Ships, Weapons, and You

[Error]

Noting we lack a classification system for weapons and to a degree ships, I made this.

The stuff here is a generalization. It's meant to allow such things as , eg., Strigiforme ship and a NeoRoman ship, very different vessels, a means to RP a fight fairly. GMs are encouraged to make alterations or exceptions to these rules to fit their scenario better.

//Ship Based Weapons//
/Ship to Ship:
-Alpha type battery. A long range and standard damage weapon array. Most accurate weapon, but loses effectiveness at short range.

-Bravo type battery. A short range but very powerful weapon, it will melt face, but hitting anything at something other than short range is like angrily spraying a water hose at a tank. Most damaging standard weapon.

-Charlie type battery. A balance, this weapons array combines both middling range and decent damage. Not the best at anything, but cheap and effective.

-[Specialized] Delta type battery. A shotgun-like weapon that will spray fire towards nearby targets, and is mainly used as point defense of a sort. Due to the massive inaccuracy, it is normally reserved for antifighter duty, though it works very well against large ships at point blank range.

X class. Adding the X designator to a weapon indicates it is intended for Capital Ships.
XL weapons are intended for very large vessels.

Superweapons. These can crack planets, oneshot ships, and wreck space stations, but often have an incredibly low rate of fire, or are prohibitively expensive to build. Often limited by treaty.

[Specialized] Drop Pods. These are used to deploy infantry and armored vehicles from space to a planet without the need for dropships.

/Point Defense and Active Defenses

-PD battery. A small, gatling style weapon firing large amounts of pain at incoming strike craft. Accurate, but tends to do plink damage against anything larger than a corvette or pinnance.

-Flak battery. Fills space with explosions and fire, tearing small craft to shreds. Limited range, and is projectile type.

-Reactive Armor. If a missile or other large projectile comes close, the armor will project a shield very close to the hull to deflect most of the impact or blast. Very expensive.

-Electronic CounterMeasures. Playing merry hob with enemy sensors and targeting, mainly causing them to miss. Fairly cheap, but not always reliable.

-Interceptors. Specialized fightercraft that move quickly and pack tons of heat, but will fall apart if you look at them funny. Require hangar space, as well as pi, ots and maintenance.

/Ship Armors and Passive Defenses

-Armor. A layer of metal or other material over the hull of the vessel, intended to take the hits instead of the ship.

-Ablative armor. Same as above, but will melt or chip away, trading the armor for defense.

-Hard Shields: Incredibly hard to penetrate, and high regenerative power, but once down, it's almost impossible to bring back up. Expensive.

-Regenerative shields: These shields regenerate rather quickly, but is not as strong as most shields. Once down, it isn't too hard to bring back up. Moderately expensive.

-Layered Shields: Multiple shield generators allow for shield redundancy. When the first shield falls, the second comes up and replaces it nearly instantly. As a consequence, regenerative power is limited, and bringing up the first shield again will take a while.

-Repulsive shields: Shield that reflects weapons fire. Very strong and quick to bring up, but regeneration is very limited.

Normal shields: Moderate in all capacities.

//Ship Types// Smallest to Largest

Strike Craft. Any type of small single ship that operates from a larger vessel.

Pinnance and Corvette. Small, fast, lightly armed and armored, these vessels often serve as scouts or antifighter craft. Mounts Point Defenses only.

Frigate. Fairly small, maneuverable, and quick, with light weapons and armor. Serves as antifighter, anticorvette and hit-and-run roles. Mounts Charlie class or Point Defense weapons.

Destroyer. A frigate hull, with more powerful weapons. Mounts all weapons except X type.

/Capital Ships

Cruiser. A mid size hull, powerful weapons and armor, and moderate speed. The backbone of many a fleet.

Battlecruiser. A cruiser hull with XL weapons.

Battleship. A large vessel, with heavy armor, many weapon emplacements, and possibly hangars and drop pods. Slow, and not overly maneuverable.

Carrier and Supercarrier. Point Defense only, but carry a large number of strike craft and are well armored.

Dreadnought and Superdreadnought. Massive ships, very slow, and take a long time to maneuver. Extremely difficult to destroy, and are capable of laying siege to a planet on their own. Often serve as command ships. Superdreadnoughts serve as planetary assault ships.

