3D illustration of a sci-fi Japanese capital

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Redrobes!

Alright, I just finished the constuct Lobster carrier-salvage-processor mother ship of the Crustacea. This is a colossal ship, 15,000 feet long. Carrying all the other types of Crustacea with locker/quarters all along the inside of the hull, while the vast majority of interior space is dedicated to sorting and processing salvage materials converting to refined material components (UPB equivalents). It's tail has the same forward and reverse thruster action as does the prawn disassemblers. As seen from the forward view illustration, under it's eyes and antenna is a square entrance to it's flight bay, where all Crustacea move into and out of the mothership... enjoy!

GP

[Gamerprinter]

Calling this Towing Hazard: a one-shot module for four players of 6th level for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. This will be both the cover art and an interior illustration. With the players working as a towing service for a salvage yard station, where they tow a huge derelict with a salvage beacon. Unknown to them Crustacea have claimed the ship for themselves not recognizing a salvage beacon claim. So enroute to towing the vessel in, prawn constructs are seen crawling out from inside, and a medium crab vessel is joining the fray. This is where I'll introduce the Crustacea living construct starships. I haven't even written the module yet!

GP

[Gamerprinter]

After creating last night's illustration, I realized that I need a portrait oriented image and not a landscape one (duh); been using square-ish formats previously then cropping down. But I decided to redo the cover illustration version at least in portrait. I used a different atmosphere, maybe a planetary nebula, where the derelict destroyer sat adrift. The salvage towing service has securely connected to the destroyer and now pulling it the two days flight back to the salvage yard station. A prawn is crawling across the hull of the towed destroyer, a crab is about to land, and from behind the colossal lobster mothership is in hot pursuit. I thought with the dust clouds, asteroids and the menagerie of Crustacea, this was a more epic and dynamic image than the previous - and it fits the space on the cover! Now I need to write the dang thing!

[Gamerprinter]

Was in the mood to create another crab based ship design, though this isn't "Crustacea", as this isn't a living construct, and the ship cannot walk once it's grounded. Inspired by Crustacea, this is based on the Robber or Coconut Crab, and is designed as a pirate boarding ship. In the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual, buster weapons are described that only damage shields, and not hulls. I considered using the claws as a heavy ram, but opted instead to call them heavy tether claws (assuming tethers refer to cables or chain systems, but the pincer claws serves as the anchoring mechanism). So this ship finds potential victim ships to attack. using it's forward buster cannon, and twin buster cannons on the turret to reduce a targeted ship's shields to zero quickly. Then it's fast maneuver drives and grappling claws attempt to close onto the ship and anchor it in the pincers. Once anchored, the boarding ramp drops and 4 boarding marines with cutting torches in armored vacc-suits breach the opposing ship to board. While some damage is incurred in the grapple, opponent ships only need to be breached, then the pirate boarding party treats it like a non-ship combat encounter. Kind of a unique method of starship combat...

The Highwayman Tier 8
Robber Crab class medium corsair boarding ship
Speed 13; Maneuverability average (+0 Piloting, turn 2); Hyperspeed -
AC 25; TL 27
HP 100; DT -; CT 21
Shields medium 200 (forward 50, port 50, starboard 50, aft 50)
Attack (Forward) Heavy Tether Claws (4d8; *Anchoring); 1 Heavy Buster Cannon (6d8; *Buster)
Attack (Aft) Flak thrower (3d4; point)
Attack (Turret) 2 Heavy Buster Cannon (6d8; *Buster)
Power Core Pulse Blue (200); Hyperdrive -; Systems advanced medium range sensors, crew quarters (common), mk4 armor, mk6 defenses, mk5 bulheads, m12 Horacalcum thrusters; Expansion Bays cargo holds x3, sick bay, tech workshop
Modifiers Sensors +4; Complement 6 (Pilot, Gunner, 4 boarding soldiers)

[Gamerprinter]

Decided to create a second pirate ship to couple with the Robber Crab ship, this is the Crackerjack small fast signal boat, which is a fast, lightly armed boat with a Hacker module used to attack the computers of targeted ships.

