Federation Commander

Anybody know what the canon says is possible for a rich Klingon merchant to have as a personal starship?

I am going with warp and impulse drives... and capable of entering atmosphere and landing on a planet's surface. A disruptor and a couple of drone racks would be nice, too.

I'll check my SSD books this weekend, but thought to go ahead and throw this out there.

(I'll be using the Traveller deck plans for the Dragon Defense Boat.)

Well, for civilian craft, you have a few main choices:
- Striker/Security Skiff. This just has a pair of phasers and a drone. It is equivalent to an armed Suileman.
- Armed Cutter. This is the armed version of the APT. It also has a pair of drones and a couple phasers, I believe.
- Prime Corvette. This is the maximized version of the Free Trader. This could have those disruptors you want. It is probably too big, as it would be more in the 400-800 dton range. (In reality, it is probably 2000 dton or so, but let's just fudge downwards for you.)
- Armed Freighter. This is just a normal freighter with more weapons. I figure this is way too big for you, but wanted to mention it.

In your case, the Armed Cutter is probably the best bet. It doesn't have a disruptor, but the drones and phasers should keep enemies at bay enough to run away. I also believe it can land on a planet. Plus, the shape isn't that wrong, either. And, really, if you want, you can say that one or both drones are placed with disruptors. Not 'canon', but reasonable enough if the disruptors are range 10 or 15.

[cross-posted with MJWest]

The generic Free Trader is almost ubiquitous for this kind of thing and there are already published deck plans for it.

I don't think you would ever see a disruptor bank on a civilian ship (even owned by a powerful/rich merchant prince). Those tend to be strictly the domain of the paranoid Klingon military/government. I'd also think drones would likely be off-limits, due to the nuclear warheads.

Phasers, on the other hand are quite common on licensed civilian ships and the Free Trader can mount one of the bigger Ph-2 types, in addition to two Ph-3 point-defense mounts.

If the government is feeling permissive, the rich merchant might even be allowed the upgraded, more-military Prime Trader variant. That type can mount two of the excellent Ph-1 mounts (typically reduced to Ph-2 in Klingon service due to crappier Klingon fire-control electronics) and the point-defense Ph-3s. MJWest also noted the even more warship-like Prime Cutter.

With the amount of time he seems to spend outside Klingon space, can see his ship having the Ph-1s, that type merchant undoubtably has some ties to Orion Pirates (possibly even an intermediary between Pirates and Klingon Gov) ---

Never know when the story might need some background like that ---

Wow, that was fast; your SFU knowledge is strong.

Now I know what to read up on this weekend...!

Bolo_MK_XL wrote:Never know when the story might need some background like that ---

:cough: Mad Jack's Hole :cough:

Great Orion pirates...Marcus ahs an Orion Pirate as an Enemy..this migth be interesting.....

Free Trader: no, not that one.

That is a tramp freighter in the vein of Traveller's Beowulf. Muankaal is too high class for that. (Though the deck plan section in GPD was interesting....)

What was the Armed Cutter published in? Advanced Missions...?

Armed Cutter is Federation Commander ship card #45... (from Romulan Border)
I've used them before as targets...


http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... _SQ_LT.pdf

Fast Luxury Transport (FTT) from SFB R8?

GM Consults GURPS Klingons.

An E3 Corvette is exactly what I want.

(It is even... you know... a Corvette.)