Looking for Colony Ship Stats

[Arianna Flint]

Hey all,

I'm wondering if any of the Mongoose Books have stats for a PL 11 2-Jump colony vessel? I have most of the career books but haven't invested in the yellow ones quite yet. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[BP]

(Note: the PL 11 has been replaced by the more modern TL 11 version )

Don't recall any that would fit that bill - especially a colony vessel. That sounds like something that would have to be custom made - and not likely to be common in the 3I setting.

Maybe in the Reign of Discordia setting...

 

[AndrewW]

Maybe in the Reign of Discordia setting...

There aren't any colony ships stated out or anything. Mostly warships along with a couple of merchant vessels.

 

[Galadrion]

Hm... I can't think why anyone would bother with a starship specifically designed as a colony ship. Ships as Traveller envisions them have a design life measured in decades to centuries - a bit overengineered for a one-way, one-shot mission. A colonization effort would probably be driven by a government, a corporation, or some such similar group, and if they're thinking ahead, will probably be thinking in terms of multiple colonization efforts, as well as support. With that in mind, there are already several possibilities published - a fleet of subsidized merchant/liners would do the job nicely, as would a capital-class modular ship, so that the directors could switch out between cargo and colonists, or even both in various proportions. A fleet of smaller ships would probably be the way most groups would go, as it offers more flexibility - a single large ship can only be in one place at a time, while a score of smaller ones can be in various places, undertaking various missions at the same time.

How large of a colonization effort are you thinking about? How many colonists, how much material, and delivered over what time frame? That'll give you some idea of the lift capacity you need - a colonization mission to deliver ten thousand colonists plus their equipment, vehicles, and knowledge base all at once will obviously have different transportation needs than an effort which will deliver a picked pathfinder team of twenty, followed by escalating numbers in later waves. (The latter is a much more economical way of doing things, in addition to allowing you to start off with a single mid-sized ship right away and building more to accommodate the growing numbers in the follow-on groups.)

 

[AndrewW]

There are colony ships mentioned in Reft Sector, but no stats or anything like that.

 

[BP]

Colony ship is a bit vague.

A 100,000 ton Superfreighter (HG pg 140) could be used as one - the 50,000 ton modular cargo hold could support a lot of low-berthed colonists and some basic supplies. Use emergency low berths (4 per ton) and most of the tonnage would be available (one 2,000 ton module could handle 8,000 folk). Course, you'd want qualified medical personel and/or autodocs. The 25 2-kiloton, 6m high cargo modules would make for some nice prefab structures (27,000 cubic meters each).

Its a J-4 design - though I wouldn't put much stock in the deckplans (the repair drone area at 1,000 tons looks almost 40% the size of the 50,000 ton cargo area).

 

[rust]

In my view the idea of a colony ship does not fit in well with the techno-
logy assumptions of Traveller.

In my setting colonization usually is not based upon a single colony ship,
it is an ongoing process that uses many different types of ships for dif-
ferent purposes.

The first one is a scout or exploration ship with a team of scientists and
engineers who explore the planet in question, looking for potential natu-
ral hazards (tectonics, volcanism, dangerous native creatures ...) as well
as natural resources and a good location for the first settlement.

The second one is a merchant ship that transports an advance team to
the planet. The task of this team is to prepare the planet for the arrival
of the first group of colonists, by establishing the framework of the sett-
lement, the frontier spaceport and all the other infrastructure a colony
requires. If robots are used and building materials are available on the
planet, this advance team can be rather small.

Once the advance team has finished its job, a bigger merchant ship is
used to transport the first group of colonists to the planet. They comple-
te the settlement and the infrastructure and start the colony's economy,
for example by mining and processing natural resources for export.

As soon as the small core colony is working and has the necessary means
to expand, a next group of colonists is invited, and so on.

Other ships that are needed are a "lifeboat", some small ship with a jump
drive or hyperdrive the colonists can use to call for help in the case of a
problem that is too big for them to deal with, and a supply ship that trans-
ports urgently required goods (technology, spare parts ...) to the planet
and the planet's first exports to its customers in order to earn the money
to pay for the imports as well as the expansion of the colony.

This kind of approach would enable the colonists to flexibly "colonize as
you go", while the use of one single huge colony ship would require that
everything is planned in advance - hardly a good idea when a mostly un-
known planet with lots of potential surprises is involved.

 

[Arianna Flint]

Thanks for the quick replies. Looks like I'll have to custom build one.

I intend to use the vessel for an alternative Traveller universe, not the third Imperium, with the primary themes being exploration and colonization. Its essentially a cross between Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the Coyote novels by Allen Steele, and the new BSG TV series.

The vessel will be similar to the Mayflower concept, taking 1000 or so passengers in low berths, plus cargo and supplies to their destination planet, sometimes as far away from earth as 96 parsecs. IMTU there are a lot fewer decent planets to settle, so colonists will have to travel far and wide to reach them.

As suggested, I plan on using smalls scouting vessels as a primary investigator, taking a brief look at the planet and determine habitability.

I plan on using a small-vessel type universe, with space vessel limited to 2000ish tons (at least at TL 11, maybe increasing as the TL gradually increases)

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I built a 100,000 ton Conastoga Class Colony ship using CT rules a long time ago. It was a J2, M1 TL-11 design.

I will see if I can dig it up and do a quick Mongoose Conversion for it.

