Replacement Systems

In time, the characters may decide to completely replace a starship's systems. After they've spent enough time patching together that modified hyperdrive, they may decide to get rid of it and upgrade to a more modern hyperdrive system. What follows are some possible replacement systems they may wish to install aboard their starships.

Note that these parts are designed to be used in a freighter or space transport type vessel. Capital ships will rarely have modified components. If they do, they are likely custom-built by the ship's engineer, corporation, or government which operates the vessel. Starfighters generally operate at the envelope of their capabilities already. It is very difficult to find the space, available power, and integrate new systems into a compact starfighter. Thus, modifications—beyond a few tweaks—are rare among starfighters.

Weight and Cargo Space

All the replacement systems weigh something, and that weight is subtracted from the amount of cargo the ship can carry. As the ship is refitted, players must keep track of how much cargo capacity remains. This will dramatically affect how profitable each run can be: ships with high cargo capacity can carry a lot more and make a lot more money. On the other hand, these ships are probably slow and/or lightly armed and armored, with all the risks that entails.

During the campaign, when replacing one device with a new one, adjust the ship's cargo capacity accordingly (subtract the weight of the first device and then add the weight of the second).

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Replacement Drives

The following is a selection of some of the possible replacement drives that starship (generally space transports) captains can select.

Starscream-9 Ion Drive • Model: Sienar Fleet Systems' Starscream-9 Ion Drive • Type: Military ion engine • Cost: 500,000 credits plus installation costs • Weight: 24 metric tons • Availability: X • Game Notes: The Starscream-9 is a military ion drive, originally designed for use in starfighters. They are available (for monstrous costs) on the black market. They have a Space rating of 12 (atmosphere of 450; 1,300 kmh). Possession of such a drive is a serious infraction in Imperial space. Because of the cutting edge technology in this drive, double all difficulties for modifying this drive and double all modifiers when rolling for mishaps.

SoroSuub Boav Ion Drive • Model: SoroSuub Boav Ion Drive • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 10,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 10 metric tons • Availability: 2 • Game Notes: Space rating of 4. Technicians installing a Boav unit will face an increase of one difficulty level in their space transports repair roll.

Incom Starslinger Ion Drive • Model: Incom Starslinger Ion Drive • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 20,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 12 metric tons • Availability: F • Game Notes: Space rating of 6. Requires a 500 credits Imperial permit. Double all difficulties for modifying this drive and double all modifiers when rolling for mishaps beyond a +1 modification.

Corellian Evader-GT Ion Drive • Model: Corellian Evader-GT Ion Drive • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 50,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 16 metric tons • Availability: F • Game Notes: The Evader-GT Ion Drive is a scaled-down version of a military ion drive. They are available on the open market, but require a 5,000 credit Imperial permit to legally possess. They give a vessel a Space rating of 8. Double all difficulties for modifying this drive and double all modifiers when rolling for mishaps beyond a +1 modification.

Boshaa-C'hi Ion Drive • Model: Kuat Drive Yards' Boshaa-C'hi Ion Drive • Type: Military ion engine • Cost: 100,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 18 metric tons • Availability: X • Game Notes: The Boshaa is an older model of a military ion drive, originally designed for use in starfighters. They are available on the black market. They give a vessel a Space rating of 10. Possession of such a drive is a serious infraction in Imperial space. Double all difficulties for modifying this drive and double all modifiers when rolling for mishaps.

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Gamemaster Sidebar: "Our Worries Are Over…"

When characters install replacement systems, they'll probably breathe a sigh of relief (especially if they're used to modified systems giving them problems). And, in general, they'll have nothing to worry about.

But… technology isn't perfect. There is always the chance that when a new system is put into a ship, maybe the mechanics didn't quite get everything right. Or the characters bought a faulty system. Machines break, computers have glitches, and parts from one manufacturer (or model line) may not be compatible with parts from another.

As a gamemaster, don't rely on this possibility to make your adventures more interesting, but don't neglect it either.

