What ship components need to be added to accommodate Starship Troopers and Babylon 5?
Babylon 5
Size and Power. B5 ships appear to be huge, and their weapons appear to use a lot of power. As a rough conversion I'd be tempted to multiply volumes by 10 to get B5 ships out of a Traveller system... except they have small ships as well, don't they? So, perhaps the range of ship volumes grows.
Weapons mix. B5 ships have a richer weapons mix, often based on the species who built it. Whether it's just color, or there are actual playability elements affected, the differences have to be captured.
Drives. B5 uses something like the subspace drives from FFS, with a limited number of "jumps" available before requiring a recharge. Any size ship may have these drives.
Does B5 use reaction drives for normal space? I suspect not, but I'm not sure.
Starship Toopers
NB: Ships aren't the focus of SST.
Size and Power. SST ships seem to be in the same general size range as Traveller ships.
Weapons Mix. They appear to not rely on weapons batteries so much. I could be wrong here.
Drives. Starship Troopers use some sort of lightspeed drive. The strategic and tactical focus is not on starships, so the drive's nature doesn't appear to be important, and drives don't really use much fuel at all; there are no restrictions on the use of their lightspeed drives.
Does SST use reaction drives for normal space? I doubt it, but I'm not sure.
My Preference
My preference would be to "re-purpose" the Jump drive for B5 and SST, labelling it a fuelless subspace/hyperspace/whatever drive, with its rating providing a speed factor. B5 would have operational costs for using the drive. For both, I'd be tempted to increase the power plant size significantly. I'd consider eliminating fuel usage.
Babylon 5
Size and Power. B5 ships appear to be huge, and their weapons appear to use a lot of power. As a rough conversion I'd be tempted to multiply volumes by 10 to get B5 ships out of a Traveller system... except they have small ships as well, don't they? So, perhaps the range of ship volumes grows.
Weapons mix. B5 ships have a richer weapons mix, often based on the species who built it. Whether it's just color, or there are actual playability elements affected, the differences have to be captured.
Drives. B5 uses something like the subspace drives from FFS, with a limited number of "jumps" available before requiring a recharge. Any size ship may have these drives.
Does B5 use reaction drives for normal space? I suspect not, but I'm not sure.
Starship Toopers
NB: Ships aren't the focus of SST.
Size and Power. SST ships seem to be in the same general size range as Traveller ships.
Weapons Mix. They appear to not rely on weapons batteries so much. I could be wrong here.
Drives. Starship Troopers use some sort of lightspeed drive. The strategic and tactical focus is not on starships, so the drive's nature doesn't appear to be important, and drives don't really use much fuel at all; there are no restrictions on the use of their lightspeed drives.
Does SST use reaction drives for normal space? I doubt it, but I'm not sure.
My Preference
My preference would be to "re-purpose" the Jump drive for B5 and SST, labelling it a fuelless subspace/hyperspace/whatever drive, with its rating providing a speed factor. B5 would have operational costs for using the drive. For both, I'd be tempted to increase the power plant size significantly. I'd consider eliminating fuel usage.
Last edited: