The Thoric Tradesman (or Thoric Trader) is a spelljamming ship built and used by humans.[1][2]
Description[]
The Thoric Trader is an incredibly unusual ship design, which has yet to appear outside of Clusterspace. A clumsy ship which seems ill-suited to spacefaring, the strange layout of the Thoric Trader, with three identical "propulsion units" arranged in a triangle around a central cargo box, is dictated by the unique helm design of the craft. Thoric ship builders have discovered a way to arrange several spelljamming helms in order to use the energies from all of them. Dubbed an "arc helm" by the Thoric designers, it seems that this arrangement can be performed with either major or minor helms, and cannot be done on any ship design other than the Thoric Trader. While this means that three helmsmen must be used at once, it allows the Thoric Trader to travel at impressive speeds. The main helm provides full SR, while the two supplementary helms each provide 1/2 of their normal SR (rounded up). This also results in increased velocity when at spelljamming speeds, such that a Thoric Trader with 3 helmsmen will travel at double normal spelljamming speed. If only one helm is manned, the Thoric Trader will travel as any normal ship. Interestingly, the ship will not function at all if two of the helms are used without a helmsman on the third helm. The other interesting feature of the Thoric Trader is its detachable cargo box, which allows these ships to pick up and drop off cargo very quickly in port.
Crew[]
Typically operating with 15-20 men, Thoric Traders are notable in that they usually carry a total of 6 helmsmen, allowing the ship to be operated at full speed 24 hours a day.
Ship Uses[]
Fast Trader: Incredibly ill-suited to combat, the specialized Thoric Trader is really only good at one thing: transporting cargo more quickly than any of her competitors. It should be noted that the Thoric Trader is very expensive to operate, with the result that it is only economical to use the ship on runs in which time is of the essence. The clumsy, lightly-armed Thoric Trader would be easy pickings for pirates were it not for the fact that the vessel is usually able to outrun any hostile ships.
Other Configurations[]
The precarious arrangement of helms that is found aboard the Thoric Trader seems to restrict any major modifications to the ship, although alternate weapons are not unheard of.
Appendix[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Sam Witt, The Astromundi Cluster, The Astrogator's Guide, 1993, (TSR Inc.), Ships and Equipment chapter, page 28
- ↑ Sam Witt, The Astromundi Cluster, 1993, (TSR Inc.), ISBN 1-56076-632-8, Thoric Tradesman card