Adventure seed:

Both the Imperial Navy and various commercial shipyards and
shipbuilding corporations occasionally build prototypes.  Sometimes
those prototypes go into production, sometimes they don't.

Sometimes, they don't go into production because the needs of the
customer change.

Sometimes, they don't go into production because during testing, the
customer realizes the design isn't going to perform as desired, and
scraps the project.

Either way, either the shipyard or the customer is left with a one-off
ship, which may or may not be suitable for whatever it was meant for.

Cue the players...

1.  Ship works as designed.  No major flaws, just not suitable for
mission as designed.

2.  Ship works as designed  As #1, but additionally, the design has
some odd quirks or unconventional design features that make it less
attractive on the open market. (possible negative reaction DMs, until
people are familiar with it.) (Perhaps something similar to the Tucker
'48 pivoting headlight...)

3.  Ship works as designed, Minor design flaw makes it less than
optimal-  hatch placement makes loading cargo difficult, makes crew
entry difficult, low headroom in staterooms, etc.

4.  Ship works as designed.  As #2, but the innovation does not work
as well as hoped.  Moderate design flaw makes it difficult to operate
or maintain the ship.  Inconvenient, but not a safety threat. Possible
negative DMs for commercial service; your ship is the last choice for
paying customers...

5.  Ships works as designed.  Combination of design flaws makes it
both difficult to operate and difficult to maintain.  Still
inconvenient, and probably somewhat more expensive to operate, but not
a safety threat.  (Also, possible negative DMs on a variety of rolls.

6.  Ship does not meet design specs.  While not otherwise defective,
one of the drive systems performs one step lower than rated, or
inflict some other similar defect.

Other options as desired....

"Well, we took a Scout hull design, gave it an armored hull and a J4
drive.  That cut it down to two staterooms and no cargo space, so we
got a small fast ship that fit in a scout hull, had great legs, but
could not carry much of anything other than information, and cold not
do much when it got there.  We built three for testing, but they were
cramped and unpopular and we scrapped the design.  Now the prototypes
are available at a discount..."

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
kook." -Alan Morgan