The Pirate ship Daedelus.
Crew: 18, plus 4 officers.
What do you see here?
The grid has been demphasized, while rooms have been made visible. I had some help making that work, as I dunno how to photoshop.
The PCs decide what goes where, and have in front of them a list of ship's features.
What sort of ship does this look like to you?
The little stubby wings remind me of the ship from Laserblast.
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I wonder if the Free Trader uses the same model.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I had no problem visualizing the shape and layout of the ship.
ReplyDeleteSo John, you have no trouble visualizing the shape and layout of the ship. What kind of ship does it strike you as? Prison-scow? Ore-hauler? What does the layout convey?
ReplyDeleteI will recuse myself from offering speculation. As one of those who played that session, I have far too much information to give good feedback on what the picture, as a lone artifact, conveys.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what the ship does. Not enough crew for a troop transport. Not enough guns to be a battleship. Not enough cargo space to be a cargo hauler. Ion drives are not very powerful, so it can't be a tugboat. It looks entirely smooth and self-contained, so it's not an attachment platform for larger stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to hazard a guess, I'd guess it's just a small general-purpose people and cargo mover, aka a space-van. Maybe if you had a buncha large space stations or generation ships, this thing would be handy for moving people and stuff from station to station.
John Hattan Given the layout, that makes good sense. How could it be profitable?
ReplyDeleteSame way you make money with a light truck/van -
ReplyDelete1) Fill a niche no one else is, like being a regional p2p courier.
2) move things that you have to be on-call for (like organs for transplant)
3) obv, move things that are illegal, or move legal things in an illegal way. Smuggling.
4) long-range taxi service, with extra money for 'no questions asked'
Just general purpose "ship for hire" tasks. Kinda like the Millennium Falcon, only bigger. Good for moving small cargoes of people or goods.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is that it seems a bit like a submarine, in that it's completely self-contained and could probably hold a small crew for a long time. If it had a cloaking device, it'd probably work for "sneak up on a ship, shoot holes in it, and then hide behind the nearest asteroid" tasks, like a WWII submarine.
One complaint. The rounded winged shape suggests that it's capable of atmospheric travel as well as space. But ion engines are intended to run a long time, not be powerful enough to push a ship through an atmosphere.
Although perhaps it was built planet-side and then boosted into space, explaining the shape. A bit like the Space Shuttle -- its onboard engines aren't powerful enough to justify its shape, but it does need to be streamlined so it can be boosted into orbit.
... or the fuselage itself is the same chassis that the mfgr uses for atmospheric ships. With heavy modifications, of course, but it's still the same chassis.
ReplyDeleteDoes your analysis include the middle floor of the ship? Apart from the Ion Drives, that is.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have taken the question of "What kind of ship is it?" and answered the question "What job does the ship do?"
FWIW, I look at it more like a house, and say "What kind of place is this to live, and what does that imply about the people who live there?", and I'm wondering whether any of that comes across from the map.
Yeah, the middle floor is a big living quarters with a media room and (I presume) a bar. Again, this is a good ship to be stuck on for quite a long time.
ReplyDeleteJohn Hattan I think what Tony is getting at is: What sort of house has a bar, a media room, and a holosuite?
ReplyDeleteA rich person's house :)
ReplyDeleteAnd what do we deduce if this is run by a couple dozen pirates?
ReplyDeleteIt was stolen.
ReplyDeleteA stolen yacht, repurposed for a pirate gang to go gallivanting across the cosmos. They've got ion drives, solar sales, and a forward gun. Its not the best ship for the purpose, but it is the most fun to live on!
ReplyDeleteAs of now, they only ship trying to murder them I've introduced was an easily defeated space cop. Maybe I make that a thing.
That'll work. Maybe the front nose-cone was a big transparent observation deck, but the pirates repurposed it into a gun turret.
ReplyDeleteThat'd also explain why a ship with a crew of maybe 20 people would have such a large brig. More like hostage storage :)
ReplyDeleteWe just enforce a kind and benevolent justice on the law-breaking crews of other ships we come across, that's all!
ReplyDeleteUntil they willingly choose to join the crew.
ReplyDeleteApprentice spacers get a quarter share. Ordinary Spacers get a half share. Able Spacers get a full share.
The Officers probably get 10 shares.
Does this thing have bathrooms and showers?
ReplyDeleteNot shown, John Hattan . I'd hope there's sanitation facilities in the crew quarters.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the brig used to be a bathroom and locker room. Pirates don't need such luxury so they repurposed it :)
ReplyDeleteLikely the boarding room was a sauna, with a big hot tub.
ReplyDelete