Cepheus Deluxe: The Bounty Hunter - Session 10

It's been a while since my last post because I've been working away in my 3D app designing the ship Arman will be taking command of once he arrives on Honi 3 and meets whatever contact the Network will send him. More on that next time, but for now let's design the ship using the Cepheus rules.

Firstly I had to re-read the Cepheus Deluxe chapter on ship design. It took me a couple of goes before I fully understood it but luckily there's an example of a referee building a ship from scratch for a player, which was very helpful. I based the design on the 300 ton Corsair included in the rulebook but modified it a bit. It's got a streamlined, aerodynamic hull which means it can enter a planet's atmosphere without tearing itself apart. In Cepheus and Traveller, a ton is a "displacement ton" which is a measurement of volume rather than weight.

Here's the full spec:

Armour: Light crystaliron.
M-Drive: 2-G. This gives the ship maneuverability when flying in normal space.
J-Drive: 2. The jump drive. Rating 2 means it can travel a maximum of 2 parsecs in one jump, which equals two hexes on the subsector map.
Power Plant: 2. I won't go into detail on all of these components as this post would get longer and longer.
Fuel Tanks: 60 tons. This is enough hydrogen to make a 2 parsec jump.
Bridge: Standard bridge for a 300 ton ship.
Computer/Electronics: Model 3. This gives a DM+1 to sensor rolls and allows a maximum J-drive rating of 2. I've decided the computer can speak to the crew and receive voice commands, like the ones in Star Trek.
Hardpoint 1: Triple turret, pulse lasers. These are quite innacurate, giving a -2 DM to hit in combat but they're useful for point defence against missiles. Turrets need to be manned by a gunner. Ships have one hardpoint per 100 tons of the hull.
Hardpoint 2: Triple turret, pulse lasers.
Hardpoint 3: Double turret, missile rack. Two racks of three missile launch tubes each, which can be loaded with various types of missile.
Staterooms: 20. Cabins for crew or passengers. Doyle will have a small crew but he might want to expand it in future if he needs help from mercenaries. They could also make some extra money by taking on paying passengers when not on a dangerous mission.
Cryotubes: 10. These low berths can transport passengers cheaply but there's a risk of death if the ship's doctor fails a skill check when reviving them. They could also be useful for securely transporting captured bounty targets.
Airlocks: 4. Ships have one airlock per hundred tons of hull as standard, but I've added an extra one to give the crew more options for possible escape routes etc.
Fuel Scoop: This can scoop up gas from a gas giant or water from a planet, for hydrogen extraction.
Fuel Processor: The processor can extract liquid hydrogen from unrefined fuel bought at a low tech spaceport or collected with the fuel scoop. This one is 6 tons in size which means it can refine 30 tons of fuel per day, filling up the tanks completely in two days.
Galley: The galley is a small kitchen where basic food can be prepared and eaten at a table large enough for several crew members.
Medbay: The doctor will work here patching up both Arman and any wounded targets he captures. A four ton medbay is big enough for two patient beds.
Ship's Locker: A storage room where the crew keep various useful bits and pieces. Space suits, breathers with oxygen tanks and filters, hull repair kits, tools of all kinds and possibly weapons too. In Cepheus (And Traveller) the players usually ask the referee if they have a certain item in the locker when they need it, rather than making a huge list of everything. This could be an oracle question for us.
Escape Pods: 20. Enough for everyone if all staterooms are full. Each pod contains a basic survival kit with rations, a tent, flare gun etc.
Cargo Bay: The rest of the 300 ton hull space can be turned into a cargo bay, in this case 59 tons. I'm not planning for Arman to do any buying and selling of goods, but he might salvage cargo from defeated enemies or want to take on general freight delivery jobs when travelling between systems.

The total cost of the ship, rounded to the nearest million is 108 million credits. We'll figure out the mortgage payments next time...