Prototype Advanced and Custom items

[Spartan159]

Assuming the players actually happen to have a horrific amount of credits and the burning desire to waste said credits, would you allow the use of the charts in CSC1e to modify starship components? I'm not talking about equipment that already have TL modifiers.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Why not? If the item will not cause a huge imbalance and give them an unbeatable edge then it could be an interesting way to get them involved in the game. One player may have design aspirations and want to tweak the ship.

If the players are running through Drinax or you are basing things in the Trojan Reach they may have access to either the Scholar's Tower or Tech World that could create some high end custom hardware. This gives your players a chance to protype gear and waste huge amounts of money doing so.

Now if you are allowing something like a hyperdrive or something really out there it can skew a game pretty quick, but otherwise what is the best it can do, a +2 on a roll?

What were they thinking of modifying??

 

[Spartan159]

This was a hypothetical question I came up with while playing with the research rules. The base cost to upgrade lower tech items is min. x15, max x90, average x50. That gets expensive fast if you are determined to get good results (aka trial and error or damn these dice are cursed).

Starship electronics and fuel processors come to mind right off, most everything else is covered in the TL adjustments built into HG. Some things I don't see as able to be reduced such as staterooms, libraries, workshops and Biospheres. Maybe reduce the tonnage on low berths to allow more per ton at a reduced power requirement, not to mention increase the battery life in case of pesky emergencies.

 

[Condottiere]

Traveller Companion might resolve the upgrade issue for general ship components.