NOMAD Space Stations

To date, the rules for Faster Than Light: Nomad address space ships, but not space stations. This is my attempt to fill that niche.

Space Stations

Space ships can easily represent small space stations by taking their Travel Time down to x3, on the assumption that they would have thrusters to maintain orbit but not engines to move very far. The Supercarrier rules can represent larger installations.

Large space stations tend to be represented through narrative rather than mechanics, but at some point the Game Master may require game statistics.

Station Attributes

A station has most of the attributes of a ship: Endurance, Armor, Crew, Cargo, Guns, and Modifications. Travel Multiplier is x0, and for a truly large or stationary facility, Agility is too low to matter.

This assumption has the following consequences:

• Large stations are stationary, and cannot move easily if at all.
• Ships always have position on them, so attempts to hit attackers with guns suffer a -2D penalty. Torpedoes may be a better bet.

Station Sections

A large station will consist of smaller sections which attackers can target. Since they are sections of a larger structure, each section can specialize. Some sections may specialize in Guns, others Crew or Cargo. This means that attackers can easily target specific systems: the civilian section, the cargo section, gun batteries, torpedo launchers, the Command Center, etc.

For sanity’s sake the GM should make the following simplifications:

• All sections should have the same Armor. If the station has a Plasma Shield or Force Field it should extend over the entire station.

• Likewise the station as a whole should have a single Guns score. Where these guns sit is up to the GM: on the outer edge, at the Command Center, or somewhere in between. Given the disadvantage a stationary defender has, a Point Defense or CICS would be more useful than a few batteries trying to blast at oncoming ships.

• While fiction assumes a station has a central power plant that explodes spectacularly and fatally when hit, a safer design would spread power plants throughout the facility, at best fed from a central fuel tank.

• Each section has their own electronics. A hit can take out the electronics for a section, but other sections will remain unaffected.

Station Crew

A single Captain (whatever his rank) commands the whole station. A section may have its own commander, who might grant the same benefits.

All sections should have an Engineer. Each section also has its own damage tracks and, if damaged, its own malfunctions. If power comes from a central source, disabling or destroying the Power Plant in a section merely disrupts power for that section.

No section needs a Pilot, since the station cannot move. It automatically loses the contest for Position.

A single Sensor Operator (or sensor operator corps) in a single section simplifies gunnery and torpedo launches. A Weapons/Sensor Lock can be shared with all sections in the same station. Likewise a single station-wide Gunner (or gunner corps) with the same skill rating makes more sense than a gunner per section.

A section with torpedoes or docking ports can benefit from a dedicated Launch Officer. A section with a medical bay can benefit from a Medical Officer.

Station Combat

In combat, the attackers must specify which section of a large station they are attacking. The targeted section will determine the type of damage done. “Engine” hits should be regarded as Electronics hits.

A dilligent GM may want to design damage tables for each type of section. A quicker solution is to roll on the Regular Damage Results table with ±1D or more. “Disadvantage” translates to more Hull, Cargo, and Crew hits; “Advantage” distributes damage to more critical systems, including the dreaded Critical Damage result. (Critical Damage should be rolled unmodified.)

If a section is destroyed, crew may flee to adjacent sections, if any remain.

Otherwise, combat with a station resembles combat with a very big ship.

Space Stations of the Stellar Alliance

Technology Age: Early Galactic

The Stellar Alliance constructs “smaller” space stations, up to Carrier size, as single hulls, but uses a modular design to fabricate its larger stations.

Larger stations consist of a central Command and Control module which houses all Alliance Fleet personnel and the station’s essential systems. Surrounding this module are two to six “habitat modules” containing docking ports for smaller ships, airlocks for larger craft, civilian facilities, and hydroponics. Each module also has its own power plant, armor, armaments, and Fleet personnel stations to manage the power plant, guns, and other systems, just like a whole space ship. Each module even includes its own thrusters and attitude jets which, when used synchronously, keep the station in orbit but are insufficient to propel the ship very far or very fast out of orbit.

Alliance Forward Base

Forward bases provide an Alliance presence on frontier or associate worlds. Often the base is merely a specialized Alliance ship flown into place. The base then has its superfluous thrusters removed and replaced with other systems in situ.

