This Galaxy Pirates supplement clocks in at 7, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
So, the fast attack ship of the Katar is a tier 8 Large Destroyer that comes equipped with a pulse prismatic power core, a basic drift engine and mk 4 armor as well as mk 6 defenses. The ship uses a mk 2 trinode computer, good crew quarters and basic medium-range sensors. Expansion bay-wise, we have 3 cargo holds. Weaponry-wise, we have a particle beam and heavy torpedo launchers facing forward; aft features a light torpedo launcher, while port and starboard feature a laser net. The turret features a light particle beam. With a speed of 10 hexes, these ships have the equivalent of L10 thrusters. With 200 shields, slightly skewed towards forward and aft, the ship has some staying power.
Crew-wise, this one has a captain and pilot, 3 engineers, 6 gunners and 2 science officers; the crew is generally pretty capable, with +21 in Bluff and Diplomacy making for high values. The Piloting is similarly high at +21. The pdf does come with a Computers-table that allows PCs to know things about the vessel, but it should be noted that the table contradicts the ship’s statblock: The table states it has 2 cargo holds, when the statblock notes 3. This is a pretty minor hiccup, though. If you’ve been doing your math, you’ll realize that this ship does use its full PU-budget, which makes sense.
As always, we get a filled-out version of the cool ship-sheets featured in these pdfs, and a one-page handout-style artwork of this cool ship, as well as paper-mini-style versions. The star here, though? The full-color map that does show the respective weaponry, the quarters, etc, including a katar garden and the like – it is gorgeous and really cool.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules language level. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard, and the artwork featured is gorgeous. The cartography is awesome and full-color and makes the ship feel plausible. The pdf has no bookmarks, but doesn’t need any at this length.
Paul Fields and Jim Milligan deliver a great little supplement here. The sleek attack vessel feels like the equivalent of a lancer’s attack vessel, and makes great use of its budget. The aesthetic components are top-notch, and as a whole, I consider this to be well worth getting. As such, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.