Viper Probe Droids travel to worlds in single-use one-way hyperspace pods. I have a few questions about these pods.

Have we been given game stats for these pods in any published product?

If not, what would be an appropriate Price/Rarity?

Can such a pod be modified to carry other types of droids? What about modifying them to carry a human or another sentient (if that being had their own life support)? For example, could the Rebels put a team of covert agents into pods and make a hyperspace-based equivalent to a HALO insertion?

Well all i can see is they are in Force and destiny entry for the Viper Probe droid. Not aware of any other Entries. All it says under the write up is that they travel via Hyper Space pod. But seeing as how they are specifically for the probe droid I would think no life support. And based on Empire they don't really have any kind of maneuvering or landing system. They basically intentionally crash on the planet so as to look like a meteor so as to not raise suspicion. So I don't think it would be safe at all for a living being to travel via hyperspace pod. Probably a crash absorption system to protect the droid that is folded up for travel. I imagine they have a 1x hyperdrive as you want your probe to arrive quickly to give you data. And because the whole package is so small that is reasonable. The Droid is listed as 13k credits and I suspect that includes the pod.

Rather than those specific pods, I am envisioning a similar piece of gear designed for non-droids that would break up in the upper atmosphere where the occupant (wearing sealed armor with personal life support and a grav chute) would then drop onto the world. This is more like HAHO techniques for inserting special forces. I don't really have any reason to doubt that SW tech couldn't pull this off, I was mainly wondering if the pods or something like this had already been detailed in the RPG.

2 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Rather than those specific pods, I am envisioning a similar piece of gear designed for non-droids that would break up in the upper atmosphere where the occupant (wearing sealed armor with personal life support and a grav chute) would then drop onto the world. This is more like HAHO techniques for inserting special forces. I don't really have any reason to doubt that SW tech couldn't pull this off, I was mainly wondering if the pods or something like this had already been detailed in the RPG.

Not as far as i know. I think a U Wing might be a better method and cheaper.

43 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Not as far as i know. I think a U Wing might be a better method and cheaper.

Yeah, I can see that.

I do wonder about a few points on the U-wing...

The stats in Dawn of Rebellion list it as having a Class 2 hyperdrive while a more recent canon souce (2018's Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles) says it has a Class 1 hyperdrive. I'm wondering if I should just switch it to Class 1 baseline or if I should just stick to Class 2.

Also, the rules allowing the switching of a mounted weapon for another one (that isn't "twin") without costing a hard point do not seem to care if the weapon is personal or planetary scale. With the U-wing, it is rules legal to switch the normal door guns out for heavy repeating blasters (personal), auto-blasters (planetary), or even quad laser cannons (planetary). Of those, only the heavy repeating blaster is Restricted and it is also the highest in Rarity (8). Meanwhile, the auto-blaster is not Restricted, has the lowest Rarity (3), and is the cheapest of the three by far.

I can't really see a rules reason not to upgrade the door guns to auto-blasters, and then you get something like the below image on each side of the U-wing.

The above is the GAU-19/B in a door gun mount.

Well I see no reason why you cant on the hyperdrive. I see no issue.

Autoblasters makes sense to me. I mean look at what happened to the AT ACT

9 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Autoblasters makes sense to me. I mean look at what happened to the AT ACT

I'm just worried that auto-blasters are too much of an improvement over heavy repeating blasters yet are half the price, 5 points lower of Rarity (it's easier to find an auto-blaster for sale than it is to find a blaster pistol for sale), and are not Restricted. The scale rules really suck, and the fact that costs don't scale makes things pretty crazy.

I mean, I could totally see replacing the light repeating blasters with heavy repeating blasters, but what's the point when the auto-blaster is better in every way (except for maintaining game balance)?

1 minute ago, HappyDaze said:

I'm just worried that auto-blasters are too much of an improvement over heavy repeating blasters yet are half the price, 5 points lower of Rarity (it's easier to find an auto-blaster for sale than it is to find a blaster pistol for sale), and are not Restricted. The scale rules really suck, and the fact that costs don't scale makes things pretty crazy.

I mean, I could totally see replacing the light repeating blasters with heavy repeating blasters, but what's the point when the auto-blaster is better in every way (except for maintaining game balance)?

Well I assume this is for a military campaign and if the mission calls for it autoblasters they get them. other wise they get heavy repeating blasters.

Just now, Daeglan said:

Well I assume this is for a military campaign and if the mission calls for it autoblasters they get them. other wise they get heavy repeating blasters.

It's likely to be whatever weapons the PCs' cell equips their birds with. By the RAW, the auto-blasters are way cheaper, easier to find, and WAY more damaging.

Hard to judge with out more info. What the campaign is etc.

23 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Hard to judge with out more info. What the campaign is etc.

I'm looking at PCs running their own largely independent cell. The cell will have a handful of small craft for various missions. Initially, I was looking at a pair of U-wings rather than a single Lambda. The U-wings work great for a variety of missions, but upgrading the standard door guns (light repeating blaster) with auto-blasters is likely to happen quick, especially considering that they don't take HP, are fairly cheap, and are very easy to find. Once that happens, door gun fire support against personal scale targets becomes total overkill.

