200 ton Pirate Trader

[mavikfelna]

For my son who has rolled up a Noble Merchant that is turning pirate, I generated a special Far Trader conversion to a pirate ship. The conversion financed of course by stealing the money from his dad, the Duke of Tobia.

This is a 200 ton M-2 J-2 ship with twin triple turrets with each turret having 1 Pulse Laser, 1 Sandcaster and 1 Particle Beam. The ship only has 40 tons of cargo space but it does have a 200 ton capacity jump net that can be used for externally carried freight or to tow captured ships. There is a 3.2 ton smuggling compartment for when you need to get small contraband past the local authorities. Sensors have been upgraded to Military Grade to better find potential targets and to watch for system authority vessels.

There is a fuel blader to allow 4 parsec crossings and the ship is fitted for external tanks up to 200 tons to allow crossing of the Great Rift along the J-5 transit route if needed, the journey will just take an extremely long time.

The ship carries a full complement of robotic crew to allow the ship to maximize either passenger capacity, or the ability to carry up to 12 raiders for boarding operations. The ship has a forced linkage boarding connector for said boarding operations.

 

[rinku]

 

[Terry Mixon]

No AutoBeths to store prisoners?

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

No Basic Stealth that you can turn on as the battle starts for surprise edge?

How about making it modular with as much of your military stuff as possible in one module (stored on your hidden asteroid base) while you use your "honest trader" module to fence the goods.

Docking clamps would let you carry away 100 to 200 ton ships at jump 1.

 

[mavikfelna]

No Basic Stealth that you can turn on as the battle starts for surprise edge?

How about making it modular with as much of your military stuff as possible in one module (stored on your hidden asteroid base) while you use your "honest trader" module to fence the goods.

Docking clamps would let you carry away 100 to 200 ton ships at jump 1.

Stealth was too expensive.
Modular is a possibility. Not sure it's worth it for this though.
The Jump Net allows for hauling away anything up to 200 tons and takes less tonnage.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

The Jump Net allows for hauling away anything up to 200 tons and takes less tonnage.

Depends on the cargo. Some cargo can't survive it. Especially human cargo. Shame to pirate a ship and have no way to carry the valuables away with you.

 

[rinku]

Since it's a modified common type, it probably works best to hide in plain sight. Otherwise it might have been worth considering an Adjustable Hull. And still might be, if only for the cool factor of transforming into a "Free Trader" or a "Yacht". With different registration details...

(And while the adjustable hull ruse is seen through at close range... Yachts in particular are meant to be quite varied - the standard one was traditionally intended to be a sample - and it would not be unheard of for a noble to install an adjustable hull just so they could pick a style of the week.)

A holographic hull would help the ship disguise itself as some other, totally not a pirate Far Trader... with advertising! It's also probably easier to add on later than an Adjustable hull. Although you can have both! (and again... a holo hull on a noble's ship is almost expected)

As far as hostages go... shoot 'em up on Fast drug and stack 'em in bunks. Far safer and cheaper than the freezer.

Arr.

 

[mavikfelna]

Since it's a modified common type, it probably works best to hide in plain sight. Otherwise it might have been worth considering an Adjustable Hull. And still might be, if only for the cool factor of transforming into a "Free Trader" or a "Yacht". With different registration details...

(And while the adjustable hull ruse is seen through at close range... Yachts in particular are meant to be quite varied - the standard one was traditionally intended to be a sample - and it would not be unheard of for a noble to install an adjustable hull just so they could pick a style of the week.)

A holographic hull would help the ship disguise itself as some other, totally not a pirate Far Trader... with advertising! It's also probably easier to add on later than an Adjustable hull. Although you can have both! (and again... a holo hull on a noble's ship is almost expected)

As far as hostages go... shoot 'em up on Fast drug and stack 'em in bunks. Far safer and cheaper than the freezer.

Arr.

