Jump capable ships under 100 tons

[Brandon C]

I'm considering allowing ships under 100 tons in my pending pocket empires campaign to use jump drives, something I allowed in the mid 80's. The only design restriction is that a functional can't be smaller than 2 tons. Otherwise, the drive and ship conform to normal HG formula.

What would be the effect if this change was available when jump drives first become available? Express boats would certainly be smaller. There would be some fringe 50 ton free traders. Heavy fighters could be FTL capable.

It is worth pointing out that, given the 2 ton minimum, a ship of sufficient TL is operating at a lower jump than possible, due to restricted fuel and a small computer.

 

[Sstefan]

J-capabe under 100dT

You had asked what might be the ramifications....

I my thoughts, larger hotel type accommodations at the "destination" end of the jump would definitely be high on the list... can you imagine if you've been strapped to your acceleration couch for the last 168 plus/minus hours...

small parcel delivery is a possibility; with all it's incumbent implied threats at the receiving end... (hey, a 25 dT jump parcel just popped into system; return address "Ine Givar?")

 

[Brandon C]

Agreed, smugglers will benefit from smaller ships. Likewise, government special ops can use small ships to insert or extract agents.

The biggest limitation is not fuel space but sleeping space.

 

[McPerth]

Would you allow them to be unmanned drones (so, the facto, returning jump torpedoes for communications)?

 

[Brandon C]

In theory, no, I do not have an objection. While it would not affect the speed of the transmission of information between major systems, but lesser systems would probably be better in the loop and it might be harder to justify all the drastic TL differences of worlds.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

More ships floating around the universe leading to:
* Increased mobility in the populace creating a more uniform, cosmopolitan, interstellar society.
* Increased communication leading to a more open interstellar society
* The solutions and problems that come from those changes.

I have not designed a ship yet, but let's say that 2-100 ton ship costs MCr30 each and with your change 3-50 ton ships cost MCr20 each.

Even though starships are expensive, smaller ships mean less expensive ships. In build/purchase cost and annual maintenance.
More, less expensive ships mean smaller corporations and rich people, as opposed to megacorps and the insanely rich, can afford them.
More jobs: ship builders, crews (more pilots at least), starport maintenance.
Communications is still the speed of jump, but more smaller ships means wider dispersal of information in the same amount of time off the main route. Even if the government is not inclined to do so, the less expensive costs may lead to corporations thinking of doing it.

Consequences:
More smaller ships may mean quarantines are harder to maintain. "Captain, if even one plague infested ship makes it to jump..."
Less closed societies.
More communication mean increased piracy and smuggling? More ships mean more pirate opportunities, more customs ships.

 

[mike wightman]

There are two ways to make the trip more bearable for smallcraft jumps:
coldberths;
fast drug with an antidote injector keyed to jump emergence.

I used both of these in TL20+ jump capable battledress - fast drug was the standard way to do it but in an emergency the suit could turn itself into a coldberth to preserve the occupant (or what was left of both of them).

 

[kilemall]

I have a houserule for stealth ships- x1 cost of entire ship for every -1 on the detect/lockon die roll.

So say a stealth ship with a -3 roll will cost 4x normal.

Very few navies are going to even fund ACS sized stealth for what this would be used for, emergency bugout, specops and very high end smuggling. So I figured it was mostly small craft insertion.

With a jump capable small ship, that expands the potential roles, notably fleet scouting and high end discrete passenger/courier services.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

A jump torpedo would look something like this:

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If we require a bridge, but accept a small craft bridge, a mini-Scout could look something like this:

I used a couple of full-sized staterooms since it should be habitable for weeks.

It is not all that much cheaper than a full Scout, but certainly use less fuel.

 

[Brandon C]

Hmm, if I require a bridge in addition to the appropriate computer model, this doesn't have a significant impact on most sub-100 ton jump ships, but does effectively prohibit light jump fighters and jump torpedoes. I need to consider this.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

2 jump capable fighters vs a standard 100 jump ship

2 turrets vs 1 turret
2 targets vs 1 target

More smaller ships means more turrets can be fielded against an enemy and more targets the enemy must address. Also are the implications about the need for carriers, like is their need decreased if the fighters can transport themselves. Other oddities like is sending a few fighters does that constitute showing the flag. "Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?"
As well as the bridge issue, I would also point out the idea of extended life support. If jump capable, it is isolated for 1 week at time. Do you require a stateroom in such cases? A half-stateroom? You will be sleeping about 56 hours or and otherwise in the same sitting position the whole trip.