11 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

I'm looking at PCs running their own largely independent cell. The cell will have a handful of small craft for various missions. Initially, I was looking at a pair of U-wings rather than a single Lambda. The U-wings work great for a variety of missions, but upgrading the standard door guns (light repeating blaster) with auto-blasters is likely to happen quick, especially considering that they don't take HP, are fairly cheap, and are very easy to find. Once that happens, door gun fire support against personal scale targets becomes total overkill.

Allow it to happen. Then the empire prepares for their actions. Like Tie reaper air support

Hueys suck at air support when migs are gunning for them

18 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Allow it to happen. Then the empire prepares for their actions. Like Tie reaper air support

Hueys suck at air support when migs are gunning for them

That'll be what pushes them to install quad laser cannons in the door mounts. And these would still be non-Restricted, cheaper, and easier to find than heavy repeating blasters...

16 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

For example, could the Rebels put a team of covert agents into pods and make a hyperspace-based equivalent to a HALO insertion?

Closest I can think of for this is the "Squad Pod" from WEG spec ops handbook. Doesn't list a cost/rarity, but as it's really just a modified escape pod, then there's probably your baseline. So on the low end a squad pod is probably just an escape pod with the emergency beacon removed (making it probably Rarity 4 or 5 tops with a cost around 3,000). On the high end it's an escape pod with a few HP so you can also mount stealth gear (Rarity 6ish with a cost around 10,000). On the really high end it has a hyperdrive too (dedicated insertion vehicle, probably Restricted with a cost of 20-30k)...

10 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

The stats in Dawn of Rebellion list it as having a Class 2 hyperdrive while a more recent canon souce (2018's Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles) says it has a Class 1 hyperdrive. I'm wondering if I should just switch it to Class 1 baseline or if I should just stick to Class 2.

I'd leave it at 2 myself, but I consider the "encyclopedias" to only be one step above Wookieepedia. Until the hyperdrive class is mentioned in a film or TV show, it's not really, truly 100% canon...

10 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

I can't really see a rules reason not to upgrade the door guns to auto-blasters, and then you get something like the below image on each side of the U-wing.

As a GM, I'd say it typically has to be personal scale to be a "door gun." That GAU-19 is probably in line with an auto-blaster, but you can't pull it in and close the doors when it's time to break for low orbit... But no, there's not a RAW ruling on it.

2 hours ago, Ghostofman said:

As a GM, I'd say it typically has to be personal scale to be a "door gun." That GAU-19 is probably in line with an auto-blaster, but you can't pull it in and close the doors when t's time to break for low orbit... But no, there's not a RAW ruling on it.

I think this is your solution. Yes you can put a autoblaster on the door mount. But you wont be leaving the atmosphere and you wont be able to close the door.

Alternatively, if they go the auto blaster route. Only allow one to be mounted, so that you have room to pull it in. Could also adjust the troop capacity to account for the size of the weapon.

20 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

That'll be what pushes them to install quad laser cannons in the door mounts. And these would still be non-Restricted, cheaper, and easier to find than heavy repeating blasters...

Heavy repeating blasters are military grade, autoblasters and quads are considered defensive weapons to protect your ship from pirates. Even the Empire doesn't batt an eye at them ie they're not a threat to armored cruisers.

1 hour ago, Eoen said:

Heavy repeating blasters are military grade, autoblasters and quads are considered defensive weapons to protect your ship from pirates. Even the Empire doesn't batt an eye at them ie they're not a threat to armored cruisers.

There's no good real-world equivalent where machineguns are forbidden but light autocannons are legal.

Even in your example, anything that you can do with a heavy repeating blaster, you can do with even more overkill using an auto-blaster. The heavy repeating blaster can wipe out whole squads of stormtroopers, but the auto-blaster can kill a platoon in the same time. Remember that the auto-blaster is the concealed weapon on a Hutt's floater to be used for personal defense...

I personally would go for Ghostofman's and Agressor97's Solution, feels realistic.

As for the Quad Laser Cannons option, yes RAW says you can install them, but they are effing large, so forget 2 of them and also forget much of your passenger capacity in a U-Wing (where else would you put the large Xciter coils for those beasts?) if that thing is retractable from a U-Wing door is also really debatable....

Don't forget how large those Quad Laser Cannons are, it maybe possible in RAW but it makes very little to no sense at all for me to put them there, because they would be so large und unwieldy as to make you pay with alot of space and possibly even space-worthiness.

And as Aggressor97 stated, I'd take a similar approach to Autoblasters, yes they are possible, but they are also larger (not to the point of Quad Laser Cannons ofcourse) but the flexibility you get from "Infantry" Weaponry mounted in the door, and the downsides you take from mounting Shipgrade weaponry in their place should be obvious to your players atleast In-Universe.

I think this boils down to the core Rule of RPG's in general, no system is perfect, therefore what the GM says goes.
If something doesnt make sense, change it.

