Federation Commander

How are freighters physically designed in the SFU?

They look like standard Fed cargo pods with some small wraparound bits.

Are they permanently hooked up or hardwired like that? So all goods/whatever they're carrying have to be transported via transporter from one place to another?

Or are they more like a Tarhe helicopter, very small and most of the mass is a removable cargo pod? So that this way they could transfer the pod from freighter to Light Tactical Transport to Tug and all the way back.

The latter seems more efficient to me, but then, nobody besides the Feds uses cargo pods like that.

Or are the graphics and miniatures of freighters meant to be "generic" and some look like they're wrapped around Kzinti, Klingon, or whatever type of pods?

Normal freighters (and armed freighters, but not auxiliaries or Q-ships) are made to do exactly what you suggestion: they can pull themselves apart to detach the pods. The various "surround" on freighters says that is their normal operation: They go from point A to point B with their pod. When they get to B, they leave their pod there and get a new pod to go to C (or back to A).

Also, those are "civilian" pods, not Federation pods. Civilian pods contain 25 boxes of cargo. Federation pods contain 32 boxes of cargo. (Klingon and Kzinti pods contain 24 boxes of cargo.) Civilian pods can be carried by tugs and LTTs. Likewise military cargo pods can be carried by freighters. (There are some movement penalties if, say, a freighter carries a Fed cargo pod or a Klingon tug carries a civilian pod, but they can still do it.)

Interesting. Never knew all that, except for the freighters being able to swap pods.

They all function the same, but look different (but there isn't much point in doing freighters that just "look" different).

The Gorn cargo pods are flattened discs (like on their warships), the Klingon pods are elongated rectangles with the rear ends pinched to a point, the Kzinti pods are elongated hexagons, etc.

In the end, it's all just a shape that holds the same number of cargo boxes (at least on freighters and tugs).

A bunch of that info must have come from SFB. Which products?

I would like to see a picture of pallets on a Lyran mini.

I have been pming Scoutdad about this. He gave me some ideas of how to attach them. I bought 2 pallets for my Lyran mini. Thats 4 squares.

A pallet is 2 squares tied by a metal bar.

Scoutdad said he bought some at origins but has not put them together.

Anyone have a picture that could be posted?

The pallets have slanted edges and I dont know which is the top and bottom.


/-----------\ is this how they look (slant wise) or is it upside down?

Mike wrote:A bunch of that info must have come from SFB. Which products?

Most of it would probably have come from the R-1.0 section of the SFB Basic set.
The rest (i.e., size and shape of pods) can be determined by looking at the minis.

wedge_hammersteel wrote:I would like to see a picture of pallets on a Lyran mini.

I'll email you a photo tonight...

The pallets have slanted edges and I dont know which is the top and bottom.

/-----------\ is this how they look (slant wise) or is it upside down?

The wide end goes against the hull of the ship.


' _______ ..........._______
/_______\_____/_______\ :Lyran Ship
\_______/--------\_______/ :Lyran Pod

Thanks. I had it upside down. I look forward to the picture.

A lot of the 'flavor' about pods comes from a couple of Captain's Log articles. There was one article that had a few alternate SSD's imbedded that showed things like a Gorn disc freighter and one that had all the freighter hardware in the back and only the pod out front. All of them were functionally identical to the classic freighter, so there was no need to make 40 odd SSDs.

I recall that in SFB freighters could travel in "ballast" mode, without any cargo pods. This was a very rare occurence, as moving a ship like this doesn't do anything except cost the owner money for operation and maintenance. Because it's a rare occurence, I guess we don't need to be able to see that in Fed Cdr.

You can do that anytime you like. Simply ignore the cargo boxes on the ship card and you are there. The only SSD's for freighters "in-ballast" in SFB were just diagrams in an article in Captains Log (IIRC) without the play-data. I don't recall any discussion of changes in movement costs, etc. (and, since it's so rare, why bother).

I suppose you could also do that on an MB?

I'm sure. It gets tricky with what the point-value should be though. On a target like a freighter it probably matters not. On a base, it might matter more.

You'd have to ignore a lot more than just cargo on a mobile base though wouldn't you? I mean, the thing is made of 6 pods and not much else. The superstructure/basilica in the center is rather small.

Though, I think there are rules in SFB for using 2 to 6 pods. Sort of like building a base up from scratch. Each pods adds something to the base, like extra weapons and such, if I remember correctly.

Hmmmm.

Might make an interesting mini campaign....