HG: those last few letter drives...

I'm a bit confused on one point.

I thought that only a ship of over 2000 tons could use the capital ship drive formulas, given that HG states "Capital ships range between 2,001 and 1,000,000 tons..." Can ships displacing less than 2001 tons also be designed using the capital drive formulas?
 
CT is the only prior edition of Traveller to use the "package" drives with letter codes. All other editions, and the later part of CT, used straight percentages or similar to determine drive size.

So the answer is "maybe". For my money, it doesn't matter as long as the design choice is spelled out in the statblock. if there is an in-game difference as well, so much the better, as that allows both options to be used together.

Looking at the letter drives vs the HG percentages, the letter Jump drives are slightly more expensive, but the letter M-Drives are a LOT more expensive. Typically by 4x.

So what is the small ship owner getting for that extra cost? The ability to have a letter drive installed or repaired at *any TL* starport is small comfort for an extra MCr6.75 (for a 200 tons ship with 2G drives), which is another KCr28 due every month. For a 1G Free Trader, the difference is KCr14 per month. Ouch.
 
GypsyComet said:
CT is the only prior edition of Traveller to use the "package" drives with letter codes. All other editions, and the later part of CT, used straight percentages or similar to determine drive size.

So the answer is "maybe". For my money, it doesn't matter as long as the design choice is spelled out in the statblock. if there is an in-game difference as well, so much the better, as that allows both options to be used together.

Looking at the letter drives vs the HG percentages, the letter Jump drives are slightly more expensive, but the letter M-Drives are a LOT more expensive. Typically by 4x.

So what is the small ship owner getting for that extra cost? The ability to have a letter drive installed or repaired at *any TL* starport is small comfort for an extra MCr6.75 (for a 200 tons ship with 2G drives), which is another KCr28 due every month. For a 1G Free Trader, the difference is KCr14 per month. Ouch.


Not getting Gitmo'd for having a military grade reactor that doesn't have all the expensive failsafes and shieldings and "No can make a bomb" software and hardware on board ?

Other than that(and its a stretch, I admit) , its a puzzler for sure. Do civilian nukes have more overhead for safety and environment than milspec ones ?
 
GypsyComet said:
CT is the only prior edition of Traveller to use the "package" drives with letter codes. All other editions, and the later part of CT, used straight percentages or similar to determine drive size.

So the answer is "maybe". For my money, it doesn't matter as long as the design choice is spelled out in the statblock. if there is an in-game difference as well, so much the better, as that allows both options to be used together.

Looking at the letter drives vs the HG percentages, the letter Jump drives are slightly more expensive, but the letter M-Drives are a LOT more expensive. Typically by 4x.

So what is the small ship owner getting for that extra cost? The ability to have a letter drive installed or repaired at *any TL* starport is small comfort for an extra MCr6.75 (for a 200 tons ship with 2G drives), which is another KCr28 due every month. For a 1G Free Trader, the difference is KCr14 per month. Ouch.

Along with the more available aspect that you mentioned, when we played with later editons of CT, most of us agreed that all the none letter code drives were custom jobs, which made the maintenance higher, and part more expensive.
We also said that Letter coded drives when bought new included parts equal to 10% of the total cost and took 5% of the storage space (5% of the drives total tonage that is). A new owner could take the 10% as a discount if they did not want the parts.

On a used ship we always took 10% off of a letter coded drive cost and gave it a slightly higher in good mainenance description.

Dave Chase (hope that was not too confusing.)
 
Excellent ideas, everyone. Thank you for posting them. I was kinda hoping to keep my ship design "legal" but realized it simply can't be due to a "GM special" (i.e. the portals from Secret of the Ancients). So I may as well use the formulas.

I'm also going to allow such in my campaigns along with the very good ideas posted regarding of maintenance and spare parts.

Edit: And the idea of High Guard custom drives onboard a "merchant" will definitely increase the crew's chances of being Gitmo'd or at least be required to answer some very tough questions if their reason (and/or supporting documentation) for having such is nebulous.
 
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