A colony ship IS viable in most Traveller settings if you make some general assumptions:

It is NOT disposable, although all of it's cargo is (I used 30-ton and 100-ton Modules). It will be used many times to ship colonists to a world. That is how you can get worlds with populations in the millions within a few decades.

Sounds similar to what "Somebody" posted above for the ICS Adolph Luderitz.

 

[waylandson]

In my view the idea of a colony ship does not fit in well with the techno-
logy assumptions of Traveller.

In my setting colonization usually is not based upon a single colony ship,
it is an ongoing process that uses many different types of ships for dif-
ferent purposes.

The first one is a scout or exploration ship with a team of scientists and
engineers who explore the planet in question, looking for potential natu-
ral hazards (tectonics, volcanism, dangerous native creatures ...) as well
as natural resources and a good location for the first settlement.

The second one is a merchant ship that transports an advance team to
the planet. The task of this team is to prepare the planet for the arrival
of the first group of colonists, by establishing the framework of the sett-
lement, the frontier spaceport and all the other infrastructure a colony
requires. If robots are used and building materials are available on the
planet, this advance team can be rather small.

Once the advance team has finished its job, a bigger merchant ship is
used to transport the first group of colonists to the planet. They comple-
te the settlement and the infrastructure and start the colony's economy,
for example by mining and processing natural resources for export.

As soon as the small core colony is working and has the necessary means
to expand, a next group of colonists is invited, and so on.

Other ships that are needed are a "lifeboat", some small ship with a jump
drive or hyperdrive the colonists can use to call for help in the case of a
problem that is too big for them to deal with, and a supply ship that trans-
ports urgently required goods (technology, spare parts ...) to the planet
and the planet's first exports to its customers in order to earn the money
to pay for the imports as well as the expansion of the colony.

This kind of approach would enable the colonists to flexibly "colonize as
you go", while the use of one single huge colony ship would require that
everything is planned in advance - hardly a good idea when a mostly un-
known planet with lots of potential surprises is involved.

May I suggest that you read Anne McCaffrey's book Dragonsdawn and the related book The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall's short story "PERN Survey" as they are a good description of how to colonise a world.

As for a colonisation ship, why not use the Modular Clipper from Supplement 2: Traders & Gunboats as the main Colony Ship, you could modify the existing modules or design new ones to suit your requirements. Also, why not use SX Frontiersman class Scoutship as your "runabout", it's modular nature makes it very suitable as a jack of all trade ship.

 

[rust]

May I suggest that you read Anne McCaffrey's book Dragonsdawn and the related book The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall's short story "PERN Survey" as they are a good description of how to colonise a world.

Yes, but hardly in a Traveller setting. :wink:

Traveller starships are small, they have a rather limited range, they re-
quire lots of fuel and annual maintenance at high technology starports.
The rules would make a starship like the colony ships of the Pern novels
extremely expensive, the Traveller version of cold sleep would kill many
of the colonists, after a year without maintenance the ship's operation
would become increasingly dangerous, and so on.

 

[AndrewW]

May I suggest that you read Anne McCaffrey's book Dragonsdawn and the related book The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall's short story "PERN Survey" as they are a good description of how to colonise a world.

Decision at Doona could be useful here as well (same author).

 

[waylandson]

Er, guys I wasn't suggesting that they spend 15 years in cold sleep, I was simply suggesting that you look at the mechanics Anne McCaffrey was using to settle PERN. Same for Decision at Doona, same mechanics, slightly different Universe.

May I suggest that you use the rules in Book 3: Scouts to do the initial Exploration and Survey of the system and the planet that you wish to colonise. Plenty of scope there for Adventures as the Survey Team (e.g. the P.C.'s) explore the system and then the planet that you wish to colonise.

As for colonising the planet, again may I suggest that use the Modular Clipper (S) as your Colony Ship (S). In Dragonsdawn they used three ships plus a Gig (Scout/Courier) to transport the Colonists and their equipment.
The Clipper can carry 950 tonnes of Modules including the following:

100-ton cargo module. 100 tons of cargo. Costs MCr1.
100-ton passenger module. The module includes 20 staterooms (4 tons each), 7 tons of luxuries and 26 low berths. Cost is MCr12.
50-Ton survey module. This module has a set of survey sensors (10 tons), 10 probe drones (2 tons), a Model/3 computer, 3 laboratories (4
tons each), 5 staterooms (4 tons each) an airlock (1 tons) and 5 tons of cargo. Cost is MCr16.
100-ton small craft module. This module has a full hangar for 60 tons of small craft (78 tons), 3 crew staterooms (4 tons each) and 10 tons
of cargo. It costs MCr 17.1 plus the embarked small craft.

So it could quite easily carry 3 Passenger and 3 Cargo Modules, plus two small craft and a survey module. Don't forget it already carries a ship's boat and a modular cutter. So it could quite easily transport and land a small seed colony.
While, this Clipper is 2kt design it is also possible to build much larger ships using this design philosphy, as well as smaller vessels.
I was thinking of a 600ton hull with 3Jump capability like the Type M Merchant, but designed to use the modules designed for the SX Frontiersman class Scoutship.

 

[AndrewW]

Er, guys I wasn't suggesting that they spend 15 years in cold sleep, I was simply suggesting that you look at the mechanics Anne McCaffrey was using to settle PERN. Same for Decision at Doona, same mechanics, slightly different Universe.

Nah, if you where suggesting that then it would have been Dinosaur Planet / Dinosaur Planet Survivors and the Planet Pirates (Death of Sleep, Sassinak, Generation Warriors)...