Need Interesting Ship Ideas

[dayriff]

So I got together with my players, and we rolled up 3 out of 4 PCs yesterday. (I'll get with the other guy soonish and roll his.) If we have a crew, we need a ship. What I'd like to do is present them with a number of options that are available for sale and that they can get credit on, then let them pick the one they want.

I'll offer them a basic Far Trader that's more or less brand new if that's what they want, but I'd like the other ships to have some character. Each should have have been designed for a purpose that's probably not quite what they want, but that they can adapt to meet their needs. I'd like to hear ideas in addition to what I already have, as well as hull size, weapons, engines, and other suggestions for each idea. Probably looking for Jump-2 miniumum on all of them.

Note that I'll offer modest discounts on the quirky ships (in addition to the standard discounts and quirks for being old) to represent the difficulties in selling them. Here are the ideas I have so far:

1. A mega-corporation courier ship designed for a fast, hard run and some unique corporate quirks.

2. A distributed-type hull traveling entertainment ship meant for a roving band of interstellarly famous perfomers. Has its own auditorium.

3. A salvage ship designed to run in and grab wrecks for breakdown and sale.

4. A "love boat" cruise ship meant for ferrying large quantities of passengers.

5. A zoological ship meant for holding and transporting live animal specimens.

6. A prototype highly automated ship run by a distributed AI system (that is unfortunately prone to freeze-ups and misunderstandings and the occasional homicide).

7. An adapted Hiver ship with controls jury-rigged to be human-usable and built along a severely non-standard hull design. (Probably X50 volume, somewhere between two standard hull sizes.)

8. A rich researcher's private laboratory vessel.

Other quirks not necessarily linked to a specific ship might include:

9. It's a "Jonah" ship that has been owned by five previous crews, all of whom died to a man.

10. There is a ship's pet attached to the vessel.

11. A haunted ship with powerful psi-echoes imprinted on it.

All of that's just off the cuff. I don't want to go too overboard creating a bunch of ships that won't be used. The PCs, incidentlally, are:

A) Merchant Marine 3/Noble Administrator 2 skilled in Broker, Advocate, Admin, and and 1 or 0 in most social skills. (Not to mention one of the best swordswomen in the subsector.)

B) Scholar (Scientist) 5 skilled in Archeology, Xenology, Advocate, Comms, and such. Possessed of multiple Enemies.

C) Rogue 1/Army 2/Drifter 2 who got good ranks of Persuade and other stuff I can't recall at the moment.

Basically a very socially oriented and civilized-skills oriented bunch, though we'll see what the fourth PC throws up.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

There's 2 versions of no.3 in Traders and Gunboats...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The "Fast Courier" from Avenger (soon to be released via Flaming Cobra) would fit #1 very well. Jump 3. It is the older style Xboat. 200 tons.

 

[Dave Chase]

Take an Gazelle from the Traders and Gunboats.

Remove the Barbettes, hard weld modified container in place of the L-Drop tanks. Make the modified containers living quarters (passengers) on one side and cargo on the other.

Sure, she's seen some battles, but she still can run just fine. (Make it a 30 yr old ship that the Navy decmossioned, with a few quirks about her. Add a couple of patched hull spots.)


Take a Far Trader and super up. Remove 1/2 the cargo bay and put in bigger engines and more fuel (mainly Man engines.) Have it for sale at the local government repo auction.) If the players don't change the paint job on it they might be in for a few pleasant or nasty surprises depending on where they make port at. (use to be a pirate ship, got seized on a raid.)


Dave Chase

 

[lurker]

A ship where there is no typical cargo bay (or just a small one).
- The space is occupied by 'tanks'. Let the players characters guess why. A refueling ship? Long range explorer? Transporting water to a desert world?
- Some sort of removable cargo pod(s) should be there but now it is missing.
- The entire cargo bay is designed to maintain a (possibly non standard) life support environment. (temperature, air quality, gravity...) What were they transporting? Livestock? Aliens?

An 'alien' (possibly a small remote independent world) ship with a never before seen layout (not a modified deck plan from another ship) and odd dimensions.
- The humanoids that this ship was built for were short and the characters will have to duck all the time.
- The humanoids that this ship was designed for were tall and there is space available overhead for storage (put in the drop 'ceiling' and create a place for smuggling?).
- The previous occupants could fly or were aquatic - use your imagination on how that would effect deck plans.

Along the same lines as above. The ship has fairly standard design but was customized for people used to a higher or lower gravity so the deck plating operates in a higher or lower range than is normal.

 

[Supergamera]

A "Q-ship", using a convential trader/merchant frame with reinforced engines, armor and concealed pop-up turrets.

A ship originally designed for an aquatic species, with a humid, zero-g bridge environment.

A used racing yacht, sold off by a noble who's no longer interested in those things.

An alien ship, far away from its typical area of space (say, an Aslan ship near Hiver space). Part of some diplomatic/research expedition, but suffered a breakdown along the way. Without the time and money to make replacement parts, the crew sold the ship and took more conventional transport the rest of the way. Yours for a steal, if you're willing to hand make parts, and potentially travel back to the home racial space someday for a major refit.

