World Building & Star Wars Spaceship Design

by Macavity de Carabas

With a few exceptions, Star Wars has poorly defined world building for spaceship
design language by the various races/corporations. This is explained in universe
as a result of thousands of years of species design co-opted by various large
corporations and the ensuing muddled shapes and lines with a few exceptions of
newer races in the Galactic scene like the Mon Calamari.

Contrast this with Star Trek or Babylon 5, where every race has very consistant
design language.

One of the few races that does have a consistant design language are the Mon
Calamari. Mon Calamari ships are distinctively non-symmetrical, rounded, and
covered in bumpy blisters - a product of their origins as underwater cities. Mon
Calamari are renowned for their ship building skills and for both more powerful
shields and many backup shield generators that make their Capitol ships notoriously
difficult to destroy and capable of taking a great deal of punishment.

Nonetheless out of the hodge-podge of shapes and features that is Star Wars
spaceship design we do arrive at a consistent galactic design language that can be
applied to every spaceship that has been a part of the galactic republic at one
time or another.

Finding some Scale

First and foremost are docking ports. Ships cannot always land on a hospitable
world and offload goods and passengers, and only small starfighters can regularly
rely upon air-filled hanger bays to land within. It follows then than most space
transports and capitol ships need to have docking ports to allow them to dock with
each other and orbital stations in space - and indeed we see this with the
Millenium Falcon's two cylindrical spokes port and starboard, and with the multiple
matching horizontal cylindrical structures on the Corellian Corvette.

Without standardized docking ports, you would have the same problem we have with
Apple of needing a multitude of adapters to connect ships together. There's no
advantage to that for any ship design, so we can conclude that the majority of the
time, docking ports must be the same size on ships that want to dock with each
other in space.

When sizing illustrations of Star Wars starships, you can almost always determine
the proper scale for transport models by lining up the docking ports and scaling
the entire ship so that the docking ports match. Corridors, cockpits, and weapons
may vary in size, but docking ports and hatches sized for people must remain
consistent.

Keeping it Cool
One thing that all ships generate in space is heat, and starfighters in general
generate large amounts of heat very quickly while firing weapons and accelerating
hard. All ships in Star Wars have structures on their hull designed to radiate
this heat. On Corellian YT-1300s you can see these radiator circles on the top aft
quarter of the hull. Y-Wings have radiators on the aft portion of their fuselage.
A-Wings, X-Wings, and B-Wings incorporate radiators into their iconic fins. And
despite many years of misleading cut-away drawings, I believe that TIE-fighters
incorporate some of the largest radiator fins for their tiny, turbocharged Twin Ion
Engines into their large vertical panels.
S-Foils
TIE fighters use their large vertical S-foils (Space Foils) both as massive heat
radiators (so that they can turbocharge their tiny fusion powerplants) and as X-
wings do: as large etheric rudders that let them latch onto ethereal, or
hyperspace, and use that connection to electromagnetically steer and accelerate
without making a jump fully into hyperspace.
This use only happens at high space speeds - Space: 12 and over - and gives Star
Wars fighters their characteristic aerodynamic banking. The faster you go, the more
effective etheric vanes are at gripping the ethereal plane, and the coterminus
nature of the ethereal plane (hyperspace) with real space helps accelerate the
craft faster and faster without requiring as much energy from the main power plant,
making fighters with big S-foils or many S-foils more fuel efficient and able to
divert power to shields and weapons.

Craft with S-foils gain a S-foil size proportionate boost to their manueverability
at High Speed.

TIE fighters very large twin panels gain +2D manuverability at High Speed

X-wings singular X S-foils gain +1D manuverability at High Speed.

B-Wings gain +2D manuverability at High Speed with their large fixed blade S-foil
and two smaller auxiliary S-foils

Once High Speed is reached sublight drive power requirements drop to half,
increasing starfighter range and the power available to direct to weapons and
shields.
Any damage to S-foils in High Speed use forces an immediate Very Difficult pilot
test. Failure can result in a spectacular shredding effect of wings from fuselage
under the shearing forces of hyperspace, leading to a rapid loss of cooling to the
fusion power plant and a quick explosion.

