Looking for a Large cargo freighter

By bboi018, in Game Masters

Ahhh, so I have come to the forums again seeking the wise forum collective.

Background. I plan on having my PCs caught and arrested by the imperials. They are to be put onto a transport ship (large enough to carry their Silhouette 4 ship) capable of carrying prisoners and guards. Not necessarily a LARGE ship such as a Star Destroyer. Maybe a crew of 10 or so..with upwards of 20 guards and some 30-50 prisoners.

I need help looking for this said transport ship. I have looked at the Action transport ship and wayfarer class ship, but I am unsure if it is large enough to house multiple silhouette 3 & 4 ships. I am capable of building the interior deck plan.

I have also looked at the concealer class transport ship, but I haven't been able to find a picture of the ship anywhere.

Any help is appreciated.

Normally, a ship needs to be 2 or more greater in Silhouette than the ships it carries. If you want to carry Silhouette 4 ships, this would point to a Silhouette 6+ vessel. None of these are likely to meet the very low number of guards you're wanting to have. You might want to relax the restriction on crew and guards - the PCs don't have to interact with them all (consider the total crew of the Death Star and how it didn't matter to the heroes' escape). If you relax your crew/guard limits, the Nebulon-B from the core rulebook is a fine light Imperial warship, and it could fit a hangar attachment capable of holding up to five light freighters.

HappyDaze,

a Hanger attachment? or just docked onto the ship's docking stations?

What does this hanger attachment look like and where is it attached to?

It's a modification option you can add using an existing HP on a ship.

Yeah, there's nothing in official canon I can think of that fits the bill, so you might just want to build your own vessel (does it even need to be statted out?)

As happy said, plan on sil 6 if you want to be consistent with existing material, though you can probably cheat and get away a high end sil 5 if you keep the sil 4 craft as externally clamped instead of internally hangered.

Also if its a gm crafted vessel you can ignore the retrofitted hanger bay attachment and just dictate the carried craft. The attachment is to keep players from going ridiculous, not to actually sent any realistic hard limits.

Edited by Ghostofman

The Star Galleon from the core rulebook is also Silhouette 6 and can fit a hangar bay attachment (if you're worried about such rules). It's pretty much a big (armed) transport that could hold up to 300 passengers (a mix of guards and prisoners, likely about 60 guards to 240 prisoners would be fine). The passenger area (prison) would likely be isolated from most of the ship's actual crew of 150.

If the ship you need for the scenario is just a set piece, then I wouldn't worry about coming up with a full stat block for it.

All you really need to know is the following:

- How big is it in comparison to the group's own ship?

- What sort of security does it have between the prison block and where the group's ship is?

- When the PCs do get to their ship and flee, what kind of firepower could it bring to bear?

If the captors are Imperial, you could just put them an an older Victory-class Star Destroyer, and if AoR Beta is not in your library, simply figure it has several light turbolasers and a tractor beam it could bring to bear once the group does manage to flee.

Also, as for size of vessels stored, Silhouette only matters when adding the Retrofitted Hanger Bay attachment to a ship. The Marauder-class assault corvette (page 267) is listed as Silhouette 5, and has a complement of 12 starfighters and 2 shuttles. Most of the shuttles we've seen have been Silhouette 4, which are too big for the Retrofitted Hanger Bay, but is perfectly acceptable for the Marauder because the hanger bay is part of the ship's standard design. Similar case with the Nebulon-B frigate, which can store up to 72 points' worth of Silhouette 3 starfighters (for a total of 24 starfighers), far more than the 25 that a fully modified Retrofitted Hanger Bay attachment can hold in a ship of similar size. And again, the Nebulon-B can get away with this because its hanger space is once again part of the ship's standard design.

Some of the EU elaborates on the Empire using freighter-type ships (mostly silhouette 4-ish) as customs patrol vessels whose job is to engage smugglers, destroy them, or disable them if the Empire wants to board them (think ion cannons).

If boarding and once disabled, typically the vessel will extend a docking tube to the boarding area of the victim (often tube to tube or entry hatch), or, if necessary, up against the victim ship's hull and simply cut through it (you do run the risk of vacuum with this method).

So this won't really work if your ship is supposed to be inside the Imperial ship, but you can accomplish the same sort of adventure if the PCs are boarded, enemies are armed with stun setting (or stun grenades), and the party would then be taken into custody.

For this sort of thing, you could use the Marauder-Class Corvette on this, CRB p267, The Citadel-Class Light Freighter on page 260, a few Skipray Blastboats on page 259, or even a Lambda armed with ion weapons, page 256.

do what real writers in the star wars universe do. make your own ship to fit your needs. The problem is when you get up to Silhouette 5 or 6, the crew compliment gets exponentially bigger, especially with a built in hanger

As others have said, make your own!

