Traveller for Pulp Space Opera

[amacris]

Hello! I've read here and there about folks using Traveller outside of the OTU to run games set in environments like Star Wars, Dune, or Flash Gordon. I am looking for a few pointers or ideas on how folks have tackled conversion in the past:

1. How did you (or would you) handle Luke Skywalker-esque character advancement in Traveller? It seems impossible to implement with the rules-as-written.

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history? My ideas:
a) Have the terms be 1d4 years long instead of 4 years long
b) Allow players to shorten the length of the term by 1 or more years, and get +1 on advancement, in exchange for taking a penalty of 1 or more on your Survival roll

3. How did you (or would you) handle Star Wars/Star Trek-like energy shields on starships? Sandcasters make physical sense, but they simply aren't genre-appropriate for the sort of setting I imagine.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres. I know that most Traveller gamers avoid combat; our group likes combat. Has anyone experimented with house rules to help the highly-skilled survive? Some ideas I've had:
a) "Gun Combat" includes training in dodging as well as shooting (like Equilibrium's Gun Kata), so when you dodge you apply your Gun Combat skill as a negative DM to the attacker
b) As above, but Athletics
c) Allow an "Active Dodge" where you roll a skill (Athletics?) 8+, applying the Effect as a negative DM
d) Some sort of "Toughness" skill that subtracts from all damage (like innate armor?)
I'd like to avoid any sort of "Hero Point" system as I find that simply creates a resource-management subgame with a Hero Point economy. I'm looking for a solution that works within the existing ability scores and framework.

I know that Traveller is not a perfect fit for this genre, but it's such a superior set of rules with such breadth of material that I'd like to use it if I can. Thanks for any advice.

 

[hdan]

Good questions! Here are some thoughts:

1. How did you (or would you) handle Luke Skywalker-esque character advancement in Traveller? It seems impossible to implement with the rules-as-written.

I'd start him off with one term of "Colonist" or something, and make sure he has very high stats in Dex and Psy, and possibly a decent Edu (to cover his "level 0" training as a farmer). His "mishap" would be Ep IV, so he'd get Pilot-1, Mechanic-0 and that's about it. If you use the experience rules, characters with few skills can learn new ones pretty fast. Obi Wan can train him in Melee(energy blade) and his first level of Psionics. Yoda will train him more. You'll need to add some gaps in time, but if you follow Traveller's "1 week jump" convention, then Luke might have time to train to Melee-0 (1 week since his skill total is 1) in the jump to Alderaan.

You'll need to eyeball it though, and maybe start him off with more level 0 skills to begin with.

Yoda's intense training course could probably be viewed as taking considerably less time than normal. Maybe 1/2 or 1/4. On the other hand, Luke appeared to have been on Dagobah for quite a while, so maybe the usual rules could apply.

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history? My ideas:
a) Have the terms be 1d4 years long instead of 4 years long
b) Allow players to shorten the length of the term by 1 or more years, and get +1 on advancement, in exchange for taking a penalty of 1 or more on your Survival roll

That one is trickier. I'd simulate it with Jack of All Trades-1, a few well-chosen starting "level 0" skills from their background, and an interrupted first term. (You get skills, but no Mustering benefits - in both cases, those guys weren't exactly loaded with gear.)

3. How did you (or would you) handle Star Wars/Star Trek-like energy shields on starships? Sandcasters make physical sense, but they simply aren't genre-appropriate for the sort of setting I imagine.

Probably I'd treat them like other screens - they reduce damage by 2d. I'd probably add a 1d version that was 1/2 the price&size so that smaller ships can have them. If you want all ships to have shields, then come up with something, maybe based on armor costs (shields that act like unpredictable armor? Hmmm).

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres. I know that most Traveller gamers avoid combat; our group likes combat. Has anyone experimented with house rules to help the highly-skilled survive? Some ideas I've had:
a) "Gun Combat" includes training in dodging as well as shooting (like Equilibrium's Gun Kata), so when you dodge you apply your Gun Combat skill as a negative DM to the attacker
b) As above, but Athletics
c) Allow an "Active Dodge" where you roll a skill (Athletics?) 8+, applying the Effect as a negative DM
d) Some sort of "Toughness" skill that subtracts from all damage (like innate armor?)
I'd like to avoid any sort of "Hero Point" system as I find that simply creates a resource-management subgame with a Hero Point economy. I'm looking for a solution that works within the existing ability scores and framework.

