Technomage ships

[Anonymous]

I would really love to see some official (or semi-official) rules upon the technomage ships if at all possible please--please--please---please I can guess rather good at what they can do and all,I know they are suppose to among the fastest ships in the galaxy if not the fastest,and are also suppose to quite stealthy as well. We also know they are atmospheric capable and also have artificial gravity,but beyond that it is questionable.

 

[Eryx]

IIRC someone mentioned there being a Technomage sourcebook planned. If thats true (and I hope it is) then their ships will probably be in there.

 

[rbax]

Agents of Gaming created a Technomage Pinnace SCS for their B5Wars game. It was part of their Ship of the Month release where they released a new ship for playtest each month.

The SCS indicated a Light Combat Ship with reasonable sensors, a jump drive, a gravitic drive, a stealth suite (slightly better than the Minbari version), an Illusion Field (which could make the ship look like anything up to a capital ship.) It was also equipped with a single Lightning Beam weapon and 2 Lightning Bolt weapons. (Personally I think the names should have been changed to something more shadowy since the Lightning naming convention was used primarily for Vorlon weapons).

--- Rich

 

[ShadowScout]

Yeah, AoG did a nice shippie... though I never liked it. For one the Illusion field was "unhittable" (no system icon/hit location for it, so it was active as long as the ship was there), for another I disliked their weapons mix (as it was a bit too potent for a ship That good)...
Oh, well, a pity AoG didn't make it until they could release a (hopefully corrected - if they had stayed I might even have been able to convince them to use my design, which is one of my better ones if I may say so... -shameless self-congratulation- ) version...

But it Does give an enterprising guy some things to think about... size, stealth, illusion disguise, etc.

But I saw Matt post a release scedule for next year somewhere recently, and there was a TM book on it... so I guess a official B5-RPG version will come to those who wait... :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that the weapons should be more in line with the Shadow type weapons espically after reading the Tecnomage trilogy.

Sidney Kuhn

 

[Agent One]

Yes, keep in mind, we created the Technomage Pinnace before the technomage trilogy came out. I suspect it would be different now. For one thing, we know from the trilogy that the pinnaces can be made to look like nearly anything...pegasi, unicorns, dragons, etc. Not much effect in a board game like B5 Wars, but in the RPG, it could be very interesting indeed...

 

[ShadowScout]

I agree that the weapons should be more in line with the Shadow type weapons espically after reading the Tecnomage trilogy.

Wrong. Their weapons aren't shadow-based. In fact, nothing of their "normal" tech is. Only their implanted "magic tech" is shadow-built. So their ship guns would have been products of Taratimude tech, or any other tech they picked up alon g the way.
And looking at Galen's attacks (red plasma "fireball" or yellow "lightning touch"), a EM-based system does come to mind naturally.

I just object to an TM craft armed in the way or your standard combat LCV - two small guns and one medium one. For one it makes them cram in more stuff then they should be able to (Jump Engine, nifty systems And just as many guns as LCV's dedicated to combat), for another it doesn't follow the feel of their crafts - more geared for stealthy transport then conflict (and thirdly with those rules the TM Pinnace was nastier in B5W then some ancient medium ships! It was as well armed as any combat LCV, yet stayed almost unhittable even after giving away it's position by starting to shoot - so it had a pretty good chance to take even a dreadnought with twice it's "combat value" cost apart over time, something that didn't sound like the TM transports I know from the screen & books...).

I once made a personal version, with two basic alterations from AoG's design - for one it had an "Illusion Projector", doing the illusion effects (also because I thought it inconcievable for technomages to have enough personal power to cast those illusions themselves, strong and multi-spectrum enough to fool even ship-mounted sensors), for another a single, but rather versatile weapon system - a "Lightning Caster" capable of firing three light bolts, or a single, more powerful and longer-ranged beam or a area-effect but short-ranged blast.

