 May 27, 2016 - 5:30am | I'm planning on porting some of the ship designs from EvE Online into my SF campaign, short scenarios, and fiction writing. This will also include equipment and skills from the MMO as well, just being tailored to the SF rules. What would you all consider converting over? |
 May 27, 2016 - 6:15am | I like the Firefly from Serenity/Firefly. Was going to say the Romulan warbid from TOS but we kind of already have that one in the sathar cutter mini The orange and white checkerboard rocket ship from Tin Tin looks like fun. Benjamin Sisko and his son refurbished an old Bajoran ship with solar sails and went for a little jaunt in a DS9 episode a peculiarity of the ship and sail design caused it to catch tacyon Eddy's and enter warp. When they managed to correct this and drop out of warp they were in Cardassian space. And it just happened that the Cardassian Star ship commander had had his second cup of coffee that morning as well as got that little extra snuggle from his wife that morning before going to work so he was in a good mood and decided to not be the usual Cardassian dick to a wayward Star Fleet officer that violated Cardassian space and no one knew he was there (well that and they only had 5 minutes left to the episode and the writers needed to wrap it up). Anyhow a ship like that; something with solar sails or a solartac (solar /tacyon) hybrid technology would be interesting. The Defiant- it's a tough little ship The DS9 runabout - it's a nice entry level PC craft Shadow's done a number of Millennium Falcon variants, it's about the only thing I feel we need from Star Wars. The drop ship and APC from Aliens The shuttle from Avatar Star Command from Jason of Star Command Old school cylon fighters are cool IMO I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2016 - 6:20am | Oh yeah and I love the look of the Spell Jammer Dragonfly (as a matter of fact any of the mosquito, wasp, damselfly vessels look cool and could be old vrusk tech): I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2016 - 6:30am | You know what's pretty good as a system ship: movie Mission to Mars with Gary Sinise. Scaled down version of Discovery from 2001.
http://unusualsuspex.deviantart.com/art/Mission-To-Mars-Mars-II-ortho-444314532 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2016 - 6:35am | The SS Botany Bay from Star Trek: The Voyage Home I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2016 - 6:42am | Bajoran assault ship: I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 27, 2016 - 7:55pm | Babylon 5 stuff. The Earth Force stuff is pretty Newtonian in their movements (for the most part) and the advanced races show what you can do with a gravitic engine. If you need stats (yes, they're Rifts, but they give you a baseline and nice pix), give Kitsune's page a looksee. Since I can't seem to paste a link, google Kitsune science fiction conversions. First link is what you want. You can't argue with the invincibly ignorant. - William F. Buckley |
 May 30, 2016 - 3:48am | The various ships from Blake's 7 are some of my favourites, although they're perhaps more Traveller-esque. Maybe the Liberator is more like something from Star Frontiers. The shuttles from the original Battlestar Galactica series are also good, as are those from the various Star Trek series, old and new (although the other ships outside of TOS tend to be a bit more dull). |
 May 30, 2016 - 7:36am | The Excalibur from the short-lived Crusade series. The 2001 and 2010 space odyssey ships were, of course, already turned into SF ships. The Eagles from Space 1999. I know someone did a version in SFman, but I don't think the flavor of those craft were carried... of course, they aren't very aerodynamic either. How about the original Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space? Joe Cabadas |
 May 30, 2016 - 1:53pm | The Dreadnought from Star Wars (IIRC it hails from the Thrawn series of books) inspired my Operation:Dreadnought uber-cruiser & carrier operations in my camaign. The ship itself is very similar in size to a UPF battleship at 600m long and 116 wide. As I started nosing around other large scale craft from SW I found some big ships betwen the Dreadnought and Star Destroyer that inspired me to launch that project. Something I always wanted to incorporate but never got around to was the Draconian flagship from Buck Rogers.  I did utilzie the Draconian Marauder/Hatchet fighter, and Hawk's fighter also inspired one of my heavy fighter designs:  http://wingcommander.20m.com/photo4.html see the DH-01 Marauder halfway down that page  http://wingcommander.20m.com/custom3.html see the A-5 Knight Hawk at the bottom of that page. It should be readily apparent where my Cythar Fighter Craft series stems from, considering the Cythar (CYbernetic saTHAR) themselves were consequently inspired by the Centurions:  Also noteworthy, my Streel S-series fighter craft line is loosely based on the Imperial TIE with a basic universal fuselage and variant design differences between them, and my I-76 Enforcer is loosely based on the Y-Wing. My original "house rules before KH was printed" Acquilian Starling (originally dubbed "the Volturnian Knighthawk" --- one word, imagine my chagrin when the new release box set carried the same name...the original ship name & history has since been revised) obviously stems from the Millenium Falcon, and the revamped for KH rules version still shares similar DNA despite sporting KH decks-perpendicular to main axis. The Knight Owl (same page as Knighthawk) and base model RT-3100 Merchant Scout --- despite sharing more genetics with the assault scout --- are also loosely based on the YT-1300 light freighter concept. |
May 30, 2016 - 1:24pm | Hawks fighter would get a second from me. How would you handle the grappling claws? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 30, 2016 - 1:45pm | Hawks fighter would get a second from me.
