Ship classes, H-ton displacement & mission types — Palimpsest

Status: GM mechanics + Net article source (khesret-web/lib/intel-articles.ts). Registry body: Concord Hull Registry (legacy: Concord Gate Consortium / CGC on old plaques). Currency: Concord Credits (₡). Last updated: 2026-07-18

H-ton displacement (what the number means)

Hydrogen-ton displacement (H-tons) is not hull mass in metric tons. It is the Concord Standard Fuel-Volume Index (CSFVI) — the registry figure for how much liquid hydrogen bunker capacity (at standard cryo density) a hull is rated to carry for:

One gate-safe primary cycle (main jump tank),
Mandated 10% emergency reserve,
In-system thruster margin for standard approach/departure profiles.

Concord uses H-tons for jump tariffs, insurance bands, drydock pricing, and crew minimum tables. Two ships of different empty mass can share a class if their rated fuel index matches.

Verdigris (table ship): CHC II · ~72 H-tons · ~82 m LOA · 3 crew minimum (legal).

Legacy (pre-ring, not CHC-rated): Legacy ships — star-travel without the rings. Subtypes: CD Colony Drive · LRLS Lane Scout · scoop independents. Super rare; ring owners scrap survivors. See COLONIZATION-DRIVE-TIMELINE.md.

Building and rebuilding vessels

CHC tells you the registry and billing envelope. It does not tell you whether a ship is any good.

Use SHIP-SYSTEMS-QUALITY.md to rate every subsystem on three independent axes:

Capability 0–6 — what it can do.
Build Quality — how well it was designed and installed.
Condition — what shape it is in today.

Use SHIP-BUILDER.md for the complete construction and retrofit procedure. It includes:

new-build price and time bands by CHC
pressure-plan and dependency checks
Capability and Build Quality cost multipliers
six design budgets: mass, volume, continuous power, peak power, heat, and crew
surveys, repairs, overhauls, replacements, and Capability increases
retrofit facilities from R0 suits-and-hand-tools through R5 strategic foundry-yard
tool-package requirements, commissioning limits, and time/cost modifiers

Hard limit: a yard can only commission work it can measure, load-test, and certify. Better tools usually reduce calendar time while increasing the cash bill. Worse tools may reduce paid labor but increase downtime, uncertainty, and the chance that new hardware enters service at Worn instead of Fresh.

Concord Hull Class (CHC 0–VI)

CHC	H-tons	Typical LOA	Signature features	Legal crew min.	Weekly upkeep band (active, docked)¹
0	0–12	8–18 m	Pod craft; EV tender; no gate cycle without tender rating	1	₡400–₡800
I	13–35	20–45 m	Courier; prospector; single fusion core; minimal garden	2	₡1,200–₡2,500
II	36–110	55–95 m	Mid transport; 2–3 decks; optional dorsal garden; bounty sleds	3	₡3,700–₡5,300 + berth
III	111–280	100–160 m	Heavy freighter; dual cores; company crew	6	₡8,000–₡12,000
IV	281–650	170–280 m	Bulk haul; corp logistics; escort contract common	12	₡18,000–₡28,000
V	651–1,400	300–450 m	Capital auxiliary; colony seed; fleet tender	25	₡45,000+
VI	1,401+	450 m+	Generation ark; mega-bulk; carrier	40+	Budget line item

¹ Excludes berth, gate jumps, garden premium — see ECONOMY-AND-UPKEEP.md.

Frame nodes & armament (2277 yard language)

Primary canon: ship-frame-rins-and-budgets.md — Rated Interface Nodes (RINs), mass/power/heat/propellant/pressure budgets, build order. Traveller “hardpoint tokens” are retired as the build meter.

WEAPON-class RINs are the modern stand-in for old “hardpoint” talk: structural stations rated for turrets / barbettes (or a jump cage hardback). Ships may fly with those nodes empty. Small craft often use fixed mounts instead of full turret rings.

