HELP: Ship Design Walk-through

[FortuitousBob]

Good afternoon all. Long time listener, first time caller (i.e. - super new so bear with my ignorance, please).

So, I'm contemplating starting a Traveller Campaign with a group of friends and, with the idea I had brewing, I was looking to try and design my own ship for them (Also to help me get a better grasp on the rules). I have a PDF of the HG 2e book, but I find myself a little lost on a few details. My thoughts were to provide them with a nice sized ship that is part of the mystery/plot of the story idea I had. I was considering something akin to the Raza from the TV series Dark Matter.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/darkmatter/images/1/1c/Raza_gallery_007.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150610014341

However, I'm not really finding any clear detail on what the initial sizes and tonnages are for ships. I can find some general ideas in the book (Like on Page 4 of the HG book), but nothing that provides a good guideline.

For example, the description of a Frigate sounded right, but I'm not sure what the average tonnage of one is.

 

[AndrewW]

One thing you could do is work out all that the ship needs and see how much tonnage it is going to take then base the tonnage on what is needed to fit everything in.

This might help:

http://www.merzo.net/indexSD.html

 

[Jeraa]

For example, the description of a Frigate sounded right, but I'm not sure what the average tonnage of one is.

Basically, there isn't any. It is more about role and capabilities than actual tonnage. A small (2-3 system) empire may consider their big ships battleships, but those same ships are corvettes or frigates for a larger empire.

I believe from an Imperial view, frigates are the smaller end of destroyers. Imperial destroyers range from 1000 to 20000 tons.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

For example, the description of a Frigate sounded right, but I'm not sure what the average tonnage of one is.

A Frigate might be 1000 - 2000 tons?

For a player ship it might be simpler to start under 1000 tons, perhaps something like a Patrol Corvette (HG, p136) or Mercenary Cruiser (HG, p148).

If you start with a Mercenary Cruiser, you can adjust it to fit the pictures and deck plans you like.

 

[FortuitousBob]

Thanks for the help gang!

I like the idea of the Mercenary cruiser as the base. I'll try and replicate that in order to understand the rules better (Though I know some of the HG ships have a few errors when it comes to the numbers).

 

[AndrewW]

I like the idea of the Mercenary cruiser as the base. I'll try and replicate that in order to understand the rules better (Though I know some of the HG ships have a few errors when it comes to the numbers).

If you have any questions about the rules, just ask.

The errors have actually been correct, but don't know when a correct version will be put out.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I like the idea of the Mercenary cruiser as the base. I'll try and replicate that in order to understand the rules better (Though I know some of the HG ships have a few errors when it comes to the numbers).

The Mercenary Cruiser is fairly correct. The power plant is a little big and it really needs a fuel processor (HG, p37).

 

[Condottiere]

Modern frigates are inflating in size.

You could generalize as saying that frigates are large escort vessels that either are specialized in one mission, or are general purpose, meaning they are cheaper slower versions of destroyers.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I think the Raza can't land, maybe I'm wrong, but over the 5 episodes I have seen, the Raza never landed, instead they send a shuttle to the planet's surface. So I think the Raza is a bit bigger than a Mercenary Cruiser in that regard. I am watching this show on Netflix, so it is 1 season out of date.

it is an interesting concept having the crew wake with no memories and trying to figure out who they actually were. The one non-Traveller thing they have however is instantaneous communication. there drive and their communications, I would hazard a guess seems based on Tachyons. Their ship gets converted to Tachyons and upon arriving it gets converted back into normal matter. It is called simple an FTL Drive.

 

[Reynard]

Check the ship definitions on pages 4 an 5 in Highguard for their Traveller designations.