The latest ship book published by Independence Games for their Clement Sector – Earth Sector setting powered by Cepheus Engine is Freedom-class Merchant Ship. For those Traveller-now-Cepheus Engine roleplaying game (RPG) adventurers who like a bit of some The Expanse–style nuclear thrusters in their shipping this booklet is for you:
The Freedom-class Merchant Vessel is a starship from the days before grav drives and grav plates changed everything. A 400-tonne ship built in 2204 and squarely marketed to those enterprising enough to brave the frontier and head out to the new colonies in Earth Sector and Clement Sector, the ship was state of the art in its time. Now, over a hundred years later, the ship could be considered a bit of a dinosaur yet many continue to swear by this stalwart, especially the waldlaufers in Ariel Sector who value nothing more than their independence and their Freedoms.
Publisher’s blurb
Written by Michael Johnson for Independence Games’ The Clement Sector – Earth Sector setting and illustrated by the stellar Ian Stead, Freedom-Class Merchant Ship offers what has become standard fare in terms of content. As the publishers blurb continues:
Written by Independence Games starship guru, Michael Johnson, inside this book you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the Freedom-class, including its history, specifications, deck plans, and multiple variants—plus financing options, cargo configurations, and planetary landing procedures. Alongside these essential details, dive into A Visit to Miss Kitty’s, a short story by John Watts that gives insight into the life of a waldlaufer making his way in a dangerous universe.
Featuring stunning artwork by Ian Stead, this book is an essential addition for players and Referees alike. Whether you’re charting new courses or dodging the law, the Freedom-class is ready to take you wherever adventure calls!
Publisher’s blurb
Tails and Radiators
The long-traditional Traveller ship designs are, in many cases airplanes in space. The in-setting technology of artificial gravity plates immediately led to aircraft-like designs.
The books and TV series of The Expanse built upon somewhat different technological assumptions, the most important—in terms of starship design—being the lack of artificial gravity. To maintain gravity ships had to use spin habitats (see the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey or 2010: The Year We Make Contact) or decks built upon the thrust vector from a reaction drive of ships like the Rocinante or others in The Expanse.
The Freedom-class Merchant Ship is a tail-sitter or “tower” starship design built like an office building. The ship even has radiators to dissipate heat. The book does provide an “upgraded” version with a classical (for Traveller/Cepheus Engine) grav drive but the base design is only slightly modified.
Freedom-class Merchant Ship is a very versatile book; the ship design can be used in a wide variety of settings from pre-grav (reaction drive) to gravitic drive eras. Personally, I enjoy adventures set in the days of reaction drives and tail-sitting designs. Perhaps it is the choices (limits?) that reaction drives place on the ability to fly (or fight) a ship that makes for interesting adventuring.
Regardless of you being a The Clement Sector – Earth Sector setting player or not, Freedom-class Merchant Ship offers tantalizing hints at what a ship very different from Classic Traveller might look like. Not only that, but the adventure hooks the design creates just cries for a place in your travels.
Feature image courtesy Independence Games
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Yeah. I haven’t done it yet, but I’d like to run (or play in) a Traveller campaign with ships like you’d find in Andre Norton’s Solar Queen series, or EC Tubb’s Dumarest saga. This particular example is kinda blocky though. Apparently not streamlined for atmosphere, it looks like it’s made from welding shipping containers together. Which may very well be the case. 😉
There are other tail-sitting tower ship radiator designs in the CE system not just this Freedom from Independence Games. Most are designed using The Clement Sector or Cepheus Deluxe/Universal rule sets.