gerzel said:
While you guys are at it, might as well throw in rules on what happens when personal weapons are fired off inside a ship, just what the chances are of something important being hit.
First, we should keep in mind that the outer hull of any Traveller starship, as well as the heavy equipment (power-plant core, coolant tubes, drives, fuel tanks, life-support gear airlock doors and their mechanisms and probably even the landing gear when folded) are quite hardened in order to minimize damage from ship-grade weapon hits; IMTU part of the ship armor tonnage goes to armor some of these systems (especially the power-plant and the life-support systems) as well as the outer hull. What would be more vulnerable would be the more delicate sub-systems, such as computer consoles, medlab gear, display screens, instrument panels, internal walls/doors, furniture, light fixtures and personal gear.
In other words, if you fire an assault rifle in full auto in the engineering compartment you won't puncture the reactor or even the coolant tubes; at worst you'll tear some holes into a control console or two (and, if the main controls are damaged, the reactor won't overload or something; it has failsafes for the occasion that an incoming missile blasts the control consoles when it hits the engineering compartment). If you discharge full auto in a stateroom, you won't puncture the outer hull, but you might ruin the furniture, the computer console, the fluorescent light fixtures and maybe the internal (non-pressure-tight) door or walls. If you discharge full auto on the bridge you might ruin the control consoles, but not the main computer mainframe (tucked away safely under some armor); the ship would still be flyable (barely so) using a main-computer hookup. If you discharge full auto in an airlock you might ruin the vacc-suits stored in its locker, but not its doors or mechanism (everything in an airlock, down to indicator lights and cycle switches, would be hardened). The same goes to frag grenades, shotguns and other relatively-weak weapons.
Now, if you fire an FGMP-14 in your engineering compartment, things would be VERY different.
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What I suggest is the following:
Small-arm fire and light explosives (i.e. frag grenades) never cause critical ship damage. Damage to controls, furnishing, personal possessions, sensitive medlab/science equipment and so on should be adjudicated by the referee as deemed appropriate.
Lasers and directed explosives (i.e. rockets and shaped charges) MIGHT cause accidental damage to the hull or critical ship systems, though this is rare. If a shot with one of these weapons misses AND has and Effect of -6 or worse, roll 1d6; on 1, cause one point of ship damage to any one appropriate ship system (e.g. if you're fighting in Engineering, it'll damage the PP, JD or MD, Referee's choice); on 2-6, cause a minor hull-breach (a hole a few cm across at most).
PGMP's and FGMP's are very dangerous to use onboard a ship. Damage is caused if you miss and have an Effect of -2 or worse, or if it overpenetrates your target (see "Serious Firepower" on p.102) with at least 25 damage points remaining AND your Effect is +1 or worse. If you cause damage, roll 1d6; on 1, cause one point of ship damage to any one appropriate ship system (e.g. if you're fighting in Engineering, it'll damage the PP, JD or MD, Referee's choice); on 2-6, cause a hull-breach (a gaping hole in the hull; reduce the Hull rating by one).
If a pocket-nuke (p.102) detonates within the ship, the ship is usually destroyed...
EDIT: Armored ships should probably be immune to hull breach or critical system damage by anything man-portable (except for that pocket-nuke, that is...). The shots would still damage consoles/displays and so on, but not the hull or the main systems (e.g. JD, MD, PP and so on).