Target their ventral weapons array!

[EldritchFire]

How would targetted attacks go for spaceships? Targeting hyperdrive/j-drive/m-drive to prevent a target from escaping or targeting weapons systems to prevent return fire are common enough tropes in sci-fi, but I don't see any rules for them in HG or the CRB.

I'm thinking something like this: Declare your target system, and suffer a bane on your attack roll. If you score a crit, it is applied to the targetted system.

Thoughts?

 

[Condottiere]

Called shot.

Though with the distances involved, that would be a trick shot especially if the opposing pilot is jinking about in all directions.

Seems like something a pursuit fighter could do.

 

[phavoc]

I agree with Condottiere here. Distances preclude making called shots at range. However small craft making a strafing run should be able to do so, and starships at adjacent ranges would be able to do so. You may be able to do it at close range, assuming that the target ship was large enough to do that against.

 

[EldritchFire]

Are there rules for called shots? I did a search of the PDF for 'called' and got nothing. Is there something I'm missing?

And while distance makes it impractical, I'm working on a Stargate hack, and the main armament of Earth ships is railguns, which have a very short range and thus called shots are possible.

 

[phavoc]

No, not official ones. Energy weapons would also allow for called shots. But they should really be restricted to a certain size ship and above, as smaller ships could me too nimble to allow for this. Some obvious exceptions would be engines if you were attacking from the rear. But Traveller has no facings as far as defenses or firing arcs go.

 

[Condottiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCpYqWAIwFA

Theoretically, you could programme missiles or torpedoes to identify and attack specific sections of the ship.

Beam lasers in turrets should make targetting easier.

Called shot comes out of the tradition that your character should be able to target critical areas, but probably not officially in Traveller.

 

[AndrewW]

Some obvious exceptions would be engines if you were attacking from the rear. But Traveller has no facings as far as defenses or firing arcs go.

Engines don't have to be located in the rear though.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[-Daniel-]

I could be wrong of course, but I suspect AndrewW was thinking of something a little more modern. :mrgreen:

 

[Condottiere]

I'm basing my Catalina class on that.

 

[-Daniel-]

I'm basing my Catalina class on that.

I am looking forward to seeing both the specs and the deck plan.

 

[phavoc]

Some obvious exceptions would be engines if you were attacking from the rear. But Traveller has no facings as far as defenses or firing arcs go.

Engines don't have to be located in the rear though.

Well, that's true. They do have to be rear-ward facing though (or mounted on gimbals).

However I don't recall any designs that have the engines in the front like the BV-141 you posted. Off the top of my head I can't recall any of the 'official' designs that way. Sure, it's possible (much like the BV-141). Just like it was possible to make a flying jeep back in the same period (http://i2.wp.com/militaryhistorynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/rotabuggy.jpg). That doesn't mean it's practical, or even the norm. There are exceptions to pretty much every rule. Which, in this case, the rule is that engines are at the rear of spaceships.

It's sad that the Germans spent all that creative energy supporting Hitler. I guess now the channel it into BMW's, Audi's and Mercedes. But man could they design and build some incredible aircraft for the day.

 

[Condottiere]

Too bad it's now wasted on diesel emission controls.

 

[-Daniel-]

Too bad it's now wasted on diesel emission controls.

Or how to fake out the tests to look like they are controlling the emissions. :wink:

 

[Condottiere]

It's an solution to the "problem" of reconnaissance, where the crew gets a very clear view to maybe two hundred twenty five degrees towards their right side, without having to take account of symmetry.

 

[Reynard]

Book 6: Scoundrel has some rules in the Piracy section (page 46) that may suffice for now. Maybe these will be updated and included in a future 2e book.

Attacking engines: Gunner+Dexterity, 1-6 minutes, Difficult (-2).

Called shot: Ships at Short or less attempt to make a called shots with direct-fire weapons.
Nominate a location on a target ship and roll to attack with a -2. If hit, roll on location
table as normal but moves one row up or down towards a desired location.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Some obvious exceptions would be engines if you were attacking from the rear. But Traveller has no facings as far as defenses or firing arcs go.

Engines don't have to be located in the rear though.

Well, that's true. They do have to be rear-ward facing though (or mounted on gimbals).

However I don't recall any designs that have the engines in the front like the BV-141 you posted. Off the top of my head I can't recall any of the 'official' designs that way. Sure, it's possible (much like the BV-141). Just like it was possible to make a flying jeep back in the same period (http://i2.wp.com/militaryhistorynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/rotabuggy.jpg). That doesn't mean it's practical, or even the norm. There are exceptions to pretty much every rule. Which, in this case, the rule is that engines are at the rear of spaceships.

It's sad that the Germans spent all that creative energy supporting Hitler. I guess now the channel it into BMW's, Audi's and Mercedes. But man could they design and build some incredible aircraft for the day.

The Venture Star from Avatar is one such starship.

 

[phavoc]

I was referring to Traveller starships. In other sci-fi settings it's the norm. The Commonwealth books by Foster (I think) have that, and one of Weber's series has ships being pulled by artificial black holes.

 

[Infojunky]

How would targeted attacks go for spaceships? Targeting hyperdrive/j-drive/m-drive to prevent a target from escaping or targeting weapons systems to prevent return fire are common enough tropes in sci-fi, but I don't see any rules for them in HG or the CRB.

I'm thinking something like this: Declare your target system, and suffer a bane on your attack roll. If you score a crit, it is applied to the targeted system.

Thoughts?

Well the Old School Traveller answer is you run Select in the computer and take a negative DM on the hit roll.

 

[GarethL]

A quick fix might be to utilise the target lock rules, allowing some sort of called shot by droppung the boon?

It should probably only be truly effective with precision weapons at short range. Explosive weapons might instead drift one or two spots towards the desired target on the crit chart?