Darrian Confederation questions

I'll have to skin HG to see how much TL 16 stuff is in there. I don't have Darrians...
Click to expand...

To be fair, a TL15 darrian ship isn't a big deal. Most 'generic' imperial ships that travellers will ever get their grubby mittens on are TL12 despite 90-odd percent of the imperium being TL14-15.

Pull out some of the fusion plant efficiency stuff might be useful - was in a signs and portents article recently but I don't recall which issue.

Are you planning on using the normal trade rules? Only an antimatter powerplant eats money hand over fist - a TL16 Antimatter-E gobbles down KCr 60 every 4 weeks, so unless you're shipping catnip to aslans you'll have a hard time keeping the tanks topped off, let alone get past the bank-account destroying maintenance.



Quick suggestion:


TL16 Class 3 Streamlined Hull - Hull 12, Structure 12 - 26.4 MCr
Bonded Superdense, Reflec & Radiation Shielding - Armour/12 - 30 dTons, 131 MCr
Aerofins - 15 dTons, 1.5 MCr

TL16 Jump-E - Rating 3 - 22.5 dTons, 100 MCr
TL11 Manouvre-E - Rating 3 - 67.5 dTons, 40 MCr
TL16 Antimatter-E - Rating 3 - 12 dTons, 80 MCr
Reactor Fuel - 1 Month
Jump Fuel - 1 Jump-3 - 90 dTons*
Fuel Processors - 48 Hours for full refuel - 2.25 dTons, 0.11 MCr

Holographic Bridge - Initiative +1 - 20 dTons, 1.88 MCr
Model/7 Computer - Rating 35 - 30 MCr
Intellect, Fire Control/2, Evade/2, Auto-Repair/1, Jump Control/3 - 11.3 MCr
Very Advanced Electronics - 5 dTons, 4 MCr

Triple Turret (Particle Beam), Accurate, Easy To Repair - 1 dTon, 10 MCr
Single Turret (Beam Laser), Accurate, Easy To Repair - 1 dTon, 2.4 MCr

4 Staterooms - 16 dTons, 2 MCr

30 Repair Drones - 1.5 dTon, 0.3 MCr
Cargo Hold - 75 dTons

2 Docking Clamps - 30 dTon capacity - 2 dTons, 1 MCr
3 Airlocks
Cargo Door - 7.5 dTons simultaneous limit.

Total Cost: 442.2875 MCr
Monthly Maintenance: Cr 36,858
Montly Refuel: Cr 60,000
Monthly Life Support: Cr 8-12,000 depending on occupancy


* I remember reading something about halved fuel requirements. Don't know if that's power plant or jump drive as well. Obviously, if this is the case, swap this space for additional cargo....
 
DFW said:
Why would you want to plop down a single penny for Aerofins with a Streamlined Hull?
Click to expand...
I think it would depend on the setting. For example, I made aerofins man-
datory in a water world setting because of the planet's extreme weather
patterns (storms with 300+ km/h were common), because the +2 for the
piloting roll made landing and taking off significantly safer - and because
the aerofins helped to stabilize the ship on the water. Not a necessity, of
course, but a little added setting colour where it fits the setting.
 
New and Important Question!!

I got Darrians today, its really awesome btw, so after checking the new classes I decided that a game set around the Special Arm would suit me greatly :)

One point, I'm sure I read (I just have had a quick flick through so far) that Special Arm ships have a Star Trigger put on them... Just incase...

:roll:

Anyways, I cannot find the Star Trigger throughout the book, its not in the index and so I am clueless as to which of the Darrian ships I should use in this most awesome of gaming ideas :(

Any help with where I could get any info on this would be good, even if its just Star Trigger dtonnage and info on it (is it a Turret, Barbette, Bay or Spinal Weapon? It says its put on small ships, so I'm guessing no bigger than a Barbette).

The Special Arm really gives me the campaign hook I needed to get a paid-for ship and be able to go dirtside when needed and freely wander. Its just this one little thing I need sorted at the moment.
 
The first Star Trigger was just a standard probe drone modified to withstand the conditions inside a star. Other than that, there was nothing special about it. It was the meson communications the scientists were using to communicate with the probe while it was inside the star that made it into a weapon.

So as GypsyComet said, just make sure the ship has meson communications and a drone bay with at least 1 probe drone. Just remember that the probe needs to be properly shielded and armored to withstand conditions inside a star.
 
GypsyComet said:
There need be no special tonnage for a Star Trigger as long as the ship has a Meson Comm and a drone bay...
Click to expand...

...because it's all a boondoggle. There is no Star Trigger but only the Darrians know that and they continue to use the ruse to sway other polities.

The Meson Comm and drone are used to make a simulated effect as a bluff yes?
 
zero said:
Anyways, I cannot find the Star Trigger throughout the book, its not in the index and so I am clueless as to which of the Darrian ships I should use in this most awesome of gaming ideas :(
Click to expand...
Try page 66 ... :wink:

You do not need any stats for the star trigger, it consists of featureless
metal spheres transported on TL 16 cargo ships, and all it does is to ha-
ve a reputation - it does not work, it is just a bluff:
The bogus devices appear as huge featureless metallic balls, which are
transported by a small group of pre-Maghiz cargo vessels.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks rust, my pdf keeps saying to refer to page XX, which is annoying when I'm looking for something specific :)

Ok, after looking through the ships, I'm using a Nalumb Class Far Trader, which I'll modify slightly to arm it incase it runs into an enemy ship.

