150/250/etc... ton ships

[FentonGib]

Unless I've missed something, the ship creation rules start at 100 tons and move up in multiples of 100, and everything works on this.

However I've noticed a few designs in books are 150 or 250 tons.

If I wanted to make a ship that was a 250 tonner would I thus have to use the lookup charts (e.g. drive potential tables) for a 200 tonner, a 300 tonner, or is there some expansion somewhere that covers this that I don't know about? (it's not in my core traveller or high guard that I can see).

Thanx

 

[locarno24]

Essentially, the drive requirements, hull classes, etc, are for ships 'up to X dTons'.

So a 150 dTon class 2 hull costs the same as a 200 dTon class 2 hull and needs the same drives - however, it may save costs in other areas (for example, a 5% tonnage layer of armour is only 7.5 dTons rather than 10 dTons)

 

[dmccoy1693]

In my designs for my home game, I use a sliding scale. But for publishing, I do what locarno24 says. That's the way the book states it.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Personally, I just stay with the 100 ton jumps. WHY you would worry about designing a 463 ton ship is beyond me. Increments of 100 tons (or more at higher tonnages) is just fine and "close enough" for me.

Having said that, I DID consider making up new tables for my version of the Aslan that used 64 tons as the base rather than 100 tons with a 128 ton ship as the smallest jump capable vessel, but then I took a nap and felt better...

 

[dmccoy1693]

Personally, I just stay with the 100 ton jumps. WHY you would worry about designing a 463 ton ship is beyond me. Increments of 100 tons (or more at higher tonnages) is just fine and "close enough" for me.

To publish a layout that matches up ton for ton with the stat block.

 

[FentonGib]

In my case I wanted to design a ship for the players (supposedly a new design made by an npc that is the daughter of one of the players - the players are the field-testers for the new prototype which, if succesful, will eventually go into mass-retail as a standard design) which was small enough to be fast, but tough enough to be useful for the military.

I found with 200 tons (which is what it is) cargo/options space was very limited. A 300 tonner was a big larger than I imagined this ship being. A 250 tonner would be that little bit beefier and give more storage/option space, whilst keeping some things cheaper (e.g. armour) than it would for a 300 tonner.

Not saying I'll change it now, but nice to know the option is there Thanks ppl.

 

[AndrewW]

Would be nice if the system scaled better to in-between sizes but unless you are doing capital ships the system doesn't really support that.

 

[far-trader]

No reason you can't interpolate the tables for values between those listed

 

[AndrewW]

No reason you can't interpolate the tables for values between those listed

There is if you are designing ships that need to conform to the existing design system...

 

[DFW]

A simple way to do it is to take the difference between the two and divide by 2.

Examples: Hull cost for a 150 ton.

Hull code 1 price: MCr2
Hull code 2 price: MCr8

Difference of MCr6/2=3 + MCr2 = MCr5 for a 150Dt hull

"A" drive equivalent J-Drives for the 150Dt = 12.5 Tons, Mcr15.

Not perfect but, possibly workable...

 

[far-trader]

No reason you can't interpolate the tables for values between those listed

There is if you are designing ships that need to conform to the existing design system...

OK, I didn't think the "for YOUR game" disclaimer was really necessary in the context of the OP's question

Actually I'm not sure it's needed at all. They'd conform well enough, if applied consistently, that the only argument against them could be they aren't cannon per rules as written.

Oh I suppose one could argue that The Traveller Universe only manufactures things in 100ton standards and nobody nowhere ever makes anything in off sizes, but that sounds a bit silly. I've been interpolating ship design tables since shortly after CT LBB2 came out and nobody's died because of it

 

[locarno24]

In my case I wanted to design a ship for the players (supposedly a new design made by an npc that is the daughter of one of the players - the players are the field-testers for the new prototype which, if succesful, will eventually go into mass-retail as a standard design) which was small enough to be fast, but tough enough to be useful for the military.

I found with 200 tons (which is what it is) cargo/options space was very limited. A 300 tonner was a big larger than I imagined this ship being. A 250 tonner would be that little bit beefier and give more storage/option space, whilst keeping some things cheaper (e.g. armour) than it would for a 300 tonner.

Not saying I'll change it now, but nice to know the option is there Thanks ppl.

I can understand what you mean. For a 'light paramilitary' design, adding an extra 50 dTons means an extra point of internal and external damage, and enough tonnage to slot in a less spartan layout.

Besides which, military minds being what they are, a 250 dTon seems perfectly reasonable - a tonnage which divides exactly into 1,000 dTons seems in some ways 'cleaner' than 300 dTons (and charging over the odds for a slightly non-standard hull is perfectly in keeping with some defence contractors...)

 

[Bense]

Unless I've missed something, the ship creation rules start at 100 tons and move up in multiples of 100, and everything works on this.

Actually above 1,000 tons it's in multiples of 200, so you can't build a ship of 1,100 or 1,500 tons either.

 

[rinku]

The rules derive from the old CT ones, where you had standard hulls (as listed) but could commission custom hulls of any* size at extra cost per ton. Standard hulls also had standard engineering compartments, which limited the combined drive sizes that could be installed (which led to custom 400 ton hulls and such). Also note - these are basically the civilian hulls and drives, not the military ones (though the military can naturally make use of them).

The concept of a standard hull may derive from Larry Niven's General Hulls. Which naturally means the Puppeteers (Hivers) are behind it all.

* up to the max size allowed, which I think was 5000 tons.

 

[AndrewW]

* up to the max size allowed, which I think was 5000 tons.

Yup, Book 2: Starships allowed up to 5,000 tons. Book 5: High Guard of course allowed higher.