Recent content by MarkB

  1. M

    Cargo/Customs Question

    Well, starports don't generally provide free storage space, so once it's offloaded someone has to either take it away or pay for it to be kept. Depending upon the legal set-up, it may very well be that the starship's operators are still legally responsible for the cargo (and any fees it incurs)...
  2. M

    Trade in the Beteigeuze Reach

    I'm getting a vision of Thunderbird 4. :) On the subject of vehicles, how about a System Patrol craft sized and shaped to replicate a cargo module? Plug it into the modular trader so it can piggyback the larger ship's hyperdrive, then undock it at the destination, and the colony has its new...
  3. M

    Trade in the Beteigeuze Reach

    How expensive / available are cargo modules, especially on frontier colonies? It would be a shame to get to a colony, find out that there's an extra module's worth of cargo / passengers available to transport, and not have a module to put them in, even though your ship has spare mounts...
  4. M

    Air vehicle combat

    Here's a possible rationalisation on the ship-armour issue, purely for a non-Traveller setting: These aliens' jump drives have no gravity-well limitations - they can essentially jump from one point in a solar system to another, without having to do long-distance, high-speed travel in between...
  5. M

    A medley of missiles

    Sure, but it's a lot harder to accurately paint a moving target from 10,000 km away than from less than 1 km. The idea here is that the missile provides a very reliable, active "ping" for your sensors to lock onto.
  6. M

    A medley of missiles

    I think ECM / ECCM missiles were mentioned earlier, but here's a variant: Laser-Designator Missle This missile is designed to close to Adjacent with the target, pace it as long as it has fuel remaining, and 'paint' it with a low-power laser, making it more visible to attacking ships' sensors...
  7. M

    The Instant Colony

    Since you're going to need a power plant for your colony, why not just make that power plant a propulsion drive, and build your whole colony as a single ship, designed to make a one-way trip, land, and become a permanent installation? No need to rely upon a third party for transportation, or pay...
  8. M

    Dodge seems weak...

    I think the intended meaning was that the penalties don't accumulate - taking the Dodge action on multiple consecutive turns won't cause you to build up additional Initiative penalties, because the penalty doesn't carry over after it's first applied.
  9. M

    A medley of missiles

    Good point.
  10. M

    Dodge seems weak...

    That's certainly how we've always played it. The first line of text under Reactions (core book page 61) strongly suggests that it's something you do when you're about to be attacked, which indicates that you need to declare it first, and I've never seen any suggestion that DMs to a check roll...
  11. M

    A medley of missiles

    A couple of things I'd like to see (bearing in mind I don't have High Guard, so they may already be covered): EMP Missiles - designed to cripple a ship without affecting its passengers. Damage is affected by armour (let's assume that armouring a ship includes some level of component shielding)...
  12. M

    Dodge seems weak...

    Dodge is always at least somewhat effective, even if it doesn't turn a hit into a miss, since it reduces the damage. That said, it's become a running joke / curious coincidence that every time someone in our group chooses to try and dodge an attack, the attack roll happens to work out to...
  13. M

    Campaign Scenario: The Trade Fair

    Here's an idea, just to make both sides look a little less-than-upstanding. Early in proceedings, as both companies are effectively 'setting out their stalls', unloading their spacecraft and readying their parts of the exhibition, two separate incidents occur almost at the same time, clearly...
  14. M

    Anti-aircraft laser unveiled at Farnborough Airshow

    Well, they could always just fire two of them at the same target.
  15. M

    Why are Anagathics Illegal?

    I vote "ancient conspiracy". Some of the more shadowy figures in power, who have already secured themselves a reliable supply of life-extension technologies, would rather not have the general population living for hundreds of years. After all, if people hung around that long, they might start to...
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