Vegan starship designs

[Brian C Beauchamp]

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone knows of any Vegan starship designs out there of particular interest would be there vary earliest jump capable small ships 100 -400t.? I would love to see something with deck plans suitable for use with snap shot thanks.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Can't think of any. Sorry.

 

[beowulf2044]

I'm certain most of the Vegan craft would be Imperium hand-me-downs, like the Azhanti High Lightning class ship they were given. Humans aboard would simply grouse about the internal life support with the low gravity, reddish lighting and lack of humidity. The freshers would probably be interesting.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone knows of any Vegan starship designs out there of particular interest would be there vary earliest jump capable small ships 100 -400t.? I would love to see something with deck plans suitable for use with snap shot thanks.

Can't say as I've ever heard of any either.

 

[Ran Targas]

Seems to be ripe territory for some liberal interpretation. Does beg the question though "do Vegans bother to build their own ships?". Plenty of Solomani and Vilani ships and successful ship designs for copying ...

I personally would like to see more ships representing the efforts of minor races to exercise their creativity, independence and self-reliance.

 

[Sturn]

Seems to be ripe territory for some liberal interpretation. Does beg the question though "do Vegans bother to build their own ships?". Plenty of Solomani and Vilani ships and successful ship designs for copying ...

I would like these questions answered also due to my Terran Dawn setting being within the Solomani Rim at the end of the Long Night. I haven't designed any Vegan ships yet.

It would seem plausible that the Vegans did copy Vilani designs early. With the fall of the 1st Imperium and an alliance with Terra, they could have very well started copying early Solomani designs. But, the Long Night came which may have encouraged semi-isolated Vegans to strike out with their own designs.

Perhaps a hybrid of old Vilani and Solomani designs tweaked for Vegans?

 

[Ran Targas]

Well what kind of design themes could we expect from Vegans based on their physiology, environment, etc.?

K'kree starships have large open spaces, Aslan have a fondness for curves, Vargr like their talon-shaped wings; what can we surmise from what we know about Vegans?

 

[aramis]

My suppositions....

Larger controls (due to tentacles, rather than fingers & forearms), more likely to use multi-button cup arrays*. knobs will probably be rare, and levers and sliders more likely. Simple controls can be separated further (human finger reach is 10-25cm, centered around 14cm; vegan tentacle spread looks to be over 60cm, maybe in range 50-100cm...) so safety co-switches may be inobvious pairings to humans/vargr.

Triggers unlikely to be on the joystick, but instead on the panel nearby.

Door latch release inside grip tube (and thus not visible).

Lighting and painting spectrum slightly different.


* The postal service is using 5x5-button cups for mail-sorters keying stuff; each cup has up, down, left, right, and inward; these seem far more likely to be in vegan use, possibly with 2 layers, for a 9-button cup!

 

[whitedalek]

is there any artwork on the Vegans, beyond the race portraits in old Challenge articles ??

 

[far-trader]

Not that it should stop anyone but I have a vague recollection of the Vegan's being a subject race and not permitted to build their own ships. But maybe that isn't canon, might be some early house rule from our old games.

In any case this might be a good thread to kick off an old fashioned design challenge and ask for designs. Just pick a rules system for the build and what you'd like to see in the way of size and usage. I'd love to participate but am (should be ) too busy at the moment.

 

[far-trader]

is there any artwork on the Vegans, beyond the race portraits in old Challenge articles ??

I seem to recall a drawing in the LBB Library entry showing a Vegan.

 

[Arvig]

Not that it should stop anyone but I have a vague recollection of the Vegan's being a subject race and not permitted to build their own ships. But maybe that isn't canon, might be some early house rule from our old games.

In any case this might be a good thread to kick off an old fashioned design challenge and ask for designs. Just pick a rules system for the build and what you'd like to see in the way of size and usage. I'd love to participate but am (should be ) too busy at the moment.

To quote from the Traveller Wikia (I assume it's using Canon for this article):

"The Vegans received the Jump Drive about - 6000, from Vilani-influenced traders, and colonized several nearby worlds before being absorbed by the First Imperium in -4404. They were severely restricted under Vilani rule, as were all races who resisted being integrated into the rigid Vilani culture. Because of this, they welcomed Terran victory in the Interstellar Wars and the advent of the Rule of Man. The Vegan Polity prospered under the Rule of Man and survived the Long Night largely intact. However, with the advent of the Third Imperium, the Vegan area was broken into individual planetary states in accord with Imperial policy; non-humans were treated as full citizens but, in order to cement Imperial authority, no multiworld governmental units were allowed.

Under the Solomani, the Vegans were again restricted. Human colonies were founded on many Vegan worlds to maintain Solomani influence there, and Solomani governors were installed on all Vegan worlds. After the Solomani Rim War, the present Vegan Autonomous District was formed as a counterweight to the Solomani. "

Link to the article in question, including an illustration that I think I've seen a few times before in a CT LBB (maybe the second Library Data book, or the CT LBB Solomani Rim sector book?)

http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Vegan


IMO this implies they would probably mostly use Imperial designs converted to their use, although they might have some unique hull designs left over from when they initially bought J-drives from the First Imperium, and/or from the days of the Second Imperium. But I could see a few ways to interpit that paragraph as well.

