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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:

1. One gate-safe primary cycle (main jump tank),
2. Mandated 10% emergency reserve,
3. 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:

1. Capability 0–6 — what it can do.
2. Build Quality — how well it was designed and installed.
3. 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)

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

Hardpoints & armament (Traveller / IW rule)

Rule (canon): one hardpoint per full 100 displacement-tons of hull. Displacement-tons = internal volume, not the H-ton fuel index above. Each hardpoint = one turret (light = 1 internal space/up to 3 weapons; heavy = 2 spaces, needed for plasma/fusion, +1.5 MW). Ships may wire hardpoints and fly with turrets empty. Small craft (<100 dt) get up to three fixed mounts instead of turrets. Full turret mechanics + the Verdigris loadout live in SHIP.md → Hardpoints & armament.

Max hardpoints ≠ guns carried. Civilian hulls almost always mount far fewer than the maximum — turrets cost cargo space, reactor MW, credits, registration, and customs heat. An unarmed transport is normal and quiet.

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 drives — restricted, not extinct (rules retained)

Keep the rules. The Traveller / IW Jump Drive design step (GURPS - 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, but it's specialist kit, not a civilian option. Who runs one:

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.

Why it's not on the civilian market — the Concord play (capitalism, not villainy):

Not a cartoon conspiracy. Own the road, sell the tolls, keep the off-ramps in your own hands. Ordinary, ruthless corridor economics.

Transit time — gate vs. jump (canon):

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. 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. Bolting a real J-drive into her would be a restricted-tech refit and a customs death wish. See SHIP.md → Drive & FTL.

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:

• 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.

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).

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.

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)

Monthly registry & insurance (junker rate)

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

Civilian vessels

Military vessels (treaty navies)

Exploration vessels

Colonization vessels

Player-facing articles (Sift)

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