Spaceship Interior Walls

[George Kelln]

When a pirate boarding party boards a ship, the Traveller material makes reference to swords, stunners, and low power weapons are normally used. Why?

What is the Armour Protection Value (APV) of a spaceship's interior walls? Let's say a Type S Scout/Courier

I understand the exterior hull of a Type S has a APV of 4 (Ground Scale 40).

The Airlock would probably have a similar Protection and the Ship's locker would be heavily protected.

But what about the interior walls and doors?

 

[Galadrion]

Probably similar to groundside interior walls/doors, except for bulkheads. Maybe a little lighter-weight than groundside houses - more like apartment or other rental-property buildings (which is what these are, essentially). That's pretty much the way ships (wet ships, that is) are constructed these days, and while tech may change, people usually don't.

 

[Reynard]

Interior walls are going to be sturdy enough to take a beating under normal circumstances as wall in a house do. They're not meant to protect against severe environmental conditions or concerted attacks with high power weapons. Bulkheads should be very important when designing a ship's interior to compartmentalize and isolate against losing large areas to invasive conditions. Think in categories - bridge, cargo bay, engineering (which could be further compartmentalized), residential and others. Bulkhead location can also put invaders into vulnerable positions while the crew control movement and security.

 

[Garran]

The boarding party is probably less concerned about the walls and doors than what might be on the other side of them. Blowing through the wall and hitting a crucial system would reduce the value of the prize (if that's what they're after), and create a dangerous situation if it's something that could rupture/leak/explode, or otherwise be hazardous. (IE: damaged electrical components might well create a shock hazard even if they don't threaten anyone with shrapnel.)

And if you DO want to cause that kind of damage on purpose then your ship's weapons are better suited to turning the thing into scrap than sending a boarding party over.

 

[Condottiere]

As I recall, bulkhead walls are the same as default zero factor hull.

They're meant primarily as damage control limitations, in case you hit an iceberg.

 

[NOLATrav]

Not sure about AVP but in the CT Traders & Gunboats supplement, it took 100 points of energy or explosive weapon damage (slug throwers must inflict 1000 points) to create a person-sized hole in a partition wall. Bulkheads required 1000 points of energy/explosive damage to create a person-sized hole (slugthrowers are ineffective vs bulkheads). Ship decks and air locks considered to be bulkheads.

So this gives us a basic 10:1 ratio, if you give a partition wall Protection 1, a bulkhead will provide Protection 10. But it feels like a partition wall is more like Protection 10 or 12 (enough to stop the average bullet). Maybe Prot 6 or 8 if you like a little more cinematic flavor.

If you look at it like this, sort of makes the whole cutlass’n’snub pistol thing seem silly (since we don’t have rules for shrapnel or spalling or ricocheting bullets).

 

[Old School]

The whole cutlass thing has always been silly. A ranged weapon with limited or no recoil is very useful in Zero-G, regardless of how strong the walls are. Swinging swords in the hallway, less so.

 

[Reynard]

I'm looking over all the rules for armor whether structures, body armor, vehicle armor or ship armor as well as ship hull points doing compare and contrast. One question I need from people in the know for naval personnel or anyone who know ships. What are interior walls, as opposed to ship bulkhead structure, like? Is it sturdy thin or thick metal or comparable to a house interior wall of wood and drywall?

 

[Condottiere]

Just off hand, any doorway that qualifies as vacuum tight is likely integrated into at least a semi bulkhead.

I think for the canon spaceships, where weight isn't an issue, thin steel, or slightly fatter aluminium for stateroom and other accommodation dividers.

 

[Old School]

I'm looking over all the rules for armor whether structures, body armor, vehicle armor or ship armor as well as ship hull points doing compare and contrast. One question I need from people in the know for naval personnel or anyone who know ships. What are interior walls, as opposed to ship bulkhead structure, like? Is it sturdy thin or thick metal or comparable to a house interior wall of wood and drywall?

I can’t speak to military ships, but on pleasure craft large enough to have partitions, those walls are very basic. 25-30mm of fire resistant plywood, sandwiched between very thin (1mm) decorative covers (aluminum, plastic, fibreglass, etc) would be typical. Usually don’t have the interior space within the wall for wiring and ductwork that an interior building wall would. Nothing that would stop a bullet. Could get through one with your cutlass, given enough time.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The old Snapshot game had rules for doors, bulkheads and Iris Valves. Sorry, don't have it handy, but I know the numbers were there.

I want to say Doors were AV10 and Walls and Iris Valves were AV100???

 

[Reynard]

Armor and hull points are equal with armor acting to reduce damage before reaching the hull. When a ground scale weapon is used against spacecraft scale hull, you divide damage by 10 (round down) so it's a lot easier to do no damage at all. You might reduce damage by another 10 ground scale points if using the Armored Bulkheads option from High Guard. Interior walls take 1:1 damage from ground scale weapons. 10 points of damage create a man sized breech.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

When a pirate boarding party boards a ship, the Traveller material makes reference to swords, stunners, and low power weapons are normally used. Why?

What is the Armour Protection Value (APV) of a spaceship's interior walls? Let's say a Type S Scout/Courier

I understand the exterior hull of a Type S has a APV of 4 (Ground Scale 40).

The Airlock would probably have a similar Protection and the Ship's locker would be heavily protected.

But what about the interior walls and doors?

My original scout ship design just had drywall partitions with aluminum framing. The deck floors were sturdy as the outside though. Rooms had either raised floors or false ceilings. Pick one.

 

[AliTanwir]

This is an interesting thread, but it leads me to another question, how much damage do you need to blow up an airlock? The books reference travellers blowing up airlocks with explosives, but how much damage they require for this? For example in the traveller companion we can find that an steel blast door has 12 armour 150 structure and requires ten times more to open a human-sized hole. And an steel hatch has armour 8 structure 50, also requires 10 times more damage to open a human-sized hole.

 

[Reynard]

Now I am going to take the companion to work so I can find this new info concerning hull and armor. I somehow forgot or bypassed it.

 

[AliTanwir]

Now I am going to take the companion to work so I can find this new info concerning hull and armor. I somehow forgot or bypassed it.

About that, the companion lists a number of inanimate objects that you can destroy and how to destroy them but it doesn't talk about ship walls and airlocks I just gave those as examples. But I would like to know how other referees and players handle it.