, attack, (or lock on to) the ship subtract 4 from their rolls. The effect is triggered as a free action, but is negated any round in which the ship fires a weapon or emits some other nonstealth signal such as radio signal or active sensor search.	Size	$150K xSize
Superstructure (U): Superstructures are massive extensions that add great amounts of space to Greater Size or larger ships, typically to accommodate more passengers or cargo. Each superstructure adds one to the fuel used per day, consumes 10 regular Mods, and subtracts 1 from the ship’s base Toughness (not Armor) as it reduces overall structural integrity. Choose the type from the Superstructure sidebar (SFC pg. 47).	10	$5M
Targeting System (1): The ship’s internal sensors and computers are linked to all attached weapons. This compensates for movement, range, multi-actions, and the like, negating up to four points of Shooting penalties.	1	$10K xSize
Tractor Beam (U): Tractor beams are specialized starship weapons designed to hold an enemy ship in place and pull it to the “attacker”. Ships can only affect vessels of smaller Size. Their range is short or 4 on the starship scale, so they must get a Short Range result on the Chase table to use the weapon. This is an opposed attacker's Electronics roll at –4 vs the target’s Electronics or Hacking or Piloting. If the attacker is successful, the enemy ship is caught and pulled into contact in 2d6 rounds. A captive’s ship’s life support systems remain active, but all locomotion and weapons are shut down.	5	$1M
Torpedo Launch Tube (U): Each tube allows a torpedo to be fired wirh action (ROF 1).	1	$500K

Some Starship Examples

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Note that for unused Mods used as storage in a starship can haul 200lbs x unused Mods x twice the Size
Also the Wounds* works just like extra wounds for large creatures (SWADE pg. 179)