Bessemer Class Fast Trader

 

Here is the twenty-first, and final, ship in the Traveller community design series using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. I want to thank those who participated for sharing their skills and creativity, and showing how far geomorph-based ships can be pushed with some effort.

While I will no longer be accepting geomorph layouts from the community, I may from time to time add deck plans from my own geomorph-based designs. I started sketching the original geomorphs over ten years ago, and even after all that time I still find them fun to play with. Along the way I've reignited my passion for being a gear head, by creating or assisting with all the High Guard statistics included with the community designed ships. Special thanks to Mongoose Publishing for doing such great work, in particular with the High Guard 2022 Update, Traders and Gunboats, Adventure Class Ships, and the additional alien race High Guard info and ships included with the Aliens of Charted Space series. Its all very inspirational stuff and I highly recommend these works if you are interesting in starship design. 

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of the ship shown above, designed by James Favell. Enjoy!

Ellison Class Far Trader and variants

Original sketch circa 2000

 

I often carry around a pocket sized sketchbook - Moleskine or similar - to capture random ideas, work out whatever problems I'm trying to solve, etc. For Traveller, these sketchbooks are the perfect size for a single deck plan of about 100 dtons. As a result, I've got a couple dozen of these ships deck plans (of varying quality), but they've sat unattended for about a quarter century. These were originally designed using Classic Traveller Book 2 starship construction rules or just sketched off the cuff. I decided to update the design to current Mongoose Traveller High Guard 2022 rules. I hope to do more in the future as time allows.

The class is named after one of my favorite authors, Harlan Ellison, who passed away in 2018. I wanted to do something to commemorate his writing, so all the Ships of the Class names are based on his work. 

Not  everyone gets into smaller ships, given their limits, but I find them endlessly fascinating. So anyway, here's another one to do with as you wish.

Click [HERE] to download a high resolution PDF. 

Doru Class Far Trader

 

Here is the nineteenth in the series of starships, small craft, and vehicles designed by members of the Traveller community using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. This series invites players and referees to test their skills as a Naval Architect, to design and share their unique geomorph-based creations, and join in showcasing the diverse creativity within our group.

Each post in this series will feature at minimum a distinct starship deck plan with a description and basic ship stats. Others may include full High Guard stats, supplemental text about the ship, adventure hooks, an illustration, and more. It is my hope these designs will provide entertainment in the long-standing Traveller "mini-game" of starship creation, and fresh inspiration for your campaigns. Enjoy!

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of this ship, designed by James Favell. 

Tradewind Class Passenger / Cargo Vessel

Here is the fifteenth in the series of starships, small craft, and vehicles designed by members of the Traveller community using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. This series invites players and referees to test their skills as a Naval Architect, to design and share their unique geomorph-based creations, and join in showcasing the diverse creativity within our group.

Each post in this series will feature at minimum a distinct starship deck plan with a description and basic ship stats. Others may include full High Guard stats, supplemental text about the ship, adventure hooks, an illustration, and more. It is my hope these designs will provide entertainment in the long-standing Traveller "mini-game" of starship creation, and fresh inspiration for your campaigns. Enjoy!

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of this ship, designed by Kerry Mould.

Thunder Class Trading Scout

Here is the twelfth in the series of starships, small craft, and vehicles designed by members of the Traveller community using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. This series invites players and referees to test their skills as a Naval Architect, to design and share their unique geomorph-based creations, and join in showcasing the diverse creativity within our group.

Each post in this series will feature at minimum a distinct starship deck plan with a description and basic ship stats. Others may include full High Guard stats, supplemental text about the ship, adventure hooks, an illustration, and more. It is my hope these designs will provide entertainment in the long-standing Traveller "mini-game" of starship creation, and fresh inspiration for your campaigns. Enjoy!

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of this ship, designed by Robert Pearce

Grouper Class Free Trader

Here is the tenth in the series of starships, small craft, and vehicles designed by members of the Traveller community using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. This series invites players and referees to test their skills as a Naval Architect, to design and share their unique geomorph-based creations, and join in showcasing the diverse creativity within our group.

