This is a set of deckplans, using 25mm scale, for a civilian transport ship of the 'Virginia' class. Whilst it's nice to know what the ship you are on looks like, and where everybody's cabin is, the main use for such a set of plans is when a fight breaks out aboard - especially if you like to use miniatures or other tokens to play out combat. Naturally, the nature of the brawl is up to you - anything from a dispute over cards to defending the ship from pirates...

It's not all deckplans either. There's a fairly comprehensive history of the Virginia class, describing why it was designed in the first place and indicating the destinations of at least some of the 200-odd ships built to this design. For those who like space battles there are also details of how they were pressed into service during the Kafer War, gathering in convoys to convey much-needed supplies to beleaguered worlds in the French Arm - full details of several convoys including lists of the ships involved are supplied should you wish to fight these out using the space combat rules in the core rulebook or Star Cruiser. A sample Ship Status Sheet is provided to facilitate this.

Having this kind of deckplan available could enable you to make a bridge between the abstract ship-to-ship combat enabled by the ship combat rules and more personalised role-playing if the party is aboard when battle breaks out. Naturally, more peaceful uses are possible - you may wish to play out shipboard life as events occur during a trip, or perhaps Customs wish to inspect come planetfall - can the party keep any contraband items that they have well-enough hidden?

A nice and useful set of civilian deckplans for one of the 'workhorses' of the human expansion into the French Arm and beyond.

Return to SS Virginia page.

Reviewed: 3 December 2015