A question about Manoeuvre Drives

[Chas]

Thanks for all the replies. Now I have to get my head around whether I want to just take the existing rules and change them so they make some sense, or play MT 1.
Seems like my choice is either,
A. Put up with being annoyed by a design system where every ship has max M Drive, and Max armor. And none of the cannon ship designs are usable anymore. To me, this is a terrible design choice. I don't mind M9, but to make M9 and max armor standard is just......
Or B, I can redo some design math to make sense (not so big a deal) design all new ships (a big deal) , and ignore all the shiny new products that will be coming out (bad for supporting the good people making the game. Meh.

I'm in a situation not dis-similar to yours. I came to back Traveller ship design in Mongoose 1st Edition after along absence from the original books to see how the new rules scrubbed up and how ships looked compared to what was a very long time ago in gaming terms. (let's not try to compare something like D&D since those times )

From my personal perspective given the original rules were a can of worms that were pointless in execution because the ships when built did not match by the rules with their intended function, I'm more than happy to take the original concepts (which for the most part were good) and rework these in design rules that... work. Things haven't really or won't change that much. Cruisers are still cruisers etc etc.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Quick note here...

The drive percentages came from High Above.

My take... they detail what is possible in High Guard, not necessarily what is possible in every individual universe.

For example, the basic stats of the 'classic' capital ships will not be changing, so 6G is going to be more or less a hard limit. You are going to be able to take High Guard and design 'superior' ships (and there could be an awesome campaign right there!).

However, for various reasons, canon Traveller will not be changing. What we have done is taken the reins off your own universes - what you decide to do next is up to you.

 

[phavoc]

Quick note here...

The drive percentages came from High Above.

My take... they detail what is possible in High Guard, not necessarily what is possible in every individual universe.

For example, the basic stats of the 'classic' capital ships will not be changing, so 6G is going to be more or less a hard limit. You are going to be able to take High Guard and design 'superior' ships (and there could be an awesome campaign right there!).

However, for various reasons, canon Traveller will not be changing. What we have done is taken the reins off your own universes - what you decide to do next is up to you.

So in the 'canon' Traveller universe, where 6G was the upper limit, that will remain as the defacto Imperial standard? Does that also mean the upper limit of jump-6 will also remain the defacto standard?

This makes sense, from a continuity basis. But are you going to put a paragraph in there that explains this? Otherwise you may have a lot of people scratching their heads trying to make sense of this. For those that want to rework the classic ships, they can adopt them into their new universe.

The only nit I have here is that by straddling the two systems, you don't necessarily get the best of both. It DOES codify new rules, but then again, it also can cause problems trying to mix them. Did the Power Above consider limiting the higher drive rates to just adventure-class (or sub-3,000 ton) vessels? That would allow players the most flexibility to abuse, err, take advantage of the new system while retaining the core features for all the existing capital ships (though not completely, as other rules have changed such as jump fuel requirements).

OR maybe there is no 'best' way available... Maybe that explanation is the best way to go and let people do whatever the hell they want.

 

[MongooseMatt]

So in the 'canon' Traveller universe, where 6G was the upper limit, that will remain as the defacto Imperial standard? Does that also mean the upper limit of jump-6 will also remain the defacto standard?

Well, never say never but, as things stand right now, yes.

But are you going to put a paragraph in there that explains this?

High Guard is not a 3I book, and I really don't want any kind of officialdom with it (it really is a toolbox book). The veterans will take the Six Limit in their stride, whereas newcomers will either not consider it or, absolute worst case, they put higher performing ships in their universe. Really won't break things.

Maybe that explanation is the best way to go and let people do whatever the hell they want.

That is kinda where I am coning from

I'll put it another way. If this were a miniatures game, every single balance concern would be an issue (unless we took an Age of Sigmar approach, which I would be kinda okay with, but I digress). With an RPG, the landscape changes, and balance is not an over-riding concern (least of all with Traveller!). What we need is to be able to construct universes that make sense. However, they do not necessarily have to make sense with respect to one another - the rules just need to support them all.

The Golden Rule has to be: Take what you want, leave the rest in the toolbox for another day.

That really is the over-riding design philosophy of this entire edition.