Battlestar Galactica and Traveller

[pendragonman]

nBSG's galactica isn't the same size as oBSG's galactica. (oBSG's Galactica is thinner, narrower, and a bit shorter. Less open, internally, too.)

The oBSG model shows what might be launch tubes (in the wrong spot) at 12 per pod. The film never shows more than three per side. And the fighters within are a small portion of Galactica's volume.

I detested the nBSG characters and initial yanks-in-space, plus the petulance of Capt. Adama, so didn't watch it after the initial.

That explains your initial thoughts on #s of vipers...

I just never considered her to be quite so large. I mean, a crew of ~5k, so size of a Nimitz or maybe a "double Nimitz". I like the idea of dividing by 12 ish, I'll see how that works out.

I had similar issues with "Cattlecar Ponderosa" from the 70's. Lorne Green and the Ponderosa boys just didn't cut it for me.

Don't get me wrong, I watched it then. There was no cable tv and it was the only sci fi available first run.

 

[Darkwing]

I really liked it, it had good ideas. There was just too much focus on trying to apeal to kids. The novels helped with a more adult version.
Various sources referred to it as over a mile, which I thought excessive, but keep in mind it has a whole set of ICBM silos, ships troops, and sealed off sections from previous generations - the ship was generations old. There was a celestial navigation chamber Apollo liked to go to when he wanted to be alone that they no longer used. Figure it's got lots of dead space for refitting. You need a troop ship, go in the yards and turn that unused space into open berthing bays. You need a battleship, install the main guns the Galactica didn't have.

 

[shadowcat20]

The biggest problem I had with the New version of BSG over the old one was the weapons were slug throwers. In the old BSG they had turbo lasers which made sense. The amount of firepower the Galactica had in the new version would depleat their ammo stocks rather quickly. Also throwing all that material around in a dog fight would make a rather nasty enviroment for all concerned as it would keep going without slowing down.

I also remember the old BSG Pegasus was smaller than the Galactica and had side mounted missle tubes with ship killer missles in them. In it's last action it went between 2 base stars and vollyed off both broadsides destroying both ships.

So for New version BSG ships you will need to develop slug thrower turrets and main guns (Pegasus had some heavy forward firing ones) The main guns on the Pegasus may also be spine mounted Part Acc cannon. Also the Galactica class had some large nuke missle launchers IIRC.

For Older BSG ships you can use twin pulse laser turrets and 100 ton missle bays (for the Pegasus)

 

[aramis]

The biggest problem I had with the New version of BSG over the old one was the weapons were slug throwers. In the old BSG they had turbo lasers which made sense. The amount of firepower the Galactica had in the new version would depleat their ammo stocks rather quickly. Also throwing all that material around in a dog fight would make a rather nasty enviroment for all concerned as it would keep going without slowing down.

I also remember the old BSG Pegasus was smaller than the Galactica and had side mounted missle tubes with ship killer missles in them. In it's last action it went between 2 base stars and vollyed off both broadsides destroying both ships.

So for New version BSG ships you will need to develop slug thrower turrets and main guns (Pegasus had some heavy forward firing ones) The main guns on the Pegasus may also be spine mounted Part Acc cannon. Also the Galactica class had some large nuke missle launchers IIRC.

For Older BSG ships you can use twin pulse laser turrets and 100 ton missle bays (for the Pegasus)

Actually, the Galactica has MegaLasers, too. Say, 100Td Laser Bays?

 

[Darkwing]

I also remember the old BSG Pegasus was smaller than the Galactica and had side mounted missle tubes with ship killer missles in them. In it's last action it went between 2 base stars and vollyed off both broadsides destroying both ships.

As I recall it, the Pegasus was the same class and reused the model of the Galactica.

 

[Darkwing]

Actually, the Galactica has MegaLasers, too. Say, 100Td Laser Bays?

I don't recall that

 

[BillDowns]

I thought that both the old and the new shows had some good points, and the first few episodes were decent, but then they both fell off though for different reasons. But both failed to fully capitalize on the "nomadic humans in space" concept.