A-wings and Y-wings don't have S-foils and rely upon pure engine power to
accelerate in real space and thrust vectoring for their manuverability. Unlike X-
Wings and TIE fighters, they are both fuel hogs that measure flight time in minutes
at high speed.

A Sense of Gravity
Providing gravity for the crew and cargo of a ship is important, but even more
important is the ability that grav-plating gives us for acceleration compensators
with some kind of inertial dampening which allows the crew and cargo to be
protected from both the acceleration and maneuvers that a starship undergoes during
flight. In a similar fashion, repulsorlifts counteract the force of gravity from a
planetary body on a starship allowing it to hover and fly from planetary surface to
orbit with much less thrust than it would otherwise need.

Shielding it all
The larger the ship, the more energy must be pumped into the Deflector shields to
keep everything covered. This is one of the reasons that Transports and Capitol
ships don't have impenatrable shields compared to starfighters, despite devoting
far more tonnage to energy production than tiny snubfighters have to spare.

Weapons
Starfighter/transport scale weapons are tremendously over-massed to the point that
there is a serious disconnect between what we see on screen and what is in the
current d6 RPG. Even the lightest blaster cannons are 1 metric ton which is a
tremendous amount of density, when a solid cylinder of titanium larger than the
small laser weapons we see (8" diameter by 6-feet long) weighs less than 0.3 tons.
For comparison, the GAU-8 Avenger autocannon on the A-10 Thunderbolt weighs 0.28
tons.

While embarking on my own starship creation journey I've been recommended a variety
of different sources from Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters to d6 Space Ships. The
former are very Star Wars centric but poor guides to overall ship design, and the
latter are decent ship design systems, but generalized far outside of the Star Wars
design language.

What I present below is a system based on established Star Wars world building and
consistent design language that reflects what is seen on screen AND in the Star
Wars d6 game that will allow you to create a wide variety of designs without
requiring a great deal of inconsistent exceptions, custom rulings, and GM fiat.

Starship Scale

Starships come in two scales, Starfighter and Capitol and each of the components
below come in both scale sizes, with Capitol scale components requiring additional
power and costing more while taking up more space in return for system output at
Capitol scale.

Within the Starfighter scale, there is further miniaturization employed in many

smaller starfighters, while larger heavy starfighters can make use of the
standardized components also used in Starfighter scale Transports.

Starfighter miniaturization reduces the durability of components. When the damage

taken indicates component damage/mishaps, miniaturized components suffer
catastrophic mishaps.

Multiply the base cost of miniaturized components by x2

Starfighter-scale Transports can make use of not only standardized Starfighter-

scale components, but in some cases are big enough (and have enough cargo capacity)
to even accomodate Capitol-scale components.

Starship components fall into two classes: Internal Components and External
Components.

Internal Components are modules and equipment that take up space inside the hull of
the ship. These include items like the Power Core, Bridge station modules, Crew
Cabin modules, Airlocks. These components have Power requirements and add Mass to
the ship.

External Components are equipment that needs to be mounted on the exterior of the
hull in order to function. These items include things like Docking Port modules,
Deflector Shield Projectors, Sublight Drives, Weapons, Turrets, Thrusters, Cargo
Ramps, Escape Pod bays, Landing Gear and Thermal Coolers. Only so much of the hull
is available to mount these items and each of these items take up a certain amount
of structure to mount. This structure is called a hardpoint. Some modules, like
Wings, add additional hardpoints to your ship onto which you can hang things like
Thermal Coolers, weapons, thrusters or even Sublight Drives.

Internal Components:

Power Cores
The Power Core provides energy to a ship's sublight drives as well as onboard
components like computers, life-support, gravity, weapons and shields. In game
terms, the Power Core provides a set number of Power Dice used to power other
systems (each with their own Power cost). Should a Power Core sustain damage, it
may reduce the energy unit output available for operations (though reserve battery
systems and burst capacitors allow limited function for most systems).

