Modules

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Has anyone done the math on something like that? With very large (say 1,000 dton) modules? LASH never took off in reality due to a few things that probably wouldn't be present for starship modules. The issue with the modules sitting empty is that you'd still have to pay maintenance on them, so if you swapped out a passenger one for a freighter you'd be stuck paying all that life support cost and not being able to use any of it (though maybe you could have an auxillary power plant on it and turn it into floating accommodations while it sat there?).

Modules are cheaper than a whole ship and remember you can within hours of arriving on world be reloaded with a new preloaded module and be on your next run rather than the typical claim of a week in system. So instead of 2 trips a month you make 3 or slightly more. This is an advantage more for the big companies than the little PC companies. Helps to explain why they can keep the PCs down to smaller type ships. This advantage potentially increases the ships gross income by 50+% but the ship cost is NOT increased by 50% as the most expensive systems are on the non modular part of the ship. A pure cargo module is very cheap.

Yes you can have a power plant in the module. My understanding is that it only works for the module itself and can't run power to the ship (though the ship can power it). So modules can be used to build bases on habitable or other worlds. PC's with a ship that has standard modules could be employed to deliver a base piece by piece along with its crew (in a habitat module).

No reason an unused passenger module can't be powered down and stored though there would be some cost involved in doing so and in bringing it up to be able to support passengers/crew again.

One advantage though is that you might by a used ship and when you want to customize it you buy another module rather than modify the one you have (which you resell). For example you could have a Far Trader for which fuel for J-1 is in the ship and the balance to make J-2 is in the module. If you find yourself with such a ship on a main you can carry more cargo per Jump with a pure cargo module as you may never need to do a J-2.

You might have ships built modular and get an enhanced price discount as they can make the base ship design and the module separately so that one model can be built and as needed slide in a standard (or custom) module.

For my setting "The Empire" has 180 ton module ships that replace the Scout/Courier. The modules are used to customize it for various roles. Module types such as: Exploration, Survey, Courier, Science, Medical and cargo are common variants (off the top of my head). They can predict fairly accurately years ahead the number of ships that need to be replaced but not the precise ratios. Since modules can be built rapidly they can be ordered on an ad hoc basis as the ships are completed. It also means that the PCs if they get such a ship either on mustering out or purchased/acquired later can customize to their needs/desires more easily and may acquire it without a module. A variant is called the Slim Trader and can use the same modules and is easily customized (commonly considered a ship for remittance men).

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The modules in HG and SCC are built with the rules from HG, so they are HG modules. But they don't follow the rules from CT or HG in many cases, including having a fully spaceworth station module and several independent planetary modules, so they can have external hulls, else they couldn't function outside of the craft. They are clearly modules, as they are meant to integrate into the Cutter and are costed as modules, despite not being built like modules.

House-rules are used. Someone wanted their cake and eating it too.
So what, a few house-rules never hurt anyone...

So are they actually breakaway? Which is an entire other problem I haven't been able to figure out yet either.

Breakaway is another interesting very flexible mechanic, just a little expensive.

The Ghalahk cruiser in HG22 has module tonnage, but then has no modules and is built as if everything is integrated but the cost of the modular space is added to the ship's cost, just not the added cost of the modules themselves.

That is a shadow of the Element class cruisers.

In ECC, it has pods and they are clearly defined as just ships without bridges that are semi-permanently welded to the main hull but definitely separate. So are Pods actually Modules or not? HG22 supersedes ECC after all, but does it replace it in this case?

ECC pods are not modules, they are separate hulls that might include power plants.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I created a 100 ton cargo pod to be towed in a jump net.

Jump nets are not well-defined, but I would call that an exploit.
Jump nets are for "cargo" that can withstand vacuum, perhaps ore.
Pods, external hulls, need docking clamps.

I use jump nets to extend the hull grid if carrying a lot of external stuff in appropriate fittings, e.g. external cargo mounts and docking clamps, but that is my house rule.

The cost difference between having a dispersed hull and having a closed hull is actually significant at this level. @Terry Mixon insists he wouldn't allow a dispersed hull in his games, but it's perfectly legal so far as I'm concerned. The Laboratory Ship in HG22 p185 is an enclosed dispersed hull and there are 2 freighters in Traders and Gunboats, the Express Freighter on p 115, and the Mobray on p144 that are enclosed dispersed hulls. Terry wanted me to post it here to see what other people thought. So, IYTU, do you allow dispersed hull freighters?

I don't understand the question?
Of course dispersed configuration ships, including freighters, are allowed.
Dispersed hulls are just a bunch of enclosed spaces, like the ISS.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I've always assumed that to be the case.

