Thanks for input!
Andrewmoreton said:
Not something I have tried , this game
https://www.fiddleback.me/transit
Is based around the concept although in it's settings the ships are AI's . So you may be able to get some ideas from it
I'll have a look. That sounds quite interesting - makes me think of various Ian M Banks books, which is always a good start.
Annatar Giftbringer said:
I’m guessing the players will sometimes deploy and play as sophont characters as well, so they’ll probably have one each ‘proper’ character, or perhaps just pick the one that the situation needs?
If the crews are generated as normal characters, their combined skill package together with the ship’s stats should work kinda the same as a traditional character regarding skill checks etc.
If my ship has a primary gunner with gunner(turret)/3 and he’s stationed in a triple laser turret it would play out like if one character has gun combat/3, and so on.
Sounds fun, good luck and please let us know how it goes!
Kind of. I wasn't wanting a huge roster of crew, so I was probably going to work with the way hired crew is modelled in Pirates of Drinax - that you have a supply of warm bodies from the naval Bureau Of Supplying The Wrong Stuff Late as required with DM+1 for their 'core' job and DM+0 if forced to do someone else's. Your 'captain' would be the only person I'd suggest making a full character for, unless you acquire a specific 'competent' individual whose fate is worth tracking. I hadn't been planning on including much off-ship stuff, and boarding actions would be largely done using the absract method - i.e. did the players bother allowing space specifically for an armoury and/or some quarters specifically for some marines, etc.
ottarrus said:
Well, I've never done it, but I have some idea input if you think it'll help.
First thing, I suggest that you find a source on Traveller Imperial Navy operations and how the fleets are deployed. My suggestion is 'Sector Fleet' by MJD. It's the most in-depth discussion of the Imperial Navy I've ever seen in 45 years of Traveller.
My next comments are based on the information from 'Sector Fleet'. Take it with a grain of salt if you have a different model for the IN.
1] There aren't a lot of close escorts that are deployed as squadrons. If a CE is in a battle where capital ships are present, it's just a puppy at a Hell-hound convention. Those little PA popguns aren't even gonna scrape the paint on a cruiser.
Because of this, CE's are normally deployed on patrol and convoy escort duty. A wartime convoy escort would consist of a destroyer or destroyer escort as the flag ship and perhaps 3 CE's as the sheepdogs. But those missions can get to be a real drag after two or three repetitions.
2] Destroyers and DE's [1000 to 5000 dtons] are often used as patrol assets on vital trade routes, show the flag missions, and scouts for a large fleet action. Again, with major capital ships on the field, survivability is an issue.
3] Light Cruisers [10k - 50k dtons] are the most likely vessels deployed as a whole squadron in wartime... they aren't packing the gear to go solo vs. a battle cruiser armed with a heavy 'varmint gun' spinal mount. But they're also far cheaper to produce and operate than the heavy cruisers. This means there are more squadrons of them running around.
I think I've read the MGT version of sector fleet; as noted it's got a lot of good stuff in there.
My thoughts was around a subsector fleet precisely becuase it tends to be built at TL12-13 and have a lot of wierd and wonderful local designs as well as the odd decomissioned imperial fleet ship, so there's a lot more scope for players to design their own ships (which largely replaces character creation) but still leaves room for a suitably gleeful reaction at being assigned higher TL toys - if, say, the squadron was supplied a few containers of ASM-62s from the local imperial fleet depot for a critical mission; a launcher suddenly being loaded with TL15 advanced missiles instead of TL12 standard rounds is likely to lead to a very happy player....
And yes, they would not be going into a battleline against kilodton imperial capital ships. The sight of anything with spinal mounts should provoke the reaction
"run away!!!!!"
I was seeing them as either a scoutron; yes, occasional escort duty (attached to someone else depending on the size of convoy) but also poking around systems in no-mans land, deploying probe drones and mines, tracking down and jumping supply convoys, maybe bushwhacking fuelling launches and deploying commando teams if they have appropriate atmospheric capability.
Obviously there's the potential if a campaign runs on long enough to get 'promoted' and the party get re-equipped with heavier ships that can actually achieve something on a battlefield.