In cases where enough Power Dice aren't availble, currently powered systems take
precedence over systems just coming online, unless an operator makes an Easy Power
Systems skill roll. If increasing speed, raising shields or discharging a weapon
take too much power, the action simply fails. The ship's computer automatically
diverts power from damaged systems so Power doesn't bleed off into useless
machinery.

Players may wish to keep simple notes to track how much power their craft uses in
various situations. They should jot down how many Power Dice their vessel uses
under normal operation, cautious operation (power for shields and all weapons) and
at various speeds. All-out speed consumes 4 times as many Power Dice as at
cruising speed. Under some circumstances, captains might have to decide between
powering the drives, maintaining life support, raising shields, and discharging
weapons.

A dedicated power operator can attempt to red-line a ship's power core to generate
more energy, though this is never a good idea, sometimes the extra boost is what
you need to survive a desperate situation.

Power operators must make a Power Systems skill roll to tap into emergency battery
relays, reconfigure power flow parameters, and overload the power plant, increasing
the percentage of Power Dice available for three rounds. The difficulty starts at 5
for a 10% increase and goes up by +5 for each additional 10% up to a maximum of
50%. Round the total Power Dice provided down to the nearest die.

After three rounds, the power core overloads and sustains Heavy damage - Power
output drops to half until repaired, and the ship loses 1D from Manuverability or,
if at 0D in Manuverability, top Move speed is decreased by one level. The
gamemaster may allow exceptional rolls to further increase the power, allow the
power core to sustain the output for longer than three rounds, or lower the effects
of the damage.

Shutting down the power core before the beginning of the third round reduces the
damage to Light. The power core may not be boosted again before being properly
repaired.

A failure in the Power systems roll causes the Power Core to sustain severe damage
and produces no additional Power Dice. Output drops to half until repaired, adn
the ship goes out of control, decelerating by two levels each round until it comes
to a complete stop or crashes into something.
Power Core Table Power Mass Cost
Event Horizon Power Core
Nepton Power Core
Quadex Power Core

Automation

Hyperdrive - Starfighter

Cost:
Power: (Ship size) x 2D
Mass: (Ship size) tons

Cost:
Power: (Ship size) x 10D
Mass: (Ship size) x 2 tons

Radiators
Various kinds of thermal radiators carry waste heat away from a ship. Thermal
radiators require large wing-like surfaces away from a ship to emit thermal photons
into space, but are very low-mass for their size and work passively without any
energy draw. These are favored for starfighters as their light mass reduces the
impact on acceleration for fighters. Much smaller and more compact high powered
neutrino radiators can be embedded in a ship, but are more mass intensive and do
not handle spikes in thermal output very well. Neutrino radiators require external
vents to emit vaporized coolant under heavy thermal loads.

Thermal Radiators (The higher the Thermal Rating, the larger the size)
Thermal Rating:
Cost:
Hardpoints: 1 x Rating/10
Mass: Rating x 10 kgs
Power: -

Neutrino Radiators
Thermal Rating:
Cost:
Hardpoints: 1
Mass: 1,500 kgs + Rating x 10 kgs
Power: 1

Repulsorlifts
Repulsorlifts mean that Starships no longer need to supply thrust to overcome
planetary gravity wells and as such are important additions to any ship designed
for atmospheric flight and landing on gravitational surfaces. Repulsorlifts are
linked to the inertial dampners and onboard artificial gravity generators that all
modern starships retain and as they use many of the existing systems are a cheap
addition to manned starships.
Cost:
Mass:
Power: Ship Size
Life Support Modules - Life support modules are internal components that provide
not only space for crew, but also an airtight compartment with a breathable
atmosphere and power for crew amenities, onboard gravity deck plating, and inertial
dampers to protect the crew during high-acceleration maneuvers. Multiple Life
Support Modules may be combined to form larger cabins or rooms in a ship. Life
Support Modules include the mass and power requirements for both life support and
artificial gravity / inertial dampers. If a ship module is stripped of life
support, the module mass is 2/3 normal. The size and masses of many of the Life
Support Modules below are extrapolated from real world modules on the International
Space Station, but does not include the consumables portion of those modules.

