Who uses big ships?

[Dr_Skull]

I'm wondering, how many of you actually use the big naval vessels of the Traveller universe in actual games?

I mean I did have characters get their hands on a 800-ton mercenary cruiser, and maybe a few other ships in to 1000-2000dton range, but all those giant battleships just seem to me to be "a big whomping thing used to make the PC's behave themselves."

Are campaigns of Trillion Credit Squadron or similar high-level campaigns involving mass fleet battles at all common? Is there a significant subset of players who fight out big starship battles, or do they just like to design the ships?

 

[Bishop Odo]

I have only used big ships for “bug hunts,” When I say big I mean 5k or above, easier for the little critters to hide. I just found, the bigger the crew the less actual role playing occurs and more record keeping involved. I played in a FASA Star Trek game and it was hard not to be a spectator. This is, I generally try to use “Droids” to reduce the number of crew needed, and allow the game to develop. I guess, I would allow player to have a ship no bigger than say 1000 or maybe 1500 tons or less, but it depends on the campaign, and the group. I often believe that most of the gripes about game systems stem from poor players and GM, rather than mechanics, if your group can handle it go for it.

 

[casquilho]

We played our normal RPG with ships in the 100 to 1000 ton range for the most part. It was a size range that made sense for one on one type action.

Later on when we wanted to play larger ship to ship battles I used Full Thrust to war game the sfleet battles, but they were more for fun and the true role playing always seemed to find it's way back to the smaller ships.

Daniel

 

[robject]

Big ships in role-playing are more like planets than ships, it seems.

I was in an abortive Islands campaign once, though... played New Colchis, and managed to seize two neutral systems (on the second turn I believe) before the game went into permanent stasis... I was terrible at designing High Guard ships.

 

[aramis]

Not entirely so, Robject.

I've had some games where the PC's were command crew on BIG ships... 100KTd+...

Very much a star trek variant feel.

 

[Golan2072]

I'm playing the captain of a 1,200-dton Solomani patrol warship in a PBEM game (now on hold; soon to be resumed). The key to a successful game in such a ship is to shift much of the focus from the tactical to the strategic level of things - if you're playing the Captain, you're dealing with the big picture and giving orders most of the time, not dealing with each and every small matter. The challenge for the players in such a game is to make the right "big picture" decisions in difficult situations and utilizing your resources (ship, fighters, NPC crew, NPC marines) in the best way possible. It is a bit more of a strategy wargame than usual, but you still get to role-play the captain.

Think of it as if you're playing Striker but role-playing the unit's CO as a real player-character.

---

Another possibility for using a large ship for the PCs is having the PCs play a Marine fireteam of squad posted aboard a large warship. They get to play the ground combat at the usual personal level, while the ship (commanded by NPCs and crewed mostly by NPCs) provides them with transport, medical care, an armory, and, most importantly, a home.

 

[Plankowner]

I was a player in a game where we were the command crew of an Azhanti High Lightning.

We were Naval and Marine Officers in the Spinward Marches Sector Fleet (stationed at Lunion).

We actually 3 groups of characters that we played.

1. The Command Crew (ala Star Trek)
2. An Away Team (Marines mostly)
3. Picket Ship (a Scout ship crew)

Since we could bounce between the three sets of characters as the mission required, we could do a LOT of different things.

It was fun and lasted about 6 months real time; playing about every week.

 

[Jame]

I've used really big ships as either scenery or as opposition for my players. Never in command for them.

 

[Gaming Glen]

I was a player in a game where we were the command crew of an Azhanti High Lightning.

We were Naval and Marine Officers in the Spinward Marches Sector Fleet (stationed at Lunion).

We actually 3 groups of characters that we played.

1. The Command Crew (ala Star Trek)
2. An Away Team (Marines mostly)
3. Picket Ship (a Scout ship crew)

Since we could bounce between the three sets of characters as the mission required, we could do a LOT of different things.

It was fun and lasted about 6 months real time; playing about every week.

This was something I was going to do, although the third group were fighter pilots, as the campaign was a take off of BSG in that the Aurora-class cruiser (since I have a miniature of it) was sent out to find Earth as a morale boost and rallying point for humans to fight off a serious alien invasion (different universe, lots of human pocket empires, not the usual minor alien invasion that a larger pocket empire had beaten back before). Campaign never got off the ground as only two people showed up. *sigh*

 

[Icosahedron]

IMTU big ships, and the Imperium they belong to, never take centre stage. Tales told about them serve the purpose of making sure the little ones are safely tucked up in bed before it goes dark...

 

[R_Chance]

Most interactions and adventures involve small ships... when I've used big ships they tend to serve as settings (base of ops, etc.). They do come in handy to restrain some PC tendencies. It's rough being caught abusing the helpless low tech natives in your "magical" free trader when that Imperial cruiser shows up for it's yearly inspection / flag showing / diplomatic maintenance visit

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

My ATU is a very pro-small ship universe.

