Starship movement falls into three basic categories—character scale, starship scale, and hyperspace. A starship might be described as “fast” if it has an advanced hyperdrive, yet still be relatively slow at starship-scale movement. Movement systems are extremely popular modifications for pirates, smugglers, and—to a lesser degree—military designers.
| Movement Systems | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System | Emplacement Points |
Availability | Size Restriction | Cost |
| Atmospheric thruster | 2 | Common | Colossal or smaller | 2,000 credits base |
| Atmospheric thruster, advanced | 5 | Common | Gargantuan or smaller | 5,000 credits base |
| Combat thruster | 1 | Common | Colossal | 2,000 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class .75 | 4 | Military | Colossal (cruiser) or smaller | 5,000 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 1 | 3 | Licensed | Colossal (cruiser) or smaller | 3,000 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 1.5 | 3 | Licensed | Colossal (cruiser) or smaller | 2,500 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 2 | 3 | Common | — | 2,000 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 3 | 2 | Common | — | 1,500 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 4 | 2 | Common | — | 1,000 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 5 | 2 | Common | — | 500 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 6 | 2 | Common | — | 400 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 8 | 1 | Common | — | 300 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 10 | 1 | Common | — | 200 credits base |
| Hyperdrive, class 15 | 1 | Common | — | 100 credits base |
| Maneuvering jets +2 | 2 | Common | — | 2,000 credits base |
| Maneuvering jets +4 | 3 | Common | Colossal or smaller | 5,000 credits base |
| Maneuvering jets +6 | 4 | Licensed | Gargantuan or smaller | 10,000 credits base |
| Navicomputer, limited | 0 | Common | — | 500 credits |
| Navicomputer | 1 | Licensed | — | 2,000 credits |
| Navicomputer, advanced | 2 | Licensed | — | 20,000 credits |
| SubLight Accelerator Motor | 2 | Military | Gargantuan or smaller | 25,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (1 square) | 2 | Common | — | 1,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (2 squares) | 3 | Common | — | 2,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (3 squares) | 4 | Licensed | Colossal (cruiser) or smaller | 5,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (4 squares) | 5 | Restricted | Colossal (cruiser) or smaller | 10,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (5 squares) | 6 | Military | Colossal or smaller | 20,000 credits base |
| Sublight drive, (6 squares) | 7 | Military | Gargantuan or smaller | 100,000 credits base |
Atmospheric Thrusters
Starships of the Galaxy, page 40.
Atmospheric thrusters increase a starship’s speed when the ship is flying in the atmosphere of a planet. Any starship able to operate in an atmosphere as some engine system designed for air flight, normally a combination of repulsorlifts and ion engines. Atmospheric thrusters are an augmentation of these basic systems, designed to make the starship more competitive with a dedicated airspeeder.
Basic atmospheric thrusters increase a starship’s maximum velocity and fly speed by 10%, and an advanced atmospheric thruster increases these by 25% (rounding down to the nearest square of speed and 10 km/h). Thus an X-wing with an atmospheric thruster has a maximum velocity of 1,150 km/h and a fly speed of 17 squares character scale.
Atmospheric thrusters have no affect on starship-scale movement.
Combat Thrusters
Starships of the Galaxy, page 40.
Often used by smugglers, bounty hunters, and blockade runners, combat thrusters are modifications to a space transport’s existing engines and maneuvering thrusters that allow the ship to engage in space combat as though it were a starfighter. A ship with combat thrusters is treated as one size category smaller than its actual size category for the purpose of being targeted by capital ship weapons (thus imposing the penalty for attacking targets smaller than Colossal size). Additionally, the space transport is treated as a starfighter for the purpose of dogfighting (meaning that it can engage in and be engaged in dogfighting) and combat maneuvers. This modification does not change the ship’s size modifier to Reflex Defense.
Hyperdrives
Starships of the Galaxy, page 40.
The hyperdrive is the most important piece of technology in the known galaxy. Modern civilization was driven by the realization of fast and reliable galactic travel thousands of years ago with the advent of the hyperdrive. Hyperdrives are rated by numeric class: The smaller the number, the better the hyperdrive (see Travel in the Galaxy (Core) or Travel in Hyperspace (Ships) for more information).