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Baffled Drive

Rendili StarDrive WhisperThrust • Model: Rendili StarDrive WhisperThrust • Type: Baffled realspace drive • Scale: Starfighter • Cost: 100,000 minimum on the black market • Weight: 20 metric tons; extra tank: 2 metric tons • Availability: 4, X • Game Notes: The Whisper is a highly illegal baffled realspace drive used on stealthy military starships. The Whisper allows a ship to move in space while running silent at a base speed of 2. Cautious movement is no more detectable than drifting; Cruise movement adds +5 to the sensor operator's roll; High Speed adds +10; All-Out movement adds +15. A WhisperThrust engine has a limited storage capacity for the necessary gases to move: enough to move 100 spacial units. An extra or replacement tank costs 7,000 credits. Synthesizing the necessary fuel requires 120 liters of spin-sealed tibanna gas and 2 kilos of high-grade hyperbarides and a standard power generator. The fuel refining process takes roughly three standard days.

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Replacement Hyperdrives

There are many different brands and types of hyperdrives that characters can choose to install in their vessels. Here are some examples.

In game terms, the differences between hyperdrives are the hyperdrive multipliers, and their compatibility; any hyperdrive can be installed in any freighter with the room for the upgrade, but depending on brand and type, it may be more difficult to install.

It is possible to remove the back-up hyperdrive from a space transport and sell it, thereby gaining additional cargo capacity and a bit of extra cash (however, any hyperdrive with a multiplier of ×5 or more isn't worth that much). Of course, the passengers and crew of the freighter are in a very bad situation if the main drive conks out in transit…

×1/2 Hyperdrives

This type of drive is not commercially available for freighters—they must be custom built (and are extremely prone to failure). Some stolen models cost as much as 90,000 credits on the black market—if they can be found at all. These hyperdrives are very illegal.

The installation cost is around 15,000 credits, with the average unit weighing in around 20 tons. A typical custom hyperdrive job can cost between 50,000 and 90,000 credits, depending on the quality of the parts, the cost of the hyperdrive being modified, and the quality of work. Finding a mechanic who's willing to build such a drive is another matter entirely.

×1 Hyperdrives

This level of hyperdrive is probably the fastest type of star drive that the average ship will have, unless the owner is fortunate enough to locate a military hyperdrive (and can afford the enormous cost of installing it). They are legal, but customs officials will probably make life difficult on anyone with a ship that fast ("Why do you need something that fast… if I didn't know better, I'd say you were probably a smuggler…").

Operating a vessel rated for this speed without the proper documentation (and the 5,000 credit permit) is punishable under law, and penalties include stiff fines and possible suspension of the operator's flight license.

×1 Hyperdrive • Model: SoroSuub Griffyn-XTG Lightspeed Unit • Type: Commercial hyperdrive • Cost: 15,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 18 metric tons • Availability: F • Game Notes: Any non-SoroSuub vessels attempting to install this type of drive suffer an increase of one difficulty level during the attempt.

×2 Hyperdrives

This is arguably the most common speed hyperdrive found aboard starships. It is reliable, cheap (comparatively), and is fast enough to get a ship from point A to point B within a reasonable time.

×2 Hyperdrive • Model: Corellian Avatar-10 • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 10,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 15 metric tons • Availability: 2 • Game Notes: Space transports repair rolls to install an Avatar-10 receive a +1D bonus.

×3, ×4, and ×5 Hyperdrives

At this level, the costs for hyperdrives decrease drastically; generally, those who can afford it use this class of drive for a backup rather than a main drive. Any ship that relies on a ×3 or slower hyperdrive for main propulsion is risking great delays in traveling their shipping routes. • ×3 Hyperdrive • Model: Incom Horizon-Hopper Light Stardrive • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 7,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 12 metric tons • Availability: 2 • ×4 Hyperdrive • Model: Rendili StarDrive's ATX-5 • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 4,000 plus installation costs • Weight: 10 metric tons • Availability: 1 • ×5 Hyperdrive • Model: Sienar Fleet Systems Lifesaver 1000 Reserve Hyperdrive • Type: Commercial propulsion system • Cost: 2,500 plus installation costs • Weight: 8 metric tons • Availability: 1 • Game Notes: The Lifesaver 100 is only recommended as a backup hyperdrive and must be overhauled after each use.

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Shields

Shields are essential to protect your ship's integrity in a fight. The shields listed below combine the powers of both particle and ray/energy shields, and thus are equally effective against both lasers and missiles. Shields are almost impossible to improve beyond their initial strength.

Deflector Shields

•	Model: Standard Deflector Shields
•	Type: Particle & ray/energy shields
•	Scale: Starfighter

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Weaponry

Most of the weapons below require a fee and an Imperial or Republic permit to operate legally. The usual cost of the fee is 30 percent of the purchase price.

To get a permit through normal channels, the player character must apply at an Imperial or Republic Space Control office. He makes an opposed con or bureaucracy roll, his skill against the damage code of the weapon (modified by local circumstances and the character's clean record—or lack thereof). Success indicates that the captain has been granted permission to equip the ship with the indicated weapon type. A separate roll must be made for each weapon mounted on his ship. Bribery can, of course, modify the difficulty of acquiring the permit. • Blaster cannon: A relatively weak blaster, usually mounted on lightly armed vessels. • Laser cannon / heavy laser cannon: Stronger versions of the blaster cannon. • Turbolaser: Heavy ship-mounted laser, usually mounted only on larger ships. A turbolaser can fire only every other combat round (simply because it has been jury-rigged to ship). It is usually illegal to have a turbolaser mounted on a private vessel. • Ion cannon: An ion cannon does not destroy an enemy vessel; rather it temporarily disables its electronics. Make a normal attack roll, but instead of inflicting damage, the opponent's equipment is ionized. • Proton torpedoes: Missiles containing proton-scattering energy warheads. (No appreciable weight.) • Concussion missiles: Armor-piercing warheads with compact energy packs that detonate on impact. (No appreciable weight.)

Weapon Summary

• This weapon is illegal. ** Damage is starfighter-scale.

Linked Weapons

Most weapons are designed to be fired individually, from the captain's or weapons officer's station. Up to three identical weapons can be linked to fire at the same target simultaneously. The computer linkage for this operation costs around 100 credits per weapon.

For a weapon link to have any useful value, the weapons must have identical damage codes: • Linking two weapons adds +1D to the damage code. • Linking three weapons adds +2D to the damage code.

Example: Two light laser cannons (2D each) linked together deal 3D. Three linked together deal 4D.

Similarly, if a weapon can be fired from two different locations (for example, the weapon mount and the pilot's station), the additional linkage costs 100 credits per weapon. This is considered a +1 modification on the mishap charts.

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Computers and Sensors

The necessity of sensor apparatus is obvious to most star-pilots; without proper navigational data, it is easy to wind up smashing into an asteroid, sun, other spaceship, and so on. Space may be big, but in a number of areas, space is extremely crowded.

The various sensors listed below are all described earlier in this chapter. Note that many of the sensors below have no appreciable weight. • Electro-Photo Receptors (EPRs): 300 credits • Full Spectrum Transceivers (FSTs): 500 credits • Dedicated Energy Receptors (DERs): 600 credits • Life-Form Indicators (LFIs): 800 credits

Sensor Jammer

A special signal generator that floods an area with static which blinds all sensors, but broadcasts the general location of the ship doing the jamming. Costs begin at 1,500 credits and the systems weigh at least 1 ton. They normally add to the difficulty to identify a ship, but make it easier to detect a ship (see the sensors rules).

Sensor Jamming Hardware • Model: Fabritech NightBlind 472 • Type: Sensor jamming device • Cost: 4,000 credits plus installation costs • Weight: 1 metric ton • Availability: X • Game Notes: +1D to identify, but −2D to detect.

Sensor Decoys

A sensor decoy sends out electromagnetic and holo signals exactly identical to the ship. They can be ejected with a pre-programmed course and normally have a maximum sublight speed of 5. They are relatively effective at distance, but easily seen through when enemy sensors are set on focus mode. Sensor decoys can only be used once (their engines burn out after use).