Crackerjack Tier 6
Nautilus class small Fast Signal Boat
Speed 13; Maneuverability good (+1 Piloting, turn 1); Hyperspeed 1
AC 19; TL 25
HP 40; CT -; DT 7
Shields medium 160 (forward arc 40, port arc 40, starboard arc 40, aft arc 40)
Attack (Forward) 1 Laser Net (2d6; point); Digital Strike Conduit (Special, *Hacking)
Attack (Port) Light particle beam (3d6), 10 PCU, 5 BP
Attack (Starboard) Light particle beam (3d6), 10 PCU, 5 BP
Power Core Signal Orange (250); Hyperdrive Signal Basic; Systems advanced long range sensors, anti-hacking system, crew quarters (common), mk3 duonode, mk6 defenses, s12 Horacalcum thrusters; Expansion Bays science lab, sick bay, tech workshop
Modifiers +1 Piloting, +3/+3 Computers, +4 Scans; Complement 6

[Gamerprinter]

After creating a couple pirate ships inspired by sealife, I decided I needed a pirate base, some chunk of rock floating in the Sargasso Nebula. Strange reef building space corals cover some of the rocks, perhaps some needed nutrient found in only some asteroids in nebula dust clouds feeding on the finest grains of nutrients in the dust. The space pirate with their Robber Crab ships and Nautilus pod boats are based on this one, called Scallywag's Rock. Several pirate gangs hide in this nebula. The Colonial Navy has closed in on this asteroid base. After creating all the "sealife" I needed a scene they best fit in - space corals, why not?

GP

[Gamerprinter]

... dammit, T'Chixik, recheck those sensor logs... this can't be the Drift Beacon coordinates...

Deep Space Anglers are gargantuan, space born, starship sized creatures who ride the gamma ray bursts, solar winds and radiation waves feeding on substances with exotic particles, including jump drives on starships. If they spend at least 7 days within 10 AU of any drift beacon, their biochemistry attunes with the beacon's frequency and signal output and emulates it perfectly. Within close proximity it isn't a problem, however, if it swims into open space, it can confuse starship astrogation systems into thinking they are the drift beacon destination. Which can cause problems...

GP

[zhar2]

looks great, surfaces do need smoothing, you can see where faces join up.

[Gamerprinter]

Actually, you're seeing the fractal effect on the texture - it's the texture that is creating those "surfaces".

Thanks, zhar2!

[Gamerprinter]

So I needed to create interceptors to fill the Hammerhead's shuttle bay, to be rapidly deployed when engaging with enemies of Colonial Space. I still need to create the pilot for this. I wanted a light force ramming prow to deal with space mines, and an Inubrix rail launcher as the main gun. However for special considerations, I gave it a ghost drive which lets the ship go ethereal for one round, and the Inubrix rail launcher can go ethereal and bypass armor to make more serious attacks. So this is a special craft. Here's the stats.

Ghost Manta Five Tier 6
Manta class tiny interceptor
Speed 13; Maneuverability perfect (+2 Piloting, turn 0); Hyperspeed -
AC 23; TL 31
HP 30; CT 3; DT 6
Shields heavy 420 (forward 105, port 105, starboard 105, aft 105)
Attack (Forward) Inubrix Rail launcher (2d8, linked *Rail 1d
Attack (Forward) Light force ramming prow (-, force field* (20), *Ramming)
Power Core Pulse Red (175); Hyperdrive none; Systems advanced medium range sensors, consciousness uplink drive, fortified hull (nanocarbon plate), ghost drive, mk 4 armor, mk 14 Horaculcum defenses, t12 Horacalcum thrusters; Expansion Bays none
Modifiers +2 Piloting, +4 Scans; Complement 1

GP