Supplement 8: Power Armour

[DFW]

You obviously never played Classic Traveller before the 3I was invented. And if you look at the description of Battle Dress, it fits in quite well next to Veritech Cyclones (without the ability to transform).

I was probably playing while you were in diapers. :lol:

What I'm referring to is huge anthropomorphic, manned battle bots. So which Original LBB ('77) are you referring to? Still got my 1st printing ones in the attic.

 

[Imeanunoharm]

I am not sure where powered armour ends and mecha begins

Surely it ends where you can't put your limbs in the limbs of the suit, and you end up using different controls and sitting in a "pod"?

 

[DFW]

I am not sure where powered armour ends and mecha begins

Surely it ends where you can't put your limbs in the limbs of the suit, and you end up using different controls and sitting in a "pod"?

That's what I envision it as too. Well put.

 

[TC]

Gee, we had walkers and other kinds of large mecha type machines in 78, before we saw any manga or anime with them, aside from the Live Action Gigantic Robo stuff. I guess we were off the beaten path, playing a game that had no background and we could make up the universe we played in........oh wait, that was the LBB's.

For the record, you cannot make a small walker using the vehicle rules as written. Not one with any armour or weapons anyway.

If you want mechs done well and flexible designs, I'd suggest Mekton Z. Fuzion is flexible enough a system for it. Scales nicely and cleanly.

AND FOR THE RECORD, HUNT DOWN AND KILL THE GREMLINS RESPONCIBLE FOR DELAYING THIS YET AGAIN! GRRRRRRRRRR

 

[TC]

Oh and for completeness, Battletech, original version, was house ruled traveller based, LBB derived.

 

[vitalis6969]

I am not sure where powered armour ends and mecha begins

Surely it ends where you can't put your limbs in the limbs of the suit, and you end up using different controls and sitting in a "pod"?

Well put sir, well put.

-V

 

[danbuter]

You obviously never played Classic Traveller before the 3I was invented. And if you look at the description of Battle Dress, it fits in quite well next to Veritech Cyclones (without the ability to transform).

I was probably playing while you were in diapers. :lol:

What I'm referring to is huge anthropomorphic, manned battle bots. So which Original LBB ('77) are you referring to? Still got my 1st printing ones in the attic.

What I'm referring to is your insistence that Traveller should conform to 3I standards. I think that is a terrible idea. The 3I is not a very good setting, and trapping the rules with it is a bad idea.

Also, you must be really old if I was still in diapers :twisted: .

 

[DFW]

What I'm referring to is your insistence that Traveller should conform to 3I standards.

I'am still waiting for you to point out the CT rules (prior to 3I) that have these
devices...

 

[atpollard]

At the risk of derailing the circular argument, let me interject some thoughts (and definitions):

Traveller: A rules mechanic licensed and published by Mongoose to support a family of Sci-fi games.

The Third Imperium: A specific 'Traveller' setting first created by MWM and now published by Mongoose.

Personally, I am not a really big fan of even Battledress in the Third Imperium ... so Mecha are just too over the top.

... BUT, MgT Military Vehicles includes rules for Walkers and there are fans of the whole Mecha concept. So why can't Hammer's Slammers battle giant suits of power armor? The lower end of the battledress scale could fit in the Third Imperium and Mecha could fit in other Traveller Sci-fi universes.

The real issue is how good are the rules?
(and that must wait until they are released to be argued over.)

 

[Treebore]

Yep, the Traveller I know and love says to use the rules to run the sci fi game you have envisioned, not to be locked into the Third Imperium or any other "official" setting.

I do what I want, what I think is cool, and we had fun, so I did it well enough.

 

[TC]

DFW if your games are strictly limited to whats in the LBB's for gear and weapons and armour, I think you are in the minority of homebrew TU runners or players. Every traveller game I've ever played, even the mostly OTU ones house ruled variant tech and gear of one kind or another.

 

[apoc527]

I'm already at the point where "Traveller" doesn't have anything to do with the Third Imperium. I could care less who Strephon is or whether and when he was (or was not) assassinated.

I expect to be using MGT for a lot of games in the near and farther future, but I'd be shocked if any of them involved the 3I. That said, I may use 3I source material, like Reft Sector or the Spinward Marches...but the OTU is just that--a setting, not "Traveller."

 

[zero]

I also just use whatever I feel and run a generic space sci-fi game. I dont homebrew anything and all the ships and gear is the same, but I just have worlds as drop-off points for their ship (which is the main setting/location of the game, you could call it a serious version of Red Dwarf).

I just use what I think is cool and workable. At the moment the ship is on a commision from a Mr. Weylan to go to a certain planet for a job and he'll pay a month's worth of mortgage, maintenance and life support before blast off because of the secluded nature of the world. Sounds like a cushy deal, but... :roll:

 

[atpollard]

Umm, the topic is Powered Armor. :wink:

 

[DFW]

DFW if your games are strictly limited to whats in the LBB's for gear and weapons and armour,

Hardly. They are generally limited to logical sci-fi equipment. No star ships with wings that flap, that sort of thing. I simply use, form follows function. Others take a more fantasy (A supposition resting on no solid grounds; a whimsical or visionary notion or speculation)  world approach. It's a matter of genre is all.

 

[TC]

In our current world there are ongoing R&D projects for walkers, support frames, walking support robots, etc.. All that is around the corner in the here and now. What is so hard to envision about larger and bulkier battle armour? One of the background memes of the 3I is that there are regional tech variences. Under that vague idea, walkers, and I'm not talking Giant Robo here, but things up to perhaps the size of the SW AT scout walker. I do not see that size range as being remotely suspender snapping in a OTU with AG, Jump Drive, FGMP's etc.

The key to all Sci-Fi gizmos is to provide a reasonable specialized niche for the varient tech to exist in. It's the 57th century, have a sense of wonder creep in from time to time.

YMMV
Have Fun, Play Traveller, That is All, Move Along Citizen.

 

[DFW]

What is so hard to envision about larger and bulkier battle armour?

You need to read the whole thread. I didn't say I had a problem with larger & bulkier battle armour.

 

[vitalis6969]

What is so hard to envision about larger and bulkier battle armour?

Are you talking large and bulky battle armor or mecha/walkers?

There is a difference IMHO. A very big difference.

-V

 

[DFW]

What is so hard to envision about larger and bulkier battle armour?

Are you talking large and bulky battle armor or mecha/walkers?

There is a difference IMHO. A very big difference.

-V

Yep, one is personal armor, the other, a tank designed to LOOK like personal armor.

 

[TC]

What is so hard to envision about larger and bulkier battle armour?

Are you talking large and bulky battle armor or mecha/walkers?

There is a difference IMHO. A very big difference.

-V

All a matter of scale really. A small walker/mech can fill a role as exploration or construction/demolition/emergency rescue equipment. I referenced the Starwars AT Scout at being at the outer lip of what I'd see as agreeable in a 3I setting, and that on a TL 8-9 world or area that for whatever reasons do not employ grav tech widely. Perhaps the local group is deficient in an element vital to grav-tech. It's all handwave anyway.