Repost of Falcon, updated ship designs

Falcon, aka Hawk, Dagger, Sparrow
24 Tons
4  medium weapons in 360+V mounts on Outrigger Turrets.  Medium Ballista,
   Greek Fire Projector, Shou Rocket Battery or Gnomish Sweeper
Cost: 15,000 gp for the ship, 1,000 - 1,500 gp per module, then add weapons.
19,400 - 20,400 with 4 Medium Ballista, 23,000 - 24,000 with 4 Shou Rockets.
Maneuverability Class:  B or C, depending on crew quality and rigging.
Saves as Thin Wood or Thick Wood
AC  6-9, depending on options
Built by:  Groundlings
Sailing crew:  8 + Helmsman. 2 per wing pulley, 2 spanker, 1 each rear fin.
Weapons crew:  1 additional per weapon to maneuver the weapons rapidly.
120' long w/o Spanker, 30' wide w/o wings, 15' height

Falconnet (see below)
20 tons
2 medium weapons in 360 + V mounts, fore and aft castles, or 1 large fixed
forward weapon and 1 medium weapon in aft castle
Maneuverability Class: B, C or D, depending on options
Saves as Thick Wood
AC 4-7 depending on options
Built by:  Groundlings
Sailing crew:  8 + Helmsman. 2 per wing pulley, 2 spanker, 1 each rear fin.
Weapons crew:  1 additional per 360 + V mount to maneuver the weapons rapidly.
110' long w/o Spanker, 30' wide w/o wings, 15' height


Falcon:

         |              Spanker
        -+-             Control Masts for Spanker, ropes to turret room
         ^
        /+\             Spanker control wheel
      \-|^|-/           Rear fins/sails, controlled from Rear deck
       Y _ Y
       |[ ]|            Hatches to Cargo Hold, ladder to negative deck
      .|[_]|.           Pulleys for controlling wings
     /l|[ ]|l\          Wings
  - / !|[_]|! \ -
 (o)===# o #===(o)      Main Mast & Weapons modules, stairs to wing walkway
  -    (/ \)    -       Boarding staging area behind ram (Fore deck)
        \ /
         U              Blunt Ram

Falconnet:

         |              Spanker
        -+-             Control Masts for Spanker, ropes to turret room
         ^
        /+\             Spanker control wheel
      \-(^)-/           Rear fins/sails, controlled from Rear deck, rear turret
       Y _ Y
      .|[_]|.           Pulleys for controlling wings and Hatches to Hold
     /l|[_]|l\
    / !|[_]|! \         Wings
   *===# o #===*        Main Mast and wing mast, stairs access negative deck
       (_!_)            Fixed forward weapon on Fore deck
        \V/
         U              Blunt Ram


20 - 24 ton ship, 2,000 cu yards. 120' long w/o spanker, 30' wide w/o wings
                                   15' average height
       _
Scale: L 10'  |---| 30'

            /  ||          \                 \
   Mast     |  ||            \               |\
   Stays ->/   ||              \             | \
           |   ||   Cargo Boom   \           |  \  Spanker
           /   ||------------------      5   |   \
          >-----+                    +----+  |    \
         /   1  #\--- main deck ----/  3 X|  |     \
 ---  <==|-----[=]                  ---------+-----=-       --- gravity plane
         \   2  #X[  Cargo Hold    ]   4 X|  |__--'
          `-------------------------------+

( negative deck ---^ )

1   Galley, chart room
2   Helm, Officer quarters  (The Helm chair is designed to swivel and
be comfortable in any gravitational orientation.)
[=] Wing walkway
3   carpentry, smithy work areas
4   crew and officer quarters
5   Spanker control wheel, storage area for spanker, sternpost rudder.
X   Heads (chamber pots + curtain)
The gravity plane is 2' below the main deck, so the Cargo Hold has two
ceilings in Wildspace.  2 and 4 are standard reversed gravity decks.


The Falcon, aka Hawk, aka Dagger is a small agile craft which is quite
well armed for its size.  Its main hull is about 20 tons and the
two outrigger turrets add another 4 tons.  The walkway masts are designed
to be supported with the aid of the main mast during atmospheric flight,
enabling the top weapon to be manned inside the atmosphere.  For water
landings they can be raised about 10'.  Unfortunately, in any kind of wind
the platform would dip into the water, so the platforms are normally
stowed before landing.  The Falcon and Falconnets can be modified for a Land
landing, but only by eliminating its streamlining, reducing the safety of
a water landing.  There are some negative deck foot railings that don't
interfere with the ship's handling in water.  These enable the negative
deck to be used in wildspace for combat and tending the rigging.

