After years of starting a Traveller novel and stopping after I get 1 or 2 chapters written, (I have at least 3 different starts on my computer.) I am trying again while recuperating from surgery, This one is about a subsidized merchant liner (600 ton J2) operated in the Imperium section of Villis. I intend it to be an introduction to Traveller for sf readers who may not know about Traveller by including footnotes and sidebars to deal with Traveller-specific information. However, it needs to be a good story even if the reader isn't interested in Traveller. To that end, I am looking for any official OTU information published about the Villis subsector. Plotline: The captain is approached by an agent of Al Mora to transport some urgently needed cargo to Lanth. Al Mora will install a collapsible fuel tank that will allow the trader to make the run from Frenzie in less than half the time Al Mora can transport it on their own ships. I have some other big details planned, but I am not publishing them here.
OTU Only: Searching for OTU information on Villis sector
- Thread starter JAFARR
- Start date
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
The stock 'n' standard 600 ton Liner is J3 and TL=11 minimum required for J-class drives.
MAP (link)
A stock 'n' standard 600 ton Subsidized Liner with J3 can transit from Frenzie to Lanth in just 2 jumps ... Frenzie (J3) Ficant (J3) Lanth. Only way to make that trip "shorter" would be to use a J6 ship.
If the ship has a "downgraded" jump drive (limited to J2), but still has 3 parsecs of jump fuel capacity ... Frenzie (J2+1) Ficant (J2+1) Lanth.
Your description of "urgently needed cargo" essentially turns this into a "race against time" to make the delivery setup, so taking the "long way around" at J2 by way of ...
Frenzie (J2) Garda-Vilis (J1) Vilis (J2) Saurus (J2) Tavonni (J2) Lanth
... for a 5 jumps transit would seem to be decidedly at odds with a 4 jump (or better yet, 2 jump!) transit from Frenzie to Lanth via Ficant.
Were you intending for this to be a "short story" that basically only involves 2 jumps (or merely a single "stopover" star system while en route)?
The references section of the Vilis Subsector article in the wiki has a list of most or all of the Canon information available.
You could do a 400Td Subsidized Merchant (Type R) with Jump-2/2G and no other changes to the canon deck plans -- the canonical design has an oversized drive bay, likely for just that purpose.
Villis Subsector is a nice choice for a setting. You've got the Swordies and Joes right there, and the Darrians practically next door.
Best luck!
As has been pointed out, this is not a standard plan ship. I assume that Al Mora ships operate along the marked route that goes into the Regina subsector and then back to Lanth. By using a J2 with a collapsible tank to add enough fuel for a third jump. The route I plan to use is Frenze to Arkadia for wilderness refuel, then on to Ficantfor another wilderness refuel. The next stop is hex 808 to transfer fuel from the collapsible tank. (first big event takes place as the jump is being initiated to Lanth. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
That's for their 3000 ton J4 World-class transports that carry bulk cargo shipments around the Spinward Marches.
Smaller ships carry cargoes "off" those main trunk lines to nearby worlds ... kind of like how Scout/Couriers carry communications to worlds off the Express Network.
For the purpose of my story, there are none available at Frenzie at the present time. The subsidized merchant liner happens to be in the right place at the right time for Al Mora to offer this deal. The present discussion has provided me an idea of exactly what those badly needed supplies actually are: hi-tech repair parts from Darrian, for one of their ships used by a megacorp executive that happens to be stranded at Lanth due to a sabotage attempt by a competitor.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
Not to (gratuitously) poke holes in your premise, but ... if it's honestly a question of getting "high tech parts" to Lanth, the superior option would be to make a run from Rhylanor/Rhylanor to Lanth/Lanth instead. Rhylanor is basically 4 jumps away from Lanth and can provide TL=15 supplies and is on the main route(s) for Al Morai. Trying to get "high tech parts" from Vilis subsector is like digging a hole in oceanfront beach sand in an effort to reach fresh water.
In other words, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense under renewed scrutiny.
What you really need (plot-wise, that is) is something "local" to Frenzie that couldn't be obtained anywhere else easily/cheaply which needs to be transferred from Frenzie to Lanth with all possible haste/speed.
In the context of Al Morai as a shipping line, perhaps the single most valuable thing that could be transmitted would be what amounts to ... "Market Research" ... that essentially winds up being (interstellar) insider trading (we know of market opportunities before anyone else, so we get there first).
With something as unique (and ephemeral) as "trade secrets" information, there is going to be a shelf life/sell by date for any information to be useful. Take too long and you've missed the opportunity.