I would disagree...
A cargo hold is a specialised fitting intended for heavy objects with e.g. fixing points.
Just like fuel tanks they are no cost options, but must still be specified.
An empty module bay is just empty space. Of course you can toss stuff in there, but not properly fix hundreds of tonnes of containers at several Gs.

But things like the Orbital Station Module are built like modules, not ships or stations. It should be built as a station and given dimensions so it can fit in the module bay if that were the case. The rules say noting either way, though I've always assumed empty space was treated as cargo space.

If they are independent craft, they are not modules, and should properly be carried in Docking Spaces or externally with Docking Clamps.


The "Modular Cutter" does not use RAW modules. The closest rule mechanic is breakaway hulls. Just like ECC pods it's some other mechanism, that we don't have any rules for. They are essentially house-ruled, which is fine. They just don't tell you anything about RAW modules.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Jump nets aren't needed if attached item dimensions do not exceed jump bubble of host starship.

2. Power plants appear to be the exception of no spacecraft engines on a module.

3. Rationale, they don't propel like a manoeuvre drive or reactionary rocket, nor need an external connection, presumably, like a jump drive.

4. However, if the module is part of the primary hull's power grid, the power plant can contribute to said power grid.

5. Current edition appears to differ on module conception, therefore current modular cutter concept differs from that of other editions.

6. Being Mongosian internal, as opposed to Classic external.

7. That's why, having a spacecraft hull, detaching it and letting it operate independently in a hostile environment, wasn't questionable.

8. Now you wonder if the mushy internal structure could.

9. Also, standardizing modules allowed them to be utilized by other spacecraft that had their hull modified to accept them.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

2. Power plants appear to be the exception of no spacecraft engines on a module.

HG'22, p44:
Up to 75% of a ship’s internal tonnage can be designated as modular. This tonnage cannot include the bridge, power plant, drives or any structure or armour options.

Internal "modules", "breakaway" sections, and external "pods" are different mechanisms, with different properties.
Choice is good.

 

[Condottiere]

I'm not the one writing the books.

Until it was pointed out by someone else, I hadn't noticed that modules hosted power plants.

So, that makes it canon, until the next update of High Guard.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Until it was pointed out by someone else, I hadn't noticed that modules hosted power plants.

So, that makes it canon, until the next update of High Guard.

Not under current HG rules.

The current modular cutter, as usual, isn't made under the rules. It has obviously been possible since the '80s, but design rules haven't kept up. Call them "external modules", if you like.

Just like the pods of the Element class cruisers have no design rules.

 

[Condottiere]

Pressurised Shelter module provides an independent living quarters module for eight persons in four staterooms, complete with four tons of common areas, TL8 fusion power plant providing Power 10 for four weeks of operation, Computer/5, airlock and six tons of cargo space.


Traveller ©2022 Mongoose Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All significant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing Ltd

Traveller/High%20Guard_ebook_Apr%202024.pdf

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Pressurised Shelter module provides an independent living quarters module for eight persons in four staterooms, complete with four tons of common areas, TL8 fusion power plant providing Power 10 for four weeks of operation, Computer/5, airlock and six tons of cargo space.

Sure, and the rules say:

HG'22, p44:
This tonnage cannot include the bridge, power plant, drives or any structure or armour options.

MgT2 JTAS#3, p88 says:

Without the module in place the cutter is capable of greater than 4g acceleration but this is inadvisable as the module provides much of the vessel’s structural integrity; without it, distortion of the spine can occur.

Just like the CT Cutter, but unlike how internal modular hulls work in HG'22.


So, the external streamlined Pressurised Shelter module with a power plant isn't made with the rules for internal modules.

As usual the "Modular Cutter" is a one-off, as it has been since CT JTAS#5...

 

[Condottiere]

The rules appear to be in contradiction.

However, power plants can be installed all over a spacecraft, and when I was designing the Colonial Cooker prefusion reactor, I had previously come to realization they could even be installed on a farmstead.

The next issue would be if the module installed power plant contributes to the primary hull energy pool, and I'd say yes, since if energy from the primary hull can power a module, power from a module can power the primary hull.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The rules appear to be in contradiction.

The rules are clear, the cutter is just not using them.

 

[Condottiere]

I rather suspect that that text is copy paste.

To be fair, I suspect that module is likely an oversight.

However, the fundamentals of the primary hull power pool have evolved, so it's plausible.

Also, it's the current book, and the latest update, so it doesn't get trumped.