Ship Devices
Ship devices are analogous to the devices used by
tech-savvy characters. Unlike character devices, they cannot receive
additions or be modified in the ship; different ships simply have
different selections of devices. Ship devices draw from the vehicle's
volatite charge generation (if applicable).
Ship devices are operated by an overseer station - most often Technical. They must be
controlled by the overseer on that station, who must also satisfy the
device's tech competence requirements. Failing to meet a device's
requirements does not interfere with the ship's normal functions. Devices not successfully controlled have no effect.
Ship devices cannot be extracted from the vehicle
and used outside of it, nor can they be swapped out for other devices
(except for Custom Rooms, see below). Their prices are therefore
included in that of the vehicle.
Aircraft Bay
Station: Technical
No Competency Requirement
An aircraft bay holds a single aircraft and allows
it to land and take off safely, even while the ship is moving. Aircraft
which cannot hover are unable to operate out of this bay unless the
ship also has a Flight Deck. The bay's station does not need to be
manned simply to store a vehicle - only to allow it to land and take
off.
An aircraft properly stored in this bay does
not count its weight against the ship's excess cargo limit.
Ramped Bay
Station: Technical
No Competency Requirement
A ramped bay holds a single land vehicle or
watercraft and allows it to embark and disembark safely. Watercraft or
hovercraft can operate out of a bay on a surface ship even while it is
moving; other combinations of vehicle and ship require the ship to be
stopped. Airships must land in order to use the bay. The bay's station
does not need to be manned simply to store a vehicle - only to allow it
to embark or disembark.
A vehicle properly stored in this bay does not count its weight against the ship's excess cargo limit.
Flight Deck
Station: Technical
No Competency Requirement
A flight deck enables aircraft which cannot hover
(such as propwings or heavily-loaded aircraft) to operate out of any of
the ship's aircraft bays.
Naval Kinetic Shield
Station: Technical
No Competency Requirement
This device follows the same rules as the Kinetic
Shield Adamantology device, but it is sufficient to protect the
entire ship from kinetic ranged attacks when powered. It can hold a
maximum of 500 charge, which will be lost only when expended by a major
impact. Charge can be moved from the ship's charge generation to the
kinetic shield as a free action. The device is not effective against
attacks originating from inside the ship.
Airships do not take damage from large kinetic shield impacts like flying characters do.
NS-1 Techshield
Station: Technical
Requires Diagnostics: 1
This device projects a series of visible, glowing
barriers around the ship, and provides it with low-precision energy
shielding. As a free action,
the ship may spend charge to create shielding points in the shield;
each 1 charge creates 20 shielding points, and the maximum shielding
points that can exist in the shield is 10,000. The shield opposes all
eligible energy attacks against the vehicle, and cannot be set to
ignore any attack while it is active.
At the beginning of the ship's turn, if the
shield already contains shielding points, its points are reduced by
500. Shielding points cannot be converted back into charge, nor can
shielding points be added outside of the vehicle's turn. The shield may
be turned off (wasting all current shielding points) as a free action.
Due to the prioritization of defense against
explosive effects in the development of Alacrian techshields, this
device's shielding points are doubly effective against blast damage
(that is, 1 shielding point will remove 2 blast damage).
NS-2 Techshield
Station: Technical
Requires Diagnostics: 3 and Adamantology: 3
This device follows the same rules as the NS-1
Techshield, except that its maximum shielding points is 30,000. Its
tech competence requirements can be reduced to that of an NS-1
Techshield if its maximum shielding points are likewise lowered.
NS-3 Techshield
Station: Technical
Requires Diagnostics: 6 and Adamantology: 6
This device follows the same rules as the NS-1
Techshield, except that its maximum shielding points is 90,000. Its
tech competence requirements can be reduced to that of an NS-1 or NS-2
Techshield if its maximum shielding points are likewise lowered.
Lesser Naval Cloak
Station: Technical
Requires Crystallurgy: 2
This device renders a ship invisible from a distance
of ship combat long range or greater. It consumes 12 charge per minute.
It is ineffective during any round in which the ship is attacking,
being hit by an attack, or operating energy shielding.
Greater Naval Cloak
Station: Technical
Requires Diagnostics: 4 and Crystallurgy: 4
This device renders a ship invisible from a distance of ship combat
medium range or greater. It consumes 120 charge per minute. It is
ineffective during any round in which the ship is attacking, being hit
by an attack, or operating energy shielding. Its
tech competence requirements can be reduced to that of a Lesser Naval Cloak if its effectiveness is likewise lowered.
