Aslan trader Profitable Venture

[Xerxeskingofking]

Stats are in Mgt 2e.

any name in italics are trokh terms, or translations of trokh.


Modified Eakhau class trader Profitable Venture.

Spoiler

400 tons steamlined 24Mcr
M drive: 1g ( 4tons 8Mcr)
J drive: J2 (25 tons 37.5Mcr )
P plant TL 12 fusion 165PP (11tons 11Mcr)
Fuel: J2+4weeks 82 tons

Bridge (20 tons 2Mcr)
Computer: model/20 (5Mcr)
sensors : Improved (3 ton, 3PP, 4.3 Mcr )

Programs:
manoevre /0
Intellect 1Mcr
Jump control/2 0.2 Mcr
Evade/2 (assist only) 1Mcr
Fire control/1 (assist only) 1Mcr

Weaponry
Triple Turrets x4 (4 tons)
Triple Pulse laser turret (2d6+4 damage, 12 PP, Mcr4)
Triple Pulse laser turret (2d6+4 damage, 12 PP, Mcr4)
Triple Missle turret (3 missles/round, 36 missiles in turret, 0 PP, Mcr3.25)
Triple sandcaster laser turret (1d6+2 sand effect,36 barrels in turret, 0 PP, 1.75Mcr)

Magazine: (36 rounds for each in turret or 12/battery-rounds)
Missile load
24 standard missles 6Mcr
12 fragmentation missles 2.4Mcr
Total cost 8.4 Mcr)

Sand load
30 barrels sand (1d6+2 sand, 8d+16 vs boarders) 0.75Mcr
6 barrels Pebbles 0.15Mcr
Total 0.9 Mcr

Extras:
Med bay w Autodoc (4 tons 2MCr)
Shrine (4 tons 0.5Mcr)
Fuel Processor, 20tons/day (1 ton, 0.05Mcr)
Crew spaces:
Stateroom x 15 (60 tons 7.5Mcr)
Common areas (15 tons 1.5Mcr)

Cargo 167 tons

Ship total 116.095 Mcr

Ship+ammo and programs 128.595 Mcr


Crew:
Male crew
Pilot/captain; 1
Gunner/security/deckhands: 4

Female crew
Purser/Administrator:1
Astrogator/Exec: 1
Engineer: 1
mechanic: 1
Steward: 1

Mods:

Addition of armament
Upgrade of sensor system for civ to improved (takes up space used by deck 5 escape pods)
Upgrade of computer to model/20
Removed Low berths and escape pods on deck 4
Add 2 staterooms into space used by low berths and deck 4 escape pods.
Deck 4 reconfigured. Shrine moved foreward up to bridge bulkhead and onto port hull, opening up the central common area.
Fuel space on deck 4 pushed down onto deck 2, and med bay installed into that space.

Loose 6.5 tons of cargo space from deck 2 along both sides of hull, forward of the “pinch”, to moved fuel bunkerage..

Total costs of work: aprox 20Mcr. Three weeks yard time.

bios in second post.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

any name in italics are trokh terms, or translations of trokh.

Ship Bio

Spoiler

The Profitable Venture was built as a standard Eakhau class trader, 54 ftahea old ago (48 Imperial standard years). She was built on Eioiye' (Riftspan Reaches 0701) for the Ikhtealy, a trading clan. She spent the first 12 frahea of her life on a regular run between Aulryakh (riftspan reaches 0507) and Aseirl (touchstone 0306), moving cargos along the main trade route deeper into Ya’soisthea space form the “rift head” at Aulryakh and taking local goods back on the return leg.

At 12 frahea of age, she was taken as reparations in a peace agreement between the Ikhtealy and the Tiykhisto:, an aggressive clan with a seat on the Ya’soisthea. In their service, she was used as a naval auxiliary and supply ship. She was heavily damaged in a attack by a privateer and was rebuild with several modifications, most notably the removal of her escape pods (considered pointless by her warrior crew), the upgrade of her sensor and computer systems and the rebuilding of her main deck to a new deckplan. Deck 1 was converted to low berths to carry frozen watch and captured enemies, and the low berths on deck 4 were converted to staterooms for additional ships troops.

