Catalog — Ground and Hover Vehicles

About Planetary Vehicles

When a ship lands and the crew needs to go somewhere, planetary vehicles handle the journey. Ground and hover vehicles are Scale 1 as a standard (with some Scale 2 military and industrial exceptions). They operate within a planet's gravity well, across terrain, through settlements, and between surface installations.

Hover technology is a localized anti-gravity system developed by the Funtari Confederacy and licensed commercially across known space. It is not strictly limited to Funtari hardware: Funtari's licensing model means commercial hover vehicles are found everywhere, but the most capable hover platforms — particularly military applications — require Funtari licensing, proprietary firmware, and Confederacy-approved service.

Commercial hover vehicles are firmware-limited to rated clearance bands. Military hover vehicles use cleared firmware with no ceiling cap. Circumventing commercial clearance limits is possible with specialist tools, voids warranties, and may attract Funtari commercial licensing attention.

Ground vehicles use wheels, tracks, or walking systems. They are not limited by clearance bands, do not require hover licensing for operation, and function in conditions that disrupt electromagnetic systems. Their tradeoff is terrain sensitivity: a hover vehicle ignores a swamp; a tracked crawler must pick its way through one.

Stat Blocks: Planetary vehicles use simplified stat blocks. Speed is measured in relative terms (1–5, where 1 is slow foot-pace equivalent and 5 is fast combat speed). Terrain Capability notes what conditions the vehicle handles. Hover Clearance notes the maximum altitude for hover vehicles. All planetary vehicles are assumed to operate at Scale 1 unless the entry specifies Scale 2.

Civilian Hover Vehicles

Standard commercial hover technology, available anywhere Funtari licenses are distributed (which is most of known space).

Personal Hover Skiff

Funtari Confederacy licensed design, multiple manufacturers

The personal hover skiff is how most people in known space move things short distances without thinking about it. On worlds with Funtari licensing infrastructure, hover skids and personal skiffs replaced cargo carts within a generation of introduction.

Traits: Commercial hover firmware: clearance cap at 3 meters. Cannot ascend further without specialist override. Quiet operation. Works on any surface including water. Designed for personal and light commercial logistics. Not armored; not armed; not designed to survive conflict. Funtari licensing required for operation in most core systems; frontier regions may not enforce license checks.

Acquisition: Open (with commercial Funtari hover license in most systems). Available at most urban outfitters and vehicle dealers.

Hover Speeder

Multiple manufacturers, Funtari-licensed

The hover speeder is the fastest civilian vehicle in the catalog and the one most commonly encountered being driven at speeds that make its pilots' navigation licenses theoretically relevant.

Traits: The fastest surface-accessible vehicle in the catalog. Handling +2 makes it genuinely responsive in skilled hands; Handling −1 in the hands of someone who overestimates their ability, which covers most new pilots. No armor; one solid hit from any weapon disables it. Commercial clearance at 5 meters means it can clear most obstacles, urban structures, and low-rise terrain but cannot ascend beyond that without firmware override. Popular with couriers, racers, and people who have somewhere to be.

Acquisition: Open (with hover license).

Hover Cargo Platform

Funtari Confederacy licensed design, multiple manufacturers

The hover cargo platform is the workhorse of planetary logistics. Wherever Funtari licensing has reached, these platforms replaced ground transport for bulk freight within a decade. They can move ore across a swamp that would bog down anything with wheels.

Traits: The hover cargo platform's 40-Unit capacity and all-terrain capability make it the standard heavy freight vehicle in Funtari-licensed territories. Slow but can carry enormous loads. Armor 1 reflects reinforced frame rather than combat plating: it can survive light debris and rough handling, not weapons fire. Clearance cap at 10 meters allows crossing significant obstacles while remaining within commercial firmware limits.

Acquisition: Open (with hover license). Available from Funtari-licensed commercial distributors. Widely available through Funtari-licensed dealer networks.

Hover Bus and Transport

Multiple manufacturers, Funtari-licensed

The hover bus is public transport in worlds that have solved the road problem. When terrain is irrelevant, passenger routes can go anywhere, and hover bus networks on developed worlds cover distances and terrain that would require substantial infrastructure investment with wheeled transit.

