Reaction Engines

[Laryssa]

Also another thing is that habitable planets are much rarer in this universe than in OTU. Typically there is a 50% chance of a habitable planet being within a 100 light year cube. You typically generate habitable star systems this way start with one star roll 1d6 and 1d6 and look up this matrix

___ 1 ___ 2 ___ 3 ___ 4 ___ 5 ___ 6
1 _ 0 __ 10 __ 20 __ 30 __ 40 __ 50
2_ 60 __ 70 __ 80 __ 90 _ 100 _ 110
3 120 _ 130 _ 140 _ 150 _ 160 _ 170
4 180 _ 190 _ 200 _ 210 _ 220 _ 230
5 240 _ 250 _ 260 _ 270 _ 280 _ 290
6 300 _ 310 _ 320 _ 330 _ 340 _ 350
and roll a 1d10 with '0' counting as 0 and not 10, add that number from the number in the above matrix and that is the equatoral direction of the new star from the original in degrees of a circle in the standard counter-clockwise direction.

And Now for elevation roll 1d6 and 1d6 again and consult this table:

___ 1 ___ 2 ___ 3 ___ 4 ___ 5 ___ 6
1 _ 0 ___ 0 __+10 __-10 __+20 __-20
2__ 0 ___ 0 __+10 __-10 _ +20 _ -20
3 +30 _ -30 _ +40 _ -40 _ +50 _ -50
4 +30 _ -30 _ +40 _ -40 _ +50 _ -50
5 +60 _ -60 _ +70 _ -70 _ +80 _ -80
6 +60 _ -60 _ +70 _ -70 _ +80 _ -80

Now roll 2d6-2 and add the result to the number number obtaind from the above table and that is the degrees elevaton toward the Galactic North Pole. On average the galaxy is about 10 100-light-year wide cubes thick from Galactic North to South althoug it does get wider toward the center. Each habitable planet with have 1d6 other star systems with habitable planets surrounding it.

Finally once direction is determined roll 3d6 x 10 to determine the number of light year distant it is, add to that 1d10-5 to detemine the exact distance to the nearest light year the neighboring habitable planet is. By doing this repeatedly one can generate a random starmap showing habitable planets and ignoring all the other stars. Fortunately the warp ships can bend space and create their own gravitional lenses through their warp drives so they can systematically seach all the stars neighboring cubes for habitable planets without actually going there. Once a habitable planet is cound, the ship can set a course and warp over to that planet to investigate it further.

There are no transporters in this Universe, shuttles or other such small craft are required to get to a planet's surface. The planets found generally have breathable atmospheres and tolerable climates that won't kill you instantly if you were to set foot on the surface unprotected, but it can vary quite a bit along with gravity and air pressure. Day length and light levels.

Hence a Star Trek type campaign with big ships.

 

[Laryssa]

SCOUT/COURIER (TYPE S)
Medium-Size Starship
This type of scout/courier is a Warp Shuttle for a “Big Ship” Interstellar Campaign. Warp drives have a scale of efficiency which means the more warp drive units you put together the faster the ship can go. This first example is the smallest kind of warp ship, it operates only beyond 100 planetary diameters, otherwise it must depend on its reaction engines listed below. This vessel has two types of reaction engines, one is the fission air-ram that is basically a nuclear jet engine, it is an atomic reactor that heats the surrounding atmosphere that is taken in through the intake valves, it then heats that air until it glows causing it to expand out the back and push the ship forward. This scout/courier is a delta winged flying wing lifting body, so that so long as it moves forward, at faster than its stall speed, it provides its own lift. Its possible for the fission air-ram to reach low orbit just above the atmosphere, but beyond that, it requires its second reaction engine to bring it to 100 planetary diameters, the fusion torch drive. This second reaction engine is the High Impulse Fusion torch drive, it has two fuel sources, one provides the energy and that is Helium-3 and deuterium which is contained within the reactor itself and lasts 200 years, and the second is the reaction mass which is simply liquid hydrogen, about 30 tons of it when fully fueled. The fusion torch is a magnetic confinement fusion reactor that lets some of its fusing plasma mix with the simple hydrogen heating it to fantastic temperatures through a magnetic nozzle. The hydrogen with a tiny bit of fusing plasma expands out the back pushing the ship forward. The fusion rocket can operate for a little over 44 hours in total, but the fusion reactor continues to produce power even when their isn’t any reaction mass to heat, the same is true of the fission air-ram. The combined power output of both reactors is 7.2 EP in T20 terms, all this is used up by all the ship’s systems.

