T
Trent
Guest
(NOTE: I downloaded a great free 3d modeller called "Blender" and wanted to build a free trader in it. While doing that I came up with an idea for a radical FT variant that I couldn't get rid of, so I made the design and a backstory. At the end of the message are links to 6 basic, low detail pix of what the volturnus looks like. Have fun...)
The Volturnus: A new twist on an old design:
The players should be in need of a ship, preferably a free trader type, and have just barely enough cash to get an old, broken down, junker of one when they start looking for a ship dealer. They find an ad from "Honest Achmed", a ship dealer known for sticking to the letter of his word while making sure those letters were always subject to at least 3 possible interpretations.
When they approach honest Achmed, he will tell them he has "just the thing" for them. This should, of course, set them to defcon 1 if they weren't already there.
He shows them a a ship named the Volturnus, and the players should immediately be highly suspicious of Honest Achmed, because the ship is gleaming clean and painted in a garish assortments of metallic colors, mostly blue and purple, with the airlocks done in a hideous green and the turrets a lurid shade of red.
(The first thing a junk dealer does when trying to push a lemon off the lot is paint it up.)
Honest Achmed claims the ship was originally painted in those colors, and is telling the truth. The players can (barely) tell the ship is based on the classic free trader design, but has been built to a radically altered design. The ship is extremely streamlined, broader and flatter than a normal beowulf class. Also there is a strange structure under the hull that appears to be an atmospheric intake of some sort. It's presence will require the ship to land on flatter, less cluttered terrain than a normal beowulf. (Note the ships landing legs are somewhat longer than a standard beowulf's.)
Inside the ship the players will find some surprises.
The ship is built to an extremely high standard of quality, and even though obviously long used has been well tended, it is in excellent shape. The radically streamlined hull is so sound it can withstand about 2x the external air pressure of a standard beowulf.
The ceilings are kind of low. A normal human can stand them, a tall human will not like the ship and a zhoad would find it hellish.
The ship has 10% less cargo space than a normal beowulf, the space being lost to streamlining and the extra atmospheric conduits for the extra processor.
The ship's fuel processors are of very high quality. The ship can process a full load of fuel in 75% of the time it would take a normal beowulf to do so. If the lower intake and processor is used, this drops to 66% of the time needed for a regular free trader to fuel skim.
The ship's streamlining allows it much better atmospheric performance. It is 10% faster and 20% more maneuverable in an atmosphere than a free trader, and as mentioned earlier can tolerate more external pressure.
The structure on the underside is an atmospheric intake and processor, but it features special, programmable filters than can be programmed (moderate task) to filter out specific kinds of gasses and channel them to special storage tanks that can be mounted in the cargo holds. It can serve as a simple extra fuel processor, as noted.
Now for the bad news...
Asides from 10% less cargo space as noted, the Volturnus has some other problems. Her fuel processors are more effective than normal ones and require much more maintenance work. At least 2d6 hours per filter per use, including the underside one, above and beyond normal maintenance. Failure to do so will decrease the efficiency of the fuel processors and increase fuel skimming time. (In some cases using the underside fuel intake may not be worth the maint time that would have to be spent afterwards.)
The ship's hull is made of custom plates that would be hard and costly to replace, especially the windows and airlock doors. While any functional ship service site should, in Traveller's time, be able to fabricate the parts from the ship's schematics and specifications database, doing so will take time and cost more.
The ship's vacc and jump performances are identical to a normal beowulf.
Honest Achmed knows the Volturnus would be hard to unload to anyone who could afford a stock free trader, and is offering it at a real bargain, if you can tolerate the ship's problems.
BACKGROUND:
The Volturnus was built to explore gas giant atmospheres and selectively find and gather rare gasses from them. She was moderately successful at this for a while and made back her investment costs in rare gasses such as di-ethane and trioxidichlorizide 123. It was classified as a HOAP, Highly Optimized Atmospheric Performance variant of the beowulf design.
After a functioning Ancient base was found floating in the atmosphere of a gas giant, the Solomani purchased her and used her to search for other examples of such in their space.
Later the ship was used as a "storm rider", taking rich, bored elites on cruises through violent, spectacular storms in the atmospheres of some gas giants.
How the ship wound up in Honest Achmed's hands, he won't tell to protect his supplier's confidence.
A library use will trace the term Volturnus to ancient terra. A higher success will link it to the name of a god. A near perfect research roll will reveal the name volturnus was the name of the god of the tiber river on ancient terra. A perfect success will reveal there was a wind god named Volturnus too.
