Rules clarifications for a new guy

[Sevain]

I have recently started my first Traveller campaign using the main rulebook. My players are about to undertake their first interstellar trip in their recently refurbished Type A free trader. I have some questions about space combat and would appreciate if someone could clarify the situation.

How do turrets with multiple weapons work? The rules say each turret can fire only once during each round, but that I can fire every weapon in the turret. If I have multiple copies of the same weapon in a turret do I just add up the damage of all my weapons to my attack? Or do I roll a separate attack roll for each weapon? What happens if the weapons are not identical? If I can combine the damage of weapons in one turret to a single attack, can I do this with more than one turret?

Do I apply armor against the damage from each round, each attacker, each attack or against each weapon? Similarly, when do I total up the damage to find out how many hits the ship has suffered?

What are good complications I can throw at my players that won't destroy the ship and kill everyone?

 

[AndrewW]

How do turrets with multiple weapons work? The rules say each turret can fire only once during each round, but that I can fire every weapon in the turret. If I have multiple copies of the same weapon in a turret do I just add up the damage of all my weapons to my attack? Or do I roll a separate attack roll for each weapon? What happens if the weapons are not identical? If I can combine the damage of weapons in one turret to a single attack, can I do this with more than one turret?

Each weapon is a separate roll, the attacks do not stack. Unless you get into the barrage rules in High Guard.

Do I apply armor against the damage from each round, each attacker, each attack or against each weapon? Similarly, when do I total up the damage to find out how many hits the ship has suffered?

Armour effects each attack/weapon. So the armour gets deducted from each roll before damage is applied.

What are good complications I can throw at my players that won't destroy the ship and kill everyone?

Hull breach if they are in vacc suits. Disabled items, could be weapons, sensors, drives, grav plating. Could through in a computer malfunction.

Another ship showing up without the players knowing if they are friend or foe.

 

[Sevain]

Thanks for the answers. What is the 50 ton bay that shoots 12 missiles at once good against? How can anything take down the Gazelle Close Escort (armor 8) without nuclear missiles or particle beams?

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Armour 8 is supposed to be tough - especially for small ships!

Nuclear missiles, particle beams and pulse lasers all have a chance to penetrate. Note that in the rulebook the pulse laser is 1d6 and beam laser 2d6 but high guard updates some weapon profiles, changing the two weapons (and for some reason giving pulse lasers -2 DM to hit).

For larger vessels there's also bay weapons.

Trillion credit squadron introduces plasma cannons (2d6+4) and from high guard there are 5 dTon barbette mounts for particle beams, torpedoes and railguns.

As for missile bays, I'm not quite sure to be honest. But it's a way to overwhelm the defenses of the target, maximizing the chance to get at least a few hits.

 

[Reynard]

"(and for some reason giving pulse lasers -2 DM to hit). "

A pulse laser fires a short burst, high energy charge. It must hit a target dead on to deliver it's damage. A beam laser spreads itself for a longer duration to rake a target better to hit but also meaning the energy is dispersed.

 

[Infojunky]

How do turrets with multiple weapons work? The rules say each turret can fire only once during each round, but that I can fire every weapon in the turret. If I have multiple copies of the same weapon in a turret do I just add up the damage of all my weapons to my attack? Or do I roll a separate attack roll for each weapon? What happens if the weapons are not identical? If I can combine the damage of weapons in one turret to a single attack, can I do this with more than one turret?

Each weapon is a separate roll, the attacks do not stack. Unless you get into the barrage rules in High Guard.

The official answer on the number of Rolls per turret is either, roll once for the turret or roll for each weapon in the turret.

IMHO, Pulse lasers roll and do damage per Weapon (as do plasma weapons), while Beam lasers roll once for all beam lasers in the mount and apply damage together.

What are good complications I can throw at my players that won't destroy the ship and kill everyone?

Hull breach if they are in vacc suits. Disabled items, could be weapons, sensors, drives, grav plating. Could through in a computer malfunction.

Another ship showing up without the players knowing if they are friend or foe.

Ye Olde, Maintenance Failure, have the "Enginer" roll when each of the ships systems come online to see if they work, Note a Failure of the roll doesn't have to mean a complete failure, a Funny noise, A pop then a funny smell. Etc. etc...

 

[Sevain]

I have been trying to design a pirate group to threaten my players lately. What is the minimum firepower required to threaten a merchant freighter? A handful of torpedoes?

 

[Infojunky]

I have been trying to design a pirate group to threaten my players lately. What is the minimum firepower required to threaten a merchant freighter? A handful of torpedoes?

Depends, How well are your players armed?

I tend to arm my pirates with a medium to large up engined freighter modified to support 4 or 5 smallcraft. Said freighter will definitely have a Missile Launcher or two, the small craft will have reinforced hulls and a laser or two plus boarding equipment. The main idea is that the main ship attracts all the attention while the smallcraft sneak in and board.

 

[Sevain]

I have been trying to design a pirate group to threaten my players lately. What is the minimum firepower required to threaten a merchant freighter? A handful of torpedoes?

Depends, How well are your players armed?