I like your option (c), since it evokes the right feel for the "scene".

I'd also allow easier damage recovery. Like maybe "all non-zeroed stats are returned to full after a combat", but that only works if you insist (and I think MgT does) that all damage comes off one stat at a time.

As a pulpy alternative, you could say that unless player characters takes END worth of damage in one hit, they can ignore it. In effect, END+Armor becomes the threshold to "drop" a character, and the amount of damage you do over that will determine how much recovery is required. (A weapon hits a 777 guy with Cloth for 20 points and zeroes two stats - he's not dead, but he's going to need surgery. That same guy hit for only 10 points would just shrug it off.

 

[F33D]

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history? My ideas:

Without the "Force" Luke is just a guy who learned Pilot-1 early. Captain Kirk is a 4 year Academy grad with REALLY high Int & Edu scores. (In my game he would also have a 12 in Wil (Willpower).

Not much else to consider really other than the "Force".

 

[amacris]

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history? My ideas:

Captain Kirk is a 4 year Academy grad with REALLY high Int & Edu scores. (In my game he would also have a 12 in Wil (Willpower).

That one is trickier. I'd simulate it with Jack of All Trades-1, a few well-chosen starting "level 0" skills from their background, and an interrupted first term. (You get skills, but no Mustering benefits - in both cases, those guys weren't exactly loaded with gear.)

When I was referencing Captain Kirk, I didn't mean the JJ Abrams version of Kirk, I meant the Original Series version of Kirk. Kirk is supposed to be around 34 years old in The Original Series, meaning he's just finished his 4th term. Insofar as I can tell, Traveller simply precludes such a character with having reached the rank of Captain. I was wondering if anyone had experimented with shorter terms to explain how someone might "race through the ranks" as it were.

 

[amacris]

I'd start him off with one term of "Colonist" or something, and make sure he has very high stats in Dex and Psy, and possibly a decent Edu (to cover his "level 0" training as a farmer). His "mishap" would be Ep IV, so he'd get Pilot-1, Mechanic-0 and that's about it. If you use the experience rules, characters with few skills can learn new ones pretty fast. Obi Wan can train him in Melee(energy blade) and his first level of Psionics. Yoda will train him more. You'll need to add some gaps in time, but if you follow Traveller's "1 week jump" convention, then Luke might have time to train to Melee-0 (1 week since his skill total is 1) in the jump to Alderaan.

Thanks very much for the feedback. So your sense is that, within the Traveller framework, skills should genuinely be left to represents years of experience rather than in some way adjusting the framework to provide more skills at an earlier age to folks like Luke.

Where are the experience rules you are referencing? I've looked in vain for them. :-|

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts?
c) Allow an "Active Dodge" where you roll a skill (Athletics?) 8+, applying the Effect as a negative DM

I like your option (c), since it evokes the right feel for the "scene".

I'd also allow easier damage recovery. Like maybe "all non-zeroed stats are returned to full after a combat", but that only works if you insist (and I think MgT does) that all damage comes off one stat at a time.

As a pulpy alternative, you could say that unless player characters takes END worth of damage in one hit, they can ignore it. In effect, END+Armor becomes the threshold to "drop" a character, and the amount of damage you do over that will determine how much recovery is required. (A weapon hits a 777 guy with Cloth for 20 points and zeroes two stats - he's not dead, but he's going to need surgery. That same guy hit for only 10 points would just shrug it off.

Thanks, those are all really good ideas.

 

[AndrewW]

Where are the experience rules you are referencing? I've looked in vain for them. :-|

Core Rulebook page 59:

"Learning New Skills"

Can also look at Book: 1 Mercenary page 38:

Instruction skill.

 

[F33D]

When I was referencing Captain Kirk, I didn't mean the JJ Abrams version of Kirk, I meant the Original Series version of Kirk. Kirk is supposed to be around 34 years old in The Original Series, meaning he's just finished his 4th term. Insofar as I can tell, Traveller simply precludes such a character with having reached the rank of Captain. I was wondering if anyone had experimented with shorter terms to explain how someone might "race through the ranks" as it were.

I have no idea who JJ Abrams is. I grew up watching the show in the 60's. With the right rolls, I think you could hit O6 using HG. Just see what rolls would be required.

 

[amacris]

Thanks, both of you.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Hello! I've read here and there about folks using Traveller outside of the OTU to run games set in environments like Star Wars, Dune, or Flash Gordon. I am looking for a few pointers or ideas on how folks have tackled conversion in the past:

1. How did you (or would you) handle Luke Skywalker-esque character advancement in Traveller? It seems impossible to implement with the rules-as-written.