Trying to take a realworld example: Compare exchanging the repeating blasters with autoblasters with exchanging the Miniguns on a Blackhawk or somesuch with the next bigger weapon category such as Bushmaster Autocannons. I dont think that would work out, alone the size would make it impractical atleast.

2 minutes ago, Fl1nt said:

I personally would go for Ghostofman's and Agressor97's Solution, feels realistic.

As for the Quad Laser Cannons option, yes RAW says you can install them, but they are effing large, so forget 2 of them and also forget much of your passenger capacity in a U-Wing (where else would you put the large Xciter coils for those beasts?) if that thing is retractable from a U-Wing door is also really debatable....

Don't forget how large those Quad Laser Cannons are, it maybe possible in RAW but it makes very little to no sense at all for me to put them there, because they would be so large und unwieldy as to make you pay with alot of space and possibly even space-worthiness.

The U- wing is a Sil 4 ship, just like most light freighters, and changing weapons does nothing to crew, passenger, or cargo capacities in this game. Modifications can be made, and not everything needs to fit within the standard hull. A modified U-wing may end up looking very different from the ones seen in Rogue One.

11 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

The U- wing is a Sil 4 ship, just like most light freighters, and changing weapons does nothing to crew, passenger, or cargo capacities in this game. Modifications can be made, and not everything needs to fit within the standard hull. A modified U-wing may end up looking very different from the ones seen in Rogue One.

Yes, it is Sil 4.

And as per RAW that is absolutely correct, but RAW doesnt make much sense for this specific Ship / Application.

But the thing is, the standard hull encompasses an awfully small passenger room with the 2 mounting points for the door weapons.

When we mount larger weapons there, something will get sacrificed, or does the standard hull get magically enlarged when mounting larger weapons?

From my point of view its either you sacrifice space inside the craft or the weapons will be mounted outside of the doors (loosing the doors instead of fixed mounting points for larger weapons).

But back to the original topic:

I thinks its reasonable to have Powered Armor with special encasing doubling as drop-pods to make a planetfall.

As for the Hyperspace Pod thing, sure why not?
You could even just slab a disposable Hyperspace-Ring onto one of those Escape Pods from Episode 4 (but smaller, more specialized Pods might be alot cooler).
For sentient use I'd go with a larger pod holding multiple Special Forces operatives because its easier to fit a life support on a bigger hull, but I really like the sound of this and might actually nab the idea when confronting my players with the Empire attacking a Rebel held Planet they're on. (We're far enough in the timeline that they already encountered a Darktrooper Phase 1, so Darktrooper Drop-Pods might be a thing 🤪)

2 minutes ago, Fl1nt said:

Yes, it is Sil 4.

And as per RAW that is absolutely correct, but RAW doesnt make much sense for this specific Ship / Application.

But the thing is, the standard hull encompasses an awfully small passenger room with the 2 mounting points for the door weapons.

When we mount larger weapons there, something will get sacrificed, or does the standard hull get magically enlarged when mounting larger weapons?

From my point of view its either you sacrifice space inside the craft or the weapons will be mounted outside of the doors (loosing the doors instead of fixed mounting points for larger weapons).

But back to the original topic:

I thinks its reasonable to have Powered Armor with special encasing doubling as drop-pods to make a planetfall.

As for the Hyperspace Pod thing, sure why not?
You could even just slab a disposable Hyperspace-Ring onto one of those Escape Pods from Episode 4 (but smaller, more specialized Pods might be alot cooler).
For sentient use I'd go with a larger pod holding multiple Special Forces operatives because its easier to fit a life support on a bigger hull, but I really like the sound of this and might actually nab the idea when confronting my players with the Empire attacking a Rebel held Planet they're on. (We're far enough in the timeline that they already encountered a Darktrooper Phase 1, so Darktrooper Drop-Pods might be a thing 🤪)

Modified Hammerheads seen at Scarif had extra structures attached to each side of the hull. Something similar can be used as a way to fluff a mechanically legal modification.

10 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

There's no good real-world equivalent where machineguns are forbidden but light autocannons are legal.

Even in your example, anything that you can do with a heavy repeating blaster, you can do with even more overkill using an auto-blaster. The heavy repeating blaster can wipe out whole squads of stormtroopers, but the auto-blaster can kill a platoon in the same time. Remember that the auto-blaster is the concealed weapon on a Hutt's floater to be used for personal defense...

Sure there is armed merchantmen ships, have often legally existed in the real world, during times of war or piracy. Yeah if you use a cannon on people size targets there going to be slaughtered, that’s the whole point of that sort of weaponry.

10 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Modified Hammerheads seen at Scarif had extra structures attached to each side of the hull. Something similar can be used as a way to fluff a mechanically legal modification.

Im confused. Is your goal to prevent them from having autoblasters or not?

3 hours ago, Daeglan said:

Im confused. Is your goal to prevent them from having autoblasters or not?

Preventing it would have required a rule that differentiates planetary scale hard points from personal scale hard points and/or an overhaul to the gear section that makes the personal scale weapon options less expensive/more common/non-Restricted compared to planetary scale weapon options.