Kharos Ship Catalog · Chapter 2

Reading a Kharos Entry

Chapters 5 to 8 give each Kharos line an entry: a heading for the line, a plate, a short description, one stat block for every mark, mark notes, Common Variants and a Mark Table. This chapter explains every part of the stat block, cell by cell, in the order it prints. The ship rules the block refers to are in the Void Drifters Vehicles Manual; each part below names the chapter.

Lines and Marks

The line heading gives the model number and the class: KR-41 Light Freighter. The line under it gives the Vehicles Manual's name where the Manual prints the hull, the hull style (Chapter 3), the Scale and the marks.

A mark is a standard rebuild. It keeps its line's silhouette, role and Scale and changes some numbers. A mark makes one primary change and at most one smaller one. A change of class or frame is a new platform and takes a new model number.

Designation	Meaning
KR-41	The first mark of the line. The number carries no suffix
KR-41 Mk II	The second mark
KR-41 Mk III to Mk V	The third to the fifth mark, on the lines that reach them

The model numbers are Kharos's own and say nothing about size. The Vehicles Manual prints the KR-41, KR-51 and KR-61 in its Chapter Sixteen and the Survey Skiff, here the Prospector Mk I, in its Chapter Seventeen. Those four hulls are the first mark of their lines, and their numbers are identical in both books.

All marks are in service at once. A hull can be built new to any mark or rebuilt to it from an earlier mark; the stats are the same either way. The oldest marks are the used market.

Classic. A Classic is an older mark that captains still ask for by name. Its identity line says Classic, and its mark notes say what it does better than the mark that replaced it. Kharos's two Classics are the KR-41 Mk I and the KR-61 Mk II.

The last mark. A line's last catalog mark is the last the Cooperative has put on its drawings. A hull rebuilt beyond it is a field special built by the GM with the hull rules (Chapter 4), not a catalog hull.

The Stat Block

Every mark has one block. Scale 2 to 5 hulls print a one-column block; Scale 6 hulls print a wide block across the page, with the same cells in the same order. The forge-red stripe down the left edge marks a Kharos hull.

Header Band and Identity Line

Header band. The designation, then the class: KR-41 MK II LIGHT FREIGHTER.

Identity line. The builder and the model family on the left. A Classic mark adds Classic. On the right, the Scale badge: the hull's size class, from 2 (a survey skiff) to 6 (Kharos's largest hull). Scale sets the hull's build budget and caps, how it fights ships of other sizes, and which mounts and modules it can take (Vehicles Manual, Chapters Three and Thirteen).

Market Line

Role. What the hull is usually bought for. It is a description, not a rule.

Price. The factory-new catalog price in credits at a Kharos yard, with the factory module package fitted. Apply the market and condition multipliers in Vehicles Manual Chapter Twelve; Chapter 10 of this book gives the used-market multipliers and the price of a rebuild. A captured military hull lists a Prize Value in this cell instead. No Kharos hull does.

Acquisition. The paperwork a legal buyer needs: Open, Licensed, Restricted or Military (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Sixteen, Acquisition Tiers). Acquisition is not operator tier. Every Kharos hull is Civilian tier and is sold Open or Licensed; the two Scale 6 lines are Licensed.

Flight Strip

Speed. The range bands the ship changes with one Advance or Break Maneuver in combat, and how it fares in a chase (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Fifteen, Speed).

Cruise. From 1 to 5, the travel time between Travel Bands in normal space: Cruise 1 takes 24 hours an Interval, Cruise 2 takes 8 hours (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Six, Cruise Ratings).

Handling. Add that many Boon Dice (positive) or Bane Dice (negative) to Pilot checks and to attacks with Fixed Forward weapons. In Disengage and chase checks Handling sets the difficulty instead (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three). A heavy cargo load worsens it.

Sensors. The sensor grade and the farthest band at which the ship detects other ships: Basic (Short), Standard (Medium), Extended (Long), Military (Extreme) (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Seven).

Hull Strip

Armor. Hull Damage stopped from each hit, less the weapon's Pierce. Against Ion weapons it stops System Damage at half its value (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Eight, Armor).

