Referee's Aid 3: Type-A Free Trader

[MongooseMatt]

The third Referee's Aid has just been released, once again penned by M J Dougherty and this time covering the Type-A Free Trader.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/146262/Referees-Aid-3-TypeA-Free-Trader?affiliate_id=7242

The Type-A Free Trader was developed long ago to provide efficient, low-cost transportation for small cargoes and a few passengers. It is an eminently useable design which has been adapted to many other roles, but ultimately is optimised for moving almost half its tonnage in cargo from one star system to another.

The Type-A is, more than anything else, cheap. Its sensor fit is basic and its flight controls are minimal. It does, however, have a large cargo area and reasonable passenger accommodation, and since these are the tools of its trade, not wasting tonnage or money on anything else can be considered a plus. As a result of its efficiency in the small-transport field, the Type-A is one of the commonest starships in charted Space. It is primarily used by small shipping firms (many of them single-vessel outfits) but is also operated by many governments as a mail ship or even a naval auxiliary. Numerous owner-operators (as distinct from small shipping companies) also find this design effective.

Referee's Aid 3: Type-A Free Trader provides an in-depth look at one of the most common ships in Known Space, along with the A2 Far Trader variant. It walks you through every aspect of the Free Trader, with all new 3D deck plans, and provides specific vessels to be used in encounters.

If you are looking to flesh out the ship many players start with, look no further.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Another book already? You guys rock!
Talking about both the ship and how to use it, nice! The overhead and revenue chapter looks like a great addition, useful reading for any ship owner really.

Perhaps it's just my google-fu failing me, but I can't find the A2 variant in any of my books... Is it simply the far trader from the rulebook with another layout?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The Far Trader (A2) is listed in the Main Rule Book, Page 172. It's description is listed right under the Free Trader, deck plans are provided but not a Stat Sheet; it simply lists the differences from an A1.

Hope that helps!

 

[phavoc]

The A2 variant listed in the supplement does not follow the deckplans laid out in the core rulebook. For some people ships are just numbers, while others really like to have a good look at whats under the hull plating. It's especially useful if there happens to be any boarding action going on as well.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The deck plans in the Main Rulebook are for one variation of the A2, the "Empress Marava" variant from previous editions. LOTS of different deck plans could be used for exactly the same stats.

 

[phavoc]

The deck plans in the Main Rulebook are for one variation of the A2, the "Empress Marava" variant from previous editions. LOTS of different deck plans could be used for exactly the same stats.

Lots of different versions is a very true statement. But then it would become a different class with a different name.

Which previous version of Traveller are you referring to though? The CT Empress Marava from Supplement 7 Traders & Gunboats isn't the one that was in supplement. The Far Trader from Megatraveller also doesn't look like the one in the supplement. The same goes for TNE. All the previous versions had the left/right protuberences. The supplement one has a rounded nose, like a standard Free Trader.

None of this is a 'bad thing'. But labels are kind of important, yanno? A spork can do the work of a fork or spoon, but it's called a spork for a reason.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

What phavoc said

I know there's a Far Trader in the rulebook, but this one looks different. More like a Type A with lots of interior redecoration rather than the twin-bow version in the rulebook (which in my pdf version is on pp. 117-118 with full stats and deckplan)

 

[Reynard]

"Lots of different versions is a very true statement. But then it would become a different class with a different name."

Have you looked and trucks and automobiles today? Same name is slapped on a new year's model that either look vaguely or not at all like the original. Some Imperial shipyard came up with the same format.

 

[phavoc]

"Lots of different versions is a very true statement. But then it would become a different class with a different name."

Have you looked and trucks and automobiles today? Same name is slapped on a new year's model that either look vaguely or not at all like the original. Some Imperial shipyard came up with the same format.

Every day! But cars are different than starships wouldn't you say? The reason that car models change visually every year is for marketing reasons. It seems people don't like buying the same one year after year.

But to use that same argument, why then hasn't the free trader changed? It's still the same look and design everywhere.

No, I think this was an 'oops'. I like this variant much better though. The other one always seemed to be more of a klugey design. Plus this one they put a lift in! Makes a lot more sense.

 

[Reynard]

Maybe ground vehicle are not a great example. By today's standards, how many design varieties do we see in naval vessels from freighters to military? Do architects regularly make two trawlers look as different as night and day over the years even world wide?

We are, however talking thousands of worlds hundreds of parsecs across featuring many races. We could demand Mongoose make volumes filled with every variation of external shape and internal arrangement for each possible basic design. Instead, we are given iconic ships to represent a particular design concept with a few slight variations for a bit of diversity. After that, it's up to referees and players to design every other possibility for ship function and every possible graphic imagination of form. That's how you fill in the voids. So get out there and add those fins, kit-bashed surface textures and anime antenna clusters to your Type-A Free Trader!