Basically I'll reduce cargo space slightly to have the dtons to boost sensors to at least basic military and arm one (or more) hardpoints. 8)
 
far-trader said:
GypsyComet said:
There need be no special tonnage for a Star Trigger as long as the ship has a Meson Comm and a drone bay...
Click to expand...

...because it's all a boondoggle. There is no Star Trigger but only the Darrians know that and they continue to use the ruse to sway other polities.

The Meson Comm and drone are used to make a simulated effect as a bluff yes?
Click to expand...

If you wish to believe that, sure. :wink:

As far as the Darrian public and the governments of the nearby polities are concerned, the Star Trigger is known to and deployable by an unknown number of Darrian ships.

The first level of truth is that the Darrians do not know how it works, but add inscrutable features to their ships to make others think they DO.

The original Darrians module had an adventure about the discovery of the real Star Trigger, undated.

So the second level of truth is that the Darrians WERE bluffing for many years, but at some undetermined time rediscovered it all. The only parameters are that they have a functional Star Trigger by the time of the Virus, and possibly by the start of the Rebellion, and probably did not have it during the period of the Solomani Rim War. That's about 140 years of do they/don't they...
 
Ok, so I noticed the Special Arm use ancient TL 16 ships, so I will need to do a custom ship after all (The Far Trader is TL 13 and a bit big for my uses)

Streamlined Hull, 200 dtons
Bridge Size = 10 tons.
Counter-Measure Suite Electronics = 7 tons, price discount (15%).
2 x staterooms = 8 tons.
Fuel (enough for a Jump and a few weeks operation)
Fuel Processors (1dton per 20 tons of fuel)
Cargo Hold
2 x Hardpoint Turrets (Triple) = 2 dtons (price discount)

Size without Fuel, Processing and Cargo Hold (minimum before Engineering fitted) = 27 dtons (173 dtons left).

I have yet to total Engineering. I'm pretty free to do whatever with it though, 173 dtons is alot to play with. :)
 
Actually you know, it seems to me that IF the Darrians had a working Star Trigger they'd be in a whole mess of trouble. As in surrounded and quarantined with extreme prejudice (at a minimum) just to make sure they couldn't use it on the surrounding polities. Talk about your WMD.
 
At this point its habit. At the time they knocked themselves out of space, the Darrians had a four TL lead on *everyone* within easy reach. When they returned to space they were in rough parity with their new neighbors the Sword Worlds and with the more distant Zhodani. Except for the apparent ability to make stars flare on command. During the downtime they were observed by the Zhodani, who were attracted by the Maghiz. As the Zhodani do a lot of their pre-contact survey work via psionics, the impression amongst the Darrians that the flare was their own work would have come through early and often. The innate Zhodani caution and the position of the Darrians well beyond the now-static Consulate border would have been enough for the Zhodani to take it slow. The astrography of the region would also make a picket by J3 ships difficult at best, especially when the enclosed polity was doing J6 before the Maghiz.

So of course the Zhodani befriended the Sword Worlds, established or encouraged the Avelar in Foreven, and quite possibly fostered the more conservative forces within Darrian politics, thus convincing the Darrians that their lack of expansion was their own idea.

Then along comes the Imperium and screws it all up.
 
A Star Trigger is of X tons. Where X is defined as the GM wants it to fit on the ship or not. Tonnage is explained by "well, at Tech Level 16 it is very complicated you only have physics 4, how could you possibly understand... even if I could explain".

As for why the Darrians are conservative, not sure I need the Zhodani (although the description explains the travellermap set up of Foreven). After an eternity of scientific discovery, super intelligent being leaves you to fend for yourself and you blow your own star up and wipe out billions. Me I would be careful. If it was not for the meddling Sword Worlds - I would ban science.

We have ethical debates about genetics, cloning and other important ethical areas, scientific research verses and the right of man to explore . These guys blew their own star up, and are annoyed with their god - that makes conservative for me.
 
I got the distinct impression that the adventure from AM8 (where the secret of the Star Trigger is rediscovered) never happens in Mongoose Traveller. So, not only is the Star Trigger still a bluff in "current" Mongoose Traveller, it likely will remain so forever. (I.e. this is a canon change.)

Another thing is that most Darrians believe the Star Trigger is real. In fact, it is probable that only psionically protected people in the Secret Arm are the only ones who know it is a bluff.
 
Part of that apparent "Canon change" is that Mongoose is not moving the timeline with each release, as GDW were. MGT is "stuck" in 1104 until stated otherwise. The original Darrians book was published, and internally dated, after the Fifth Frontier War. If the rediscovery of the Star Trigger happened after the 5FW, then the MGT book on the Darrians, internally dated before that war, will present the Star Trigger as a bluff, and have nothing different to say on the matter.
 
True. MGT is dated for 1105, whereas AM8 was dated 1110. (Which, of course, means that the adventure as not "undated", but rather dated for 1110.)

But it is more than that. I got the distinct impression that, assuming Mongoose ever does cover the 5FW, the Darrians would still not be getting a functional Star Trigger.

[Please note: This is not a criticism. I don't think that is necessarily a bad decision. I could also be wrong. But that was the definite 'vibe' I was getting on the issue.]
 
I love it.

Thinking about the Star Trigger == The Game.

The first rule about Star Trigger Club is that you do not talk about the Star Trigger Club ...

And so on ...
 
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