I know my players, and they are going to want deck plans, for their Rogue Trader's personal ship.

Where can i find such things? The more detailed the better.

Thanks.

L.

Best I've been able to find for you, from darkreign40k.com :

Anything more concrete would be difficult for an amateur architect, akin to trying to diagram a Nimitz-class supercarrier without the blueprints. Even a simple Imperial vessel is a nightmarish complex of vents, ducts, access tunnels, decks, atriums, etc. A simple frigate would have 50 decks, while a simple freighter might have a cargo hold 2 cubic km in size.

Your players are going to want the deck plans of something the size of a Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer. If they want anything more than something like Fort did, laugh at them.

I seriously considered tackling the issue myself, using some mapping software. But then I realised that it would only benefit myself. As an engineer I love stuff like that, but my players would most likely go: "Meh" and quietly think that I'd gone insane.

Keep it relatively abstract, but it helps to know which corner of the ship each component is likely to be placed. Anything beyond what Fortinbras shared would be excessive, most likely.

My Greater Melbourne street directory weighs in at about 1,000 pages. Once you consider the available area covered by the multitude of decks, and zoom in far enough to show the majority of accessways, I would think a frigate would require a similar amount of space (and effort) to properly map. A cruiser certainly would.

In other words, a tad more detail than found in Fortinbras' post is, IMO, all you should need.

And, IMO, the labyrinthine underdecks should never be properly mapped, in game or out.

I washoping for something more concrete myself, but even that illo is incredibly useful.

It occured to me that since they house crews the sise of small towns, they probably also have many of the sorts of issues that small towns may have.

Are there any good books in the novel line, for reading about the conditions of life on board?

And thanks, Fortinbras for the help.

L.

Fortinbras said:

Oh hey, its my ship. That was mostly made so the GM had an idea where to have fires spread around. Not that I'd ever let a fire burn more than a round on my ship.

Ok, novels for life aboard ship? Relentless (Richard Williams), Execution Hour, Shadowpoint (both Gordon Rennie), Innocence Proves Nothing (Sandy Mitchell) and bits of Rogue Star and Star of Damocles (Andy Hoare). There are also a few decent short stories you could hunt down for info, although the one that springs most immediately to mind is Cross the Stars ; I can't for the life of me remember who it's by, unfortunately.

Aside from 40k, you can't really go wrong by taking Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels and applying the grimdark gothicpunk aesthetic to them (the bowels of the ship should look like a cross between a cathedral in perpendicular gothic style and a victorian pumping station). It may even be worth reading up on the "black gang" of early steam ships.

By the Emperor!

I just converted the length and breadth of the ship from the pict into something i could uderstand. ( I am such a Yankee.)

That is a lot of people living in a very small space.

WOw.

i would go crazy quick.

Well, think about the quarters for the crewman on old naval warships, especially large ships of the line. Cramped is the right word.

This is the layout I provided for my group. This is for a full-size cruiser but can be adapted to most ships.

[Note: While it is called the Gymnasium, it's more like a boot-camp for the military ratings.]

GregorM1980 said:

I think of non-officer/bridge/engineer decks akin to submarine passageways and holds.

So i picked up Into the Storm, and was reading about ships and their crews.

Then i got to the description of the chain gang lead treadmills...

That was too much grim/dark for me. I can not imagine treadmill operated components on a human ship.

If it were an Ork ship, maybe. But not human. It was just too much.

Other than that though, the book answered a lot of the questions i had about life aboard the vessels. That coupled with the info here was all i wanted, and a little extra. Thanks.

Thanks sketchesofpayne I am so stealing that idea.