How would you handle the grappling claws? I dabbled with the idea of swarming to grapple, meaning it would take a number of fighter craft equaling the hull size of the target craft to overpower said craft. In my Star Fighter Corps game the ship was still in the prototype stage, in my actual campaign only a few squadrons were produced before the upstart dictator overtook the Frontier and those disappeared with the UPF Loyalists that fled the new Frontier...so I never really got a chance to actually portray them in combat. |
May 31, 2016 - 5:44am | Hawks fighter would get a second from me.
How would you handle the grappling claws? I dabbled with the idea of swarming to grapple, meaning it would take a number of fighter craft equaling the hull size of the target craft to overpower said craft. In my Star Fighter Corps game the ship was still in the prototype stage, in my actual campaign only a few squadrons were produced before the upstart dictator overtook the Frontier and those disappeared with the UPF Loyalists that fled the new Frontier...so I never really got a chance to actually portray them in combat. I think limiting it to just other fighters or shuttles. Also I seem to remember something about Hawk being unable to retract the claws that they were designed to rend. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 31, 2016 - 6:42am | Like I said, I dabbled...grappling really isn't something I wanted in a fighter craft anyways, it takes too long and leaves them vulnerable to attack so they're better suited shooting at the enemy in that same time frame. ;) |
May 31, 2016 - 6:54pm | Ok so Hawks fighter did not really have a grapple system , it was designed to rend. What if it's a special case weapon that is the KHs version of a melee weapon in space? A good pilot with this fast nimble craft can swoop in and target a specific ship system for damage. Engines are very exposed so a bonus to strike these, weapons are harder to spot and smaller so a negative modifier for these. Choosing to cause hull damage is very easy so a bonus for that. Against ships morning size C engines a bonus, against ships mounting a size B engine no modifier, against ships mounting size A engines a negative. All ships mounting ion or Chem rockets another bonus. Procedure is a piloting roll and a to hit roll. Bonuses for ship size and engine affect the piloting roll not the to hit roll. But bonuses for system targeted affect the to hit roll. It's not a one hit wonder as there is a two stage skill check but a hawk fighter taking out a critical system could have a big impact. Should this fighter have vectored thrust? For effective VTOL on carriers and low gravity bodies? You know we're describing a Yazirian weapon system: swooping in to rend a target with claws? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 31, 2016 - 9:48pm | The ship would effectively have to match speed with the target so that it's velocity is not too much greater than the target velocity or the momentum would be so high that things would get ugly for the attacker too. -iggy |
May 31, 2016 - 9:54pm | The problem with that is if you get that close to "melee" then you are in range of every battery on the target ship. A KH fighter pilot's best strategy is to launch assault rockets from 40K km, just outside the range of the target's RB systems (which are predominant in canon KH warships) and still far enough to negate most energy gunner targeting bonues (the minority weapon systems in canon KH warships). Even if an assault scout were equipped as such, it would be suicide to try it on anything more dangerous than a single battery civilian ship (even so, the Gullwind could still land a double damage hit 10% of the time with its laser battery if you use the variable damage table). |
 June 2, 2016 - 8:00am | Back when Serenity RPG was a thing, the crowd on the Waves in the Black forum developed at least a hundred ships, which were collected in a web document. There were some warships and government types, but nearly all were tramp freighters, shuttles, specialized transports, and so on. Some were featured in an official book, http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Six-Shooters_%26_Spaceships There were 26 ship designs in there, and I think half-dozen of those came with specific ships and NPC crews. My favorites in running that were the Pride Mk III carrier (made to haul standard cargo containers, altered to carry single-person fighters) and a shuttle that could fly or travel underwater. This is what I think I'm talking about. Artwork included. https://www.scribd.com/doc/225363883/Cortex-Shipyards-Volume-1 I haven't gotten around to making any conversions, but maybe I should. |
