TAS [Moon Toad Publishing] Type R Subsidized Merchant Flat-Top Variant

[middenface]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/501999/type-r-subsidized-merchant-flat-top-variant

The Type R Subsidized Merchant is a well-known and common class throughout the Third Imperium and beyond.
The basic data package has been replicated by many shipyards. However, more than a few naval architects
and shipyards have taken those specifications and decided to modify them to suit their own preferences.

Screenwriter, director and producer Joss Whedon once told an interviewer he played in a sci-fi RPG while in college.
Some have hypothesized that the RPG was Traveller and the Type R was the inspiration for Serenity, a Firefly-class vessel. The Flat-Top is based on that idea.

Hang on Travellers, its time for some thrillin’ heroics.

The Type R Subsidized Merchant is a well-known and common class throughout the Third Imperium and beyond. The basic data package has been replicated by many shipyards. However, more than a few naval architects and shipyards have taken those specifications and decided to modify them to suit their own preferences.

Screenwriter, director and producer Joss Whedon once told an interviewer he played in a sci-fi RPG while in college. Some have hypothesized that the RPG was Traveller and the Type R was the inspiration for Serenity, a Firefly-class vessel. The Flat-Top is based on that idea.

Hang on Travellers, its time for some thrillin’ heroics.

Contains:

• Detailed description of the Type R Flat-Top and The Havok Type RJ variant
• Colour Deckplans
• Ship stats for Mongoose Traveller 2e
• Stats and plans for the Scarab runabout
• Details for the Cargo Spider Bot
• Example ship's crew

Designed for the Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition system, though should work for any other version, with little effort.

 

[ottarrus]

I previewed [NOT reviewed] this on drivethru this morning.
- Yes, Firefly burned brightly indeed.
- The art is clear and well done.
- I didn't have a chance to see the ship stats, but the deck plan and descriptive text match up well [this is a gear I've been grinding on lately]

As for the design itself, I do wonder at the choice of including two launches. Seems to me that is 44 tons [or 22 tons] that could be used for something more economical. What's more most of the time the shuttle will transporting passengers. Passengers like to travel with their luggage. So if you were gonna spend 44 tons of space, I wonder if a pinnance wouldn't be a better design choice for small craft.

NONE of that is any kind of criticism. My comments are entirely meant to be constructive not complaining. It's just my logic and YTUMV. I will be buying this come payday and I'm happy to support the work.

 

[middenface]

I previewed [NOT reviewed] this on drivethru this morning.
- Yes, Firefly burned brightly indeed.
- The art is clear and well done.
- I didn't have a chance to see the ship stats, but the deck plan and descriptive text match up well [this is a gear I've been grinding on lately]

As for the design itself, I do wonder at the choice of including two launches. Seems to me that is 44 tons [or 22 tons] that could be used for something more economical. What's more most of the time the shuttle will transporting passengers. Passengers like to travel with their luggage. So if you were gonna spend 44 tons of space, I wonder if a pinnance wouldn't be a better design choice for small craft.

NONE of that is any kind of criticism. My comments are entirely meant to be constructive not complaining. It's just my logic and YTUMV. I will be buying this come payday and I'm happy to support the work.

Thank you and I'll pass on this to Kerry

 

[Vormaerin]

I previewed [NOT reviewed] this on drivethru this morning.
- Yes, Firefly burned brightly indeed.
- The art is clear and well done.
- I didn't have a chance to see the ship stats, but the deck plan and descriptive text match up well [this is a gear I've been grinding on lately]

As for the design itself, I do wonder at the choice of including two launches. Seems to me that is 44 tons [or 22 tons] that could be used for something more economical. What's more most of the time the shuttle will transporting passengers. Passengers like to travel with their luggage. So if you were gonna spend 44 tons of space, I wonder if a pinnance wouldn't be a better design choice for small craft.

NONE of that is any kind of criticism. My comments are entirely meant to be constructive not complaining. It's just my logic and YTUMV. I will be buying this come payday and I'm happy to support the work.

Those aren't 20 dton launches. They are 10dton Runabouts. The total space alloted to small craft is 22 dtons.

 

[ottarrus]

Those aren't 20 dton launches. They are 10dton Runabouts. The total space alloted to small craft is 22 dtons.

