Slave Plyons - The Silent Fleet

[Patron Zero]

In my Traveller game I had a plot device involving something non-canon concerning starships acting as 'tractor trailer' rigs.

Essentially, a smaller vessel. 100 or 200 tons, could 'connect' to a much larger 'barge' and act as it's pilot-house much like the ship Nostromo did in the film Alien.

My player characters had a retired 100 ton Scout-Courier as their home-ship, said S-C had a modification to the hull as well as supporting systems installed in the ship itself that allows the 'barge' and the 'tug' to communicate. The exterior fitting is known as a slave pylon which provides the physical connection to the 'barge' and also can be used as a 'hard dock' point at at orbital facilities or starports.

The 'barge' is a stand-alone starship but with minimal accommodations for crew other than a bare-bones bridge and engineering section, the design allows for the mass of a 100 or 200 ton ship to be included in it's jump and maneuver performance. Barges generally run in the 1,000 to 10,000 ton size, have no provisions for atmospheric landing or fuel-skimming, big ugly utilitarian boxy affairs, work-horses not thoroughbreds.

The slave pylon systems are the solution to large corporations needing crews for their big haulers but wanting to keep expenses minimal, cheaper to pay for the modifications to outfit an independently owned-operated starship and contract such as their Silent Fleet.

Having this system of big rigs and the PC's starship to drive such gave my campaign the chance to travel further about the spaceways and mix in more colorful ports of call along the way.

 

[pennshome723]

Wow that is a pretty good idea and I like it. You could use a different type of Drive system or work Jump Drives and maneuver drives for the ship with fuel too. Also I think the cargo might be more like 100,000 cargo tons or greater!

 

[Carlobrand]

In my Traveller game I had a plot device involving something non-canon concerning starships acting as 'tractor trailer' rigs.

Essentially, a smaller vessel. 100 or 200 tons, could 'connect' to a much larger 'barge' and act as it's pilot-house much like the ship Nostromo did in the film Alien.

My player characters had a retired 100 ton Scout-Courier as their home-ship, said S-C had a modification to the hull as well as supporting systems installed in the ship itself that allows the 'barge' and the 'tug' to communicate. The exterior fitting is known as a slave pylon which provides the physical connection to the 'barge' and also can be used as a 'hard dock' point at at orbital facilities or starports.

The 'barge' is a stand-alone starship but with minimal accommodations for crew other than a bare-bones bridge and engineering section, the design allows for the mass of a 100 or 200 ton ship to be included in it's jump and maneuver performance. Barges generally run in the 1,000 to 10,000 ton size, have no provisions for atmospheric landing or fuel-skimming, big ugly utilitarian boxy affairs, work-horses not thoroughbreds.

The slave pylon systems are the solution to large corporations needing crews for their big haulers but wanting to keep expenses minimal, cheaper to pay for the modifications to outfit an independently owned-operated starship and contract such as their Silent Fleet.

Having this system of big rigs and the PC's starship to drive such gave my campaign the chance to travel further about the spaceways and mix in more colorful ports of call along the way.

I'm sorry, I'm not understanding this. I can see how the idea expands play opportunities for players, but I'm not understanding the mechanics of how a corporation saves by having a big ship with 90% of the hardware need a little ship with the remaining 10%. Is this a CT Book-2 variant, a High Guard variant, or independent of the two? Is the little ship carrying all the staterooms and crew complement that would be needed for the big-little fusion?

 

[CosmicGamer]

I'm not understanding the mechanics of how a corporation saves by having a big ship with 90% of the hardware need a little ship with the remaining 10%.

Ditto. Not concerned with the ship mechanics, it's a YTU thing, but not sure how this saves any money. Less for the overall cost of the "barge" but would cost much more to hire a ship and crew than just hire a crew I'd think.

Barges are not in constant use? Only jump a few times a year? Thus less need to have a full time crew and just contract them as needed?

 

[Patron Zero]

Carlobrand - Strictly house rules exclusive of Bk2 or High Guard, and yes, the smaller crew is 'workable' to the demands of the larger ship by support of drones-droids (Huey, Louie & Dewey-R2D2) that act as engineer's assistants.