So an alternative proposition for you is that there is going to be a "market opportunity" somewhere (doesn't have to be Frenzie specifically) where there's going to be a nice fat contract for goods going to tender in the next 4 months or so and an Al Morai "trade spy" has gotten an insider tip on what is going to be needed (insert commodity items here). The cargo to transport is going to be a collection of sample options from potential competitors "within range" who could bid to supply for the contract locally. This then gives Al Morai what they need in terms of "here's what the competition has to offer" once the contract gets put out for tender. That way, Manufacturing Supply & Research can not only have a "superior" offering delivered in time to meet the contract, relative to the locals, but also arrange for deliveries on a timetable that even the locals can't match (because Al Morai got advance notice and moved pre-emptively to squeeze out the competition).
Sort of an insider trading/industrial espionage slant on things, that provides insight into the lengths that a Megacorp goes to in order to squeeze out competition and monopolize markets. The VALUABLE thing is the information being sent. The PROOF that the information is valid is in the samples of what competitors could deliver if they don't get advance notice like Al Morai's "contract spies" were able to get. The SHIP is simply the means to accomplish the goal of transmitting that information and that "competing sample" cargo so that Al Morai will know exactly what they're up against so as to be able to undercut the competition on quality, price and delivery times (not too much, but just enough to win the contract that is up for grabs).
How does that sound to you?
The reason for the trip is just a gimmick to get the ship to a specific location ie hex 0808 in Villis subsector. I want the story to be true to Traveller and easy enough for someone who wants to just enjoy a good storyline without being a "mental contortionist" to follow. I like your spend on the Megacorp, but it comes across as something for seasoned Traveller players rather than a casual reader of science fiction. It reminds me of my first exposure to wargamers. I was newly moved into my first home and looking for something to do. Not being interested in bar hopping, I was strolling through the mall and discovered a game store. To shorten the story, I met someone who invited me to his gaming group to try war gaming. Imagine my surprise when I went to join them the next Saturday and found out that they were in the middle of a game that combined 2 of Avalon Hill"s highly detailed games called War in the East & War in the West to try to make a game of WWII. In about 3 hours of playing, I think we completed 2 turns. This thing was set up on 2 full-sized sheets of plywood in his garage and they expected to maybe finish it before Christmas. This was in early spring. Needless to say, I was completely out of my league.
As you pointed out my idea would not necessarily make sense for Traveller. Suppose I do something like Al Mora has an agent and some cargo that he or she needs to get to Lanth ASAP, for unspecified reasons, and they currently do not have any means avaliable at Frenzie at the present time other than the regularly scheduled route service ships. The subsidized merchant liner and her crew have earned a trustworthy reputation within the Villis mercantile community and happen to be in port to receive the offer.
Does that seem to fit the bill?
.
As you pointed out my idea would not necessarily make sense for Traveller. Suppose I do something like Al Mora has an agent and some cargo that he or she needs to get to Lanth ASAP, for unspecified reasons, and they currently do not have any means avaliable at Frenzie at the present time other than the regularly scheduled route service ships. The subsidized merchant liner and her crew have earned a trustworthy reputation within the Villis mercantile community and happen to be in port to receive the offer.
Does that seem to fit the bill?
.
My only concern is that it's not clear to me how much freedom and flexibility a Subsidized Merchant has to go wherever they want. The primary goal of the subsidy is to service a specific route/market. While there's nothing "stopping" the crew from "doing whatever", there should certainly be consequences, notable consequences, for going off the reservation.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
There are things the Author needs to know, so as to keep the story internally consistent ... and there are things the Reader needs to know so they can follow the story and have events make sense. It's alright to have details "in the background" that the Author declines to reveal, but which can be inferred from how events play out during the course of the story.
If your intent is to have some "precipitating event" at Vilis hex 0808 (deep space between Ficant and Lanth on the subsector border), from a story perspective, that's an easy one.
The ship is J3 capable.
The ship makes a J3 transit from Frenzie to Ficant.
The ship makes an ocean refueling stop (no gas giant), maneuvers away to a jump point ... tries to initiate J3 ... and the drive aborts and shuts down (safely) without initiating jump.
Cue engineering scramble to figure out what went wrong.
Crew determines that their jump drive alignment has been degraded (somehow, detailed explanation not required) such that the ship is only capable of J2, not J3 until they can get shipyard repairs ... which they can do at Lanth (where they're going).
The jump abort used a lot of fuel, so the ship wilderness refuels at the Ficant ocean again (just to be safe), maneuvers away to a new jump point ... and successfully initiates J2 to deep space with sufficient fuel onboard (ship is J3 capable) for a followup J1 to get to Lanth from deep space.
That then puts your ship and crew in Vilis hex 0808 like you were trying to get to.
Such a formulation also has the benefit of throwing "a little bad luck" at the crew before getting there, such that what should have been a ~2 week job is now turning into more of a 3-4 week job, with all the extra downtime at Ficant and the engineering crew being "on edge" needing to babysit the jump drive until reaching their final destination (because if it goes down completely, everyone onboard is dead). Best case scenario would be a misjump to an inhabited system where they could be rescued, but that would be a pretty dire outcome. Point being that once there's the mishap at Ficant you've got your crew biting nails and hoping they can make it to Lanth.