Volturnus low detail images:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus6-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus5.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus4-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus3-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus2-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus1.jpg
The Volturnus: A new twist on an old design:
The players should be in need of a ship, preferably a free trader type, and have just barely enough cash to get an old, broken down, junker of one when they start looking for a ship dealer. They find an ad from "Honest Achmed", a ship dealer known for sticking to the letter of his word while making sure those letters were always subject to at least 3 possible interpretations.
When they approach honest Achmed, he will tell them he has "just the thing" for them. This should, of course, set them to defcon 1 if they weren't already there.
He shows them a a ship named the Volturnus, and the players should immediately be highly suspicious of Honest Achmed, because the ship is gleaming clean and painted in a garish assortments of metallic colors, mostly blue and purple, with the airlocks done in a hideous green and the turrets a lurid shade of red.
(The first thing a junk dealer does when trying to push a lemon off the lot is paint it up.)
Honest Achmed claims the ship was originally painted in those colors, and is telling the truth. The players can (barely) tell the ship is based on the classic free trader design, but has been built to a radically altered design. The ship is extremely streamlined, broader and flatter than a normal beowulf class. Also there is a strange structure under the hull that appears to be an atmospheric intake of some sort. It's presence will require the ship to land on flatter, less cluttered terrain than a normal beowulf. (Note the ships landing legs are somewhat longer than a standard beowulf's.)
Inside the ship the players will find some surprises.
The ship is built to an extremely high standard of quality, and even though obviously long used has been well tended, it is in excellent shape. The radically streamlined hull is so sound it can withstand about 2x the external air pressure of a standard beowulf.
The ceilings are kind of low. A normal human can stand them, a tall human will not like the ship and a zhoad would find it hellish.
The ship has 10% less cargo space than a normal beowulf, the space being lost to streamlining and the extra atmospheric conduits for the extra processor.
The ship's fuel processors are of very high quality. The ship can process a full load of fuel in 75% of the time it would take a normal beowulf to do so. If the lower intake and processor is used, this drops to 66% of the time needed for a regular free trader to fuel skim.
The ship's streamlining allows it much better atmospheric performance. It is 10% faster and 20% more maneuverable in an atmosphere than a free trader, and as mentioned earlier can tolerate more external pressure.
The structure on the underside is an atmospheric intake and processor, but it features special, programmable filters than can be programmed (moderate task) to filter out specific kinds of gasses and channel them to special storage tanks that can be mounted in the cargo holds. It can serve as a simple extra fuel processor, as noted.
Now for the bad news...
Asides from 10% less cargo space as noted, the Volturnus has some other problems. Her fuel processors are more effective than normal ones and require much more maintenance work. At least 2d6 hours per filter per use, including the underside one, above and beyond normal maintenance. Failure to do so will decrease the efficiency of the fuel processors and increase fuel skimming time. (In some cases using the underside fuel intake may not be worth the maint time that would have to be spent afterwards.)
The ship's hull is made of custom plates that would be hard and costly to replace, especially the windows and airlock doors. While any functional ship service site should, in Traveller's time, be able to fabricate the parts from the ship's schematics and specifications database, doing so will take time and cost more.
The ship's vacc and jump performances are identical to a normal beowulf.
Honest Achmed knows the Volturnus would be hard to unload to anyone who could afford a stock free trader, and is offering it at a real bargain, if you can tolerate the ship's problems.
BACKGROUND:
The Volturnus was built to explore gas giant atmospheres and selectively find and gather rare gasses from them. She was moderately successful at this for a while and made back her investment costs in rare gasses such as di-ethane and trioxidichlorizide 123. It was classified as a HOAP, Highly Optimized Atmospheric Performance variant of the beowulf design.
After a functioning Ancient base was found floating in the atmosphere of a gas giant, the Solomani purchased her and used her to search for other examples of such in their space.
Later the ship was used as a "storm rider", taking rich, bored elites on cruises through violent, spectacular storms in the atmospheres of some gas giants.
How the ship wound up in Honest Achmed's hands, he won't tell to protect his supplier's confidence.
A library use will trace the term Volturnus to ancient terra. A higher success will link it to the name of a god. A near perfect research roll will reveal the name volturnus was the name of the god of the tiber river on ancient terra. A perfect success will reveal there was a wind god named Volturnus too.
Volturnus low detail images:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus6-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus5.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus4-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus3-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus2-1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/tanhauser/volturnus1.jpg
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