Frisbees of Outer Space

So...What happens if you try and fly a saucer without a navigator, or with a navigator who's non-proficient? I ask because sooner or later my players will end up doing it. I don't know why or when; Maybe they'll accidentally lose their navigator while on a lost world plateau and will have no way off it other than the saucer that brought them there, or maybe they'll loot a saucer in a visitor base and want to fly it home as a form of field research. But mark my words, it will happen.

Also how large are the saucers, approximately? I ask because they might not want to fly them home, and might try to put them on rollers or something - and more importantly, I need to have a rough idea how big to make them when building them as mini-dungeons.

Oh, and I notice a couple of saucers require gunners. I assume this means they have guns, but I can't actually find descriptions of saucer weaponry anywhere. I'm guessing plasma cannons might be involved?

When rolling up a vistitor colony, should the 1d6 potential scout saucers each have their own treasures? How about vehicles rolled as treasure?

I love the visitors, by the way. Sectoids are the best aliens.

These are excellent questions! Thanks.

Gunners control the Saucer weaponry which you can find in the Saucer's "monster" stats and description in the Monsters section of the manuscript.

The correct crew are:

Scout: 1 pilot (Arcane spellcaster)

Abductor: 1 pilot, 1 navigator, 1 engineer, 1 gunner (controls a heavy plasma cannon)

Battleship: 1 pilot, 1 navigator, 3 engineers, 3 gunners (one per heavy plasma cannon)

The pilot can control one weapon if needed in addition to flying. However, in larger Saucers, such as the Abductor and Battleship, he will suffer a -4 penalty to hit with that weapon if using it while flying.

Without a Navigator, I'd say that the long-range (overland, non-combat) movement rate is halved as the pilot has to control both flight and navigation systems.

Without an engineer, the ship might be prone to accidents on prolonged long-range travel.

A pilot is always necessary.

Regarding size, I'd say the following (initial thoughts):

Scout - 10'-diameter disc (or is that too small? Think enlarged Traveller Air/Raft)

Abductor - 30'-diameter two-level "fat disc"

Battleship - 30'-diameter sphere

Regarding treasure, I'll have to think about it; this should probably be reflected in the colony's overall treasure, which I might increase to account for possible Saucers.

Will there be any deck plans for these?

I'll check for you :-)

[quote="golan2072"] Gunners control the Saucer weaponry which you can find in the Saucer's "monster" stats and description in the Monsters section of the manuscript. [/quote]

I can't find the Saucer's "monster" stats and description in the Monsters section of the manuscript; It goes straight from "Roper" to "Scorpionman." I'm guessing the saucer entries were accidentally omitted?

[quote="golan2072"] The pilot can control one weapon if needed in addition to flying. However, in larger Saucers, such as the Abductor and Battleship, he will suffer a -4 penalty to hit with that weapon if using it while flying. [/quote]

Interesting... In that case, do saucers have autopilot, cruise control, or the ability to hover without the pilot having to constantly "hold down the button?" I'm wondering whether there's some way for a pilot to stop controlling the ship for a bit in order to shoot straight. I guess that'd probably drop the saucer's AC... Come to think of it, do pilot and gunner skill have any impact on a saucer's combat stats? (If so, I'm guessing the stats given in the Saucer stat blocks probably assume standard Visitor crews.)

[quote="golan2072"] Without a Navigator, I'd say that the long-range (overland, non-combat) movement rate is halved as the pilot has to control both flight and navigation systems. [/quote]

Hmm... So what if there is a navigator, but he or she doesn't have the navigation proficiency? Or if the pilot is acting as navigator and lacks the navigation proficiency? (I'm guessing the answer is something like "the saucer moves at half overland speed with an unproficient navigator, or with a pilot who has the navigation proficiency doubling as the navigator, or at one-quarter speed if the pilot is doubling as navigator and unproficient at navigation.")

[quote="golan2072"] Without an engineer, the ship might be prone to accidents on prolonged long-range travel. [/quote]

Does an engineer need to be capable of magical research, or to have the alien lore proficiency, or something similar? Or can anyone with a craft proficiency do it? Can robots be used to fill crew roles?

I was initially assuming that it was possible to swap out 200 stones of cargo for a passenger, and vice-versa, just as you can with sea-bound ships... But then it occured to me that maybe the passenger limits were supposed to indicate the capacity of each saucer's life support systems. What's the truth?

Incidentally, some vistor artefacts have explicit gp values, and I'm guessing the more magic item-like ones would be priced the same as equivilent magic items, but there's a few (cloning vats, energy crystals, weapons, wonder meals, etc.) that aren't so easy to assign gp costs to. Given that the sale value of treasure can have a big impact on a party's wealth and experience points, it's information we'll need to have.

The Saucer is under "Flying Saucer" in the monster section between Ettercap and Frog, Giant.

Not in the Sneak Preview, its not.

It's not in the Sneak Preview as Omer and I are still discussing final statistics for that entry.

No problem.