Ship Systems

Systems describe what a ship is capable of doing: how good its weapons are, how tough its hull is, how fast its engines are and how much room it has in its cargo hold. At Ship Construction each ship has 5 points that can be spent on its systems and each system can have a maximum of 3 points in it.
Remember: If your ship class comes with a 'Favoured System', it already has 1 point in that system. However, that system is still restricted to 3 points in total. Equally, if your ship class comes with a 'Penalty system', that system can never have points above 1. You still have 5 points to spend in either of these cases.

The Ship's cargo hold is where all fuel and large items are stored. This space is finite and cannot be exceeded: any excess items must be jettisoned into space else the ship will start to drift due to detected unsafe conditions of an overfull hold. In particular, the limit of three units of FTL Drive Fuel cannot be exceeded for safety reasons.

• 0 points: Stock “Shoebox” Cargo Container
  • Capable of storing one (1) unit of solid FTL Drive Fuel or equivalent item storage¹⁾.
• 1 point: Basic “Cupboard” Cargo Hold
  • Capable of storing two (2) units of solid FTL Drive Fuel or equivalent item storage.
• 2 points: Intermediate “Locker” Cargo Bay
  • Capable of storing three (3) units of solid FTL Drive Fuel (the limit for safe transport) or equivalent item storage.
• 3 points: Advanced “Garage” Cargo Deck
  • Capable of storing three (3) units of solid FTL Drive Fuel and ample additional item storage.

Engines are pivotal to moving a ship from A to B. Better engines make your ship go faster and make it more manoeuvrable too. These are distinct from the FTL Drive and do not use solid fuel to run.

• 0 points: Stock “Snail” Ship Propellers
  • Capable of slow, unwieldy short-distance movement about a fleet of ships in deep space but incapable of interplanetary travel.
• 1 point: Basic “Oxen” Ship Motors
  • Capable of reasonable and reliable movement in deep space and resisting gravitational pull enough to explore star systems.
• 2 points: Intermediate “Horse” Ship Engines
  • Capable of swift and agile movement in deep space and capable of allowing easy exploration of star systems.
• 3 points: Advanced “Cheetah” Ship Drives
  • Capable of powerful, fast, and unbelievably agile movement in deep space as well as within star systems.

The ship's hull is what protects its crew and its interior workings from the dark, empty void of space. It's what takes the beating in combat, in difficult environments or when entering atmospheres and the tougher the hull the better it will cope.

• 0 points: Stock “Papier Maché” Membrane
  • Paper-thin token hull incapable of preventing any damage to the ship.
• 1 point: Basic “Plaster of Paris” Skin
  • Thick enough to safely enter and exit “Earth-like” atmospheres without damage, and repelling low powered weaponry.
• 2 points: Intermediate “Clay” Wall
  • Thick enough to safely enter and exit dangerous “Jupiter-like” atmospheres without damage, and repelling moderately powered weapons.
• 3 points: Advanced “Pykrete” Armour
  • Thick enough to trivially enter dangerous environments, to withstand highly powered weapons or even being rammed by a smaller ship.

If there are two objects left in the universe, one of them is going to want to blow the other up. That's what weapons are for. The better a ship's weapons, the more damage they'll do if they hit.

• 0 points: Stock “Imaginary” “Weapons”
  • This ship has no weapons.
• 1 point: Basic “Sling” Hole-makers
  • These weapons are capable of killing a person in space and doing light damage to an armoured ship. You can clear small debris (about the size of a pebble) from your way.
• 2 points: Intermediate “Atlatl” Dent-Smashers
  • These weapons are capable of killing a tank and doing moderate damage to an armoured ship - they could probably put a reasonable dent in a battleship and you can clear small asteroids from your path with ease.
• 3 points: Advanced “Longbow” Hull-Sunderers
  • These weapons are capable of punching holes clean through the side of all but the most heavily armoured battleships. You can clear large asteroids from your way and could easily be considered a galactic threat.