I do recall a few episodes in both shows where the Galatica was "flushing" their squadrons and external views showing them popping out all up and down the launch bays.

In the old show, Pegasus was a sister ship of Galactica IIRC.

I do not recall any turbo lasers other than Traveller's equivalent of twin laser turrets. They did have very large missile bays; I would put them at like 500 tons each, one on each side.

In the new show, I did like the Cylon virus that infected the networked battlestars. And the integrated raider w/o centurion "pilots" - made more sense to me but there should have been "passenger" compartments to carry some centurions.

There's a lot of space for improvements on both shows.

 

[aramis]

I don't recall that

Mentioned in the Marvel adaptation, and while not shown on screen, mentioned on screen when Galactica charges a base-star.

 

[Darkwing]

Mentioned in the Marvel adaptation, and while not shown on screen, mentioned on screen when Galactica charges a base-star.

thanks!

 

[aramis]

In the old show, Pegasus was a sister ship of Galactica IIRC.

Same class, different sub class, according to most of the renditions of the situation.

 

[Darkwing]

Same class, different sub class, according to most of the renditions of the situation.

I never heard this; I understand it was a reuse of the same model. What sources show this? I'm beginning to want to get back into BSG because of this thread...
Too many other irons in the fire, but I'm still curious about this sub-class thing.

 

[Greylond]

I've never seen anything canon in Battlestar(TOS) that says that. IIRC, they were pretty much the same.

 

[aramis]

I never heard this; I understand it was a reuse of the same model. What sources show this? I'm beginning to want to get back into BSG because of this thread...
Too many other irons in the fire, but I'm still curious about this sub-class thing.

The Marvel adaptation mentioned that the Pegasus had the missiles, but not the megalasers; the Galactica had the megalasers, not the missiles.

Several tertiary sources mention this, too. But, indeed, there was only one oBSG Battlestar model shown, used for all 8 or so battlestars seen on screen.
http://ravensbranch.allen.com/galacticatech.html mentions the missiles vs mega lasers. Also note that the megalasers shield a planet from its own nuclear missiles once.

One of several adaptations to various ship combat games used modular swap-outs for the battlestars; My own adaptation for Full Thrust (an unsatisfying one, to be honest) made use of the subclasses as well.

The "Battlestar Tech Manual" website (www.tecr.com/galactica) lists only one class of battlestar, no subclasses, but 12 missiles as standard to the class; one could interpret the film that way if one assumes the Pegasus' megapulsar laser was out of commission and Galactica was out of missiles.

The Richard Hatch novels flesh out the colonial fleet a little more, as well.

 

[Darkwing]

Thanks, although the tecr.com link seems to be a business now.
I thought the turbolaser turrets shot down the nuclear missiles; it's been a long time since I saw the ep. Maybe I misremember.

 

[aramis]

Thanks, although the tecr.com link seems to be a business now.
I thought the turbolaser turrets shot down the nuclear missiles; it's been a long time since I saw the ep. Maybe I misremember.

I overtrimmed.

 

[Theophilus]

I just finished watching the series on DVD, Season 4.5


Remember, the colonials were going to upgrade with Cylon FTL jump drives tripling there range, so Galactica jump-1 Cylon's jump-3, OR Galactica jump-2 Cylon's jump-6

I'd guess Galactica TL-10, jump-1, Cylon's TL12 Jump-3 in traveller term's. (TL12's where the first autonomous robot's come in, ie the centurions, while the "skin jobs could be TL15 pseudobiologicals)
Of course she's an old relic, not as good as the "new" Mercury class Pegasus. No networked computers, Wired phone comm's etc.

 

[shadowcat20]

I am loving this thread.

If I remember right the Pegasus size was mentioned in the book series. Not sure who wrote it but it was out about the same time the first show was and my buddy was a hardcore reader. May have got the info from him.

Funny thing is I got to looking in my old game closet after reading this thread today and pulled out my copy of the BSG game by FASA, Looking at the credets I noticed it was designed by Jorden Weisman and one of the playtesters was Michael Bledsoe a familier face from Judges guild IIRC.

