Starship Construction
The rules for construction of starships are contained in Books 2 and 5 of Classic Traveller
Starship Expenses
Fuel: Starship fuel costs 500Cr per ton (refined) or l00Cr per ton (unrefined), at most starports. Fuel consumption is based on formulae related to the size of the Jump drive
Life Support: Each stateroom on a starship involves an overhead cost of Cr1000 per week. Each occupied low passage berth involves an overhead cost of Cr100 per usage. There is a normal limit of one person per stateroom, travelling couples or groups usually taking adjoining staterooms. Military vessels or chartered ships may be used with a double occupancy system (two persons per stateroom), but this requires twice the normal cost.
Routine Maintenance: Annually, a starship should be given a complete overhaul in order to insure that it is kept in good working order. Such maintenance costs 0.1% (1/1000th) of the cash price of the ship, and requires two weeks at a class A or B Starport. The owner must make provision for payment of the maintenance fee when it comes due. Crew members generally take their vacations at this time, but must still be paid. The ship owners must make provision for the expected loss of revenue while the ship is out of service.
Crew Salaries. Crew members must be paid monthly. Non-player characters must be paid using the standard crew salary schedule (with suitable modifications for expertise or seniority, generally +10 % for each level of expertise above D4 on their primary skill).
Interplanetary travel: Travel time is based on Acceleration. Use the Typical Travel Time table from classic Traveller. Interstellar travel: Is based on jump capability as per classic Traveller.
Space Combat
Space combat in Savage Traveller is based solely on the Chases and Dogfights rules (pages 104-105 Savage Worlds). However, since Traveller tries to mimic real world physics and the fact that Space is so vastly incredibly huge, many aspects of Chases and Dogfights are not applicable. As well, tables for Out of Control, Critical Hits and Maneuvers needed to be adapted to reflect spaceship combat. For example, the chance of a collision in space, unless during docking/undocking or flying through asteroids, is so slim as to be inconsequential. Spinning a starship means next to nothing. The only really important aspects are Acceleration, Distance, Weapons and Defenses.
During combat, spaceships are using their maneuver to close or open range on opponents, match speed or attempt to flee. Spaceships cannot outrun ships with greater acceleration then them, and the best they can do is keep pace with ships with equal acceleration. The initiative and position rules help to abstractly represent the three dimensional nature of space combat. In reality, ships may start combat facing any directions and at any conceivable speed. Ships do not have a maximum speed outside the presence of gravity or an atmosphere. The only aspects of their maneuvers that affect combat are the distances.
Adjustments to Chases and Dogfight rules
Time: Rounds in are approximately 15 minutes. During this time the ships are accelerating/ decelerating, making minute changes in movement for defence and firing timed precise volleys of lasers, missiles, etc.
Range Increments: The range increments for space battles is fixed at 10,000 Km.
Speed: Speed is represented by Acceleration in Gs. Treat each G difference in acceleration as a 10" difference in top speed would be treated. Therefore +1 to Piloting rolls for each step of difference.
Attacks: All weapons are considered turret mounted. Only small fighter's lasers and huge spinal mount guns are forward facing. Larger ships will have their turrets and bay weapons organized into batteries that increase the damage on a successful hit.
Due to the incredible ranges in space, in the tens of thousands of km, the size of a ship has little effect on attacks. Add a bonus of +2 to the Shooting roll only when attacking ships that are 100,000 tons or greater in size.
Damage: An Out of control result in space combat leaves the ships spinning until a successful Piloting roll is made. All shots are at - 2 while out of control. The Piloting roll to regain control is made at the start of each round.
Each wound result on a damage roll scores a hit on the Surface Damage table. For every four full wounds of damage from a successful hit, roll instead on the Critical Damage table. The damage is applied to the specific ships system in question reducing its effectiveness.
Crew
Crew Salaries. Crew members must be paid monthly. Non-player characters must be paid using the standard crew salary schedule (with suitable modifications for expertise or seniority, generally +10 % for each level of expertise above D4 on their primary skill).
Recruiting Crew. Replacement crew is available on any world with a tech level of 8 or greater. To find acceptable crew (i.e. trained, hardworking, mostly loyal) refer to the table below.
A broker can be used to recruit new crew at a faster rate. However this will take one week per twenty crew required, and cost 10% of the one month’s salary for the number of crew recruited.
Handling is a modifier, either positive or negative, to a pilot’s Piloting roll. It represents how manoeuvrable a ship is. First, every ship starts with a base Handling score. Small ships have +1, Medium +0, Large –1, Huge –2, and Gargantuan –3. Big ships don’t turn fast.
Some things may alter this score: atmosphere, speed, alien technology etc
Standard Software Packages: Each computer comes with a standard software package of programs for use with the equipment. Because each computer may be used differently, this package consists of a credit in Mcr equal to the model number of the computer (treat 1bis and 2bis as 1 and 2 respectively). This credit may not be converted to cash.
Military version of software are rated one level higher ( ie Evade 2 (M) has the same effect as Evade 3 but uses less CPU)
Starship Toughness
Extra Internal Armour can be added to, or removed from, any vessel over 100 tons
Ship Size
Surface Damage table
A damaged ship can make a jump equal to the lowest of its Computer, Jump drive, or Power Plant rating. A ship can never jump a distance greater than its normal maximum jump capability.
100 Ton Scout/Courier (Streamlined)
Manoeuvre: 2G; Power plant: 2; Jump: 2; Computer: 2 Obis)
Cargo: 0 tons; Fuel: 40 tons; Crew: 1 Defences: None
Toughness vs.:
Energy and Missile: 130 (110)
Meson Beams: 20
Nuclear Warheads: 130 (110)
Weapons:
1 Double Beam Laser Turret (factor-2) (Range: 3/6/12; Damage: Sd10+4, AP 100)
Craft: 1 Air/Raft
200 Free Trader (Streamlined)
Manoeuvre: 1 G; Power plant: 1; Jump: 1; Computer: 1
Cargo: 82 tons; Fuel: 30 tons; Crew: 4 Defences: None
Toughness vs.:
Energy and Missile: 130 (110)/Sand146 (126)
Meson Beams: 20
Nuclear Warheads: 130 (110) Weapons:
1 Triple Pulse Laser Turret (factor-2)
Range: 2/4/8; Damage: Sd10+4, AP 110)
1 Triple Sandcaster Turret (factor-6) (adds 16
armour vs. Energy and Missile) Craft: None
30,000 Ton Light Cruiser
Maneuver: SG; Power plant: 9; Jump: 5;
Computer: 9fib
Cargo: 0; Fuel: 17,000; Crew: 210; Passengers:
20 Marines
Defenses: Nuclear Damper (factor-9), 8
Sandcaster batteries (factor 4)
Toughness vs.:
Energy and Missile: 140 (120) / Sand 152 (132)
Meson Beams: 20
Nuclear Warheads: 170 (150)
Weapons:
Spinal Meson Gun (factor-J) (Range: 6/12/-; Damage: 10d10+8 Notes: Ignores Armour other than Meson screens.) 20 Missile Batteries (factor-6) (Range: 3/6/12; Damage: 6d10+8 AP 100) 5 Beam Laser Batteries (factor-8) (Range: 3/6/12; Damage: Sd10+4, AP 120) 3 Fusion Gun Batteries (factor-5) (Range: 2/4/8; Damage: Sd10+4, AP 120)
Craft: 5x50 Ton Cutters