 

[Brandon C]

I'm pretty much sold on requiring a bridge for a jump capable ship. This eliminates jump torpedoes and (small) jump capable fighters.

Under CT HG, a jump capable small craft would need a 4 ton bridge, 1 ton computer and 2 ton jump drive. Add at least one stateroom for the pilot and jump fuel... yeah, 30 is about the minimum unless cargo is under 5 tons or a single passenger is carried. Add combat equipment (I count high G drives) and you are up to at least 50 tons.

 

[Brandon C]

small parcel delivery is a possibility; with all it's incumbent implied threats at the receiving end... (hey, a 25 dT jump parcel just popped into system; return address "Ine Givar?")

It just occurred to me that a dedicated mail carrier, which only needs 5 tons of cargo space, is possible. Armed, of course ...

 

[Brandon C]

More ships floating around the universe leading to:
* Increased mobility in the populace creating a more uniform, cosmopolitan, interstellar society.
* Increased communication leading to a more open interstellar society
* The solutions and problems that come from those changes.

I was planning this as a feature of my pocket empires campaign. Briefly, except in exceptional circumstances, within any pocket empire there will not be more than a 2 TL difference between worlds. IIRC, the gap between the highest and lowest pocket empire is 3 TLs. Any low TL worlds are either protected red zoned worlds or independent worlds (probably red zoned).

 

[whartung]

I'm pretty much sold on requiring a bridge for a jump capable ship. This eliminates jump torpedoes and (small) jump capable fighters.

Why? What part of "the bridge" empowers the jump?

 

[atpollard]

Why? What part of "the bridge" empowers the jump?

The part that requires a 200 dTon free trader to have a 20 dTon bridge instead of a 4 dTon Cockpit (2% of 200 dT = 4 dT) in CT:HG.

The Computer + Pilot seat option has always been for non-jump craft only.

A 'HandComp' is equivalent to a Model/1 Computer in some rules versions, so does the pilot really just need a HandComp in a utility pocket to control the Jump? (save 1 dTon)

It is a matter of how much you want to deviate. Starting from a Jump Torpedo, a lot of things are possible. I prefer to just eliminate the arbitrary 100 dTon minimum and keep as much of the other rules as possible the same. I like the idea of a J1 drive in a 100 dTon hull being the smallest physical drive that can be built. I also thought that the 10 dTon bridge matched the actual plans of the Type S better than the 20 dTon minimum. So I would start with a rules legal 100 dTon J1 ship and see what can be chopped away to improve performance. Let the minimum componets dictate minimum size.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Brandon C]

Why? What part of "the bridge" empowers the jump?

I don't know. I just want to effectively limit the smallest a jump capable ship can be without actually setting a hull minimum.

I'm also not sure which ruleset I will be using. It will probably be MgT 1e with bit drawn from CT HG (as I was very disappointed with the small craft and capital ship rules in MgT HG).

 

[Timerover51]

I view it from the standpoint of what is the smallest hull that can accommodate the power plant and required equipment for the Jump Drive to function. By required equipment I mean radiators to get rid of excess heat generated by the power plant, and also have a ship structure strong enough to handle the stress of a jump. One hundred Traveller displacement tons equally about 500 Gross Register Tons (I have an easier time visualizing ships in Gross Register Tons) seems to me to be a very reasonable figure. As for the 20 tons set aside for a ship's bridge, I include in that the Captain/Owner suite and ship's office.

While in My Traveller Universe I allow for power plants to be smaller than the Jump Drive, the smallest that I allow for a Jump is the size A. Then either the Jump Drive Size A, or a Hyperdrive of the same size as the jump drive with the same power requirements. The Type 1 Hyperdrive covers a Parsec in a month, but has much lower fuel requirements.

 

[Carlobrand]

I recall we tossed around the idea of a sort of legal 50 dT jump-1 craft based on High Guard rules, drawing on the jump field cables described in Supplement 9 for the "Jump Ship" to give it the ability to extend its volume to 100 dT. Basically we made a module for the cutter that gave it a jump drive, jump fuel, computer and a 10 dT bridge addition to extend the bridge to 20 dTons. At TL15 it only had 7 1/2 dTons available for passengers, crew, and whatever volume the field cables needed, but it worked as a jump capable small craft that a warship could carry for emergencies. One could presumably extend the cables over whatever you wanted to take in tow, up to about 50 dTons, so it could go quite a distance if you took along a 50 dTon fuel tank to refuel from, albeit slowly. Or, tow another cutter along. Can't find the post where we discussed it.