Kōsutega Class Exploration Vessel (Chaps & AppsTM)
The Kōsutega Class Exploration Vessel is a cheaply-made, unarmed, long-range spaceship with an unarmored composite body. It is very appealing to low-level adventurers, especially those known as Brown Jackets, because it is so inexpensive. Limitations of such vessels, however — essentially civilianized scout ships — include being able to carry a crew of just four, who must sleep in their bridge chairs; lack of a cargo hold, just four lockers for personal gear; and inability to carry any sort of an away vehicle bigger than a Segway. Kōsutegas are also not designed to be upgraded or retrofitted in any way, and the integrity of such a vessel might be compromised by attempts to do so.
It has been awhile since I have made available any new content for the Chaps & AppsTM (C&ATM) science fiction role-playing game, and so I have pulled together and posted the following! It is a type of vessel that has turned up in one capacity or another in every session of the game that we have played in-house.
Kōsutega Class Exploration Vessel: The Kōsutega Class Exploration Vessel is a cheaply-made, unarmed, long-range spaceship with an unarmored composite body. It is very appealing to low-level adventurers, especially those known as
Brown Jackets, because it is so inexpensive — and can, in fact, be obtained virtually for free by financing the purchase through a government bank. Under normal conditions, a Kōsutega can get its crew from one point to another without much trouble.
Despite being marketed for being “as good as a Connestoga in every way that counts,” however, limitations of such vessels — essentially civilianized scout ships — include being able to carry a crew of just four, who must sleep in their bridge chairs; lack of a cargo hold, just four lockers for personal gear; and inability to carry any sort of an away vehicle bigger than a Segway. Kōsutegas are also not designed to be upgraded or retrofitted in any way, and the integrity of such a vessel might be compromised by attempts to do so. Such ships are also designed to essentially be disposable and damage to them cannot be effectively repaired.
Kōsutega-class vessels follow a specific naming convention designed to appeal to the
Brown Jacket ethos in particular. The name of any particular Kōsutega vessel can be determined by rolling first on the following table, followed by rolling d100 to determine its place in the production sequence (e.g., “
Excelsior! 87”). If 100 is rolled, roll again and add 99 to the result.
d10 Name
1
Bullseye!
2
Clobberin’ Time!
3
Excelsior!
4
Flame On!
5
Goddess!
6
Imperius Rex!
7
Nuff Said!
8
Stars & Garters!
9
True Believers!
10
Ungaublich!
Notes:
* Names for Kōsutega-class vessels are among the only ones that always include exclamation points.
* A vessel that is #1 is the first in its series and enjoys a certain prestige, as do any with the auspicious #69, and captains of such vessels receive +2 on Charisma-based skill checks made from the bridge of ships with these numbers. Such vessels are thus worth at least twice as much as others in the series for this reason alone.
*
“Imperius Rex!” series Kōsutega-class vessels are widely believed to be submersible and are thus in high demand by adventurers headed for water planets. They do not, in fact, actually have this capability.