We’re playing the Star Wars D6 RPG in our Wednesday game group. We wanted a ship for the player character party that wasn’t yet another YT-1300 (“Millennium Falcon”). West End Games was thinking the same thing when they detailed THE LONG SHOT in the Star Wars Campaign Pack (WB Classic RPG Reference: LINK).
It all originated from (unused) concept art (1981) of the Imperial Shuttle by Nilo Rodis-Jamero for Return of the Jedi (1983). You can find this in art books of the time.
West End Games, during its huge run of their D6 Star Wars RPG (1987-1998), naturally adapted the concept art as a Lantillian “short hauler”, a not-quite-a-yacht carrying passengers and cargo in relative comfort.
Here is my version; I erased the landing gear so I could use it in a VTT token:
The Poster
Featured as The Long Shot in Star Wars Campaign Pack (1988), the vessel got deckplans, stats, side/front art, and a mini-campaign of adventure seeds in the Fakir Sector.
Otherspace
The adventure module Otherspace (1989) assumes the players will be using The Long Shot. The art by Jeff Dee is a love letter to the transport.
Stock Ships
The sourcebook Stock Ships (1997) has a chapter on the Lantillian GX1 Short Hauler, with deckplans and stats.
“The Lantillian Short Hauler – a rugged, well-engineered craft – was originally designed for affluent retirees interested in piloting a pleasure craft but not in paying the exorbitant price commanded by a star yacht.
The Short Hauler was developed by a team of engineers working for Lantillian ShipWrights. The design team was led by Engineer Shil Tervo, a friend and collaborator of Walex Blissex (the designer of the Victory-class Star Destroyer).
Ironically, Lantillian ShipWrights intended to fashion a freighter to compete with the wildly successful models produced by the Corellian Engineering Corporation. Instead, the small shipbuilding firm produced one of the first luxury pleasure craft that was still within the financial reach of the average citizen.
Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Lantillian ShipWrights was absorbed by TaggeCo. The new parent company fired many of the designers (though Tervo eventually found work with Kuat Drive Yards and developed many of the key subsytems for the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer project).
The Short Hauler GXl is the basic model available, equipped with a civilian-grade turbolaser cannon, modest shielding, a Fabritech 7Y4 Sensor Suite, Cybot
Galactica NavMaster navigational computer, and Lantillian ShipWrights Class Four sublight engines. In addition, the Short Hauler possess a number of amenities: a well-designed galley, a holotheater and fairly large living quarters.
One complaint is common among Short Hauler captains: the landing gear assembly is extremely complex and is prone to malfunction unless maintained
regularly. Dust, corrosion and other such obstructions can prevent the gear from retracting or deploying properly and, since the dissolution of Lantillian ShipWrights, parts are difficult (and expensive) to
locate.
While the Lantillian Short Hauler never took the freighter market by storm, it has performed well as a cargo vessel. A number of enterprising smugglers and shippers have purchased the inexpensive and reliable vessels and modified them to serve as cargo haulers. By removing amenities-such as the holotheater and adding cargo bays, Short Haulers are effective freighters. However, most shippers augment the vessel’s shielding and weaponry, as the stock Short Hauler possesses inadequate defenses against pirate
attack.”
Craft: Lantillian ShipWrights GX1 Short Hauler
Type: Pleasure craft
Scale: Starfighter
Length: 27 meters
Skill: Space transports: Lantillian Short Hauler
Crew: 4; skeleton 2/+5
Passengers: 6
Cargo Capacity: 85 metric tons
Consumables: 1 month
Cost: 20,500 (used only)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x2
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Atmosphere: 280; 800 kmh
Hull: 40
Shields: 10
Sensors:
Passive: 10/0D
Scan: 25/1D
Search: 40/2D
Focus: 2/2D
Weapons:
Laser Cannon
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1 (can be fired by pilot or co-pilot. +5 to difficulty)
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Atmosphere Range: 100-300/1.2/2.5 km
Damage: 3D
Other Media
The Short Hauler got swept up in Extended Universe fiction as was common with the cross-fertilization between the RPG and novels. Subsequently, the ship could be seen in the Clone Wars & Rebels animated series, but never in a big way.
During that conflict, the Republic utilized the Phoenix, a red-hulled top-of-the-line GX1, as a diplomatic vessel. It was notably used to bring Republic envoys to the neutral planet of Mandalore, where talks with the Confederacy would take place. Later in the Clone Wars, a GX1 known as the Valorous transported Senator Padmé Amidala, who was accompanied by her handmaiden Teckla Minnau and Nix Card of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, to the planet Scipio, where she was to secure a loan from the Banking Clan on the Republic’s behalf.
After the conclusion of the Clone Wars when the Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire, the GX1 short haulers were utilized as civilian transports and often seen throughout the Outer Rim Territories. A GX1 short hauler was used to transport refugees to a safe place from Cipher Canyon on a desert planet. During the ensuing Age of the Empire, a number of weaponless GX1s were used as interplanetary starbuses. In the spaceport of Garel City, on the Outer Rim planet of Garel, there were a number of such starbuses. One of them was hijacked by the freedom fighter Sabine Wren, who was supposed to deliver the power droid EG-86 to Havoc Outpost. (Wookieepedia)
An elegant product from a more civilized age~