Serenity and Traveller RPGs

[Fox's Master]

No apologies necessary, Bill

Bill,

I appreciate the thread, especially in light of the fact that I'm a lover of D&D 3.5 (and not 4th Edition) and now implementing a mechanic in MgT for advancing the stats and skills of players (which is woefully [or fortunately] missing. In the end, regardless pf the genre, I keep the players on a razor's edge between success and failure (but, I always give the players a bit more rope . . . after all, they are Player Characters!)

Anyway, yes, I fully agree on the apples and oranges reference, and completely agree with you. Again, I understand that the two games are fundamentally, vice cosmetically, different from each other. As I move forward, I'm inclined to make some changes to the overall cost of the ship to bring it in line with my 'realism' instead of taking the information at face value. All of you, including the new posts from Klingsor and Magnus have provided very good insights to this thorny issue.

I used to read about those ol' Grognards ~ now I am one ; )

Cheers,
FM

 

[Mad Russian]

FWIW my conversion of the serenity ship to Mongoose

This preliminary ship design is an attempt to capture the spirit of the ship design found in the Serenity RPG and allow me to use the colorful deck plans. The translation is less literal, but if one wanted to slavishly follow the exact external specs from the RPG book, one could go with the Jump drive, larger hull, and assume that the additional displacement is fuel in the non-mapped portions of the hull. Otherwise…

Serenity-class freighter Using Mongoose Traveller Main Rule Book Ship Design Rules

“Ataraxis”

Hull: 200dt, (code 2), Streamlined close structure, Self-sealing, Hull-4/Structure-4, {10.8Mcr.}
Armour: 0
Jump Drive: Type A (for the same ‘feel’ of the ‘verse, I use here the alternate rule on p.109 to re-purpose this drive as a warp drive except that it is called an Impulse drive and the distance travelled is more along the lines of 2000AU per day instead of 1/7th Parsec per day.) This doubles power plant fuel usage for each day using this drive. (Or one could eliminate this drive altogether depending on what sort of flavor one wanted to have in one’s TU.) {10dt, 10Mcr.}
Maneuver Drive: Type D, Thrust 4 {7dt, 16Mcr.}
Power Plant: Type D {13dt, 32Mcr.}
Bridge: {10dt, 1Mcr.}
Computer: Model/2, Rating 10 {0.16Mcr.}
Electronics: Basic Civilian, -2DM, {1dt, 0.05Mcr.} (Note: 1dt additional space near the bridge is set aside for upgrades to Basic Military, {2dt, 1Mcr.})
Weapons: none (Two Hard points)
Fuel: 16dt for 4 week duration (less if Impulse drive is operated).
Cargo: 80dt
Sickbay {8dt, ?Mcr.}
9 Staterooms: {36dt, 4.5Mcr.}
Extras: 1ea. Air/raft (mule) and cradle {4dt, 0.6Mcr.}
2ea. 6dt Shuttles in surface docking niches {12dt, ?Mcr.}
Fuel Scoops
Fuel purification--none.
2dt smuggling space. (This model can be ordered with this space apportioned to fire control for the two hard points.)

 

[aramis]

Mad Russian: firefly class traders are closer to 400 tons, and there is no way in hades that the shuttles are 6 tons; we see over 3 tons in just the central section, and another ton+ of cockpit, and another for avionics ahead of that... Remember a 10' or 3m cube is 2 tons. Plus, it's pretty clear that the mule is less than half their size.

Plus we know that Mal had 60+ head of cattle aboard at one point; the herd didn't take up the whole of the cargo bay.

 

[Mad Russian]

A more pure mTraveller design inspired by...

The following design is a more pure Mongoose Traveller design, but it illustrates the challenges in adapting a different rules system to a set deck plans designed from a different set of rules:


Hull: 400dt, (code 4), Streamlined close structure, Self-sealing, Hull-4/Structure-4, {21.6Mcr.}
Armour: 4 Points {20dt, 3.2Mcr.}
Jump Drive: Type D, Jump 2 {25dt, 40Mcr.}
Maneuver Drive: Type H, Thrust 4 {15dt, 32Mcr.}
Power Plant: Type H {25dt, 64Mcr.}
Bridge: {20dt, 2Mcr.}
Computer: Model/2, Rating 10 {0.16Mcr.}
Electronics: Basic Civilian, -2DM, {1dt, 0.05Mcr.} (Note: 1dt additional space near the bridge is set aside for upgrades to Basic Military, {2dt, 1Mcr.})
Weapons: none (Four Hard points)
Fire Control Space {4dt, --Mcr.}
Fuel: 32dt for 4 week duration + 80dt for one Jump-2
Cargo: 90dt
Sickbay {16dt, ?Mcr.}
9 Staterooms: {36dt, 4.5Mcr.}
Extras: 1ea. Air/raft (mule) and cradle {5dt, 0.6Mcr.}
2ea. 10dt Launches in surface docking niches {20dt, ?Mcr.}
Fuel Scoops
Fuel purification--none.