When I was developing my now standard introductory scenario, my munchkin player had a self-designed 500,000 ton battlewagon. I realized that it didn't matter about the size of the ship, since good role playing comes down to individual actions. The major character's ship in my revised scenario is 600 tons.

Once I roughly calculated the displacement of the USS Enterprise. My math was probably way off, but IIRC I got something like 180,000 tons! Hard to keep character focus on an individual with something that big...

My ATU has large ships, but they don't appear until very high tech levels (at least TL14).

 

[JAFARR]

My ATU is a very pro-small ship universe.

When I was developing my now standard introductory scenario, my munchkin player had a self-designed 500,000 ton battlewagon. I realized that it didn't matter about the size of the ship, since good role playing comes down to individual actions. The major character's ship in my revised scenario is 600 tons.

Once I roughly calculated the displacement of the USS Enterprise. My math was probably way off, but IIRC I got something like 180,000 tons! Hard to keep character focus on an individual with something that big...

My ATU has large ships, but they don't appear until very high tech levels (at least TL14).

I think the Big E is about 75,000 tons displacement and the Nimitz class displaces 85,000 tons, but what is the ratio of real world displacement and Traveller dtons? The Big E is longer which means if you could give them equal power after compensating for differing mass, that Big E would be faster. I served on both. Nimitz is listed as having a top speed of 30+ knots. I can tell you that the + is hefty. Also I have been told that if you could convert the output of all 8 reactors on the Enterprise into powering it's main engines it might just be the fastest hull on the water at 400+ knots. Several problems prevent that from being practical. One is there aren't any drive systems that can handle that much power without wringing the propeller shafts in two. There was an incident while I was onboard when we were down to one reactor on line and we still were able to maintain 12 knots.

 

[Peter Schutze]

Sounds like everyone thinks bigger ship = warship

I had a ball with several merchant / explorer games set on mid-sized trade ships with 500-1000t of cargo space

That cargo bay doesnt add anywhere near as many crew as 500-1000t of warship does

 

[Icosahedron]

I figured Blackirish was talking about the Trek ship?

Trek doesn't have a problem with individual action on a large ship, but then Starfleet Academy does seem to encourage a very 'hands-on' management style that has most of the Bridge Crew heading every exploration team. :nonono:

 

[Golan2072]

Sounds like everyone thinks bigger ship = warship

I had a ball with several merchant / explorer games set on mid-sized trade ships with 500-1000t of cargo space

That cargo bay doesnt add anywhere near as many crew as 500-1000t of warship does

Hmmm... Does LBB7 (Merchant Prince) support large cargoes? LBB2 usually assumes a small cargo bay.

 

[kafka47]

Big ships are very good for a Campaign composed of newbies. For if they have not seen Firefly most people's exposure to SF is through big ships. This allows the party to try out a number of different character classes whilst still being enlisted.

Big ships can also set the stage for adventures as in the King Richard or my modest effort here on the board. This gives players a familar terrain without them ever really leaving the safety of a home camp (they can always retreat to their cabins when the going gets rough).

Big ships are also fun when players are versed in tactics (usually wargamers) then each can take charge of a big ship or a squadron for competitive play. Done this a few times but found really hard to keep track, as I am not a wargamer...but friends of mine who are make it fun.

 

[robject]

Sounds like everyone thinks bigger ship = warship

I had a ball with several merchant / explorer games set on mid-sized trade ships with 500-1000t of cargo space

That cargo bay doesnt add anywhere near as many crew as 500-1000t of warship does

That works very well for exploratory merchants and freighter routes. And still seems to have (relatively) small ships.

 

[far-trader]

Hmmm... Does LBB7 (Merchant Prince) support large cargoes? LBB2 usually assumes a small cargo bay.

On the right route LBB2 can easily generate 500tons of freight. If you have a big merchant ship it's almost certainly subsidized meaning you would have factors on each planet pre-booking passage and/or freight so you would always be running nearly full. The LBB2 rolls are probably just the left overs the free-traders and casually haulers (that DD scout with the old type S at his disposal) will find.

 

[Scott Martin]

My alternate game setting has *really* big bulk haulers and jump ferries (several hundred dTon freighters and kilometer long jump frames with standard attachment points for carried craft) with a sprinkling of "Big" ships (10,000 dTon or so survey ships and troop transports) but most of the warships are under 1,000 dTons and there are a *lot* of smaller "packet" merchants and courier ships in the ~300-600 dTon range.

When I start the game again, the players will start with a modular ~300 dT packet freighter / scout on detached service (IIRC Jump-2, 1 G, modest maneuver reserve, with 80 dT or so of cargo capacity and 2 configurable modules of ~30 dT each)

In this universe there is a political entity called "The Empire" which uses BIG ships as warships - but they're more than a bit horrified at the cavilier attitudes towards "Weapons of mass destruction" (nuclear missiles, and KKM's) used by some of the "Barbaric" polities. Big ships in a KKM universe are really tough until they allow one missile "leaker" and then it's pretty much game over.

Scott Martin