Each post in this series will feature at minimum a distinct starship deck plan with a description and basic ship stats. Others may include full High Guard stats, supplemental text about the ship, adventure hooks, an illustration, and more. It is my hope these designs will provide entertainment in the long-standing Traveller "mini-game" of starship creation, and fresh inspiration for your campaigns. Enjoy!

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of this ship, designed by Roman Roth.

Briant Class Free Trader

 

Here is the seventh in the series of starships, small craft, and vehicles designed by members of the Traveller community using the Adventure Class Starship Geomorphs book. This series invites players and referees to test their skills as a Naval Architect, to design and share their unique geomorph-based creations, and join in showcasing the diverse creativity within our group.

Each post in this series will feature at minimum a distinct starship deck plan with a description and basic ship stats. Others may include full High Guard stats, supplemental text about the ship, adventure hooks, an illustration, and more. It is my hope these designs will provide entertainment in the long-standing Traveller "mini-game" of starship creation, and fresh inspiration for your campaigns. Enjoy!

Click [HERE] to download a PDF of this ship, designed by Kerry Mould.

New Starship Geomorph and Cargo Bay Illustration

I've still been too busy combating the forces of evil (i.e. "real life") to make any new progress on the Starship Geomorph book, so here are a couple geomorphs of a simple cargo bay - one full of cargo and the other empty - to tide you over.
The illustration depicts a common scenario many Travellers might have experience with - the critter infestation in the cargo bay - and the stalwart ship's security agent about to have a close encounter.

The insect model was created by ShinbiHAJI and can be found at the SketchUp Warehouse.

Pirate Attack!

A quick revision to one of my ship deck plans, showing battle damage from a pirate attack.
Click [here] for the original deck plans and [here] for additional images.

Traveller 15mm Deck Plan Collection

I've taken all my deck plans to date and reformatted them for 15mm figure use. All sheets are now 18"x24" (apologies to all you metric system users). I've also updated the drawings to include:

• slightly revised Hammer Class Merchant ship
• Hammer-Hunter variant for bounty hunters
• Ore-Hammer variant for prospectors
• Nirvana Class Dropship long range variant

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EDIT 10-21-2018
A couple minor edits:
The X-boat station was incorrectly shown as 200 tons, when it is in fact 400 tons. The Hammer Class prospector variant was incorrectly called an Ore-Hunter, where it should have been called an Ore-Hammer. The PDF with all the 15mm deck plans has been updated.
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All of these are included in a single PDF file and can be downloaded here: Traveller 15mm Deck Plan Collection. 

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EDIT 02-28-2021
Due to the popularity of Virtual Table Top systems during the Covid lockdown, I've converted these PDFs to JPGs for easier use with VTT systems. A single ZIP file containing the JPGs can be downloaded here: Traveller 15mm Deck Plan JPG Collection. 

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Enjoy!

Deck Plan - Hammer Class 100 ton Merchant

I've got a sketchbook filled with deck plan sketches, mostly small stuff - 100 to 200 tons, merchant ships, scouts and couriers, a few small military ships. As time allows, I'd like to clean them up and post them here.

Hammer Class 100 ton Merchant
Using a custom 100-ton hull, the Hammer Class Merchant is a commercial vessel used for small cargo shipping and trading purposes. It mounts jump drive-A, maneuver drive-A, and power plant-A, giving a performance of jump-2 and 2G acceleration. Fuel tankage for 40 tons supports the power plant and one jump-2. Adjacent to the bridge is a computer Model 1bis. There are three staterooms and no low berths. The ship has one hardpoint and one ton allocated to fire control. Installed on the hardpoint is a pop-out double turret, which mounts two beam lasers. There is one ship's vehicle: an enclosed 4 man air/raft. Cargo capacity is 15 tons. The ship is streamlined.

The merchant ship requires a crew of three: pilot/navigator, engineer, medic/gunner. With it's relatively large cargo bay adjacent to the main airlock, the Hammer Class is easily converted to other uses. Popular conversions include the Hammer-Hunter variant used by bounty hunters and the Ore Hammer variant used by belters.