June 2, 2016 - 1:10pm | Alright, I have a classic for you, well maybe not a classic, but I had to dig deep into my youth for this: in TOS episode Trouble with Troubles the Klingons compared the enterprise to a garbage scow. I thought of that trying to come up with something we don't have in the magazines or modules. In truth the large or small freighters in KHs box set would work for this. Cargo containers would be filled with compacted trash to be hauled from a space station or luxury liner to another location for recycling. Not very glamorous. The freighter will be old, in poor condition, glitches in its navigation equipment because it never void jumps but stays in system on a very boring trash run. Crewed by 2 pilots only with the thought that it can dock locally and repairs paid for as needed. It was modified at some point to have grapples : never know when you might just need to snag a cargo container floating free. In addition there are two robotic cargo arms mounted in tracks running down either side of the cargo boom that the containers attach to - this feature saves time in container handling. And the launch was replaced with a work pod. So it's not cool, sleek, glamorous or snazzy but it sounds like an ideal ship to inflict on the PCs because it was cheap. A ship like this could be pressed into other rolls: tug, search and rescue, etc. Besides resorting to plain old interstellar shipping. Imaine the fun of NPCs taunting PCs for their ship formally bring a garbage scow. Gorlian, thug, " Oh, I'm sorry did I say your ship should be hauling garbage, no what I meant is that it should be hauled as garbage!" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 2, 2016 - 6:59pm | "Soldier" with Kurt Russel featured waste disposal ships, although they were far more Star Warsy than Star Frontiers. Still, a large vessel could skim the atmosphere of a low grav disposal planet and dump in a similar manner. |
June 2, 2016 - 10:39pm | I remember a very short lived TV comedy about a space garbage truck thaf scooped up drifting garbage. It was for stuff floating around Earth. I imagine in SF that same function is served with drones that collect orbiting debris. These drones may then rendezvous with a piloted garbage ship that delivers the debris to a sorting facility. -iggy |
June 3, 2016 - 2:37am | "Soldier" with Kurt Russel featured waste disposal ships, although they were far more Star Warsy than Star Frontiers. Still, a large vessel could skim the atmosphere of a low grav disposal planet and dump in a similar manner.
Interesting connect this film has to Blade Runner however the 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Stil. I guess I'll have to track it down. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 3, 2016 - 11:13am | Medical frigate: seen or mentioned in Empire and Return of the Jedion. Who's dum Idea was it to take the medical frigate into battle in Return anyway? Large launch and shuttle outfitted as ambulances Based on the Star Frontiers frigate but only lightly armed. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 3, 2016 - 9:26pm | "Soldier" with Kurt Russel featured waste disposal ships, although they were far more Star Warsy than Star Frontiers. Still, a large vessel could skim the atmosphere of a low grav disposal planet and dump in a similar manner.
Interesting connect this film has to Blade Runner however the 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Stil. I guess I'll have to track it down. Yeah it really wasn't anything to write home about. Still, I'd watch it a hundred times before wasting my time with Sharknado 4 --- yes, they really are making another one of those. You might find it (Soldier, not Carpnado) at WalMart in a four pack for $5 (the other flicks included in the pack are Unlawful Entry, Executive Decision, and Tequila Sunrise). That's how I inadvertnetly came across it anyways. |
June 3, 2016 - 9:27pm | Medical frigate: seen or mentioned in Empire and Return of the Jedion. Who's dum Idea was it to take the medical frigate into battle in Return anyway?
FWIW the Nebulon B escort frigate that the med frigate was based on has a fair compliment of guns: The "medical frigate" conversion retained all of those guns. So taking it into battle was simply out of the need for some extra guns. Lest we forget, the Rebellion was not a well equipped or finely tuned operation, rather a rag tag collection of whatever they could get their hands on. Case in point: the guy that sold out Solo & Leia to the Empire was given the rank of General after he helped rescue the very people he sold out. No other operation would make a hero out of someone who rescues a victim from the burning house he set on fire prior to the rescue. ;) |
 June 6, 2016 - 6:32pm | I'd go with some Babylon 5 ships. But I'd also would like some Starblazers ship and maybe some LoGH ships as well. In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
June 7, 2016 - 5:15am | If you're looking for a garbage scow...anyone remember Quark? If not, it was a short-lived space comedy on NBC, I think. It starred Richard Benjamin and had Cyb and Trish Barnstable for the prerequisite 70's sitcom eye candy. The show made it 8 episodes, though I think only 6 made it to the air. You can't argue with the invincibly ignorant. - William F. Buckley |
June 7, 2016 - 11:02am |
If not, it was a short-lived space comedy on NBC, I think. It starred Richard Benjamin and had Cyb and Trish Barnstable for the prerequisite 70's sitcom eye candy. The show made it 8 episodes, though I think only 6 made it to the air. Wow! Never heard of Quark, interesting find and double mint twins to boot! I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 7, 2016 - 11:08am | I'll also vote for Red Dwarf. Joe Cabadas |
June 7, 2016 - 11:11am | And let's not forget Starbug 1 from RD too.  Joe Cabadas |
June 8, 2016 - 2:32pm | YouTube has the first episode of Quark available. It also has bits and pieces of episodes. The opening scene has him catching a giant bag of space garbage. You can't argue with the invincibly ignorant. - William F. Buckley |
