Although the limited payload makes me view the trad Book 2 Type-S as something that nobody would actually bother to make as you can't do much with it. However, this limited payload is largely a function of the Book 2 design system. I think that an actual Type-S-ish ship would be built with a more useful specification - perhaps faster and/or more cargo. Pretty much any other starship design system for Traveller (HG, MT, FFS etc, MgT) would produce a ship that could carry a useful payload.
The Type S itself is absolutely an artifact of the LBB2 design system. It's literally the smallest, and almost the cheapest, starship that can be built under those rules. They'd be built in quantity for that reason alone in a universe where LBB2 is the only system under which starships can be built. It's nice that even while being that small and cheap, it can still do J-2. In a HG universe, much of the role of the Type S would be filled by mass-produced 100 Td ships with J-1/1G and 40-some-odd tons of cargo hold or staterooms.
(As an aside, the power plant fuel rules in LBB2 never made sense to me; why should a Size A powerplant burn 20 tons fuel iper month in a 100 ton hull, but only 10 tons of fuel in a 200 ton hull? Use the latter fuel consumption rate and you only need 10Td fuel for the power plant in a Type S, freeing up 10Td for more cargo hold. Still not much to work with, but it's enough for some light speculation if that's the way your players roll.)
Never really had that problem with the Scout, myself, because of its purported mission: it's mostly meant to move & gather information, not stuff; and as starships go, it's pretty expendable.
And in game terms, it's really ideal. It's a conveyance - don't need to fuss over the details too much. (If your players are beyond the constraints a type S offers, well, so much the better. It's nice to have self-motivated players.)
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This, exactly. Enough staterooms for a small player party, an Air/Raft so they can wander around on-world, just enough cargo space for an expanded Ship's Locker; if in detached service the fuel is free (implicit onboard refining) and so is periodic maintenance at Scout bases.
It's ideal for campaigns where your players want to travel for the sake of the trip (exploration, playing tourist, being interstellar social butterflies, etc.), or where the PCs skills and abilities rather than the ship itself are the revenue source.
It enables wandering around without having to worry about the big expenses of starship operation or the ongoing expense and inconvenience of booking starship tickets.
In game terms, it's functionally similar to awarding each character a TAS membership with hotel and rental-car vouchers at every stop.
If you want a game centered on trade/speculation or interaction with passengers, give the party a Type A or A2. If you specifically don't want it to go that way, putting them into a detached Type S can forestall it.
Its a really difficult question because there were a heck of a lot of great ships in Classic Traveller helped a lot by some great design, ships plans, and illustrations. I love so many of them. But the favourite has to be the Type S Scout for its simplicity and purity of its form. Its a classic indeed.
Agreed. The arrow-head design was easy to sketch out, and then detail as necessity allowed or skill permitted. Lots of good artwork depicting them over the years. And the canon deckplans seemed to be laid out pretty sensibly.