 

[phavoc]

For naval vessels, for example, they have flights/mods versions. But anything that markedly changes the vessel (such as the layout differences between the supplement and the core rule book) would necessitate a name change.

So the Virginia class cruisers were different than the two separate flights of Ticonderoga class cruisers.

I know there isn't a hard and fast rule on when you are "supposed" to change the class name, but I would draw the line at external hull changes.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

No reason an A2 couldn't be built within an A1 hull. The internals are obviously different, but the external volume is still 200 Dtons.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I would like to see Far Trader, Fat Trader and Type-T Referee's Aids also.

Not the Gazelle. The Gazelle isn't interesting. The Type T is.

 

[The Dark Avenger]

Far Trader is in the Free Trader book.

Fat Trader is in preparation on my desk right now, but the yacht book will be out before that one.

After that, well, we'll see.

 

[Reynard]

I have the yacht book from classic but would love to see how it's updated in a Ref's aid.

 

[GypsyComet]

No reason an A2 couldn't be built within an A1 hull. The internals are obviously different, but the external volume is still 200 Dtons.

Since the original A2 specifically mentioned that the same hull was used for the standard A as well, and the Beo hull dates waaaay back, there being an A2 on the Beo hull is not even a little stretch.

The Types are performance specs, not classes as we normally use the term. The Beowulf, Alexandria, Marava, Jayhawk, etc are classes within the Types.

 

[phavoc]

Since the original A2 specifically mentioned that the same hull was used for the standard A as well, and the Beo hull dates waaaay back, there being an A2 on the Beo hull is not even a little stretch.

The Types are performance specs, not classes as we normally use the term. The Beowulf, Alexandria, Marava, Jayhawk, etc are classes within the Types.

From the Core Rulebook for the Far Trader (pg 117)
"This redesign of the basic two-hundred-ton Free Trader replaces the jump drive and power plant with larger class-B units, giving the ship Jump–2 capabilities. A Jump–2 trade ship can reach worlds
that Jump–1 ships cannot and so has more options when carrying passengers or speculative cargos."

One could quibble over the intent of the text. What exactly does "redesign" mean? The average person would relate the redesign ideas to the accompanying ship deckplan layout included on the same page under the label "Far Trader".

I have no issue of using the standard Free Trader hull and changing the specs. That makes nothing but sense to me because the design has been around for such a long time (and I always thought the Far Trader looked kinda goofy to me). My issue is that it's a change being passed off as not a change. And since this is an official publication that will be considered canon material, it creates a unacknowledged conflict on which is the official version. We already have enough of those in the rules. This could have been settled by simply adding in a couple of sentences to indicate it's a "common" variant that also gets the Far Trader label attached to it, even though its actually a distinct class. And that would have allowed for the variant to be out there and NOT create a conflict.

At the end of the day it's not a big deal at all. It doesn't affect game play whatsoever. It would be nice though that the oversight was acknowledged. Heck, since it's being distributed electronically it would take all of what, 10 min to fix, then upload and people could download a corrected copy for free. If publishers are going to take advantage of the electronic publishing medium then they ought to take full advantage of all it has to offer. Mongoose has done it before with some titles, as have many of the other smaller publishers out there.

 

[GypsyComet]

What exactly does "redesign" mean?

In the case of the original looks, it could be argued that it means the Terrans/Solomani took the old Vilani Hero class specs and made a hull they liked better, dual Lucasian bomber nose and all. In classic Terran fashion, the Vilani nomenclature that translated to "Type A" (possible meaning 'the thing we build the most of') would have been bumped by the Terrans to become the A2.

When someone got around to updating the old Marava to TL14, they were not Solomani influenced, and the sleek and bubbly Jayhawk was the result.

 

[alex_greene]

Not every tractor is a Massey Ferguson; not every car is a Ford. I'd class Empress Marava A2 Far Traders as being one specific class of Far Trader, and posit that other A2s exist which are of different makes and models.

I too was expecting a Marava - class, but it's logical to expect some A2s to look like A's, just with a bigger Jump drive stuffed into them.

 

[GypsyComet]

Confusing things across editions and in the huge body of fan work is the tendency to call nearly any Free Trader a "Beowulf".

{That name entered Traveller mythology as the name of a specific ship in trouble, then metastasized to become a class name. Then GT Interstellar Wars "suggested" that the name was the result of a Pratchet style humorous mistranslation from Bilandin and 2200 years of cultural and linguistic drift. But I digress.)

IMHO, the Free Trader deckplan in the Mongoose core book is a "Free Trader" and a Type A (as interpreted by the MGT ship rules), but is not a "Beowulf", just as the Free Traders in Snapshot, JG's Starships & Spacecraft, T20 and T4 are not "Beowulf" class ships.