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history? My ideas:
a) Have the terms be 1d4 years long instead of 4 years long
b) Allow players to shorten the length of the term by 1 or more years, and get +1 on advancement, in exchange for taking a penalty of 1 or more on your Survival roll

3. How did you (or would you) handle Star Wars/Star Trek-like energy shields on starships? Sandcasters make physical sense, but they simply aren't genre-appropriate for the sort of setting I imagine.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres. I know that most Traveller gamers avoid combat; our group likes combat. Has anyone experimented with house rules to help the highly-skilled survive? Some ideas I've had:
a) "Gun Combat" includes training in dodging as well as shooting (like Equilibrium's Gun Kata), so when you dodge you apply your Gun Combat skill as a negative DM to the attacker
b) As above, but Athletics
c) Allow an "Active Dodge" where you roll a skill (Athletics?) 8+, applying the Effect as a negative DM
d) Some sort of "Toughness" skill that subtracts from all damage (like innate armor?)
I'd like to avoid any sort of "Hero Point" system as I find that simply creates a resource-management subgame with a Hero Point economy. I'm looking for a solution that works within the existing ability scores and framework.

I know that Traveller is not a perfect fit for this genre, but it's such a superior set of rules with such breadth of material that I'd like to use it if I can. Thanks for any advice.

1. Without "the force" Luke Skywalker is a competent pilot from a colonist background. No trouble there. If you add "the force" to your game, then work up career table for Jedi Warriors. Some kind of psi-warrior with some additional abilities and skills should cover it.
2. The obvious way to create very specific, high skilled, characters (Kirk etc) would be to use the points system to build a character, but allow significantly more points than the RAW suggest.
3. For Star Wars, treating energy shields as per RAW would work fine, though I think you would have to allow smaller shield on fighters etc. For Star Trek, a lot of Trek equipment seems to be beyond TL15, perhaps a radical overhaul of ship design and weapons would be required.
4. Any of your suggestions would do the job, you just have to make sure that only the PCs, and perhaps certain select baddies, have those advantages. Trav deliberately doesn't allow some characters to become level 10 super heroes, while everyone else, especially most NPCs, remains level 0 cannon fodder, in a way it is a kind of game balance.

Trav combat is designed to not be like Flash Gordon, Star Wars and most other sci-fi movies. Trav combat can be deadly, but mainly to those who run around in the open or otherwise start behaving like rambo, the trick is to have good armour, use cover, move tactically, and not be afraid to retreat. Try to avoid being outnumbered and/or out gunned, if you find yourself in that situation, move out very quickly.

Egil

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Hello! I've read here and there about folks using Traveller outside of the OTU to run games set in environments like Star Wars, Dune, or Flash Gordon. I am looking for a few pointers or ideas on how folks have tackled conversion in the past:

1. How did you (or would you) handle Luke Skywalker-esque character advancement in Traveller? It seems impossible to implement with the rules-as-written.

Play him as a farm boy character in a few game sessions. Then have him age 4 years and learn some career skills. Play some more game sessions with him. Then have him age 4 more years and learn even more skills. Play more game sessions.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts?

Hollywood action combat does not work in Traveller. It's more like Saving Private Ryan, Battle Los Angeles, or Full Metal Jacket combat. Except that weapons and armor don't degrade. If you want to play shoot 'em up games with just band-aide wounds, then add in skills like Melee(Block), Melee(Duck), Gun Combat(Dodge), Explosives(Out-Run), Athletics(Jump), Athletics(Hang On), Athletics(Swing). Note: these are all movie combat/fight maneuvers your players will want to use.

 

[Fovean]

I was wondering if anyone had experimented with shorter terms to explain how someone might "race through the ranks" as it were.

Since you're talking exceptional characters like Kirk and Skywalker, you could try a (player's choice) negative DM to survival that allows additional advancement rolls. For instance, the player takes a DM-2 on survival (which is likely mitigated by an appropriate higher-than-average stat/characteristic for pulpy characters like these) and if they succeed they get 2 extra advancement rolls for that term (or just one if they miss the roll by 1 but they'd still have to roll a Mishap IMO). They could get extra skill rolls too, since advancing in rank allows an extra skill. Keeps the 4-year structure and doesn't give it all away but allows them to advance quickly if they have mettle (and luck).

