Edge of the Empire Book

(Joyce) #1

STARS HI PS AN D


VEHICLES


"She may not look like much, but
she's got it where it counts."
-Han Solo

In Star Wars, agile landspeeders choke the streets of
Imassive planet-sized cities, suspended a meter from
the surface by antigravity repulsorlift generators. Grace-
ful airspeeders patrol the skies of a thousand worlds,
their powerful ion engines propelling them to breath-
taking velocities. Starships great and small-rocket into
space from backwater starports and hurtle .through hy-
perspace, making a trip of thousands of light years with
little more effort, or fanfare, than traveling to market.
The universe presented in EDGE OF THE EMPIRE is one so
reliant on such transportation technologies as to be in-
separable from them. Vehicles take on almost talismanic
importance to their captains and crews, treated as living
things by those who love them. Some are the only home
that spacers have. Presented in this chapter are a num-
ber of the more common types of starships and vehicles
found in the galaxy, and the rules governing them.

VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS


From the tiniest, fastest swoop bike to a massive and


  • lumbering Imperial-class Star Destroyer, all ships and ve-


hicles share a number of characteristics. These charac-
teristics define such attributes as the strength of a ship's
shields or how quickly a speeder accelerates off the line.
These characteristics cover the bulk of important' me-
chanical information about starships and vehicles.
Handling: The measure of. a ship or vehicle's agility
and how well it responds to its pilot.
Speed: A ship or vehicle's raw speed and how quickly
it accelerates.
Silhouette: An abstract of the general size of a vehicle.
Defense: A ship's first line of defense against attack
and accident. Typically representative of a ship's ray
and particle shields, defense also represents any fac-
tors, technological or otherwise, that prevent damage
from reaching a vehicle's armor.
Armor: The measure of a ship or vehicle's armor,
similar to soak on the personal scale.
Hull Trauma Threshold: A reflection of the sturdi-
ness of a ship or vehicle's construction, and its ability
to sustain damage and keep operating.
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