Titan. Essentially a mobile space station. The only vessels capable of mounting Superweapons, or Doomsday Weapons.

[Professor Fenway]

I'm in favor, except for a small thing. There are multiple shield types;

Hard Shields: Incredibly hard to penetrate, and high regenerative power, but once down, it's almost impossible to bring back up. Expensive.

Regenerative shields: These shields regenerate rather quickly, but is not as strong as most shields. Once down, it isn't too hard to bring back up. Moderately expensive.

Layered Shields: Multiple shield generators allow for shield redundancy. When the first shield falls, the second comes up and replaces it nearly instantly. As a consequence, regenerative power is limited, and bringing up the first shield again will take a while.

Repulsive shields: Shield that reflects weapons fire. Very strong and quick to bring up, but regeneration is very limited.

Normal shields: Moderate in all capacities.



Also, weapons should be split into Kinetic and Energy.

[Error]

The shields thing sounss good. And kinetic vs. energy is supposed to be cosmetic, otherwise the endless arguments about ballistics v. lazors or pl45m4 v. gunz crops up. An alpha battery could be a plasma projector, 1400mm cannon, or laser array.

Will add missiles soon.

[Vinyl]

The shields thing sounss good. And kinetic vs. energy is supposed to be cosmetic, otherwise the endless arguments about ballistics v. lazors or pl45m4 v. gunz crops up. .

You're going to have arguments over their inclusion before you get a pointless argument over the established Sci-Fi trope of ballistic < laser < plasma.

[Luna]

Seriously Cruisers through battleships are capital? Also carriers only for point defense? I don't think so. Carrier roles are more determined by the types of strike craft it has. I also think it's kinda weird that corvettes and pinnace ships only have point defense at their disposal. Otherwise I agree with all of this.

[Error]

I meant carriers only mount PD weapons, Luna. No carriers have ermahgerd 50metergunsblarh.

And corvettes and pinnances are wee bitty ships, not that much bigger than strike craft.

@Vinyl they are included. Note that any weapon type can be called Alpha class if it fits that role. And ballistics, lazors and plasma all have their own advantages and disadvantages.

[Vinyl]

And corvettes and pinnances are wee bitty ships, not that much bigger than strike craft.

You are aware corvettes are often downsized frigates?

[Luna]

And corvettes and pinnances are wee bitty ships, not that much bigger than strike craft.

You are aware corvettes are often downsized frigates?

Strike craft, pinnace, corvette, frigate.

[Error]

It's for balance reasons, and corvettes are downsized frigates. Downsized. Smaller. As in, less power and weaponry.

[Vinyl]

It's for balance reasons, and corvettes are downsized frigates. Downsized. Smaller. As in, less power and weaponry.

Downsized. Not miniaturized. A good corvette could pack on 2/3-3/4 of a common frigate's weapons.

[cats]

There are too many variations and variables to lump huge groups together like this, an easier way to go would be to create a standard of measurement. For instance, batteries could have a "Range" value, a "Damage" value and a "Cycle Time" or "ROF" value, and only grouped by the kind of damage done to the target, be it kinetic, energetic, or spatial.

[Professor Fenway]

I agree with cats.

[Error]

Given how RPs tend to be rather vague in those terms, I created rules that mean one can play without needing to devote hours to designing one vessel. If you want hard numbers, precise values, and such, make them up.

The lack of that means I can use these for an RP set in 2200 and you could use them for an RP in 3795, where the tech gap would normally mean revising the numbers. And these are a baseline for other rules systems, just something to start from.

Though given how short rules lists tend to be in RPs, I'm not sure why people ask for more precision when you normally get "No overpoweredness, no powergaming, follow the gm's orders, don't be a *" as a ruleset.

[CMA]

Given how RPs tend to be rather vague in those terms, I created rules that mean one can play without needing to devote hours to designing one vessel. If you want hard numbers, precise values, and such, make them up.

No need, Traveller already does that quite nicely.

Regards, has spent over 30 hours making traveller ships.

[Error]

So go play by Traveller rules, guise, I herd they let you design everything down to the last deckplate.