I wrote that from a "the Author needs to know what's happening in the background" perspective, rather than it being something that the Reader (let alone the ship's crew) needs to know about or be told explicitly. Even if that level of detail doesn't appear within the story itself (explicitly), if the story is written well a knowing Reader who reads between the lines could figure out more (simply by knowing Traveller as a setting) and have an added layer of appreciation for what you're doing in your story. That way, the megacorp backstory details are essentially kept "behind the curtain" but the Author needs to know those details in order to make events line up properly in a coherent way for the rest of the story to unfold within.
It's kind of like shadow puppets in that regard. You need to know how to position your hands in relation to the light so as to be able to make the shadows on the wall present the images that you're intending to make.
In the context of the story, unspecified reasons are the best option ... largely because it then leads to the inevitable speculation (both by the Readers and by the crew within the story) as to what those reasons might be. A lack of certainty/omniscience is definitely an Author's friend on this point.
It's okay for the Author to know why ... but you're under no obligation to share that with either the ship's crew or the Readers. Just like with an adventure, sometimes there is more fun to be had from the guessing game than there is from having the answer handed to you on a silver platter.
Which will "take too long" for a time sensitive/perishable delivery of {fill in the blank}.
"Yeah, we can ship your fresh fruit for you. We can have that delivered in 8 weeks. [...] What do you mean that's not good enough for you?"
Basically, the ship used in this case would be an "alternative route" that needs to be hired on a "hurry up" basis. Could even do it as an interstellar charter if you wanted to "book the whole ship" for this particular job. The contract could even be for 2 jumps worth of charter booking (J3+J3) from Frenzie to Lanth ... which winds up not being exactly what happens, but that would be the setup at Frenzie for the booking.
It's certainly sufficient to kick off many an adventure in Traveller.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
A (subsidized) Subsidized Merchant is contractually obligated to spend 70% of each year serving the mainworlds designated in their subsidy contract. That basically gives a subsidized ship about 15-16 weeks per year where they can be "off route" for whatever reason.
Also consider that a subsidy for a J3 ship to regularly service Vilis (industrial), Frenzie (capital), Ficant (stopover) and Lanth (capital) (4 systems) would basically mean having a 2 jump link between subsector capitals (Frenzie and Lanth) which would be even faster than what you can get out of the Express Network (Lanth, Ghandi, Denotam, Frenzie), so if the subsidy includes Mail service it starts making even more sense. Of course, subsidies can include 2-12 star systems within their contractual subsidy, so there it plenty of opportunity to add more systems to that list, such as Garda-Vilis and Saurus for trade networking reasons.
However my point is that subsidized vessels ARE ALLOWED to "go off the reservation" for a while (up to 16 weeks/4 months per year) without breaking the terms of their contract. It's when you STAY "off the reservation" for longer than that time span that you start running into trouble.
My understanding from something I remember reading somewhere in the older GDW published literature implied that subsidized merchant crews could even accumulate that 30% off the subsidized route. In fact, that publication even had the patron supplying the adventurers with a collapsible fuel tank as part of the incentive to take the job. Haven't yet been able to find that article in my review of my physical and electronic Traveller library.
My idea of the subsidized merchant being designed for J2 vs J3 was to increase the cargo and/or stateroom space by not having to use as much space for fuel storage. I intended to include mail service, but I overlooked Spinward Flow's capital-to-capital part of the route and then initiating a mishap to necessitate the stop in 0808. I'll have to consider that wrinkle.
I also forgot that I posted what is going to happen in 0808 in a moot post back in Jan. They receive an automated message at the same time they are initiating a jump to Lanth from one of the lost-in-service High Lighting class ships to the effect that they were stranded there due to a miss-jump.
My idea of the subsidized merchant being designed for J2 vs J3 was to increase the cargo and/or stateroom space by not having to use as much space for fuel storage. I intended to include mail service, but I overlooked Spinward Flow's capital-to-capital part of the route and then initiating a mishap to necessitate the stop in 0808. I'll have to consider that wrinkle.
I also forgot that I posted what is going to happen in 0808 in a moot post back in Jan. They receive an automated message at the same time they are initiating a jump to Lanth from one of the lost-in-service High Lighting class ships to the effect that they were stranded there due to a miss-jump.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
Problem with that is, you really aren't saving that much space by downgrading the drive (J3 to J2) while retaining the fuel fraction (3 parsecs needed). The advantage of a 2+1 parsec range via collapsible fuel tank is that when you don't need a full 3 parsecs of range you can carry more cargo.