Space Remaining=30dt.

 

[Fox's Master]

Mad Russian ~ great ship...which begs the question . . .

So, you have this 'shiny' new ship at a cost of approximately 170+MCr. Using the rule-of-thumb, divide the amount by 240 and pay the monthly installment for 480 months (40 years), you're on the hook for >780KCr every 30 days. That's a lot of cargo haulin' . . .

FM

 

[far-trader]

Well yeah, but Serenity wasn't 'shiny' new Back of the scrap yard, you'd be crazy to want it, but I can let you have it cheap more like. IF it were MCr170 new Mal prolly got it for about MCr34 so the payments would only be about KCr140 a month. How much does a herd of 60 some Heifers go for in the colonies? A couple KCr a head would about cover the month. Though I'd have to watch the episode again, I don't recall it looking anything like 60 head though that might have been the number spoken of.

fwiw, and maybe somewhere around CotI already, I worked up the Firefly class in CT? (T20?) as a military transport a while back. So when Mal had nothing but eyes for it when he was shopping for a ship it worked well for me. It was a ship he knew from the war, and suitable for trading having been stripped of all it's military hardware. And of course the price would be right too.

 

[sabredog]

In the episode "Dead in Space" where they explore how Mal bought the ship and put together the crew it is obvious that Serenity was a "beater". it couldn't even get off the ground when the they ended up recruiting Kaylee, and Zoe's impression was plain to see.

I'd say it was worth half or less than the new price and make sure the players have to build it up over time. Remember how in the first few episodes Kaylee kept after Mal for that compression coil, warning him they were on borrowed time. Then it broke in "Dead in Space" and it almost killed them all.

I once sold the players a 200 ton used raider ship (J-2 2 G, 2 turrets) when they were shopping for a ship of there own. They loved the look of the thing and all they thought they need to do was sponge out the dorsal turret and weld in a few patches to make it go. Over time the cost of getting the Chromium Rodent up to full function was almost what buying a new one would've cost, but it spawned an awful lot of daring and fun adventures to pay for it all. I recall that they even tried the old broom handles for lasers trick for a while since they could only afford lasers for one turret. Ah, those were the days.

 

[Fox's Master]

Back on the net

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your threads. I'm currently running two completely different sessions. Serenity: I have a husband and wife team (in reality, not in the game), who are former Browncoats in possession of a 12-year old Firefly Class transport, with a hefty mortgage owed to a Tong on one of the Border Planets. Traveller: In another galaxy, a friend of 25 years careens across the black in a modified 400-ton Corsair, requiring the ocassional maintenance check, and a mortgage 95% lower than prescribed in the rules, but still works as a big enough hook to make it interesting.

In all honesty, both the Serenity and Traveller (MGT) campaigns certainly move along at a good clip, their respective combat actions work well, and with the addition of an "improving skills" write-up for MGT, it all works. Overall, I'm quite pleased with both systems; they're different enough to make them quite interesting.

FM

 

[Solomani666]

First or all, if you are trying to make trading profits with a scout ship, then you are doing it all wrong! Nobody 'BUYS' a scout ship with a mortgage expecting to make a profit with legitimate trade. Scout ships are generally 'given' on loan to ex-scout personel.

In order to do a 'Firefly' type scenerio I would suggest purchasing either a Free Trader or a Far Trader. If you got the connections and the gumption, you may wish to go for the larger Fat Trader.

Just like in the show, payments might be a problem keeping her running.

 

[Fox's Master]

Different system for ships, economics, and profits

Solomani666,

Thanks for the post, and I agree with you. At the end of the day, both systems have worked for how I need them to work to keep the role-playing high, the roll-playing low, and the ships making a profit where they can in that big black nothingness. . .

FM