Hey all, I'm looking for a small ship, think the Raptor from the Battlestar Gallactica reboot, but can't seem to find the right thing - currently leaning to a skipray with weapons removed and replaced with more hardpoints for sensors and other scouting gear.

I'm away from book (and don't have my copies of Suns of Fortune or Dangerous covenants), but I'm looking for something official, has at most total room for 5 people and as close to the size of a starfighter as possible, hence currently going for the modified skipray.

Hey all, I'm looking for a small ship, think the Raptor from the Battlestar Gallactica reboot, but can't seem to find the right thing - currently leaning to a skipray with weapons removed and replaced with more hardpoints for sensors and other scouting gear.

I'm away from book (and don't have my copies of Suns of Fortune or Dangerous covenants), but I'm looking for something official, has at most total room for 5 people and as close to the size of a starfighter as possible, hence currently going for the modified skipray.

Don't have the book open right at the moment, but that's going to be found in Enter the Unknown. The A-24 is a 1 pilot, 1 passenger scout ship, Silhouette 3, and there's a larger, Silhouette 4 version, the A-36, with room for more crew and passengers. Also the Loronar E-9 scout ship or the CEC YV-560. All silhouette 4. More ships in there with Medium or greater sensors that are silhouette 4 as well.

I'm AFB as well currently so I can't help give ideas for ships in the books. Depending on what background you have for the ship, I sort like the idea of a repurposed Skipray. If that's what you end up going with, I think you'd be entirely justified stripping some weapons and giving it an extra hardpoint for each one removed. That should give you more than enough hardpoints to then "upgrade" it and turn it into a decent small crew scouting vessel.

If you don't mind a 2 person ship for a scout ship, the Jumpmaster 5000 from the Core Rulebook has sensors out to extreme range. It's silhouette 4 though, but that's still the same size in game terms as the Skipray Blast Boat you mentioned.

You've got 5 options: A-24 'Sleuth', A-36 'Pathfinder, Firespray Patrol Boat, gat-12H 'Skipray' and PPB Pocket Patrol Boat

A-24: Cheapest and smallest option. Very fast, but lacks any type of durability. 3HP for Customization (2nd Most).

A-36: Solid Speed and heartier than the 1-24. has a Sensor Operator spot. 2HP for Customization.

Firespray: Solid speed and second most durable of the patrol boats. Lacks a 'crew' but has more room than the A-24. With 4HP it's the most customizable of the Patrol Boats.

GAT-12H: The most armored and heartiest of the bunch, but also the slowest. Has 'crew' spots, including a Sensor Operator. 2HP for customization.

PPB: Fairly nimble with the same speed as the Firespray, but a little less durable. Has a 'crew' with a Sensor Officer. 2HP for customization.

With all that, Skipray or PPB are going to 'feel' most like a raptor, and the A-36 also allows for a larger crew. But you could allow your group to heavily customize a Firespray and substitute the two 'guard' chairs for a Gunner and a Sensor Operator... You're Pilot may be mad, but it'll let him focus on being a better pilot and not necessarily a mix between a pilot and a gunner . You could give the team a couple of escort fighters, like X-Wings (since they can operate on Hyperspace lanes), for more of the 'Battlestar' feel.

I think I'm going to go with the skipray. The other ships are too small or too large.

The campaign idea is similar to star trek voyager. A large capitil ship type scoutship has a hyperdrive malfunction leading the to the farside of the unknown regions then kacks out. The only ship with a working hyperdrive is for short range scouting, not long term travel. The premise is the party (of up to 4 players) can go into the ship jump to a location, adventure, then jump back. There has to be no way to carry large cargo in the ship, or extra supplies for distance travel.

This is why I wanted a raptor like scoutship. The a24 was perfect except for the two crew. Similar for the jumpmaster. But the ship has to be small enough to dock inside a larger ship, along with two sublight fighters.

Currently the homeship is a action VI.

People are missing what goes into a good "scout" ship-

Sensors

Both the A24 and A36 are standard with Medium range sensors, which is quite good.