Traits: Designed for passenger transport rather than cargo. Passenger capacity 30 makes this the highest-capacity surface vehicle in the civilian catalog. Used for public transit, worker transport at large installations, emergency evacuation, and colony-scale logistics. Hull Points 8 gives it some resilience against minor accidents and rough conditions.

Acquisition: Open (with commercial hover license). Municipal and corporate transport operators are the primary market.

Military and Paramilitary Hover Vehicles

Military hover vehicles use uncapped firmware and military-grade stabilization. They require Funtari military hover licensing, which is not commercially available. They operate at altitudes and speeds the commercial firmware explicitly prevents.

Hover Combat Sled

Funtari Confederacy Warforge, Sled-Series

The combat sled is the basic unit of Funtari ground warfare. It hovers low, moves fast, carries a weapon, and is cheap enough that losing one is an operational rather than a strategic problem. That last quality is deliberate.

Standard Armament: Light rotary cannon (forward fixed), light missile rack (optional, 1 hardpoint).

Hardpoints: 2 Light.

Traits: Military firmware allows the sled to operate at tactical altitudes, crossing terrain obstacles that commercial vehicles cannot. Speed 4 means it can reposition quickly. The combination of mobility and light armament makes it effective for scouting, harassment, and rapid-fire support rather than sustained combat. Loses significant effectiveness if its hover system is damaged: a sled on the ground is a box.

Acquisition: Restricted. Funtari military authorization required. Licensed security contractors may acquire them through approved channels.

Hover APC

Multiple military manufacturers, Funtari military-licensed

The hover APC carries soldiers to the fight without making the terrain between here and there relevant. What happens when they arrive is a personnel question rather than a logistics question, and that is precisely the point.

Standard Armament: Light rotary cannon (turret, omnidirectional).

Hardpoints: 1 Light (turret), 1 Light (spare).

Traits: Armor 3 and Hull Points 12 make this the most resilient non-scale-2 vehicle in the catalog. Military firmware allows low-altitude transit over any terrain. Passenger capacity 12 represents a full combat fire team. The turret weapon provides suppressive fire during deployment. Used for rapid force projection, contested zone transit, and assault support.

Acquisition: Restricted. Military and approved contractor organizations.

Heavy Hover Weapons Platform

Funtari Confederacy Warforge, Bastion Series

The Bastion is what the Confederacy deploys when it wants the engagement to end on its terms and is willing to spend power to ensure that. It is not subtle. The first engagement it participates in is usually also the last, because nothing else on the field wants to be there when it arrives.

Standard Armament: Heavy plasma cannon (forward fixed), flak cannon (omnidirectional turret), light missile rack (forward).

Hardpoints: 1 Heavy, 1 Standard, 1 Light.

Traits: Scale 2 — larger than most planetary vehicles. Armor 4 and Hull Points 20 make it survivable against light weapons. The heavy plasma cannon can threaten Scale 3 starships at close range. Designed as a fire support platform, not an assault vehicle: it holds position, provides fire superiority, and the troops it supports do the movement. Slow (Speed 2) but operates at any altitude.

Acquisition: Military. Funtari Confederacy military asset. Not available through commercial channels.

Funtari Military Hover Tank

Funtari Confederacy Warforge, Fortress Series

The Fortress is the reason that ground-based planetary defenses remain relevant against the Funtari Confederacy's military doctrine. It is a mobile weapons system that can hold any terrain its operator chooses and fire on anything within range of its targeting systems. The only way to stop a Fortress on a hostile world is to bring enough of them to make the mathematics unfavorable.

Standard Armament: Particle lance (forward fixed), heavy plasma cannon (turret), flak cannon (omnidirectional), point-defense laser (omnidirectional).

Hardpoints: 1 Heavy (particle lance), 1 Heavy (plasma cannon turret), 1 Standard (flak), 1 Light (PD laser).

Traits: The most heavily armed and armored ground vehicle in the catalog. Armor 5 exceeds most Scale 3 starships. The particle lance gives it capital-asset engagement capability at medium range. Extended tactical altitude hover capability means it can operate above most terrain obstacles and building heights. Funtari military only: civilian possession is not merely Restricted but an act of war against the Confederacy from their legal perspective.