A little note of explanation on the ship’s warp drive. The warp scale is fairly simple. 1 drive unit produces a black globe effect, 2 drive units as installed in the Scout/Courier produce a black globe effect for the 100 dton hull plus the ability to travel through space at an apparent velocity of 1 light year per day. In larger ships, if you put 4 drive units together you have a warp 2 drive capable of moving at 2 light years per day, and also a 1 light year per day and any warp velocity in between and less than that down to the speed of light (1 light year per year).

The warp drive can only be engaged at a minimum distance of 100 diameters from the nearest planet, the black globe effect can work down to 1 planetary diameter away and at less than that it becomes in operable. Both the warp drive and the black globe flicker at 100 times per second, the average velocity while at warp speed for this ship is 1 light year per day, the flicker rate is too fast for the human eye to perceive so it appears as one continuous motion. The flickering black globe acts as a shield when less that 100 diameters but greater than 1 from the planet, it absorbs 50% of the damage from enemy ships while on with 50% applied to the ships SI points and 50% subtracted from the black globe’s 54 energy points.

The black globe is in part a negative energy field surrounding the ship that flickers on and off. Explosions, impacts, and energy attacks have 50% of their energy absorbed as it passes through the field leaving the remainder to hit the ship and inflict damage. The important thing to remember about the black globe is that it regenerates it lost energy points at a rate of 7 per combat round, so as long as the points inflicted on the globe are 7 or less the energy point total remains the same for the next round, if greater than 7, then the energy point total is the amount inflicted on the black globe minus 7 points regenerated. The permanent damage that gets through the globe will have to be repaired sometime, but you can see the advantage of this system. This black globe effect is simply a side effect of how the warp drive operates, it compresses space in front of it and expands space behind it, naturally while it does this, it has to wrap the fabric of space around the starship in a protective cocoon to preserve the ship from these special distortions, that cocoon can also be deployed as a protective shield at less than 100 diameters for combat protection purposes.

One final note, this ship has no artificial gravity system, so unless the ship is under acceleration, the crew and passengers tend to float about in a condition of weightlessness while traveling through space.

SCOUT/COURIER
Class: Starship, type S
Tech Level: 13
Size: Medium (100 tons)
Streamlining: Streamlined
Warp Speed: 1 light year/day
Acceleration
-Atmospheric: Fission Air-ram 1.7-G
-Space: Fusion Torch Drive (High Impulse): 0.032-G
Fuel: 30-tons liquid hydrogen
Duration
-Fission Air Ram: 2 years (within Atmosphere – As long as fuel rod lasts)
-Fusion Torch: 44.44 hours with current reaction mass (Fusion Fuel last 200 years)
Crew: 2
Staterooms: 4
Small Cabins: 0
Bunks: 0
Couches: 0
Low Berths: 0
Cargo Space: 23 tons
EP Output: 7.2 (0 excess)
Agility: 0
Initiative: +0 (+0 Agility)
AC: 11 (Black Globe UPC +1)
Repulsors: 0
Nuclear Dampers: 0
Meson Screens: 0
Black Globes: 1 (Absorbs 54 energy points, 50% damage taken from each attack.)
AR: 1
SI: 100
Main Computer: Model/1 (5 CRU)
Sensor Range: Close (Model/1)
Comm Range: Close (Model/1)
Cost: MCr 72.365 (new)

Atmospheric Speeds: NoE = 275 kph
Cruising = 825 kph
Maximum = 1100 kph

Other Equipment: Air/raft, Fuel Scoops, Fresher, Atmosphere Processor, Fuel Electrolysis.

 

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Border Reiver:
Not broken, just a poorly defined source. MT opted to use the freight ton for displacement. It is 40 ft³ or 1.133m³ (MT calls it 1.135) The displacement ton is 35 ft³ and the register ton 100ft³.

I'm not entirely sure where your figures come from.

The displacement ton is only used for measuring the volume below the waterline. The overall volume of a ship will be closer to 100 ft³ per ton, unless you're talking about a submarine.

Other websites (try Freelance) comment that converting tonnage of wet navy ships to equivalent Traveller size is roughly 5:1.

The freight ton is based on pallette shipping, and a loaded pallette is often closer to 40 ft³ per ton. However, when that pallette is loaded into a 53' highway trailor (~3300 ft³, load limit 30-32 short tons) or 40' shipping container (~2750 ft³, load limit 28-29 short tons) freight won't fill the entire volume unless particularly low in density. The total comes close to 100 ft³ per ton.