Hey, maybe whoever will write Mongoose's TM supplement wants to have my version as a base to build the RPG ship... :wink: :lol:

Yes, keep in mind, we created the Technomage Pinnace before the technomage trilogy came out. I suspect it would be different now. For one thing, we know from the trilogy that the pinnaces can be made to look like nearly anything...pegasi, unicorns, dragons, etc. Not much effect in a board game like B5 Wars, but in the RPG, it could be very interesting indeed...

...though that one could easily be covered with a rule addition to the illusion rules... :wink:
And IIRC the first two TM books were out by the time you posted the Pinnace...
But the SotM was never intended as final version anyway, I can remember several that changed quite a bit until their release... and I had hoped the TM pinnace would change too (and maybe even coming closer to my design... I did send you the SCS back then...)

 

[Anonymous]

El Cid wrote:
I agree that the weapons should be more in line with the Shadow type weapons espically after reading the Tecnomage trilogy.

ShadowScout wrote:
Wrong. Their weapons aren't shadow-based. In fact, nothing of their "normal" tech is. Only their implanted "magic tech" is shadow-built. So their ship guns would have been products of Taratimude tech, or any other tech they picked up alon g the way.
And looking at Galen's attacks (red plasma "fireball" or yellow "lightning touch"), a EM-based system does come to mind naturally.

Pretty strong statement ShadowScout. You take one scene from Crusade and extrapolate that the Technomages weapons aren't Shadow Tech. You may be right or you may be wrong IMHO.

ShadowScout wrote:
I once made a personal version, with two basic alterations from AoG's design - for one it had an "Illusion Projector", doing the illusion effects (also because I thought it inconcievable for technomages to have enough personal power to cast those illusions themselves, strong and multi-spectrum enough to fool even ship-mounted sensors), for another a single, but rather versatile weapon system - a "Lightning Caster" capable of firing three light bolts, or a single, more powerful and longer-ranged beam or a area-effect but short-ranged blast.

I do like the idea behind your "Illusion Projector".

I would think the TM ships would have been made by one of the TM groups and would be pretty consistant for most TMs. Of course, some of the more gifted TMs might have added or modified their ships to their tastes and abilities.

Agent One wrote:
Yes, keep in mind, we created the Technomage Pinnace before the technomage trilogy came out. I suspect it would be different now. For one thing, we know from the trilogy that the pinnaces can be made to look like nearly anything...pegasi, unicorns, dragons, etc. Not much effect in a board game like B5 Wars, but in the RPG, it could be very interesting indeed...

Hmmm. Interesting thought.

Sidney

 

[ShadowScout]

Pretty strong statement ShadowScout. You take one scene from Crusade and extrapolate that the Technomages weapons aren't Shadow Tech. You may be right or you may be wrong IMHO.

No, the scenes from Crusade I used in extrapolating/dreaming up what weapons they might have.

The statement that their weapons aren't ShadowTech comes from reading between the lines of the TM trilogy, where we learn that they actually have no idea how their implanted, shadow-built "magic tech" really operates, and can't reproduce it in any way - they're dependent on regular tech deliveries from the Drakh to create the next bunch of technomages and apprentices.
And we learn that their ships are built by some of their members (and usually given to new TM's after their graduation)...
Take these two together and you realize the TM's don't have got anywhere near the level of tech the Shadows use - meaning their ship guns must also be based on some other tech they learned elsewhere (hey, they Have been collecting all technical knowledge they could in the last 1000 years... and added that to the technology of the Taratimude, the original technomages. Imagine the Minbari doing agressive tech aquisition after Valen's war, and you get what the TM's have today... they can probably -certainly actually- match some mid-born races in a few fields...)

 

[Anonymous]

I'd love to see any one's RPG stats on a ship if your willing to do one up please

 

[CARTMAG]

personaly id trust whats written in TM since JMS has stated that it was written from his own notes on the Technomages and that he has also stated that its cannon.

and remember there is a reason they have so much (technocrap) in them its because the ship is alot bigger then it appears from the outside and also anyone besides the Technomage himself sees the ship as alot smaller then it is from the inside. remember the ship has a piece of the crysilis that the Technomage is traned with from childhood.