CT Only: 2nd Generation Type-S

[Shadow Shack]

Supplement-9 (Fighting Ships) states that the scout/courier design has remained unchanged for a century. I figure it's about time to release an updated design in my game...the stock version is a Book-2 design so I figured the Mark-2 Scout/Courier should be a Book-5 design. Long story made short, the diminished fuel capacity for the M-Drive is a boon for customizing the standard design (along with the Jump-2 PP-2 MD-2 gets reduced from Book-2's 15 tons to 14 tons in book 5), all in all you get 19 tons to play with. That's a lot of wiggle room for a 100 ton ship...

Now I figure any radical changes should be made by the players (not that I haven't indulged myself in a dozen or so one-off specials on my own) so I figured for a "standard" design I should stick pretty close to the original and simply offer some minor upgrades.

That said, the first thing I addressed with the Gen-2 model is the fuel supply. This goes from the base 40 tons to 33 tons, by Book-5 standards that allows 4 weeks of unlimited maneuver and three parsecs worth of jumps (three Jump-1 or a Jump-2 plus a Jump-1) along with a reserve capacity of two additional weeks of maneuver. The new Type-S now has a boost in both jump capacity and insystem time.

That leaves eight tons to play with. Seven tons goes to the cargo hold for a total capacity of 10 tons, and the remaining ton gets devoted to the Supplement-7 (Traders & Gunboats) suggestion for an improved filtration system that finally does away with the funky odors and need for weekly filter changes and/or periodic system flushes.

Other minor details --- the four ton vehicle bay gets dorsal bay doors above to permit access for the air/raft and a ventral drop platform allows the crew to opt for a ground vehicle instead of the stock air/raft. The galley and cabins get reversed, so that the galley resides adjacent to the bridge while the cabins are aft (just ahead of the engine room).

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/index.php?n=2901

My original Book-2 design: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/index.php?n=2786

 

[The Oz]

Looks good. But your average Scout veteran mustering out would not get such a ship on the mustering-out roll, right?

 

[RandyB]

Looks good. But your average Scout veteran mustering out would not get such a ship on the mustering-out roll, right?

Why not? The Mark-2 could still be an old enough design that surplus copies would be available. Given the role of the detached duty scout, a better ship makes for a more effective scout.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the increased capabilities expands the challenges the PCs can take on, and challenges the Referee to step up their own game as well.

 

[kilemall]

I have several generations of scout ships in my ATU, but they aren't the 'steady state' universe designs. I'm defining inertial compensation and artificial gravity as lagging behind M-drive development, so at TL8 everything is a tailsitter and mostly 1-G, 2-G if military. TL9 intertial compensators start working at 1-G but still no artificial gravity so still mostly tailsitters. TL10, artificial gravity starts up so bellysitters can be done with more of the traditional layout.


So a scout could get a modern scout like the traditional Type S, or the TL9 golfball tailsitter, or worse one of the few TL8 tailsitters knocking around.


Part of the politics of detached duty is the modern versions are much more desirable to have, and so the bureaucracy can 'reward' or 'punish' with what ship you end up with.


Each one is also different in terms of capability. For instance the TL8 ones are uncomfortable and not fun to be under full 2G for hours or days, but since they have no jump drive they have more cargo and expedition room as befits their interplanetary exploration/development role.

 

[Shadow Shack]

Looks good. But your average Scout veteran mustering out would not get such a ship on the mustering-out roll, right?

Odds are long...most likely they'll get a Gen-1 that's at least 40 years old.

but since they have no jump drive they have more cargo and expedition room as befits their interplanetary exploration/development role.

I have a jump-0 Type-S variant in my game as well, it serves as a trainer for first term scouts as well as other system duties such as ferrying goods & crew to and from the tenders along with rescuing X-Boats that are too far out for the tenders to reach in time.

 

[Condottiere]

This is edition dependent.

