Ship Sizes

[jawillroy]

Ken Pick's stuff, over here?
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/book2plus.html

It's a sort of a Highguardization of the Book 2 rules. Not bad, though I haven't used them. I like to use Pick's model for Nuclear Missile damage (D6xD6) rather than SS3's, because I don't like that SS3 discards the book 2 damage model for missiles, and it's an elegant thing.

 

[robject]

Ken Pick's stuff, over here?
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/book2plus.html

It's a sort of a Highguardization of the Book 2 rules. Not bad, though I haven't used them. I like to use Pick's model for Nuclear Missile damage (D6xD6) rather than SS3's, because I don't like that SS3 discards the book 2 damage model for missiles, and it's an elegant thing.

Ken's drive-stacking might find renewed life, now that Mongoose's Traveller rules are on their way. They use the new Drive Table from T5, which is more generous with drive power (at the higher end) than Book 2, thereby permitting better performance with larger hulls.

 

[jawillroy]

Me, I'm enjoying messing about with staying pure LBB123 in terms of ship design. It's like haiku.

Although someone around here did a really cool LBB2 style small craft design plan, and I can't remember where the durn thing is. Anybody know?

 

[dccarles]

Straying a little off topic

Me, I'm enjoying messing about with staying pure LBB123 in terms of ship design. It's like haiku.

Excellent way of putting it.

I've always thought of Traveller as being somewhat unique in that it grew up hand-in-hand with its various spinoff wargames. In my very first campaign, we used CT with the vastly superior Striker combat rules. There's also a very strong strain of world-building involved, too: anyone is free to define a Traveller world; there's plenty enough to go around.

So one's preference for ship size depends on the context in which you're playing. In the Traveller Adventure, the players are the crew of a fat trader; in many Amber Zone scenarios from the JTAS, they're commanders of a platoon-sized mercenary unit; in Trillion Credit Squadron they're world rulers and fleet admirals.

I've yet to see a campaign from a Certain Popular Fantasy RPG that didn't revolve around a small group of adventurers going out to commit mass-monstercide, window dressing aside.

Preference for ship size, then, is just an expression of Traveller's incredible flexibility.

--Devin

 

[jawillroy]

*Crowd of spacers in downport bar pound tables and clash their glasses together*

HUZZAH FOR FLEXIBILITY!

Ahem.

Though I gotta say: once they ditched the LBBs and started getting all up in this "Mega" business, they kinda lost me. I don't think I've bought a single new Traveller product since I bought High Guard, and that was back in '85. I've added more in the way of used stuff since.

And while I've certainly had fun with both Mercenary and High Guard (especially High Guard,) in terms of the game overall I always thought that the detail added there was at the same time more and less than I wanted. I think what I really wanted out of High Guard was a smooth extension of LBB2 with its kinks ironed out (just how do missiles and sand function?) when what was supplied was really a whole new game. When I eventually got hold of Mayday - in the hopes that it might be a smooth port of LBB2 ship to ship combat over to a hex setting - I was confronted with a completely different time and distance scale and again, a whole new game.

It's really what's led me to go back to LBB123, and just hash out what makes sense and what works based on that.

And anyway, it never bothered me at all to dispense with the OTU. The vast majority of my time spent in Traveller has been universe building. Having the whole thing all done by someone else seemed to totally go against the point, for me.

 

[Jame]

Although someone around here did a really cool LBB2 style small craft design plan, and I can't remember where the durn thing is. Anybody know?

That was Sigg Oddra (Odra?). As I recall it was in "The Fleet" forum.

 

[The Oz]

Me, I'm enjoying messing about with staying pure LBB123 in terms of ship design. It's like haiku.

Although someone around here did a really cool LBB2 style small craft design plan, and I can't remember where the durn thing is. Anybody know?

I did an expansion of small craft design, trying to stay true to the LBBs as much as I could. Look here:

Steve Osmanski's LBB2 small craft design system

 

[Peter Schutze]

>(I have no data about it, but I guess that there isn't much piracy in the US).

the USA is a terrible analogy for the third imperium and water based piracy

a better analogy would be the pacific island archipelagoes. lots of small widely seperated places with limited resources.

or if you do want to use the usa or europe ..... think police = Imperial Navy rather than USN = IN to compare why the OTU allows piracy.

 

[Peter Schutze]

>The Jump Tender stays as long as it can, then jumps to the Oort Cloud and waits for the Riders to come to it.

and if they need to flee in the 7 days the rider is in jump space ?

the usual mental picture I've had in traveller and other universes is a 3 step process:
arrival and local defence (launch CAP)
riders head towards battle while tender heads away
battle over and tender controls the SAR (search&rescue)

 

[Patron Zero]

Big Rigs

Mind this violates any set rules in High Guard or other canon Traveller publications but such is found in my Traveller universe setting.

I developed a system for starships in the range of 100 to 800 ton displacement to operate 'tractor-trailer' style with much larger jump capable barges. The smaller craft were fitted with an external pylon structure which would be received by a docking 'collar' on the larger ship, and once so connected, such would operate as one vessel.

There were obvious limitations involved, said barges were not allowed to travel deep into populated systems, outlying transfer hubs are commonly found where cargoes are shifted between inbound-outbound craft. Think of modern world rail yards or truck terminals merged with interstate truck stops for the essence of such operations.

Mind having outward placed yards or terminals has opened up the insystem routes of trade to independent operators to handle said freight , such benefiting the many 'gypsy' movers and local service haulers.

 

[far-trader]

I like it