I tend to arm my pirates with a medium to large up engined freighter modified to support 4 or 5 smallcraft. Said freighter will definitely have a Missile Launcher or two, the small craft will have reinforced hulls and a laser or two plus boarding equipment. The main idea is that the main ship attracts all the attention while the smallcraft sneak in and board.

They haven't gotten any ship scale weapon whatsoever so far, but the ship has 4 armor. I don't expect them to fight off the pirates, just to provide a threat if they mess up negotiations with a black market supplier.

The boarding craft are a cool idea. Can you use the clamp in High Guard to attach yourself to an unwilling target?

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

I have been trying to design a pirate group to threaten my players lately. What is the minimum firepower required to threaten a merchant freighter? A handful of torpedoes?

Depends, How well are your players armed?

I tend to arm my pirates with a medium to large up engined freighter modified to support 4 or 5 smallcraft. Said freighter will definitely have a Missile Launcher or two, the small craft will have reinforced hulls and a laser or two plus boarding equipment. The main idea is that the main ship attracts all the attention while the smallcraft sneak in and board.

They haven't gotten any ship scale weapon whatsoever so far, but the ship has 4 armor. I don't expect them to fight off the pirates, just to provide a threat if they mess up negotiations with a black market supplier.

The boarding craft are a cool idea. Can you use the clamp in High Guard to attach yourself to an unwilling target?

That does sound reasonable. After all, the docking clamp is designed to keep two craft together no matter what, so why not?

Semi-related: I guess every ship carrying external small craft would need docking clamps, right? Only the clamps weren't introduced until High Guard and all the basic ships came with the main rule book. Also, would two ships docked together normally be able to use any thrust at all without tearing away from each other?

 

[Reynard]

Do remember that any external craft, cargo pods or modules add to a ship's volume. A 100 ton ship with a 10 ton fighter acts as a 110 ton ship. That's why the corsair takes its prey into the 100 ton cargo bay rather than clamping it externally and having jump and thrust greatly reduced. Try combining the volumes of vessels and then recalculate jump and thrust based on whichever ship you designate the host based on its drives. It won't be pretty.

 

[Sevain]

ell, my idea was for pirates to fit a ship with Jump-2, that would clamp on to a target and immediately jump to a predetermined spot in deep space with reinforcements.

How many years in the future is Traveller?

 

[GypsyComet]

How many years in the future is Traveller?

By Earth reckoning, the year Mongoose Traveller is set in within the Third Imperium is around 5620 AD.

 

[Jeraa]

How many years in the future is Traveller?

By Earth reckoning, the year Mongoose Traveller is set in within the Third Imperium is around 5620 AD.

Specifically (according to the Solomani book from Mongoose) it is Imperial year 1105, which corresponds to 5626 AD.

 

[Reynard]

Sevain, you will need a ship with oversized jump and maybe maneuver along with the clamps and the maximum size of targets will be limited to the combined volumes. The Corsair already takes care of craft 100 tons or less. What you might try is a second ship that's pretty much a bridge, quarters and engines that follows the actual fighting ship. The Jump Carrier from Supplement 10: Merchants and Cruisers could fit the bill. A 1000 ton vessel able to haul up to 1000 tons of craft. It has no weapons or armor.

 

[AndrewW]

The Corsair already takes care of craft 100 tons or less.

If the ship dimensions fit within the cargo bay...

What you might try is a second ship that's pretty much a bridge, quarters and engines that follows the actual fighting ship. The Jump Carrier from Supplement 10: Merchants and Cruisers could fit the bill. A 1000 ton vessel able to haul up to 1000 tons of craft. It has no weapons or armor.

Depends on how far you want to jump. Can handle more then 1,000 tons if using a lower jump number.

 

[Reynard]

The Magic of Traveller, a 100 ton vessel fits in a 100 ton bay.

 

[AndrewW]

The Magic of Traveller, a 100 ton vessel fits in a 100 ton bay.

Not always, depends on the shape of the ship and the space available. The ship could be wider, narrower or taller then the available space. Note with Space Stations for the generic internal bay to fit most ships of that size it was made 3x, so a bay to dock a 100 ton ship is 300 tons.

 

[Reynard]

Oh I knew what I was talking about. Look at the Corsair's description in the Core rulebook. It has a 160 ton cargo bay. It goes on to say "the ship can accept a hundred -ton ship into its cargo bay". I'm sure this is an artifact from classic Traveller before clamps even though hangar space rules have been around a while. This is why I make light with the Magic of Traveller. Sometimes it's just a game, not an engineering exercise.

 

[AndrewW]

Oh I knew what I was talking about. Look at the Corsair's description in the Core rulebook. It has a 160 ton cargo bay. It goes on to say "the ship can accept a hundred -ton ship into its cargo bay". I'm sure this is an artifact from classic Traveller before clamps even though hangar space rules have been around a while. This is why I make light with the Magic of Traveller. Sometimes it's just a game, not an engineering exercise.

Which it can, but not all 100 ton ships will fit the dimensions. And wasn't intended as an engineering exercise.