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.