Classification Tonnage Examples?

[EldritchFire]

On pages 4–5 of HG2e, there is the Definitions list of what is considered what kind of vessel. However, it doesn't give tonnage examples for all but a few: a small craft is 1–99 tons, a capital ship is 5,001+ tons, a trader is <1,000 tons (and I assume at least 100 tons), and a freighter is 1,000+ tons.

What about the rest of them? Does anyone have any ballpark estimations for what tonnage, say, a military corvette is? Or a battlecruiser? I ask because most sci-fi properties use linear measurements for their craft, not displacement tons. The BC-303 Prometheus from Stargate: SG-1, for example, is 195m in length, 80m wide, and 65m high. But since it's not a cube you can't easily extrapolate displacement tons from linear measurements:

If I were to make a Stargate hack for Traveller, I would have no idea where to start. But if we had a "most battlecruisers are between x and y tons" It would give me a starting point.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

One problem with that approach is that tonnage is gonna differ between settings. In Star Wars a cruiser is going to be multiple kilometers long (probably millions of dtons) while traveller's third imperium might have a battle-cruiser at... I don't know, 50,000 dton? And in the Clement setting from gypsy Knights, the Moltke class cruiser weighs in at 2,500 dtons.

Having a good three-way drawing and the ship's measurements should help you to calculate its tonnage, though it would require some work to do so.

Alternatively, look at what you know the ship has (are there spinal weapons, do we know how large the crew is, any small craft, and so on) and just decide upon a size that feels reasonable.

 

[rust2]

You could take a look here for military ships ...

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Military_Starship_Types

... and here for civilian ships:

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Civilian_Starship_Types

 

[EldritchFire]

One problem with that approach is that tonnage is gonna differ between settings. In Star Wars a cruiser is going to be multiple kilometers long (probably millions of dtons) while traveller's third imperium might have a battle-cruiser at... I don't know, 50,000 dton? And in the Clement setting from gypsy Knights, the Moltke class cruiser weighs in at 2,500 dtons.

Having a good three-way drawing and the ship's measurements should help you to calculate its tonnage, though it would require some work to do so.

Alternatively, look at what you know the ship has (are there spinal weapons, do we know how large the crew is, any small craft, and so on) and just decide upon a size that feels reasonable.

That's probably the best way to do it: figure out what the ship has and work backwards.

You could take a look here for military ships ...

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Military_Starship_Types

... and here for civilian ships:

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Civilian_Starship_Types

That is a great resource, thanks!

 

[Jeraa]

There will be variation. Imperial Navy vessels are most certainly going to be larger than their counterparts from a small pocket empire. What a small empire considers a battleship might only rate as a a cruiser or destroyer to the Imperial navy.

Classifications are more based on role and equipment, and less on actual size.

 

[phavoc]

I agree with the above. For colonial units (i.e. local systems, or even subsector only units) you might find 3k ton destroyers instead of 5k Imperial standard ones. However, you can also consider that a system unit may have lower, or even zero jump ratings. Which means your smaller units may have the same fighting capabilities as larger units.

 

[Condottiere]

Ask the dungeon master how cargo is available, and how much of that he thinks you can grab.

As regards to warships, capabilities, role and a willing enemy. Last time tech levels allowed a gradual tonnage inflation.

But in the big leagues, two hundred thousand tonnes is a standard size for a battleship, seventy five thousand for a heavy cruiser, twenty five thousand probably the minimum for a light cruiser; the rest is fuzzy logic.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I wouldn't be too concerned with tonnage.

Each Navy is likely to have its own classification system. What one Navy might call a Panzerschiff, another Navy might call a pocket battleship. What one Navy might call Schlachtschiff, another Navy might call a battlecruiser.

A Swedish "Pansarskepp" was very different from a Dutch "Pantserschep" that was very different from a German "Panzerschiff".


I would use more functional classifications, e.g. a capital ship is a ship with a spinal mount.

 

[Condottiere]

Design and combat rules tend to drive naval architecture.