Acquisition: Military. Funtari Confederacy exclusively. Non-Confederacy possession is a diplomatic incident.

Ground Vehicles

Wheeled, tracked, and walker systems. Not dependent on hover licensing. Function in electromagnetic interference conditions that can disrupt hover vehicles. Require terrain-appropriate selection: a crawler built for rocky terrain performs poorly in a swamp.

Standard Ground Crawler

Multiple manufacturers, common design

The ground crawler is the vehicle that works on worlds that either cannot afford Funtari licensing fees, actively distrust hover technology, or are located in terrain that hover's clearance bands handle poorly at extreme scale. It goes where it is pointed and keeps going as long as the fuel holds.

Traits: The baseline ground vehicle. Slower and more terrain-dependent than hover but cheaper to own, operate, and maintain. No Funtari licensing required. Fuel cells can be refilled from a wide variety of sources including improvised facilities. Terrain limitations are the primary constraint: light off-road means rutted tracks, soft dirt, and moderate hills. Anything more technical requires a heavier crawler.

Acquisition: Open.

Heavy Crawler

Multiple manufacturers, common design

The heavy crawler is what happens when someone decides the light version is insufficient. It moves slower, costs more to run, carries more, and can go places that would stop a standard crawler before the first kilometer.

Traits: All-terrain tracked system: mud, sand, rubble, ice, shallow water, steep grades. Armor 2 and Hull Points 10 give it industrial survivability. Cannot match hover for terrain crossing speed but does not care about clearance bands or firmware limits. Widely used in mining, construction, and frontier settlement operations where hover licensing is impractical or unavailable.

Acquisition: Open.

Mining Crawler

Kharos Forge Cooperative, Digger Series

The mining crawler is a Kharos product in the truest sense: built for the worst conditions, repairable with whatever is available, and inclined to keep working long past the point where most equipment would have given up.

Standard Equipment: Drilling attachment (forward), ore handling conveyor, dust filtration system, emergency beacon.

Builder Benefit (Kharos): Emergency patch Boon; field repair at Hard instead of Severe.

Traits: The slowest vehicle in the catalog (Speed 1) with the highest raw carrying capacity for a Scale 1 vehicle (60 Units). Subsurface passage means it is rated for tunnel work, shaft descent, and underground operation. Reactor cell provides 120 hours of operation, making it suitable for extended underground mining runs without resupply. Used in asteroid mining, planetary deep extraction, and any industrial context where the material is below where the vehicle starts.

Acquisition: Open. Available through Kharos industrial supply channels.

Armored Ground Transport

Crown Meridian Shipworks, Convoy Series

The armored ground transport is the vehicle for moving things that someone wants to keep and that someone else wants to take. Crown Meridian builds it the same way they build everything: armored, documented, and designed to keep going after the first hit.

Standard Equipment: Internal Security Suite (integrated), communications array, armory locker, locking cargo compartment.

Hardpoints: 1 Light (optional weapon mount, rooftop).

Builder Benefit (Crown Meridian): Damage control Boon; security system intruder Bane.

Traits: Armor 3 is the highest of any wheeled ground vehicle. The integrated security suite means the vehicle itself monitors entry, access, and passenger movement. Designed for convoy and VIP transport work: it is the vehicle that makes a raid on the cargo mathematically unattractive. Crown Meridian sells these heavily to corporate security contractors and government transport services.

Acquisition: Licensed. Crown Meridian security dealer network.

Military Ground APC

Multiple military manufacturers

The military APC is for carrying troops to the fight in conditions where hover vehicles are unavailable, disrupted, or facing terrain that exceeds hover clearance limits at the required speed. It is not as fast as its hover equivalents and does not pretend to be.

Standard Armament: Light rotary cannon (turret, omnidirectional).

Hardpoints: 1 Light (turret), 1 Light (forward).

Traits: The tracked APC is preferred for operations where hover suppression (ECM, terrain interference, electromagnetic hazard) is a consideration. Hull Points 14 and Armor 3 on a Scale 1 vehicle represents heavy military construction. All-terrain tracked system means it works in any ground condition including combat damage to terrain. Passengers (troops) can fire from firing ports, though this is not modeled mechanically unless the GM determines the situation warrants it.