Bridge Station - an operator station with enough room to get up and move around -
about 5.6 cubic meters of space. Bridge stations include personal computers
configured and optimized for the specific task of that station that provide the
minimum controls and computer processing necessary to operate the ships systems,
but provide no bonus to the operator's abilities. To provide skill boosts, see
"Module Upgrades".
Cost: 100 credits
Power: 2
Mass: 1,200 kgs + 400 kgs for cockpit structure

Compact Bridge Station - an operator station with no room to easily get up from -
these are most often seen in the cockpits of fighters - just under 3 cubic meters
of space.
Cost: 75 credits
Power: 2
Mass: 600 kgs/Station + 400 kgs for cockpit structure

Ejection Seat - This bridge station upgrade allows emergency egress from the ship
with a chair that launches the occupant of the bridge station out of the ship when
the ejection sequence is triggered.
Cost: 400 credits
Power: -
Mass: +200 kgs

Airlock (6 people) - a standard transport airlock has room for 6 people and
typically stores EVA suits in lockers along its walls. Airlocks have internal and
external doors, independent life support and the ability to pressurize and
depressurize the crew compartment without venting atmosphere into space. Airlock
modules have a length of 5.5 meters, a diameter of 4 meters and a volume of 34
cubic meters.
Cost: 300 credits
Power: 2
Mass: 3,000 kgs

Compact Airlock (1 person) - a single-person airlock allows one person to exit the
ship without depressurizing the entire volume of the ship.
Cost: 100 credits
Power: 1
Mass: 500 kgs

Living Quarters (2-4 people) - this living space provides a pressurized space for 4
people and enough room to stand up and walk around, store clothing and equipment
and sleeps up to 4 in bunk beds along the walls. Multiple Living Quarters can be
strung together for one larger room. Living quarters can be configured with stacked
bunks for multiple people, or a bed that sleeps two. Living quarters include life
support systems that recycle waste water for crew use and generate breathable
atmosphere for the crew. A brig is simply living quarters with a locking door.
Cost: 900 credits
Power: 2
Mass: 6,000 kgs

Compact Quarters (1 person) - a single coffin-style bunk with integrated storage,

lighting, air and computer access.
Cost: 500
Power: 1
Mass: 1,500 kgs

Refresher (1 person) - A compact cubicle that provides for personal hygiene.

Refreshers include a shower, sink and a toilet.
Cost:
Power: 1
Mass: 1,500 kgs

Workshop (2 people) - Any space that provides a work surface and tools for up to 2
people to use constructive skills for repair or construction of devices. A medbay
is a specialized workshop with a bed work surface, medical supplies, and tools for
working on healing or repairing organics.

External Modules
Some modules are built onto the exterior hull of a starship, taking up valuable
structural and surface real estate in order to function. In addition to the normal
cost, mass, and power statistics, these modules take up structural mounting
hardpoints on the external hull.

Docking Port (Starfighter) - 1 hardpoint -

Starfighter docking ports are small, single-person hatches, often used on the tops
and bottoms of ships and paired with either a single-person elevator or a simple
ladder for access. Starfighter docking ports are too small for most characters to
walk through upright and are roughly a meter in diameter. Similar to other docking
ports, starfighter docking ports feature an extendable tube and docking collar that
mate with a similar hatch on another ship.
Cost:
Mass: 250 kgs
Power: -

Docking Port (Transport) - 5 hardpoints - Transport docking ports are the full-
width of a standard corridor allowing at least two people to walk through abreast
and are about 2.5 meters in diameter.
Cost:
Mass: 500 kgs
Power: -

Docking Port (Capitol) - 10 hardpoints - Capitol docking ports have the ability to
connect with smaller Transport Docking ports.

