Large Craft Maps for Boarding Operations

[bytedruid]

I'm curious, has anyone here ever run a scenario with tactical action onboard a spacecraft?  For example taking over a hostile Merchant Jumpship, or sneaking around inside an enemy Mule.  If so, how did you go about providing maps of the ship's layout?  Did you find maps from outside sources such as Traveller, roll your own, or just use descriptive combat to avoid detailed objective maps altogether?

Myself, I'd pay goooood money for a nice set of spacecraft interior maps in Battletech, especially ones that were designed by an engineer who "did the math" on appropriate space needed for fuel tanks, transit drives etc., but as far as I know, no such beast exists.  One of my favorite aspects of BattleTech universe is the avoidance of most magic-tech.  Sure no physically possible drive could get the fuel economy of a Behemoth dropship but there are no energy shields, no transporters, and down is toward the engines instead of the grav-plating.   

Because of it's unique approach, BattleTech spacecraft have a layout all their own.   So has anyone ever seen maps for one or more ships at a scale appropriate for RPG play?

[bluedragon7]

If i remember correctly Living Legends contains floor plans (not very detailed) for an Aegis Warship and Birthright for a Broadsword Dropship.

Both are old Mechwarrior (2nd Edition) adventures.

[bytedruid]

If i remember correctly Living Legends contains floor plans (not very detailed) for an Aegis Warship and Birthright for a Broadsword Dropship.

Both are old Mechwarrior (2nd Edition) adventures.

Thanks for the tip :).  I happen to have those (courtesy of eBay) but haven't used them due to running a game set around 3015. 

After flipping though these adventures I have to say that it's too bad we can't buy scenarios with this level of detail anymore.  AToW will never compete with other role-playing systems without a decent set of premade adventures... anyhow back to the maps.  The quality of the Aegis plans are okay given the state of common home computer software in the early 90's but I'm having trouble determining the scale used for the floor grid.  You don't happen to know where that's located in the adventure do you?  Without a scale it's hard to know how realistic these are.

The broadsword plans do have a scale listed but are a bit of a joke.  My crappy homemade Leopard plans are way better than this.  I worried over the placement of overhead cranes, cryogenic fuel storage, airlocks, KF collars, etc. and I'm certainly no engineer or artist and wouldn't consider my work good enough for posting.

With the rise of decent hobbyist level cad software, do you know of any efforts to detail a BattleTech spacecraft's interior to modern standards?  For comparison, here's an example of what's coming out of the Traveler fan base:  Free Trader.  Is anything you've seen up to this level?  I haven't found anything decent, though maybe my google fu isn't that great tonight.

[hive_angel]

DriveThruRPG has a vendor which offers starship, warship, and space station floor plans. Granted they are nothing like the dropships and warhsips on the outside, but who cares it is what you are looking for.

Plus they sell them at decent prices and in bundles.