Just a note on Scott Kellog's comments in re Fusion Rockets.
With an Isp of 6e5, these aren't going to have *big* drive flames. For
a 200-ton (mass) Scout, at 1g the drive is using 1/3rd *kilo* of fuel
per second! Sure, it'll still burn a hole in the tarmac. So did the
"emergency rockets" in Murray Leinster's Med Ship universe. But if the
main drive is burning a hole only a foot or two across, I'd say that
you just *design* landing pads to have holes there already,. (bigger
than the ones the drive would make anyway)
This *does* make one major change to the way Traveller is currently
played. A fusion exhaust is going to be detectable at rather large
distances. For that matter, "clearing the throat" of the drive will
tend to discourage anybody messing around the aft end of the ship. (to
say nothing of blinding them!)