Escape Pod Bay (Solo) - 2 hardpoints - Solo Escape Pods are single-occupant,
coffin-like re-entry pods that are stored in a stacked formation and rotated into
position to be fired from a port similar to a torpedo launch bay. Solo Escape Pods
are easy to incorporate into the under-deck spaces on most transports and the
launch port is small enough to be nestled just about anywhere on the surface of a
transport.

Escape Pod Bay (Group) - 5 hardpoints - Group Escape Pods are round ports that
accomodate cylindrical escape pods that hold from 4-8 passengers, depending on
length. All Group Escape Pods feature a standard Transport Docking Port on one end
to easily be docked with rescue transports.
Cost: 1200 credits
Mass: 5 tons

Escape Pod Bay (Capitol) - 10 hardpoints - Capitol Escape Pods have cabins large
enough to house over a dozen passengers and can be built around entire cabins on a
ship.

Hanger Bay (max ship size x10 hardpoints)

This is a cargo bay conversion that features either an airlock system or a shielded
hanger opening that keeps the air in while allowing smaller ships to enter and
leave. The maximum size of the ships the Hanger Bay can accommodate is dependent
on the size of the hanger opening and the size of the bay. Hanger Bays can double
as cargo bays and add their cargo rating to the ships total cargo rating.

Cost:
Power: 1D
Mass: Max ship size x # of ships that size the bay can accomodate + total mass of
ships the hanger bay can accommodate.

Landing Gear (ship size x3 hardpoints) - Landing Gear allow ships to land on
planetary surfaces and on the ground of a hanger bay. Without landing gear, pilots
must make a crash test when landing and their ships risk damage everytime they
land. Landing gear masses 1/10th the total mass of the ship.

Cost:
Power: 0
Mass: 1/10th mass of ship.

Sublight Drives

Sublight Drive Unit (1 Hardpoint/Speed Rating/Ship Size)

Cost:
Power:
Mass:
Heat:

Turbos (1 Hardpoint/ drive unit) - aftermarket add-on to engines that increases the
thrust for a brief period.

Thrust Reversers (1 Hardpoint/ drive unit)

Vectored Thrust (2 Hardpoints / drive unit) - swivels the exhaust nozzles only, in
up to 180-degree arcs.
+2 pips to manuverability.

Swivel Engine Mounts (5 Hardpoints each) - Must be bought in pairs. Combine and
enhance the effects of both Vectored Thrust and Thrust Reversers by swiveling the
exhaust in at least a single-plane 360-degree arc. Adds +1d6 wild die, increases
difficulty of pilot checks by one level, unless using the specialization pilot
skill for this ship.

Turret, Manned - (5 hardpoints) - Manned Turrets are controlled directly at their

mount. While they take advantage of the ship's fire control systems, they do not
require any additional bridge station installed nor take up automation resources.

Turret, Remote - (weapon + 2 hardpoints) - Remote Turrets are controlled by a

Bridge Station, but take up less room on the exterior of a ship. Damage to the ship
between the bridge station and the weapon mount can also sever the control lines to
a remote turret. Remote Turrets add +1 to the ship's Automation Crew requirements.

Wing, Small (+1 Hardpoint)

Wing, Medium (+3 Hardpoints) Ship Size + 1 when determining hangers that can
accomodate this ship

Wing, Large (+6 Hardpoints) Ship Size + 2 when determining hangers that can
accomodate this ship.

Wing, S-Foil

External Components

Cargo Ramp (2 Hardpoints)

Cost:
Mass:
Power: 0

Hatch (1 Hardpoint) - simpler than a docking port, a hatch merely provides an

airtight door or canopy to permit ingress/egress of the ship.

