Leviathan Class Merchant Cruiser

[Reynard]

Before I go reinventing the wheel, has anyone seen the Leviathan cruiser in any of the Mongoose books? I looked but may have missed (as usual). Had dug out the LLB adventure for light reading and thought to reimagine using MgT design.

For those who have not seen it. The Leviathan class is an 1800 ton expeditionary merchant vessel for exploring systems outside known space for trade possibilities with cargo space to bring back samples.

 

[Condottiere]

I don't recall it ever getting a reference.

 

[Reynard]

It will give me something to do tomorrow.

 

[ScottyG]

It's a fine ship

I'm running a leviathan based campaign presently and have done the mongoose 1 version. To be honest you really don't need to though- the vessel works out quite fine and as the key characteristics all port seamlessly it is just an intellectual exercise if you like that sort of thing. I admit I personally do

The only iffy bit being the Jump torpedoes. An uncomfortable bit of canon for the OTU I think.

I just chose to omit them quietly and no player has mentioned them yet


If they do- I'll state they were experimented with but proved rather ineffective. Technologically the patent holding corporations evaluated miniaturisation of jump drive technology- though achievable, to have no significant civilian application that justified investment.

The company branch that produced them was shut done and re purposed.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah. I know all about those jump torps and the flak they cause today. MgT and other versions have said Jump drives don't work on vessels below 100 tons so no J-torps. I'd have to look more but the Leviathan seems to be the source introducing drones.

 

[Reynard]

Okay....

Had some time today to do a direct translation from Classic High Guard design to Mongoose Core design and did no work in any sense possible. Now I need to dig out 2nd ed. High Guard and back engineer to see how they originally made the numbers fit. I can say Mongoose Leviathan won't be Classic Leviathan.

Kinda fits with the other thread concerning Classic High Guard.

 

[Infojunky]

Okay....

Had some time today to do a direct translation from Classic High Guard design to Mongoose Core design and did no work in any sense possible.

Ah, I see where you had problems.... The leviathan is a book 2 design, most likely the '77 Edition of Book 2. With a liberal amount of Poetic License.... (Most of the early designs have issues with the Rules if the rules are being strictly used as limits instead of suggested guidelines)

 

[Reynard]

It states it uses High Guard 2nd Ed., which I have, and is 1980. It looks to be the precursor to MegaTraveller's ship design system.

I plan to hang out at my local game store tomorrow sans gaming and try to rework the numbers. The power plant fuel is the worst offender. It may be very different but I will try to make it as similar as possible to the original Leviathan design with any additions and revamps from Mongoose Core and High Guard plus maybe Merchant Prince since it is a special merchant vessel.

 

[Infojunky]

It states it uses High Guard 2nd Ed., which I have, and is 1980. It looks to be the precursor to MegaTraveller's ship design system.

No it is stat-ed out in terms of HG 2nd, and HG 1st.... But looking at it again I would Suspect it uses 1st ed High Guard.... Darn, I'll just ask Andy.....

 

[Reynard]

Spent the day pouring over Leviathan, Classic HG and several Mongoose Traveller books. First think to note is Classic HG is not MgT though a few things evolved to something different in MgT such as Remote Piloted Vehicles are now drones and personal capsules are escape pods. Jump torps are out.

The power plant and it's endurance quality is way out of line to MgT When I looked at the similar PP in MgT and 300 days of operation plus one J-3, you have used over 1100 tons of the 1800 tons ship displacement just for fuel! It gets worst when adding a backup jump drive, computer and maneuver drive. Somehow the designers for the deck plans include a lot of extra rooms such as ready rooms, machine shops, general stores, a HUGE computer room, sickbays, etc.. Dropped them. I still was running out of room so I left the PP fuel out for last. I notice a lot of space around the ship boats so added hangars. Classic HG has no electronic but, as it is a special expeditionary vessel, I gave it Military sensors. They mention fuel processors but not their capacity so I guessed for something somewhat reasonable and refueling taking 2.8 days. Number of RPVs not mentioned so I added enough to go a long time if not recovered. Making their pressurized air/raft was just increasing the cost 10%.

The crew compliment was work. It doesn't fit either the core rule or High Guard in Mongoose. I looked at what they used then referred to MgT core and HG and came close to their compliment

 

[Reynard]

Leviathan class Merchant Cruiser 1800 tons, TL 13, MCr521.58681

Hull Standard Hull 36 Structure 36
Armor None
Jump 3, Maneuver 4, Power plant 4
Computer - Model/3fib, Electronics - Basic Military
33 staterooms, 6 low berths
6 x dual turrets, beam lasers
Fuel: 1080 tons One jump 3 and 31 weeks of operation
70 tons Cargo
Extras:
Fuel scoops, 20 fuel processors (2.75 days), ship's locker,
20 probe drones, 33 escape pods, pressurized air/raft (cargo hold)
95t shuttle in std. hangar, 40t pinnace in std. hangar, 2x 20t Launches in std. hangar
Software: Maneuver/0, Jump control/3, Library

Crew compliment:
Owner (On board) - double stateroom
Command: Command officer, Executive officer, First pilot, Navigation officer,
Surgeon, Chief engineer, Master-at-arms, Computer officer. Communication officer
Double occupancy staterooms:
4 Passengers (scientist), 2 engineers, 2 ship's pilots, flight controller, 4 boat pilots,
4 maintenance crew, 7 security troopers, cook, medic, medical orderly, purser, steward,
2 communication operators, cargo chief, administration clerk, remote drone operator,
2 shop operators, 6 galley crew/cargo handlers.

 

[phavoc]

Spent the day pouring over Leviathan, Classic HG and several Mongoose Traveller books. First think to note is Classic HG is not MgT though a few things evolved to something different in MgT such as Remote Piloted Vehicles are now drones and personal capsules are escape pods. Jump torps are out.

The power plant and it's endurance quality is way out of line to MgT When I looked at the similar PP in MgT and 300 days of operation plus one J-3, you have used over 1100 tons of the 1800 tons ship displacement just for fuel! It gets worst when adding a backup jump drive, computer and maneuver drive. Somehow the designers for the deck plans include a lot of extra rooms such as ready rooms, machine shops, general stores, a HUGE computer room, sickbays, etc.. Dropped them. I still was running out of room so I left the PP fuel out for last. I notice a lot of space around the ship boats so added hangars. Classic HG has no electronic but, as it is a special expeditionary vessel, I gave it Military sensors. They mention fuel processors but not their capacity so I guessed for something somewhat reasonable and refueling taking 2.8 days. Number of RPVs not mentioned so I added enough to go a long time if not recovered. Making their pressurized air/raft was just increasing the cost 10%.

The crew compliment was work. It doesn't fit either the core rule or High Guard in Mongoose. I looked at what they used then referred to MgT core and HG and came close to their compliment

The original Leviathan design was done in the very beginning of Traveller by a group outside of Miller's internal circle. From what I read the group that did it took certain liberties with the design aspects and since it was the first supplement things got through. It wasn't until later when the rules were all put together and looked at as a whole were the idea of jump torpedoes removed from the material. But by then the first supplement was out there and therefore the concept remains part of the original canon material. It's not unusual with games that launch like this, where the basic rule set is continually added to and expanded to generate more interest and also to sell more stuff. MGT is doing the same thing with the re-launch of Traveller here. If you didn't change things you lose out on your core players buying new books, and for everyone else > new < = shiny!