• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.
  • We, the systems administration staff, apologize for this unexpected outage of the boards. We have resolved the root cause of the problem and there should be no further disruptions.

Largest Frieghter?

Greylond

SOC-12
Anyone ever had, or seen a OTU, Large Frieghter design? Various places throughout all the books always seem to mention that the mega shipping corporations don't generally use the "small" frieghters but use extremely large frieghters and give the impression that they would dwarf a Sub-merchant or anything similar that a PC would ever hope to see. So, has anything like that ever been designed? I thought it might make a good adventure for a group to find a derelict one floating along...
 
It's been apocryphal that there are 'million ton' freighters, since I can't recall where, but CT S09 mentions million ton fleet tenders for riders.
 
The largest canon freighters (ignoring GT as a separate canon) I can think of are in The Traveller Adventure.
ClassTonnageDrives
JMP
PerfCrewFuelPassCargo
Hercules5000 WWWJ1 1G15510 02911
Long Liner (RT)1000VEVJ4 1G14 440Td 24HP 12 MP130Td
Freighter (AT)3000ZQZJ4 1G1512408HP 2MP1259+70
Frontier Transport TI2000VVVJ2 2G2144001114+70
Frontier Transport TJ2000ZZZJ6 6G2113200194+70
None of these have plans.

MGT S2 has a 2000Td Freighter with plans
MGT S10 has a 2000Td Liner with plans
 
Apart from the freighters in TTA, there is a 10,000dTon "Imperial transport" design shown a few times in MT.

IIRC, it's in the back of the Rebellion Sourcebook along with several warship designs.
 
It's been apocryphal that there are 'million ton' freighters, since I can't recall where, but CT S09 mentions million ton fleet tenders for riders.

Yea, that's one of the places I remember seeing something like that.

The largest canon freighters (ignoring GT as a separate canon) I can think of are in The Traveller Adventure.

Thanks!

MGT S2 has a 2000Td Freighter with plans
MGT S10 has a 2000Td Liner with plans

Yea, I saw those.

Hmm... looks like I'll have to put the MgT design rules to the test and see just how big I can make one...
 
The largest canon freighters (ignoring GT as a separate canon) I can think of are in The Traveller Adventure.

There's no good reason to ignore GT, though. Unless designed after the change point (and as a direct result of the change) any ship type found in the GTU will also be found in the OTU (and vice versa).

I don't think there are any deck plans for large freighters in any GT book, however.


Hans
 
So, given all of that, I'll go work on one. :) Mostly cause I'm going to use it in my game, but I'll share what I come up with.

Question though, what do y'all think an optimum Jump Rating for something like that would be. Given that some of the Spinward Main worlds are 2 parsecs away I think it would just about have to be a Jump 2. I don't see why it would need to be a Jump 3 though. What do others think?
 
One of the CT supplements also mentions the existence of hundred-thousand ton freighters.

I can see jump-4 for these critters, easy. Optimal rating, though, depends on lots of things I think. Speed of plot and all that.
 
Question though, what do y'all think an optimum Jump Rating for something like that would be. Given that some of the Spinward Main worlds are 2 parsecs away I think it would just about have to be a Jump 2. I don't see why it would need to be a Jump 3 though. What do others think?

Something like that will be tailored to one specific run. If it's between Rhylanor and Porozlo, it will have jump-1 drives. If it's between Rhylanor and Zivije, it will be jump-2. If it's between Porozlo and Zivije, it will be jump-3. If it's between worlds on opposite sites of systemless bits of space, it might be jump-4 or even jump-5, although the higher the jump, the less the chance that there will be enough freight to make it worthwhile to employ hyperfreighters at all.


Hans
 
Actually - they do now :)

Or at least the MgT version of them. if you go to the mongoose site and go to their version of The Traveller Adventure you will find a free pdf of all the ship plans for the MgT version of the ships.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/r...campaigns/aramis-the-traveller-adventure.html

Too bad they didn't take the opportunity to fix the Hercules design. (It's pissing away money to use jump-1 ships on the routes Akerut is supposed to employ these on).