I really like this idea, but the ship is already 10MCr over a Far Trader because of the weapons. Nd this is a starting ship.
Funnily enough one of the ship's quirks is +1 reputation with law enforcement so the adjustable hull would make sense.

 

[rinku]

Fortunately both are refit options...

But honestly, does it really matter if it's over the starting budget? Rule of cool.

And you've already established it was built with stolen funds, so there's a nice disadvantage to balance things out.

 

[mavikfelna]

Fortunately both are refit options...

But honestly, does it really matter if it's over the starting budget? Rule of cool.

And you've already established it was built with stolen funds, so there's a nice disadvantage to balance things out.

I don't know if his admin level is high enough to hide that amount of graft. But, as you say, it's already stolen money so I can probably do the adjustable hull.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I don't know if his admin level is high enough to hide that amount of graft. But, as you say, it's already stolen money so I can probably do the adjustable hull.

So his admin level failed him. That is why he is on the run after all.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Time for you to read the Stainless Steel Rat (if you haven't) by Harry Harrison and find how the villain gets a custom built battleship.

 

[rinku]

The TL12 version of the adjustable hull is only 10% base hull cost (1MCr for a 200 ton hull) at a cost of 5% hull volume (10 tons). That's only one ship share... quite the affordable upgrade! And 200 tons is frankly THE most useful size for it, since there are seven standard ships of that size, all of which are standard or streamlined, and more or less the same dimensions. Pretending to be a Jump Shuttle might be a stretch, but you only have to fool them at range...

 

[rinku]

Also... don't initially tell him. Let him find out what happens when he presses the button marked "only press in an emergency"...

 

[Condottiere]

 

[rinku]

If these sort of shenanigans aren't happening in your Traveller campaign, switch it up!

 

[mavikfelna]

The TL12 version of the adjustable hull is only 10% base hull cost (1MCr for a 200 ton hull) at a cost of 5% hull volume (10 tons). That's only one ship share... quite the affordable upgrade! And 200 tons is frankly THE most useful size for it, since there are seven standard ships of that size, all of which are standard or streamlined, and more or less the same dimensions. Pretending to be a Jump Shuttle might be a stretch, but you only have to fool them at range...

Where am I going to find 10 tons though?

 

[rinku]

For MCr10 you can put in a TL15 one for 5 tons...

But pretty much has to be Cargo. You have allocated a 20 ton fuel/cargo container as well as 40 tons of regular cargo with a bladder. Reduce the bladder to 20 tons, use 10 tons for the adjustable hull and you still have: 20 tons that can be cargo or fuel plus 30 tons of regular cargo which can provide an extra jump from an inflated 20 ton bladder. You'll still have the ability to run a single J-2 with 50 tons of cargo, two jumps with 30 tons, or three jumps with 10 tons. Or J-1 jumps with the cargo net loaded up.

And the drop tanks. They seem excessive if you are building a ship that can J-2 twice from internal fuel and fuel carried in cargo.

Is crossing the Great Rift likely to be a thing? That... seems like a really strange thing for a Pirate to do. Many of the systems you have to refuel at are Naval bases. And even with drop tanks, I'm not sure a J-2 ship is up to that. 100 ton tanks also make no real sense - they reduce you to J-1 unless dropped... so is the plan to do five J-1s then a J-2 then another J-2? It seems to me it would be better to just make regular J-2s around the Horn, with double jumps where refuelling is tricky.

You could also carry fuel containers in the jump net if you really need to make a bunch of J-1 jumps.

 

[mavikfelna]

The external fuel tank mounts are small and cheap and add a potential long range option for the ship but they will probably never be used. But for most vessels I like to have the option available. The mount takes up only .8 of a ton.

A TL 15 update is possible, at Tobia, it's the only TL 15 port in the area and the subsector capital where the Duke resides.

The TL12 version means a total cost of 66.7MCr and a reduction to 30 tons of cargo space but I think it's probably worth it for this idea