CosmicGamer - The 'barges' are as common as seeing tractor-trailer rigs on real-world highways so regular transport routes and scheduled 'loads' are more the rule than the exception. On occasion a few adventures concerned finding a 'load' to haul, tracking down a lost rig' and one even was a dungeon-crawl of a sort in the larger ship after such was over-run with a most aggressive strain of Kudzu bound for a frontier world.

 

[McPerth]

I understand the idea is quite similar to the one I told about in This thread. Am I right in this understanding?

 

[Spinward Scout]

I can see how the idea expands play opportunities for players, but I'm not understanding the mechanics of how a corporation saves by having a big ship with 90% of the hardware need a little ship with the remaining 10%. Is this a CT Book-2 variant, a High Guard variant, or independent of the two? Is the little ship carrying all the staterooms and crew complement that would be needed for the big-little fusion?

I was wondering that myself. A 1000-ton ship is still going to need crew, even if it is almost all cargo. A Scout/Courier can probably only fit 8, maybe up to 12 if some of the interior spaces are reorganized. It would be nice for a large cargo ship to have a detachable command module, but I don't see how it fits in Traveller crew rules, and with an independent Jump Drive and all.

Maybe I'll sit down and try to work one out this week.

Carlobrand - Strictly house rules exclusive of Bk2 or High Guard, and yes, the smaller crew is 'workable' to the demands of the larger ship by support of drones-droids (Huey, Louie & Dewey-R2D2) that act as engineer's assistants.

I think that's the only way it would work is with automated systems and some automated crew.

 

[Patron Zero]

I understand the idea is quite similar to the one I told about in This thread. Am I right in this understanding?

Actually yes, in spirit and concept, what I developed in my game was the physical hardware that created the connection, the pylon on the player-character's ship. The barges were more an 'abstraction' or backdrop if that makes any sense.

Your concept is very well thought out and much more 'evolved' than mine.

Spinward Scout - I did 'employ' NPCs when I could not avoid the demand for more crewing and yes, on barges at the large end of the scale did have crew-supportive sections. Had to dig out some old notes from back-then (1980s) and found some sketches I did supporting such.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Ditto. Not concerned with the ship mechanics, it's a YTU thing, but not sure how this saves any money. Less for the overall cost of the "barge" but would cost much more to hire a ship and crew than just hire a crew I'd think.

Barges are not in constant use? Only jump a few times a year? Thus less need to have a full time crew and just contract them as needed?

There are two main types of dry cargo: Bulk cargo and break bulk cargo. Bulk cargoes, like grain or coal, are transported unpackaged in the hull of the ship, generally in large volume. Break-bulk cargoes, on the other hand, are transported in packages, and are generally manufactured goods. Before the advent of containerization in the 1950s, break-bulk items were loaded, lashed, unlashed and unloaded from the ship one piece at a time. However, by grouping cargo into containers, they can be moved at once and each container is secured to the ship once in a standardized way. Containerization has increased the efficiency of moving traditional break-bulk cargoes significantly, reducing shipping time by 84% and costs by 35%.

Containerization has lowered shipping expense and decreased shipping time, and this has in turn helped the growth of interstellar trade. Cargo that once arrived in cartons, crates, bales, barrels or bags now comes in factory sealed containers, with no indication to the human eye of their contents, except for a product code that machines can scan and computers trace. This system of tracking has been so exact that a two week voyage can be timed for arrival with an accuracy of less than fifteen minutes. It has resulted in such revolutions on time guaranteed delivery and just in time manufacturing.
Raw materials arrive in factories in sealed containers less than an hour before they are required in manufacture, resulting in reduced inventory expense.

the above paragraphs are straight out of wikipedia.

Container ships are much more effeinct than tramp frieghters. Small frieghters in Traveller would be refered to as "Hot Shots", forgotten shipments or things which need to arrive before a certain date. And trust me, they could make much more money than the container ships on certain runs.

The Iron Class and the Loadmaster (in the art gallery) are both types of container ships which could be used to run large shipments of goods between worlds. Free Traders would be more useful on the frontiers but could serve as "hot shots" in more populated areas.

