Creating a Ship

While constructing a starship in the orbital shipyards of Ares is just an eentsy bit complicated, cobbling one together in Savage Serenity is a far sight simpler. After you've got yourself an idea of what you'll be designing, you just ballpark a tonnage and go to town using the following steps. Down at the end of this page, you'll find an example of the process, making a Conestoga-class freighter.

Step 1: Concept
Before you get starting crunching numbers and piecing together Traits, you'll want to have an idea of just what kind of boat you're looking to make. Is she a small, four-man craft built for speed rather than comfort? A slow-moving cargo hauler? Retired military craft? Get a few ideas together before you dive in, and the whole process will go a lot smoother.

Step 2: Determine Overall Tonnage
A ship's tonnage determines how much stuff you can stuff into it - cargo bays, crew quarters, engines, shuttle bays, etc. You can most easily figure its tonnage by comparing it to other ships roughly the same size as the one you're going for.

For instance, if you're wanting to put together a boat pretty durn close to a Firefly-Class, you'd want to pick a tonnage somewhere in the region of 2,400 tons. Another little trick is to find a steamship from around 1850 to 1950 on Earth-That-Was that generally fills the same role and base your tonnage on that one. Sure, your spacecraft won't end up looking much like a steamboat, but it'll probably weigh pretty close to the same.

Step 3: Determine Attributes
Ships have Attributes same as people, but they're a mite different. The physical Attributes (Agility, Strength, and Vigor) are the same, they have a different set of mental Attributes: Computer, Sensors, and Systems. Strength is determined by tonnage, but the rest you'll have to figure out based on your concept. Remember, as you choose your boat's Attributes, the higher the Attributes, the more complex the boat is, and the more expensive she'll be, and the costlier her maintenance is gonna be, so don't price yourself out of a ship.

Agility
The Agility Attribute represents a ship's reaction speed and maneuverability. Agility - not Speed Class - determines movement in combat. An Agility of 0 is used for an orbiting base or space station that has only minimal attitude control thrusters.

Computer
Virtually all ships have some sort of autopilot - smart enough to follow simple course instructions and keep the ship from crashing during routine operations. The Computer Attribute represents the systems available in a ship's control, navigation, and guidance suite. A Computer of 0 indicates manual controls with no autonomous capability at all.

Sensors
The Sensors Attribute represents the range and resolution of a ship's sensors and communications equipment. Civilian vessels tend to skimp on electronics, installing only the bare minimum. Military vessels tend to the opposite extreme.

Strength
The Strength Attribute represents the size of a ship, her general tonnage, and the raw power of her engines. Strength is also the only Attribute that features a die type lower than d4, to represent the smallest of spacecraft.

Systems
The Systems Attribute represents the redundancy and safety margins built into a ship's design. This is the measurement of the ship's ability to operate despite damage, the ability to bypass malfunctioning systems and jury-rig temporary substitutes, and a measure of how far a ship can be pushed beyond her design limits.

Step 4: Choose Edges and Hindrances
Just like characters, ships have those little somethings that make them special - whether or not those somethings are desirable is something else altogether. Ships have their own selection of both, so you'll need to take a look at Ship Edges and Hindrances.

Unlike characters, there's no hard limits on Edges or Hindrances, just keep an eye on your Complexity costs. To determine how Edges and Hindrances affect your ship's Complexity, refer to the table below.

Step 6: Determine Complexity
To determine your boat's Complexity, add all its Attributes, Edges, and Hindrances together and compare the total to the Ship Complexity table (below). This gives a multiplier that represents how difficult (and expensive) the ship is to construct.

Step 6: Choose Skills
A ship's skills represent functions the boat's computer systems can manage on their own, and how competent she is at it. Such systems have limited capabilities, however; your boat receives a number of skill points equal to her Computer Attribute and can't raise skills higher than a d6. If your ship needs more skill points than her Computers Attribute provides, you can get more from taking Hindrances, just like with characters.

Ships can allot skill points to the following skills:
 * Common Knowledge: There is an extensive onboard encyclopedia and database, encompassing much of the common knowledge of the 'Verse, from street maps to religious customs. There are also simple search programs that may provide some assistance to Research rolls while onboard.
 * Notice: The boat is equipped with automated sensors and recognition software to identify hazards and other items of interest, and there might be internal cameras and motion detectors to monitor passengers and crew, and to spot any potential troubles.
 * Piloting: The ship's autopilot software allows for automatic takeoff and landing, collision avoidance, and navigation.
 * Repair: The ship has limited interactive capabilities and an extensive self-diagnostic system. It can't maintain itself, but it can provide indirect assistance to anyone conducting maintenance or repairs.
 * Shooting: The ship features an automatic targeting system that can work in concert with voice commands, IFF beacons, or visual recognition. All such weapons have an override shutdown sequence, though this is often known only to the captain.
 * Stealth: The ship has sophisticated signal spoofing software and has a low-power "silent-running" mode to reduce its chances of being spotted by sensors.

