The Type-Y kind of Yachts we should be seeing

One thing I could see as a proper noble yacht is a Broadsword mercenary ship, decked out with high-end weaponry, fitted with luxurious nobles' quarters, and crewed with a Downton Abbey style service staff, and a bunch of troops with premium gear.

How does the noble make money? Mercenary tickets -- but without much care for actual profit, just the thrill of combat and the prestige of fighting for good causes. The noble's real money is from investments -- property overseen by a professional manager, financial investments, or a family trust.

Traveller can be about trying to make your next Credit, or your next Mega-Credit, but it can also be just about finding a way to make the life of the idle rich exciting.
 
steve98052 said:
One thing I could see as a proper noble yacht is a Broadsword mercenary ship, decked out with high-end weaponry, fitted with luxurious nobles' quarters, and crewed with a Downton Abbey style service staff, and a bunch of troops with premium gear.

How does the noble make money? Mercenary tickets -- but without much care for actual profit, just the thrill of combat and the prestige of fighting for good causes. The noble's real money is from investments -- property overseen by a professional manager, financial investments, or a family trust.

Traveller can be about trying to make your next Credit, or your next Mega-Credit, but it can also be just about finding a way to make the life of the idle rich exciting.
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That's an excellent idea! And the Broadsword is prepared for it, with the entire top deck devoted to owner's cabin and lounge!

One could always use the type Y as a luxurious ship's boat and have a larger ship as the "main yacht" (Linda like a luxury version of the Zhodani council cruiser with its courier)
 
steve98052 said:
One thing I could see as a proper noble yacht is a Broadsword mercenary ship, decked out with high-end weaponry, fitted with luxurious nobles' quarters, and crewed with a Downton Abbey style service staff, and a bunch of troops with premium gear.

How does the noble make money? Mercenary tickets -- but without much care for actual profit, just the thrill of combat and the prestige of fighting for good causes. The noble's real money is from investments -- property overseen by a professional manager, financial investments, or a family trust.

Traveller can be about trying to make your next Credit, or your next Mega-Credit, but it can also be just about finding a way to make the life of the idle rich exciting.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great campaign idea, or at least a variation on a standard mercenary campaign, the main difference being you have an eccentric noble as your commanding officer or ship's owner. The mercs, enjoying the value of a Broadsword merc cruiser, strive to complete their tickets and keep their (semi-competent?) noble patron alive in the process. I like it!
 
One answer would be the simply say that a yacht is a luxury vessel with a cost of no more than 65-70 MCr (since I've always assumed that a Safari Ship makes an excellent yacht alternative). That way, there are plenty of different designs for yachts. I'd be inclined to veto silly possibilities, like a cramped ship with minimal accommodations, and a 50 ton particle beam bay, but would accept pretty much anything that could be remotely considered a luxury starship.
 
heron61 said:
One answer would be the simply say that a yacht is a luxury vessel with a cost of no more than 65-70 MCr (since I've always assumed that a Safari Ship makes an excellent yacht alternative). That way, there are plenty of different designs for yachts. I'd be inclined to veto silly possibilities, like a cramped ship with minimal accommodations, and a 50 ton particle beam bay, but would accept pretty much anything that could be remotely considered a luxury starship.
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As Commodore Vanderbilt once said, 'If you have to ask you can't afford it.' If you're rich enough a yacht could run to all sorts of silly money. Just think about Larry Ellison's yacht.
 
heron61 said:
One answer would be the simply say that a yacht is a luxury vessel with a cost of no more than 65-70 MCr (since I've always assumed that a Safari Ship makes an excellent yacht alternative). That way, there are plenty of different designs for yachts. I'd be inclined to veto silly possibilities, like a cramped ship with minimal accommodations, and a 50 ton particle beam bay, but would accept pretty much anything that could be remotely considered a luxury starship.
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The Type-Y has always seemed to be more like a 60ft cabin cruiser than like Ellison's yacht like Nobby said. Prices for some yachts should run in the hundreds of MCr.
 
Sometimes, billionaires are faced with bankruptcy, or at least liquidity issues, and the right offer at the right time can get you one at a cut throat price.
 
paltrysum said:
Sounds like a great campaign idea, or at least a variation on a standard mercenary campaign, the main difference being you have an eccentric noble as your commanding officer or ship's owner. The mercs, enjoying the value of a Broadsword merc cruiser, strive to complete their tickets and keep their (semi-competent?) noble patron alive in the process. I like it!
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Thanks. But I didn't necessarily mean that the noble would be merely semi-competent. Medieval nobles were not just idle rich -- they were soldiers who ruled through force of arms, threat of armed force, and alliances with others who shared their military goals.

Traveller nobles are the local representatives of the military might of the Imperium. They may not get into the messy business of ground combat to pacify a world that refuses to surrender after losing a battle for space superiority. But they may well be aboard the naval flagship, giving strategic guidance to the admirals running the tactical details of a battle.

The Broadsword example is someone who doesn't necessarily need to get down and dirty, but feels that leadership by example is the best way to inspire the troops, and even the common people.
 
The more I think about a Broadsword-based noble, the more I like it! Even got me to finally try to learn and understand the deckplan of the merc-ball.

As for the level of competence of the noble, I'd say it could (and should?) be determined by the chosen mood of the campaign. The noble could be a drunken destroyer of well-laid plans with a splice of comic relief, or an administrative leader that secures contracts and provides funding but otherwise stays in the background, or a futuristic version of a knight - leading the troops under their command, clad in an ornate custom-built suit of battledress armour.

Or, of course, a hilarious combination of all the above :)



For a more exploration- or trade-based campaign, a Leviathan merchant cruiser should do the trick.

Another, semi-related fun (?) fact is that if one were to remove the troops' accommodation area from a Kinnunir the resulting freed up space would almost perfectly fit (both in tonnage and shape) the lower deck of a Type Y yacht (minus engineering, of course). How's that for a yacht?
 
I've been thinking of starting another merc campaign (I've done two in the past in the MT and TNE eras) and the idea of a noble-owned merc cruiser is intriguing. I might employ some variation of it. How about a noble merc cruiser owner...with a gambling problem!

Merc 1: "Hey, how come we only get our base salaries on every ticket? We've been successfully completing our assignments, so where are the shares and bonuses?"
Merc 2: "Good question. The colonel [our noble friend] says our patrons haven't been paying up."
Merc 1: "Uh...huh. Where is 'the colonel,' by the way?"
Merc 2: "At the casino, I think. He seems to spend a lot of time there."
 
Lord Lovat makes a good model for the competent noble commander

From Wikipedia

"Brigadier Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and 4th Baron Lovat, DSO, MC, TD, JP, DL was the 25th Chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat and a prominent British Commando during the Second World War."
 
Lieutenant-Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996), was a British Army officer who fought throughout the Second World War armed with a longbow, bagpipes, and a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword.
Nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", he was known for the motto: "Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."
 
Annatar Giftbringer said:
. . . The noble could be a drunken destroyer of well-laid plans with a splice of comic relief, or an administrative leader that secures contracts and provides funding but otherwise stays in the background, or a futuristic version of a knight - leading the troops under their command, clad in an ornate custom-built suit of battledress armour.
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"Blast! That grapeshot ruined my helmet crest! It was a gift from Sir Fishnoddy, and I was quite fond of it. Specialist Gnaegh, when you have a moment, please review your sensor recordings and have the locals lob a volleyball of cannonballs at the source of the grapeshot."
 
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