so you got a boat ...

[flykiller]

chargen is over and you survived, and you're rolling the benefits, and you get a boat. or you find one, or you steal one, or you're assigned one, whatever. new or eighty years old, doesn't matter, it's beautiful. but you want to make it MORE beautiful.

what do you do to build up your boat? better drives? better guns? better computer? install a disco dance floor and sparkle ball in the lounge?

 

[Whipsnade]

Computer programs, better weapons, bigger turrets, better and/or bigger computer, repair parts, stuff like that.

Programs are always on the wish list. You get "pre-installed" programs up to your computer's cost in MCr. With a Suleiman, once you pay for Maneuver, Jump-1, Jump-2, and Navigate about all can you afford with what's left is Anti-Hijack. Want to use that turret? Target costs a cool million but that's your entire initial software budget.

Weapons? Initially, that Beowulf doesn't even come with turrets.

Speaking of that Suleiman, you really want that life support upgrade.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Paintjob and Chrome.

 

[mike wightman]

The problem with Traveller ship design is it isn't really meant for the starship upgrade route.
Standard Hulls have a fixed size for their engineering compartment , so you can't upgrade drives unless there is space to do so.
Upgrading the computer requires taking away cargo or a stateroom/couple of low berths.
Hardpoints were fixed at the design stage - you can not install more hardpoints even if the hull could take them.

Solutions?
Drive compartment bulkhead can be moved to have a bigger engine bay, or bolt the engines on the back, ship is now a bit bigger.
Higher TL computers are smaller and you can improve capability by installing more than one to increase program capacity and flexibility.
Hardpoints can be added any time.
(A house rule for my LBB2 verse is that barbettes can be added in addition to the hardpoint limitation).

 

[kilemall]

Special capabilities.

Stealth, battery/capacitor, smuggling compartments, variable transponders/identifying markers ala the corsair, a surprisingly capable computer, nukes, special boats, dual capability (liner quickly changed to troopship and even disguised as still being a liner, etc.), applique armor if the ship can take more tonnage and we don't care about reentry, etc.

In a word, surprise.

For mine, or my NPC ships as a ref.

 

[BlackBat242]

Are you talking boats - or ships?

Boats are small (non-jump-capable) craft that are carried onboard ships (usually jump-capable, but not always) on a normal basis.


Most Traveller Refs I have dealt with do allow "boats" (small craft) as a mustering-out benefit instead of a "ship" benefit, if the situation is appropriate.

This could be a 20dt launch, a 30dt ship's boat, or a 40dt long-range pinnace.

Another example is one PC in a campaign I ran - he was a Navy fighter pilot, rose to O-4 and commanded a fighter squadron. His gaining a starship as a mustering-out benefit made no sense - he had small craft piloting & navigation skills, not starship skills, and his career also pointed away from a starship.

I ruled that his "ship" benefit was actually a 30dt fighter, one that he had captured from the opposing side during one of the "battle" or "raid" yearly assignment results (he had won the SEH on one, so we decided that was the one). The fighter had turned out to be a well-known type, so Naval Intelligence didn't ask for it to be turned over - he parked it in a corner of the carrier's hangar until they returned to their home base, then he stored in the shipyard until he retired.

This led him to seek out a merchant ship that wanted an "ace in the hole" - which was one of the other PCs who had rolled "ship" 3 times during mustering-out from his Merchant career. That PC got a 300dt merchant ship with two cargo bays - one big enough to take the fighter.

Naturally, they (and the other PCs) ended up forming a small mercenary company - with a contract with Naval Intelligence (a couple of other PCs were retired Navy, and one had been a Marine).

 

[Grav_Moped]

In-game? Weapons and computer software upgrades; possibly drive upgrades using HG build rules instead of LBB2 standard drives or vice versa.
Add or remove low berths depending on how often they're likely to be filled based on the sort of use you're planning.
Add or remove staterooms as needed.
Reconfigure the crew and passenger quarters for greater ship security from passengers.
Reconfigure the crew and passenger quarters to better handle double-occupancy by the crew if it was originally built single-occupancy.

Revert high-tech upgrades back to the original TL to enable maintenance and repair without needing to return to high TL starports.

Note that for the venerable Type S on Detached Duty, the ship is provided in a standardized configuration, and at the very least must be returned to the IISS in that configuration. Perhaps it needs to be in that configuration when returned for annual periodic maintenance, too?

For role-playing ambiance? The ship is X years old. So:
Gut the lifesystem, replace it with new components -- get rid of those stray wires and ducts that used to connect equipment that was removed years ago.

Upgrade the bridge to current user interface standards, or alternately, undo such upgrades to revert to a tried-and-true setup.

Restore to original (shipyard-new) condition for sentimental reasons.

Repair "hacked" repairs (they worked well enough to get through a few annual overhauls without doing it "right" and they'll probably keep working indefinitely. But they annoy the Engineering crew's sensibilities).

Actually cut out and properly repair some of the old battle damage and high-V micrometeor strikes; in a lot of cases the damage will have just been plated over, blended, and nuke-damper crunched with bits of distorted metal still sticking out inside the hull.

Replace worn out carried-craft or vehicles. Add a dedicated bay for one or more carried craft or vehicles.

Reconfigure the cargo hold for modular containers, or convert a modularized hold into something better suited to break-bulk cargo. Add a cargo airlock if not present, or cut one out if it's not needed. Add cargo capacity by attaching (temporarily or permanently) external cargo pods (assuming the drives will support this).

Convert some of the cargo hold to extra fuel tankage, or vice versa. Install collapsable tanks. Install drop tanks, or exterior demountable tanks (again, assuming the drives will support this).

 

[Blue Ghost]

Paintjob and Chrome.

Flames. Lots of flames.

