So my party has bought their first spaceship (Incom A-36 Pathfinder). However, they have some planetary vehicles (a lanspeeder with four seats and an 4-seated airspeeder). A-36 has Encumberance Capacity = 40.

And they want to carry at least one of those cars around the Galaxy!

My questions are:

1) How do I calaculate space that is required to carry one vehicle inside of another one?
And what limimiting factors apply in general? Ship is not very wide.

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2) From the Star Wars: Empire at War PC game I rememeber that there are some planets, where repulsor vehicles can't be used for some reason.
On which planets it happened and why?

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I think you're over analysing it. Just say it can or it can't based on the best judgement of your group. If it helps the party to have fun by transporting their personal speeder around, I'd just go with it.

Fun > precise numbers, in most cases.

This isn't d&d or pathfinder friend. Chimpy is right, use judgement based on the STORY YOU WANT TO TELL. This game is cinematic at its core! It doesn't matter how many shots are left in the clip, when you roll a despair your out of ammo!

If you get my meaning: don't worry down to the nth degree about every detail, tell your story! If it fits, it fits; if you need to have them in a different vessel for your story arc, it doesn't fit.

Tell your story, just be consistent.

Ok, thank you!

I think (and I'm sure someone can correct me) that you aren't supposed to be able to carry a vehicle inside a vehicle, Rules As Written, without the Retrofitted Hanger Bay vehicle attachment.

But my players are flying a Wayfarer, which is commonly illustrated as carrying 2 X-Wings in its cargo bay, so I said they could act as though they already had it for their ship, and purchase the attachment "for real" if they wanted to increase capacity, to represent a complete retooling of their cargo equipment to accommodate a larger suite of on-ship vehicles.

TL;DR: What Chimpy said!

I think (and I'm sure someone can correct me) that you aren't supposed to be able to carry a vehicle inside a vehicle, Rules As Written, without the Retrofitted Hanger Bay vehicle attachment.

But my players are flying a Wayfarer, which is commonly illustrated as carrying 2 X-Wings in its cargo bay, so I said they could act as though they already had it for their ship, and purchase the attachment "for real" if they wanted to increase capacity, to represent a complete retooling of their cargo equipment to accommodate a larger suite of on-ship vehicles.

TL;DR: What Chimpy said!

The idea is that you can't deploy a vehicle without the RHB. My PCs also chose a wayfarer, and I ruled that they were able to carry starfighters in it, but in order to load and unload them, they had to detach the pod and haul them out. Once they got the RHB, they were able to open a hatch and fly those suckers out into space.

As others have said, you should really decide where you stand on the "rule of cool vs. realism" spectrum on a personal level, but if you want to talk realism...

There's pretty much 4 levels of vehicle-in-vehicle storage typically seen:

1. Can't do it.

2. Requires disassembly (parts in crates, to be rebuilt at the destination)

3. Treat as cargo (tied down complete in a bay, requires loading/unloading at destination)

4. Host vehicle may serve as platform (fighters in a docking bay, the shuttle on the Ghost , etc.)

Obviously, more and more room is required as you go up.

In your particular case, if it were in my own, personal game where I was the GM , I'd take one look at that cargo hold and flatly rule out anything bigger than a swoop/speeder bike, and at that, they'd need to devote the entire cargo hold to making it happen. A landspeeder or larger simply wouldn't fit through the ramp hatch, and it's clear based on the size of the medical bed that it's a small, fairly cramped ship. It's designed as a scoutship, light, small, fast, and not many frills.

If it were a Ghtroc freighter, especially with the large central hydraulic lift, then you could probably drive landspeeders onto the lift 3 wide, and load them all up at once, straight into the hold, but for this particular craft, it's designed to a different purpose.

I'd rule a retro fitted hanger would allow it to get in and out quickly... No hanger bay and it takes time (more than any combat would allow) so that if they want their cake and want to eat it then they have to pay.

Edit: also without the hanger bay loading takes a while too, so no quick getaways.