By default, jump two would be technological level eleven; if a higher technological level manufacturing process is used, you can shrink the jump drive, or make it more efficient, and/or just increase the range.

Hundred tonnes is a rather tight fit, whereas two hundred gives leeway for accommodating quite a range of capabilities, which actually would make more sense as a platform for either the Scout Service, or reconnaissance craft for the Navy.

What you have is probably the equivalent of a jeep, but flying it defaults to a starship pilot capability, rather than smallcraft, but running one is well within the capabilities of a single crew member.

 

[GypsyComet]

most likely they'll get a Gen-1 that's at least 40 years old.

That's just a Gen-1 Sulieman. The snub-nosed design seen in T20 isn't a Sulie, but is still a Type S. The flatiron seen in Snapshot isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S. The Serpent isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S. Whatever that is in T4 isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S (I've attached the name "Senator" to that one, fishing deck and all).

And the one seen in TNE won't be a Sulie, either.

 

[Shadow Shack]

That's just a Gen-1 Sulieman. The snub-nosed design seen in T20 isn't a Sulie, but is still a Type S. The flatiron seen in Snapshot isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S. The Serpent isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S. Whatever that is in T4 isn't a Sulie, but is a Type S (I've attached the name "Senator" to that one, fishing deck and all).

And the one seen in TNE won't be a Sulie, either.

Apologies as I am clueless to anything beyond the LBBs.

 

[kilemall]

This is edition dependent.

By default, jump two would be technological level eleven; if a higher technological level manufacturing process is used, you can shrink the jump drive, or make it more efficient, and/or just increase the range.

Hundred tonnes is a rather tight fit, whereas two hundred gives leeway for accommodating quite a range of capabilities, which actually would make more sense as a platform for either the Scout Service, or reconnaissance craft for the Navy.

What you have is probably the equivalent of a jeep, but flying it defaults to a starship pilot capability, rather than smallcraft, but running one is well within the capabilities of a single crew member.

I happen to think the standard light expeditionary scout ACS is likely a modified Empress Marava with 2G maneuver.

 

[GypsyComet]

Apologies as I am clueless to anything beyond the LBBs.

No worries. The lore can be deep and opaque at times.

Keeping your "CT Only" topic tag in mind, there are still a lot of Scout hulls available. The Sulie, of course, but also the Snapshot Scout (often called the Intrepid), Paranoia Press' Serpent class (also featured in an early JTAS), the even skinner arrowhead published by Judges Guild before the Sulie was developed, and at least two Scout variations by FASA.

 

[Swiftbrook]

Looks good. But your average Scout veteran mustering out would not get such a ship on the mustering-out roll, right?

I think the first time a PC rolled a scout ship as a mustering-out benefit, they'd receive the Mark-I version. On a second roll, they'd receive the Mark-II or the Mark-I with weapons. The third time they rolled the benefit, they'd receive the Mark-II with weapons.

Or something like that.

 

[GypsyComet]

I've often used the Scout benefit to make things "interesting", on the theory that there are thousands of these things sitting in back lots, Way Station storage, and anywhere else the IISS can find to keep them. Loaning them to a Reservist accomplishes several possible goals: getting a ship out of the parking queue; getting an up-to-date Servicing Log for a ship that may have been sitting somewhere for a few decades, or longer; keeps a former hardened survivor on his toes a few more years; and maybe, if they are lucky, it will end in a hull they can either write off after "something stupid" happened without killing the Reservist, or ages out the hull to where they can sell it off to one of the mining consortiums. Either way they get to write up the fate of the hull and hopefully brighten the day of some of the poor souls who got transferred from Field to the IISS bureaucracy.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The 3-parsec range isn't just for LBB5 variants.
One of my particular hobby-horses* is that this is possible with the canon Type S if you use the power-down rules from JTAS 14.

The trick is that you keep the power plant at Pn-1 except when in the Jump-2 part of the trip, and only have 3.5 days at each end of the pair of Jumps to get to and from the 100-diameter limit (and are limited to 1G coming and going).