Empty WEAPON nodes ≠ guns carried. Civilian hulls usually leave them empty — turrets cost cargo space, reactor MW, cooling, credits, registration, and customs heat.

CHC	Typical displacement	Typical WEAPON RINs	Civilian reality
0	<100 dt (small craft)	fixed mounts only (≤3)	Usually none
I	~100–150 dt	1	0–1 (sandcaster if any)
II	~150–300 dt	1–3	Verdigris = 2 WEAPON RINs, both empty
III	~400–800 dt	4–8	0–2 mounted; escort clause common
IV	~1,000–2,000 dt	10–20	Point-defense fit; corp escort
V	~3,000–6,000 dt	30–60	Naval / capital auxiliary
VI	10,000+ dt	100+ (bays / spinal mounts take over)	Warship doctrine

Power tie-in: energy turrets draw MW off the ship's fusion plant — the same plant a technomage taps with Draw Power/TL. On any hull, guns and shipboard magic compete for reactor output (see SHIP.md and KHESRET-MAGIC-AND-ENCHANTMENT.md).

Legal: live turrets on a civilian hull draw Concord scrutiny — armament paperwork, gate scans, and manifest-felony exposure if undeclared (parallels over-cap Life-Cells in KHESRET-MANA-BATTERIES.md).

#### Jump cage vs WEAPON RINs (table lock)

Rule: an onboard jump drive needs a structural cage that commonly occupies at least 2 WEAPON-class RINs on small freighters (hardback through those stations) plus dedicated bladder volume and thermal/power peak. Those nodes cannot carry turrets while the cage is installed. Full physics write-up: ship-frame-rins-and-budgets.md.

Hull reality	What it means
≤2 WEAPON RINs (e.g. Verdigris CHC II)	Jump = always unarmed. Guns or jump — pick one.
3–4 WEAPON RINs	Jump may leave 1–2 free for sandcasters / light defense.
Larger survey / navy hulls	Jump is designed in; armament budget is sized around the cage.

This is why civilian jump kits force a different ship type/size or an unarmed hull — not a soft suggestion.

#### Jump fuel bladders (not the torch tank)

Rule: jump hydrogen is a separate fuel system. It does not share the reaction-mass (prop-H) bunkers. You need dedicated cryo jump fuel bladders (or designed-in jump bunkerage on navy / survey hulls) sized for the Traveller bill: 10 spaces of liquid H₂ per parsec per 100 displacement-tons, burned per jump.

Tank	What it feeds	Siphon into jump?
Reaction mass / prop-H	Fusion torch	No
Feedstock (He-3 / D)	Reactor fusion	No
Jump fuel bladders	Onboard J-drive	Yes — only this

Gate-balanced freighters (e.g. Verdigris) ship with gate-cycle + prop-H tanks only. No bladder farm. Buying a J-drive crate without bladders is buying a paperweight.

Hold Stock sells empty bladder banks as hold crates; fill H₂ is a fuel-dock / scoop / black-market line after install.

#### Gate-built hull overhaul (e.g. Verdigris)

Hulls laid for Concord gates were never framed for a jump cage. Dropping a J-drive into an empty bay is not a weekend Mechanic roll.

A gate-built CHC II (e.g. Verdigris) needs a massive yard overhaul before the drive is flightworthy:

Cut cargo / volume for bladder banks, cryo trunking, and jump-cage clearance
WEAPON RIN / structure work for the cage hardback (and any reinforcements)
Power + heat spin-up paths that stock torch plants were not built to peak
Drydock time — weeks to months at an R3+ yard, not crew chalk and hope
Credits — overhaul labor/parts typically ₡2–8 million+ on top of the drive crate and empty bladders (GM scales by yard and how much hold you're willing to murder)
Paper — re-survey, insurance, and Concord heat; often the real stopper

Until that overhaul is done, treat any “installed” jump crate as non-commissioned (cargo ornament / seized evidence). Jump-designed scouts and navy hulls skip this because the farm and cage were in the original lines.

