Condottiere
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If you reflect that far back, you can detect some spaceship design tropes, usually for exterior illustrations.
Though I'm not sure where Scout came from.
Though I'm not sure where Scout came from.
Vote Your Canon #3: The Gazelle (consensus: yes, but problems noted)
- Thread starter robject
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I think the scout was always around. Keith's sketches were in Starter and The Traveller Book. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the Beowulf predates the scout with Dark Nebula ...at least that's what I recall.
Either way the Gazelle is fine with me. I didn't like it's initial look with the bubble canopy for the cockpit, but the MT era drawings make it look more "starship like".
Either way the Gazelle is fine with me. I didn't like it's initial look with the bubble canopy for the cockpit, but the MT era drawings make it look more "starship like".
With some of the ships what came first, LLB had the descriptions, The Traveller Book had drawings, and the deck plans came later. So did the drawings influence the deck plans, or were the deck plans out there somewhere and they influenced the drawings?
That sounds right, but didn't Snapshot come before the Traveller Book? I can't remember as I got both at about the same time. The scout deck plans, or a version of them and the Beowulf were both in Snapshot FWIR.
Yes.
RV's in Spaaaaaaaaace!
Yes, I had players even deflate and take a low tech dirigible or their freighter, just because they could.
I was thinking with all the Books, Adventures, Double Adventures, and Supplements they could have come up with a nicer deck plan for the Type A. It's almost like they went out of their way not to put it in one of the above books. I had forgotten that on the back of the Snapshot box they named the Free Trader in the game Beowulf.
They might have believed that since they'd already done one deck plan for it, the layout was locked in. (And those who didn't like it were free to come up with something better on their own.)
It could be that, but they still changed the Type S scout in S7. The Type A in the Starship Operator's Manual, Vol. 1 Is what I think it would have looked if they updated the Type A deck plans like they did with the Scout.
The way I understand it they went with the design in Judges Guild "Starships & Spacecraft".
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Maybe Judges Guild borrowed from the same source.
Though it looks more like a capsule.
The scoutship as a concept in science fiction seems a common trope, manned by a single crewman.
Though it looks more like a capsule.
The scoutship as a concept in science fiction seems a common trope, manned by a single crewman.
there are also a lot of fan renderings making it part of a larger ship. And that front escape hatch access is a lot like the avionics crawlway
Condottiere
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I've seen more that are 2-3 man scoutships, but yes, I've seen some one-man scouts. Mostly in Niven's Known Space setting and in Star Wars.
And a 2-4 man scout is far better for RPG play than a 1-man....
Star Trek's shuttles have 2 seats, but can be flown by 1, save the smallest shuttlepods.
The runabouts are pretty comparable to a modular cutter with FTL.
Cyrano Jones was operating a 1-man scoutship, as was Harry Mudd. But Mudd had room for passengers (see Mudd's Women).
Most Star Wars 1-man scouts have an astromech. The most notable single operator without astromech is the SFS one, which is clearly modified from a TIE/sh. Most Hyperspace capable fighters can be used in a scout role... Star Wars draws a lot from the same sources as Traveller... the parallels aren't mere coincidence.
The Scoutship from Planet of the Apes was 2 man.
Dark Star was 4 man and a walking beach ball.
The Space 1889 Eagle was flown with a 1-2 man crew in a 2 man cockpit.
Armed fighters are larger... but the toy line noted that an eagle cockpit with an eagle engine cluster was a great scout Eagle.
Based upon the playset, the Starbird would have a crew of around 3-8. (Figures were about 28-30mm) I don't recall the packaging specifying crew, tho'.
Actually a 5 man crew:
- The Dead Commander
- The Three guys in the main crew section
- The One guy who spent all his time up in the observation/astrogation dome dreaming about the Phoenix Asteroids.
But a scout with a 1-man crew can be played by a single player without needing NPCs, if one player is all you have.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I suppose it depends on which version of Planet of the Apes:
"Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge awaken from deep hibernation after a near-light-speed space voyage. Stewart, the lone female crew member, is dead due to a sleep chamber malfunction."
or
"The spaceship is crewed by three astronauts, one of whom has died in the crash."
either way its more than 2.
"Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge awaken from deep hibernation after a near-light-speed space voyage. Stewart, the lone female crew member, is dead due to a sleep chamber malfunction."
or
"The spaceship is crewed by three astronauts, one of whom has died in the crash."
either way its more than 2.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Single manned scoutships might be a pulp conceit, possibly as far back as Triplanetary; since Smith is something you read once only, I might be misremembering.
Next of Kin, also known as The Space Willies, is a science fiction comic novel by English writer Eric Frank Russell. It is the story of a military misfit who successfully conducts a one-man psychological warfare operation against an alien race, with whom humans and allied races are at war ... John Leeming is every sergeant's worst nightmare — immune to discipline and punishment, and given to random acts of defiance, such as wearing his cap backwards on parade for no particular reason. Thus when a mission to fly a prototype spaceship behind enemy lines comes up, he is the ideal candidate to fly it.
Next of Kin, also known as The Space Willies, is a science fiction comic novel by English writer Eric Frank Russell. It is the story of a military misfit who successfully conducts a one-man psychological warfare operation against an alien race, with whom humans and allied races are at war ... John Leeming is every sergeant's worst nightmare — immune to discipline and punishment, and given to random acts of defiance, such as wearing his cap backwards on parade for no particular reason. Thus when a mission to fly a prototype spaceship behind enemy lines comes up, he is the ideal candidate to fly it.
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