Traveller Shields (like for your arm)

[Invincible Overlord]

Am I reading this description of shields correctly to mean that they are only of use to characters who have Melee (unarmed) at 1 or more?

"A character using a shield increases their effective Melee (unarmed) skill by one level when parrying. A character with no Melee counts as having Melee 0 when using a shield to parry."

That is, if I have Melee (blade) 1 and Melee (unarmed) 0, then I can already parry for one point using my sword, and there's no reason to use the shield. And if I have no levels in Melee (unarmed), then raising it to 0 does me no good for parrying, since parrying means subtracting my skill level from my opponent's attack roll.

Not that a sci fi game like Traveller has to account for every aspect of Low Tech combat. But I want to strand the PCs on a primitive planet

[R Arceneaux]

Re shield use....

Well think on it and it makes perfect sense.

Take for instance a Paladin Type aka fighter type of character vs a magic user aka mage type not trianed in hand to hand combat.

For the fighter type to use armor of any type would be on the positive side because they trained to use armor.

On the other hand the magic user not trained in armor use would be clueless as to how to use it at all (other than purely accidental blind luck on a given attack)

So if you think on it it makes perfect sense for the fighter to get the plus while the unskilled mage type gets nothing.

[Myrm]

Umm given it gives you Melee 0 for the shield if you have no skill that removes a significant -DM, which is in itself a significant benefit....

[Kromodor]

**Resurrecting**

Considering you can just *dodge* and the enemy gets -1 DM ;)

CSC Supplement 4 got pretty cool rules for shields. Generally - bigger bonuses...considering you will use Traveller for medieval combat...

[Wolfsbane]

I think that the rule needs a little decrypting, IMHO -
Parrying in the first part is related to having a melee weapon in hand and using said weapon defensively, they're saying using a shield makes your parry action that much better. (assumes weapon is one-handed)
The 2nd part is about just using a shield or shield-like thing, a character wields an object just to try and block a blow, most people can try this without real training, it's imitating something you saw on Tri-D !

Having done some medieval reenactment stuff I've learned the value of shield, and how they have some limitations. Obviously Traveller combat, low-tech combat, isn't intended to have the focus and detail of say Chivalry and Sorcery, LoTR, or Phoenix Command - why worry about that when one guy with a FGMP wipes out an entire medieval army ?

My problem is how low-tech cowhide/wood/bronze/iron shields differ from TL6-8 shields, and could one use a mirror-shield to hose a laser-wielder !