Classic Traveller seemed to envision a small ship universe since those were the ships that the players could possibly afford, or be able to crew. High Guard added to that by adding the big ships which players could never afford. I mean how many players could pay for/own a 250k Battleship? So how do we address the seeming contradiction? I propose that there is no contradiction as such, but merely a affordable vs non-affordable type of ship.
Do we have "small ship" universes where the biggest ship is the 5,000 ton ship from the classic books? Absolutely! Do we have "big ship" universes from High Guard, Trillion Credit Squadron? Absolutely! For the adventuring class, they will tend to live in the small ship universe, with the big ships acting as patrons, antagonists, or enemies.
If you are bee-bopping around in your 800 ton Mercenary Cruiser that you won in a dabo game, and suddenly that Ceasar class destroyer of 6,500 tons shows up to do a "customs inspection", you might have a really bad day, or a good one. So, do you have a small ship universe, or a big ship universe, or a combination of the two?
Me, I have both
Do we have "small ship" universes where the biggest ship is the 5,000 ton ship from the classic books? Absolutely! Do we have "big ship" universes from High Guard, Trillion Credit Squadron? Absolutely! For the adventuring class, they will tend to live in the small ship universe, with the big ships acting as patrons, antagonists, or enemies.
If you are bee-bopping around in your 800 ton Mercenary Cruiser that you won in a dabo game, and suddenly that Ceasar class destroyer of 6,500 tons shows up to do a "customs inspection", you might have a really bad day, or a good one. So, do you have a small ship universe, or a big ship universe, or a combination of the two?
Me, I have both