Sylean Class BB

[Blue Ghost]

The copy of the Sylean BB entry states that the ship was (or is) only ever used in the Cruxway Subsector. Is that right? Didn't Library Data N-Z say that it was used throughout the Imperium, or do I have that wrong? My books are in storage, so I can't double check.

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Sylean_Class_Battleship

 

[tjoneslo]

I can't find any mention of the "Sylean" battleship in any of CT: Library Data N-Z, CT: Fighting Ships (Supp 9) or the Rebellion Sourcebook. It may be in some of the Mongoose materials (I have none of them), or it may just be Mr. Kline's design and interpretations.

 

[Condottiere]

Supplement Eight, it looks like a squashed star destroyer at a hundred kay tonnes, and Mongoose First High Guard, a two hundred kay manta ray, I would hazard as a guess.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yeah, trying to jog my memory here, I think the error might be one of perception. I'm thinking the Sylean Class is depicted under the entry "Battleship", but that the Sylean, from what I recall, isn't specifically discussed in the entry. The class is just talked about in general with the image tacked onto it. Then the wiki entry talks about the Sylean class specifically, and limits it's canonical deployment.

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

[Whipsnade]

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this.

You're mis-remembering a few things and forgetting one extremely important thing.

First, there is no canonical Sylea-class battleship. CT's Library data, S:9, the Rebellion Sourcebook, all of them agree that it doesn't exist. There was, however, a famous battleship from Sylea, the Empire's Banner, on which a bomb-laden courier robot exploded in a terrorist plot which provided the impetus for the Shudusham Accords.

If your memory is anything like mine, it most likely mixed and matched "battleship", "Sylea", and "library data" while also forgetting "Shudusham" and constructed a "memory" concerning a Sylea-class battleship.

Second, you're forgetting that the Wiki is essentially GARBAGE and that any entry there must be examined with great care - especially with regards to who uploaded the information and where the information allegedly came from.

Any damn fool can upload any damn thing to the Wiki as the page you linked once again proves. Kline decided to insert into canon a battleship he personally designed while also making the absurd claim the Imperium somehow only builds and uses that design in a single backwater subsector in Daibei. (Yeah. Sure. Pull the other one.)

You forgot that the Wiki is garbage last week too when the entry concerning the Battle of Two Suns confused you. After you wrote on April 9th about how a Wiki editor's "fanon" being passed off as canon confused you, the rest of the Wiki "Elves" quickly erased their previous handiwork within 48 hours and rewrote the page to a purely canonical basis.

Winston Smith and the rest of the gang at the Ministry of Truth would be proud at such a rapid use of the memory hole.

Remember, you need to take any of the Wiki's claims with a dTon of salt and remember to especially scrutinize any claimed sources.

For example, Kline notes the Rebellion Sourcebook as a source in his Sylea-class Wiki page. However, the only canonical information he actually used from that source was the number of the fleet stationed in Cruxway subsector. The rest of the entry is entirely invented and is hiding behind the rather tiny canonical fig leaf of the fleet's number.

 

[Condottiere]

Hundred kay would point more to a light battlecruiser.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, seriously, I hope no one's trying to sell me the job of official archivist, because I don't want the job.

Well, now I have to dig through my stuff. And yeah, I probably joined a couple of neurons and came up with a fresh "new memory". Oh man, the story of my life.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I found my classic compendium, and it's as I suspected and stated. The BB is discussed, and the Sylea (not sure why I want to keep calling it the Sylean) BB is shown in the pic.

To me the implication is that the Sylea (which, again thanks to mister Keith mysteriously looks like an Imperial Star Destroyer, or close cousin) is THE goto BB that's roaming Imperial space. It doesn't mention anything about restrictive deployment.

Who manages the wiki anyway?

 

[Whipsnade]

I found my classic compendium, and it's as I suspected and stated.

Where in the compendium is it mentioned? I didn't find it in the usual places, but all sorts of stuff is tucked away in the nooks and crannies.

Who manages the wiki anyway?

"Manages" is wrong verb for what goes on at the Wiki as the term implies actions like "oversee", "supervise", or "administer" and none of those actions obviously occur there.

