Worrying about Ship Armour

[zero]

So, after finally totalling out profits made by everyone per month in the planned ship, I got to a total of just over 30 MCr (I'm sorry but the exact decimal after 30 escapes me as I'm away from my campaign notes).

Anyway, I ended up not having the dtons or money left for armour.
Although Thrust is at 2 for A-class M-Drive and P-plant, I worry that such a small craft is in uneccesary danger for the continued ship for the PCs.

Note that I have only the Core rules, and as such the below ship uses those rules of starship creation. I dont have the Core on me either, so here is a lengthy bit of writing to show the rough capabilities of the ship.

I deckplanned a 100 dton ship, 22 tons for fuel and 36 tons for a cargo hold (36 as 30 is the max minor freight +5 for mail, +1 for a single high passenger's cargo).

Thats 58 tons gone, 42 remain.
This ship included; Stremlined hull, A-class Engineering, a Bridge, Model-2 computer (fib) with a bunch of software (apart from Jump control a load of software was used for the ship to use piloting, astrogating, comms, sensors and engineering skills), Basic Military electronics (I wanted this at minimum) (Total = 28 dtons).

2 staterooms (one for the 2 PCs and one for a passenger), each with an escape pod, 1dton of fuel processing (the PCs will be fuel skimming alot), 1dton of luxuries (to take away need for a steward) (Total = 11 dtons)

A double turret, with beam laser and sand caster, with 2 dtons of sand ammo (Total = 3 dtons).

As you can see I dont have the dtonnage for armour, and all costed up, the ship runs to just over 30 MCr. I figured because armour is expensive I'd put it in at the end if there was a spare 5 dtons and money.

I totalled up the max profit by totalling 30 tons of minor freight delivered 2 parsecs away, payment from mail and a single high passenger, then multiplied it by 2 to get a months profit. I totalled up then a mortgage with needed maintenance and life support that could be afforded based on this profit (alot of math was used over and over until I got the near exact result), and saw the ship needed to be just over 30 MCr.

Big post, I know, but would Armour be neccessary for my ship and how would you guys go about putting some armour in or change the design if you were in charge.

 

[BP]

No sweat - the smallest jump capable civilian merchant ship would not likely have any armour. :wink:

Any viable 'combat' would likely be against small craft. If she runs in to pirates interested in such a small fish - ship combat would not be a wise decision.

 

[DFW]

With the MGT commerce rules, it is difficult to design a J2 freight hauling ship that is profitable at ALL. Forget adding armour. You only need it if you are operating in low tech, frontier areas.

 

[Jeraa]

Armor is useful, yes. But most civilian ships won't have it. And besides, its only a 100 tons ship. Not that big. When/If the players upgrade to something a little bigger, they will be more room for armor.

Also, sometimes armor and weapons are a bad thing. Something along the lines of: "Why would a ship that small need that much protection? Must be carrying something good... lets go find out!" *queue pirate attack*

 

[locarno24]

To be honest, any armour on a merchant ship is fairly useless unless paired with a serious M-Drive (or a shedload of guns, but then it sort of ceases to be a merchant ship, doesn't it?), so that the armour can take the worst of it during the time it takes for you to open the range.

At thrust 2 and with only defensive armaments, any pirate ship with 6+ points of armour (immune to beam laser fire) and thrust 3+ (not especially demanding criteria for a fighting ship) can just follow along behind you pounding you until you die - armour will slow this, but won't prevent it. You might as well spend the extra dTonnage on more volume for cargo, and either try surrendering or somehow pulling a fast one.

 

[zero]

Thanks for the replies, I feel like I've done a better job than I did at building the ship now, after doing the deckplan now, I call it the "Stubby" class, it has less length than a Scout/Seeker but wider wings, it looks really chunky but its rooms inside are tiny! :lol:

Also decided after having a Rogue (pirate) character for myself to join the crew that I'd change my avvy here to show how I picture them, it'll get me more in a Traveller mood I hope.

 

[DFW]

I think you done good. I made a 100t with 4 staterooms, 6 armour & 25 tons cargo. VERY expensive. Yours is a good merchant ship.

 

[zero]

I'm just doing the final tweaks on it, really just writing it up into a nice little list like the Core book ship statblocks and hoping I've done the math right (if anything is wrong thats where the tweaks come in! :lol: ).