I still question the inclusion of two small craft when one would do, but that's just my preferences. I understand that they were included as a nod to the Serenity.
Because of my vehicle maintenance background, I'm the kind of ref who makes sure that the time and expenses of all vehicles are accounted for. [/shrug]

 

[Vormaerin]

Whether one will do depends on what you expect to be doing. Just like whether you are a one car or two car household. Or, like me, a zero car household

 

[Sageryne]

I previewed [NOT reviewed] this on drivethru this morning.
- Yes, Firefly burned brightly indeed.
- The art is clear and well done.
- I didn't have a chance to see the ship stats, but the deck plan and descriptive text match up well [this is a gear I've been grinding on lately]

As for the design itself, I do wonder at the choice of including two launches. Seems to me that is 44 tons [or 22 tons] that could be used for something more economical. What's more most of the time the shuttle will transporting passengers. Passengers like to travel with their luggage. So if you were gonna spend 44 tons of space, I wonder if a pinnance wouldn't be a better design choice for small craft.

NONE of that is any kind of criticism. My comments are entirely meant to be constructive not complaining. It's just my logic and YTUMV. I will be buying this come payday and I'm happy to support the work.

Hi ottarrus,

The Type R has a 20-dTon Launch. All I did was split the tonnage into two smaller runabouts. Is it the most efficient? Probably not, but this ship is designed around the crew of the Serenity, and sometimes you are doing crime in one runabout, while a perfectly respectable courtesan is entertaining a client in the other one...

There are plenty of different options for ships, this one takes the possibly less efficient route.

- Kerry Mould

 

[ottarrus]

Hi ottarrus,

The Type R has a 20-dTon Launch. All I did was split the tonnage into two smaller runabouts. Is it the most efficient? Probably not, but this ship is designed around the crew of the Serenity, and sometimes you are doing crime in one runabout, while a perfectly respectable courtesan is entertaining a client in the other one...

There are plenty of different options for ships, this one takes the possibly less efficient route.

- Kerry Mould

Yep. No worries.
I understand that the R-FT is an homage to one of our favorite shows. That ship featured two lifeboat /run-about /launches, so they were included.
I was just thinking of my own Traveller sensibilities insofar as trying to squeeze as much income out of the ship as I could. But then, the most economically sound ship tends to make for a lousy adventuring ship Not too many high-speed /low-drag features on a standard Type A, right?
And, as I say, this is one of the better TAS initiative ship designs. Other than including an actual medical bay and the run-about, it's not a bad design for what a Type R was meant to do.

 

[Sageryne]

Yep. No worries.
I understand that the R-FT is an homage to one of our favorite shows. That ship featured two lifeboat /run-about /launches, so they were included.
I was just thinking of my own Traveller sensibilities insofar as trying to squeeze as much income out of the ship as I could. But then, the most economically sound ship tends to make for a lousy adventuring ship Not too many high-speed /low-drag features on a standard Type A, right?
And, as I say, this is one of the better TAS initiative ship designs. Other than including an actual medical bay and the run-about, it's not a bad design for what a Type R was meant to do.

Hi ottarrus,

The Flat-Top's economics are crap. It costs too much and it doesn't transport enough. That is the primary reason I created the RJ version. Jump-2 makes the ship more appealing to those who are not as worried about making ends meet (yachts, safari ships, research vessels, i.e. ships owned by people with enough money or enough of someone else's people's money, to not worry about the economics).

The ship was created for my personal campaign. The players did VERY well in the their benefits rolls. When you combined all their ship shares and percentage of ships, they had TOO DAMN MUCH MONEY! By setting them up with a more expensive ship, I was able to balance things out. They still own about 10% of the ship's value, but they are working that off through unconventional activities

Glad you liked it.

- Kerry

 

[Geir]

Very nice!
One tiny nit is that with the updated high guard you have to use tonnage for small craft airlocks (blue box, page 25, second paragraph), so that would eat 2 tons, since the deck plans seem to have the airlock. (you could remove the common space and reduce the fuel - see Small Craft Catalogue, p. 4)

 

[Sageryne]

Very nice!
One tiny nit is that with the updated high guard you have to use tonnage for small craft airlocks (blue box, page 25, second paragraph), so that would eat 2 tons, since the deck plans seem to have the airlock. (you could remove the common space and reduce the fuel - see Small Craft Catalogue, p. 4)

Well frak... you are correct sir (and thank you for the page references). I totally missed the page 25 reference. I was going off the comment on page 58 under Airlock "A ship is assumed to have one airlock for every full 100 tons or part of. However, additional airlocks of any size may be added to a ship." Obviously that was intended to refer to ships not small craft.

I believe the 2nd edition High Guard rules are better than the 1st edition, they aren't always easy to get right. It is easy to miss small details like that.

I think I would remove the extra fuel (as per the Small Craft Catalog) and perhaps the galley (though I would want to keep the fresher). You could cut into the cargo space for the rest.