 

[The Pakkrat]

Need for Speed

From Deneb to Antares to the Solomani Rim, this is Net-7 News!

The Vargr crew embarking on a new ship will want to upgrade the drives. Whether or not the ship will see combat, almost all Vargr love velocity and jump range. Weapons and Defenses are nice, but in peaceful times that loses its shine quickly. No, it has to be speed and jump range.

Knowing as the Pilot you can ask for 4+Gs of acceleration and have the aerofins to perform Immelmans and negative 3G pushovers in atmosphere makes tails wag.

A Vargr Astrogator that can offer the Captain/Owner that Jump-4 and plot a vector they know the computer will Green-light is worth salivating over the boards on the bridge.

The Vargr Engineer who can feel that silent moment before the power is transferred from the maneuver drive to charge the zuchai crystals in the jumpdrive and its field emitters for that plotted Jump-4 is something special. The heroics of performing a hard jump inside 100 Diameters with careful charge-up, a finely tuned drive, and in direst of need, makes the toe-claws curl.

That first meal in jumpspace with crew and passengers allows a Captain to enjoy his Charisma on a starship that can get the job done, earning it healthy tips and the payoff at the next world.

Brining you the Vargr perspective, this is the Pakkrat in orbit over Roethoeegaeaegz for Net-7 News.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

holographic chessboard in the crew lounge

 

[Condottiere]

There's no real reason you couldn't extend or contract the primary hull size, though you have to remember to adjust performance, or install new engines.

If you happen to have access to a cut rate junkyard, probably budgetarily possible.

 

[atpollard]

All new shag carpet, reupholster the commons in something classy like red velvet, gold plate the light fixtures and add some black-lights so the new velvet painting of dogs playing poker will really pop when you are relaxing with your hookah.

[We have been boarded by pirates twice, but for some reason they refused to steal anything except the beer from the fridge.]

 

[whartung]

Paintjob and Chrome.

Flames. Lots of flames.

All new shag carpet, reupholster the commons in something classy like red velvet, gold plate the light fixtures and add some black-lights so the new velvet painting of dogs playing poker will really pop when you are relaxing with your hookah.

[We have been boarded by pirates twice, but for some reason they refused to steal anything except the beer from the fridge.]

Paint it pink, lower it, and add a bouncy air suspension for those long stop lights.

 

[Enoki]

First order of business, rearrange the bulkheads, hatches, and partitions to make the thing practical (assuming its a standard design from game materials).

 

[flykiller]

This could be a 20dt launch, a 30dt ship's boat, or a 40dt long-range pinnace.

never even occured to me. like it. need a well-developed planet to make it work ....

 

[Condottiere]

Convertible ship shares.

Or a GSbAG Gift Card.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Cue up "Low Rider" on the stereo.

 

[Grav_Moped]

All new shag carpet, reupholster the commons in something classy like red velvet, gold plate the light fixtures and add some black-lights so the new velvet painting of dogs playing poker will really pop when you are relaxing with your hookah.

[We have been boarded by pirates twice, but for some reason they refused to steal anything except the beer from the fridge.]

Mural on the sides in the style of Boris Vallejo.

Diamond- or gem-shaped windows near the back.

Fuzzy dice hanging above the bridge's main viewscreen.

 

[epicenter00]

I'd replace all the cockpits with smaller windows so I could get that early-mid 20th century / Millenium Falcon / Empress Marava glazed nose look for my ship. I'm sorry if anyone disagrees with me, but that's just style.

I'd replace most of my video indicators that just display text with banks of Nixie tube displays, again because that's it's awesome. And of course, at that point, I'd also install a small fan (metal cage and all) to keep the now significantly warmer cockpit cool.

Paint it pink, lower it, and add a bouncy air suspension for those long stop lights.

This reminds of a game that I was in so many ages ago that the GM who ran it has since passed away. Once he asked us what we were going to do during Jump.

Of course, me being a munchkin back then (sadly in some ways, I'm not much better now) and some other characters went down the usual: "I go practice skills" route. It's sort of depressing prosaic of me now that I think about it.

Unlike me, one of the players was a really inspired fellow, and says he dons a spacesuit and goes outside of the ship and starts painting a mural on the outside of the hull, using an unused inflatable fuel bladder to make a "tent" on the hull so he doesn't see jump space.

To which the GM asks him, "You realize nobody is ever going to see that mural since the ship is in deep space."

And the player answers: "No, everyone will see the mural. Every time the ship is landed or docked a space port, people are going to see my mural. Even a week-on-week-jump, a trader like this spends more than half of its time docked or landed if you include yearly maintenance."

Had this look on his face like someone who was seeing a movie or a television for the first time in his life and liked the idea so much that other merchant captains were inspired by the unusual vessel and started painting murals on their ships and it became a Thing in that TU in that area.

 

[Whipsnade]

And the player answers: "No, everyone will see the mural. Every time the ship is landed or docked a space port, people are going to see my mural. Even a week-on-week-jump, a trader like this spends more than half of its time docked or landed if you include yearly maintenance."

Had this look on his face like someone who was seeing a movie or a television for the first time in his life and liked the idea so much that other merchant captains were inspired by the unusual vessel and started painting murals on their ships and it became a Thing in that TU in that area.

Awesome. Freakin' awesome. It's people like that who make role playing so rewarding. Not only was the player creative enough to come up with it, but the referee was savvy enough to run with it. Watching that mural craze sweep across the merchant crews of the region must have so satisfying for the players involved.

I once had a pair of players decide their PCs had attended an IISS service school at the same time. On their own they came up with all sort of in-game in-jokes, stories, and the like. They even used that school term to claim acquaintance with a few NPCs.

When people buy into the story, it makes it so much better for everyone.