Sensors

Sensors take
1/10 Power / Passive Space Range
1/5 Power / Active Scan Space Range

Active Sensors have 3 modes:

Scan mode
Search mode - narrows Scan area, increasing range & giving +1 pip by how narrow the
search window to 1 arc.
Gives +30% Range increase, and +1D to operator Sensors skill checks.
 Equipping your ship with a dedicated Active Sensor Array increases the Search
Mode range to +50%
Focus mode narrows the Active Sensor area to a single object or target. This
reduces the Base Range to 2. Active Sensor Array increases this range by 1 Space
Unit. This adds another +1D to operator Sensor skill checks.

Sensor Examples:

X-Wing

TIE Fighter

Shields (6 hardpoints total - 1 hardpoint/emitter)

Shields have six arcs to cover about a starship - forward, rear, left, right, top
and bottom. Deflector Shield Projectors generally project out in a 45-degree cone
and offer protection within that cone. Starfighters frequently make do with only
forward and aft deflector shield projectors, pairing up deflector shield projectors
for 180-degree coverage forward and aft and relying upon their great speed and
short lengths to reduce the ability for shots to hit them in their very limited
side-on aspects.
Cost:
Generator Mass:
Projector Hardpoints: 1/emitter

Power to the Deflector Shield Projectors can be boosted in one arc. Standard
Deflector Shield Projectors can only accomodate up to 2D additional Shield Power.

1 Shield Die = (Ship Size x Arcs) Power Dice

Examples:
Size 3 Starfighter (X-Wing) Forward-180 & Rear-180 arcs
1 Pip Shields = 4D Power
1D Shields = 12D Power
2D Shields = 24D Power

Size 2 Starfighter (A-Wing) Forward-180-degree arc

2 Pips Shields = 2D Power
1D Shields = 4D Power
2D Shields = 8D Power

Size 5 Transport (Millenium Falcon) all six 45-degree arcs

1 Pip Shields = 10D Power
1D Shields = 30D Power

Tractor Beams (4 hardpoints)

Ships can use Tractor Beams to capture other ships or manipulate objects that are
smaller in size than the ship mounting the tractor beam is.

Tractor beam projectors function similarly to Sensors in that they have a wide-beam
low-power mode and a narrow-beam focus mode.

Cost: 8,000 credits

Mass: 5 tons
Window Viewport (1 Hardpoint)

Weapons

Autoblaster: 0.2 tons

A short-ranged blaster weapon with a high rate of fire, autoblasters can either
pepper one target with multiple bolts or spread out their fire to increase their
odds of hitting the target.
Space Range: 1-5/10/17
Rate of Fire: 2D Auto-Fire - an extra +2D may be applied to either Damage or Fire
Control, but must be declared which before firing. Only 1D may be applied at
ranges greater than Medium.

Blasters
Cheap, lightweight, short-ranged weapons that are scaled up versions of the
widespread character and vehicular scale energy weapons, Blasters use energized
Tibana gas to generate their blasts. This Tibana gas must be replenished, though
most Starships are able to store enough for several firefights.
Space Range: 1-5/10/17

Light Blaster Cannon: (2 hardpoints) 0.2 tons

Medium Blaster Cannon: (4 hardpoints) 0.3 tons
Heavy Blaster Cannon: (6 hardpoints) 0.4 tons

Laser Cannons are pure energy weapons that offer greater range than Blasters but
take more energy.
Space Range: 1-5/10/17

Light Laser Cannon: (2 hardpoint) 0.4 tons

Medium Laser Cannon: (4 hardpoints) 0.5 tons
Heavy Laser Cannon (6 hardpoints) 0.6 tons

Light Ion Cannon: (2 hardpoint) 0.2 tons

Medium Ion Cannon: (4 hardpoints) 0.3 tons
Heavy Ion Cannon: (6 hardpoints) 0.4 tons

Proton Launcher: (1 hardpoint)

Concussion Missile Launcher: (1 hardpoint)

Torpedo Launcher: (2 hardpoints)

Mine Launcher: (2 hardpoints)

F-35 - 20 tons