Otherwise, you can just take a ship that you already like that may or may not fit the bill as-is and tweak it. For example, the FarStar is really nothing more than a C90 Corvette with a hangar bay attached. You can easily do that with a couple of the Sil5 "Medium Transports" if you really wanted to.

Also remember that a lot of ship designs have come about by taking an already existing ship design and tweaking it for a new purpose. For example: Star Destroyers. Need I say more? (If I do, then compare the different types of Star Destroyers amongst each other and take a look at the Interdictor Cruisers).

Just my thoughts there for you.

Another thing to consider is transporting a ship doesn't require a 'hanger' per say. A hanger is needed for functional deployment, maintenance and use. But if you look at Mac trucks carrying cars or even trains for that matter, I wouldn't say either has a 'hanger attachment.' Unless you are in an action movie, (which Star Wars is), you aren't driving off smoothly in a car loaded on top of a moving Mac Truck with 12 cars loaded on it.

So put them on some bulk freighter, like the GR-75 Transport or Action VI Bulk Transport, that is hauling the prisoners and other recovered assets in storage. Their ship would be one of those stored assets (and there may even be others from the other prisoners.

Let the PC's shoot out/sneak/trick their way to their ship while chaos of a break out and others trying to do the same is happening. Then add some fun of them making a non-standard exit. Maybe even throw in some moral issues with 'do we blast our way through the wall even though it may open up a section of the ship with other prisoners to space?'

And to round it out, you can add some escort fighters so they can shoot it out with some lower threat ships while not having the 'Oh my goodness a Neb-B or bigger is going to shoot us to pieces' threat looming over them.

If you need to spice it up, the transport could be part of fleet action convoy so there can be some other ships in the area to reinforce with fighters/themselves to increase tension and keep the action moving while again still not having the 'we start space combat five meters from a Star Destroyer' issue.

This could even lead to a great plot development as just saw a major staging point for the Empire doing 'Insert Operation Evil Name' that works with your campaign setup. They aren't just escaped prisoners, but in possession of some valuable military information. What do they do with it? Nothing? Sell it to the Zaan Consortium/Black Sun/the hutts? Do they try to feed it to the Rebels?

Or go the other route and let them even capture the Transport with some goodies in tact and see what happens when a massive pirate haul is scored. Do they even go pirate? If so, how/where would you they move those goods? What of the other prisoners? The question won't be 'do they get obligation' but 'how much and in what form does it take.'

Edited by Prost

Also don't forget to have Rebellion ships show up to try and attempt their own break out, just as your group is about to leave! Giant space battle! Everyone shooting at you!

I need help looking for this said transport ship. I have looked at the Action transport ship and wayfarer class ship, but I am unsure if it is large enough to house multiple silhouette 3 & 4 ships. I am capable of building the interior deck plan.

I have also looked at the concealer class transport ship, but I haven't been able to find a picture of the ship anywhere.

Any help is appreciated.

When you say you are looking for a ship, do you mean just stat wise?

Or are you looking for a ship deck-plan that you can then give EotE stats to it?

There are a LOT of good deck-plans out there that are not 'officially' Star Wars, but are really close and serve as great ships for game. I don't usually print them out big enough to run mini's on them, but an 8x11 print usually gives the player a great visualization of the ship.

There is the Rendili Stardrives Lictor-Class from the old Dark Empire sourcebook (D6 era) which was a Mandalorian dungeon ship adopted by the Empire.

Length 764m, Crew 860, 46 gunners, 400 security wardens, 8000 prisoners in general population, 1000 prisoners in extra-naughty holding.

Cargo, 1500 tonnes, 2 months consumables

Hyperdrive x 2, basic nav-comp for 2 jumps

Very good sensors and 10 x Quad-Turbolaser batteries and 2 tractor beams on turrets.

Its big, its ugly, its old, probably smells and don't drop the soap.

I'm looking for a deckplan. The stats are irrelevant.

As Prost says, I will probably put them on an Action Bulk Transport or a Nebulon ship or the Lictor-class dungeon ship.

my custom campaign hasn't reached that far yet. so I've yet to develop a deckplan. I was hoping there was a deckplan out there on the internet already, but I haven't found one thats large enough.

I will probably end up developing my own deckplan.

Edited by bboi018

Search for Action IV bulk freighter deck plan in google. Look at the image hits. top of the page (for me) was a series of layered plans for an Action IV.

I've also got plans for an Action VI if you want them.

Action_VI.jpg