The Wiki is best thought of as an abandoned house next to a street corner where crack sales take place. After purchasing their rocks, any of the customers can wander into the house and do any damn fool thing that enters their heads. There are a few more or less permanent squatters who've staked out various rooms for their own purposes, but most of the house is completely open of anyone who happen to wander by. So small fires are lit, graffiti sprayed on walls, floors befouled in human waste, junk dragged in, garbage never dragged out, corpses dropped off, and many other more unpleasant things take place.

Instead kicking down a door or breaking a window, entering the Wiki is merely a matter of registering an account which automatically makes you an "editor". As an "editor" you can upload anything that pops into your head just as long as you compile it in proper HTML code. Any damn fool can upload any damn thing to the Wiki and, unless someone happens to read the resulting entry like you did with the Battle of Two Suns, whatever damn thing they upload has a good chance of sticking around for a while.

 

[vegas]

It's the entry for "Battleship" in S8. The only mention is the caption for the picture in that entry. Tough to draw a lot of conclusions from a picture caption.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, back then there wasn't a whole lot defined for the Imperium. And when you see an entry for Battleship, followed by an art deco version of a Star Wars star destroyer, what else can you conclude?

I was curious about it because I was going to use it for an adventure seed, but may not use it now.

I had an adventure all drafted up called "The Treasure of the Admiral Vandau" about a Sylea BB that had ditched on a wetworld, and your players are to go down and find out what said treasure was. The plot thickened when some rival people were there to revive the beast and send it aloft ... maybe Swordys so they can add it as a flagship or something.

In spite of its obvious SW derivation, I still prefer it over the "pacman" thing. Just me.

 

[Whipsnade]

It's the entry for "Battleship" in S8.

Oh, that picture? You're right it is tough to draw many conclusions from "100,000 ton Sylea Class Battleship.".

 

[mike wightman]

The only other canon reference I can remember for a Sylea class of BB is the counter in TNE's Battle Rider...

 

[whulorigan]

Oh, that picture? You're right it is tough to draw many conclusions from "100,000 ton Sylea Class Battleship.".

Hundred kay would point more to a light battlecruiser.

Or, alternatively, it might be a historical image of a currently obsolete and decommissioned battleship class.

 

[Whipsnade]

Or, alternatively, it might be a historical image of a currently obsolete and decommissioned battleship class.

Whatever the Keith illustration is, it is most certainly NOT what is up on the Wiki Page.

Among many other oddities like no Frozen Watch and a single 50 dTon cutter for ~900 crewmen, the Wiki design is TL 15. The Keith illo may have been of an obsolete and/or decommissioned class. The Wiki entry is just another example of the garbage of which the Wiki is crammed full.

 

[whulorigan]

Whatever the Keith illustration is, it is most certainly NOT what is up on the Wiki Page.

Among many other oddities like no Frozen Watch and a single 50 dTon cutter for ~900 crewmen, the Wiki design is TL 15. The Keith illo may have been of an obsolete and/or decommissioned class. The Wiki entry is just another example of the garbage of which the Wiki is crammed full.

I am not arguing the Wiki entry, just the original intent of the WH Keith illustration and how it might fit into canon, given its apparently small displacement by TL15 standards.

 

[Reban]

The Traveller Digest #09

Page: 20 "Crack Troops: The Imperial Guard"

The Imperial Yacht is usually accompanied by the Naval Escort Squadron which consists of three Sylean-class 100,000-ton battleships, a fleet carrier for long range fighter protection, a division of Sloan-class escorts to cover any withdrawal, and a division of jump-6 fleet courier for communication.

 

[Blue Ghost]

The Sylea was supposed to be the mainstay class BB for the Imperium. If somebody wants to parse or game the definition, then whatever.

"Treasure of the Admiral Vandau" is on my other computer, and was never vetted nor edited for publishing for a number of reasons. However, last year this image showed up on DeviantART;

Great minds and all that. I may hire someone to edit the thing and then post it on a website as a PDF ... maybe not. But the big climactic moment was when the rival team (NPCs presumably) get the behemoth moving, and as she rises out of the water your players have to fight a detachment of the NPCs on the bridge, or even on the ship's upper skin to fight for control.

Not gonna happen now.

 

[mike wightman]

If it was meant to be the mainstay of the Imperial Navy don't you think it would have got a write up in S:9?

 

[Condottiere]

The percentages alone don't support it being a battleship, except at technological level twelve.