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Sugestions for a group of 4-6 PC's, Rifts Terra trained / raised, on what sort of space-ship would be apropos for them to 'cut-their-teeth-on' and get their space wings?
Have them serve as enisgns on a Cap-ship / mega-frieghter / explorer vessel?
Moderate sized 'M-Flacon' sized runner ship, with them running it by commitee?

Oh, and side note; they WILL have support vehicles (prolly one fighter sized craft, one ground transport, and prolly one or two Pwr-suits).

C'mon..enough with the trivial debates *looks at other posts that have gone into the double digit pages* here , let's hear some brain cells firing in sequence and let the ideas flow.

1.) do the characters have the needed skills to operate space vehicles? (since you state that they are from RIFTS earth, which doesn't have space travel.)

2.) what rough size are the characters? all basically human sized? smaller? bigger? (especially bigger. smaller beings can adapt to human sized facilities easy enough, but if they are too much larger, they'll not fit in the corridors and rooms)

3.) do any of the characters need special life support set ups (doubtful, but possible)

4.) what role do they plan on performing in the 3G's? (pirate, merchant, explorer, ect. this will give priorities to different types of ships.)



since there are only 6 PC's, you don't really need a ship bigger than a shuttle, unless some of the PC's are well above human sized. (like dragons.) then you might look into taking a larger ship and refitting it as a shuttle.

unless the PC's have the needed skills to operate spacecraft (and even if they do, personally. crash courses tend not to help much to avoid a Crash.), the ship needs a sophisticated AI system to operate the ship. even if it's just a well developed autopilot/monitoring system.



i'd go with a retrofitted Hunter, with it's missile tubes and bow cannons ripped out, and it's sheild system replaced with a civilian standard system. (one single MDC listing covers the whole ship. use the MDC listing on one side of the normal variable sheild.)

the interior has been totally refitted, with a cargo bay taking up much of the bow (which now splits open vertically to expose the cargo bay loading entrance), and heavy automation allowing the ship to be operated on a minimum of crew. (you might even want to consider AI remotes so the ship can maintain itself. like the little bug things in Farscape) the ship should be able to pilot itself, although the crew have to input the destinations.
the ship should be painted in a non-threatening color (IE: non-military scheme), and carry the logo's and decals of some shipping company.

I liked Glitterboy2098's ideas although you would need some pretty sophisticated AI's to pilot a ship that size. I would go with a typical runner ship which has been designed to have a spacefighter "Dock" with it. Something like a piggy back where you enter the cockpit from the inside of the larger ship then it breaks away. It has stealth capabilities so the part could avoid combat for a while until they get used to thinking of combat from three dimensions instead of two. In addition I would replace the Light lasers with GR-1000 auto cannons. Thye have a 16 mile range which should keep them out of harms way for a little while. Make it a clunker so they have to do repairs, get supplies maintain a list of cargo etc. This will give them a nice feel for space adventuring.

Greyaxe wrote:I liked Glitterboy2098's ideas although you would need some pretty sophisticated AI's to pilot a ship that size. I would go with a typical runner ship which has been designed to have a spacefighter "Dock" with it. Something like a piggy back where you enter the cockpit from the inside of the larger ship then it breaks away. It has stealth capabilities so the part could avoid combat for a while until they get used to thinking of combat from three dimensions instead of two. In addition I would replace the Light lasers with GR-1000 auto cannons. Thye have a 16 mile range which should keep them out of harms way for a little while. Make it a clunker so they have to do repairs, get supplies maintain a list of cargo etc. This will give them a nice feel for space adventuring.

Pretty much done that with my IRL crew
It's the On-line people that will need the real help here

Hmm..got to thinking again.
Another question; TW or standard tech?