Constructing Deck Plans Oddity...

[ReluctantHero]

Just picked up the "new" High Guard. Very impressive book. Of special interest to me is the guidelines for doing deck plans. But I find an oddity that leaves me wondering if I am reading something or seeing something wrong. It states that 1 ton of jump drive, maneuver drive, or power plant takes up 2 squares. But this doesn't seem to jive with any of the existing ship layouts in either the isometric or 2D deck plans. For example, the Free Trader has a 10-ton jump drive. Which means it should take up 20 squares. Right? But in the 2D deck plans the drive occupies 10 squares. The power plant is 5 tons so it should take up 10 squares, but takes up 7 in the 2D deck plans.

This wonky math seems to perpetuate throughout all of the ship deck plans.

Is there something I'm missing or has there been an official fix?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Reynard]

The entire free trader section should be 32 squares and I count 34. Power takes up 8 squares in its own room while the maneuver drives are sitting on 4 squares each. The jump sits on 6 squares and there's 12 empty squares. That's 2 squares over. I think they were keeping things square and gave the engineering room a ton more leg room.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

An unwritten rule has been "within 20%". Most deck plan makers have used as much as 20% over listed tonnage to allow adequate corridors and access space around the components.

It's not official, but if you are within a couple of squares, don't sweat it. There are a lot of things that are not account for in the ship designs (the actual volume of the hull material itself for example), so fudging a bit to allow access space around the Jump Drive is OK in my book.

If you don't like it, feel free to redraw them yourself - AND post it here!

 

[Pyromancer]

Personally, I count the whole engine room towards the tonnage of the components. So, not the jump drive is 10 dton, but the engine room the jump drive sits in is 10 dton. +-10%

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Personally, I count the whole engine room towards the tonnage of the components. So, not the jump drive is 10 dton, but the engine room the jump drive sits in is 10 dton. +-10%

This is how I do it too, but with a bit more wiggle room.

 

[steve98052]

Under GURPS rules, it's explicitly stated that engineering is half equipment, half access space, unless it's "short term" equipment, which is only accessible for maintenance from outside the vehicle. A starship or sea-going container ship has full access equipment; an air/raft or motorcycle has short-term equipment.

That seems pretty consistent with Traveller deck plans of all eras.

 

[AndrewW]

An unwritten rule has been "within 20%". Most deck plan makers have used as much as 20% over listed tonnage to allow adequate corridors and access space around the components.

Oh it is written (almost):

STEP TWO: Check the overall tonnage of the ship. Each ton is usually represented by 2 squares on a deck
plan (very large ships may use a different scale to produce deck plans that will fit on a page). You can vary this by
up to +/- 10% as spacecraft will differ in the amount of space consumed by corridors, lifts, computer systems, life
support, machinery and other items not included in the overall design system.

 

[GypsyComet]

Oh it is written (almost):

I think Snapshot had something to say on the matter as well. 10-20% was the official "don't kill yourself just to be exact" fudge factor.