Recent content by Jetrock

I started playing T2300 in 1987 when it was still called T2300, and know the origins of its rules set--at the time, the rules systems were very different from Traveller (MegaTraveller hadn't been published yet) and they were set in entirely different game universes; the DGP task system later...

My Traveller universe was "Yanks in Space" in that everyone acted like 1980s Americans, because I was an American in the 1980s and didn't really have any other cultural references to work from. In playing the game from adolescence to early adulthood, my campaign style shifted from the simplistic...

I seem to recall old (LBB era) rules about Traveller laser welders basically working like laser carbines for purposes of damage, but with a range of only 1 meter. Presumably using a tool to hit someone with would be based on the size and mass of the tool; as a GM I might go with 1D for a...

I did not, but now I'm wondering what unfortunate part of the cosmos got to be the recipient of the Ancient toilets' thinly-sliced space poo.

Alignments don't seem to have any place in Traveller (caveat: IMTU), but all the PCs in the campagins I ran were Chaotic Greedy. The kind of SF that Traveller was based on was often morally ambiguous, without set "good guys" and "bad guys" so much as a mixture of large, impersonal forces vs...

2300 AD is an entirely different game but people are still mixed up because the 1st edition was called Traveller:2300 40 years ago, despite having totally different mechanics and game universe. A published book about Traveller rules for an other media sci fi setting runs into copyright issues...

Doesn't look like it--the riot shield is a piece of plastic that isn't really intended to stop bullets or heavy melee weapons, but does aid in parrying. Boarding shields and other heavy shields provide protection but don't give a +1 to melee for parrying as they aren't light enough to maneuver...

The Long Night! (well, it's a historical period from the Traveller universe anyhow)

One difference between a space-opera SF game setting and a fantasy game setting is typically one of scale: fantasy games are often set on a single world or a single continent (aside from things like Spelljammer, which are basically SF games with fantasy trappings, or games/campaigns set on...

Yes, shared cover is an option with a particularly large shield. And keep in mind that unless you're using a zero-G weapon, drifting towards the target behind cover would suddenly become tumbling away from the target, mostly no longer in cover!

Yes, exactly--a one-handed firearm like an auto pistol, SMG or PDW, magrail or gauss pistol (which has autofire and is thus basically a small SMG); also more useful in boarding actions where long-distance accuracy is less important than compact weapons for close quarters--or, in zero-G...

Which is fine as long as you don't move, which is often necessary when doing things like boarding a ship, but it's still not a stable mount compared to having two hands on the weapon for aim & recoil control. There are always tradeoffs!

Contact is nice, but it's not particularly stable considering that the point of contact is being held up by the firer's other arm, which is also bearing the weight of the shield. Using the shield this way also means the wielder can't move the shield without disrupting their aim, which makes the...

Yes, having a suit of powered armor does change the equation somewhat--but I'd argue that even with gravitic compensation, a FGHP or PGHP is still a two-handed weapon! Heavier suits with integral weapons mounts are a potential solution to that obstacle--although if you can shoulder-mount a VRF...

Another limitation of shield use is that the shield-holder is limited to one-handed weapons, limiting long-range combat options and maximum damage, although this may be offset by the possibility of a two-person team where one person uses the large shield to provide cover (or even an improvised...