Which ship design rules work best?

[Olschoolgamer]

Hey all,
I am currently working on a new campain and was wondering which rules set work best for designing ships? I have CT and MT and TNE but not FFS, but since this is a Traveller game I need ships. I am not a gear head so details down to bolt size is not important but I also want the designs to be realistic so as not to embaress my self in front of some of my smarter players. Also, is there a good design aid on the web I can download?

 

[mike wightman]

My favourite remains CT, it's pretty quick and uncomplicated.

Of course, I have a few house rules that I often use...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

LBB2 is definitely the best one if you just want to put in the important bits, and leave things like specific impulse of ionized plasma to someone else.

The other thing to consider is a few of the items here on CotI, and at places like the Traveller Downport could save you even that much trouble. There are published designs/deck plans galore. Heck, here's one you can try out, no charge!

 

[Ptah]

I prefer CT as well for design, the HG2 variety. For adventure class ships many of the extra design decisions, which can make things more complex in HG2 are absent, e.g., no bay weapons to consider.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

You'll get a lot of opinions on this, but the "best" system is whatever best meets your needs. I like the detail of FF&S, others prefer the simplicity of LBB2.

Software:

LBB2: ?
High Guard: http://www.downport.com/amv/software/hgs.html
MT: http://www.mega-traveller.com/downloads/downloads.html
FF&S1: ?
FF&S2: http://www.traveller3d.com/downloads/FFS2XL97.xls
T20: http://www.falkayn.com/traveller/downloads.html

 

[Scott Martin]

I'd reccomend LBB2 or High Guard: HGS (High Guard Shipyard?) linked by Andrew above makes designs fairly painless, and if all you're looking for is ships, there are a fair pile of them out there for any system you would care to name try googling "Traveller Gearhead" or "Geearhead Webring" (or just hit downport.com: several of their sites will ramp you onto these webrings)

I do modeling professionally, so I appreciate some of the nuances of Fire Fusion and Steel (The design sequences for TNE and T4) but there's a lot of stuff in there that is just "clutter" so while it may be useful for background tech info (buy the TNE FF&S, not the T4 FF&S for this) it's probably not what you're looking for in an easy design sequence.

Scott Martin

 

[Uncle Bob]

I use Book 2/5. I tried to use FF&S, but it added layers of complexity to the design without really adding anything. You got the illusion of detail design but it was just as unreally abstracted.

Like the Heplar drive. It pretends to be a rocket/reaction drive, but it acts like a "magic" reactionless drive with a contrail.

 

[far-trader]

If you want to play using the TNE rules then I'd recommend joining the Traveller TNE Yahoo group here:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Traveller_TNE/

Have a search in the posts for any (and all) by Peter Gray (I think). He's done a HUGE amount of great work on not just ships but vehicles and weapons too. All your nuts and bolts lovingly detailed and fully assembled

There is also another good resource for TNE goodies in the BARD pages here:

http://www.downport.com/bard/bard.html

Specifically the SARA and VERA links for ships and vehicles and gear.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Of course it acts that way, Uncle Bob! We don't mind the magic, we just want it to look cool - hence the "contrail"!
Oh, and I agree wholeheartedly with Andrew!

 

[Olschoolgamer]

Thanx you for your time and attention. I am looking for a game that follows what I consider the "Traveller Feel". Hard to describe but I know it when I feel it ....

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by Olschoolgamer:
Thanx you for your time and attention. I am looking for a game that follows what I consider the "Traveller Feel". Hard to describe but I know it when I feel it ....

A common problem, actually. Given that most Traveller design systems are tied to the setting, the mechanics of "the feel" are not the hard part. For me, often it comes down to the artwork phase of ship design: exterior appearance and deckplans.

The "best" system is the one that meets your needs, both in use and in the results.

 

[ravells]

I would say go modern!

Use Angus McDonald's spreadsheet at Falkayn.com to build your ship and then use The Eningeer's spreadsheet (available on this forum) ship layout spredsheet to give yourself an idea of how big the ship is and to build a rude deckplan.

With both of these spreadsheets you can stat and deckplan a ship.

I used them both to make this deckplan for a merchant. I have no idea how accurate it is according to the myriad traveller rules of ship design there are out there but given that the spreadsheets are based on traveller ship design principles it works for me.

Ravs

 

[far-trader]

That's a pretty sweet design Ravs!

 

[Ptah]

No matter which approach you choose, check out the first sticky under The Fleet, it should give a whole slew of premade designs.

 

[Jame]

My preference is LBB2, but I HG is good for larger ships.

 

[shanksow]

Originally posted by ravs:
I would say go modern!

Use Angus McDonald's spreadsheet at Falkayn.com to build your ship and then use The Eningeer's spreadsheet (available on this forum) ship layout spredsheet to give yourself an idea of how big the ship is and to build a rude deckplan.

Ravs

Where is the link to find this Engineer's Spreadsheet? Or what part of the forum its located at?

 

[aramis]

My preference runs to T20. MT is a close second. A houseruled MT would be great, if I could ever figure out how best to alter it for my needs... but it's not worth it to do unless I'm running or can publish it. That's not likely.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Books 2 and 5 for me - the former for civilian ships, the latter for military.

 

[Golan2072]

I'm undecided between HG and LBB2. On one hand, the LBB2 system is beautifully simple, and focuses on the PC scale of things; on the other hand, LBB2 lacks the vast amount of options and versatility HG has. On one hand, HG is detailed and versatile, but, on the other, it is linked with a very problematic combat system, which focuses on large fleet actions and leaves much to be desired when PC-scale combat is concerned (and is overcomplex, too).

I'll sooner or later have to decide, though I'd probably end up using HG (with some combat house-rules) due to its versatility and due to the fact that it has the ultra-useful HGS program (which makes design painless).

 

[Andrew Boulton]

With the software I mentioned, they're all equally painless.