Littoral Precision Sights
Station: Gunnery
No Competency Requirement
This device allows a surface ship to engage
watercraft which are within land
vehicle extreme range (approximately equivalent to ship short range). Only
batteries with a short range offense roll of d12 or smaller may be
controlled by this device. If
controlled, they no longer function as battery weapons this ship combat
round, but function individually like point-defense weapons (though
they still roll their d12 on MBL, not PDL). The weapons are classified
as heavy
for the purpose of extreme range land vehicle combat rules, and do not
need to roll to aim first.
Ventral Precision Sights
Station: Gunnery
No Competency Requirement
This device allows an airship to engage land
vehicles which are not using vehicle stealth, and which are within land
vehicle extreme range (approximately equivalent to ship short range).
Liftgas airships must descend to typical gravnet airship altitude. Only
batteries with the Ventral tag may be controlled by this device. If
controlled, they no longer function as battery weapons this ship combat
round, but function individually like point-defense weapons (though
they still roll their d12 on MBL, not PDL). The weapons are classified
as heavy
for the purpose of extreme range land vehicle combat rules, and do not
need to roll to aim first.
Ramming Hull
Station: Helm
No Competency Requirement
The ship's hull is reinforced in a way that is
designed for ramming other vessels. It causes the ship to take only 1/3
damage from ramming another ship. If both ships successfully ram each
other in the same round, the reduction only occurs if one ship has a
Ramming Hull and the other does not. Otherwise, it has no effect on the
damage from being rammed by another ship.
Point-Defense Scanner
Station: Gunnery
Requires Diagnostics: 2
When attacking aircraft with point-defense weapons,
this device allows the ship to treat the aircraft as having one less
Speed Class for the purpose of determining how much Hindrance is added
to the offense roll. It also allows it to attack an aircraft that is
about to strafe on its next turn, in addition to the attacks normally
possible on an aircraft that strafed on its last turn. This rule also
applies to firing seekers (if the vehicle also has a Point Defense
Silo). It also allows point-defense weapons and silos one turn to fire at an incoming nauphragus.
Point Defense Silo
Station: Gunnery
Requires Diagnostics: 2
This device functions as two hardpoints for the
purposes of carrying seekers (for a total of either 12 small seekers or
4 large seekers; see Hardpoint Weapons). It is able to lock the seekers on strafing aircraft or aircraft attacking with seekers, and may fire up to 4 at
once. A single silo cannot engage more than one target at the same
time, but multiple silos can target separately. Silos do not require
weapons crew to fire, but can reload
seekers if staffed by 4 weapons crew. Reloading all properly-staffed silos is a free action for the ship.
Nauphragus Tube
Station: Gunnery
Requires Diagnostics: 4
This device contains a single nauphragus - a 15,000
pound arcjet-powered mega-seeker used to attack other ships. Only
missiles of this size survived the Third Alacrian Era, as kinetic
shields generally made smaller explosives ineffective. Even
kinetic-shielded ships will almost always be harmed by a nauphragus' blast damage, as
ship techshields are low-precision and cannot protect against impact
explosives.
Nauphragus are immune to seeker blinding
technology and will always hit a ship, even at extreme range.
Meanwhile, they have their own seeker blinders, and have only a 50%
chance to be hit by any seeker. They have an armor range of 80-120, and
will be destroyed if they take a total of 150 damage. They have kinetic
shielding equivalent to a Vehicle Kinetic Shield device. They travel at
supersonic speeds (SC4), and can be targeted by point-defense weapons
for one turn (if the target ship has a Point-Defense Scanner).
Nauphragus cost 15,000 coins each and their tubes can only be reloaded
at city docks. Multiple nauphragus can be fired to attack
simultaneously if the ship has multiple tubes.
Each successful hit from a nauphragus inflicts 7500 (drv4800) frag damage and 1800 blast damage.
Custom Rooms
Custom rooms are found in various numbers on most
ships, allowing adventuring parties to adapt a vessel to their needs.
Custom rooms can be bought and sold in major cities, and can only be
installed or swapped at city docks - a process that usually takes
several days.
Custom rooms with associated stations or tech
competence requirements follow the same general rules as ship devices
(see above). Rooms with charge usage cannot be installed on ships without charge generation.
Each custom room left empty will increase the ship's
excess cargo limit by 100,000 pounds. This is not counted in the ship's
listed excess cargo limit, as it is presumed that custom rooms will be
filled.
Extra Quarters
Station: None
Price: 150
This room increases the ship's crew quarters capacity by 30.
Rec Room
Station: None
Price: 2000
This room contains recreational diversions where
those on board can unwind. It provides a +1 bonus to the ship's SPR,
and also increases the interval of SPR loss by 10 days.
If an extra 40,000 coin is spent, a rec room can be
outfitted with Alacrian technology, increasing the effect to +2 SPR and
+20 days.
A ship can be fitted with multiple rec rooms
to further increase the SPR loss interval, but the bonuses to SPR itself do
not stack.