Hans
 
There's no good reason to ignore GT, though. Unless designed after the change point (and as a direct result of the change) any ship type found in the GTU will also be found in the OTU (and vice versa).

I don't think there are any deck plans for large freighters in any GT book, however.


Hans
Yes, there is.

GT has very different tech design systems resulting in very different ship design paradigms. It has a very different expected income structure as well, resulting again in different design considerations. Further, perhaps most important, it presumes a significantly different standard for passenger accommodations. GT long ago ceased being even close to what's in the defined canon.

Plus, It was explicitly off limits for considerations of T20 development.
 
GT has very different tech design systems resulting in very different ship design paradigms. It has a very different expected income structure as well, resulting again in different design considerations.

It just had a slightly different palette for rendering the "real" ships of the OTU into game term than Book2, HG, MT, TNE, T4, T20 and MGT. It had its flaws, true, but which of the multiple different Traveller ship design systems hasn't? The GT version of the Stellar Class is different from the Book2 version, the HG version, the MT version, the TNE version, etc., etc., but who cares? It's the same ship class.

If I was to submit an adventure involving a Caen or a Keith Class to Mongoose, I would have to render it in MgT terms, but I'm quite confident that it wouldn't be rejected for being contrary to canon (for other reasons, perhaps, since I'm not very well versed in MgT ship design, but not for non-canonicity).

Further, perhaps most important, it presumes a significantly different standard for passenger accommodations.

No it doesn't. 4 DT per stateroom, same as every other Traveller ship design system.

GT long ago ceased being even close to what's in the defined canon.

No it didn't. It is and always has been very close to what's in the defined canon (Not surprisingly, since the authors were instructed to base anything they wrote on previously published material unless fixing problems). So close that it has been accepted as authoritative by several MgT authors I know of.

(That's not to say that it doesn't have its share of errors, or that some authors didn't treat previously published material more cavalierly than I care for).



Hans
 
Last edited:
Actually - they do now :)

Or at least the MgT version of them. if you go to the mongoose site and go to their version of The Traveller Adventure you will find a free pdf of all the ship plans for the MgT version of the ships.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/r...campaigns/aramis-the-traveller-adventure.html

Thanks for info!

Something like that will be tailored to one specific run. If it's between Rhylanor and Porozlo, it will have jump-1 drives. If it's between Rhylanor and Zivije, it will be jump-2. If it's between Porozlo and Zivije, it will be jump-3. If it's between worlds on opposite sites of systemless bits of space, it might be jump-4 or even jump-5, although the higher the jump, the less the chance that there will be enough freight to make it worthwhile to employ hyperfreighters at all.

Excellent points! Thanks!
 
Something like that will be tailored to one specific run. If it's between Rhylanor and Porozlo, it will have jump-1 drives. If it's between Rhylanor and Zivije, it will be jump-2. If it's between Porozlo and Zivije, it will be jump-3. If it's between worlds on opposite sites of systemless bits of space, it might be jump-4 or even jump-5, although the higher the jump, the less the chance that there will be enough freight to make it worthwhile to employ hyperfreighters at all.


Hans


Actually, was just looking at it. I plan on starting my upcoming campaign at Regina and there's paths with Gas Giants that a Jump-2 could take to most systems within the Imperial borders, you have to ignore the Green xBoat path. Just have my megacorp setup some skimming operations in strategic spots and fuel only costs the skimmer's maintenance, supplies and crew salaries. Plus you can sell any surplus refined fuel to any other ships in those systems. Several of those systems have C lower star ports so setting up Refined Fuels Stations could actually be a good thing to do.
 
It just had a slightly different palette for rendering the "real" ships of the OTU into game term than Book2, HG, MT, TNE, T4, T20 and MGT. It had its flaws, true, but which of the multiple different Traveller ship design systems hasn't? The GT version of the Stellar Class is different from the Book2 version, the HG version, the MT version, the TNE version, etc., etc., but who cares? It's the same ship class.