The Falcon is designed so the platforms can be dismounted and mounted even
within the atmosphere of a planet by using the cargo boom.  This is _not_
a safe procedure.  For one thing, the boom will actually touch the support
stay to the mast holding the wing up.

The platforms designed to be mounted on the Falcon are the smallest and most
compact variant.  The storage area between the platforms is accessed from the
wing walkway itself, not the typical railing hoops that allow quick movement
between the top and bottom weapon.

The size of the Falcon is fairly critical.  A 12th level Cleric or Mage
can power the ship with a Create Minor Helm spell, (2 tons/level x 12th level).
One 12th level spellcaster can keep a fleet of 80 of these aloft, if they
return to port every 12 weeks to be renewed.  Only about 10% of the Falcons
will even have a Minor Helm, most will be powered by spell.  When not
powered by a spell they can be converted back into sea going vessels with
the tools on board the ship.  As a sea-going vessel treat it as a Cog,
although it has a shallower draft.  With the wing walkways dismounted, the
Falcon can pass as a mundane sailing vessel.  (The Falcon loses 60-80% of
her cargo space with her weapons, spanker and wings dismounted.)  Converting
the rigging to the main mast and cargo boom takes a bit of time.  It will
probably be a couple decades before the rigging is refined to allow the
wings' sails to also be used as an efficient main sail.  More refinement
will also shorten the time needed to convert the Falcon from atmosphere
to Wildspace, from Wildspace to landing, and from atmosphere to landing.


There is also a slightly smaller variant called the _Falconnet_ which has
two weapons mounts, one on the forecastle, one on the aftcastle, no
outrigger turrets and much lighter wing masts that can be stowed
more easily.  The forward mount can interfere with the rigging on the
Falconnet.  It is also slightly shorter, so its tonnage comes out to
20 tons.  The Falconnet is much simpler to operate and land.  Because
it has less need for cargo space to stow the weapons modules, it can
have its structure reinforced and its hull plated.  Its armament can
be supplemented by lining the railings with Light Ballistae.  Both the
Falcon and Falconnet can also be fitted with Mastheads of Durability on its
wing masts.  (Forgotten Realms pg 71-72.  1,800 gp each)

Outrigger turrets could still be mounted on a Falconnet, giving it 6 heavy
weapons, but its primary area of operation would be Wildspace, because it
would be very difficult to stow the modules properly.  The modules, the wing
masts, the wing booms and the spanker can all be stored in the cargo area
of the Falcon, but that leaves only a small portion of the hold and the
main deck area for cargo and supplies.  Nonetheless, to all outward
appearances the Falcon would look like an ordinary sailing ship when her
spelljamming rigging is in the cargo hold.  The most expensive version
of the ship would have a Falconnet with 2 Mastheads of Durability, with
Outrigger turrets on top and pontoons beneath.  It would be able to
fight at maximum effectiveness inside an atmosphere with no problems
landing and sailing on water or leaving the atmosphere.


Because the empowering spell can be brought down by Dispel Magic, the Falcons
and Falconnets are rarely used alone.  5-20 Falcons and Falconnets with at
least one having a real helm is a reasonable unit.  Naturally, they prefer
an artillery engagement to risking having their power source dispelled, but
with the groundlings' tendency to load up on marines, they could chance
boarding actions.

The theory of design of the Falcons and Falconnets was to give them a high
maneuverability to compensate for the fact that their high numbers would mean
low average quality helmsmen.  Their primary helmsman is unlikely to be higher
than 7th level.  A high quality crew might have a 7th level pilot, and a 5th
level mage who can cast Increase Rating to give the Falcon a 4-5 SR, but most
Falcons will have a 2 SR.  By using the Create Minor Helm spell to power a
ship, the limiting factor of the size of a fleet ceases to be the supply
of Helms or other power sources but the supply of hulls, crews, and above
all, helmsmen.

Specialized mages with less access to spells but faster advancement would
make sense as pilots.


