Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-06-2020, 11:50 PM   #141
Bengt
 
Bengt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Come to think of it, since they use the Emperor as a psychic navigation beacon during warp travel they do indirectly sacrifice souls for FTL.

I'm only really familiar with the main game fluff, but don't they have a lot smaller warp capable space ships in the RPG spin offs? The product blurbs make it sound like they would.
Bengt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 07:00 AM   #142
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

No, not for the Imperium anyway. The smallest spaceships were only in the millions of metric tons while the largest were in the hundreds of millions of metric tons (ranging from a minimum of SM+15 to a maximum of SM+19 in GURPS terms). Of course, Orks used hulks, which were even larger, as they were often made of small asteroids, wrecked warp-capable spaceships, and stranger things.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 03:32 PM   #143
Bengt
 
Bengt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

SM+19 sounds a bit small for the top end. For example the battleship Macragge's Honour is supposedly 26 km long, which is SM+26 I think (since it's an elongated box).
Bengt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 09:43 PM   #144
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bengt View Post
SM+19 sounds a bit small for the top end. For example the battleship Macragge's Honour is supposedly 26 km long, which is SM+26 I think (since it's an elongated box).
Unfortunately, the larger ships in the Imperium do not make sense because they have a low density.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 10:37 PM   #145
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Unfortunately, the larger ships in the Imperium do not make sense because they have a low density.
Reminds me of someone (who was working on a Honorverse game) doing the math on superdreadnaughts and figuring out that they had lower density than air or something, and Weber actually changed their sizes in the back of a later book (in that section where they tend to have technical information, etc).
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 11:08 PM   #146
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Yes, a SM+26 spaceship should mass around 1 trillion metric tons. Its major weapon batteries would be capable of dealing 3d×5,000 damage, would require a crew of 100 million people, and would cost around $6 quadrillion. If the Imperium of Man was capable of fielding such monsters, it would have utterly destroyed its enemies thousands of years ago, though it really would make more sense to field 1,000 SM+20 spaceships instead.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2020, 11:28 PM   #147
Bengt
 
Bengt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

You can't really say anything about it's weapon batteries as it isn't designed using GURPS Spaceships. :) But yeah, in general, being a 40k author is all about throwing out random large numbers to sound impressive.

I haven't found a mass number for Macragge's Honour but some BFG ships have them.
Sword-class Frigate: 1.6 km, 6 M tonnes, 26 k crew
Claymore-class Destroyer: 1.4 km, 5.9 M tonnes, 21 k crew.
Lunar-class Cruiser: 5 km, 28 M tonnes, 95 k crew.
Bengt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2020, 07:30 AM   #148
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

A Lunar-Class Cruiser is the 'typical' 40K warship. At ~30 megatons, it would be SM+17, so 95k crew would be about right
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2020, 08:47 AM   #149
RyanW
 
RyanW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bengt View Post
Sword-class Frigate: 1.6 km, 6 M tonnes, 26 k crew
Lunar-class Cruiser: 5 km, 28 M tonnes, 95 k crew.
That suggests the Sword-class is comparable to a WWII era warship in terms of crosssection and density, and a Lunar-class is either shaped like a needle or made out of balsa wood. I would not look to WH4K for inspiration if hoping to find sensible numbers.
__________________
RyanW
- Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats.
RyanW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2020, 11:03 AM   #150
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Coolant [Spaceships]

My 40K spaceship conversions focus on the mass, not the dimensions. It just works better.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
sci fi, spaceships

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:44 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.