- Kerry

 

[Jame Rowe]

Hey, cool! A Harniac who also likes Traveller!

 

[Sageryne]

Hey, cool! A Harniac who also likes Traveller!

Hey Jame,

I have been a big RPG fan since I was a teenager. I started with red box D&D, but soon discovered the Little Black Books of Traveller. I have played a lot of different games in my days, including Star Wars, Twilight 2000, The One Ring, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, just to name a few. Harn has been my number one RPG obsession since about 1998, but Traveller has always been in the top five throughout all my gaming. I have collected and played the LBB, DGP MegaTraveller (loved the Rebellion storyline), New Era (not a big fan of the Virus), GURPS (Interstellar Wars was awesome), Mark's T4 line, and now with Mongoose.

Last year, I started GMing a Traveller campaign for my weekly face-to-face gaming group. That really reignited my passion for Traveller. I have been super energized. I reached out to Ian Stead about having him illustrate a ship I had done deck plans for as my PCs personal ship. He was amazing to work with and the illustrations turned out top-notch (as you can see!). I started to do an extensive write up for the ship that eventually became the Flat-Top article.

Ian and I are talking about possible future collaborations.

- Kerry

PS, I am also working on another big project for Harn (oh, and I have a full-time job to fit in too!), so, no rest for the wicked >

 

[-Daniel-]

Hey, cool! A Harniac who also likes Traveller!

Not sure why, but Harn became one of my favorite to read, but not play in settings. I think that Harn is better structured and built out than any other setting I own.

Have you been picking up the new Hardbacks?

 

[Sageryne]

Not sure why, but Harn became one of my favorite to read, but not play in settings. I think that Harn is better structured and built out than any other setting I own.

Have you been picking up the new Hardbacks?

Hi Daniel,

Yes, absolutely, I have picked up all the Harn hardbacks. I was the lead author for the update and (sizeable) expansion of the Kingdom of Azadmere book for CGI and have been part of the development of all of the hardbacks. I am currently working on Evael, the Kingdom of the Elves, the last Harnic kingdom to be updated and expanded.

- Kerry

 

[Sigtrygg]

I have to complement you on your work.

I have been buying up the hardbacks since I came across the kickstarter. I already had a lot of it thanks to a gift from a friend, but I couldn't resist the books.

(Hate to admit I have also bought the new Harnmaster from Kelestia).

I know you probably can't reply to this question, but any chance of Columbia doing a new hardback of Harnmaster once done with the kingdom books?

 

[Sageryne]

I have to complement you on your work.

I have been buying up the hardbacks since I came across the kickstarter. I already had a lot of it thanks to a gift from a friend, but I couldn't resist the books.

(Hate to admit I have also bought the new Harnmaster from Kelestia).

I know you probably can't reply to this question, but any chance of Columbia doing a new hardback of Harnmaster once done with the kingdom books?

Thank you!

Don't apologise for picking up stuff from Kelestia, they are good people. We went down different paths, but many of us are still friends.

CGI is working on HarnMaster 4. It is a big job and we don't have a completion date yet, but when it is finished, it will most certainly be released as a hardback. The current plan is that it will have all the rules, including HarnReligion and HarnMagic in one book. We also have plans (no commitments) to a bestiary, religion book (covering the non-rules stuff like religious and fighting orders), updated barbarians book, etc.

We are a small team of part-timers, so our production rate is slow, but we have been chipping away at it steadily. However, we learned a long time ago not to commit to dates until the manuscript is finished, edited, and the art and maps are done. That way we don't disappoint anyone when life happens and things get delayed.

- Kerry

 

[Sigtrygg]

Well the work is excellent and I will be buying Harnmaster 4 as soon as it is kickstarted

 

[Jame Rowe]

This is now added to my DTRPG wishlist.
Also, I'm writing my own setting, and a couple of the low-tech worlds will have "stronger psionics capability, and hey, where'd that chainmail wearing lady come from?"

 

[-Daniel-]

Hi Daniel,

Yes, absolutely, I have picked up all the Harn hardbacks. I was the lead author for the update and (sizeable) expansion of the Kingdom of Azadmere book for CGI and have been part of the development of all of the hardbacks. I am currently working on Evael, the Kingdom of the Elves, the last Harnic kingdom to be updated and expanded.

- Kerry

Oh that is so nice. I love your and the other team members from CGI's work. So much detail and the art is wonderful as well. So very invocative.

I have been pledging the Hardback books sense the first book. Looking forward to this next shipment, two books in one box.