 

[dayriff]

An alien ship, far away from its typical area of space (say, an Aslan ship near Hiver space). Part of some diplomatic/research expedition, but suffered a breakdown along the way. Without the time and money to make replacement parts, the crew sold the ship and took more conventional transport the rest of the way. Yours for a steal, if you're willing to hand make parts, and potentially travel back to the home racial space someday for a major refit.

This actually falls right along the lines I'm thinking of giving the PCs a chance to earn a considerable discount on their ship by solving some problem associated with it. Since I'm starting them off at the subsector capital, this seems reasonable. Ideas I'm considering:

1. The person selling the ship has a shakey legal claim on it, but is willing to guarantee sale if the PCs will act to solidify their claim.

2. The ship is unavailable for inspection and is currently parked at a remote antimatter production facility orbiting one of the system's gas giants. The PCs will have to get out their and make it their own.

3. As you suggest, the PCs have to acquire/make unique replacement parts for an alien ship.

4. The ship has gone missing a system over, and the owners are willing to make a dirt-cheap sale if the PCs take responsibility for finding it and reclaiming it.

Other ideas along these lines?

 

[lurker]

Giving characters a ship cheap is simple. Whether it is a family member who died or someone retiring that a character knows, or just being at the right ship auction at the right time [last owner failed to make payments], one or more characters get the ship for nothing - they just have to take over payments. Totally up to the GM how many years have been paid off already.

You want the ship to be the major plot hook? A family member or someone a character knows has gone missing. What happened to them? Their will left the ship (and it's current debts) or a percentage of the ship to a character. Other characters use their ship shares to 'buy out' anyone else that has an interest in the ship. Maybe there is an NPC that still will own a portion of the ship (useful for initiating plot hooks). To get clear ownership of the ship, first the adventurers have to follow the trail and prove the person in question is dead - or are they?

 

[Patron Zero]

I've always leaned towards that first starship player characters embark on as a group to be kept reasonably simple, best example is the venerable 100 ton Scout/Courier.

That said, not all retired ships of that designation are cookie cutter copies of one another as much as outwardly the classic VW Beetle may seem at first glance. It's all about the details, specifically the interior arrangements and features that distinguish one Bug from another, as much as such applies to starships as well.

A refitted Scout/Courier may initially seem as a pigboat in a poke until the player characters have the opportunity to examine and explore said vessel's hidden charms and it's unique abilities are revealed.

That first ship should be as much a mystery and a plot device as anything else in one's campaign but that maybe that's my particular bend on Traveller.

 

[subunit]

4. The ship has gone missing a system over, and the owners are willing to make a dirt-cheap sale if the PCs take responsibility for finding it and reclaiming it.
Other ideas along these lines?

This one reminds me of the scenario in that Drivethrurpg Type S book that recently came out.

I liked these hooks a lot! Here's one I thought might be neat.

5. A smuggler's craft has recently been impounded by planetary security forces for smuggling highly addictive drugs on a world where they are banned. The fast-talking smuggler contacts the PCs and offers to give them the ship in return for the return of his illicit shipment, which he claims is worth vastly more than the ship itself- successful delivery of these goods will enable him to buy many craft of this type. If the ship is succesfully freed out of the impound lot (could be combat, could be nobles pulling rank and intrigue), the smuggler will make off with the drugs never to be seen again (despite any additional rewards he may have promised), unless the PCs betray him and keep the drugs for themselves (in which case they will discover that they are indeed powerfully addictive, but relatively cheap drugs not worth more than a few weeks of craft maintenance, although their value was much higher to the desperately addicted smuggler).

 

[kristof65]

Some of the things I've used in the past to make starships interesting to the PCs:

- a former passenger or crewmember has hidden something within the ship and left it behind, and upon seeing the ship again, wants to retrieve it.

- a previous engineer jury rigged a repair under pressure that worked so well, he never went back and repaired it properly when he had time, and he forgot about it (or didn't care). Of course, the jury-rig will fail at an inopportune time for the PCs.

- multiple layers of paint in one particular stateroom. After a while, a dark brownish red stain will begin to show up on the walls in that room. The only way to get rid of it is to either strip all the paint on the walls and attempt to remove the stain permanently, or cover over it with a fresh coat of paint. (In my campaign, it was a very slow hydraulic leak near by but for a long while, the PCs thought it was blood, and there was speculation the ship might be haunted).

- the ship's type and registration numbers closely match the description of a ship used in a crime in which the authorities only got a partial on the registration number. The crew will be cleared in a few days if they are patient and cooperative. However, if they are guilty of other things, they might not be patient or may get linked to something else.

- a former crew member bumps into the PCs at a starport bar, and won't leave the PCs alone - badgering them for a tour of the 'ol girl', and telling them all sorts of stories they probably don't want to here about other former crew members.

- a former one night stand of a former crew member finds out the ship is in port, and demands that the crew help her find the 'bum who knocked her up.' Ironically, if the crew humored the guy above, they might have helpful information for the poor girl.

- a child passenger loses some sort of 'talking toy' on the ship, and it randomly talks. The crew can't find it, and isn't sure what it is.