Giants and giant size races in starships.

[wcolew]

I was looking at the material in Dimension Book 2 about the crew of the Stick in Your Eye. I noticed that the Vacuum Wasp was 12' tall but the ship was only 40' tall and I assume made for human size occupants. I'd like to know how other people have handled giant size creatures or actual Giants (Nimro, Jotan, etc.) fitting in starships. Do you just ignore it, can they only live in cargo bays or shuttle bays? I'd be interested in ideas here.

[Warshield73]

I have always taken on a case by case basis.

CCW Ships need to fit most of the memeber races. Noro (7 to 8 feet. 20% of CCW population), Wolfen (7 to 9 feet, 14%) and Seljuk (9 to 12 feet, 10%). These races make up almost 44% of the CCW population ad are very tall by human standards so I say that CCW ships can comfortable accomodate a 10 foot tall seljuk while a 12 foot tall Seljuk would feel like LeBron James on a modern attack sub.

Now the CCW might have small, more cramped ships (like Corvettes or the like) that might have a shorter height limit but even there they are not going to go much lower than 8 feet since that would eliminate a lot of Wulfen and Noro.

The UWW would no doubt be built to small specks and since Kreeghor are only 6 to 8 feet tall so might there ships might as well. Prometheans are 7 to 10 feet so any vessel built on Phase World is likely to be built so they can go onboard, and that would go double for any ships with phase tech. On the opposite end of this I have always had Dwarven Iron ships mostly set up for Dwarves with only a few levels and the bolted on flight bays being set up for elves and humans.

Truly giant races would probably be limited to just certain areas of the ship. I had a player who was running a Titan Cyber-knight in a Phase World campaign set on a Hunter Destroyer. Since 9 foot tall wolfen could make it through the ships we determined she could get to a few areas on the lower decks but her "quarters" were a walled off section of the cargo bay and they even made a custom gunnery chair so she could take part in battles. As for the vacuum bug on the "Stick in your Eye" he is not only tall but massive, 2 to 4 times mass of a Seljuk with wings and multi limbs so I always figured he was limited to the cargo bay.

I have done it this way for two reasons: 1, commerce. If you build a ship for human sized people less than half the Three Galaxies could serve on it or buy it. 2, Story. If you put serious size restrictions on all ships then it limits what players can play or where they can go which is OK for s a few races like true giants or Vacuum Wasps but shouldn't limit players to just humans.

[Vincent Takeda]

I laugh at the possibilities in the opposite direction. A player with the shrink mutation that can go all the way down to 1/72 of an inch could have themselves a sovereign class starship thats 6 inches long, 2 inches wide .7 inches tall and weighs 1/20th of a pound, lol.

The question is would such a starship be reduced in speed by being 1/5184th of its regular length?

One of my favorite things to do with ships and mutations is to customize the ship to fit the mutant... A shrinking mutant would have a ship where the rooms were all connected by ports only they could fit through, or an intangibility mutant could have a ship designed with no doors at all.

[glitterboy2098]

I have always taken on a case by case basis.

CCW Ships need to fit most of the memeber races. Noro (7 to 8 feet. 20% of CCW population), Wolfen (7 to 9 feet, 14%) and Seljuk (9 to 12 feet, 10%). These races make up almost 44% of the CCW population ad are very tall by human standards so I say that CCW ships can comfortable accomodate a 10 foot tall seljuk while a 12 foot tall Seljuk would feel like LeBron James on a modern attack sub.

Now the CCW might have small, more cramped ships (like Corvettes or the like) that might have a shorter height limit but even there they are not going to go much lower than 8 feet since that would eliminate a lot of Wulfen and Noro.

The UWW would no doubt be built to small specks and since Kreeghor are only 6 to 8 feet tall so might there ships might as well. Prometheans are 7 to 10 feet so any vessel built on Phase World is likely to be built so they can go onboard, and that would go double for any ships with phase tech. On the opposite end of this I have always had Dwarven Iron ships mostly set up for Dwarves with only a few levels and the bolted on flight bays being set up for elves and humans.

Truly giant races would probably be limited to just certain areas of the ship. I had a player who was running a Titan Cyber-knight in a Phase World campaign set on a Hunter Destroyer. Since 9 foot tall wolfen could make it through the ships we determined she could get to a few areas on the lower decks but her "quarters" were a walled off section of the cargo bay and they even made a custom gunnery chair so she could take part in battles. As for the vacuum bug on the "Stick in your Eye" he is not only tall but massive, 2 to 4 times mass of a Seljuk with wings and multi limbs so I always figured he was limited to the cargo bay.

I have done it this way for two reasons: 1, commerce. If you build a ship for human sized people less than half the Three Galaxies could serve on it or buy it. 2, Story. If you put serious size restrictions on all ships then it limits what players can play or where they can go which is OK for s a few races like true giants or Vacuum Wasps but shouldn't limit players to just humans.

interesting that you brought up the Hunter class. given how that class has so much stuff (weapons, crew, fighter compartments, etc) into so small a ship, i honestly figure that it was probably quite cramped for Wolfen, and would even be a bit on the claustrophobic side for humans.

[taalismn]

[
interesting that you brought up the Hunter class. given how that class has so much stuff (weapons, crew, fighter compartments, etc) into so small a ship, I honestly figure that it was probably quite cramped for Wolfen, and would even be a bit on the claustrophobic side for humans.

Thus making it the equivalent, comfort wise, of a 'space sub'.

[Warshield73]

interesting that you brought up the Hunter class. given how that class has so much stuff (weapons, crew, fighter compartments, etc) into so small a ship, i honestly figure that it was probably quite cramped for Wolfen, and would even be a bit on the claustrophobic side for humans.

The dimensions for the ships in the Sourcebook are messed up anyway. Look at the Warshield, my clear favorite. It is supposes to have a height of 120 ft and Width of 200 ft but if you look at the picture of the Warshield it is clearly taller than it is wide.

The only way the Hunter works, unless it's a TARDIS, is if the dimensions are for the main body with the particle beams adding about 15 feet to each side. This was the only way I could make the fighters fit.

I love the ships in the first two Phase World books but the dimensions and stats are a mess.

[Axelmania]

the Vacuum Wasp was 12' tall but the ship was only 40' tall and I assume made for human size occupants

Perhaps he stays in a sitting posture so his leg length can be subtracted and you only have to deal with a 6ft torso.

He could probably still wriggle around, but probably at a lower speed. Or just crawl with his height being horizontal.

[SolCannibal]

Must admit i haven't dealt all that much with the issue, my players tend to go for human-sized if not human-looking races or those than can shapeshift in different sized forms for convenience.

The one time such an issue was explored in our games was in the opposite direction, with a space station made out of studying, reverse-engeneering and/or jury-rigging a weird TW behemoth of a spaceship made by Jotan (an expy/knock-off of the SDF-1 i made in a moment of funky inspiration) from a Heroes Unlimited game.

[RockJock]

I'm just going to go with the idea that every humanoid over 9 feet in the 3Gs is really a secret robot piloted by either a Gnome or a pink brain thing in the bot's chest. That is the only way I can make ship sizes make sense to me.

[SolCannibal]

Must admit i tend to gloss over or outright ignore the sizes given to most races in the books unless their being large/gigantic is a major element of their narrative as non-humans.

Damn, i tend to diminish the Brodkil and Gargoyles to a '7-'9 size range, even thought they are described as big, to make them more "manageable/fit" to their frequent roles as "cannon foddder/grunt" races in the fluff...