 WHITE STAR
Craft: Minbari Federation/Anla'Shok White Star Class Medium Cruiser
Type: Advanced medium cruiser
Scale: Capital
Dimensions:
-Length: 475.6m
Skill: Capital ship piloting: White Star
Crew: 50
-Gunners: 6
-Troops: N/A
-Skeleton: 1/+0*
-Emergency Evac: 80/1 week
Crew Skill:
-Minbari Religious Cast: Astrogation 5D, Capital ship gunnery 4D, Capital ship piloting 4D+1, Sensors 3D+1
-Anla'Shok/Rangers: Astrogation 4D+1, Capital ship gunnery 5D+2, Capital ship piloting 5D+2, Sensors 4D+2
-Autopilot: 2D to all related skills
Passengers: 10 (luxurious)
Cargo Capacity: 4,000 metric tons
Consumables: 1 month
Cost: Not available for sale
Hyperspace Jump Engines: Yes
Nav Computer: Yes (+2D Astrogation)
Maneuverability: 1D+** (see below)
Speed:
-Space: 2+** (see below)
-Atmosphere: 225; 650kmh** (see below)
Hull: 5D
Defenses:
-Bio Armor Hull:***
-Energy Dispersion: +1D
-Damage Adaptation: -1D
-Healing: +1D
-Minbari Stealth Device: (see below)****
-Shields: N/A
Sensors*****:
-Passive: 30/1D+1
-Scan: 60/2D+1
-Search: 120/3D+1
-Focus: 4/4D+1
AUXILIARY CRAFT CAPACITY:
-4 Nial Heavy Fighters
WEAPONS:
Light Fusion Beam
Location: Mounted in nose
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (bridge crew)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 2D
Range:
-Space: 3-15/30/60
-Atmosphere: 6-30/60/120km
Damage: 7D
Rate Of Fire: 1 (continuous beam)
Special: Beam Weapon******
2 Neutron Cannons (fire-link optional)
Location: Mounted in forward hull
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (bridge crew)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 1-10/20/40
-Atmosphere: 2-20/40/80km
Damage: 5D (6D*)
Rate Of Fire:
-Fire-Linked: 1
-Salvo: 2
2 Twin Light Neutron Cannons (fire-link optional)
Location: Mounted in side nacelles
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (bridge crew)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 3D
Range:
-Space: 1-10/20/40
-Atmosphere: 2-20/40/80km
Damage: 4D (5D*)
Rate Of Fire:
-Fire-Linked: 1
-Salvo: 2
3 Gravitic Discharge Beams (fire-link optional*)
Location: Mounted along hull
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1 (bridge crew)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 4D
Range:
-Space: 1-5/15/30
-Atmosphere: 1-5/15/30km
Damage: 4D (5D+1*)
Rate Of Fire: 1
Minbari Stealth Device****
Location: Sensor array
Fire Arc: All
Crew: 1 (bridge crew)
Skill: Sensors
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 0D
Range:
-Space: 1-6/15/30
-Atmosphere: 100-600/1.5/3km
Damage: -2D from Fire Control
Rate Of Fire: N/A (Continuous)
GAME NOTES:
*AUTOPILOT: A single crew member can fly the ship with only voice commands, even through Hyperspace, and the ship can even fire weapons in this manner. The single crew must use the Command skill to decide how many actions the ship can perform, much like commanding troops or NPCs.
**GRAVIMETRIC DRIVE: This form of propulsion differs from normal thrust propulsion in that it starts slow, but the ship builds up both speed and maneuverability as it propels itself. In time, as it increases in speed, a ship with a gravimetric drive can achieve greater speeds and maneuverability than it would using normal propulsion. In the case of the White Star cruisers, they start at Space Speed 2/Maneuverability +1D, and increase at +1 to both every round the ship flies to build up speed. The Safety Limit is Space Speed 8/Maneuverability +3D (+6/+2D). Normally, other capital ships with such drives take longer to build up speed/maneuverability (+1 per minute/10 rounds) and have a Safety Limit of Speed +4/Maneuverability +1D+1, but the White Stars were built somewhat like a mix of capital ship and space transport, and the highly advanced Vorlon tech helps a lot too. As with most ships with gravimetric drives, the ship CAN increase its Speed/Maneuverability past the Safety Limits. Any increase to Speed/Maneuverability beyond the Safety Limits (Space Speed 8/Maneuverability +3D) will incur Dex checks from the crew, starting at Moderate Difficulty at Space Speed 9/Maneuverability +3D+1 (failure results in 4D damage). For every Speed/Maneuverability increase of +1 past 8/2D+1, the Difficulty will increase by 1 level (+5), starting at Moderate, up to Heroic Difficulty at Space Speed 12/Maneuverability 4D+1, with the damage increasing by +1D at each Difficulty increase (8D at Space Speed 12!). Also, if the Speed entries above list Atmosphere, then the gravimetric drive can work in such an environment, though GMs may wish to incur penalties for operating a ship with this kind of drive within the gravity well of a planet.
