Hello! I call for the collective wisdom of this forum about SW ships. I have a few questions about ships I will post in this thread. Thanks for your inputs.

First question: I will soon run a SW D6 RPG game and I'm looking for a space transport ship to use for the char's home / mobile base of operations.

I really liked how the Ghost from Rebels had a docked starfighter ship that was integral to the vessel and not merely another ship latched to an airlock. I'm looking for something like that, so the Brash Pilot of the group can go "space ace" when needed but also dock for hyperspace and such. Two player ships also gives a lot of options for the game. Problem is the only ship with this capability I know of is the VCX-100, which is great, but it's also the renowned Spectre's ship (same reason I wouldn't give them a YT-1300).

So what other ships with significant background info, specially images and deckplans, could I possibly use?

In case I decide to go with the VCX, for easy access to pics and deckplans, I found this stats: https://rpggamer.org/page.php?page=4301 Are there official/widely accepted in any way?

Also found this other stats... https://rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5000&highlight=rebels+ghost+phantom

Bearing in mind that we see docking clamps in use on the Gozanti / Imperial Assault Carrier and a CR-90 in Rebels (and on a Nebulon B Frigate in ESB) there's a ready-made mechanic for you to include a snub fighter as an escort along with pretty much any freighter - it wouldn't need to be internally docked.

You could go with something small scale but classic like a BFF-1 or CSS-1 and just have a short range fighter or shuttle externally docked. Heck, a Gozanti itself isn't all that much bigger than the Ghost.

Mhhhh not sure giving them a smallish capital ship is a good starting point. And externally docked is exactly what I wanted to avoid. It would raise suspicions for a ship that's suppoused to be low profile (will gain notoriety on its own).

It's a Legends design, but would this work?

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wayfarer-class_medium_transport

9 hours ago, LUZ_TAK said:

Mhhhh not sure giving them a smallish capital ship is a good starting point. And externally docked is exactly what I wanted to avoid. It would raise suspicions for a ship that's suppoused to be low profile (will gain notoriety on its own).

Fair enough, but the Gozanti is far from a smallish capital ship. It's a very commonly used cargo / passenger freighter that's not much bigger than the VCX-100.

But yeah, if you're looking for an internal compartment, @Hiemfire 's idea would work. Worth noting as well that the cargo canisters on the BFF-1 were sometimes used as improvised / disguised hangars in the X-Wing PC game.

How about selecting any of the ships from SWTOR or even Rogue Shadow? There are lots of deck plans and I'm sure you could find a video touring them from the games if you dont play. Then design up your own integral fighter fitting, for something maybe like the Inquisitors TIE which is fairly small if you resize the main ship and use the cockpit like an underbelly gun ball, maybe folding wings designed in any of the ways you like.

You could always go with a YV-666 and a Z-95. It would allow for any customization that you or your PC's want to do to the ships. For an RPG, you could pretty well do anything that you can conceivably justify. It doesn't necessarily have to fit perfectly into a preconceived game set up, just make enough sense that it works for you and your group.

A more expensive option would be to grab any 3D Printed Freighter you would like from Mel's, give it a customized paint scheme, and have some fun that way.

Most importantly is that you can adapt any of the existing docking mechanics that already exist for X-wing into your campaign and specific needs with just a few minor changes.

Having a great time and enjoying the interactions between PC's, NPC's, and Terrain (Obstacles) is the goal.

Please let us know what you decide to do, we may just wind up adapting it for some of our own home brewed games.

On 7/14/2020 at 7:00 AM, FTS Gecko said:

Fair enough, but the Gozanti is far from a smallish capital ship. It's a very commonly used cargo / passenger freighter that's not much bigger than the VCX-100.

But yeah, if you're looking for an internal compartment, @Hiemfire 's idea would work. Worth noting as well that the cargo canisters on the BFF-1 were sometimes used as improvised / disguised hangars in the X-Wing PC game.

But what source are you going off of, listing the Gozanti as just another freighter scale ship?

39 minutes ago, LTuser said:

But what source are you going off of, listing the Gozanti as just another freighter scale ship?

