The Wayfarer's Silhouette

By Icosiel, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

This has been bugging me since me and my players have started our campaign. They have a Wayfarer, and while it is definitely bigger than the YT-1300 and its ilk, it does not feel quite up to Silhouette 5. I look at other Silhouette 5 ships and they are much, much larger than the Wayfarer. The Corellian Corvette is 150 meters, and the Marauder-class is 195 meters long. For comparison, the Space Needle is 184 meters tall. That's gigantic. These are absolutely small capitol ships. At 85 meters, the Wayfarer shouldn't even be in the same class as them. If you look at the deck plan of the Wayfarer on wookieepedia, is really isn't that much larger than a lot of the other transports.

I've really had a hard time rationalizing this in my head. This kind of thing always bugs the crap out of me. Should the Wayfarer be Silhouette 4? Am I missing something?

silhouette is fluid and a range of sizes.

But that range feels so large that it almost loses all meaning!

And that is something you are just going have to get over. :) It is the reality of the system.

Edited by Daeglan

A Wayfarer-class medium transport is more than twice as big as a YT-1300 light freighter.

It definitely makes more sense to put it in Silhouette 5, in my opinion. The 'range' of sizes gets larger with each Silhouette increase; it's not a linear progression.

silhuoette 5 is WAY too big. it is a logarithmic progression.

From what Sam Stewart has revealed about starship design we know that silhouette is a combination of size and use/purpose. Silhouette 5 is medium transports, gunships and ships of that type, i.e. larger, slower, bulkier than light freighters. We also know that size alone isn't the sole basis for silhouette.

I think it's more about how it handles, it crosses into the territory of "can't use Gain the Advantage"

From what Sam Stewart has revealed about starship design we know that silhouette is a combination of size and use/purpose. Silhouette 5 is medium transports, gunships and ships of that type, i.e. larger, slower, bulkier than light freighters. We also know that size alone isn't the sole basis for silhouette.

I second this.

I agree that the ship is somewhat small for a S5 but the way the ship is supposed to work mechanically is better represented by that number.

Edited by Ryoden

I think it's more about how it handles, it crosses into the territory of "can't use Gain the Advantage"

Nor many of the Maneuver options. Being a pilot on a Silhouette 5+ ship is incredibly limited for options.

I think that Sil 5 is getting a bit overused. I would say that the Wayfarer is sil 5. Like alot of the people who have already commented, I think its lack of mobility and large size pushes it up into the lower end of Sil 5. On the other hand, I think that the Marauder is too big for Sil 5. My personal view is that the ability to act as a carrier pushes it up into the lower end of Sil 6. I think the PB-950 is the worst tho, it was a fast gunboat about half way between the length of the YT-1300 and a Wayfarer, but they stuck it into Sil 5

I don't know. The ship touches the 5th yardline of each side of a standard American football field. The YT-1300 doesn't even reach the 45th yardline when measured from the goal line of the same size.

Edit: My players chose the Wayfarer and had a chance to trade it out for something a bit maneuverable. They were about to trade it in for a YT-2400 when I reminded them of the hanger bay attachment. They decided to keep the Beast of Burden.

Edited by kaosoe

also a s5 can carry 1 or 2 s3 starfighter, where a s4 can not. this could be why it is a s5 and not a s4