Scribbleboard Engines
Notes: 1 Great Knot equals 1 Great League/Week and 50 km/h in-atmosphere speed. Yes, this means great leagues are half as long now, but we can do away with annoying decimals. Plus, the map is twice as 'big'.
Speeds/modifiers are relative for comparative values.
Simple Sails
Mechanical Drive
Milieu: T1 / M1
Cruise Speed: 1 GK
Tactical Speed: +0
Atmospheric Flight: No
Hover: No
Enchantable: Yes
No Transit Costs
Simple space-canvas sails. Ride the etheric curents in the deep sky.
Etherscrews
Mechanical Drive
Milieu: T2
Cruise Speed: 2 GK
Tactical Speed: +2
Atmospheric Flight: No (yes w/refinement)
Hover: No (yes w/refinement)
Enchantable: Yes
Big electrified space-propellers. Great for those flying predreads.
Etheric Spheres
Reactionless Drive
Milieu: T2
Cruise Speed: 2 GK
Tactical Speed: +1
Dodge Bonus: +1
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: Yes
Strange glowing spheres filled with compressed and charged ether. Have unparalleled agility but aren't terribly fast.
Etheric Turbofans
Mechanical Drive
Milieu: T3
Cruise Speed: 3 GK
Tactical Speed: +0 (+2 in Star Ways/Nebula/Atmosphere)
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: No
Enchantable: Yes
Low Transit Costs
The ultimate development of mechanical propulsion, etheric turbofans are big spinny aerofoils, excellent for long-distance travel in the ether. The Tu-995 'Bear' Aethyric Battlecruiser flies again.
Scramrockets
Reaction Drive
Milieu: T3
Cruise Speed: 3 GK
Tactical Speed: +4
Dodge Bonus: +1
Stealth Penalty: -1
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: No
Enchantable: No
Double bonus from Flanking
High-output chemical scramrockets, capable of almost turning a ship into an aircraft on full burn. Unfortunately, they have massive heat signatures and relatively poor cruising speed due to fuel concerns.
Ion Thrusters
Reaction Drive
Milieu: T3
Cruise Speed: 4 GK
Tactical Speed: +3
Atmospheric Flight: No (yes w/refinement)
Hover: No
Enchantable: No
Fairly conventional electro-etheric propulsion system, also comes in plasma versions. The norm for Tech 3 ships meant for Deep Sky operations.
Mag Lifters
Reactionless Drive
Milieu: T3
Cruise Speed: 3 GK
Tactical Speed: +0 (+2 near planets)
Shield Bonus: +1
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: No
Motors built to repel against a planet's magnetic field. Effective at lifting large masses into orbit cheaply.
Fusion Drives
Reaction Drive
Milieu: T4
Cruise Speed: 6 GK
Tactical Speed: +4
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: No
Enchantable: No
A generically common reaction drive; eg, Glowy Scifi Spaceship Engines. They use Etheric fusion to propel the ship along at a good clip. Probably the most common drive by the numbers.
Ramdrive
Reaction Drive
Milieu: T4
Cruise Speed: 6 GK
Tactical Speed: +0
Stealth Penalty: -2
Atmospheric Flight: No
Hover: No
Enchantable: No
Low Transit Costs
Derived from Fusion Drives
What happens when you put a giant ether scoop in front of a fusion drive? You get a ramdrive. Wildly unsubtle and turns like a pig, but cheap to operate and has a pretty good cruise speed.
Gravity Drive
Reactionless Drive
Milieu: T4
Cruise Speed: 6 GK
Tactical Speed: +2
Shield Bonus: +2
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: No
Gravity-control motors can move a ship along on a wedge, cushion, bubble or some other geometry of mildly bent space-time. Not as zippy as fusion drives, but the gravity waves reinforces the ship's defenses. The second most common drive type by the numbers.
Ether Sails
Reactionless Drive
Milieu: T4
Cruise Speed: 4 GK
Tactical Speed: +0 (+2 in Star Ways)
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: No
Low Transit Costs
Derived from Gravity Drives
Hazily translucent forcefield 'sails' that can ride the winds of the deep sky, ether sails are one of the best ways to get around on an energy budget.
EAM Drives
Reaction Drive
Milieu: T5
Cruise Speed: 8 GK
Tactical Speed: +6
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: No
Enchantable: No
Bigger, glowier, more powerful reaction drives. Uses miniscule pinches of etheric antimatter as primary fuel. Accept no substitutes when it comes to speed.
Inertial Drive
Reactionless Drive
Milieu: T5
Cruise Speed: 8 GK
Tactical Speed: +4
Dodge Bonus: +2
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: No
Requiring deep understanding of physics, inertial control drives allow a ship to perform some truly wild maneuvers. Zip zip!
Parametric Drive
Hybrid Drive
Milieu: T5
Cruise Speed: 8 GK
Tactical Speed: +4
Shield Bonus: +1
Stealth Bonus: +1
Atmospheric Flight: Yes
Hover: Yes
Enchantable: No
A direct-action momentum-transfer drive that acts like a reaction drive but is based upon reactionless drive technology. Not as fast as EAM or as agile as inertial drives, but boosts defenses and due to its particularly subtle emissions, is fairly stealthy.
Random Refinement Thoughts
Increasing an ability that exists on a drive (eg, Shield Bonus for grav drives) costs half as much as adding an ability that does not exist (eg, agility bonus on grav drives). Reaction drives cannot get shield bonus or hover. Reactionless drives pay double for speed increases.