The Undine, ERRT Transport
Last week I presented a campaign outline to take your D&D PCs from 1st-15th level. This week I’d planned to present enemies for use against parties of 16th-20th level, followed by a second aquatic campaign outline next week. Well, the list of enemies for the highest tier of play is so short that I decided to combine the two posts into one which will both be presented next week!
This week, I wanted to share with you a new project I’ve been working on. I’ve recently become a huge fan of the One Shot: Campaign podcast and Fantasy Flight Games narrative dice system used for the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny RPGs. At GenCon this year I’ll be running my first game using this system. The party is an independent Emergency Rescue and Reconnaissance Team (ERRT) that uses a specially modified Paragon Class transport ship as a base of operations. Think Firefly, if the group had a more focused (and less criminal) profession.
The original Paragon was created and mapped by the ENnie Award winning cartographer, Christopher West, and the modified version you see in the gallery was created by Chris with input from me. Though the Undine stats are specific to the EotE game, the history of the ship and the maps created by Chris can be used for any scifi, science fantasy, or near-future game you may be running.
In future “From the Depths” articles, I’ll bring you the full adventure I ran at GenCon, including PDFs of the pre-generated characters, pictures from the game, new creatures, enemies, and links to the maps we used. Whenever I present new creatures for use in 5th edition D&D or other aquatic games, I’ll also post the stats for use in the EotE system (and vice versa).
At the time of this post, Chris’ current poster-map Kickstarter has only 11 hours to go and has already hit a number of incredible stretch goals, including a free map-tile set, reprints of some of my favorite out-of-print maps, and a PDF Omnibus of everything he’s done, including the Undine in all the incarnations you see below! The 2015 Omnibus is only available (at this time) from the Kickstarter, so link over there and pledge if you want some of the best fantasy, scifi, and genre-agnostic maps in the industry!
The Undine
The Undine is an AR-37 Paragon Class Transport converted for use in emergency rescue deployment and reconnaissance. In addition to the Undine’s cargo and vehicle hold, the service module’s upper level includes a medical bay based on the Salvation Class Medical Relief Frigate design. The bay includes two Advanced Monitoring trauma beds, four treatment beds, and rehabilitation pools for aquaform support and hydrotherapy. The central recovery bay has been modified as a high-pressure treatment tank and includes 1 bed, 2 droid repair stations, and 2 bacta tanks.
Though primarily an air-transport and delivery vehicle for Emergency Rescue and Reconnaissance Teams (ERRTs), the Undine itself is submersible to a functional depth of 200 meters and maximum emergency depth of 400 meters. Though the AR-37 design is far from hydrodynamic, its unique hydrophobic shield modulation allows the ship to move effectively through aquatic environments. The Undine’s weapon emplacements have been held over from the original AR-37 design primarily for defense against predators encountered on uncharted worlds, though ERRTs deployed to assist in high conflict zones have employed the emplacements for self-defense.
Hull Type Transport
Ship Class AR-37 Paragon, modified
Manufacturer Kuat Systems Engineering
Hyperdrive Primary Class: 2 (1); Backup Class: 12
Navicomputer Yes
Ship’s Complement One pilot, One Navigator, One Engineer
Passenger Capacity 3 (plus, patients and crew)
Medical Suite 4 Treatment Beds, 2 Advanced Monitoring beds, 2 aquaform tanks
Surgical Suite 1 Surgical unit, Advanced Scanning Array (add 2 boost die to Medical checks)
Recovery Bay 2 Droid repair stations, 1 Treatment bed, 2 aquaform/bacta tanks; Bay may be pressurized for treatment of HPNS and other pressure-related illnesses.
Encumbrance Capacity 200
Consumables 3 months
Cost 200,000 credits/7
Silhouette 4
Sensor Range Medium (Passive); Long (Active; 1 Arc only; Simple (1) Computers check)
Speed 3 Handling 0 (-1 when submerged with shields, -3 without shields)
Defense 2/2 Armor 4
Hull Integrity 25 Strain Threshold 15
Customization Hard-points (HP) 5
- Hyperdrive Generator: Decreases Class by 1
- Reinforced Shield Generator: Increases Shields by 1 each quadrant (1st HP)
- Reinforced Shield Generator: Increases Shields by 1 each quadrant (2nd HP)
- Upgraded Comms Array: Range Long
- Hydrophobic Shield Modulation: Increases handling by 2 when submerged
Weapons
Dorsal Turret Dual Laser Cannon
Fire Arc All; Damage 6; Crit 3; Range Close; Linked 1
Dorsal Turret Mounted Missile Rack
The Undine uses specially designed missiles that are aquatic-adaptive and function as standard air-air missiles in addition to: air-submerged, submerged-air, and submerged-submerged.
Fire Arc All; Damage 6; Crit 3; Range Short; Blast 4; Breach 4; Guided 3; Limited Ammo 6; Slow Firing 1.
Starboard Dual Ion Cannon
Fire Arc Front or Starboard; Damage 5; Crit 4; Range Short; Linked 1; Ion