For your second question, just have it as and when you want that to be an issue for PC's to deal with.

I am in the camp of "Do you want them to have it?" It sounds cool so go for it. Perhaps they can retrofit it in some way externally to the ship (think of the Ghost on Rebels). I would have it cost them something (credits, obligation, etc) and go with the flow. I don't think there is anything overly game breaky about them having access to a landspeeder when they need it. In fact, it can solve some story issues sometimes.

Perhaps they can retrofit it in some way externally to the ship (think of the Ghost on Rebels).

Is that a retrofit?

I was under the impression that was a standard feature of that ship...in fact, in a game I'm currently getting started, I was planning on offering the players either the same ship (VCX-100, I think?) or roughly statting out another ship or two in the line (perhaps a VCX-200 and VCX-300) which would be a somewhat larger light freighter and a smallish medium freighter, as alternate options for them. I liked the stock compatibility with the shuttle for gameplay purposes...

Is that a retrofit?

I am not really sure. I would have to go and see what exactly the rules say about storing things in thing. I know there was also a pretty lenghy discussion on the Order66 Podcast about this a number of episodes ago... although, they were talking about a listener putting fighters in a ship.

My thinking though is, letting the players have a landspeeder to get around when on a planet is not really unbalancing, so who cares. I would probably look over what other modifications cost and just make something up. You could even make it some crazy mod they heard about somewhere on the Holonet... next thing you know, you have a whole side mission...

Well depending on what sort of game you're running, you can obviously do whatever you like. For my own tastes, though, I prefer at least a semblance of realism...and in this case, I don't really see a landspeeder (roughly the size of Luke's X-34) as something that would fit up the ramp, let alone to be able to be situated in any reasonable way in that hold. I suppose with the rule of cool, you could allow them to haul a speeder around in a Z-95 too... But really, that's kind of the tradeoff. Want a ship that can dogfight with TIEs? You don't get to bring along all the creature comforts. Want to travel a bit more comfortably? You're going to have to rely on good gunners, strong shields, and some luck.

In this case, if that's the ship they want and no other, as a GM my simple response would be, "You really only have room to haul one small speeder bike, and at that, you're losing most of your cargo space to do it. On the plus side, it really doesn't require any special mods to the ship, as you can fit it up the ramp, and there are cargo tie-downs built into the walls and floor that you can use to secure it."

I was going to write a response, but then I saw Hydrospanner's comments, which exactly duplicated my own. I wanted to stress a few of the most important points in my opinion.

...I'd take one look at that cargo hold...

This.

In your particular case, ... [i'd] flatly rule out anything bigger than a swoop/speeder bike, and at that, they'd need to devote the entire cargo hold to making it happen. A landspeeder or larger simply wouldn't fit through the ramp hatch, and it's clear based on the size of the medical bed that it's a small, fairly cramped ship.

And this.


You've got the ship deckplan, just take a look at it and make a decision. That's very common in this game. As it has been stated, this isn't a simulation-style RPG. The numbers are mearly suggestions. Common sense and fun should rule the day.

My party has a YV-560, and at one point, they were carrying a V5 Medium Cargo Floater, and a swoop bike. I use Domingo's plans for their ship, and we just said that the cargo area's (8) floor lowered, like many cargo loading ramps, for ease of access.

Was the floater too large to fit onto the cargo elevator? Probably. But I allowed it regardless.

Is there really any room for the swoop? Nope. but I allowed it also. We said they use the boarding ramp (1), and worked it around the hallway (3) to the port-side corridor (11). Or if they were in a hurry, just left it on the boarding ramp.

They hardly use their ship for big cargo, so I just ruled that they didn't have room for anything else, and it was cramped on the ship since they had to move other things around to make them fit.

I gave them a setback or two during ship combat when they tried moving from one station on the ship to another, or while trying to do in-flight repairs and system strain reduction. They ended up selling them eventually, but they sure remember having them onboard, because they (or things they displaced) were always in the way! They still talk about tripping over them constantly.