 

[Carlobrand]

...Container ships are much more effeinct than tramp frieghters. Small frieghters in Traveller would be refered to as "Hot Shots", forgotten shipments or things which need to arrive before a certain date. And trust me, they could make much more money than the container ships on certain runs...

The Subsidized Merchant deckplan indicates that the Subbie is built with containerized traffic in mind. A sample standardized container is used as a reference, and doors are sized to admit it.

The Far Trader's cargo ramp and cargo deck will similarly accommodate the sample standardized container used by the Subbie.

As to the Free Trader, with an 82 dT cargo bay and the way the trade rules and available cargo rules are set up, it would be odd for the Free Trader to be designed to miss the chance to grab containerized cargo. The design illustrations in starship Operator's Manual seem to imply bay doors able to accept containerized cargo.

Certainly they're not limited to containerized cargo, but I suspect they see quite a bit of it.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

I never said they couldn't accept containers. I was trying to bring my real world experience into Traveller.

The company I worked for would schedule a semi from a local frieght line for an order to be shipped across country. If everything went acccording to plan, the entire order would ship on that truck but if, a part of that order was delayed in production they would have to ship it via a "hot shot" so it could make it there on time. I knew of one company who charged that company $500 a day for such delays in shipping.

What our shipping department did, was to call a broker who found a trucking firm or independant driver to move the missing part of the shipment. Depending on the time requirements and distance it could be quite expensive. The same went for orders which the company wanted ASAP, in these case the added expense was passed on to the company which allow the broker a bigger share of the profits.

In Traveller, I suppect it would work in much the same fashion...

 

[Patron Zero]

I tend to agree about standardized containers as freight in Traveller, obvious acknowledgement to bulk materials or such needing specialized transport conditions and packaging, most freight travels in the real world in intermodal containers as is.

What's going to keep the smaller non-barge or mega-freighters operating will be live cargo, meaning passengers choosing to make way outside of more traditional means. ( " We'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements....." )

Also there's going to be a need for smaller more obscure routes much akin to the Pony Express of Frontier America or those dodging taxation or revenue collection.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

I kindly disagree with you Patron Zero. There will always be a need for independant and smaller ships in populated areas. You just have think of them as Fedex and UPS. Smaller companies still need parts and resources but not on the scale of megacorporations. Individuals will want items not found on their world and have them imported from other planets.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I always thought they would use a container more like the airline containers. The smaller ships off of the main routes would probably have to.

 

[SpaceBadger]

GT: Far Trader has a number of available sizes and specializations of shipping containers, including open frames for holding vehicles or machinery, refrigerated or cryogenic containers, etc. Most of the different sizes as I recall are sub-multiples of the standard container, so that for example 4 smaller containers can be locked together into the space of one standard.

 

[Hanson's Roughriders]

Perhaps we are thinking about this the wrong way? Imagine ships designed to take the containers. Perhaps an agreed cargo container size shape etc, imagine a 1000+ worlds did this, well you would design a ship to carry the most efficiently. So the reverse needs to be encountered, a look at modern day container ships.

 

[Patron Zero]

I would almost guarantee that given the universal application of 'standardized' cargo containers fitting inside starships in general, that large-scale freight haulers would emerge such as container ships have in our world.

Mind we are talking about huge ugly brutes lacking streamlined hulls or any design aesthetics beyond that which support it's role of moving cargo.

This is where my original concept of Slave Pylons fits into most any Traveller Universe, given that the design of the 'barges' comply with the standing-canon ship building rules.

That said, it then might be possible for starships in the 100Ton to 800Ton range to find 'secondary' employment driving the new space-going big rigs.

 

[Hanson's Roughriders]

I can see smaller cargo ships for unusual, irregularly sized and illegal merchandise. Yet by and large I can see the larger vessels the norm. Even shipping was a key factor in the design of Sherman tanks in WW2 as much as it is today. I imagine merchants making items to fit the standardized container size. Its the whole the space shuttle was two and a half times the size of a horses backside.