***VORLON BIO-ARMOR: The hull can disperse the energy of ranged energy weapons to an extent, adapt to weapons it is struck by, and heal itself from incurred damage.
-Energy Dispersion: The hull counts as having energy shields on all firing arcs at the listed Dice code (1D).
-Damage Adaptation: Every time the hull is used in a battle against a specific kind of weapon and survives, it will reduce the damage of that weapon by -1 pip in the next engagement, for a maximum reduction of up to the listed Dice code (-1D). It still takes time for the hull to adapt, at least a day before the next battle against the specific weapon or weapon type.
-Healing: The ship counts as a character and heals as a character would, taking the same amounts of time to heal injuries depending on their severity. This can be affected by crew for enhanced effects or sped up, much like medical care, using skills like Repair Skills and Bioengineering (an advanced skill), and other similar skills.
-Notes: Energy Dispersion and Damage Adaptation both mention working acording to a dice code. It is easy for these two abilities to work on the same dice code, but they CAN have different dice codes listed. Healing does not list a dice code, but if GMs wish, the dice code can be a bonus for the ship's crew when using their skills to affect healing for the ship. Also, when making modifications to these abilities and their dice codes, it is left to GM discretion on wether the dice codes can all be enhanced together as a single ship system, or as three separate systems (hence why these abilities can have different dice codes). A good rule of thumb would be to have a standard Difficulty Level for enhancing the Bio-Armor dice code as a whole for all three abilities, and then reduce the Difficulty Level if only modifying one specific ability of the Bio-Armor.
****MINBARI STEALTH DEVICE: The Minbari employ a powerful stealth device that jams enemy targeting systems, making it difficult to get a target lock on their ships. This device reduces enemy Fire Control dice by the die code listed for the stealth device. In essence, it works exactly like the "Enemy Targeting Jammer" from a Star Wars A-Wing, using the Sensors skill for use, is part of the Sensor systems, but works at capital scale. This means starfighters will be affected by the 6D scale difference, and may effectively have 0D Fire Control on their weapons (the penalties to Fire Control will not go past a reduction of 0D).
*****SENSORS: The White Star's sensors, like much of the rest of the ship, are a mix of Minbari and Vorlon technologies. As such they are able to detect many things that other ships of the younger races would never be able to detect. For example, they can detect disturbances in Hyperspace created by Vorlon and Shadow technology that are artificially created to hide entire fleets with a method of Hyperspace stealth. Any other kind of ship created by the younger races, including Minbari vessels, would normally not be able to detect such anomalies. Also, as per the movie "In The Beginning" Minbari sensors are known to disable the ability of Earth Alliance/Earthforce ships to use Hyperspace Jump Engines to create jumpgates. Earthforce may have fixed this problem after the Earth-Minbari War (unknown) and it is also unknown if any other species starships were affected this way.
******BEAM WEAPONS: Beam weapons can fire a constant beam at a target and maintain the beam on a target after intitial firing. As long as the gunner makes an appropriate gunnery skill roll every round against the range difficulties for the weapon (usually Easy at close range, Moderate at medium range, and Difficult at long range), the beam stays on the target and automatically deals damage every round against the target. Using beam weapons in this way does not take into account movement of the target ships, such as the attacking ship flying towards a target and potentially flying past it, or other maneuvers. Also, if the target can maneuver out of the fire arc of the attacker's beam weapon without the attacker's fire arc being adjusted (if it can be), then the "beam weapon" effect is negated and the attacker would have to readjust to target and attack again. Beam weapons can also be used against a group of ships flying close together, like a squadron of starfighters or two close capital ships. If the attacker makes an attack roll at +1 Range Difficulty Level for the beam weapon, they can wave the beam across several ships as a single attack. Easy rule of thumb is that the targets must be in the same fire arc (GM discretion). For every Difficulty Level the attacker rolls above that needed to fire the weapon on a single target, increase damage per extra Difficulty Level, as the beam is being kept on the same target long enough to bore into it for maximum damage.
-ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: The White Star is a mix of Minbari and Vorlon technology. Minbari technology is already far more advanced than the other younger races, with perhaps the Drakh being the closest in relative technology level. This alone would require a Technology skill roll to understand the technology involved, starting at Moderate or Difficult level. Vorlon technology, that of a First One race, is much more advanced beyond that of the Minbari and Drakh, equaled only by the Shadows and other First Ones. This would make any technology rolls for understanding the Tech no less than Very Difficult, and then only under the utmost best circumstances. Otherwise, these technology skill rolls will always be of Heroic Difficulty, perhaps even with a higher target number in mind. Also of note, due to the White Star having Vorlon technology included in its design, certain features that function like other spaceships may have a more expanded ability to perform their functions. For example, see "Sensors" above.