Acquisition: Restricted. Military and approved contractor.

Battle Walker

Multiple military manufacturers, Scale 2

The battle walker is what militaries that have the technology deploy when they want something with the fire power of a light vehicle and the terrain capability of a person. It is not elegant. It is disproportionately effective.

Standard Armament: Particle lance (forward fixed), light missile rack (shoulder-mounted), light rotary cannon (omnidirectional).

Hardpoints: 1 Heavy, 1 Standard, 1 Light.

Traits: Scale 2 — treated as a large vehicle in ground combat and as a small craft for purposes of weapons they can carry. Walking system allows vertical surface traversal with grapple equipment, meaning the battle walker can scale structures, move through rubble that would stop tracked vehicles, and operate in terrain geometry that defeats all other ground vehicles. Particle lance makes it dangerous to anything up to Scale 4 ships in close range. Not a subtle vehicle: its silhouette is unmistakable.

Acquisition: Military. All powers operate battle walkers. No civilian market.

Specialized Vehicles

Purpose-built for specific operational contexts.

Survey Skiff (Ground Variant)

Kharos Forge Cooperative, modified Prospector

The ground survey skiff is the Prospector's terrain-crawling cousin, stripped of its space systems and optimized for extended planetary surface operation. Where the atmospheric variant handles altitude transitions, the ground variant handles extended overland work in rough conditions.

Standard Equipment: Extended sensors, workshop kit, atmospheric analysis gear, geological sampling tools, emergency beacon.

Builder Benefit (Kharos): Field repair at Hard instead of Severe; emergency patch Boon.

Traits: 120-hour range is the critical feature: this vehicle is designed for weeks-long survey expeditions without resupply. Extended sensors allow scientific analysis, atmospheric monitoring, and mineral detection. Workshop kit allows field repair and sample analysis. Used by prospecting crews, scientific survey teams, and frontier emergency response.

Acquisition: Open.

Excavation Platform

Industrial design, multiple manufacturers

The excavation platform is a construction site and a vehicle simultaneously. It moves to where the work is, deploys its tools, and begins moving significant quantities of material. The crew inside operates the tools, monitors structural integrity, and tries to remember which tunnel they came in through.

Standard Equipment: Mining drill array (1 Heavy hardpoint equivalent, non-weapon), heavy lifting crane, material conveyor, geological sensor array, emergency beacon.

Traits: Scale 2 and the largest cargo capacity in the ground vehicle catalog (80 Units). The mining drill array is not a weapon but functions identically to a cutting beam against structures, hull sections, and geological features. Speed 1 and Handling −3 reflect its status as construction equipment rather than transport. Crew of 8 required for full operation of all systems simultaneously. Used in large-scale resource extraction and construction contexts.

Acquisition: Open. Available through industrial equipment suppliers.

Medical Ground Transport

Viridian Lattice Yards, Responder Series

The medical ground transport is the vehicle that arrives when the medical shuttle cannot land, the terrain is too rough for standard transport, and the patient cannot wait for conditions to improve. Viridian built it with the same attention to medical integration that characterizes their ship designs: the vehicle is a medical bay that happens to move.

Standard Equipment: Full medical bay (onboard), diagnostic systems, automated drug dispensing, trauma stabilization suite, communications array, emergency beacon.

Builder Benefit (Viridian): Medical Trials aboard add 1 Boon Die; life support accommodates all species.

Hover Clearance: Up to 5 meters (commercial firmware).

Traits: The System Points 7 (higher than Hull Points 6) reflects the deep integration of the medical systems: this vehicle has more operational complexity than structural toughness. Medical Trials performed inside during transport add the Viridian medical Boon. Marked with universal medical identification. Available in both hover and tracked variants; this entry covers the hover model. The tracked variant reduces Speed to 2 but removes terrain limitations.

Acquisition: Licensed. Viridian medical supply channels and emergency response organizations.

Planetary Vehicle Comparison Table

Civilian Hover Vehicles

Military and Paramilitary Hover Vehicles

Ground Vehicles

Specialized Vehicles