Sandcaster Effectiveness

[DigitalMage]

I am just going over some of the rules with a fine toothcomb and I have a couple of questions about sandcasters.

Do Sandcasters protect against Pulse Lasers?

Do they protect against Particle Beams?

The reason I ask is that the Sandcaster description on page 111 states:
Sandcasters are defensive weapons; they dispense small particles which counteract the strength of lasers and protect the ship. A sandcaster reduces the damage from a beam weapon by 1d6.

So are they limited to just lasers (in which case Particle Beam weapons should be unaffected) and / or limited to just beam weapons (in which case the Pulse Laser should be unaffected)?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Sand caster do protect against Pulse and Beam Lasers; both are lasers.

It says Beam Weapons and I have always interpreted that to mean Partcle Beams too. Others do not use that interpretation. It is really up to you to decide how powerful you want your Sand to be.

Another option is to not allow it to affect PAWs, but have a different kind of Sand (see HG for other options) that can affect PAWs, but at a higher cost.

 

[DigitalMage]

It is really up to you to decide how powerful you want your Sand to be.

Unfortunately with Living Traveller coming up a consistent ruling may be needed, I think for now I may use it just against Lasers but it will be interesting if this comes up in a LT game.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

You may find the thread "Pulse lasers, beam lasers and particle beams" interesting.

Egil

 

[rinku]

The original High Guard rules classed beam weapons as lasers (both types), plasma and fusion weapons. All were resisted by sand, though energy weapons got a +2 to penetrate. Particle weapons were not classed as beam weapons or resisted by any factor except armour. As far as I can determine the term "beam weapons" as a class originated in High Guard (in basic Traveller the rules just refer to lasers, even to the exent of "Laser Fire" phases).

So for OT, it's crystal clear. The problem is, however, that MGT refers to "beam" weapons in several contexts:

* Sand affects "beam" weapons
* The sequence that relates to rolling to hit for direct fire weapons is called "Firing Beam Weapons"
* One of the laser types is called a "beam" laser

However, the MGT High Guard states in the rules for Barrage attacks that sand protects vs lasers and missiles fired from medium range or longer. To confuse things further, railguns and sandcasters used offensively (which can hardly be considered "beam" weapons) use the "Firing Beam Weapons" rules to hit for normal space combat.

Since MGT High Guard modifies other aspects of basic space combat, my take is to use its rules to clarify the confusion in the basic set. To whit:

Sand can be used in point defense vs Lasers and missiles fired from medium range or longer.

Remove the references to sand working vs "beam" weapons.

 

[DigitalMage]

Sand can be used in point defense vs Lasers and missiles fired from medium range or longer.

Remove the references to sand working vs "beam" weapons.

Thanks for that summary! AS I don't own HIgh Guard and the core book makes no reference to Sand being used against Missiles I will not muddy the waters with that - however I do feel more comfortable saying that Sand only affect lasers (pulse or beam).

Cheers!