SFRPG

Unlike Traveller, which gives you exact measurements of your ship's decks (1 ton = 2x 1.5mx1.5mx3m cubes), SWN uses more abstract ship design elements (which, by the way, I prefer over the Traveller ones). Therefore I'd like to hear your opinion on how to create deck plans for SWN ships - should I go free-hand or follow some sort of guidelines, and how much of a ship is unpassable mass (e.g. fuel, drive machinery) and how big is each ship category.

Help would be appreciated.

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Any ideas?

_________________
We are but a tiny candle flickering against the darkness of our times.

Stellagama Publishing - Visit our Blog, Den of the Lizard King

Someone with multiple sfrpgs should compare size req. for engines and the like. I personally wing it, tho it would be nice to have some guidelines.

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We are but a tiny candle flickering against the darkness of our times.

Stellagama Publishing - Visit our Blog, Den of the Lizard King

I would say that you can sort of wing it. Each ship class actually represents a range of sizes/masses so you can do what you wish.

In general, I have used the following Traveller comparisons:

Shuttle/Fighter: 50-100 Dtons
Frigate: 200-1000 Dtons
Cruiser: 2000-5000 Dtons
Carrier: 10000 - 50000 Dtons
Dreadnaught: 100000 - 500000 Dtons (my category for PreTech relics)

A shuttle/fighter should be about the size of a...well... shuttle or large airplane. Anything from an F18 to a Traveller Scout/Courier
A Frigate should be a Player sized ship - Free Trader or a bit larger.
Cruisers should be big enough that detailed deck plans are probably not required.
Carrier is Enterprise sized (TOS) or Star Destroyer sized (SW)
Dreadnaughts are New Enterprise sized (ST:NG) or Super Star Destroyer sized (SW)

Again, these are guidelines.

Personally, I would make Engines completely uninhabitable and have all engineers work at remote stations.

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Thanks for your advice! It really helped and I like it!

_________________
We are but a tiny candle flickering against the darkness of our times.

Stellagama Publishing - Visit our Blog, Den of the Lizard King

I agree on the SWN over Traveller. I use the deck plans from Wydraz I got them from Drive thru rpg. My players like them well enough.

The advantage of SWN over Traveller (except for LBB2) in terms of ship design is that the design system is play-focused rather than "realism"-focused - you don't do much calculations, you just pick a hull you like and put stuff in it.

_________________
We are but a tiny candle flickering against the darkness of our times.

Stellagama Publishing - Visit our Blog, Den of the Lizard King

I would love just one little extra bit of guidelines from Kevin on that stuff. I was thrown a bit by the Hard Light supplement and the part where it shows the space station's docking bay. A frigate can fit in that? It's TINY.