Re: Traveller Ships

Joe Troche recently asked me about the Traveller tonnage to FT mass
ratio. 
I have answered it on the list as it is prbably of general interest.

>How or when and who determined that 100 tons in Traveller is
>equivalent to 2 mass points in Full Thrust?

Nobody actually stated this ratio, I merely suggested it.

>I used High Guard, GURPS Space, and More Thrust for reference.  More 
>Thrust includes a section on DSII which had cargo requirements for
troops 
>and equipment.

Yeah, I wrote that section in More Thrust. The original intention was to

say that 1 MASS = 50 tons, but it got changed to 50CS in the final
version. 
Begs the question tho' - how many tons is 1CS?

>GURPs Space has a starship construction section that includes
reasonable 
>volume requirements for crew quarters.  Combining these two with 
>information from Traveller, I came up with 312.5 cu/meters = 1 mass
point 
>¨ 25 tons mass displacement - assuming the Scout ship from Full Thrust
is 
>roughly equivalent to the Traveller Scout (at 1400 cu/m).

This is our point of divergence. My assumption was that a Traveller
Scout 
(100tons) is equivalent to an FT Courier (MASS 2). This assumption is
based 
on the fact that the smallest FTL capable ship in the Traveller universe
is 
a Scout or similar at 100 tons and the smallest FTL capable ship in FT
is 
the MASS 2 Courier.

>Did you read somewhere that GZG decided to make the scout mass 2?

No, its the Courier that's MASS 2.

Mike Elliott, GZG