Ship's weaponry and law level

mb345345

Banded Mongoose
Just going through the various black market purchase rules and I'm just wondering where ship's weapons fits in here. A ship can buy a reload of missiles for their ship, presumably without issue (not sure about nuclear!) but a machinegun is possibly restricted? Do ships have an exemption (since they're under Imperium rule rather than local law level). But if this is the case, how far does it go? Can I have a battleship built, decked out with insane weapons? I'm also then wondering where say, a Megacorp fits in. Are they allowed to build what they like? If I've missed canon here, just point me at the right book :)
 
Spinal weapons and similarly high-end stuff is navy-only in the Imperium. Sub-capital grade stuff may be okay, but in that case it's going to come down to how officialdom perceives the need, and for the typical Traveller group that means that a handful of relatively standard turrets are probably okay (especially if the ship has to make regular trips into dangerous areas like the Reach or the Extents), but anything more than that will draw very hard questions and almost certainly a hard no as well.

If they're part of a group where somewhat larger/better-armed ships would be expected, such as a mercenary company, then there'd be a bit more leeway, but it'll still be pretty limited.

Megacorps probably stick to small-to-mid sized ships most of the time since their main interest is economic, and trying to build big stuff is both cost-inefficient and likely to bring navy officials to their door. Nobles might occasionally have a decomissioned naval vessel as a vanity project, but in that case it will be stripped of all naval-grade stuff and essentially function as a high-class liner or the like. Impressive to look at, and certainly nothing that a pirate would want to mess with, but nothing that would compete with proper naval assets.

Outside of the Imperium it'll depend a lot more on local custom and power structures. Organized and law-minded places probably won't be much different than the Imperium is, while in a place like the Extents it's mostly a matter of what you can get away with before the local leadership starts looking at you as a threat.
 
OK, let's take the laws of the Third Imperium as a baseline.
We know that spinal weapons are the preserve of the Imperial Navy. That goes back to when Azhanti High Lightning was released and we found out that the Oberlindes flagship Emissary cannot reenter the Imperium because Marc Oberlindes somehow purchased an obsolescent cruiser with it's full armament. The government ruled that the purchase itself was just barely legal but that the ship may not operate in the Imperium with it's armament intact. Emissary operates exclusively in the Vargr Extents, mostly in Gvurrdon Sector.

We also know that nuclear missiles are absolutely verboten unless a ship is operating as an Imperial Navy Auxiliary in wartime. The Imperial Rules of War have very few hard boundaries, but 'Thou Shalt Not Possess WMDs' is one of them. How stringently that rule is followed depends on YTU. IMTU, it's VERY strictly followed. Naval Auxiliaries are issued nukes on a serial number by serial number basis and they are accounted for the same way. Possession of nuclear weaponry outside of governmental service is a crime under Imperial High Law.

Certain other systems may or may not be regulated as your TU requires. MTU is alright with turreted and barbette weaponry, but requires bay weapons to be licensed, usually as starmercs [that is mercenary warships]
 
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Depends on whether you're at a pirate haven.

Within the Imperium, even at law level zero, I would say that spacecraft weapons with radiation would be controlled.

Very few commercial or private vessels are constructed with weapon bays, and if it gets publicly known, viewed with askance.

Megacorporations can easily commission paramilitary vessels, since their operations could easily demonstrate a need for them.

Planetary governments have a somewhat limited sovereignty, but enough to have starwarships upto battleship classes in their order of battle.
 
I was going to mention the Emissary thing, but ottarrus beat me to it.

On radiation weapons, there's nothing in the rule book that says an elephant can't play ball particle accelerators aren't allowed, but I would be real cautious about a particle beam gun or a fusion gun on any civilian ship.
 
Civilian ships in the OTU are limited to the weapons detailed in LBB:2
Military vessels in the OTU can have any of the weapon systems found in High Guard 79/80

The Mongoose ATU Third Imperium has seen fit to introduce new weapon systems...
 
Civilian ships in the OTU are limited to the weapons detailed in LBB:2
Military vessels in the OTU can have any of the weapon systems found in High Guard 79/80

But was that ever explicitly stated in High Guard or elsewhere?

Agreed that High Guard is the system intended for building large warships and capital ships as opposed to the commercial/civilian & small combatant ship system of LBB:2, but it is also clear from High Guard that the HG system was intended to be used for the building and statting-out of non-military vessels of various sizes as well. I would think that if this is the case, weapons restrictions should be mentioned somewhere more clearly in the text or in follow-up publications (such as the Emissary example mentioned above). The only examples of restrictions I can clearly remember from CT are the Spinal Mount and/or Meson Gun restriction, and the restriction on nuclear devices.

(Third party publishers back in the day obviously went beyond the LBB:2 limits; whether they should have or not is a different issue).
 
But was that ever explicitly stated in High Guard or elsewhere?

Agreed that High Guard is the system intended for building large warships and capital ships as opposed to the commercial/civilian & small combatant ship system of LBB:2, but it is also clear from High Guard that the HG system was intended to be used for the building and statting-out of non-military vessels of various sizes as well. I would think that if this is the case, weapons restrictions should be mentioned somewhere more clearly in the text or in follow-up publications (such as the Emissary example mentioned above). The only examples of restrictions I can clearly remember from CT are the Spinal Mount and/or Meson Gun restriction, and the restriction on nuclear devices.

(Third party publishers back in the day obviously went beyond the LBB:2 limits; whether they should have or not is a different issue).
Back in the day, High Guard was intended to stat up capital ships and to provide a deeper exploration of starship combat.
The basic thumbnail was 'anything over 1000 tons uses High Guard'.

As for the legalities of the various Traveller starship weapons rules, much of it is IYTU guess-timates. The only canon no-nos are spinal mounts and nukes. Like most posters, MTU includes fusion turrets/barbettes because of radiation effects and all bay weapons must be owned and licensed by a bonded mercenary outfit. But YTUMV.
 
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Civilian ships in the OTU are limited to the weapons detailed in LBB:2
Military vessels in the OTU can have any of the weapon systems found in High Guard 79/80

The Mongoose ATU Third Imperium has seen fit to introduce new weapon systems...
Sorry I'm pretty new to Traveller this time round. Can you tell me what LBB:2 is? Thanks
 
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