"Warming up one of the Skiprays" - Skipray Blastboat Design Part 1

Hello pilots! Welcome to the first post exploring a homebrew Skipray Blastboat expansion for X-wing Miniatures 1st Edition. The inspiration for this homebrew expansion came from my re-reading of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. The Skipray only appears briefly, but it is crucial to the interaction between Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade! Today, we will go through Zahn's descriptions of the Skipray in Heir to the Empire and use that as the foundation for how the ship is going to feel and fly on the tabletop. Let's get to it!

First things first, this ship expansion will be for the Scum and Villainy faction. According to the Extended Universe, the Imperials did use some Skiprays. However, this expansion is specifically inspired by Talon Karrde and his daring smugglers. While I can consider doing an Imperial Skipray expansion later, right now I am focusing on Scum. 

Here is the first excerpt from Heir to the Empire:

"...long, lean ships about twice the length of Luke's X-wing. Fighters, obviously, but not like anything the Alliance had ever used...Unlike X-wing design, the entrance was a hinged hatchway door in the side...The pilot's cockpit wasn't much roomier than an X-wing's but directly behind it was a three-seat tech/weapons area. The seats weren't designed for astromechs[.]" (Zahn 270-271)

• We have our first exclusion: no astromechs. While I love the astromech upgrades (especially the janky salvaged ones), they won't appear in this expansion.
• On the other hand, we do have a confirmation on crew. The Skipray has a running crew of 4: 1 pilot, and 3 weapons/tech crew. I think that this easily translates to 2 crew slots and 1 system slot. The current Scum roster only has one ship with multiple crew slots (the Hounds Tooth). Having another chassis to be able to combine crew upgrades will be fun and give the ship some identity. Additionally, the system slot fits well with Talon Karrde himself. He is not the type of person to skimp and buy cheap fighters. Rather, he gets state-of-the-line ships with high-tech systems and powerful sensors.
• While the ship's size and description seem pretty straight forward, they actually conflict with the official scaling of the ship on Wookiepedia. For now, I will assume that the ship has a large base and will explore the scaling in a future post.

We're already off to a good start! Here's the next excerpt:

"The strange fighter's handling wasn't even remotely like anything [Luke had] ever flown before; slightly reminiscent of the snowspeeders the Alliance had used on Hoth, but with the kind of sluggish response time that implied a great deal of armor and engine mass. With time he was pretty sure he'd be able to master it." (Zahn 273)

• First off, the ship should have a good amount of hull points. Also, I don't believe that Talon would be satisfied with sub-standard deflector shields. Pair this info with the fact that the ship is sluggish from so much armor, then the best fit is 1 agility die and high hit points.
• The large amount of engine mass means powerful engines, so the ship's basic maneuvers should include an adequate number of greens and only a few (if any) reds. Having heavy armor on top of powerful engines means that the ship shouldn't be able to pull super-crazy stunts like T-rolls, S-loops, and stop maneuvers.

Things are building quite nicely and we're getting a good direction for the ship. Here's the third excerpt:

"The fighter dipped a little too deep, scraping its ventral tail fin against the tops of the trees...There, directly above his dorsal tail fin and less than a ship's length away, was [Mara's] fighter. 'Hang on!' Luke shouted to Artoo, clenching his teeth tightly together. His one chance now was to pull a drop-kick Koiogran turn...And abruptly, the cockpit canopy exploded into a slapping tangle of tree branches and he was thrown hard against his restraints as the fighter spun and twisted and rolled out of control." (Zahn 274)

• This section has Luke failing to execute a K-turn with the Skipray. However, I do not believe that this means the ship cannot actually do a K-turn. Luke does not have a good grasp of the ship. This is his first time flying a new ship on a new planet, and he can barely keep it afloat, let alone pull a Koiogran. If he had time to get used to the ship, then I believe he could have pulled it off. Luckily, he will get plenty of practice with this expansion!
• Including a K-turn on the dial gives the ship the ability to quickly turn around, which makes sure it can be viable in dogfights. Since its weight-to-engines ratio runs on the heavy side, the 5-speed K-turn fits better, like with the TIE Bomber.

Almost there! We only have one excerpt left:

"The strangest thing about waking up...was that he didn't actually hurt anywhere. And he should have. From what he remembered of those last few seconds—and from the view of the splintered trees outside the fighter's twisted canopy—he would have counted himself lucky even to be alive, let alone undamaged. Clearly the restraints and crash balloons had been augmented by something more sophisticated—an emergency acceleration compensator, perhaps." (Zahn 280)

• Once again, this section reinforces Talon's foresight in buying quality starships for his smuggling operation. The ship most definitely has a system slot.
• In a past post about the Scum faction, I talk about how Illicit upgrades aren't "illegal", but instead are "inhumane". The amount of care that Talon put into the safety of his ships is the direct opposite of inhumane. As such, this ship expansion cannot justify getting an illicit slot. Perhaps other scum factions in the galaxy are fine with treating their crews as expendable. The Car'Das Smugglers aren't.
• Ship expansions need to include cool new upgrades alongside the new ship. Here, we have our first upgrade to create, an "Emergency Acceleration Compensator". Based on how it saved both Luke and Mara's lives in the book, this upgrade needs to be a system that nullifies Pilot-based criticals. It could be similar to the Elite Pilot Talent "Determination".
  

In conclusion, here is a summary of our research. This is the alpha stage of the Skipray's design:

• 
  A Scum faction ship.
• No astromech slot.
• No illicit slot.
• 1 system slot.
• 2 crew slots.
• Large base ship.
• High hitpoints (both hull and shields).
• 1 agility die.
• Basic maneuvers include plenty of greens, and reds are few (or none).
• The only advanced maneuver it has is a 5-speed K-turn.
• The expansion includes an Emergency Acceleration Compensator upgrade.

This part of the design process is complete! Stay tuned for more design posts, as this homebrew Skipray Blastboat expansion comes together. Happy flying!

-PGP

Works Cited:

• Zahn, Timothy. "Heir to the Empire." Del Rey Mass Market Edition, 2016.