This may sound a little silly, what do you all think that the minimum size for a warp capable ship in the calixis sector would be?
I am working on a ship for my group to use the intent is a small courier/scout vessel with warp and atmospheric flight capabilities. Any ideas on how big this thing should be minimum?
The only silly thing about the question is, that it is a question about ship size
Up to this date, their is no certain thing to answer this question. Millions of topics has been opened upon it and where dragged into the chaos that is known as "fluff" and "source material.
Do what ever suits you, but do not look for anything official.
The previous post is essentailly correct.
Fluff really varies on this topic. Going back to M. Watson's Inquisition War trilogy, there were Warp-capable ships that were quite small - roughly the size of a passenger jet.
However, the more recent fluff has indicated that they are a bit more massive, more like 300-500 metres in length.
It's essentially up to you - just justify it well.
If you want an opinion... and strictly an opinion here...
The smaller the ship, the more complex the technology, and the harder to maintain... the harder to maintain the harder it is to keep running... its the whole minaturization thing.. technology may exist, but may not be capable of being being built small enough at a cost effective manner to make it worth building.
It may quite possibly be that smaller ships to exist that are warp capable, but because of the expense and difficulty in keeping them up and running they are so completely rare that they don't exist in the Calixis Sector, due to its incredible distance from Mars.
My guess is that they do exist it costs a ton of money to keep up and running, and they are reserved for only the most important people in the galaxy. Would an Inquisitor give lowly, expendable alcolytes a ship so rare and so expensive to run, or would he keep it for himself?
So its quite possible that during the Dark Age of Technology personal warp capable fliers existed, and there may even be a lost STC out there to build one, but through the ages, through attrition and losses, and the inablility to build certain parts small enough, those ships have all but disappeared.
Edit: For your ship, since you are Inquisition, it may be easier to just run a Aquilla Shuttle for your group, then have them commader Chartist ships to drag them from spot to spot... usually it should be an issue for common planets, but out of the way planets may be a fun story in and of itself of having your alcolytes find a chartist ship who will take them.
Edit 2: One of the other fun things could be allowing your Alcolytes to "find" such a small ship in good repair. They use it a couple of times, until they realize that their Inquisitor wants it for her own ship but that the Tech Priests are demanding that it be turned over to them, with a not-so subtle threat that if they turn it over to their Inquisitor any ship they step on will immediately cease to have any Tech Priest support, until the matter is rectified. Watch the conflict of interests begin.
Actually, the ship in Inquisition War (the Tormentum Malum , iirc) is not given a size, we have to extrapolate from the fact it can be successfully operated by a crew of three, after a century of being powered down and unmaintained in the Oort Cloud. Gav Thorpe states that the smallest warp-capable vessel is maybe slightly less than 700m long (well, strictly he described a 750m long ship, while stating it was just larger than the minimum size), although he does not state whether that was a physical limitation (you cannot physically fit a a warp drive, geller field generators, a standard plasma drive and sufficient life support into a smaller hull) or an economic feasibility one- it's possible, but it costs more to build and maintain than a far larger ship with comparable capabilities.
I will note, however, I have two starships available to my group- one is a mid-bulk freighter with a legitimate ecclesiarchal charter (giving them a great cover, and allowing them to do the end-run round customs and immigration), while the other was a 'decommission' naval sloop (780m long, with virtually all her ship-to-ship weaponry stripped out, leaving point defence and one plasma turret) as a base/transport/cover for an acolyte cell (their cover was a scion of a Great House on the Grand Sneer in his own private yacht. Unfortunately, the cell of acolytes in question got themselves in a pissing match with the Navy, and got shot down in an Eagle assault shuttle, so the ship is currently sitting in high anchor over Landunder, waiting for somone with Inquisitorial codes and the right password (and enough funds to pay their docking fees) to show up. My current group has their own ship anyway, so if anyone wants her, the ship is currently squawking the name MRS Yppei , although her real name is the Tactus Quod Vado ; her captain is Lt Camus Khilles, IN (ret), and the authorising password is 'verus ut rutilus per'. Exactly how much is owed for docking fees, I leave to whoever claims her for their group (they left her paid until 837815m41), but I'd like to know her fate if anyone does use her and lose her.
How big are Void Jumpers?
Well, I can only give my personal opinion here, as I do not have enough of the ellusive hard data to give a more factually grounded answer to that question.
We have to consider the following requirements for warp capabitlity:
So let's go best case sceanario: A specially custom crafted vessel for a small group to use that, due to their unparralleled importance, have their own navigator (thus generally needing only 6 months of supplies to be safe, in the case of something going horribly wrong).