Jump drives — restricted, expensive, still rare

Keep the rules. The Traveller / IW Jump Drive design step (3D6 Stats - 4th Edition - Traveller - Interstellar Wars.md, Step 5 → Jump Drive; Step 6 → Fuel) stays fully in canon. When a jump hull shows up at the table, you stat its drive by the book (spaces of J-drive per 100 dtons by TL; 10 spaces of hydrogen per parsec per 100 dtons burned per jump).

What it is in-fiction: An onboard jump drive lets a ship star-hop on its own — no gate, no coupling, no log. In 2277 it still exists as specialist kit. Who runs one:

Operator	Why they still fly jump	Availability
Treaty navies (Solaris, Concord security)	Strategic mobility off the toll road — reach systems the enemy doesn't expect, redeploy without a gate log.	Current build, restricted, licensed hulls only
Specialized survey scouts (Concord / chartered)	You can't add a gate to a system nobody's reached yet — scouts jump to ungated stars to map them for future rings.	Current build, rare, heavily permitted
Grey-yard / legacy civilian	Off-log work, scrap-lot J-1 crates, survey leftovers.	Punitive price; paperwork is a death wish

They still prefer the gate. Even a jump-capable warship or scout uses the rings when a ring exists — gates are cheaper, easier, and far faster (see transit rule below). Jump drives come out only when there's no gate, or the mission needs to stay off the log.

Keel Works shelf (game): grey-market J-drive crates can appear at Keel Works under the Yard wing. Floor price for the worst condition + shortest range (Jump-1) starts at ₡250,000. Better range / New / higher TL climbs hard from there. Hold Stock sells the matching jump fuel bladder banks (empty hardware). Buying the crate ≠ legal ownership — Concord registry and insurance still treat private jump as restricted tech. On a gate-built hull, the crate also ≠ flightworthy without the overhaul above.

Why Concord still wins — the capitalism play:

Move	Effect
Subsidize the rings	Gate-to-gate beats a private jump on price, ease, and speed — so almost nobody buys a jump hull new.
License the yards	Clean fabrication stays Navy / chartered survey. Grey crates are scrap, surplus, or someone else's problem.
Buy & scrap strays	Concord (and brokers on its paper) quietly purchase and part out loose civilian jump hulls — monopoly protecting its toll road.
Price the parts	Registry, insurance, and spares for a privately-held off-grid FTL hull run punitive — legal civilian ownership is a money fire.
WEAPON RIN / cage tax	Two weapon nodes occupied → small freighters go unarmed or buy a bigger class.
Bladder + overhaul tax	Gate freighters must murder cargo volume and pay drydock millions — or buy a ship that was jump-born.

Not a cartoon conspiracy. Own the road, sell the tolls, keep the off-ramps expensive and structural. Ordinary, ruthless corridor economics.

Transit time — gate vs. jump (canon):

Method	Transit time	Feel
Concord gate	~1 minute per light-year (near-instant fold)	Blink and a queue. A 10 ly hop ≈ 10 minutes in the ring.
Onboard jump drive	~1 week in jumpspace per jump (Traveller standard, any distance up to drive range)	A long, isolated, fuel-hungry crossing.

The fold/jump is the FTL leg only. After you arrive you still cross the destination system sublight (days — see Drive & FTL). Gates win on the interstellar leg by orders of magnitude; that's the whole point of the toll.

Table use — a jump hull is a plot object, not just a stat line:

Off-grid travel, no gate logs → gold for navies, smugglers, fugitives, the Palimpsest — anyone who can't (or won't) scan clean at a hub.
Civilian ownership = legal & insurance nightmare → can't register it honestly; every drydock visit is a risk.
A target → brokers, Concord assessors, and pirates all want a loose one. Owning one paints a mark.
Slow & thirsty vs. the rings → a week in jumpspace and a fuel bloodbath (that 10-spaces/parsec bill) versus a gate's minutes. It buys secrecy and reach, never speed.

