Just an Idea for more fundamental characters

Cathedral Ship

This ship spent a ortion of it's existance tending to the faithfull and spreding the imperial creed.

cost 3SP

Arching halls most of the ship is desinged to look like the inside of a cathedral -3 less room

Glory of the Creed the ship is covered in paintings of saints and the Emporer +5 moral

Spread the Word the ship still contains missionary equipment and relics +150 to creed

Shield of Faith the people rely on faith to protect -3 o armour but +10 to Navigation (warp) tests and -5 to perils of the warp

Warp Navigation part doesn't really fit the theme - maybe increase protection from perils to the warp to compensate?

Karl.lurack said:

Why not go a step further and have an actual cathedral inside the ship?

The novel Faith & Fire featured one such vessel - a frigate that contained an entire church, once planetbound aeons ago, but then transplanted into the ship's hull, its stone floor transitioning into the warship's metal where the sanctified ground ended.

Just an idea. Sounds suitably weird for 40k.

Also, what Hantheman said.

Lynata said:

Definitely. It should come with a Shrine to the God Emperor just like Trade Vessels come with a Cargo Hold. Maybe have an additional rule where all moral losses on the ship are reduced by 1.

That's interesting, though it can be already done on a Starship through Vaulted Ceillings and a Gilded Hull.

Basically, you are trying to get a starship which looks like this ?

Nice concept, and nice picture!

I actually had been musing about the idea of a similar concept, a class of cathedral ship dating from the pre-age of apostacy ministorum. The ship would have been the HQ/temple vessel for Templar fleets, a very impractical ship similar to a transport with the entire interior decked out as a vast series of halls and chantries. The idea was that it wasn't really a warship, but a centre of worship for the pre-reformation Imperial cult, a ship that travelled with the more martial ships of the Frateris fleets to serve their spiritual needs. After Thor's reforms these vessels were discredited by their association with the old ways of the Ministorum, and were sold to various dynasties at knock down prices. It would basically be a transport with weaker bulkheads (due to the big stained glass windows). It would be a fairly cheap vessel, too.

The idea of a new hull is fine indeed, but let's see how to get a fine Ship History :

SHEPHERD OF HIS FLOCK

The Ecclesiarchy no longer owns many starships, but its influence can still be seen. Many hulls are adorned of proof of devotion, and space dedicated to worship the God-Emperor. But some go farther : devoted shipwrights have been known to built floating cathedrals, architects to planet-bound a mothballed vessel to be used as a very temple, or a whole church being included inisde the very adamantium bellies of a Space Craft.

SP cost : 3

Our Faith Is Our Shield : The gilded hull and gigantic stained glasses are perhaps less solid than full adamantium plates, but the Emperor Protects. Reduce the ship's armour by 2 to a Minimum of 12, and decrease Hull integrity and Space by 2. Add +10 to the rolls on the chart of Perils of the Warp.

Zealous Hatred : The ship seems to boil with a righteous anger toward Ennemies of Humanity, a wrath that shine intensely in the Void. In battle against Xenos, Traitors, Daemons or Herectics, the ship gains +10 to All Ballistic Skills made to fire the Ship's weapon. All Objectives for Endeavours involving non hostile dealings with Xenos, Traitors or Herectics will suffer a penalty of 100 Achievement Points.

Holy of Holies : The ship does possess many relics of the faith, hundreds of priests and thousand holy tomes of sacred lore, thus helping immensly to convert heatens worlds and to deal with the faithfull. When working towards a Creed objective, the players earn an additional 100 Achievement Points. All crew gain a +10 bonus to all Interaction skills while aboard or in sight or known from being this ship, when dealing with people of the Imperial Faith. This bonus may increase or decrease, according to the GM judgement, depending of their devotion and version of the Creed.

I like it. The +10 BS seemed a bit high, but the penalty to achievement points offsets it pretty well I think. Makes doing those kind of things much harder to be sure.

I put the BS bonus up to +10, to let it on the same scale of the one gained by "Veteran of the Angevin Crusade". The one gained with "Shepherd" is conditionnal after all. Perhaps the penalty to Achievement Points is not enough ; I've pondered to add a bonus to hit for the Xenos/traitor/heretics vessels against the ship, her wrath being a shining beacon , easier to hit.

Concerning the Interaction skill bonus, I added the caveat for roleplaying opportunities. There is no single Imperial Creed, but millions of different cults : with this ship, you have opportunities to create gigantic bible fights !

The reason for the benefit to navigation was because it would act like a warsbane geller field