Starship

Starship: An interstellar vehicle: A spacecraft which has a jump drive and can cross interstellar space. Contrast with spaceship and Small craft.

Line Combatants (Primary - Capital)				Escort Combatants (Secondary - Subcapital)				Military Auxiliary (Tertiary)
B- Battleship	C- Cruiser	O- Ortillery	V- Carrier	D- Destroyer	E- Escort	F- Fighter	H- Defense/Security	I- Combat Transport	Q- Combat Support	S- Scout	U- Utility	X- Commo	Z- Special

Mercantile Commercial Ships (Trade & Profit)				Non-Mercantile Commercial Ships (Industry & Profit)					Non-Commercial Ships (Nonprofit)			System Craft (Intrastellar)
A- Tramp	M- Freighter	R- Liner	T- Transport	G- Industrial	J- Prospector	K- Expedition	P- Corsair	U- Utility	L- Science	N- Medical	Y- Private	WB- Barge	WA- Satellite	WO- Space Station

Background (Dossier)

Ship Construction: Space ships are constructed and sold at shipyards throughout the galaxy. Any Class A Starport has a shipyard which can build any kind of ship, including a starship with jump drives; any Class B Starport can build a small craft or ships which do not have jump drives. The military procures vessels through these yards, corporations buy their commercial vessels from these shipyards, and private individuals can purchase ships that they have designed through them as well. The major restriction on the purchase of ships is money.

Ship Construction (Naval Architecture)

Most vessels are constructed from standard design plans which use time-tested designs and combinations of features. Shipyards work from these plans which cover every detail of construction and assembly. Construction times are measured in months, with larger ships generally taking longer to complete.

Naval Architecture

Small design corporations can produce design plans for any vessel type once given the details of what is desired. The design procedure is followed to determine what is available and allowed, and the results are presented to the naval architect firm. They produce a detailed set of design plans in about four weeks for a price of 1% of the final ship cost; they can be hurried to finish the job in two weeks if paid 1.5%. Once the design plans are received, the shipyard may be commissioned to produce the vessel desired.

Standard Designs:

There are a number of standard design plans available; they have been in use for a long time, and are available for a nominal fee (Cr100 for the set).

Standard starship plans available are:

1. 100-ton Scout/Courier
2. 200-ton Free Trader
3. 200-ton Yacht
4. 400-ton Subsidized Merchant
5. 600-ton Subsidized Liner
6. 800-ton Mercenary Cruiser
7. 400-ton Patrol Cruiser

Standard plans are also available for the following small craft:

1. 10-ton Fighter
2. 20-ton Launch
3. 30-ton Ship's Boat
4. 30-ton Slow Boat
5. 40-ton Pinnace
6. 40-ton Slow Pinnace
7. 50-ton Cutter
8. 95-ton Shuttle

Other standard plans may be available at various localities. Standard designs are easier to produce; their prices reflect a 10% reduction in normal pricing. The details of the standard designs are shown at the end of this chapter. Standard design vessels are often available used (10 to 40 years old) at reductions in price ranging from 10% to 40%, as indicated by the shipyard.

Ship Financing

Costs & Payments:

A shipyard will insist upon a 20% down payment with the order for the vessel, as well as requiring a demonstration that proper financing is available to cover the balance when due.

Starships are designed to carry people from one star system to another, for the purposes of exploration, survey, trade, patrol, raiding, tracking, information gathering, conquest... in a word, adventure. Typically, starships have a large percentage of their volume dedicated to fuel, because the jump drive requires a huge investment in energy to transition to jumpspace. This limits the available space for other uses, severely in the case of ships able to jump long distances, or rejump repeatedly (which is a lifesaver if you can afford the space). Some ships greatly enhance capacity without sacrificing safety by mounting external tanks to the ship known as droptanks.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. Starships (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), TBD.
• John Harshman, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. Library Data (N-Z) (Game Designers Workshop, 1982), TBD.
• Loren Wiseman. "Starship Malfunctions." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 15 (1983): 16-26.
• Loren Wiseman. "Sublight Drives." Challenge 72 (1994): TBD.
• Robert Prior. 101 Starships (BITS, 2002), TBD.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), TBD.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science