However, with the scenario you've outlined of a time sensitive "rush" delivery from Frenzie to Lanth, there isn't the opportunity to "laze around for a week" scaring up cargo to ship from Ficant to Lanth. If anything, the client (the Al Morai patron, basically) ought to be chartering the ship to make the delivery so the crew can get from here to there as rapidly as possible.
Trick question.
How long were you expecting that High Lightning to "survive" with crew in such a situation?
How about with all crew dead but the power plant still providing minimal power so such a transmission could be made?
Is the High Lightning basically down to battery power with the crew "long since dead" so you're looking at a salvage situation?
If you misjump a High Lightning class ship into Vilis 0808 hex, the misjump alone will basically drain the fuel tanks.
No fuel, no power plant.
No power plant, no life support (or at least, not enough to last long enough for a rescue).
Even at "powered down" minimal power, a High Lightning is going to require 150 tons of fuel PER WEEK for its power plant. No sub-1000 ton ship is going to have sufficient fuel reserves (especially after a J2 with another J1 needed) to "donate" enough fuel to the HIgh Lightning to help extend their endurance long enough to jump to Lanth, notify naval assets and get a rescue squadron dispatched to Vilis 0808.
My point being that putting a High Lightning stranded out in deep space after a misjump is "kinda cool" ... but the logistics that result from such a move (by the Author) almost instantly puts any kind of salvage/retrieval effort into the Way Above My Paygrade™ category for any sub-1000 ton starship.
Are you SURE that's what you want to do (as an Author) in your story?
Might not a different "unexpected deep space mystery encounter" of some sort serve your ideas better?
You've identified the space savings! The ship then only needs J-2 fuel in hard tankage.
Carried Type S, perhaps in one of the tanker slots. The necessary fuel would be a rounding error in the AHL tankage. And the big ship can TCS-power-down to get a few months out of the dregs of the tanks.
One option would be to have the High Lighting have found a comet to provide fuel for the ship. The mis-jump mace have broken the jump drive in a way they couldn't fix, but they have fuel for the power plant. There are other reasons why the crew wouldn't survive, but power may not be the sole reason.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
If the High Lightning had a Type-S aboard, it would be able to "self rescue" via the Type-S making a J1 to Lanth. Wouldn't explain what the High Lightning is (still) doing in Vilis 0808 hex when the Subsidized Merchant finds them.
Assuming the "away crew" on the Type-S didn't betray them as part of a setup, of course ...
So, basically a deep space Calibration Point?
The High Lightning would be fuel hungry enough to make that work, but they would need to be sending out MINING CREWS with their tankers in order to collect enough frozen solid as rock ice to bring back to shovel into the power plant. Depending on distance, they might be on the edge of endurance. The High Lightning would have 1G of maneuvering power at "low power" on the power plant, but since they're in deep space they need to HEPLaR burn reaction mass in order to do that, which then increases their fuel burn rate (30 tons of fuel per day per G of maneuver power for a 60 kton starship). That basically more than doubles their 150 tons of fuel burn rate per week just for the power plant to remain operational at minimum power. Essentially, the High Lightning would need to be "quick" about adjusting course to stay within tanker ferry range of the rogue comet they're needing to mine in order to stay alive.
Of course, if the crew is all long since dead due to life support exhaustion, that whole question becomes kind of moot, since the automated distress beacon would be running on what amounts to battery power.
Agreed.
When leadership has this kind of decision making result in such a situation ...
... mutiny is almost inevitable.
My idea is that the mis-jump did not use all the fuel, but did damage the jump drive. No type S on board with which to "self-rescue". My idea is that the engineering crew was able to rig a powered-down configuration to keep the emergency low-births powered along with the passive scan functions set to activate the distress message. They also were able to rig a solar array for whatever small amount of power might be harvested by that means. I assumed that their solar collection is far more advanced than present-day technology.
And as the subsidized merchant is jumping at the time of receipt (I assumed they received it at the last possible time in the jump evolution when they could receive it and not abort the jump.), they will have to choose what their action(s) in response will be while in the jump. Part of the storyline will be those discussions.
Precisely!
BTW, for the remainder of this discussion let's use the following list of abbreviations: the subsidized merchant is named the Villis Clipper, so let "VC" stand for that ship; we all know that "HL" is the lost ship.
And as the subsidized merchant is jumping at the time of receipt (I assumed they received it at the last possible time in the jump evolution when they could receive it and not abort the jump.), they will have to choose what their action(s) in response will be while in the jump. Part of the storyline will be those discussions.
Precisely!
BTW, for the remainder of this discussion let's use the following list of abbreviations: the subsidized merchant is named the Villis Clipper, so let "VC" stand for that ship; we all know that "HL" is the lost ship.
Spinward Flow
Your section marked "Trick Question" was what I had intended to use for the meat of the discussions over what course of action VC's crew would take upon arrival at Lanth.Similar threads