New Shipboard Equipment
Outrigger Turrets
Cargo Boom
Swivel Chair Helm:  The chair's supports extend from deck to ceiling, and the
supports rotate on a dais.  The chair itself can swing on an axis between the
two supports.
Top View.  o are the supports, H the helmsman.
  .---.
 /  _  \
(o-[H]-o)
 \ ^ ^ /
  '---'

The structure is weighted so that if the deck is tilted it will rotate
such that the axis of the seat's rotation will compensate completely
for the gravitational orientation.  The swivel chair helm is more
appropriate to a ship which engages in shear, ram and boarding actions
but it also makes the transition between atmosphere and Wildspace easier.
The chair has a safety harness with quick release straps and requires
a step to climb into as the chair is about 4' off the ground.

Space Oars:
One of the options is to have a pair of 'space oars' instead of the rear
fins.  Instead of a wooden blade, it has a 3' x 10' rigid sail.  It can
be used as an ordinary steering fin or used to propel the craft (very slowly!)
by turning the oar 90 degrees after a stroke to return to position.
(This only works in universes with Aristotlean Physics, not Newtonian!)

Post Mounted Light Ballista:
The PMLB is a swivel mount with about 90 degrees of usable vertical traverse,
between 45+ and 45- of the gravity plane.  In practice, it has a smaller
arc because rigging such as wings get in the way.  The PMLB can be installed
by two men in about a turn, (more time if being placed in a post-hole on the
negative deck).  They protect the ship against Fighters when the main
weapons are being reloaded and can also fire grappeling lines.  To provide
the best shots for the PMLBs, the ship should roll slowly on its main axis.

PMLBs can be placed on the negative deck after reaching Wildspace so the
negative deck can be covered without reducing the ability of the ship to
land on land or water.  When PMLBs aren't in the post holes, the holes
are covered with a wooden plug.

The PMLB can have a glass-steel shield to provide protection for its crew.
A non-transparent shield would reduce either the initiative or THACO of
the weapon by 1.  (making them worse)


Use of Falcons and Falconnets in a campaign:
The concept is a fairly cheap ship which can be empowered by a spell
instead of an expensive helm.  A shipyard designed to build sailing
vessels wouldn't have too much difficulty making them, once they were
provided with the plans.  The internal support structure is of course
very different from a sailing vessel.  A groundling nation experimenting
with such a design on its own would probably go through several versions
with design problems like:

  High speed turns (more than 1 facing change in a row) may cause a strain on
  the structure, with a chance for hull point damage to the keel.
  While in Wildspace, the cargo may lurch, doing damage if it isn't properly
  secured.  Also, because the groundlings aren't familiar with the stresses,
  parts of the ship may take 2x hull point damage from rams, any Ship Shaken
  critical, heavy catapults stones etc...
  Also, while the ship is quite maneuverable, an uncontrolled axial spin
  could be set up which might be difficult to stop on early models.  (A
  quick release for the wing booms will stop the spin.)

It is amazing how many things can go wrong with a new design, if you think
about it.  Something to think about if your PCs insist on getting the latest
Super-Ship they've heard about.

Once the bugs are worked out, the Falconnet and Falcon make great comparitively
cheap patrol ships.  Groundling nations can be commisioned to build the
hulls which a Spacer mage will then empower.  If fitted with landing gear,
they make great troop transports with the potential to raid land or sea.
They make dandy commerce raiders, and escorts for Capital Ships.  Because
they don't need a helm, they are great for one-way missions, although
mounting the Spell Helm near the main rigging controlls would enable a
speedier evacuation (by spell or device?).

Because the power can be totally dispelled by Dispel Magic, Spell Helms
have about the same reputation as Gnomish Helms.  One explanation for
the prevalance of Gnomes in space could be explained by a high level
gnomish experimenter powering up ships and sending daring crews on them
to test them out.  Otherwise, no amount of gnome-mined gems would afford
the expense of the appalling loss rate of helms Gnomish ships are subject to.

While the number of Spell-Helmed ships that could be turned out is formidable,
20-25 ton ships are no match for Capital ships close to 100 tons.  In a fleet
engagement they would probably have a secondary role, or at least be less
available in the initial clash because of their lower SR.  They would be
excellant at intercepting other small ships.  As part of an attacking
fleet they'd suffer a little bit in comparison compared to fighters because
fighters can be carried in large numbers by a Carrier craft without requiring
helmsmen for all of them.  A Falcon or Falconnet would need its own
helmsmen all the time.  For defense of a space station or Asteroid they'd
be ideal.  While there would be the expense of maintaining all their
Spell-Helms that would be less than the expense of tying up a comparable
number of Minor Helms.

Michael Sandy