-MANEUVERABILITY: The White Star was designed with fighting both capital ships and starfighters in mind. As the ship is highly maneuverable, it has the potential to dodge starfighter attacks, though it still counts as capital scale when doing so (relying on built up speed and maneuverability from the gravimetric drive). However, the White Star's weapons are capable of targeting starfighter scale spacecraft and other such scaled objects without any difference in scale dice, and weapon damage stays capital scale.
-POWER TRANSFER: The crew can pull pips from any numbered stat that uses power (Space Speed, Maneuverability, Energy Shields, etc), and add these pips to the desired weapon's damage dice. These pips can be taken as much or as little as desired. After every power transfer and weapon attack, roll 1D: on a roll of 1, the ship loses power for 1 round per pip of power transferred. For every 3 pips transferred, roll +1D, and any roll of 1 on these extra dice has the same result. Power is replenished after this time has passed and the ship can then fly, maneuver and attack with weapons, as well as any other functions that require power to use. until then, the ship is dead in space and unable to move or fight. Power Transfer can be done with any ranged energy weapon, though of course it usually makes more sense to use the weapon with the most damage and/or range.
-Example: In one episode of Babylon 5 to attempt using telepaths against the Shadows, a White Star was used to destroy a Shadow vessel while it was telepathically stunned and immobile. The White Star had to transfer power from other systems to boost the damage of the Fusion Beam to kill the Shadow ship.
DESCRIPTION:
The White Star Class, was a class of advanced warships maintained by the Rangers and utilizing Minbari and Vorlon technology and served as the backbone of the Interstellar Alliance's fleet. They were manufactured at the Valen's Eye manufacturing point in the Minbari System.
History
The first White Star was developed in secret by the Anla'shok, under the supervision of Ulkesh Naranek and Chosen One Jenimer throughout 2259. By November the first batch of three prototypes were ready, though they were only scaled down fighter sized White Stars, they were essential in testing the viability of adapting Vorlon and Minbari technology. Their first real test flight was a mission to prevent the Shadows from using the Temporal Rift in Sector 14. The three fighters were piloted by the newly qualified Rangers Marcus Cole and Catherine Sakai with Entil'Zha Sinclair piloting the third. The mission was a success, though it came at the cost of Ranger Sakai, whose fighter fell into the time distortion. In January 2260, the first full scale ship was complete and presented secretly to Captain John Sheridan of Babylon 5, though due to problems with the Warrior Caste, the initial crew was almost entirely composed of the Religious Caste.
With the assistance of the Worker Caste, a massive round the clock effort was begun to put the White Star class into full production and by December of 2260 the rest of the White Star fleet had been completed, just in time to participate in the Battle of Sector 83.
Additional Technical Specifications
These are one of the newest class of Minbari attack ship whose duties have been delegated to the Rangers and the Interstellar Alliance. These were also the first non-Vorlon ship to be designed in cooperation with the Vorlon Empire, so they incorporate features such as Vorlon bio-armor that would normally only be found on Vorlon ships. These ships were built to be both maneuverable enough to engage fighters, and to have the punch to take on capital ships when operating in groups. They were used as the predominant weapons in the Shadow War between 2259 and 2261 and proved themselves to be formidable vessels, taking on vessels many times their size and winning.
This incredible performance is in part due to advanced Vorlon components found in the ship such as the bio-armoured hull which is capable of learning from experience and adapting itself to better protect the ship in new engagements; this hull design also gives the ship the ability to 'heal' itself after it has been damaged. These ships are also capable of creating their own jump point into hyperspace without using a jumpgate, giving these ships tremendous flexibility on the battlefield.
The White Star Fleet
After the White Star 1 proved a success, the Minbari began working around the clock to build a fleet of White Star ships, numbering around 100 - 150 hulls.
Behind the Scenes
The White Star was designed and built by Foundation Imaging Co-Founder Ron Thornton. Design of the ship was based on the pelican.
OTHER INFO:
Status: Active (as of 2281)
Affiliation: Interstellar Alliance; Army of Light; Anla'Shok
Class: Medium Cruiser
Length: 475.6m
Crew: 50
Engines: Stalasha Gravimetric Engines
Jump Capable: Yes
Gravity: Yes
Weapons:
-2 Neutron Cannons (Primary)
-2 Twin Fusion Cannons (Secondary)
Defenses:
-Magnetic Discharge Beams
-Vorlon defense system
Auxiliary Craft: 4 Nial heavy fighters
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