Enpeze said:
I would give them higher damage values. Dont forget you are playing on a higher TL, not todays weapons.
Traveller's handguns aren't much more effective than the best we have today. But having looked into average damage versus usual hit points in a bit more detail I think you're right, the damage values could do with a slight increase.
eg:your 1d10 for medium pistol is the same as a 9mm in CoC of 1920. (better would be at least a 1d12 or 1d12+2)
or a heavy pistol with 1d12 is quite "light" compared to a longbow in MRQ or a hvy crossbow with each 2d8. So I would give for a heavy pistol maybe a 2d8+2 or 2d10+2.
light pistol - 1d12
pistol - 2d8
heavy pistol - 2d10
light rifle - 1d10+1d8
medium rifle - 2d12
heavy rifle - 3d10
shotgun - 4d8
laser pistol - 1d12+6
laser carbine - 2d10+4
laser rifle - 2d12+6
gauss pistol - 1d12+4
gauss rifle - 3d8+6
(n.b. gauss weapons don't double the armour value on a location)
PGMP12 - 4d8+8
(n.b. the plasma hits 1d3 locations and rolls damage for each location struck)
It would also be interesting to be able to fire 1 shot per combat action.
I use the following rates of fire, which are derived from one of my favourite games for gun play - Aftermath.
semi-automatic - up to three shots per action, 10% penalty to hit per round fired after the first.
automatic - fires a four round burst, up to three bursts may be fired per action, 20% penalty per burst after the first.
Note that if you use a flurry combat action it becomes possible to conduct what Traveller used to call "panic fire"
Different munition like explosive ammo should be available for military or special personnel with +1d6 damage per round. The same for AP rounds which maybe halves the value of high tech armor.
I completely agree - note that gauss weapons are considered to be AP.
Regarding armor, I would also put them higher than just 8 points for combat armor. Medieval plate has 6 points in MRQ, so 8 points for high tech combat armor seems much too low. I would use at least 12 points or even higher. Of course combat armor should only be avallable for special personel or miltary. On higher techlevels (15+) I would even use 20 to 24 armor points for military armor.
You've got to be careful that modern ballistic armour doesn't make melee weapons all but useless - which is somewhat unrealistic.
The combat armour listed is for the lightest suit. Higher TL versions are also available which have higher armour ratings.
Then there's battledress - powered armour :twisted:
The PGMP-12 with 3d8+4 seems powerful, but he average damage of 17,5 is not that much. Some guys can even survive it with medical attention. This should not be, IMO. In Megatraveller a PGMP-12 has 4times the damage of a hvy machinegun! This means at least 8d8 or so.
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In Gurps traveller is even more dangerous. There it has 6dx8! And Gurps has IMO also a similar lethality rating than MRQ. (a average person has 10 hitpoints)
Agreed, see changes above.