Last night I finished detailing the main first plot for the campaign and created some native creatures for the planet we'll be going out to - theyre 25kg omnivore gatherer walkers, theyre interesting because they have a str and dex around 12, and have a thrasher +2 (!), which I ruled to be a prehensile toad-like tongue which could in theory kill someone, but luckily for everyone, they tend to hide and flee rather than pick fights.

Because theyre chimps with toad-like tongues and the world is an icy garden world based on fuedal Japan in winter (with spice rather than rice farmers), I call them Kappa

I'm more worried now that because its a TL 1 world with an E rank starport (basically a landing beacon only), that'll mean landing "in the wild", and a feudal Japan world is going to be bad to crash on as the PCs are going to get permanently stranded (no ship repairs). Luckily the Pilot has level 2 in that skill and the ship's computer gives a +1 to the skill check, so 5+ on 2d6 should be manageable...

:roll: I hope... *pressure is on*

 

[locarno24]

Don't forget you can always "take your time" for additional DMs.

 

[DFW]

Don't forget you can always "take your time" for additional DMs.

Right. Unless the ship is damaged and/or you are landing on a very unsuitable surface (molten lava?), landing a small ship is NO problem.

 

[locarno24]

Unless the ship is damaged and/or you are landing on a very unsuitable surface (molten lava?), landing a small ship is NO problem.

It all comes back to that quote in the rulebook:

The Referee should only call for checks:
• when the characters are in danger.
• when the task is especially difficult or hazardous.
• when the characters are under the pressure of time.
• when success or failure is especially important or interesting.

the very first time a pilot tries to land the ship, it might be 'interesting', but I wouldn't do it after that as it's (a) time spent for no reason and (b) a risk to your characters with no real upside. There's nothing heroic about crashing into a cliff and dying en route to fill in some routine paperwork at a starport.

Equally, a failed pilot test on landing isn't necessarily fatal, or even especially damaging. The ship is pretty tough (to the point that even an 'unarmoured' ship can take several rounds from anti-vehicle weapons without major damage) and with the ability to suppress up to 3-4 g accelerations you'd have to have a fairly massive bonk to send things flying. The most likely result is either an embarrasingly poor landing (you can rely on other players to deliver a suitable level of mockery), some extra maintenance on the landing gear, or something like that. If a landing strut needs working clear of some damp, dank mud that'll get into the works if it's retracted without cleaning it, I'm sure the other players will volunteer a candidate.

The most likely result of a failed piloting check to land the ship is being required to re-qualify your pilot for being a gimboid in starport airspace, rather than any actual damage.

 

[rust]

In my water world setting a fumbled landing is a "splash", with no conse-
quences except a tarnished reputation of the pilot and a starport control-
ler who will ask the ship's crew the next time whether they would prefer
to hire a professional port guide to take the ship down from orbit.

On dry land, for example in my desert world setting, a fumbled landing
only means that the pilot has ignored any one of the starport's safety re-
gulations and the ship's crew will be reprimanded and will have to pay a
fine ("Your hobby pilot blew half a cubic mile of sand on our terrafarming
fields, and the agrobots will need days to clean up the mess - guess who
will pay for that.").

In my settings a serious damage of the ship during a landing requires ex-
traordinary circumstances (for example a hypercane, a landing under fire
or thelike) and a really stupid decision by the player character, not just a
bad roll of the dice. Under routine circumstances and with an established
starport as the destination the pilot can just as well switch on the autopilot
and go to sleep.

 

[zero]

We're actually starting this weekend, last weekend was finishing char gen and discussing what gear would be useful to have.

Anyways, thanks for quelling my worries on landing. It'll be a Thrust 2 ship landing in snow a few inches deep if you want the circumstances. I'm only doing the roll to land seeing as there wont be docking at a starport/downport for this world. It adds a bit of cheap worry and drama to the otherwise quiet session.

Should play the first session this Sunday, so any last tips before we start, please share!

 

[rust]

It'll be a Thrust 2 ship landing in snow a few inches deep if you want the circumstances.

Ah, I like snow, there can always be something unpleasant under it, even
if it is only groatle manure ...

 

[DFW]

Anyways, thanks for quelling my worries on landing. It'll be a Thrust 2 ship landing in snow a few inches deep if you want the circumstances.

If it's a 1G or less planet, it is safer than walking into your average bathroom.

 

[zero]

A 0.7 G (ish) cold planet, so then I'll just have the paintwork splattered with slush if it fails then :lol: