Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, pages 19-20

Back with more standard ships from the Traveller universe. There are five more here: The Free Trader (Type A), Subsidized Merchant (Types R & M), the Yacht (Type Y), and the Cruiser (Type C). Remember, these are the discounted 'off-the-shelf' ships.

First up, the Free Trader. If I recall correctly, this is the ship a Merchant can earn from mustering out. Let's see what it's got. It's a type-200 hull, so twice as big as the Scout ship. Ten staterooms, including four for the crew, and twenty death-traps...sorry, I mean 'low-passage berths.' Just like the Scout, it's got Type A everything, but its bigger size limits it to 1 G of accel and a jump distance of 1. But it holds lots of cargo; 82 tons of it, along with 30 tons of fuel. It comes equipped with two empty hardpoints, with two tons of fire control space held in reserve. The computer is the basic one, and it can land on planets. Oh, and it costs just over 37 million credits. 

So, it's bigger and slower than a Scoutship. Well, that makes sense; scouts are supposed to be faster than lumbering merchant types. If you want to fight with it, you'll have to put weapons in the hardpoints, at your own expense. Well, hopefully your character mustered out with a lot of cash. And the Gambling skill.

Next up are the Subsidized Merchant ships; two of them are described. The Type R is twice the size of a Free Trader, with 13 staterooms (five for crew) and only nine sucker-beds. It's got C-type plant and drives, which still limit it to accel and jumps of 1. It carries 200 tons of cargo and 50 tons of fuel, comes with two hardpoints and a lifeboat, and can land. It's still got the crappy computer, though. Oh, and it tops nine figures at 100,035,000 credits. Even a forty-year mortgage isn't going to help pay for this sucker.

The Type M is even bigger, three times the size of a Free Trader. 30 staterooms, including nine for the crew, and a whopping 80 passenger death-traps take up lots of space. But it's got a D power plant and maneuvering drive, along with a J-level jump drive, so it can travel. Only 1G of acceleration, but a nice jump distance of 3. It even has a decent computer (level 3), but only has a cargo capacity of 124 tons. It carries 190 tons of fuel! Seriously, when your massive merchant ship only has 150% of the space of a Free Trader, your ship sucks. Sure, it's got three hardpoints, but come on. It isn't even atmosphere friendly. And it costs nearly 220 million credits.

So, the Free Trader actually has the best value of the three merchant ships. That's pretty sad. The Type-M costs almost six times as much as the Free Trader, and doesn't carry enough cargo to make up that cost difference. The only thing it has going for it is that it can go further in a single jump. The Type R is actually not too bad, carrying a decent cargo capacity, but still, it's almost three times as expensive and doesn't go any further on a jump than the Free Trader. All in all, the Free Trader looks to be the best option.

Next up, the Yacht. This is my favorite ship so far, because it doesn't try to kill its own passengers with those stupid low-passage berths. It has 16 staterooms (four for crew), two of which have been joined to make an owner's suite. It's the size of the Free Trader, with the same engine and power configuration, so 1 G acceleration and a jump of 1. Another basic computer, and only 13 tons of cargo space. But it comes with three vehicles: A ship's boat, an air/raft, and an ATV. One hardpoint, 39 tons of fuel space, and four unallocated tons for whatever the owner feels like installing later. It clocks in at just under 60 million credits. Not a bad ship, considering.

Finally, there's the Cruiser. The biggest of the standard ships at 800 tons, it's 'quasi-military'. So, privateers, then? Pirates are cool. Space pirates are cooler. Mercenaries would work, too. But pirates rule. Everyone knows that.25 staterooms for the 45 crew and officers, and no low berths. It's definitely a fighting ship, with type-M drives and plants (good for jump-3 and 3 Gs). It's also got a level-5 computer, 8 tons of fire-control equipment allocation, and 8 hardpoints with triple turrets (but no weapons, so you can customize the mix). Tons of fuel (288 of them), with some of that available for refueling the parasite ships. Those are two pinnaces, two ATVs, and an Air/Raft. This beauty is available for the special price of only 419,670,000 credits.

It's a spiffy ship, no question; the customizable weapons mean the Referee can do a different mix for various planetary navies, pirate ships, or mercenary companies. It could even be a way of telling who's currently wanting your intrepid crew dead; maybe the Arconites use mostly laser weapons, but the Stellar Skill crew like blowing things up with missiles.

The Cruiser bled over to page 20, which is only half full anyway, so I'll do a double-page entry today. The next part is 'Customer Designed Ships'. We get a few additional notes on what goes into customizing ships, and the highest hull size possible is the type-5,000. Considering the prices for the standard ships, I can't imagine anyone other than a system government being able to afford a ship that size. And even then, just one of them. An interstellar empire would be able to do it, but other than that...

Power plants and drives are restricted to certain hull sizes, depending on the power of the plant or drive. Non-starships only cost half as much as jumpships, but you can't upgrade a non-starship with a jump drive later.

So, that's it for building a starship. Maybe next, we'll learn how to blow up these expensive toys, yes? We shall see...

You're Doing What?

My wife didn't quite realize just how serious I was about changing our lifestyle when we moved out here. Or, at least, my own. I've never, EVER been an outdoors kind of person. It's just not my thing, never was. No, I was always inside, reading a book or playing a game, never doing the outside thing. Well, I did play sports as a kid, but that's different; that was fun. Doing outdoor stuff that's work? Even mowing the lawn was a nightmare. I was a city boy, not a back-to-nature kid.

Well, well, times have definitely changed.

See, I was serious about the whole idea of becoming as self-sustaining as we could on this little hobby farm. That means we're going to have to grow the food ourselves. It saves a lot of money at the grocery stores, which are higher-priced here on the Island. But still...that means getting down in the grubby dirt and doing actual manual labor.

And I'm enjoying it.

Don't get me wrong; I'm still writing, still doing the sci-fi/fantasy thing, still enjoying the benefits of modern life. But there's a whole new world out there, and as crazy as it sounds, I like it. I never understood the appeal of gardening until now. And all I've done is dig two small garden beds for her, one of which has twenty-nine garlic bulbs that will hopefully sprout in the spring, currently covered in straw to protect them. And I didn't just use a roto-tiller; I used a spade and a pitchfork and dug down deep.

The dogs love it out here, since they have their own private dog park in the back to play in. The kids love it as well. And my wife and I are really getting into the spirit of country living. It's very, very different from the city, or even the small town we lived in before coming here. It's...peaceful. The stars come out at night, and there are a hell of a lot more of them in the sky when we're away from the street lights.

But the part that blew my wife away was that my older son and I actually built a simple but effective composting tumbler together. That's right, a homemade composter. And it works very simply: You put the composting ingredients in, then seal the lid and just roll it around the yard a couple of times to tumble the compost. She can't believe I'm actually doing that. I really should have taken a picture of it; it was a fun project for Ashton and I.

So, I'm going all-out on this new way of living. Those who knew me before probably don't believe it. Heck, I'm not sure I believe it myself at this point. But, it is what it is; I'm running a hobby farm, so it's time to make it real.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 18

And we're back, talking about 'Expendables.' No, not a Sly Stallone movie. These are the things that get used up, or break, on starships. Thus, they need to be purchased separately. For our expendable items, we have missiles, sand, and repair parts.

One thing that isn't specified is whether you get an initial payload of the missiles or sand when you install them. It would seem likely, but then, maybe not. Looks like it's a...Dun-Dun-Dun!...Referee Call. For myself, I would say that yes, you get a full rack of either missiles or sand when you install the weapon turret. Others might disagree, and that's totally okay.

So, missiles in Traveller are homing missiles. Radar-guided or heat-seeking, it's not clear. Again, a Referee Decision. It probably doesn't really matter, anyway. All that matters is that they cost a mere 5,000 Cr to replace. That's your bog-standard missile; other types are mentioned (like jump missiles for messenger duty), but details are up to the referee. Again. Man, there's a lot of thinking in these old-school games, isn't there? How are people supposed to play without everything spelled out in micro-minute detail?!

Sand for the sandcasters is next. Oh, but this isn't just plain sand, because that won't work. This is a special composition that includes prismatic crystals and ablative particles, which will thus deflect lasers and...inflict minor damage on ships that it touches?! Where did that come from? More details forthcoming, perhaps? Maybe in the part on ship combat; it wasn't mentioned earlier. This 'sand' is pre-packed and weighs 50 kg, costing a paltry 400 Cr to purchase. Alright, then.

Our third expendable is repair parts. This one doesn't include the basic spare parts kept on board the ship; there are emergency materials in the ship's stores for temporary repairs. The cost of repair parts depends on how much the component cost in the first place. To get the repair cost, roll two dice and multiply the total by 10%. That's how much of the original price it will cost to replace the part. And yes, that means the repair might cost more than replacing the entire component would. Boy, does that sound familiar. Fix that fridge? The labor costs alone are more than the cost of buying a new one. Traveller really was ahead of its time.

There's a -2 DM if the ship's crew is making the repair, which means it might cost nothing at all. Well, that's helpful. Of course, the crew has to actually know how to repair the components to get the bonus. Well, there's always a catch.

And that's it for the expendables; now, we get an introduction to the 'standard' starship designs. These designs costs 10% less to build thanks to their standardization. We begin with...the scout. Or courier. It's as small as a starship can get, with a type-100 hull and A-level plant and drives. It has four staterooms, which can be double-occupied for crew (not passengers). It carries an air/raft and has three tons of cargo space and tank space for 40 tons of fuel. There's a double turret on the single hardpoint, but there are no weapons. A Model/1 computer with basic software completes the package. All this for the low, low price of 32,490,000 credits. Geez. And that's as basic a ship as you can get. It's got 2Gs of acceleration and can do a jump-2, but still. I suppose this is the ship the Scout career can earn. Well, it's better than nothing.

Next up...we'll find out next time. On to the next page!

Exploring the Island

PEI is, as everyone in Canada knows, the smallest province in the country. From the North Cape to the East Point is about a three-hour drive, and that's with a speed limit of 90 km/h at best. It's not big. But man, there's a lot here to see. My wife and I took the youngest out for a drive, our second one this week. Last time, we went north to Tignish and North Cape; today, we headed east toward Charlottetown.

Now, I was born here in Summerside, so technically I may have been to some of these places before. But since I wasn't yet three when we left for Winnipeg, I don't remember any of them. So, when we pushed east of Summerside this afternoon, it was the first time I'd ever been out that way. The scenery is beautiful, the landscape is picture-perfect, and there's a great balance between cultivated farmland and wild growth. We went through the rolling hills toward Charlottetown, but we didn't actually go that far. We did, however, swing up toward the world-famous Green Gables.

It was incredible. We must have passed thirty restaurants, two amusement parks, three motels, a KOA campground, and a ton of cottages lined up for people to rent.

And we didn't see a single human being. It was a ghost town. Like I said, incredible. In better times, I wouldn't be surprised if Green Gables pulls in half of the province's GDP. But not right now. With the travel bubble keeping people out of the Atlantic provinces, tourism is way down. It sucks, frankly. On the other hand, it means we can drive through places like that without being stuck in traffic or lined up for twelve hours to go to the bathroom. You gotta look at the positive side of things.

We also stopped by a Mennonite farm where they sell baked goods, produce and grass-fed meat. Tasty stuff, and important for us, since our youngest, being autistic, needs a specific diet. The usual stuff from the grocery store doesn't do his gut any favors, so we need the organic, grass-fed beef for him. It's nice to find a place that can offer us that. It's an hour away, but that's nothing; the drive is great.

I mentioned Tignish the other day; our trip there was fun as well. We went almost right to the North Cape, and found a beach where we could stare off into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The youngest son played on the rocks and picked up some shells, while Mom took a video of the waves coming in. If it had been summertime, I could have convinced her we were in the Caribbean after all. Unfortunately, late October in PEI isn't going to fool anyone into thinking they're in the Caymans, no matter how beautiful it is.

It's funny, but as I mentioned to my wife on the way home from Tignish, this is the first place where I've ever really felt like I was home. Like I'm meant to be here. I don't know why; do I have some sort of connection to my place of birth? But my wife agrees with me, and she's never been as far east as Quebec before this trip. So, it's something else. Maybe it's the feeling of having a place that's peaceful and quiet for our kids to grow up. Maybe it's the farmland that we're going to pass on to them. Maybe it's just a matter of starting over fresh without all the negativity that surrounded us back there.

Whatever it is, though, one thing is very, very clear. We are home. And nothing is going to change that.

Alright, it's time to get back to writing again; I've got a half-finished Cameron Vail mystery that needs attention. If you're wondering who that is, check out Final Exam, my first foray into writing a murder mystery.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 17

Alright, we're back to vehicles. The smaller, non-starship kind that hang around on or near starships. These are much cheaper than an actual starship, sort of like a Lamborghini is cheaper than an Apollo rocket. They're still going to cost an insane amount of money. There are five standard types, and others can be designed (they won't have jump drives, but otherwise will be built like regular starships).

We begin with...the life boat, a.k.a. those things the Titanic's designers considered 'frills.' These life boats are good for three passengers. And 20 people stuck in 'low passage' for emergencies. Hey, you're probably going to die anyway, right? At least in the cryo-freeze, you won't notice it. Yay. I really, really hate the 'low berth' concept. It can hold five tons of fuel, go to 1 G of acceleration, and takes up 20 tons of room on your ship. Oh, and it's a bargain-basement price of 14M credits. No weapons are included or mountable.

The ship's boat is next, coming in at 16M credits and carrying up to 5 passengers. No low passage berths; it's more like an all-purpose craft that can handle different little jobs, like carrying passengers or cargo from a dock to the boat, or something like that. They can be armed with a single beat or pulse laser. They're fast, pulling up to 6 Gs, which makes them the thoroughbreds of this class of ship.

Next up, the pinnace. This is more of a captain's launch, capable of carrying up to 8 passengers, displacing 40 tons, and usually armed with a laser or even a missile launch rack in some cases. 20M credits for this baby, and she'll pull up to 5Gs of acceleration and hold up to 12 tons of fuel and the same amount of cargo. Not a bad deal.

The cutter is the next step up, displacing 50 tons and costing 28M credits. It 's slower at 4Gs than the pinnace, but can carry up to 12 passengers and is armed with a laser. Fuel and cargo capacity are both 15 tons.

Finally, there's the shuttle, a much smaller vehicle than the Space Shuttles we are familiar with. These shuttles displace 95 tons; Columbia, Challenger and the others were in the range of 2,000 tons. These shuttles can pull up to 3Gs, hold up to 30 passengers, carry 80 tons of cargo and 9 tons of fuel, and don't carry weapons Oh, and they cost 33M credits. Well, it cost half a billion to launch the space shuttle. Each time. So, these are actually a bargain in comparison.

These ships can't be converted to starships with a jump drive later. Custom jobs only cost half as much as a full starship. Maybe they use different materials in construction; starships get the best stuff (and most expensive).

Fuel consumption is 10 kg per G per ten minutes of acceleration, regardless of cargo. So, a fully-fueled pinnace can run at its full speed of 5Gs for 240 minutes, or four hours before running out of fuel. That would be a long time at that acceleration, and the ship would be moving pretty darn fast by the end of it.

All of these ships are good for 30 days in space before running out of food, water, and air. After 30 days, it's a roll of 9 or better to keep the recycling machinery from cacking out, then a 9+ roll to repair it, with a modifier if you actually know how to do it. If you can't repair it on the day it breaks, you're going to suffocate.

And on that happy note, we'll move on to the next page.

Settling In

 It's been a crazy week; now that we're off quarantine and are no longer viewed as lepers, we had a lot to do. Exploring the area, checking out Summerside, changing license plates on the cars...we're getting there.

One of the interesting things about moving so far away is that you have to get used to a whole new weather system. Obviously, we knew we'd be in for more snow; that much I remember from when I was a kid here in the Maritimes. But I wasn't expecting the winds.

Our neighbour across the road let us know that the winds we had last night weren't more than 80-90 km/h. They get better numbers in the winter. And the wind can go on for a few days, blowing snow right across the area. My son's snowplow will get some good work in over the winter.

Mind you, the winds we got the other night were impressive enough, even if they didn't get to hurricane or even gale-force levels. Actually, 80-90 is a gale. It felt like one, too; it tore a huge limb off a tree in the front yard. We just spent the afternoon cleaning it up and cutting it down into logs. The winds also pulled some siding off the garage. And there's stronger winds to come, apparently. I'm looking forward to it.

Of course, moving across the country means more than just weather; things work differently in another province. We got a striking example of that when we went to the nearest provincial government office to get our drivers' licenses and plates changed over. In Ontario, putting a graphic license plate on your vehicle costs over $80, not including taxes. In PEI, the graphic plate costs a grand total of...$15. Stickers are cheaper, too. It's quite eye-opening.

We're slowly unpacking the remaining boxes of stuff; I would like to get them all dealt with before the snow flies, because it's a pain to carry them through three-foot snow drifts. Especially when the boxes are full of heavy books. Blankets and clothes, those are fine. But books? Yikes. And I have a lot of books.

Speaking of books, I haven't been talking about them very much lately. I haven't been talking much at all lately, for that matter. I'm still not back up to the blogging schedule I want. But, I do have a few books available on Amazon for people to look at. If you want sci-fi, you'll want to check out Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, which is as pulpy as I could come up with. No allegories, no allusions to real-world events. Just action and adventure in space, purely for the fun of it. Check it out; you won't regret it.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 16

So, let's see what sort of scallywags we can scavenge to steer this ship through the starways. Seriously.

The number of crew members on the ship isn't fixed; it depends on the size of the ship, how much works needs to be done, and how concerned the ship's owner/captain is with safety. Okay, then. Smaller ships can get by with just one crew member per position, while larger ones may carry extras along for shift work.

We next get the bare minimum crew that is needed. Pilot gets the top billing; in really small ships, he might be the entire crew, handling the rest of the duties as needed. But if the ship is at least 200 tons in size, you need a navigator, as well.

The next part is a bit complicated, and requires some math. If the ship is under 100 tons, no engineer is required. That's the easy part. For bigger ships, the total mass displacement of the drives and the power plant is divided by 35; that's how many engineers you need. The chief engineer gets paid more than the others. So, a 600-ton ship with a Type-J Jump drive (50 tons), a Type-L Maneuvering drive (21 tons), and a Type-Q power plant (46 tons) will have a total drive/plant mass of 117 tons, which means the ship will need 3 1/3 engineers. Call it four, just to be safe. The rules don't specify how to round on this calculation, so let's just go with the four.

A steward is only necessary for taking care of high passengers. The ones paying more, I mean, not the ones using space ganja. The middle-class passengers can fend for themselves. The low-passage ones are probably going to die anyway. So, for every 8 or fewer high-passage staterooms, you need a steward to handle things. If you've got more than one, one of them is the chief steward and gets paid more, just like the chief engineer.

Medics are necessary for ships of at least 100 tons; if it's a passenger liner, then you need a medic for every 120 passengers, and you round up for this calculation. Finally, there's the gunner, one per turret on the ship. Gunners are the most optional crew member, but I'd bring one along just in case; you just know that 'space pirates' are going to be on the encounter list.

So, that's the basics. Sometimes, characters can perform double-duty if they have the skills for it, but they don't get expertise (DMs) for doing more than one job. They also get paid less per job, which still works out to more than the specialist gets. The GM can create new positions as well, such as a cutter pilot or communications officer.

Finally, for big ships (1000 tons or more), you get a captain, an XO, and at least three flunkies...I mean, administrative personnel. And really big ships should have at least 10 crew for every 1000 tons of starship you've got. That can add up in a hurry, although the biggest ship on the tables so far is 5000 tons, which is only 50 crew. That's not much, really.

So, what have we learned today? We've learned that once again, old-school rules leave a lot to the players and referees to figure out. You don't have to have three fully-staffed duty shifts on your ship, but what happens when the guy you've tapped as your navigator has been sitting at his station for twenty-four hours in a row? Do you trust his math? Or is his would-be replacement still trying to figure out how to use a slide rule? It's an interesting change from later game-design philosophy.

