realistic spaceship combat

[The Mad Monk]

They fixed that to some extent with the addition of the "Instruction" skill in Mercenary.

Megatraveller went further, with several methods of skill acquisition and improvement.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


The big complaint against Traveller is that the game is sterile. Once your character musters out, he or she is fixed. There's no growth whatsoever. It's the first sci-fi RPG, and unfortunately, the worst one.

I thought they fixed that in Megatrav - oh well, it was a long time ago. I just brought it up for the ship design angle, which was pretty ground breaking at the time.

Anyone recommend a better RPG for ship design? Because it's the only one I've played. Although reading some of the Trek pseudo science books might give a few ideas.

[The Mad Monk]

Neutrons, protons, alpha particles, heavy metal ions, whatever portions of the missle happened to face the target -- all accelerated, thanks to lack of any atmosphere, to some pretty damn high speeds.

Have that going off a kilometer away, I think the ship will feel it.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Cruddy
Anyone recommend a better RPG for ship design? Because it's the only one I've played. Although reading some of the Trek pseudo science books might give a few ideas.

Ship design is tough. I recommend looking at Starfleet Battles for ship designs, because the game have been around for two decades and went through several editions.

However, the game is based on Star Trek, so you have all sorts of pretty far out stuff in there (transporters, etc.).

[Sikander]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk


I still have the small, black box, with all the booklets.

Me too! Hell, it was loads of fun just rolling up a character.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Cruddy

IIRC, Traveller was born out of Marc Miller's Vietnam service. So although it was published later than D&D, the game was being play tested years before "fantasy rules for table top gaming" (D&D) entered Gary Gygax's head.

That sounds like the exact same development path as Engarde, minus the Marc Miller Vietnam bit.

Originally posted by Cruddy

Traveller is very hard to referee well. It's much more open ended and flexible than fantasy RPGs, which could explain why it has had zero impact on the online scene. Sensible developers tend to go for the art of the possible, rather than the most imaginative games The solo play Megatrav games of the 90s were - well, average at best.

Wouldn't GDW would sue anybody's arse off if they tried it?

My only Traveller campaign started in 1976. It was ok, but Mercenary and High Guard and Scout were not out yet, so it was just the basic game. Still, it was popular.

GDW sold their inventory of games when they went out of business. I don't know who owns the rights to Traveller. It wouldn't be illegal to run a campiagn online, as long as you didn't reproduce the tables etc.

[Ecthy]

I once heard that all that laser crap is complete nonsense and little steel projectiles would be most effective, since 100% of a spaceship is full of computers and other vital systems, because otherwise the ship would be smaller and back to 100%, if you follow my meaning. maybe in future there will be thicker layers and all that, but as long as the funding is limited and the ship constructed on the surface and the lifting therefore energy intensive, ships will be ultra sensitive and the most effective weapon therefore a projectile, that doesn't even need to explode to do much harm.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


The big complaint against Traveller is that the game is sterile. Once your character musters out, he or she is fixed. There's no growth whatsoever. It's the first sci-fi RPG, and unfortunately, the worst one.

That's easily dealt with by a GM who knows that the rules are only a basic guideline. But I agree generally, the game is better as a system for designing scenarios rather than a long campaign. It was state of the art at the time. Take a look at the original three books for D&D, that game was not even playable, and barely so after Greyhawk came out. In those days everyone made up their own rules, or no one would play their campaign.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
I once heard that all that laser crap is complete nonsense and little steel projectiles would be most effective, since 100% of a spaceship is full of computers and other vital systems, because otherwise the ship would be smaller and back to 100%, if you follow my meaning. maybe in future there will be thicker layers and all that, but as long as the funding is limited and the ship constructed on the surface and the lifting therefore energy intensive, ships will be ultra sensitive and the most effective weapon therefore a projectile, that doesn't even need to explode to do much harm.

Projectiles are slower than laser beams, and you can't guide them like missiles.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sikander
That's easily dealt with by a GM who knows that the rules are only a basic guideline.

That's true for most RPG's. It's just that if the system is more complete, the GM needs to do less.

Originally posted by Sikander
Take a look at the original three books for D&D, that game was not even playable, and barely so after Greyhawk came out.

I have those, and three books called Ardrin Grimore or something like that. Nope, never had run a game on those D&D books.

[Neutrino]

I think that explosive and kinetic projectiles will be the main weapons used in addition to electronic warfare and perhaps directed energy weapons. As others in this thread have said before, the useful range of railguns would be rather limited if they fired dumb rounds. Perhaps a another solution would be to have lots of semi-autonomous drones for attack/defense.

Maybe x-ray lasers and masers could be used to some extent. Every nuclear reaction releases lots of x-rays, maybe we could focus them enough for a short burst..

[raghar]

Originally posted by Japher
I think the best weapon would be some kind of electomagnetic pulse thingy that knocks out all electical circuits. Then, ppl will start developing shields that would protect against all sorts of stuff. Thus, it is not the weapon that I am most curious about, but the defense... RAMMING SPEED!!!

Then some ship would fire 40MT nukes in selfdefence and then use more efficient weapons to tear your fleet apart.
Seems boys you don't know how is done EMP. It is most effective in high altitude against planet, or low explosions where it has limited area.
To be more clear, it's nearly noneffective in space. You'd have more problems with X rays.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Neutrino
As others in this thread have said before, the useful range of railguns would be rather limited if they fired dumb rounds.

Why? Nothing slows down the rounds. Well, almost nothing.

[Neutrino]

Dumb rounds would be difficult to target on small, maneuverable drones. The closer the target, the higher the chance of hitting it since there's less time between the time the projectile was launched and the time it reaches the target's position, thus less time for the target to evade.

The round would probably keep going 'til friction/collisions w/ whatever atoms and molecules are lingering around there stop it.

[Urban Ranger]

It depends on the relative speed difference between the rounds and the target. In theory, since railgun rounds could attain speeds close to c, they are hard to avoid.