 

[KansasScout]

A BSG: 2003 Galactica using the GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars ship design of 1 dton = 500 cubic feet a Jupiter-Class Battlestar (Galactica's class) at 4720 ft in length, 1762 ft in width, and 602 ft in depth has a volume of 5,006,617,280 cf. This makes the Galactica a 10,013,234.56 dton Dreadnaught.

The Mercury-Class Pegasus is 5872 L x 1762 W x 602 D comes to 6,228,571,328 cf in volume or 12,457,142.656 dtons.

A Valkyrie type Battlestar would be somewhere between the Galactica and the Pegasus in size so I would build it on the average of the two other classes. I would say that a Valkyrie type Battlestar could be built on a 11,235,188.608 dton hull.

As for armaments the heavy KEW weapons if built in GT: IW could be replaced by Fusion Gun bays, the missile launchers could be replaced with either heavy or light missile bays remembering that the Valkyrie type Battlestar uses more missiles than the other two classes. The light KEW weapons could be replaced with either dual Fusion Gun heavy turrets or triple Laser Cannon turrets for point defense. The Battlestar doesn't mount a spinal mount weapon.

Small Craft squadrons would be four light fighter squadrons for the Galactica type Battlestars, two for the Valkyrie type, and eight for the Pegasus type. There is one squadron each of the Raptor multipurpose shuttle (could use a 30 dton ships boat) for the Valkyrie and Galactica type Battlestars and perhaps twice to three times that for the Pegasus type Battlestars. Now the Galactica and the Pegasus carried a shuttle that is likely similar to the 100 dton interplanetary shuttle as to the number this is unknown and it is also unknown as to whether or not the Valkyrie type carried any shuttles. The Shuttles were used similar to the US Navy's C2 cargo planes. While Raptors function as a cross between a AH1N Helicopter Gunship, SH60 Seahawk ASW/ Transport Helicopter, and an E-2 Hawkeye AWACS plane. Now Colonial shuttles and the Raptor are FTL capable, but only the Shuttle in Traveler could be built to use a Jump Drive. Since most all ship to ship combat in Traveller takes place in normal space the Raptor being used as a recon scout won't need a Jump Drive as they would just be launched after entering a star system to see what's there. A BSG Traveller campaign would have to forget the instantaneous FTL jumps of the BSG:2003 wouldn't fit Traveller.

Though in the series the Galactica began with just a token platoon of Marines as it's Ship's Troops Detachment in a scenario where it is fully manned the Galactica could easily man a full Battalion strength Marine Ship's Troops Detachment similar to a USMC Marine Expeditionary Unit. The same goes for the other two classes of Battlestars.

 

[oldgamergeek]

Aramis, Galactica was a pretty big carrier. I'd have a lot more tubes than 6 - how many did the model show?
Pendragonman, have you read any of the original series novels or the Richard Hatch original series relaunch novels? I'd suggest mining those for details and ideas.
www.shipschematics.net/ has a section on BSG with some nice designs. I'd suggest a smaller ship and say that they got away from the battle in the pilot ep, and wandered a while before hooking up with Adama or Cain (possibly well after gameplay starts).

Forget Galactica this site has Uchuu Senken Yamato! :rofl:

 

[savage]

Size?

Years ago when we had a similar discussion the weaponry of a BS vs Traveller was also discussed. I like the idea that it is so old that is has unused space for earlier tech...but millions of Dt would be a bit ridiculous.
If someone put together a BSG ruleset for Traveller it might be interesting. But in the same universe I found it was easier to give up the extra tonnage (size) and aim for the specifications (number of fighters), add in spinal weapons, and mixed features. Does it really make sense that it dwarfs a Tigress or even most stations. Think of Ragnar station in the nBG series... it would've been a unoccupied monster. And what tonnage would the other ships have. The nBG appeared to jump without refueling often.

I did the old Battlestars in my TNE setting and the players loved it....just saying. The players loved it, as is.

I have considered a slightly bigger version which i did for a few other scifi ships.