 The Arcadia (Green)
Craft: Captain Harlock's Arcadia
Type: Custom built battleship
Scale: Capital
Dimensions:
-Length: 400m
-Width: 260m
-Height: 158m
Skill: Archaic Ship Piloting: Arcadia
Crew: 1,470, gunners: 76, skeleton: 5/+15
Crew Skill: Astrogation 4D+1, capital ship gunnery 5D, archaic ship piloting 5D+2, capital ship shields 3D+2, sensors 4D+2
Passengers: 500
Cargo Capacity: 10,000 metric tons
Consumables: 2 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperdrive: x1 (Backup: x12)
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D+1
Speed:
-Space: 5
-Atmosphere: 295; 850kmh
-On Water: 225; 350.9 knots (225; 650kmh)
Hull: 5D+2
Shields: 3D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/2D
Search: 100/3D
Focus: 5/4D
VEHICLES:
-12 Spacewolf/"Cosmobat" space fighter planes
-6 Cosmowing heavy space fighter planes
-12 Bullet One light space fighters
-6 Bullet Two light penetration fighters
-6 Bullet Three heavy weapon ground vehicles
-6 Bullet Four APC ground vehicles
-4 Space Trailer/"Docros" ground vehicles
-4 Seabike submersible fighters
-6 Unmanned space fighters
-30 One-man flying platforms (a.k.a. "mini-copters")
WEAPONS:
3 Triple "Pulsar Cannons" (fire-linked)
Location: two turrets mounted upper mid hull
Fire Arc: turret
Crew: 1 (3)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 2-10/25/50
Atmosphere Range: 200-1/2.5/5km
Damage: 7D/6D/5D
Ammo: N/A
Rate of Fire: 1 (fire-linked), or 3 (not fire-linked)
Special: The blast from the cannons explodes like grenade damage upon impact, and could damage targets up to two more spaces away. This would also damage all fighters in a wing formation if one is hit. This is only when the cannons are used fire-linked and at full power (full damage).
16 "Space Buster" Anti-Starfighter Guns
Location: scattered about the hull
Fire Arc: partial turrets, 2 right/front/left; 6 front/left/rear; 6 front/right/rear; 2 right/rear/left
Crew: 1 (16)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-4/10/20
Atmosphere Range: 50-400/1/2km
Damage: 4D
Ammo: N/A
Rate of Fire: 1 (blaster burst)
2 Broadside Weapon Arrays (6 Concussion Missile Launchers each)
Location: 6 along each side of the hull
Fire Arc: 6 right, 6 left
Crew: 3 (12)
Skill: Missile weapons
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700m
Damage: 8D
Ammo: 10 (missiles per launcher)
Rate of Fire: 1 to 6 (per side/array)
Special: Each array is several weapons linked together to act as a single weapon, not fire-linked (increase damage) or battery (increase hit roll), but to get a higher rate of fire in a single attack action.
6 Proton Torpedo Launchers (fire-link optional!)
Location: mounted to the forward hull, 3 per side
Fire Arc: front
Crew: 3 (6)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1/3/7
Atmosphere Range: 50-100/300/700m
Damage: 9D per launcher
Ammo: 3 (per launcher)
Rate of Fire: 1 to 6 (OR fire-link optional)
DESCRIPTION:
The changes between the blue and green Arcadia are listed below, but much of the text was left the same where changes were not needed.
Designed and built by Tochiro Oyama, the Arcadia is the battleship of Captain Harlock and his crew. The vessel comes in two different colors, blue and green, both having slightly different designs, although both screen versions are the same ship. The green Arcadia added an underside Pulsar Cannon turret but removed the Ramming Blade (at least until episode 4 of Endless Odyssey, when it makes a return appearance). Both ships have the anchor tubes used for boarding enemy ships, though the blue Arcadia only is seen to do this once.
Over the course of Captain Harlock's adventures, he used the Deathshadow, then later the Arcadia, to fight off several alien invasions to Earth consisting of the Illumidas, the Mazone caravan fleet, the God-like beings of Valhalla and the Nibelungen rebel Alberich, and sometimes even forces from Earth itself.
For the most part, the blue Arcadia eventually replaced another mighty vessel called the Deathshadow, which Harlock claimed first and used to fight the Illumidas and save the Earth. Eventually, the Deathshadow was appropriated by the Illumudas and Tochiro designed and built this new ship for Harlock to continue his battle against them. Later still, the blue Arcadia would be redesigned and modified into the green Arcadia. After this, the blue Arcadia is still seen in flashbacks by Harlock and the crew.
Captain harlock eventually used the green Arcadia to battle the Deathshadow, the fight ending with the Deathshadow crashing to the planet Heavy Melder. Tochiro would later use its remains to send his conciousness to join with the Arcadia's computer systems when he was dying of a terminal space sickness disease.
The layout of the ship's battle bridge bears a strong resemblance to that of the Space Battleship Yamato (different anime series, but same creator). The feature most worth pointing out is that the ship is controlled by what looks like a steering wheel from an old Earth seagoing vessel, such as back in classic pirate days of the old world (but how they change altitude with that is beyond me). For this, the ship is controlled by the Archaic Ship Piloting skill. The rest of the bridge consists of other control stations for various systems layed out along the front and sides, with a massive viewport along the front that allows for a grand view of space, in much the same fashion as Imperial Star Destroyers in Star Wars. The control wheel is located in the center of the bridge upon a raised dais, usually highlighted. Captain Harlock is usually the one controlling the ship.
The main changes to the bridge were the increase in its size. This also means the main forward viewport was much wider and taller. There were many more control stations, readouts and monitors spread out along the floor and walls, and the steering wheel dais had a ring of consoles splayed around it, in a similar fashion to the control pits seen on an Imperial Star Destroyer in the Star Wars movies. the most visible feature of the new bridge was a massive viewing screen taking up the upper forward and cieling sections of the bridge, easily dwarfing anyone standing on the floor, and it could be used in several ways, from simple visual communications, sensor readings of all kinds, and even to show visual images using the Time Sensors. It could be used to show any visual data or imagery that any of the ship's systems could produce (pretty much like any other main screen from any famous starship in science fiction ever created).
The Arcadia, in either form and color, has always carried various space fighter planes (starfighters) and other vehicles (though the names and numbers may very from different series or manga and by translations, so I've just set numbers and names here for a standard). The Arcadia's launch bay is located in the lower aft portion of the ship, just between and behind the two engine thrusters. It would likely not be useable while landed on a planet's surface or in water.
After Tochiro built the Arcadia, he also created many "Pirate Islands" for support of Harlock and his crew for somewhere to hide and perform maintenance and repairs as needed. These take the form of remote, unmanned mobile bases hidden as asteroids that can be positioned when and where desired, looking like unassuming hunks of rock floating in space. Each pirate island is big enough for the Arcadia to dock inside, completely enclosed and hidden within from prying eyes and sensors. Island number two is named "Deathshadow Island", and is modeled in semblance of the actual planetoid of Deathshadow, the "antimatter gravity planet", which can draw in ships with super-gravity and entrap them forever. Pirate Island eight is destroyed early on as part of a Mazone trap.
In a different series, Harlock had the Mobile Fortress SSX. Similar to the pirate islands, SSX could disguise itself as a comet, with a glowing radiance and bright trailing tail. When Harlock had need of it, the mobile fortress would deactivate the light show, revealing another asteroid-like structure, then unfold portions of itself to reveal a well-equipped space station within. It was adapted by Tochiro from an old Solar Federation supply base. The name, SSX, refers to the criminal numbers assigned to Harlock, Tochiro, and Emeraldas by the Illumidas Occupation Force, which respectively are S00999, S00998, and X00001.
The ship's crew are usually armed with Cosmo Guns (heavy blaster pistols). The standard model is the Cosmo Percussion M78 (5D Damage), while the custom-built (by Tochiro) Cosmo Dragoon model (6D, similar to a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol in range) is carried by Harlock, Tochiro, Emeraldas, and a few other friends who vary in number from show to show. The weapon is modeled after a Colt model 78 revolver. In the Space Pirate series, the Cosmo Guns are also fitted with a special Mazone detector device that sounds an alarm when the weapon is aimed at a Mazone.
Another weapon common in the Harlock stories is the Gravity Sabre, A combination sword/laser rifle (Str+3D+1 melee damage, 5D ranged blaster damage) carried by Harlock and Emeraldas.
The Arcadia is capable of landing in water and traveling on its surface (speed given above), and in this way would make a great sea battleship if ever needed or desired.
The ship has various sensor systems which include "Cosmo Radar" which can locate and track targets at very far ranges, such as from other star systems or even throughout an entire space sector; normal three-dimensional radar (can track objects within range by motion, use normal sensors); and a Time Radar System.
The Time Sensors make it possible to see past events by somehow catching temporal afterimages in a specific location, such as a spot in space, an asteroid, city or part of a planet, or even a full view of the planet if panned back far enough, and other such visuals. The Sensor operator uses the "Search" option for the Sensors for effective range and dice. The Difficulty depends on how far back the operator and crew wishes to view: Easy for minutes; Moderate for hours; Difficult for days; Very Difficult for weeks; Heroic for months. To make it past a year is possible, but the Difficulty should be well past Heroic with a very high target number, perhaps 40 or 50. Any amount of time is possible, but the further back they wish to view, the harder the roll should be.
The green Arcadia has three Pulsar Cannons, with two mounted on the upper mid section of the ship's hull, and a third mounted to the lower mid section of the hull. The front of the ship no longer has the deployable ramming blade, and has been redesigned as a more elongated, blunt looking surface with the Jolly Roger Skull and Crossbones emblazoned in white along the entire front surface, unmistakable to the naked eye.
There are also harpoon guns located somewhere near or behind the Pulsar Cannons, used like grapple cables to latch onto other ships or objects floating in space. The arcadia also has classic anchors mounted to chains that can be deployed to latch onto a surface to prevent drifting, or even onto another target to prevent evasion (and allow the crew to use the anchor tubes and board them!).
The Arcadia has boarding/docking tubes on either side of the hull, and can be used either for simple docking maneuvers, or to assault another ship or space station by using a drill tip to penetrate their hulls, which then retracts and opens like a hatch to allow Arcadian crew to assault the enemy. They work similar to the drill tips mounted on the Bullet Two light penetration fighters. Simple combat damage if ever needed is Hull+4D (9D starfighter scale). To penetrate another hull, the ship must come alongside another target, deploy the anchor tube and begin drilling. If the surface is starfighter scale, it will take seconds, minutes against capital scale, and hours against death Star scale. The amount of time equals seconds, minutes or hours equal to the hull dice of the target. The pilot must roll against a Difficulty equal to the hull dice code of the target, not modified by scale.
The Arcadia, Captain Harlock and his crew, all come from different anime and manga sources. While the creator(s) on many occassions confuse the continuity of their stories, they are none-the-less very fun and interesting and highly recommended.
STAR WARS IDEAS:
The Arcadia and its other related ships, vehicles and weapons and equipment, and even the crew and characters, could be worked into a Star Wars game easily. Being space pirates, they could fit a niche for a rogue element, unaffiliated to any established organization, yet still willing to fight the good fight whenever the need arises, such as when worlds or people are in peril.
If the GM/players wish to do something else entirely different, this is easy enough. In my own current campaign, the ship in its green version has been found by the players while on a mission in the Elrood Sector's Degan Gas Clouds, headed towards degan itself for a meet. While exiting Hyperspace, the crew notices a moon in orbit of Degan, which reportedly has no satellites in any planetary database. Upon closer inspection, the crew use the sensors and discover that the moon is actually an asteroid traveling at too fast a velocity, and will exit Degan's orbit in a matter of short time, and head back into the Degan Gas Clouds, and therefor must have must have come from there in the first place. The crew notices an object attached to the asteroid's surface, which they soon discover is an old capital ship...the Arcadia!
Any players in a Star Wars game would want to inspect the ship, and even try to salvage it if possible. In my game, the players did so, seeing many Force-related past images of the previous captain (Harlock) and a friend of his (Tochiro), left behind because they both left very strong impressions in the Force itself with how their lives were lived. I ran the ship as being somewhere between 300 to 3,000 years old, it being hard to tell for sure because of it being a mix of older technologies applied with very advanced designs for its time, and having gone through damage from either its last battle or impacts from stellar objects (or both), as well as simple wear and tear from its old age from being stuck to the asteroid and left adrift.
Sure enough, the crew used their smaller ship (a Lone Scout A) and its mounted laser cannon to free the ship from debris pinning it, then used the ship's maneuvering thrusters to free it from the rock's surface. Unfortunately, the ship's main power was out, the hyperdrive was fried, and emergency power and thrusters were all they had, leaving the ship in orbit around Degan until they could get parts to make repairs.
This is a scenario others could apply to their own games, having players find the ship but needing to repair it over time, as a "fixer-upper", eventually restoring the ship to its proper power and status, or perhaps even making modifications of their own to spruce it up a bit. I had the Hull reduced by a Die, shields were gone, the hyperdrive engine and motivator had to be replaced, so did the main power core and the main engines. The Space Buster guns were an easy fix, but there were many of them. The missile launchers just needed some quick maintenance, but most of the missiles on the ship were now duds, and since they were so old they were not sold anymore (in the end, making it easier to replace the launchers and missiles entirely). The Pulsar Cannons were still useable, but their energy capacitors were shot and not able to hold as strong a charge as they used to, lessening the damage to 3D Capital Scale. They could be repaired, but it would take time, money and resources, unless they could ever gain access to some Imperial Turbolaser tech (a good way to keep the players from having too much power if you don't want them to just yet, and also letting them get that power as the game progresses and the challenges escalate).
This is just one scenario, GMs and players should work together to choose one that best suits them and their games, and I hope you enjoy these stats!
Another note worthy of mention. I caught a video on YouTube where the green Arcadia battles the Deathshadow (it's of older animation footage, but still interesting to watch). In this video, both ships are shown to have lines of ports on both sides of their hulls, which open and release broadisde blasts of energy. I didn't work this into the stats above for balance issues. But if GMs and players wish to use this, it's very simple. Just list the weapon as having high damage dice (equal to the Pulsar Cannons or better, perhaps even 10D!), but limit their range to very short (I'm thinking like the triple blasters on a Z-95 headhunter), and they only use one fire arc (right and left). That way, the ship will have to get in close to use them, like a good old fashioned naval battle and how it looked when used it the related anime and manga series.
|