The official ones. Both the Gozanti and the C-ROC are marginally bigger than the VCX-100, but smaller than the GR-75.

Both could be pressed into military service or retrofitted for piracy / combat, but were initially developed for cargo / passenger haulage, and were n use in this role by a wide range of companies and factions.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Gozanti-class_cruiser

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/C-ROC_Gozanti-class_cruiser

Doesnt the cruiser/carrier denomination gives it away as a capital ship?

Anyhow, the VCX remains atop of the list.

10 hours ago, LUZ_TAK said:

Doesnt the cruiser/carrier denomination gives it away as a capital ship?

Nope, not by any definition. Capital ships - according to Canon sources - are large military battleships designed to support fleets of starfighters & operated by crews into the thousands.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Capital_ship

Legends sources apply the class much more liberally, but even there capital ships are defined as heavily armed military battleships over 100 meters long. A Gozanti wouldn't be a capital ship even under this pretty much all-encapsulating definition. It just doesn't have the size, and it's not primarily a military ship. If anything, when it comes to military use it's a support ship.

Again, the Gozanti/C-ROC isn't much bigger than the VCX in canon and is depicted as being much more common in universe. It's just a cheap, reliable, very adaptable freighter that can be pressed into use in a variety of different roles.

Size is not a major determinor of if they are a cap or a freighter size.. Look at the Ghtroc empress ship. That's bigger than some of the small end cap ships, YET ITS still seen as a freighter.

3 hours ago, LTuser said:

Size is not a major determinor of if they are a cap or a freighter size.. Look at the Ghtroc empress ship. That's bigger than some of the small end cap ships, YET ITS still seen as a freighter.

Yeah, that's why I also pointed out that both the canon and legends lore defines a capital ship as being a large MILITARY battleship. Which the Gozanti/C-ROC are not. They are neither large (by Star Wars standards), nor a specifically military design.

The Empire uses them as transports/support/utility ships. Civilian organisations use them as transports and cargo freighters. Criminals use them as mobile bases of operations and for smuggling. Even a cursory glance through the established lore shows the words "transport" and "freighter" in regular use. They're not capital ships by any stretch of the imagination.

Edit: also, the Ghtroc Empress-Class Medium Freighter is only 110 metres long according to the Wookiee. A better (and canon example) would be Han Solo's bulk freighter from The Force Awakens, the Erevana, which is apparently over 420 metres! That's over 100 metres longer than both the Nebulon B and the Artiquens Light Cruiser, both of which are definitely capital ships!

May I kindly ask to leave the Gozanti classification aside and focus on the original question? Is simply too big to use as starting ship for a RPG party, which they will use to do undercover actions against the Empire

So far only the Wayfarer and the VCX fit the bill. Any other ideas?

9 hours ago, LUZ_TAK said:

May I kindly ask to leave the Gozanti classification aside and focus on the original question? Is simply too big to use as starting ship for a RPG party, which they will use to do undercover actions against the Empire

Hey, you're the one who asked! 😆

On 7/18/2020 at 2:04 AM, LUZ_TAK said:

Doesnt the cruiser/carrier denomination gives it away as a capital ship?

...and - again - it's barely any bigger than the VCX with a similar price point in the RPG games and a lot more common in the universe and lore. See for example the number of different Gozanti/C-ROCs we see in Rebels alone compared to the VCX, and Lando's reaction to Han claiming to own a VCX in Solo.

But it seems like what you're looking for simply isn't there, especially when you're arbitrarily making size an issue. The Wayfarer-class Medium Transport is probably the smallest ship to have a fully enclosed internal hangar out there, but is itself bigger than a Gozanti/C-ROC - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wayfarer-class_medium_transport - (82 meters as opposed to 63 meters), so if the Gozanti is too big, that will be as well.

But that is really what you should expect if you're looking for a ship with an internal hangar. On average a snub fighter (not a shuttle or multi crew transport - a single person fighter) - would be around 15 metres long, which means you'd want at least double that for an internal hangar - 30 metres, minimum. Then the carrying ship itself would need space for engines, fuel, cargo, crew quarters and a bridge. At which point you'd already pushing 60+ metres.

