Unicorn RampantClaw / Claw / Bite magazine & Tabletop Role-Playing Games

May 5th Warp Boost Rings

“Interstellar travel, kid. Some call it jumping, or warp, lightspeed, FTL, hyperspace, whatever. If you want to get out of this system, you need a ship that can do it. Like mine.” – Captain Liv Thunson, USS Sabre Tiger

Designed to give jump capabilities to smaller ships, warp boost rings are spacecraft that consist of a self-contained jump drive and fuel supply in a chassis that can dock with and carry a variety of small ships. Many designs use a ring-shaped chassis and interior docking clamps to accommodate a variety of ships under 60 tons, as long as they are small enough to fit inside the ring. Other designs use a sled-like chassis that the smaller ship sits atop.

As the jump ring hulls do not have maneuver drives of their own they rely on the thrust of the attached small ship for sub-lightspeed travel. Thrust will need to be recalculated according to the combined ships’ new tonnage and the maneuver thrust rating of the small ship. For example, a 50 ton modular cutter with thrust 4 docked with a WPR-A-2 are 90 tons combined and move at thrust 2. Because for most small ships half speed is the result, a handy way to determine the new thrust quickly is to simply halve the ship’s thrust while docked.

Due to poor aerodynamic characteristics these hulls give the docked ship -1 DM on pilot skill checks when in atmosphere. For this reason these rings are typically left parked at orbital refueling stations if the docked ship heads into atmosphere. They are nevertheless equipped with landing gear.

WPR-A-2 Warp Boost Ring – 100 tons – 19.044 MCr.

A common sight in the interior of the Imperium, the WPR-A3 allows small spaceships of up to 60 tons to dock and travel at warp 2. They often carry skiffs or boarding shuttles between systems.

When used to transport ships of 10 tons or less, their FTL range is extended to jump-3.

When carried on larger ships, these rings take up 40 tons of hangar space.

Monthly maintenance costs 1,587 Credits. Standard design (%10 discount).

100 ton hull – standard (ring) – 2 MCr.
Hull – 2 points
Structure – 2 points
Armor – none
Power Plant – A – 4 tons – 8 MCr.
Jump Drive – A – jump-2 – 10 tons – 10 MCr.
Fuel – one jump-2 and two weeks of operation – 22 tons
Computer – model 2 – rating 20 – 0.16 MCr.
Software – jump control 2 – 0.2 MCr.
Docking for small ship up to 60 tons – 4 tons – 0.8 MCr.

WPR-F-4 Warp Boost Ring – 100 tons – 39.51 MCr.

A longer-range version of the WPR-A-2, this chassis is mainly used to quickly move small ships such as modular skiffs or retrieval boats across the cosmos at warp 4. WPR-F-4 are frequently used to carry Starhawk extended range fighters.

When carried on larger ships, these rings take up 70 tons of hangar space.

Monthly maintenance costs 3,292 Credits. Standard design (%10 discount).

100 ton hull – standard (ring) – 2 MCr.
Hull – 2 points
Structure – 2 points
Armor – none
Power Plant – B – 7 tons – 16 MCr.
Jump Drive – B – jump-4 – 15 tons – 20 MCr.
Fuel – one jump-4 and two weeks of operation – 44 tons
Computer – model 4 – rating 20 – 5 MCr.
Software – jump control 4 – 0.4 MCr.
Docking for small ship up to 30 tons – 1 ton – 0.5 MCr.

 

Posted in Starship, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.