If either endpoint is Jump-blocked by its star because its world orbits within the star's 100D limit, this isn't an option due to transit-time constraints.



*on which I've spent enough time that I'm now flailing away at the ground next to a commemorative marker that reads, "On this spot many years ago, a horse once died".

 

[Grav_Moped]

I happen to think the standard light expeditionary scout ACS is likely a modified Empress Marava with 2G maneuver.

Makes sense. The Jump Drive and powerplant are the same as used in XBoats, and you could drag in T5's drive-linkage rule to use two Size A Maneuver Drives (used in the Type S) rather than having to maintain the logistics train for Size B Maneuver Drives that aren't used in any other IISS ship class. (Basically, this is setting fluff -- keep the design a stock Far Trader unless you want to draw up your own deckplans featuring an XBoat's drive bay.)

Also, the canon Far Trader having only 1G is a legacy of LBB2 '77 (J-Drive didn't need Pn-2, so upgrading to 2G would require upgrading the PP -and fuel capacity -- as well). Under LBB2 '81, there's no reason not to have 2G since the ship already has Pn-2 for the J-Drive, already has the fuel tankage committed, and M-Drives are small and cheap.

From an out-of-universe perspective, you'd almost have to use something like an IISS Marava variant instead of a Type S for player parties larger than four characters, just so everyone would have enough room... (published Adventures typically had 8 pre-gen characters and you're just not going to fit that many folks into 4 staterooms for long trips).

 

[mike wightman]

What TL are you building this LBB:5 version at?

Are you including the fuel purification plant necessary for use of unrefined fuel in LBB5?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

It's not a LBB5 ship, just a LBB2 ship with LBB5 fuel requirements, as far as I can see.

 

[mike wightman]

It's not a LBB5 ship, just a LBB2 ship with LBB5 fuel requirements, as far as I can see.

The OP states:

Supplement-9 (Fighting Ships) states that the scout/courier design has remained unchanged for a century. I figure it's about time to release an updated design in my game...the stock version is a Book-2 design so I figured the Mark-2 Scout/Courier should be a Book-5 design. Long story made short, the diminished fuel capacity for the M-Drive is a boon for customizing the standard design (along with the Jump-2 PP-2 MD-2 gets reduced from Book-2's 15 tons to 14 tons in book 5), all in all you get 19 tons to play with. That's a lot of wiggle room for a 100 ton ship...

Looks like he's used HG80 to design it.
So going by his numbers of j2 md2 pp2 being 14 tons I guess it must be a TL9-12 design, probably TL11.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

So going by his numbers of j2 md2 pp2 being 14 tons I guess it must be a TL9-12 design, probably TL11.

Sorry, I missed that.

It would have to be TL-11 to have J-2.

As you note it would need a purifier, reducing free space by 6-7 Dt.

Cost would increase from MCr ~30 to MCr ~42 (with standard discount) making it economically unattractive. That sweet standard 100 Dt hull in LBB2 is very cheap, and TL-11 power plants are very expensive in LBB5.


A TL-15 version would free up 8 Dt and reduce the cost to MCr ~32, but would require limited hi-tech shipyards.

 

[mike wightman]

Yup I agree. Not sure where he is getting the 33t of fuel figure from.

Using HG it would be 20t for jump 2 and 2t of power plant fuel - 22t in total yet he gives it as 33t?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Not sure where he is getting the 33t of fuel figure from.

No mystery, J-3 + 6 weeks:

That said, the first thing I addressed with the Gen-2 model is the fuel supply. This goes from the base 40 tons to 33 tons, by Book-5 standards that allows 4 weeks of unlimited maneuver and three parsecs worth of jumps (three Jump-1 or a Jump-2 plus a Jump-1) along with a reserve capacity of two additional weeks of maneuver. The new Type-S now has a boost in both jump capacity and insystem time.