The best hyperdrive ever created is the class .5. It’s not possible to install a class .5 hyperdrive, because no manufacturer creates such a delicate and unreliable piece of equipment. The only way to achieve a hyperdrive of this type is to modify a class .75 hyperdrive using the Starship Designer feat. Because of its inherent unreliability, class .5 hyperdrives are illegal under all but the most unusual circumstances.
A class .5 hyperdrive is very carefully tuned and delicate, so it tends to malfunction much more often than a standard hyperdrive. It requires eight hours of maintenance per month and a DC 20 Mechanics check to keep one running smoothly. If the maintenance isn’t kept up, or the Mechanics check for doing so fails, you take a −5 penalty on Use Computer checks made to astrogate until the hyperdrive receives proper maintenance. Furthermore, any time you would normally have an astrogation mishap, the hyperdrive is instead disabled until repaired (normally requiring 1 hour of work an a DC 20 Mechanics check).
the class 1 hyperdrive is considered the pinnacle of stable hyperdrive technology from the Clone Wars forward. It is the favored technology of military vessels, but its high cost often results in designers settling for a class 2 or class 3 drive, which were state of the art during most of the Rise of the Empire era.
A hyperdrive of class 4 to class 6 is normally either old technology or an aftermarket retrofit crammed into a vessel not designed to support a hyperdrive. Backup hyperdrives, usually ranging from class 8 to class 15, are often used as emergency systems. Though no one wants to wait a month to arrive someplace when using a class 10 backup hyperdrive, often the alternative is to drift aimlessly in space for centuries.
Starfighters: Because of their bulk, hyperdrives are always treated as nonstandard modifications for starfighters. Some alternatives have been devised to allow starfighters to travel through hyperspace without installing expensive internal hyperdrives.
Hyperdrive Sleds: A hyperdrive sled is bolted onto the exterior of a starfighter, such as a CloakShape fighter. The sled cost five times as much as a normal hyperdrive, but it is not considered nonstandard, it requires no emplacement points, and it can be added with 1 hour of work and a DC 15 Mechanics check. A sled does interfere with maneuverability, however, so a starfighter takes a −2 penalty to its Dexterity while attached to a sled.
Hyperdrive Rings: A hyperdrive ring is designed for only occasional or temporary use. A ring costs as much as a normal hyperdrive for a starfighter of a given size, but it is not considered nonstandard and it requires no emplacement points. The pilot of a starfighter must take a standard action and make a DC 10 Pilot check to dock with or disconnect from a hyperdrive ring. If the pilot check fails, the docking or undocking was unsuccessful; if it fails by 10 or more, a collision occurs, destroying the hyperspace ring.
In addition to requiring docking and undocking, hyperspace rings have some other drawbacks. If a starship attached to a hyperdrive ring takes damage equal or exceeding its damage threshold, the hyperdrive ring is destroyed. Like a hyperdrive sled, a hyperdrive ring is bulky and awkward, so a starfighter docked to one takes a −4 penalty to its Dexterity. Finally, a starfighter can’t enter atmosphere or land with a hyperdrive ring attached, so it must be left in orbit—and some pirates and shipjackers enjoy the easy pickings of an unattended target.
Maneuvering Jets
Starships of the Galaxy, page 42.
It is possible to increase a starship’s ability to pitch, jink, and roll by adding additional small ion jets that automatically fire during extreme maneuvers. Although all starships include some maneuvering thrusters, special maneuvering jets give more power to perform maneuvers beyond starship’s normal capability.
Maneuvering jets give a starship a +2, +4, or +6 equipment bonus to its Dexterity score.
SubLight Accelerator Motor
Starships of the Galaxy, page 42.
A SubLight Accelerator Motor (SLAM) is an overdrive system designed to draw power from systems not in use to give a starship a brief burst of additional speed. A starship’s SLAM system provides a +5 bonus on Pilot checks to increase a vehicle’s speed. This bonus increases to +10 if the pilot is using all-out movement.
Sublight Drive
Starships of the Galaxy, page 42.
A sublight drive is what makes a ship move through space. Though a SubLight Accelerator Motor can enhance a ship’s space speed, sometimes a new sublight drive is required to reach such speeds with minimal effort from the pilot. Replacing a ship’s sublight drive can be expensive, though, and many ships cannot reach high speeds due to the bulk of their sublight drives. Additionally, only military vessels are permitted to use incredibly fast ion drives. A sublight drive determines a ship’s speed when moving through realspace.