Deflection F/A. Fore value, then aft value. Add that many Bane Dice to every attack against the ship from that facing; attacks from port or starboard use the lower value (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Eight, Deflection). Every Kharos hull is built with 0 / 0. Screens are installed separately and add their own dice.

Hull Points. Hull Damage counts up toward this number. When Hull Damage reaches Hull Points, the ship is destroyed: it breaks up at the end of the next round (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three, Destroyed).

System Points. System Damage counts up toward this number. When System Damage reaches System Points, the ship is out of control: it drifts, and its weapons, screens and drive are offline until repairs bring System Damage below System Points (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three, Out of Control).

Engineering Strip

Power. Power Capacity: the most Power Load the reactor sustains at once. Weapons, screens and active modules add Power Load. Above Power Capacity, the engineer chooses an overload response at once (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Six, Power Capacity).

Heat Threshold. The Heat at which strain begins. At the threshold and above, the Heat Threshold Escalation table applies (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Six). A Kharos hull that fires gains 1 more Heat that round (Thermal Quieting, Chapter 4).

Heat Dissipation. The Heat removed at the end of each round. It is set by Scale and operator tier: a Kharos hull dissipates the Civilian figure for its Scale (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Thirteen, Step Five).

Module Slots (open). The hull's Module Slots, then in parentheses how many are still empty after the factory package. 7 (3) means seven slots, three of them free for the buyer.

Complement Strip

Crew. Minimum / standard. 3 / 6 means the ship needs 3 crew to run without penalty and 6 to hold every station; quarters for the standard crew come with the hull. From minimum up to standard, some stations stand empty or crew cover two. Below minimum, every check aboard adds 1 Bane Die for each crew member short (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Fourteen, Crew Size). On Scale 6 and 7 hulls each station is a department, and the standard crew keeps the departments running.

Passengers. Berths beyond the crew. Standard crew plus Passengers is the ship's complement, the number of people its life support keeps alive indefinitely (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three, Complement and Life Support).

Cargo Units. Secured hold space. One Cargo Unit holds one tonne of ordinary packaged freight; dense and bulky freight take more or fewer tonnes per Unit, and a hold never carries more tonnes than twice its rating (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three, Cargo Units). Loading past 75% of the rating worsens Handling.

Consumables. Months of food, water, air and medical basics for the standard crew. Everyone aboard draws one person-month a month, so passengers shorten it. The Prospector, a small craft, prints Endurance in hours instead: enough for one shift away from its carrier.

Weapons Table

A hull that has a typical fit prints a Typical Loadout table. It is the weapons most hulls of the mark carry, not a factory installation: the price includes the mounts, and the buyer may fit any weapon that fits a mount (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Twelve, Hardpoints).

Column	What it is
Weapon	The weapon, then ×2 or more for identical weapons. Under the name, in small type: the mount size, the arc (Fixed Forward, Forward, Broadside, Rear, Turret), and the weapon's tags and ammunition
Range	The range bands it can fire at
Hull	Hull Damage of a hit with one Success; each Success beyond the first adds 1
Sys	System Damage of a hit. A dash means none
Crit	Boons the attacker spends to inflict a Critical Hit. A dash means it cannot inflict one
Heat	Heat added to the ship when it fires
Pwr	Power Load while it fires or targets

Identical weapons in one arc may fire as a battery (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Fifteen, Batteries). Each weapon's full entry is in Vehicles Manual Chapter Eight. A hull with mounts and no typical fit prints Weapons: None factory-fitted.

Labelled Rows

Rated. Whether the ship has a Slipstream Drive, its atmospheric rating, and landing systems. Without a Slipstream Drive the ship cannot leave its system under its own power. Atmosphere is sustained atmospheric flight, Atmosphere (limited) is short-duration operation, No atmosphere keeps the ship in space. Landing means landing systems; a hull without them never touches a planetary surface (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Nine).

AI Core. The AI grade fitted. Basic Automation runs routine functions and gives no assistance; a Civilian Directive AI has 1 Active Channel and 2 Directive Packages (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Seven, AI Core Ratings).

Mounts. The weapon mounts by size, then the total in hardpoint points (Light 1, Standard 2), then any mounts the typical loadout leaves empty. A mount carries one weapon of its own size or smaller. Points do not pool: three Light mounts never carry one Standard weapon. Changing a mount's size is a yard rebuild (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Ten, Changing Hardpoints).