Step 7: Choose Speed Class
Choose a Speed Class between 1 and 10 for your boat, reflecting how powerful the engines are and how quickly the vessel moves. Bigger engines take up more space and are more expensive to maintain.

Step 8: Calculate Tonnage Allocation
After you've determined all of your boats bells and whistles, along with the occasional mechanical hiccup, it's time to figure out where all that tonnage is being put to use.

Engines
Multiply your boat's Speed Class by 5% to find the quantity of overall tonnage dedicated to engines and control systems, including the bridge and engineering. Assume 1/10 of this is useable area. Objects with a Speed Class of 0 (space stations and the like) are equipped with minimal maneuvering capabilities, occupying 2.5% of their total tonnage.

Subsystems
30-(Strength)% of the overall tonnage is taken up by the hull, insulation, airlocks, water reclaimation, air scrubbers, electrical systems, sensors, and so on. Assume 1/10 of this is venting and access passageways (which are often one and the same).

Fuel Tanks
A typical load of hydrogen fuel fills tanks which occupy 10% of a boat's total tonnage. These contain tons of mass of liquid hydrogen equal to 2% of the ship's total tonnage. These provide a variable number of hours of fuel, based on Speed Class.

Quarters and Common Areas
A ship requires a minimum crew of (Total Tonnage ÷ 250) x (Complexity Modifier ÷ Computer), rounded up; this assumes almost no time for relaxation (about sixteen hours of work per day). This is time spent keeping the boat reasonably clean, performing routine maintenance, monitoring systems, making minor course adjustments, and the hundreds of other small tasks necessary to keep the boat flying.

Only half of the space listed for quarters is personal space - the rest is allocated to common areas, such as kitchens, storage, dining and sitting areas, and corridors. Full Suite: A 20'x10' suite with a large bed, extensive furniture and private sitting area and kitchenette, and personal lavatory with tub. A boat with many such quarters probably contains a formal dining area and full kitchen, gym, theatre, and possibly a small pool, bar, play area, or conference room.

Spacious Quarters: A 10'x10' room for a single crew member or first-class passenger. Comparable to an average hotel room, with a queen bed, dresser or closet, and small personal lavatory, but it is far from luxury. The boat may include a full kitchen, dining room, possibly a small gym or theatre room and shared laundry and bathing facilities.

Minimal Quarters: A 5'x10' room for a single crew member of second-class passenger, with a twin bed, wall cabinets for storage, shared lavatories and showers, minimal kitchen, and small dining area.

Steerage: Usually just set up in the ship's cargo area, this is the bare minimum in passenger space, including stacked bunks or hammocks, a small shared (usually temporary) lavatory without bathing facilities, and just enough personal space for a steamer trunk or a few bags.

Hydroponics
A closed-system hydroponics facility capable of growing enough produce to feed one person indefinitely requires 5 tons. This is more labor intensive than other ship systems, however, requiring one hour of work per day (or an additional crew member for every 50 tons).

Shuttle Bays
A fully enclosed shuttle or ship bay requires twice the tonnage of the vessel itself. Minor repairs can be completed on board, and there are doors for launch during flight.

Escape Pods
A one-person escape pod requires 1 ton of space.

Final Totaling
After all components are subtracted from the total tonnage, any remaining space is available for cargo. The total amount of weight the boat can lift is tons of mass equal to tonnage of cargo space. When determining capacity of a specific cargo, the mass and volume must each be within these capabilities.

Step 9: Calculate Toughness
A ship has a Toughness equal to its Strength x Vigor dice. This can be increased by adding armor, though it would increase the cost and decrease the amount of tonnage available for cargo space.

Step 10: Add Additional Equipment
You may add weapons, armor, or special equipment to your ship at this stage.

Armor can be added to the ship at a cost of 1% of the boat's tonnage per point of armor, and costs an amount of credits equal to half the ship's overall tonnage.

Weaponry may be added at this step as well, though it is worth mentioning that the Alliance takes a rather dim view of armed civilian vessels, most often lumping them into one of two categories: "pirate" and "rebel".

Auxillary Craft such as shuttles and hovercraft can also be installed, assuming the ship has available shuttle bay (in the case of shuttles) or cargo space (for hovercraft) available.

Step 11: Calculate Costs
The value of a ship is ₡10 per ton, multiplied by Complexity and Speed Class modifier, and adding any costs for additional equipment. This cost represents the purchase price of a new vessel of an existing class: the price on the sales floor. A custom design is typically twice this cost, and possibly much more if it includes particularly advanced or illegal components.

There is also a yearly maintenance cost of ₡2 per ton, multiplied by Complexity and the modifier for Speed Class. Divide by 12 to find the monthly maintenance cost.