HMA Dojo
Station: None
Price: 3000
This room is a training hall for a certain high martial art,
which must be specified when the room is purchased. It fulfills the
function of a dojo for the rules of Melee HMA Mastery (Close Combat) or
Ranged HMA Mastery (Marksmanship).
Whenever docked in a city, the dojo can be renovated
for 500 coins to alter the HMA it is associated with. If an extra
10,000 coin is spent, the dojo can be upgraded to accept a second
simultaneous HMA; this does not allow characters to discount two HMA
options at once, but can be useful in a mixed-art party. A ship can
also be fitted with multiple dojos associated with different arts.
Extra Vehicle Bay
Station: Technical
Price: 5000
This room functions as either an additional Aircraft
Bay or Ramped Bay (see above), chosen at the time of installation. The
amount of Aircraft Bays added through custom rooms must not exceed the
number of Aircraft Bays provided originally by the ship, and likewise
for Ramped Bays.
Observation Deck
Station: Gunnery
Price: 8000
This spacious room provides a scenic outlook,
increasing the ship's SPR by 1. During combat, the room is utilized to
additionally provide a +1 bonus to PDL. It only requires its station to
be manned for the latter benefit.
A ship may have only one Observation Deck.
Sickbay
Station: None
Price: 10,000
Any character in this room who has Conventional
Medicine (Nature) can use it at 0 insight cost. The 15-minute portion
of that Ability can also be reduced to 1 minute, allowing a single
character to more practically oversee the treatment of an entire crew.
Library
Station: None
Price: 12,000
This room is stocked with books relevant to the
ship's mission, as well as uplinks to Varanshah's Great Library and
other important archives. It functions as a city library for the
purpose of any applicable searches and Abilities.
Hydroponics Bay
Station: None
Price: 15,000
Any character in this room who has Field Elixir Production or Field
Poison Production (Nature) can use that Ability in this room instead of
searching an outdoor area. Do not add Hindrance or Easing to the 2d12
roll. Instead of searching, the roll represents the character operating
the bay's equipment and cultivating plants. Only one character can use
Abilities in the room at one time, and the room can only sustain
Ability usage for up to 12 hours (3 rolls) per day.
As a second benefit, the aesthetics of this room -
as well as a few tasty side crops - also improve morale on the ship,
providing a +1 bonus to SPR. This bonus is not increased if multiple
Hydroponics Bays are installed.
Inventor's Forge
Station: None
Price: 15,000
This room functions as a city forge for all rules relevant to inventing devices.
When docked at cities, the forge can be stocked with materials up to
100,000 coins in value; rather than obtaining materials in a city,
inventors on the ship may subtract their materials cost from the
stocked value in the forge. Up to two inventors may work simultaneously
per forge.
Repair Bay
Station: None
Price: 15,000
This room functions as a city for all rules relevant to repairing
any techs or vehicles on board the ship.
It may be stocked with up to 50,000 pounds of repair materials without
counting that weight against the ship's excess cargo limit. Finally,
the ship receives 1 Easing in DCN rolls to repair with crew.
A ship may have only one Repair Bay.
Sarcophagus Chamber
Station: None
Price: 60,000
This room contains one Alacrian vampiric sarcophagus (see Vampires),
which comes with one blank cartouche. For a cost of 20,000 coins and a
written cartouche, it can be transformed into a bonded sarcophagus.
This room is only regularly available in Cevelky, with authorization
from the Vampire Lords; in other cities, arranging its installation may
either be impossible, or require extensive black-market negotiations
and bribed port authorities.
Boarding Mirror
Station: Technical
Requires
Adamantology: 5 and Diagnostics: 4
Price: 800,000
This device may be used once per ship combat round
(1 minute). At a cost to the ship of 400 charge, up to 1,000 pounds may
be teleported a distance of up to ship combat short range. This form of
teleportation is low-precision (see Combat),
and the ship must have an unobstructed line of sight to the
destination. Liftgas airships above common gravnet airship altitude cannot use this device to
teleport items to the ground.
As its name implies, this device can be used to
board other ships. If the other ship is moving, the device's ship must
succeed on a d12 roll on MBL to target it; this is not considered an
offense roll, and does not take Hindance or Easing specific to offense
rolls. If failed, the device spends no charge, but cannot be used for 1
minute. To teleport onto the deck, the device's ship's altitude must be
either matching or above the other ship.
If the destination is a ship or the ground, this
device ignores the usual teleportation rule that velocity is not
altered. Instead, stationary objects on the mirror will become
stationary relative to the destination ship, or to the ground, even if
the device's ship was moving. It cannot alter velocity of teleported
items in another way than this.
Luxurious Ships
If a ship has a bSPR of at least 4 and is
additionally receiving an SPR bonus of at least +3 solely from custom
rooms, those on board receive the benefits found in Rest for luxurious rest.