 

[Brian C Beauchamp]

Design Challenge

Hello all thanks for the excellent and very helpful replies. I am currently designing a campaign that I intend to be set in an alternate traveler time line, “read as not remotely cannon”, it will be basically the classic traveler rules set, with a few house rules additions. My intent is to run it as the sort of classic type A1 free trader campaign, set in the early days of terra’s interstellar exploration. I would like to run the vegans as a first contact, the adventure set in unexplored space. I really liked Far trader’s idea of a design challenge; aramis had a lot of very good ideas as well.

Ok so here is the design challenge a 100-400t vegan exploration ship, with deck planes, that was designed by vegans for vegans. The vessel should be jump-1 at most jump-2 capable with a crew not to exceed twenty individuals, drop tanks are ok. Try and imagine yourself as a Vegan naval architect and make the ship as alien as possible. I am using just books 1-3 for the campaign to start with but feel free to use high guard if you like. Should first contact go poorly I intend to run a good old fashioned snapshot in ship shoot out so deck plans are important.

In terms of the classic traveler time line I would think that the vegan’s stole jump tech from the early Vilani and Solomani traders and that was the primary influence on their navel architecture. I would just assume at some point along the way the vegans designed and built at least some of their own ships, if nothing else for comforts sake, they are adapted too low gravity after all. I really appreciate all of the feedback on this thread thanks so much.

 

[rancke]

I'm certain most of the Vegan craft would be Imperium hand-me-downs, like the Azhanti High Lightning class ship they were given. Humans aboard would simply grouse about the internal life support with the low gravity, reddish lighting and lack of humidity. The freshers would probably be interesting.

Muan Gwi, the Vegan homeworld, has a population of 41 billion and a tech level of 15. Other Vegan worlds add more than 66 billion more, most, if not all, living on worlds with stellar technology. I'm certain most Vegan craft would be purpose-built state-of-the-art ships of Vegan origin. My guess is that the Imperial so-called "hand-me-downs" (which would have no practical value whatsoever compared to the navy the Vegans would have built for themselves) would be ceremonial gifts of great symbolic significance.

It's quite likely they base their designs on Solomani and Imperial designs, but after more than a century of autonomy, they will no doubt have added some wrinkles of their own.

Aside: The Vegans average 2.2 m in height. Maybe the decks on their own ships are bigger?


Hans

 

[Andrew Boulton]

<thinks>

Low gravity...tall and slim?...tail-sitter?...tree-like or gothic cathedral?...hmm...

 

[Sturn]

To reflect their society, perhaps Vegan ships would be very compartmentalized.

Vegans are divided into distinct societal groups/clans/castes. Their crews and ship departments might be very distinct and segregated. This is already apparent in human ships (Engineering, Bridge, etc), but perhaps a deckplan could somehow stress this even more?

1. Very modular designs. Ships designed in sections (Bridge, Engineering, Cargo/Passenger Hold, Weapons, etc) then fitted together. May lead to ships being very blocky in design.

2. Crew living areas for each department within the ship (a.i. engineering bunks within the engineering section itself instead of a combined crew stateroom area).

 

[Ran Targas]

^ Must have deckplans!!!

 

[Starviking]

To reflect their society, perhaps Vegan ships would be very compartmentalized.

Vegans are divided into distinct societal groups/clans/castes. Their crews and ship departments might be very distinct and segregated. This is already apparent in human ships (Engineering, Bridge, etc), but perhaps a deckplan could somehow stress this even more?

I don't know about that - it seems a bit 'rubber-suity' to me, i.e. here's the aliens who do X for no reason. On Earth Indians still are largely influenced by caste, but that doesn't seem to effect the gross designs of their ships - though it may have an effect on how their ships are run.

Now the Vegan Tuhuir have their own cultures and traditions - so the way that this might influence a ship design might be in how tightly focussed the design is to its perceived role. For example, a Vegan Scout might be designed for scouting only - with no provisions for the courier role as seen in the Imperial design.

 

[BlackBat242]

I don't know about that - it seems a bit 'rubber-suity' to me, i.e. here's the aliens who do X for no reason. On Earth Indians still are largely influenced by caste, but that doesn't seem to effect the gross designs of their ships - though it may have an effect on how their ships are run.

The modern Indian Navy grew from, and was originally patterned after, the Royal Navy... where most of its early personnel & all its early officers gained their initial Naval experience.

For the last half-century+, since being granted independence from the British Empire, the vast majority of their ships have been either UK/USSR/Russia-built, or locally-designed derivatives of UK/USSR/Russia-built designs.

Therefore, their Navy, its customs, and its ships, are distinctly European in nature, and do not reflect what an independent India would have developed over the last 2 centuries.



As for the Vegans, and your comment... "rubber-suit" is a term to describe making aliens that look different, but act just like humans.

In this case, what was proposed was that the Vegans incorporate their own culture into their ship designs, rather than copying Vilani or Solomani designs that don't reflect Vegan cultural norms!

Therefore, it is Vegans acting like Vegans... which is the opposite of "rubber-suity"!

They are NOT "aliens who do X for no reason", but "aliens who do X because that fits their described culture"!

 

[rancke]

They are NOT "aliens who do X for no reason", but "aliens who do X because that fits their described culture"!

Which one? Each tuihur is (more or less) a separate culture. And what description? None of them have really been described; the writeup just says that there are lots and lots of them. I think Vegan starships would either be patterned on human ones (with changes made to fit their physiology), or reflect a wide range of different patterns representing different design philosophies of different tuihurs.

Aside: For inspiration about Vegan tuihurs, try looking at the Mongwaingi (?) in Poul Anderson's "After Doomsday".


Hans