Custom Ship: 1000-dTon scout cruiser

[Sageryne]

Hi all,

I have another new ship to share. This one was requested by Mike McKeown from the Traveller RPG Facebook group. It is a 1000-dTon J-4 M-2 scout cruiser.

Quasar Class Scout Cruiser.pdf

drive.google.com

The concept is based on the Qasar Class ship detailed in Traveller T20 Epic Adventure 5 - Scout Cruiser written by Michael Taylor. The scout cruiser was designed by Kevin Taylor. The article also included an illustration by Bryan Gibson (shown below). Full credit to them for the original design.

After reviewing Kevin's design and Bryan's illustration, I spoke with Mike McKeown and asked if he minded if I used their specifications as a starting point but started with a clean sheet and created my own deck plans. He was cool with that, so I did so.

I kept the same basic specs: 1000-dTons, streamlined, jump-4 (with jump-1 backup), manoeuvre-2 (with manoeuvre-1 backup), same number of staterooms, same type and number of labs, med-bay, launch, G/Carrier, three grav-bikes, two deployable bases, and primary and backup computers.

I changed a few things, including modifying the crew compliment, changed the TL from 13 to 15, increased the number of turrets from 4 to 10, and dropping the solar sail.

One idea I also kept was the unusual inclusion of internal docking space for a Type-S scout. Even there, I put my own twist on it by including the Type S20 Eiriksson Class scout designed by Bryan Gibson, rendered by Ted Lindsay, with deckplans by Wayne Young (AKA Finnulf). Thank you to Wayne for letting me reproduce his deck plans here.

I named my ship the Quasar Class, an appropriately astronomical name and just slightly different than the Qasar used in Epic Adventure 5.
A special thanks to Robert Pearce, both for creating the starship symbols I used in the deck plans, but for reviewing and commenting on the draft. Any errors that remain are my own! Please check out his incredible website: Yet Another Traveller Blog

Yet Another Traveller Blog

Traveller RPG blog (duh). Focusing primarily on Classic Traveller

travellerrpgblog.blogspot.com

The only payment I ask is your feedback.

Please enjoy.

- Kerry

 

[Sageryne]

If you enjoyed the scout cruiser, I would love to hear what type of ship you would like to see next.

 

[Sageryne]

Hi all,

I recently posted the Quasar Class Scout Cruiser. I had designed it at TL15. A couple of people on Reddit complained that it was too high a TL, so I have changed a few things on the stat block and the deck plans to show what it would look like at TL12.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFloy8q8UTxSG9BPEbzL04Ecm2I3eZGH/view?usp=sharing

It is reduced from Jump-4 to Jump-3, and I tweaked a few other things to make it work. The deck plans remain largely the same.

Enjoy

• Kerry

 

[wintertraveller]

The only payment I ask is your feedback.

I like ships around a 1000tons. The Kinunir, the Aslan Halaheike, the Gurmashmar Nuur Far Trader are all favorites for me and your Scout Cruiser is fun too.

Let's face it: Scouts are fun.

The presentation of the ship in your blog is rich in detail with pleasant graphic design.

I recommend considering re-framing the ship as a Scout Frigate. A Scout Cruiser evokes a ship scale similar to the Azhanti High Lightning for me, but this is a just a personal reaction. There is nothing wrong with use the term cruiser with ships on the scale of the mercenary cruiser or the merchant cruiser.

I tend to think of a frigate as a detached vessel operating on its own, but tend to think of a cruiser mostly operating with some sort of squadron, flotilla, or fleet. However, my perceptions of these terms may be off-base.

Thumbs up on the illustration by Bryan Gibson too.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

One thing a ship needs is to have a stated reason of its purpose for being so people know what it is intended to be used for.

Among the various projects I'm refining right now are some Lab Ships, among their uses is to be used by the Exploration Service (and its separated at birth twin the Survey Service MTU of course) which use them to study interesting systems whether a habitable planet or something else. Other groups convert them to Hospital ships to respond to emergencies and function as a temporary hospital wherever it is needed while a permanent facility is built.

One thing such a statement does is help the GM know what ship is suitable (or to know the PCs will want to know why such an inappropriate ship was there instead) for a particular adventure.

Another thing of course is if you write the statement first and refer to it as you go it can keep your design on track.

 

[Sageryne]

Hi wintertraveller,

Thank you for the kind review. I don't disagree with the naming. I was just following how it was named in the Traveller T20 EPIC Adventure 5 - Scout Cruiser.

- Kerry

 

[Sageryne]

One thing a ship needs is to have a stated reason of its purpose for being so people know what it is intended to be used for.

Among the various projects I'm refining right now are some Lab Ships, among their uses is to be used by the Exploration Service (and its separated at birth twin the Survey Service MTU of course) which use them to study interesting systems whether a habitable planet or something else. Other groups convert them to Hospital ships to respond to emergencies and function as a temporary hospital wherever it is needed while a permanent facility is built.

One thing such a statement does is help the GM know what ship is suitable (or to know the PCs will want to know why such an inappropriate ship was there instead) for a particular adventure.

Another thing of course is if you write the statement first and refer to it as you go it can keep your design on track.

Hi Fluffy Bunny Feet,

In the third sentence of the description, I stated: "Early in the 900s, IISS identified the need for mid-sized, purposed-built, long-ranged vessels designed specifically to support survey work in and beyond the Third Imperium."

- Kerry

 

[rinku]

Cruiser only became a naval ship class sometime in the 19th Century. Before that it was a mission statement, of a lone ship patrolling - cruising without a squadron. You still see that sense of "cruising" used outside of naval vessels. Cruise liner. Cruiser motorcycle.

Or...