The closest you're going to find will either be the VCX, a YT-1300 with escape craft or a modified YV-666, none of which exactly have an internal hangar, and all of which are tied to pretty specific support ships.

How's about go with a HT-2400, that has A-wings in the two forward most cargo squares..

Basic commercial/civilian Gozantis seemed smaller than the Imperial Navy variants, and probably plausible for players. That said, they're more likely to be exterior-docking rather than Ghost/Phantom.

The Star Wars definitions of what's a cruiser or destroyer or whatever are all pretty befuddled.

9 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

The Star Wars definitions of what's a cruiser or destroyer or whatever are all pretty befuddled.

Civilian side (which is what the base line Gozanti is, a civilian freighter) no more than in real life. I.E. the Land Cruiser and BayCruiser vehicle makes (the second is a series of sailboats), heck "Cruiser" is a brand of powered fishing, sport and party boats...

59 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

Basic commercial/civilian Gozantis seemed smaller than the Imperial Navy variants...

...yeah, there's three sizes on the Wookiee. Legends has the Gozanti at 41 metres, Canon (which I've been going off) has them at just under 64 metres, the C-ROC just under 74 metres.

The Legends dimensions seem pretty sketchy to be honest, as that's shorter than the Canon VCX. There's really not much difference in size between the VCX and the Gozanti (the Gozanti variants are the only FFG epic ships at their standard 1/270 scale), but the VCX should definitely be smaller, not the other way around.

It barely qualifies as a medium sized transport, to be honest. The BFF-1 Bulk Freighter is 120 metres long - each of it's four cargo containers are almost as big as a Gozanti!

So I guess my original suggestions fail. Why don't you give them their own customised falcon? It was afterall available in other design configurations, it'll be easy enough to imagine and like the escape pod, you could have that as a fighter built in.

Hounds Tooth is an example of a ship with a secretly docked fighter. Anything with a cargo bay could be modified.

Meanwhile, if the YT-1300 is a bit too familiar, there's probably info on some of the other YT series freighters, like the 2000.

I'm pretty sure I saw a deck plan of the Ghtroc Freighter that featured a hidden X-wing somewhere in my Star Wars D6 supplements. Could go with one of those.

Honestly though I let my players get away with a lot once they actually have some credits or some allies who've been indebted to them. Most small fighters should be able to fit into your average YT cargo hold provided you do a little rearranging of the floor plan, so I've had some interesting configurations proposed and carried out by my players.

If all else fails though, you can give them a slightly bigger ship and just nerf it a bit by saying it's been through a lot and is maybe falling apart just a bit. Just have the character giving it to them be like, "Here's your CR-90 guys. Sorry most of the guns have been destroyed or replaced with worse models, and only the backup hyperdrive works, and the shields aren't the most reliable, but the paint on her is brand new!" I've got an Imperial game running now and my players have a Gozanti of their own which plays out pretty much the same as having them use a YT-pick-a-number, apart from having the pilots of the group hop into ties. The only time I've had a larger end ship become a problem was when a long running campaign came to close and one of my players became the captain of his own ISD after the fall of the Empire, but we came back to the campaign for a sort of finale months later. When the ship is that big, challenging it becomes difficult without creating a massive battle scenario, but I've given players CR-90's before and that's gone surprisingly well. Kinda gives the game a Star Trek feel, where everyone's playing as the command staff of this one big ship, but they still have to deal with stuff personally most of the time.

Of course if none of those options suit you or your players, you could always spend some time with your players who are interested in this and just sorta spitball ideas and home-brew a ship collectively. It's a lot of fun to try and work together to make something unique but not game breaking. I've done this with force powers and equipment as well. It's a good way to let your players know that you do indeed want them to have the thing they're asking for, but you just need a bit of help ironing out details to make sure it's not too powerful, or just isn't what they actually had in mind.

At any rate, happy gaming.

@LUZ_TAK A Baudo Class like the Pulsar Skate could work as well. There are several references to Wedge's X-Wing being placed in the hold. It is large enough to hold a Star Fighter, yet small enough to make the characters choose to haul it, or cargo.