Warp engines take up, from what I have seen, a reasonable but sizeable amount of space, I'd *guess* a little more than whatever the conventional engines for an atmospheric and void capable vessel would take up. Add in the sizable equipment for geller fields and you've probably tripled the space, all told, that just the conventional engine takes up. Devote a luxury apartment's worth of space for the Navigator's personal space (they generally don't meet the "sightless" face to face more than they have to, and they get whatever they ask for/demand). Double the hull of whatever baseline shuttle or dropship you're using, to account for the increased stress that it needs to be proof against (not a major size jump, but worth noting). All you have left is enough space to keep 8 or so people (3 non navis crew, plus the huge allotment for the Navigator, plus a 5 person team) sane, supplied, and functional. So you could probably get away with a ship of no more than 80x40x40 meters in size, though that would probably be some cramped living by my (very rough and guesswork fueled) estimation.
Even in this case, this would be theoretical minimums based on existing technological theory. It's unlikely anything like this has been built in the current era, and the cost of such a project if they made it happen would be astronomical. Of course, if we're talking dark age of technology, then do whatever you want. Your ability to justify is the only limit for anything from that period.
Aureus said:
that, due to their unparralleled importance, have their own navigator
If my group asked for that, they'd have to negotiate with the Navigators themselves. They might consider themselves important... but can they convince the Navis Nobilite of that?
N0-1_H3r3 said:
Aureus said:
that, due to their unparralleled importance, have their own navigator
If my group asked for that, they'd have to negotiate with the Navigators themselves. They might consider themselves important... but can they convince the Navis Nobilite of that?
Well I'd never actually give my players any of what I just laid out above, but that's the only way a ship like that is going to work. Chartist travel is too slow to make it remotely practical at that size. Might be a good thing to put together for an elite NPC unit, maybe they show up and get the PCs somewhere really secret they need to be (in reality sending the PCs out to make some noise while they go off to do "real" work).
My group will at one point a large guncutter (150meter) which is warp capable, it used to belong to a Trade Guild but was stolen by the Logicians.
They fitted in a miniaturised warp engine (Heretek Design) and linked a Navigator to it, wel part of a navigator, his brain and third eye in a glass jar (as in Robocop 2). This is all linked to several Logic engines and a large brass tabel with the Calixis starmap engraved on it.
The tabel has crossing rulers on X and Y axis used to mark the destination, the linked cogitator will imprint a punched card which can be fed in the logic engine to which the "navigator" is linked, the navigator will feed the info into the pilots logic machine and the warp jump can commence.
Bit complicate, definately heretical, will their Inquisiter object?
Santiago said:
Bit complicate, definately heretical, will their Inquisiter object?
Short Answer: Only if it fits your plot!
Longer Answer: Is the Inquisitor a Puritan or a Radical?
Even better, do the Tech Priests object? Because if they do, they're not ever going to get this thing repaired. Which could be fun in and of itself. I'd make a huge deal of this being a heretical piece of gear. If they take it for longer then a mission, make a big deal of slowly offering them other innocent seeming but very very cool pieces of technology. (The newer Radical's Book should help you here a lot when it comes out). Now if the Tech Priests won't fix it, then break it down, and force them to find someone to fix it (a Heretek would work great here) forcing them to work with said Heretek. Make the Heretek a really, really nice person and really useful.
Now you have Alcolytes with heretical gear, and working with Hereteks, slowing making them more and more radical. Slowly infuse more and more stuff, baby steps here, and watch them start slurping up the ultra-cool gear and until you spring the trap, with either their own or other Inquisitors leading the charge to burn them down.
Smart Alcolytes will draw the line at some point, and not cross it (that line dependant upon their Inquisitors leanings) while stupid ones will enjoy the arms race, demanding the next cool toy, until they fall neatly into your trap.
Well, they have a Tech priest (Thule Disciple) in the party, that will be interesting, and sometimes the end justifies means aka, getting out alive before being blown up.
The Inquisitor has a fascination for strange technology and when direly pressed will utilize that technology.
I think I will decide on how the acolytes react, if they truly roleplay they are using it because they realy have to, I'll forgive them, If they will actually try to find out to which house the eye and the brain belong and "return" it they will be rewarded, perhaps a Navigator for a short while, a retrofitting of the craft or perhaps even a Navis Prima.
My campaign will revolve around two Trading Guilds and two Navigator clans fighting while being (un)knowingly manipulated/blackmailed by the Logicians.
The exact Logician goal is not yet entirely clear to me but it does involve revenge (Meritech War) and a genetically modified Fydae Strain virus (viral weapon).
Yes my Acolytes are going to have it tough