Modules. The factory package, with each module's slots in parentheses where it fills more than one, then the open slots. A module's effect, Power Load and price are in Vehicles Manual Chapter Ten, Appendix: Module Catalog. Kharos's own components are in Chapter 9 of this book.

Hangar. On a hull with a Shuttle Bay or an Expanded Hangar: how many craft it carries inside, and their largest Scale. Launch and recovery are in Vehicles Manual Chapter Fifteen, Carried Craft.

Carried by. On a small craft (the Prospector): the bays and cradles that carry it.

Builder. The Kharos Signature benefits and Weak drawbacks (Chapter 4), and Integrated Architecture while the ship keeps it (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Five).

Trait. The mark's own rule. A trait that changes from one mark to the next prints under a changed name, such as Field-Service Access (Mk II). Traits apply as written; a trait that adds a Boon Die to an attack counts toward the limit of 2 free Boon Dice per attack (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Fifteen, The Boon Limit).

After the Blocks

Mark notes. What each mark changed, in plain terms, and what shows on the hull (Chapter 3 has the visual guide).

Common Variants. Jobs a hull is fitted for. A variant is a configuration recorded on the Vehicle Sheet. It is not part of the name.

Mark Table. One row per mark.

Column	What it is
Change	What the mark changed from the one before
Price	Catalog price, as in the block
Built at	The class of yard that builds or rebuilds the mark: Hand Yard, Gantry Yard or Forge Yard (Chapter 10)
Rebuild from the previous mark	The build points a Kharos clan yard takes from the hull's unspent budget, and its credit price: double the points, and 2.0 times the credit value of those points at the Scale's rate (Chapter 10). The standard retrofit rate is 2.5 times (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Thirteen, Upgrading After the Build)

Master tables. Chapter 12 lists every hull in one summary table, compares the eight lines side by side, and gives every hull by price and every rebuild with the unspent budget it leaves. Those tables are built from the same data as the blocks, so the two always agree.

Grade

Every Kharos hull is built to the Civilian operator tier, for open commercial sale. That sets its caps on Armor, hardpoint points, Power and Heat Threshold, its Heat Dissipation, and its standard AI Core (Vehicles Manual, Chapter Thirteen, Step Two). Kharos pays less than other builders for Hull Points, Speed and Cargo, and more for System Points and Heat Threshold (Chapter 4), so its hulls carry plenty of hull and cargo and little else. The Civilian caps are why a later mark mostly buys Speed, Hull, Handling, Armor, Cargo and slots: Power and Heat Threshold run out first.

Example: The KR-41 Mk II

A crew is deciding whether to rebuild its KR-41 to a Mk II. They read the block from the top.

1. Header and identity. A Scale 4 light freighter from the KR-41 family. It is not the Classic; the Mk I is.
2. Market line. 450,000cr, Open: any buyer at any commercial port.
3. Flight. Speed 4 and Handling -1: one Bane Die on Pilot checks. Cruise 2: 8 hours an Interval in normal space. Standard sensors see to Medium.
4. Hull. Armor 2 and Hull Points 24. System Points 13: at 13 System Damage it is out of control.
5. Engineering. Power 9 runs the three Light weapons (1 Power Load each) with room for screens. Heat Threshold 10 and Heat Dissipation 2. 7 (3): seven slots, three empty.
6. Complement. Crew 3 / 6: three can run it, six hold every station. Four passengers, 100 Cargo Units, four months of supplies.
7. Weapons. Three Light rotary cannons, two Forward and one on a turret. Every Light mount is full.
8. Trait. Field-Service Access (Mk II) still removes a Bane Die from repairs made with improvised tools or in poor facilities. It no longer covers awkward access.
9. Mark Table (Chapter 6). The Mk I to Mk II rebuild costs 8 build points and 18,000cr at a Kharos clan yard, 22,500cr elsewhere, and the Mk I has 86 unspent points to cover it.
10. Decide. Rebuild a Mk I for Speed 4 and 2 more Hull Points, give up the trait's awkward-access cover; buy a Mk II new; or keep the Mk I, which is the Classic.