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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller Starship Deckplan Hammer Class Merchant). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 24"x36". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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M is for My First Starship Deck Plan

Just for fun, I thought I'd post something showing my humble beginnings; my very first starship deck plan, complete with Ship's Papers, Crew Data, and some highly suspect financial records. This was done in late 1984 or early 1985, evidently before I new how to read or do math. For a "100 ton" trader it's awfully big (actually 274 tons, unless I took a sloped hull into account, which I know I didn't).

It seems in those days the Imperial Scout Service would loan any 34 year old man 9 million credits for a ship down payment and the good banks at Glisten would cover you for the remaining 37 million. Daddy must have had some strong connections. Good thing Captain Kenorist was such a talented trader. He was able to completely pay the ship off in only four weeks, and was 63 million credits in the black after only eight weeks. Trading around Glisten was quite lucrative, apparently.

G is for Grav-Hauler

Possibly the smallest of the small craft, the Grav-Hauler is a one man anti-gravity vehicle used to transport small cargos. It's performance when loaded is very similar to the standard air/raft, and is slightly faster when unloaded. It is most frequently used to haul single standard 4 dton containers,  but two containers can be linked and hauled together with some loss of performance. The cabin allows for 12 hours of life support, and contains an emergency vacc suit which will provide an additional 12 hours. It is possible for a second occupant to squeeze into the cabin, essentially on the pilots lap, but all operations are performed at a skill level of -2 and life support time is halved.

The vehicle requires the Pilot skill or Grav Vehicle skill to operate (level 0 is acceptable). Operation of the cargo clamps and cargo grav units is fairly intuitive and no special skills are required for basic manuevers. Cargo Handling skill is recommended for anything more difficult. The Grav-Haulers cargo clamps retract when not in use and the vehicle only takes 1 dton of space, so they are often carried aboard larger cargo ships.

The Grav-Hauler is an ubiquitous vehicle, and can be found at nearly all starports and spaceports, transporting goods across the planet or across town. Pilots of these craft are often part of a close-knit community and are known to look out for each other.

The model of the scout ship was created by Cyberia23 at the SketchUp warehouse. The alien planet landscape background is from WallpaperSafari.com

Additional Illustrations - Starship: 200 ton Armed Merchant

Additional images of the Sharptooth Class 200 ton Armed Merchant, loading cargo in a landing bay. I redesigned the rear cargo area to have an EVA room, additional ship's lockers, and standard airlock. The adjacent Broadsword Mercenary Cruiser is heavily influenced by (read: ripped off from) the work of Ian Stead. Check out his work if you haven't already. The model of the scout ship was done by Cyberia23 at the SketchUp warehouse.

Grav-assisted CargoBot

This was inspired by the grav-assisted APC in one of my old Traveller books (but for the life of me I cannot find it - I just remembered something like "imagine a tank moving at Lamborghini speeds...). So the idea is the cargo bot has an anti-grav module to make the cargo lighter and therefore easier to move around. I provided several different options from what I remembered from Book 8 - Robots, but am past my days of gearheading all the small details and counting credits. I figure the these would run from about 80KCr for the manually driven cargo mover up to 200KCr for the grav version with all the bells and whistles.

I created and really liked an image of a grav cargobot holding cargo from above, like some flying beast with prey in its claws, but then I started thinking about the anti-grav cargo module contradicting the effects of the anti-grav mobility unit. It made my head hurt. I eventually remembered this is all fiction and decided anti-grav fields could run the same way or perpendicular to each other, but not in opposite directions, hence the last image with the robot below the cargo.

Finally, this is a strong attempt of mine to stay away from anthropomorphized robots. I like Star Wars as much as the next guy, but after Wall-E and BB-8, the cute robot thing is starting to get to me. This is my push back with the cargobots just being sophisticated equipment. No vocoder, although it does have an audible warning system. It communicates via text with the user through the ship's computer, the user's hand computer/datapad, or the screens on the center of the control unit.

Deck Plans - Starship: 200 ton Armed Merchant

Finally finished the deck plans and section for the Sharptooth Class Merchant ship. I'd still like to put some polish on it, fix some line weight issues, jazz up the image overall, add more (and more creative) ship names. but this will have to do for now.

For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller Starship Deck Plan Sharptooth Class). It was created to be printed out on 30"x42". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!

UPDATE: click here for additional images: Sharptooth 200 ton Armed Merchant