What do I mean by that? Well, back in my reckless youth I bought a lot of different games. One of them was TSR's sci-fi alternative to D&D, Alternity. And shortly after that line got canceled, there was an online supplement released for free, called Warships. Here's what that booklet, which came out in around 2001, had to say about crewing a starship:

Basic Crew
Deck
Deckhands: 1 deckhand per 40 hull points
Cargo Handlers: 1 cargo handler per autocargo system, or 1 cargo handler per bay and 2 per hold
Bosun’s Mates:1 boatswain mate per 5 deckhands or cargo handlers
Ship’s Bosun
Deck Officers: 1 per 3 bosun’s mates
First Lieutenant

Engineering

Drive Techs: 1 drive tech per 5 hull points for FTL drives.
Engine Tech: 1 engine tech per 10 hull points devoted to engines, plus 1 engine tech per engine.
Power Tech: 1 power tech per 10 hull points devoted to power plants, plus 1 power tech per power plant.
Support Tech: 1 support tech per life support system
Cold Tech: 1 cold tech per 2 life suspension units
Eco Tech: 1 eco tech per recycler unit or hydroponics bay
Petty Officers: 1 engine mate per 5 drive techs, power techs, engine techs, support techs, eco techs, or cold techs
Fuel King (if ship carries fuel)
Engineering Officers: 1 per 3 petty officers
Chief Engineer

That's just a small part of the sidebar devoted to 'Crew Requirements.' It takes up a whole page. You could staff the Enterprise (the 1701-D version) if you wanted to with this list. The math would get pretty interesting, too. But there's not much thought that goes into it, other than calculation. It takes a bit of the uniqueness away, too, since there's no suggestion that alien crews would be any different.

Anyway, that's my take on the old-school difference. Next time, we'll delve into more stuff about starships and how to build them. In the meantime, keep on gaming. And reading.

Getting Back into the Groove

Getting out of the habit of writing and blogging regularly is a lot easier than getting back into it. No excuses, really, just a matter of sitting down and actually doing it. It's been two weeks today since we arrived in our new home. The stress of the trip here has dissipated; I'm not going to relive it now. We're out of quarantine, which is worth celebrating. Naturally, I headed to town to check out the nearest bookstore. It's small, but it turns out they do sell books by local talent. Since I live here now, I'll qualify as 'local.' Getting my books into a store would be pretty sweet. I'll be contacting the manager tomorrow.

My middle son started school today. I'm not a big fan, obviously; homeschooling is infinitely superior. But he needs friends; he's far, far more social than I am. So, we compromised. He'll go to school, but he'll still do the homeschooling work we assign him as well. I hope it works out.

The oldest is having a blast; he went to Charlottetown today, which is just over an hour away. Of course, he was just there to check out the hardware stores (Canadian Tire, Princess Auto), but he's got a lot of stuff to do, both on the farm and out working, wherever that may be.

But the first thing we did out of quarantine was head for water. There's a nice beach about twelve minutes away. My wife got some pictures and made a short video; the youngest son and I walked out quite a ways on the low-tide beach, checking out the salt-smelling air and looking at shells on the sand. The kids even found a little hermit crab, just a baby. It was beautiful.

We're really going to enjoy being here; it's an amazing place, as thousands of tourists can attest. But for us, it's home now. And it's going to be great. It's quiet, peaceful, and slowed-down. None of the craziness of the big cities, since the biggest city here is only about 45,000 people. I can work with that. Maybe I'll go in a new writing direction. After I finish the next book, of course. Which I need to get back to. So, I'll make it a short entry tonight and come back with more fun stuff tomorrow. Because this has to be a habit again.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 15

 Welcome back to our exploration of How to Make Your Own Starship. We continue with more of the Main Compartment, specifically...computers.

This part refers to replacing or upgrading computers, though; they can be changed out either during construction (so the standard computer is replaced with the new version), or later on. If you're upgrading, you can trade in the old version for 25% of what you paid for it. Which isn't going to be a small chunk of change; those suckers are more expensive than Macs.

Ships can also be streamlined for use in atmospheres. It's an optional feature, costing a cool million credits per 100 tons of ship. Without it, the ship will be restricted to orbital work only, parking at a space station instead of lightly gliding to the surface of the planet. So, it's like the Enterprise, not a Colonial Viper.

Vipers are way cooler than X-Wings, and I'll fight to the death anyone who disagrees.

