I know we have x much encumbrance listed for cargo vessels, but how does that translate into carry smaller vehicles?

Say speeder bikes or landspeeders?

It doesn't. GM just has to use his best judgement and decide how many it can hold.

I would probably just ball park it by multiplying the vehicle's silhouette by 10*.  Using this guideline, a YT-1300 (Encumberance rating 165) could hold 8 speeders of silohutte 2.  It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be if all you're looking for is a quick approximation.  This might give some goofy results sometimes (since a cloud car has the same silhouette as a speeder bike), but without more information about size in the stat write ups (silhouette is the only 'size' statistic provided), there's not much more you can do with it.

*I just selected a multiplier as 10 because its a nice round number and the coefficient used to translate between character scale and vehicle scale.  I'm sure other multipliers (e.g. 5 or 20) are just as valid.

-WJL

I could see 8 speeder bikes in the cargo hold of a YT1300 (stacked on each other in crates or racks), but I have a hard time seeing how it could hold 8 speeders given the sheer size difference of the vehicles and how the holds are scattered throughout the ship rather than one large space.

LethalDose said:

Knowing the encumberance value isn't needed. Know the space it takes up is. Just compare that to the map of a ship… like a real captain would since he has to get the cargo in and out of it…

Kallabecca said:

Assuming a speeder the same size as a Ford Focus, I reckon you could fit in 35 easily. 

:0)

A) ok, somehow it didn't click just how big the holds were.

B) you've got a lot of cars on top of critical equipment, like the Hyperdrive and Life Support systems which can't be good for them.

I count 15 if we limit them to the cargo holds, which I think we should. I would allow loading a ship up like that for emergencies, and then load on the penalties during flight, docking, maitenance, combat, loading/unloading, etc.  Enough penalties taht they would ONLY attempt something like that in an emergency.

This loadout is also assuming they are craming in the cars directly without any proper packaging, so I would ding them in quality.

It's a freighter! 

You are supposed to fill it with freight.

:-)

Well, kind of. It's a "tramp freightor", not a full on freight liner.  It's a much smaller, faster ship (and thus has more room dedicated to engines and other equipment) that attempts to make up for it's lower overall size/capacity by trading on the "spot market" e.g. taking advantage of short term market changes or immediate delivery orders.

Thanks for all the feedback!

I know it's usually a GM call, but I like to have a reason why or why not things can happen or occur.

The Ford Focus example is great!  Though I will agree that it's a fast cargo ship that typically isn't packed to the gills.

15 tightly packed speeders in the hold looks and sounds about right. 

A 'nice' fit almost follow's Lethaldose's math.

I used a bit of a different formula for my group.  I have it take up double the encumberence that the said vehicle holds.  So for a Speeder bike it would be 10 encumberence of space, a larger landspeeder would fit (the aircar takes up 40 and I force the players to make a mechanics check to get it taken apart)  The only place it gets a bit whack is those damn cloud cars.

Caine Hazen said:

The problem with this is that it means a cargo van and a fast speeder that are the same volume aren't the same for cargo space. The fast speeder can't hold as much cargo because more of its space is engine. They should eat up the same volume of space on the Tramp Freighter, even if they aren't the same mass.

Regarding cargo space and encumbrance, Sam Stewart touched on this in the most recent Order 66 podcast.

Short version, they deliberately didn't include a set encumbrance-to-space ratio, as different things will take up different amounts of space/encumbrance.  The example he gave was a 40 pound weight and 40 pounds of 10ft bamboo poles.  The 40 pound weight is easy to store, but the bamboo poles aren't and would take up more room.

So in that vein, I think the best option is that instead of trying to come up with a codified formula, simply go on gut instinct as to how many vehicles you can pack into a light freighter's cargo holds.

But at the same time, also consider that you're generally not just storing the vehicle, but also supplies and possibly support material/framework to keep the vehicle from being bounced around too much, with bigger vehicles requiring more support material/framework.  Storing a couple speeder bikes in a light freighter is pretty easy.  Storing an airspeeder, not so much.  Storing a starfighter… well, you'd pretty much need to gut the entire ship and have that light freighter be a dedicated starfighter launch platform, much as was done to a Ghtroc 720 in the Thrawn Trilogy to conceal Luke's X-Wing.

Someone with good common sense could start a list of Encumbrance values (based on actual size, not mass) for all vehicles and ships?