What about the J-boat?

[jalexandratos]

So now that starships once again have the 100 dt minimum in order to be jump capable, how does one go about creating a TNE Regency J-boat?

Maybe an addendum to the design rules that at TL16 those requirements go away?

Just looking for opinions short of "just ignore the minimum".

 

[William]

Originally posted by Dree:
So now that starships once again have the 100 dt minimum in order to be jump capable, how does one go about creating a TNE Regency J-boat?

Maybe an addendum to the design rules that at TL16 those requirements go away?

Just looking for opinions short of "just ignore the minimum".

While I didn't ever get a copy of the Regency book, I am presuming this is something similar to the jump torpedos in Leviathan? Or are they manned?

What I would probably do IMTU would be:
1) TL16+ minimum
2) still require a 100 dt ship's worth of fuel and drives
3) say that the TL improvement allows the drive to still build the 100 dt volume jump space around the ship even though it is not 100 dt.
4) perhaps at greater TL's it would be possible to decrease the drive size and/or fuel requirements.

William

 

[AllenS]

my solution is to...de-canonize the j-boat.

Allen

 

[jalexandratos]

Originally posted by AllenS:
my solution is to...de-canonize the j-boat.

Allen

How about re-canonizing the fact that neither TCS nor HG had the 100-ton limit? That was an addition made for MT.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by Dree:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by AllenS:
my solution is to...de-canonize the j-boat.

Allen

How about re-canonizing the fact that neither TCS nor HG had the 100-ton limit? That was an addition made for MT. </font>[/QUOTE]Sorry, but HG *does* have the 100 dton limit. It specifically states that "Small craft do not have jump drives."

The idea that ships less than 100 dton could have jump drives was a pure TNE addition. That was completely disallowed in any version of CT or in MT.

 

[William]

Originally posted by daryen:
Sorry, but HG *does* have the 100 dton limit. It specifically states that "Small craft do not have jump drives."

The idea that ships less than 100 dton could have jump drives was a pure TNE addition. That was completely disallowed in any version of CT or in MT.[/QB]

Not quite. See Adventure 4 Leviathan. They had jump torpedos as a messaging device that were considerably smaller (IIRC) than 100 tons.

Additionally, simply saying "Small Craft" is not exactly the same as saying "All craft under 100 dt." I do not have a copy of Book 5 with me - could someone check the wording? Also, if anyone has the 1979 1st edition, perhaps this was a change between the 2?

William

 

[mikeryan]

Originally posted by William:
Not quite. See Adventure 4 Leviathan. They had jump torpedos as a messaging device that were considerably smaller (IIRC) than 100 tons.

Wasn't Leviathan considered somewhat apocryphal in that respect?

Additionally, simply saying "Small Craft" is not exactly the same as saying "All craft under 100 dt." I do not have a copy of Book 5 with me - could someone check the wording? Also, if anyone has the 1979 1st edition, perhaps this was a change between the 2?

"Smallcraft" has, since CT, had the definition of a spacecraft less than 100 dtons. Spacecraft 100 dtons or larger without jump drives had a specific ter, which I believe was "big craft".

 

[DaddyDragon]

William writes:

Additionally, simply saying "Small Craft" is not exactly the same as saying "All craft under 100 dt." I do not have a copy of Book 5 with me - could someone check the wording? Also, if anyone has the 1979 1st edition, perhaps this was a change between the 2?

Book 5, High Guard (1st edition, c.1979), pg 18, Under the heading Design and Construction, second paragraph, Starships may range in size from 100 to 1,000,000 tons.

Book 5, High Guard (c.1980), pg 20-21, Under the heading Summary of Ship Design, next to the last paragraph, Non-starships (ships without jump drive, and massing 100 or more tons) are designed in much the same manner as starships; small craft (without jump drives and under 100 tons) follow a slightly altered procedure explained in the small craft section beginning on page 34.

If I find anything more specific, I'll post it later.

Regards,
Larry

 

[William]

Originally posted by DaddyDragon:
William writes:
If I find anything more specific, I'll post it later.

Regards,
Larry

That's what I was asking for. Thank you.

William

 

[Tom Schoene]

Even before HG, the minimum jump limit seems rather explicit.

"A small craft is any vessel under 100 tons; all small craft are incapable of jump." Book 2, p. 12

"In order to build a starship, the hull tonnage must be at least 100 tons." Book 2, p. 21.

 

[jalexandratos]

Originally posted by Tom Schoene:
Even before HG, the minimum jump limit seems rather explicit.

"A small craft is any vessel under 100 tons; all small craft are incapable of jump." Book 2, p. 12

"In order to build a starship, the hull tonnage must be at least 100 tons." Book 2, p. 21.

It is. I think I just completely flaked out. Maybe I was thinking of the ever-changing j-fuel requirements. Maybe I was drawn by the niftyness of the J-boat.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by William:
Not quite. See Adventure 4 Leviathan. They had jump torpedos as a messaging device that were considerably smaller (IIRC) than 100 tons.

Seeing as the "jump torpedo" was never mentioned again, it appears to have been one of those "early Traveller" ideas that came out, but quickly died. Kinda like the Annic Nova's engines and the concept that the Kinuir was a "battlecruiser".

 

[Gallowglass]

Well, if memory serves (I'm at work and away from my books), Leviathan was the Games Workshop penned adventure; specifically Bob McWilliams, who edited the Traveller column in early White Dwarf and, with Andy Slack, was one of teh stalwarts of early UK Traveller writing. IIRC there is a fair amount of material from that era that doesn't gel well with GDW canon, some of which made it in to Adventure 4.

Heady days...

 

[jalexandratos]

Originally posted by daryen:
Seeing as the "jump torpedo" was never mentioned again, it appears to have been one of those "early Traveller" ideas that came out, but quickly died. Kinda like the Annic Nova's engines and the concept that the Kinuir was a "battlecruiser".

Sorta like that pesky silicon lifeform on Cymbeline from Signal GK?