Re: [FT] Tug/Tender Rule Question

On Sun, Dec 12, 2004 at 09:39:15AM -0600, Doug Evans wrote:

>Actually, it differentiates between tugs and tenders. Battle riders are
>normally thought to use tenders, and FB1 sez 'any ship can be made into
a
>TENDER by having internal bay space allocated to carry other ships'. On
the
>other hand, TUGS have to have hugely increased FTL systems.

The approach I have taken is that a tender is a ship with hangar bays;
the hull is made larger to accommodate them, and the FTL drive is
correspondingly larger to account for the increased ship mass.

A tug could either use a hard connection (as in Battletech) or "extend
the jump field". My preference is for the former, since it tends to
downplay the possibility of the jump field as a weapon; it also implies
that a tug could move ships around in normal space if necessary, which
seems to me a good idea. (Of course, one needs to recalculate available
thrust on the basis of the extra mass being hauled.)

But one could certainly argue either way.

R