Spacecraft
Spacecraft are just vehicles — but the drive you give them is one of the biggest decisions a science-fiction setting makes, so they get their own page and a set of sample fleets. Pick a setting's row of the table below and you've picked how its universe feels.
The drive decides everything downstream — how long a journey takes, whether space combat is dogfighting or gunnery, whether the campaign map is a cluster of stars or a single solar system:
| Setting | Sublight | FTL | Feels like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space Opera | flies like an aeroplane | instant hyperdrive jump | swashbuckling; space is an ocean |
| Warp | fractional-c impulse | superluminal cruise (or fixed gates) | exploration; travel time is a dial |
| Newtonian | constant-thrust fusion torch | none, or a fixed mass-shunt / magic gate | hard SF; vectors and reaction mass (ForeSight's own model — and The Expanse's) |
| Culture | trivially near-c | near-instant, grid-powered | post-scarcity; the ship is the biggest character |
Newtonian is ForeSight's native setting: you burn toward your destination, flip at the midpoint, and burn to stop — there is no free lunch and no FTL unless a mass shunt (or, in a fantasy-SF game, a magic gate) links fixed points. The other three are here so you can lift a familiar feel off the shelf. Big hulls use the Damage Scale; a capital ship is a setpiece, not a stat line you dogfight.
| Craft | Setting | Class | Drive | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Fighter | Space Opera | starfighter | Ion + hyperdrive | 1 |
| Light Freighter | Space Opera | freighter | Ion + hyperdrive | 2 |
| Capital Dreadnought | Space Opera | capital | Ion + hyperdrive | 8000 |
| Exploration Cruiser | Warp | capital | Warp field | 400 |
| Shuttle / Runabout | Warp | shuttle | Warp field (short-legged) | 2 |
| Gate Portal | Warp | installation | Fixed wormhole gate | — |
| Torch Freighter | Newtonian | freighter | Fusion torch | 6 |
| Corvette (Torch) | Newtonian | warship | Fusion torch | 20 |
| Mass-Shunt Tug | Newtonian | utility | Fusion torch + mass-shunt | 4 |
| General Systems Vehicle | Culture | world-ship | Hyperspace field drive | millions |
| Fast Picket | Culture | warship | Hyperspace field drive | 1 Mind + avatars |
| Effector Drone | Culture | drone | Antigrav / field | 1 (itself) |
System Fighter
- Setting
- Space Opera
- Class
- starfighter
- Drive
- Ion + hyperdrive
- Sublight
- very high thrust, flies in atmosphere
- FTL
- instant jump
- Crew
- 1
- Tags
- sf
Single-seat dogfighter. Space is an ocean and this is a Spitfire — banks, stalls, and turns like an aeroplane because the setting wants it to. Hyperdrive for the jump between scenes.
Light Freighter
- Setting
- Space Opera
- Class
- freighter
- Drive
- Ion + hyperdrive
- Sublight
- moderate thrust, atmospheric
- FTL
- instant jump
- Crew
- 2
- Tags
- sf
The scoundrel's ship — small hold, oversized engines, a gun turret, and a hyperdrive that's always one bad roll from failing. The party's home.
Capital Dreadnought
- Setting
- Space Opera
- Class
- capital
- Drive
- Ion + hyperdrive
- Sublight
- ponderous
- FTL
- instant jump
- Crew
- 8000
- Tags
- sf
Kilometre-scale wedge bristling with batteries and fighter bays. Uses Damage Scale wholesale — a setpiece, not a stat line you dogfight.
Exploration Cruiser
- Setting
- Warp
- Class
- capital
- Drive
- Warp field
- Sublight
- impulse (fractional-c)
- FTL
- warp cruise (superluminal)
- Crew
- 400
- Tags
- sf
A flying town: labs, families, a captain who talks first. FTL is a *cruise speed*, not a jump, so travel time is a plot dial the GM turns.
Shuttle / Runabout
- Setting
- Warp
- Class
- shuttle
- Drive
- Warp field (short-legged)
- Sublight
- impulse
- FTL
- low warp
- Crew
- 2
- Tags
- sf
The away-team car — atmosphere-capable, modest warp, the vehicle that actually gets characters to the surface.
Gate Portal
- Setting
- Warp
- Class
- installation
- Drive
- Fixed wormhole gate
- Sublight
- —
- FTL
- instant, gate-to-gate only
- Crew
- —
- Tags
- sf
Not a ship — a doorway. You can only go where a gate already stands, which makes the *map of gates* the campaign map. Stargate-style FTL.
Torch Freighter
- Setting
- Newtonian
- Class
- freighter
- Drive
- Fusion torch
- Sublight
- constant ~⅓ g burn, flip-and-decelerate
- FTL
- none
- Crew
- 6
- Tags
- sf
Hard-SF hauler à la ForeSight's own physics (and The Expanse): you burn toward your target, flip at the midpoint, and burn to stop. No FTL — the solar system *is* the setting.
Corvette (Torch)
- Setting
- Newtonian
- Class
- warship
- Drive
- Fusion torch
- Sublight
- high-g burn, railguns + torpedoes
- FTL
- none
- Crew
- 20
- Tags
- sf
Newtonian warship: no shields, no banking — just delta-v, point-defence, and the tyranny of the rocket equation. Combat is about vectors and reaction mass.
Mass-Shunt Tug
- Setting
- Newtonian
- Class
- utility
- Drive
- Fusion torch + mass-shunt
- Sublight
- torch
- FTL
- shunt between fixed jump points
- Crew
- 4
- Tags
- sf
ForeSight's original FTL: the *mass shunt* throws a ship between fixed points (a magic gate serves the same role in a fantasy-SF setting). Torch drive does everything in-system; the shunt links the stars.
General Systems Vehicle
- Setting
- Culture
- Class
- world-ship
- Drive
- Hyperspace field drive
- Sublight
- near-c trivially
- FTL
- near-instant, engine-grid powered
- Crew
- millions
- Tags
- sf
A sentient Mind wearing a ship the size of a country, home to millions and able to build more of itself. Post-scarcity: 'stats' are whatever the Mind decides. The setting where the ship is the most powerful *character*.
Fast Picket
- Setting
- Culture
- Class
- warship
- Drive
- Hyperspace field drive
- Sublight
- absurd
- FTL
- near-instant
- Crew
- 1 Mind + avatars
- Tags
- sf
A small, appallingly fast, appallingly armed Mind. Diplomacy-by-presence; when one arrives, the scene is already over. Effectors and gridfire sit far off any mundane Damage Scale.
Effector Drone
- Setting
- Culture
- Class
- drone
- Drive
- Antigrav / field
- Sublight
- flight
- FTL
- carried
- Crew
- 1 (itself)
- Tags
- sf
A sentient, fist-to-suitcase-sized machine — companion, bodyguard, and party member. The Culture's answer to 'what does a PC-scale piece of tech look like when it's also a person?'