INTRODUCTION
As with any larger government in many Traveller settings, getting information, orders, etc, to the war front can be a task in itself. And many times what needs to be transported isn’t orders or information, but Leaders. Orders are only effective up to a point; by the time the orders arrive at the front, the situation can easily have changed, rendering the orders useless.
To combat this, the Zhodani Confederacy seems to have a policy of moving well-informed leaders to the front, rather than just a set of orders. And getting these leaders to the front can pose problems. Most of the larger, combat capable ships are already at (or enroute to) the front, leaving few transport options available for an Admiral. Public transport is, of course, not an option in these situations.
To facilitate quick transportation of these leaders to the front, the Consulate developed the Chatl-class Scout Leader. Large enough to maintain Jump-5. yet small enough to be easily (quickly) produced and maintained, the ship class has its advantages – and some disadvantages. It is also a small enough vessel where small groups of player characters can easily run and maintain them; perhaps one was found derelict after a battle, or maybe they purchased one after a major conflict has ended.
Converting the design to the current Traveller5 (T5) rules opens these options for a referee or group of players.
ORIGINAL DESIGN
The original design appeared in FASA’s publication, “Adventure Class Ships, Volume 1, Book 1”. Here are the stats from that source:
Leader Scout SL-11535C1-730000-30000-0 MCr 119.24 150-tons TL=14 Crew=2
Passengers=3 Cargo=2 Fuel=83 Agility=2 Troops=0
CONVERSION NOTES
Call me weird, call me lazy, but I just have a problem with ‘odd’ ship tonnages (which aren’t small craft, that is), at least in ship designs. 150 tons is a weird number. It is certainly possible to construct or convert such a ship size between systems, but I refuse to do it. Sorry, not sorry. To avoid this bothersome (to me) issue, I increased the displacement to 200-tons. This also gives the design more wiggle room for capabilities and options, and that’s never a bad thing.
The original design called for 7 layers of armor (original High Guard rules, 1981). As armor is treated differently between versions (Classic High Guard, T5), I’ll ignore this value, and put a single additional layer of armor in.
Being called a ‘scout’, the design keeps the same wedge configuration. This will be kept, of course. The ship resembles an actual scout ( a very common design style throughout much of human space), though is a fair bit larger. The original design has a triple turret, with 2 beam lasers and one sand caster. There is only one hybrid turret in T5 – beam, missile rack, sand caster. Trying to stay with that theme, I’ll just remove the beams, installing a single triple sand caster turret. This isn’t a combat vessel; it avoids combat whenever possible, and there isn’t much more room available for another turret.
The design has fuel scoops installed, but no purifier (which weren’t a part of the original Classic rules, though were added in High Guard later). That will be corrected; why install scoops, then run unrefined fuel through the expensive Jump-5 engines?
And of course there are no sensors defined in the original designs. Some good sensors and comms will be added, as the ship needs to locate the fleet it is trying to reach.
As noted before, I do not own the rights to any ship images or deck plans, so none are included here. And I certainly don’t have the graphics talent to create my own versions.
| COMPONENTS | CP | TL | Tons | MCr |
| Hull-B (200 tons). Shell. Lifting Body. (Base AV=7) | – | 14 | – | 28 |
| Wings (included in Lifting Body) | 1 | 8 | – | – |
| Floatation Hull (included in Lifting Body) | – | 5 | – | – |
| Lifters (included) | 1 | 8 | – | – |
| Landing Skids (Standard) | 1 | 7 | – | – |
| Armor Levels 1+2 AV=14 | – | – | 8 | – |
| Jump Field Type = GRID | – | – | – | – |
| Std Jump Drive-E (Potential=5) | 1 | 14 | 30 | 30 |
| Ult Maneuver Drive-C (Potential=3) (1/4 tons) (Cost x3) | 1 | 14 | 1.5 | 9 |
| Mod Power Plant-E (Potential=5) (Efficiency=110%) (Fuel Use= 90%) (1/2 tons) | 1 | 14 | 8 | 8 |
| Jump Fuel (One Jump-5) | – | – | 100 | – |
| Operations Fuel (28 Days) | – | – | 9 | – |
| Fuel Scoops (100-tons per hour) | – | 8 | 1 | 0.1 |
| Fuel Purifier | – | 8 | 1 | 1 |
| Ult Surf-Mt DS Comms-14 (Range S=12) (Mod +4) | 1 | 14 | – | 8 |
| Adv Surf-Mt DS Scope-14 (Range S=12) (Mod +3) | 1 | 14 | – | 7 |
| Ult Surf-Mt LR Radar-14 (Range S=09) (Mod +4) | 1 | 14 | – | 6 |
| Ult Triple Turret Vd Sandcaster-13 (Range R=07) (Mod +4) | 1 | 13 | 1 | 1.3 |
| 2 Spacious Consoles (Pilot, Astrogator) | – | – | 4 | 0.4 |
| 1 Cramped Console (Engineering) | – | – | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| Computer Model/5 (CSK=13) | – | 13 | 5 | 27 |
| Standard Life Support (300 person-days) | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| 4 Crew Staterooms | – | – | 8 | 0.4 |
| Shared Crew Fresher | – | – | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| 4 Passenger Staterooms | – | – | 8 | 0.4 |
| Shared Passenger Fresher | – | – | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Common Areas (shared) | – | – | 7 | – |
| Medical Console | – | – | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Vault | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Cargo Capacity | – | – | 4.5 | – |
| TOTALS | 10 | 14 | 200 | 130.3 |
SHIP STATISTICS
SL-2L35 200-Td MCr 130.3 (104.24 in quantity). TL=14
Crew=3 Passengers=4 Low=0 No craft.
Base Safe Jump Distance= 80 Diameters
Ergonomics=1
Comfort Level= 5 (crew only), 3 (with 4 passengers)
Passenger Comfort= Not applicable
EVALUATION
Overall, this is a solid solution for a continual military problem: rapid transport of leadership to the current front. The addition of components such as a vault and medical console just make sense, given the changes made between rules versions. This isn’t a combat ship, and doesn’t try to pretend at being one. It uses range and speed to reach the front, where a fleet or base can protect it from harm.
CONCLUSION
This was another relatively easy conversion from Classic (High Guard) rules to Traveller5. The ship does one thing, and does it well.
I hope you like the effort I’m putting into these ship conversions, and return for future installments. I’m currently on pace for one new conversion every four days or so. Please consider following to be notified of new posts. And as always, feel free to point out mistakes I may have made, and/or other ideas you may have for a conversion, or even perhaps a new design.
Next up: FASA’s Chatl-class Scout Leader.
Have a great day, and Keep On Travelling!
LEGAL STUFF
Copyright Information
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Hiverlord's Hijinks 