She served in the Tiykhisto navy until age 30, when she was sold to Tlaiowaha clan as payment of debt. The Tlaiowaha, a major trading clan and one of the Tlaukhu, made additional modifications, stripping the low berths on deck 1 out (leaving the ship with no low berths at all) and converting the deck back to cargo space. They also installed some fuel storage on deck 3, along the sides of the hull forward of the “pinch”, and converted the fuel tanks on deck 4 into a additional stateroom, bringing the total to 16. Total fuel carried was left unchanged by this. The Tlaiowaha clan used the ship as a odd-job ship, running minor errands and one off cargos around Ya’soisthea space, until age 48, when the ship was given to the, Ahroay’if. The Ahroay’if, a Tlaiowaha vassal that owns most of Tlaiowaha subsector, have been using it on the imperial trade route between Tyokh and Fist, under its current captain, strikes swiftly. Lacking a trained medic, he has installed a autodoc into the rearmost stateroom.

with the ships mortgage paid off, the captain is looking to make a tidy profit and earn enough to buy a decent land plot to retire into.

Crew Bios:

Spoiler

Male crew
Strikes Swiftly. Captain, chief pilot and head of the family.

Red-claws: Son of Strikes Swiftly, chief gunner and secondary pilot. Being groomed for command when Strikes Swiftly retires. Mans portside laser turret

Blood of heros: Second gunner. Former naval gunner, and best turret gunner on the ship. Spends most of his downtime practicing in his turret. Mans starboard laser turret.

Fleet of Foot: Third Gunner. Former naval infantry. While a competent in starship gunnery, is much better with his laser rifle, and is the primary security guard on ship. Mans missile turret, where his weaker gunnery is less of an issue.

Breaker of Steel: Junior Gunner. A new hire to replace previous crewman whowas poached by another merchant ship. Only recently completed his Rite of Passage. First time off his homeworld, still finds everything so new. Mans Sandcaster turret, as befits his junior status.

Female crew
Far-sighted: Wife of Strikes Swiftly, ships Astrogator and Exec. level headed, works as the “brains” of the operation. Has learnt the ins and outs of every legal system on the trade route, and is good at working bureaucracy.

Slow Dancer: ships Purser and administrator. Has almost free rein to negotiate trade and shipping deals, under distant supervision from Far sighted.

Echoing Dreams. Ships Engineer, and older sister to Fleet of Foot. Spends most of her time in the drive rooms, either fiddling with or planning to fiddle with the ships drives.

Long Tailed. ships mechanic, loadmaster and secondary steward if Silken Fur is unable to cope. Responsible for the proper loading of cargo, normally has to borrow the gunners to assist her in this. Has been pushing for the installation of a cargo handling system to ease her job.


Silken Fur. Ships Steward: very skilled at distracting and directing the attentions of noble passengers , Silken Fur spends most of her days keeping the passengers out of the crew areas and fishing for interesting rumours. Many a profitable deal was discovered on the back of a idle comment in her presence.

comments, critiques, nit picks and well dones are all welcome.

 

[khadaji2002]

I like it. I haven't run the numbers so I won't comment on the ship's design. The crew is nicely done. Everyone has a reason to be aboard, there are a number of hooks the GM can use to bring them into play either as PCs or as NPCs along the way.

Kudos!

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Locks good, nice background!


Nitpicks:

Only M-1 drive. M-2 drive would be 400 × 2% = 8 Dt.

Each turret consumes 1 Power.

I would consider tech upgrades for at least the laser turrets, Accurate or Long Range can do wonders for marginal shots.

The missile racks could just as well be placed in a Fixed Mount, saving space, money, and power, but losing the flexibility of an easily replaced turret.

I believe the missile prices in HG is for 12 missiles = 1 Dt (=20 canisters for sand), so e.g. 12 Frag missiles would cost MCr 0.2.

Some cargo handling equipment, e.g. a Cargo Crane might be useful, especially on marginal worlds.

A 100 Dt Collapsible tank would allow a second jump occasionally, albeit at a cost of 1 Dt.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Locks good, nice background!


Nitpicks:

Only M-1 drive. M-2 drive would be 400 × 2% = 8 Dt.

Each turret consumes 1 Power.

I would consider tech upgrades for at least the laser turrets, Accurate or Long Range can do wonders for marginal shots.

The missile racks could just as well be placed in a Fixed Mount, saving space, money, and power, but losing the flexibility of an easily replaced turret.

I believe the missile prices in HG is for 12 missiles = 1 Dt (=20 canisters for sand), so e.g. 12 Frag missiles would cost MCr 0.2.

Some cargo handling equipment, e.g. a Cargo Crane might be useful, especially on marginal worlds.