It also has very different costs versus operation expenses. When looking at ships, the game defines the reality - and since the GURPS Trav ships operations cost a different percentage of their initial cost, and their expenses are a different percentage of their income than in other editions.

It's not just the design sequences being different. It's not just that the CrImp is normed very differently from the G$ and that the two operate differently. The universe of GT has legal commercial double occupancy inside the 3I - the universe of the rest do not. (T20 has standard prices for it as an option for non-imperial campaigns.)

The universe of GT has all Imperial Marines being trained and fielded in Battle Dress; the others lack that, and in CT, most marines don't even have vacc suit skills.

It doesn't describe the same universe. It describes one particularly close, but definitely NOT the same.
 
It also has very different costs versus operation expenses. When looking at ships, the game defines the reality...

No, the setting details describe the reality. The rules don't mandate the existence of a Stellar class liner; that's for the setting material to do. And Stellar Class liners exists in the OTU, as we've seen evidence for in various different versions of Traveller. Different rules versions, mind you. In every version it has been rendered differently because the rules weren't up to providing a precise description. 20% jump fuel instead of 30%, HePLaR maneuver drive instead of thrusters, and, yes, different costs. But all that doesn't alter the fact that there is a Stellar class liner in the OTU. And one with pretty much the same deck plans in most of the versions, I believe.

- and since the GURPS Trav ships operations cost a different percentage of their initial cost, and their expenses are a different percentage of their income than in other editions.

Yes, that certainly is one of the major discrepancies of the GT version. But there's no reason to throw away the baby with the bath water and disallow the ship types introduced in GT setting material.

It's not just the design sequences being different. It's not just that the CrImp is normed very differently from the G$ and that the two operate differently. The universe of GT has legal commercial double occupancy inside the 3I - the universe of the rest do not. (T20 has standard prices for it as an option for non-imperial campaigns.)

IIRC that was a deliberate attempt to fix what Jim saw as a flaw in the setting. I think he went about it the wrong way, but it really is a minor mistake[*]. Nothing that would prevent any of the ship types described in GT material from existing. Well... except for the highly implausible maneuverdriveless X-boat, perhaps. ;)

[*] After all, the only incontrovertinble evidence for that regulation is from a TNE source, and TNE is hardly the definitive Traveller version, is it?.
The universe of GT has all Imperial Marines being trained and fielded in Battle Dress; the others lack that, and in CT, most marines don't even have vacc suit skills.

I know from earlier discussions that you are aware that those BD-trained Imperial Marines is from a CT-era JTAS article. And as there are a couple of ways to explain those non-BD skilled marines away, there's not even any discrepancy to cast doubt on the accuracy of the description.

It doesn't describe the same universe. It describes one particularly close, but definitely NOT the same.

Well, it is a parallel universe, so technically you're right. However it is a different (and occasionally erroneous) description of what is effectively an identical universe up to the change point.


Hans
 
Last edited:
Gurps Traveller Starships has several 10 and 20ktn designs including a 20ktn bulk freighter, a 10ktn liner and a 10ktn LASH vessel, Rebellion sourcebook as a 30Ktn standard Imperial freighter, there was a 100ktn luxury liner in one of the Challenge mags.
 
What I was asking about in the OP is the 1,000,000 ton Freighters. I see in the MgT rules that is the largest Hull size possible. I downloaded the Deckplans preview from the website of MG's The Traveller Adventure and it doesn't have that large of a ship.
 
In MT:Rebellion (page 80) a 20 kdton Imperial Transport is described. It's not clear if it's a military transport or a bulk freighter. Weaponry seems to point to a naval transport, but its defenses are (aside from its lasers that double in anti-missile fire) just an optimized nuclear damper (factor 1) and has a cargo capacity of 145800 kl (10800 dton) and 20 high passengers. Is J3 M1. No plans provided.

And in CT:SMC there is described the Mora class lineers, IIRC it's a 3000 dton lineer (sorry, I cannot find it right now).
 
Back
Top