@LUZ_TAK One of my favorites for a base ship is the HT-2200. The forward hold could be used as a hanger for a smaller craft, or with modifications one of the wings double cargo bays could be converted into a longer single hangar. The ship itself being slower makes for good adventuring as 'running away' or risky play becomes difficult. So does the odd boarding party when it finds an illicit ship in that hanger...

If you scroll through the off topic you'll find write ups I have done for a couple of the scenarios I have run with my nieces and nephews. The next one we have coming up involves an imperial Gozanti pursuing a group of pirates/privateers acting out of an HT-2200 in a game of cat and mouse with the Characters and their ship caught in the middle (a captured PB950)

My GM'ing tip for WEG D6 is story trumps dice, but the players must never know! You determine what happens when they succeed or fail a roll, tweak the outcome to keep the adventure fun and exciting. Failures and mishaps often add the most to the story!

::The ISB agent and remaining stormtroopers have you dead to rights::
Player "There not taking me without a fight, I want to quickdraw and blast the ISB agent" ROLLS
:: You outdraw the agent and troopers::
ROLLS
::Your hurried shot goes wild and strikes the ceiling well above the squad... only to burst a waste reclamation pipe. Blue toilet fluid with partially broken down waste from you and your crew erupts into a spray that temporarily blinds the agent and troopers. The blue/brown smurfs claw wildly to wipe the...::

I'm disappointed I didn't see this thread sooner, it's a topic near and dear to my own RPG sensibilities! Maybe it's too late to help OP, but I know there's always someone looking for this. Here's my list of semi-common (but sorta deep lore) ships that could accommodate a compact fighter.

Keep in mind that the VCX-100(Ghost) is pretty unusual in that the attached shuttle is not an aftermarket modification. In universe that shuttle and its little bay was a factory option for transporting small cargo into small spaces. The modifications Sabine made were the addition of weapons and hyperdrive as the original shuttle was unarmed and meant only for short trips between the Mothership in orbit and a landing pad. Even with that said it's not out of the realm of reasonable modification to make a similar bay for any number of small fighter craft like the R-22 , M3-A Scyk, Z-95 (probably modified with folding wings), or Cutlass-9. Or even modify any personal shuttle pod to carry light weapons and fit into a spot on the base ship.

I would urge you to reconsider any of the YT or YV number ships since in universe they are considered so common that they don't automatically raise suspicion. Most of them have existing rpg material like floorplans and specs to work off of for easier world building. YT series (1000, 1200, 1300, 2000, 2400) might require an externally visible 'cargo hold' (see Iron Squadron's YT-2400 from Rebels for a good example of what that might look like) to act as a hangar or just concealment for an externally docked fighter depending on the size, but that would not be an uncommon looking add-on in universe. Most of the YV series ships of which the 666, 865, 929 have enough data to work with for RPG basis and are large enough for a very tight single bay hangar. Alternatively with any of these you could give up some internal space for a low profile recessed storage dock of a small fighter fitted into a slot similar to the Auxiliary Shuttle on the Ghost.

For an example how different a YT can be from the old Falcon while still being familiar, check out this YT-1930:

For a non-Corellian Engineering light freighter the list is as long as you want to do research for. These three would be my top picks mostly because they got your requirements of having floorplans and lots of art available.

Ghtroc 720 can easily accommodate an A-wing sized compact fighter internally in one of the two cargo bays, although it would take extensive modification to make a large enough opening in the exterior.

Sorosuub luxury 3000 , most commonly known in legends as Lando's ship, the Lady Luck, in old Star Wars book. The nose section is full of sensor stuff, but if you replaced that with external dishes the nose could be cut out for a small pointy fighter to fit in.

YKL-37R Nova Courier is a light transport built by Gallofree, the company known for the 'rebel transport' GR-75 medium transport, but was meant to compete directly with the Corellian YT series. This one could convert the front cargo hold into a tiny hangar or like my suggestion on the luxury yacht replace the starboard sensor pod with a disguised compact fighter.

Speaking of Gallofree, a GR-75 (or smaller GR-45 ) is a common transport ship that could relatively easily be adapted to have a small internal hangar and is normal flown by a crew of only a few people.

I've got more in my list of consideration, but that should get you started.