Verdigris: gate-balanced CHC II — no onboard jump drive as of commission. She rides Concord gates like ~every civilian hull flying. Her tanks are sized for gate cycles + in-system margin (the H-ton index up top), not private star-jumps — no jump fuel bladder farm. Bolting a real J-drive into her means: restricted-tech overhaul (R3+ drydock, ₡2–8M+, cut the hold for bladders and cage), a customs death wish, and — because she only has two hardpoints — she flies permanently unarmed. See SHIP.md → Drive & FTL. Keel Works may still sell the crate; without the overhaul and bladders she does not jump.

Drives, thrust & fuel (fusion torch — canon)

In-system drive is a fusion torch, not a reactionless M-drive. The reactor heats reaction mass and throws it out the nozzle. Fuel is tracked — that's what makes flying cost money. (We keep Traveller/IW for building hulls — spaces, MW, thrust — but at the table the drive burns propellant.)

Two fuels (torch) — plus jump as a third system when installed:

Reaction mass (bulk hydrogen / "prop-H") — the gauge you watch; thrown out the back, needs tons, cheap/scoopable (gas-giant skim).
Feedstock (He-3 / deuterium) — what actually fuses; tiny, lasts months–years; untracked except as a scarcity plot lever.
Jump fuel (dedicated cryo H₂ bladders) — only if an onboard J-drive is commissioned; never siphoned from prop-H. See jump bladder rules above.

Thrust sets travel time, not "top speed." The engine gives acceleration (G-rating); the tank gives a delta-v budget (your real range). Continuous-burn time ≈ 2 × √(distance ÷ acceleration).

CHC / role	Typical cruise thrust	Feel
Bulk hauler / CHC II junker	0.3–0.6 G	Slow, thrifty; coasts to save fuel. Verdigris = 0.5 G cruise, ~1.2 G redline.
Courier / fast trader	~1 G	Pays fuel for speed
Patrol / escort	~2 G	Combat burns, deep tanks
Naval warship	3–6 G	Torch-heavy, fuel is someone else's budget

Coast vs. torch (the money-vs-time choice): coast = short burns + long drift, cheap and slow; torch = continuous burn, fast and fuel-hungry. Routine hops sit in the weekly fuel reserve; a full torch run is a premium line. Running the tank dry = fuel-tender rescue. All ₡ bands live in ECONOMY-AND-UPKEEP.md; the Verdigris drive block is in SHIP.md → Drive & FTL.

#### Heat rejection + frame (speed couple)

Torch burns make heat. Radiators / dump arrays reject it. A soft frame still cracks if you stand on the throttle.

Install	Alone	Together
Heat rejection (radiator lattice / dump array)	Plant and torch run cooler; longer burns before overheat warnings. Does not raise the safe G band by itself.	—
Frame reinforcement (braces / hardened rings)	Hull takes transit abuse better; fewer stress ticks from cargo slam and docking. Does not unlock higher sustained G alone.	—
Both commissioned	—	Treat as coupled: +0.1 G to the ship's safe cruise band before high-speed stress mods, and drop high-speed stress one band when torching (e.g. 0.6–0.9 G uses the ≤0.5 G column). Redline (≥1.5 G) still guarantees damage — hardened ≠ immortal.

Keel Works sells both as engine-bay crates. GM call if a navy hull already has this built-in.

Weapons draw power, not fuel: energy turrets consume reactor MW output (endurance is years — no fuel dent); the limit is MW headroom (maneuver + guns at once, or ration). Missiles cost cargo. Only the jump drive costs star-crossing hydrogen.

Gate tariff multiplier (hub→rim base ₡2,100)

CHC	× base
0	N/A (tendered)
I	0.45
II	1.0
III	1.6
IV	2.4
V	3.8
VI	5.5 + diplomatic waiver

Monthly registry & insurance (junker rate)

CHC	Registry/mo	Insurance/mo (high deductible)
I	₡120	₡180
II	₡380	₡520
III	₡900	₡1,400
IV	₡2,200	₡3,800
V+	Corp retainer	Corp retainer

Mission type × hull class matrix

Each mission type has several hull roles (sub-classes). Role name is what fixers and registries put on the manifest; CHC is the billing class.

