08 Sailing the seven seas
One of the elements of Traveller that so many people enjoy is the similarity with the Age of Sail. Frontier systems, news traveling as fast as the people that carry it, isolated worlds and sectors cut off from the major trade routes.
I want to now look at the variety of ships that exist in my setting and their purpose. Military, commercial, private, big, small, fast and slow. But where do I begin? I thought maybe it best we look back on the Age of Sail and use the types of ships in the past to inspire ship themes for the future.
To give ourselves a starting point, let's look at the Scout and Free Trader and try to find some sailing ships that could fit.
For the Free Trader I found the Caraval to be of similar design. A small, maneuverable cargo ship. It does have some crossover with the Scout, but I found that a Cutter was more fitting for a small exploration vessel.
So now that we're on the right track and all warmed up, let's look the other way and find some sailing ships we could morph into vessels of the sky.
Pinisi - A multipurpose ship now used for trading and moving cargo. Excellent! It wasn't an ocean-crosser and was used between and around the islands of Indonesia.
Ship: 300ton / Jump-1 / Maneuver-2 / No weapons / Streamlined
There's also a note where the ship is now used to transport people, including divers. Let's make a variant that has a large cargo space, and another one with a lot of staterooms for people.
Xebec - A warship used in the Mediterranean by corsairs and pirates.It had quite a good compliment of cannons for it's size, was fast and would house a large amount of crew / soldiers.
Ship: 200ton / Jump-1 / Maneuver-4 / Weapons / Staterooms for soldiers and crew / Not streamlined
By the book you're only allowed 1 weapon per 100tons. I might alter this slightly in specific situations, like this one to allow for scary gunboats, and for the ship below.
Smack - A fishing ship that was converted to a Q-ship during World War I. There's an account of one of these ships sinking a German submarine! How excellent is this? We can use this in our game.
Ship: 100ton / Jump-0 / Maneuver-3 / Weapons (hidden) / Cargo & staterooms / Streamlined
This could make an excellent cheap and low-key postal/cargo ship between sites within a system.
Longship - The legendary viking longship. How do I do this justice? It was excellent at long distance, so a large jump drive is essential.
Ship: 400ton / Jump-3 / Maneuver-2 / Weapons / Cargo & staterooms for soldiers / Streamlined
A military ship, without a doubt.
Galleon - A multidecked armed cargo ship. Pretty large! I like the idea of this "anchoring" in orbit with a flurry of shuttles swarming around to deal with the cargo.
Ship: 600ton / Jump-2 / Maneuver-1 / Weapons / Cargo / Not streamlined
Plenty of space to even house its own shuttle.
The above ships have excited me greatly. I'll work on some artwork in the coming weeks to try and get a better idea of what this ships could look like. Remember that streamlined ships need to be able to travel through atmosphere so need some form of fins or wings. The ones that aren't streamlined can be of any shape.
Any thoughts or comments on the above? Would love to know what you think.
I want to now look at the variety of ships that exist in my setting and their purpose. Military, commercial, private, big, small, fast and slow. But where do I begin? I thought maybe it best we look back on the Age of Sail and use the types of ships in the past to inspire ship themes for the future.
To give ourselves a starting point, let's look at the Scout and Free Trader and try to find some sailing ships that could fit.
For the Free Trader I found the Caraval to be of similar design. A small, maneuverable cargo ship. It does have some crossover with the Scout, but I found that a Cutter was more fitting for a small exploration vessel.
So now that we're on the right track and all warmed up, let's look the other way and find some sailing ships we could morph into vessels of the sky.
Pinisi - A multipurpose ship now used for trading and moving cargo. Excellent! It wasn't an ocean-crosser and was used between and around the islands of Indonesia.
Ship: 300ton / Jump-1 / Maneuver-2 / No weapons / Streamlined
There's also a note where the ship is now used to transport people, including divers. Let's make a variant that has a large cargo space, and another one with a lot of staterooms for people.
Xebec - A warship used in the Mediterranean by corsairs and pirates.It had quite a good compliment of cannons for it's size, was fast and would house a large amount of crew / soldiers.
Ship: 200ton / Jump-1 / Maneuver-4 / Weapons / Staterooms for soldiers and crew / Not streamlined
By the book you're only allowed 1 weapon per 100tons. I might alter this slightly in specific situations, like this one to allow for scary gunboats, and for the ship below.
Smack - A fishing ship that was converted to a Q-ship during World War I. There's an account of one of these ships sinking a German submarine! How excellent is this? We can use this in our game.
Ship: 100ton / Jump-0 / Maneuver-3 / Weapons (hidden) / Cargo & staterooms / Streamlined
This could make an excellent cheap and low-key postal/cargo ship between sites within a system.
Longship - The legendary viking longship. How do I do this justice? It was excellent at long distance, so a large jump drive is essential.
Ship: 400ton / Jump-3 / Maneuver-2 / Weapons / Cargo & staterooms for soldiers / Streamlined
A military ship, without a doubt.
Galleon - A multidecked armed cargo ship. Pretty large! I like the idea of this "anchoring" in orbit with a flurry of shuttles swarming around to deal with the cargo.
Ship: 600ton / Jump-2 / Maneuver-1 / Weapons / Cargo / Not streamlined
Plenty of space to even house its own shuttle.
The above ships have excited me greatly. I'll work on some artwork in the coming weeks to try and get a better idea of what this ships could look like. Remember that streamlined ships need to be able to travel through atmosphere so need some form of fins or wings. The ones that aren't streamlined can be of any shape.
Any thoughts or comments on the above? Would love to know what you think.
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