In game terms, sensor decoys are easily detectable. However, they add a die modifier (+1D, +2D, etc.) to the difficulty of the enemy sensor operator to determine which is the decoy and which is the real ship.

Sensor Decoys • Model: Corellian Trickster Decoys • Type: Starship countermeasures system • Cost: 2,000 credits plus installation costs • Weight: 2 metric tons • Availability: F • Game Notes: Trickster Drones add +2D to the difficulty to determine which sensor reading is the ship and which is the decoy. Possession of this type of countermeasure requires official certification.

Cloaking Device

To date, there is no working cloaking device known in Imperial space. The discovery of a working cloaking shield would be worth hundreds of millions of credits for the sentient lucky enough to find or construct one. Of course, for that kind of money, just about every major crimelord, smuggler, bounty hunter, government and scientist would kill to obtain it.

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Miscellaneous

Equipping the cargo hold to hold an X-wing fighter, self-destruct mechanisms, space-mine ejectors, false beacons or transponders, detachable sections… there is always a chance that players will come up with modifications that have not been anticipated by the gamemaster. Gamemasters should decide the costs and the weight of such modifications, using the examples below as a guide. A simple rule of thumb: if it is technically complex, it costs a bundle.

What follows are some unusual systems characters can purchase.

Fuel Converters

Fuel converters allow the captain to avoid the expense of paying refueling or power cell replacement fees. Instead, the captain can buy certain materials (normally waste material) in bulk and put it into the fuel converter. • Solid Fuel Converter: Converts virtually any matter into fuel cell power. • Cost: 8,000 credits • Weight: 5 tons

Scoops

Allows ships to dip into a planet's atmosphere or seas to steal natural resources with which to recharge their power cells. • Cost: 15,000 credits • Weight: 15 tons

Solar Converters

Huge, molecule-thick solar-absorbent sails. In-system recharges in about 15 days; out-system about 60 days. • Cost: 12,000 credits • Weight: 10 tons

Tractor Beam

Pulls smaller vessels closer to the freighter (or pulls the freighter if it's smaller). Fire control is 2D, damage is 2D. • Cost: 8,000 credits • Weight: 15 tons

Secret Cargo Compartments

Up to three people can fit in each ton of space in a secret compartment (they require lots of space to conceal). If more than 20% of a ship's cargo space is taken up by secret compartments, customs officials are likely to become suspicious. • Concealed: Difficult Perception/search (scanner detects immediately) • Cost: 200 credits per ton hidden • Weight impact: 5 tons cargo capacity per 1 ton hidden • Hidden: Very Difficult Perception/search (scanner finds on Moderate) • Cost: 400 credits per ton hidden • Weight impact: 5 tons cargo capacity per 1 ton hidden • Scanner Resistant: Very Difficult Perception/search; does not show on scanners • Cost: 1,000 credits per ton hidden • Weight impact: 5 tons cargo capacity per 1 ton hidden

Automatic Cargo Jettisoning

Jettisons a chosen portion of cargo (main bay or secret compartment). Triggered by dead-man switch or ship computer. • Cost: 1,000 credits • Weight: 1 ton

Passenger Conversion

Convert cargo hold space to passenger space. • Standard conversion: 400 credits per additional passenger capacity; Weight: 10 tons per person • Primitive (illegal): 30 credits per person; Weight: 1 ton per person

Refrigeration Equipment

For temperature-controlled cargo. • Cost: 100 credits per ton converted • Weight: 1 ton per 20 tons converted

Replacement Navigation Computer

•	Cost: 2,000 credits

Escape Equipment

Freighter-sized escape pod seats eight passengers; food/oxygen for two weeks. • Cost: 1,200 credits • Weight: 5 tons

Environmental Converters

Provides comfortable environs for many different species throughout the ship, or in one cabin/cargo hold. • Cost: 4,000 credits • Weight: 4 tons

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Source: REUP:448