A 100 Dt Collapsible tank would allow a second jump occasionally, albeit at a cost of 1 Dt.

odd. i think you just spotted some errata.

the ship is a modification of a published MgT2e design, form a ebook on DrivethruRPG that has the aslan ships form MgT1e's Aslan alien module, and rebuilds them in the MgT2e rules.

the original ship is listed as also having 4 ton, 2G drives, so i just copied that over without double checking that element.

So, yhea, 1g engines, then. oh, well. i will update the design.

on the missles, i don't know, it just seems.....surprisingly cheap to be able to buy 12 anti-ship missles of a total of 200,000 cr. 16,700 cr a missle just sounds ridiculously cheap.


things like the extra turret options and cargo handling equipment are good ideas, but i wasn't seeking to fully optimise the design, and wanted to leave room for potential expansion/rewards if i used the ship in a game.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

on the missles, i don't know, it just seems.....surprisingly cheap to be able to buy 12 anti-ship missles of a total of 200,000 cr. 16,700 cr a missle just sounds ridiculously cheap.

It has to be cheap to be compatible with:

... missile racks holds 12 missiles and costs Cr250000 to refill.

Missiles were even cheaper in CT:

Individual missiles weigh about 50 kg, and cost Cr5,000 each.

 

[epicenter00]

comments, critiques, nit picks and well dones are all welcome.

This is a nitpick but one brought up by the crew bios and not directly about write-up but the way the Aslan are presented in Traveller in general, and less your crew.

To put it bluntly: What's the point of so many males on the ship? What purpose do males serve in technological Aslan society? The women do all the science, they handle all the money, they do the majority of the glamorous jobs in Aslan society. In a technological society, this is basically all of the jobs that matter, especially on a merchant vessel where the whole schtick involves things that an Aslan male cannot be interested in due to their gender roles.

I can't imagine a merchant ship that comes under attack so often that it requires four turrets to be a ... profitable venture (sorry about that). If the weapons are mostly to "keep people honest" (like on most Traveller merchant vessels) ... do the skills of the gunners matter all that much?

I feel if you want to go with "canon" Aslan, there'd probably be a lot more female crewmembers. Being a small crew, they likely can't afford the hazard of having any surly disenfranchised males doing "female" jobs and hating it doing a sloppy job of anything around a ship. Perhaps the head male, his wife, perhaps his son-and-successor and two daughters, and a few hired-on females.

(To me, it feels like the Aslan should be more of a "matriarchy-in-fact" - the Aslan will tell you they live in a patriarchal society, they believe they do, but to a human observer it should be fairly obvious that its the females that rule their society and that all but the highest ranking males are just given some (sharp or shooty) toys by the females and told to go off to the corner while the girls talk about the things that matter like science or trade. ... which doesn't seem like a tenable way to make a society. Being an intelligent species, I'd think that the Aslan would have adapted in some way to leave males relevant. Like "social combat" or something that the males engage in before any negotiations which are then handled by the females - but 'psychological leverage' one female has over another would be hugely influenced by the results of the social combat, so the males instead of being gunners and so on, their main relevant job would consist of being the "grooming combat" team which has to perform well for the female negotiators to get good deal afterwards.)

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

This is a nitpick but one brought up by the crew bios and not directly about write-up but the way the Aslan are presented in Traveller in general, and less your crew.

To put it bluntly: What's the point of so many males on the ship? What purpose do males serve in technological Aslan society? The women do all the science, they handle all the money, they do the majority of the glamorous jobs in Aslan society. In a technological society, this is basically all of the jobs that matter, especially on a merchant vessel where the whole schtick involves things that an Aslan male cannot be interested in due to their gender roles.

I can't imagine a merchant ship that comes under attack so often that it requires four turrets to be a ... profitable venture (sorry about that). If the weapons are mostly to "keep people honest" (like on most Traveller merchant vessels) ... do the skills of the gunners matter all that much?

well, the ship is currently doing trade runs in the Trojan Reach between the Aslan and the 3I, along a route that is canon, and also canonically a area that is rife with pirates and raiders, so it would make sense to have at least some guns onboard. if you look to be a tough enough target, the pirates leave you alone and go for a weaker ship.

as to how good they are at actual gunnery, meh, its a side effect of being self-professed warriors and such.

on "honourable jobs for men", Skills like Pilot, Drive, Admin, and Advocate, Diplomat, and Sensors are all gender neutral skills that a male could do without censure. combined with the 1:3 ratio of males to females, i;m sure theirs enough jobs in the legal profession or food delivery to keep the non warrior types occupied.