The Last Starfighter Conversion

The Last Starfighter Conversion

In 1984 the movie industry gave us a groundbreaking scifi story about someone who won an arcade game, and as a result was launched into an interstellar war between a technologically advanced, but pacifistic society, and a much lower tech, but warlike society.

To defend itself the Star League recruited talented people to pilot their Gunstar fighters. Fighters so powerful and dangerous, that the Kodan Armada wouldn’t even consider an invasion unless they were able to destroy every last one of them before the fighting even started. When they found out one of them had survived the sneak attack on the gunstar base, they almost retreated.

So what kind of fighter would it have to be if just one was a serious threat to an armada?

If you examine the fighter craft Paizo have published, they range from tier ¼ to tier 2. So presumably, a fighter that would make an armada afraid would simply have to be much, much higher tier. It also might not really be a fighter. Operated by a pilot and gunner, yes, but using the fighter frame, no. If you watch this movie, at the end you see it land near a multistory motel. This fighter towers over the human structure when landed. It is positively massive… compared to something like a more contemporary x-wing or colonial viper anyway. In addition to that, it carried at least one weapon that could cause major damage to a capital ship, the Carrier of the Kodan Armada. For these reasons, I chose to use an explorer frame when converting this craft, the smallest frame that could mount a heavy weapon.

The next design consideration was the fact that the fighter has spherical coverage from 5 laser weapons. To replicate this, I made use of gyrolasers. However, since we see these weapons one-shotting enemy fighters, I made them the heavier Pulsed Gyrolasers. With one on the front, one on each side, and 2 in the aft, it can point 3-4 of them at any one target, making it extremely dangerous for any fighter craft to get too close. And while they are short range, the gunner can use them at increasingly larger range increments thanks to the state-of-the-art mk 10 duonode computer. As long as this is operating as it did in the movie, against a large number of much lower tier enemies, it should be dangerously lethal.

To combat the capital ship, the gunstar boasted a particle weapon it saved specifically to fire on the carrier. This is represented on my gunstar by a twin-linked Persistent Particle Beam, which can unleash a devastating 20d6 point attack on an enemy ship, enough to make anyone sit up and notice.

But that’s not all…

In the climactic scene of the movie, with overwhelming numbers of fighters closing in, the gunstar activated a hidden prototype system called death blossom, which unleashed so much firepower into the oncoming fighters it simply erased them all from the map. To represent this, I installed 8 heavy laser arrays. Theoretically they would remain behind their panels until needed, and most combat would be with the gyrolasers or particle beam.

Various other features were added based on my observation of certain behaviors in the movie, like the quick ease with which the ship was repaired, the difficulty anything had making passes at the gunstar, or the durability it showed when the opposing capital ship rammed the protagonist in the movie.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this beast of a “fighter.”

Gunstar

T18 Medium Explorer

Speed 12; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 2
AC 36; TL 35
HP 95; DT 0; CT 11
Shields heavy 480 (forward 120, port 120, starboard 120, aft 120)

Attack (Forward) Twinned Persistent Particle Beam (Long 20d6), Pulsed Gyrolaser (Short 3d8 Broadarc)

Attack (Port) Pulsed Gyrolaser (Short 3d8 Broadarc), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array)

Attack (Starboard) Pulsed Gyrolaser (Short 3d8 Broadarc), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array)

Attack (Aft) Pulsed Gyrolaser (Short 3d8 Broadarc), Pulsed Gyrolaser (Short 3d8 Broadarc), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array)

Attack (Turret) Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array), Heavy Laser Array (Short 6d4 Array)

Power Core 2 Nova Ultra (600 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Booster; Systems Ultra long-range sensors, mk 8 armor, mk 8 defenses, mk 10 Duonode Computer;

Security Systems Biometric Locks, Emergency Accelerator

Expansion Bays Power Core Housing, Ghost Drive

Other Systems Slime Patch System