Corporate vessels

Role	Typical CHC	Features	Notes
Corp Courier	I	Fast manifest; encrypted lockers; priority queue subscription	Exec mail, NDAs
Compliance Platform	II–III	Audit bays; legal staff berths; astral scan suites	Dermidine-adjacent work
Branded Logistics Hauler	III–IV	Container locks; corp paint; escort clause	Freight giants
Experience Yacht	II–IV	Luxury; holo decks; zero publicity leaks	PR corps
Finance Tender	I–II	Board-only cabins; short legs	Hub hops

Civilian vessels

Role	Typical CHC	Features	Notes
Independent Mid-Transport	II	Patched hull; fusion; optional garden	Verdigris, bounty sleds
Short-Haul Liner	II–III	Passenger seats; baggage; steward min.	In-system / hub loops
Belt Prospector	I	Drill; ore bins; long sublight optional	Belt guild
Family Runabout	0–I	Comfort; no cargo	Wealthy commute
Free Trader Heavy	III	Family business; mixed cargo/passenger	Rim routes

Military vessels (treaty navies)

Role	Typical CHC	Features	Notes
Patrol Cutter	I–II	Customs package; boarding arms	System police
Escort Frigate	III–IV	Point defense; convoy doctrine	Anagathic lanes
Fleet Tender	IV–V	Drydock; fuel; parts	Mae'lacan-adjacent ops
Assault Lander	II	Marine bays; hot entry	Planetary ops
Boarding Pinnace	0	Carried craft	Frigate child

Exploration vessels

Role	Typical CHC	Features	Notes
Deep Survey Cruiser	II–III	Long bunk; lab; sample quarantine	Multi-year
Lane Scout (LRLS)	Legacy	Scoop intake; beacon deploy; 0.2–0.45c corridors	Extinct — see timeline doc
Survey Scout	I	Sensor mast; single-system	Chart work
Archival Platform	II	Mobile museum; xeno archive	Academic corps
First-Contact Liaison	II	Diplomatic berths; neutral paint	Treaty corps
Xeno-Biology Tender	I–II	Quarantine pods; med isolation	Outbreak fiction

Colonization vessels

Role	Typical CHC	Features	Notes
Seed Carrier	IV–V	Modular habitat blocks; slow tender	One-way drops
Generation Ark	VI	Centuries life support; sublight primary	Rare — Exodus CD hulls were larger and faster for their year
Colony Drive (CD)	Legacy	2101–2111; cryo billions; megadrive spine	Not gate-rated; still in transit in 2277
Lane Scout (LRLS)	Legacy	Scoop corridors; 12–40 crew; mapping beacons	Extinct — pre-gate
Terraform Support	III–IV	Atmo processors; heavy fuel	Decades work
Ag-Module Tug	III	Hydroponics; orchard ring precursors	Food security
Workforce Transport	IV	Stack habitats; visa labor	Controversial

Player-facing articles (Sift)

Slug	Topic
`ship-class-h-ton-displacement-guide`	CHC 0–VI, H-tons, upkeep, crew mins; legacy CD / LRLS
`vessel-mission-type-class-matrix`	Five mission types + role sub-classes; legacy CD / LRLS

Related docs

ECONOMY-AND-UPKEEP.md — Verdigris weekly burn, gate fees
COLONIZATION-DRIVE-TIMELINE.md — CD / LRLS legacy hulls
SHIP.md — Verdigris, crew, garden
SHIP-SYSTEMS-QUALITY.md — subsystem Capability, Build Quality, Condition, and Verdigris engineering record
SHIP-BUILDER.md — new vessels, upgrades, retrofit facilities, tool packages, time, and cost