High Guard Non military?

[legozhodani]

I have very little interest in giant warships and zappy death star war thingies. I'm keen on more civilian ships such as those in Traders and Gunboats. Civilian stuff, police and small customs vessels are more what I need. So, is HG worth it or shall I keep my £ and wait for another later book? Anything over 3000t is just scenery to most PCs and of little use.

Cheers.

 

[allanimal]

If you are using 2nd ed, High Guard has your ship design rules. Whether you are making a 10-ton small craft, a 100 ton scout or a million ton dreadnaught.

Several of the pre-made ships in the book are outside of your 3000 ton band. Most of those less than 3000 tons are repeats from the CRB, but there are several new ships as well.

IMHO, if you are using 2nd ed and want space stuff, you need high guard. I'm with you on the size of ships I like to have in my campaigns, too. High Guard 2e is good.

 

[Jeraa]

I have very little interest in giant warships and zappy death star war thingies. I'm keen on more civilian ships such as those in Traders and Gunboats. Civilian stuff, police and small customs vessels are more what I need. So, is HG worth it or shall I keep my £ and wait for another later book? Anything over 3000t is just scenery to most PCs and of little use.

Cheers.

I assume you are talking about High Guard 1e. In that case, it is still useful as it has a small ship (below 100 ton) design sequence. It also has a number of options that can be used on all sizes of ships. It has an Order system for battle, which can give bonuses for certain things. It also has rules for grid-based space combat instead of range bands.

If you mean High Guard 2e, then that book has the entire design sequence. You need it to design any size of ship.

 

[Reynard]

I am enjoying building new ships and recreating many favorite ships from the myriad of 1e books. I like the options presented to enhance the old designs or fleshing out new ones.

 

[-Daniel-]

I have very little interest in giant warships and zappy death star war thingies. I'm keen on more civilian ships such as those in Traders and Gunboats. Civilian stuff, police and small customs vessels are more what I need. So, is HG worth it or shall I keep my £ and wait for another later book? Anything over 3000t is just scenery to most PCs and of little use.

Cheers.

I bought 2e HG and have yet to make a military ship. I too am not interested in the 100k combat ships. If I want to play out ship to ship combat there are better games for navy on navy battles.

I have, like Reynard, been using the design rules to convert or redo older designs I liked or to update my own ships.

Daniel

 

[AnotherDilbert]

High Guard has plenty of options for civilian ships, both small and large. You can design ships and space stations. You can design orbital factories and shipyards. There are rules for asteroid mining.

 

[Condottiere]

Valid issue.

High Guard allows you to see how the sausage is made, and gives avenues for customization and renovations for all types of spacecraft.

Commercial and civilian spacecraft will be the most likely vessels that the player characters will fly or be accommodated on, the military designs are to scratch the wargaming itch.

 

[legozhodani]

Thanks guys. Still think I may give it a miss. I'll just pretend the sausage is full of nice bits and not dwell on the 'bums 'n noses' that dwell within. May wait to see if a version of the traders and gunboats comes out. Sucker for pretty deck plan and predone ships. Gives me time to flex my anthropology muscles on the crazy cultures instead.

 

[Condottiere]

To be honest, deckplans may prove to be a letdown.

 

[legozhodani]

 

[Galadrion]

Something I would quite like to see: some form of official guidelines on refits/modifications/upgrades for ships. What sort of changes can be made to an existing ship, and what would said changes cost? What sort of facilities are required in order to have such modifications made? (If you can get an appropriate Jump drive imported, can a Class B - or lesser - starport get it installed in your ship, or does it absolutely require a Class A port?) What would be involved in re-purposing a decommissioned military starship into a private merchant ship, what would be the benefits, and what would the detriments be? Or, alternatively, what would be involved should a backwater world need to bootstrap a planetary defense force navy out of a few merchant ships? How long would such modifications take if they were done under time pressure?

 

[Condottiere]

The fact that the rules tend to be vague and generic is a feature, not a bug.

I think you have to select a system, probably in the Spinward Marches, and canonically Niggle it, leaf by leaf, rather like a Dungeons and Dragons module, creating an interlocking ecosystem of background characters and their businesses, that players can interact with.

 

[-Daniel-]

The fact that the rules tend to be vague and generic is a feature, not a bug.

I think you have to select a system, probably in the Spinward Marches, and canonically Niggle it, leaf by leaf, rather like a Dungeons and Dragons module, creating an interlocking ecosystem of background characters and their businesses, that players can interact with.

While I would agree in some things that vague is a feature, there are some areas Mongoose Traveller has left too vague. I appreciate that it is a hard line to walk, but I still wish some areas, like some guidelines around what is and is not a modification my Engineer can do vs what needs a class A ship yard would be helpful. Yes, I wing it and for the most part it works, but in the end I would agree with Galadrion that it would be nice to have a little more official to work with.