Ship's vehicles are next, which would be shuttles, pinnaces, tenders...whatever the space version might be called. Actually, there's a handy-dandy table that tells us your starship can carry an ATV (my sons will love that part), Air/Raft, Lifeboat (those are useful), Ship's Boat, Pinnace, Cutter, or Shuttle. The prices are in millions of credits, so your ATV is...3 million credits?! DAMN! I thought my son overpaid for the one he has! Okay, these ATVs are designed for literally any terrain, including terrains with no atmosphere. My son's ATV doesn't have that feature. But, still...no wonder there's a forty-year term on starship mortgages. These prices are insane. The shuttle, top-of-the-line, costs 33,000,000 credits and weighs 95 tons, almost twice as much as a cutter, so you're not going to be carrying too many of those in your shuttle bay. You'll need a forty-year mortgage just to pay for the shuttle!

Air/Raft is a non-airtight ship that can handle atmospheres, but not vacuum. It's the smallest ship vehicle, at only 4 tons, but costs twice as much as that ATV.

Turrets are mentioned again, and they can be refitted, upgraded or replaced. Old turrets, like old computers, are worth a quarter of their original price to turn in. Well, it's better than nothing.

Weaponry. Ah, now we're talking. Starships get weapons, of course. We've got a whopping four options here. Pulse lasers, beam lasers, missile launchers, and...sandcasters. What the hell is a sandcaster? Does it...wait, seriously? It literally shoots a canister of sand? So, it's like chaff for lasers, then? And disrupts missiles as well? And ships flying through it? That's some impressive sand.

The other weapons are pretty bog-standard sci-fi material. Pulse lasers are your typical X-Wing blasts, with short bursts. Beam lasers are like Star Trek phasers, with a longer duration (and more damage). Missile launchers do what you figure they do. There are four different kinds of missiles, which we'll learn about later. Again, the weapons are expensive; the sandcaster is the cheapest, at a quarter-million credits. The pulse laser is half a million, the missile launcher (missiles not included) is three-quarters, and the beam laser is the big boy at a flat million credits. The sandcaster, like the missile launcher, uses expendable ammo. We'll learn about that later, too.

So, another packed page with some interesting stuff to add to starships. I assume we'll get a table of some sort to summarize all these costs. Next up...the crew!

Why History Rules

I know I've been looking at a lot of science fiction-related stuff lately (including my Bard Conley book), but there's a reason I decided to major in history for my long-delayed university degree.

And that reason is because history rules.

Not all history, mind you; some of it is quite boring. 99% of Canada's history comes to mind. We really didn't do much. No big wars, relatively low crime rate (compared to our southern neighbor, anyway), and we didn't even do Prohibition, which led to some exciting times in the States.

I'm sure I'll get snarls from Canadians who think our history is awesome; bring it on. We're just not that interesting. The exploration stuff is great, and the scenery is beautiful, but as a nation, we just haven't done all that much.

Still, I'm starting to focus in on what history is really the best. The Crusades, of course, are a fantastic period to study. But the two courses I'm working on right now (The Gilded Age, which inspired another book of mine, and Latin American History from 1850 to today) made me realize just what parts of history are really the most fascinating.

It's the exploration of strange new lands, the seeking out of new life and unknown civilizations, and the drive to go where no man has gone before.

Yeah, there's a reason Star Trek still endures, even in its mutated current forms. Gene Roddenberry knew what he was doing with that tag line. We are, as a race, driven to do exactly that. And the Age of Exploration, from about 1450 to 1850, is as good as it got. Think about it: in that period, Europeans discovered three new continents, circumnavigated the globe, founded dozens of new colonies, and explored almost every square inch of the planet. The poles would take a while longer, but all the inhabitable stuff was figured out.

And now, we've run out of places to explore. On land, at least. And except for a few dreamers and conspiracy theorists, nobody expects to find Atlantis under the oceans. Space really is the final frontier, and if we ever figure out warp drive or hyperspeed, I'm sure we'll find some pretty awesome stuff out there.

But for now, we're stuck here on Earth. Not that it's a bad place; it's pretty sweet, really. I just took my son out back of the barn on our new farm so we could look up at the first truly clear night we've had since we arrived. And man, those stars were beautiful to look at. Thousands of them, all over the place. We also saw Mars, which is the closest place we haven't been to yet. Someday we'll get there.

In the meantime, though, there's lots of exciting history to read about. I'm going to get back to that. And maybe write something about it.

Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 14

 Ah, it's good to be back. When last we met, we were discussing the joys of the bridge and how much space Traveller's computers take up. We move on to other parts of the main compartment, starting with staterooms.

These are pretty straightforward, and pretty expensive; it costs half a million credits to put in a single stateroom, and it takes up 4 tons of space. These are for high and middle passengers, as well as the crew. Military and exploratory ships can double up on occupancy, but other ships have to have one room per crew member.

Low Passage...ugh. These berths only cost 50,000 credits each, and only take up half a ton of space. There's also a note that they can be used as cryo-storage for characters in an emergency when there's no rescue or medical assistance handy. Yeah, I'm still not doing it. That 5+ to survive still rankles.

Fuel. Yes, a ship does need a gas tank. Interestingly, there's no actual cost for the fuel storage tank, but you still need to allocate the space in the available tonnage. This will help determine the ship's range and frequency of refuelling.

Cargo Hold. Like the fuel tank, there's no intrinsic cost to the cargo space allotted. You just have to indicate how much space will be used for cargo and not for other things, like weapons.

Which happen to be next. Hardpoints are where your gun turrets are installed, and the ship can have one hardpoint for each 100 tons of hull displacement. Just setting up a hardpoint costs 100,000 credits, not including the actual weapon system.

The turrets can hold up to three weapons systems apiece, and the weapons don't all have to be the same kind. That's nice; if an enemy is invulnerable to one weapon, you can use a different one from the same turret. It's pricey, of course; 200,000 for a single-weapon turret, 500,000 for a double, and a straight million for a triple. Regardless of the number of weapons, the turret only takes up one ton of displacement. You can, if you wish, allocate cargo hold tonnage to the turret. I'm not sure why you'd do that, but maybe you're running short on space at this point. Those drives take up a lot of tonnage, after all.

Each turret has its own private gunner, who is part of the crew and gets a salary. I guess if he can handle three different weapons systems, he deserves a bonus.

Hardpoints have to be assigned when the ship is designed, but turrets can be installed later if money is an issue (and how will it not be, at these prices?). They can even be changed out later on if the weapons get damaged or obsolete. Weapons, however, can't be included in the ship plans and specs; they're always installed later. I would assume that you'd still have to pay the full price for the replacement turret, but that's not specifically mentioned. Maybe a discount would be in order, since it's just a matter of swapping hardware. Then again, you're already doing that when you install the turret in the first place.

The joys of old-school; there are a lot of grey areas in the rules.

And that's all the essential stuff (even for a merchant ship, there's got to be at least one turret for self-defense; too many space pirates out there). Next up: Optional components.

We get a brief introduction, which tells us that some of these components must be installed when the hull is laid down, and others can be included later on, even if the ship is decades old. But as to what those optional components might be...that will have to wait until the next page.

Finally!

Well, that took longer than I expected...

We arrived a day later than we'd planned, but we're here! This small hobby farm is now our small hobby farm. We're stuck in quarantine until next Monday afternoon, but we're here! We were supposed to have our internet installed before we got here, but it didn't happen until today. So, I'm now three weeks behind on most of my studies. Piece of cake.

We're all tired and such from unpacking, but I didn't want to not make a blog post. It's been almost two weeks, after all, and I'm sure my readers (not that there are many) missed my incisive wit and sharp reasoning. Or, for the most part, they just want more Traveller stuff. That will happen tomorrow.

For now, though, it's just a note to say I'm back, and I'll be blogging regularly again. Internet on a farm isn't very fast, but it doesn't have to be to upload a blog post. I'll also be getting back to writing once I've gotten myself somewhat caught up on my studies, too. I'm really, really behind. On a lot of things. But it feels good to be writing anything again.

So, this is Prince Edward Island, and I'm very happy to be here. The trip here wasn't exactly filled with joy, and we were very cranky when we finally got here last Tuesday. The last day was especially unpleasant; thanks to the 'Atlantic travel bubble' that the Maritime provinces have installed, I felt like I was travelling to PEI with a detour through East Germany, circa 1973. "May we see your papers, please?" Seriously, it was like that.

If I feel like reliving the pain, I'll write up a summary of our trip and post it; things definitely didn't go as expected, or as intended. But, at least we're here. And that will be good enough.