Travel Multiplier: x3 (+6 Payload)

Modifications: Advanced Sensors (+5% Cost), Automation (+1 Crew, +10% Cost), Close In Defense System (-1 Guns, +20% Cost), FTL Engine (-1 Payload, +10% Cost), FTL Telegraph (-1 Payload, +10% Cost), Force Field (+30% Cost, 10 hits), Organic Hull, Torpedoes (-2 Guns, 20 launch tubes), Tractor/Pressor Beam (+20% Cost)

Cost: 4 000 000 000 + 85% + 104 710 000 = 7 504 710 000 Cr

Monthly Cost: 4 600 000 + 402 298 = 5 002 298

Alliance Orbital Starport

Orbital Starports orbit more settled and civilized worlds. They provide a travel hub for ships going to and from the planet and trade hubs for commerce as well as defenses against pirates and long-range enemy ships.

Orbital Starports have a distinctive snowflake deck plan. Six triangular arms ending in spherical modules extend from a central spheroid. Docks for shuttles and larger ships line the outer walls of each module. A seventh section below ends in a nest of antennas and smaller docks.

Modifications: Automation, Close In Defense System, Force Field (13 hits), FTL Engine, FTL Telegraph, Organic Hull, Torpedo Launchers (13 tubes), Tractor/Pressor Beams

All Orbital Starports have the following sections:

1. Command and Control, in the central hull. This section contains nearly all the Alliance Fleet personnel and all the torpedo tubes. Normally serving as space traffic control, the crew here are prepared for attacks by small to medium-sized craft and criminals inside the station.

2. The six Terminal Sections, each on a sturdy arm projecting horizontally. Each Terminal has its own power plant and own set of attitude adjustment thrusters. A Terminal includes a concourse for civilian traffic, docks for shuttles, and extensible airlocks for larger craft. Most of the cargo and passengers can be found here.

3. Downside, pointed toward the planet. This section contains docks for Alliance military and diplomatic traffic and antennas that monitor communications planetside.

CIDS guns are spread evenly across the station. A hit to one section does not affect the guns in the other seven.

For a random section, roll d6:

Alliance Command Post

Alliance Command Posts lack the radiating arms of the more civilian-friendly starports. Each Post looks vaguely mushoom shaped, with a saucer-shaped upper hull and a larger “downside” tower for planetside ships.

Modifications: Automation, Close In Defense System, Force Field (14 hits), FTL Engine, FTL Telegraph, Organic Hull, Torpedo Launchers (14 tubes), Tractor/Pressor Beams

A Command Post has six sections: four quadrants in the main hull (#1-4 on a d6), Command and Control in the center (#5 on a d6), and the Downside section (#6).

“Crew” includes Fleet officers involved in coordinating operations within a sector or a densely populated star system like Sol or Ran, as well as a complement of marines and two squadrons of pilots. Actual crew fluctuates as couriers arrive and leave, personnel get reassigned, and brass arrives for inspection, but for safety the crew never exceeds 2400 for more than a day or two.

Support Ships of the Stellar Alliance

Technology Age: Early Galactic

Alliance Fighter

An update of the SDF Fighter to Galactic Age technology.

Travel Multiplier: x2 (+3 Payload, -2 increment on propellant costs)

Modifications: Easy To Maintain (+10% cost, -50% maintenance costs)

Cost: 700,000 + 85% = 1,295,000 Cr

Monthly Cost: 175 + (525 - 50%) + 4000 + 600 = 4498 Cr

Alliance FTL Courier

Nothing has more bandwidth than a ship full of data. This courier has little cargo space and no armaments but higher agility for its class. At an Early Galactic Age speed of 6 parsecs every 2 days, this ship can cross a sector in two consecutive transits thanks to its double FTL Engine.

Travel Multiplier: x1

Modifications: Automation (-1 Crew, +10% cost), Double FTL Engine (+20% cost, -2 Payload), Force Field (+30%, 4 hits)

Cost: 2,500,000 + 30% = 3,250,000 Cr

Monthly Cost: 22,500 Cr

Alliance Small Transport

The Alliance Fleet employs these ships to move V.I.P.s and confidential documents among the various Fleet bases, particularly Command Posts. Small Transports sacrifice Agility for sufficient cargo and passenger space, while retaining armor and armaments typical for this class.

Crew usually consists of a Pilot, Gunner, and Sensor Operator / Engineer. All documents – encoded on synth-paper, to avoid electronic hacking – have at least one guardian, who will dissolve them in acid in case the ship is hijacked or boarded. Encryption keys always arrive in a separate vessel.

Travel Multiplier: x1

Modifications: Automation (-1 Crew, +10% cost), FTL Engine (-1 Payload, +10% cost) Force Field (+30%, 5 hits)

Cost: 8,000,000 + 55% = 12,400,000 Cr

Monthly Cost: 39,000 Cr