"HOW BIG?.. Or what size should that Ship on the table be?" Topic

Got bored last night and started re-working a "Cargo Lighter" that has been sitting on/around my worktable for a couple of years. It is 9w x 6h x 21l cm in size (4 x 2.5 x 7.5 inches) in size, and is basically a brick. Judging by the various vehicles I have kicking around it probably could deliver a MBT or two, maybe 3 or 4 average sized APCs. Realistically it is probable could be considered a Landing-craft for useable volume. In the real world about the size of a lot of trade craft that ply Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and a lot of Pacific islands.

So as a Independent Trader in the small Adventuring Trade ship category is it big enough? (In traveller terms it is around 84 dTons)

A couple of Pics.

I think it is fine for a smaller vessel.

Large enough to get off-planet, and to carry a small cargo of valuable commodities, or other goods. Decent for cruising around in a star system, and perhaps even with legs long enough to do a little puddle jumping to nearby star systems as well.

Also, by being small, perhaps it might be easier to avoid those messy, imperial entanglements.

;-)

when i first read the title i thought it was something else… basically a question of how BIG a mini should be on the table.

a discussion I had not long ago with another player…

As for what that ship could be it's gotta be a ship-to-shore boat of some sort. not enough cubage for all the machinery, fuel, and consumables needed for an endurance vessel, AND have room for the crew o do anything more than sit in a chair.

or a civilian could have gotten a hold of it, turned the cargo bay into a pile of fuel tanks and rations, and MADE a long-range boat out of it… like those guys that took LST's and PT boats after WWII and turned them into ferry boats and yachts.

but it's just him in there. basically a smelly hermit in the remaining living space that's about the size of a semitrucks sleeper cabin, alone in that thing… up to no good…

Actual volume seems close to the Millenium Falcon.

What that actually means for capabilities depends on the technology and setting. Realistically (ie near future with more or less modern propulsion) that could easily be an orbiter (ie a vehicle that can take guys up to orbit and possibly from space station to station) or an interplanetary vehicle, but probably not both. If its interplanetary it doesn't have the propellant space necessary to get into orbit, at least from my guesstimations. It'd either need a booster stage or use of orbit to ground/ground to orbit shuttle services. Either would not prevent its use as an adventuring vehicle… in fact, even if it doesn't have the propellant/shielding/whatever to land on Earth or take off from it, it may be able to act as its own shuttle on the vast majority of our solar systems worlds… which have a lot less gravity and atmosphere to worry about.