 

[locarno24]

3. How did you (or would you) handle Star Wars/Star Trek-like energy shields on starships? Sandcasters make physical sense, but they simply aren't genre-appropriate for the sort of setting I imagine.

High Guard reinforced hull. It adds extra hit points that can be abraded by normal gunfire, but still allows hits to 'flash through' and cause external damage.

I've used a couple of house rule versions where this was developed more, but that's the best currently-in-the-rules option for shields which stop damage dead then burn out (star trek/star wars shield style) rather than stay on indefinitely but just reduce the impact (harrington sidewall style)

Essentially, an internal component which is a % of ships volume per shield point.

Adds an extra set of shield hit points which must be dropped first.

Hits against the shields are worked out at an armour value equal to the TL of the shield generator (which defined its price).

Shields do not recover within the timescale of a battle

If a ship takes enough damage to overload its remaining shields in a single hit or barrage, any surplus damage does not carry over to the hull. Any subsequent hits in the same volley strike the hull and their damage versus the ship's normal armour value is worked out as normal.


We've done clone wars games - the main advantage there is that Jedi come with psion/awareness skills, which makes dodging gunfire quite doable.

For games where you want PCs to have a notable edge over equivalent opponents, you can tweak the main rules to give them boosts, but Traveller is a pretty simplistic rules-set and there are only so many options for tweaking without rewriting the bloody thing from scratch. My advice - make your players awesome by making the bad guys inept. Make traveller PCs stats much better in a 2D6 system and dice rolls become a formality without high skill penalties - in which case why bother. But no rule says that the theoretically 'equivalent opponent' actually has to be. You're probably better off whacking penalties on the enemies than bonuses to the good guys.

 

[CosmicGamer]

For 1 and 2. The Traveller chargen is designed somewhat as a simulation with tendencies toward creating average characters while the extremes to either end are still possible.

Are you
1) Looking to trying to determine the characteristics and skills that would model certain characters like Kirk and Skywalker so that you can role play these specific characters?
2) Looking to alter chargen such that the tendancy is for all characters come out with the higher characteristics and skill you feel would better represent the heros from movies from which your setting comes from?
3) Looking for options with the current chargen that support having some control to ensure characters come out at the extremes you think they would have instead of being just random.

I've got ideas for all of these. I tend to try and work within the rules and standard options within them rather than making a bunch of changes that might need a bunch of play testing and tweaking before getting it right. See my next comment.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres.

A simple way might be to just make your hero characters (including bad guy heroes) more difficult to hit (and thus taking less damage too) and the run of the mill fodder troops that get mowed down can be easier to hit (and thus taking more damage too) via the games built in task difficulty rules instead of completely reworking combat?

 

[amacris]

For 1 and 2. The Traveller chargen is designed somewhat as a simulation with tendencies toward creating average characters while the extremes to either end are still possible.

Are you
1) Looking to trying to determine the characteristics and skills that would model certain characters like Kirk and Skywalker so that you can role play these specific characters?
2) Looking to alter chargen such that the tendancy is for all characters come out with the higher characteristics and skill you feel would better represent the heros from movies from which your setting comes from?
3) Looking for options with the current chargen that support having some control to ensure characters come out at the extremes you think they would have instead of being just random.

I've got ideas for all of these. I tend to try and work within the rules and standard options within them rather than making a bunch of changes that might need a bunch of play testing and tweaking before getting it right. See my next comment.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres.

A simple way might be to just make your hero characters (including bad guy heroes) more difficult to hit (and thus taking less damage too) and the run of the mill fodder troops that get mowed down can be easier to hit (and thus taking more damage too) via the games built in task difficulty rules instead of completely reworking combat?

Thanks for the response. To answer your question, let me differentiate between two different ways of achieving characters with "heroic" combat abilities:

1. Heroic combat ability emerges organically from the character's abilities within the game system. For instance, in AD&D 1e, a 5th level fighter has heroic combat abilities because of his to-hit bonus and hit points, relative to a normal man. Any 5th level fighter, whether a PC or not, will be heroic.
2. Heroic combat ability is a distinction "tacked on" to the character's abilities within the game system (or conversely, unheroic combat ability is "tacked on"). For instance, in Warhammer Fantasy, Fate Points are assigned to PCs to help them survive combat. In Star Wars Saga Edition, non-heroic classes don't get Hit Points. In Feng Shui, characters with "names" have heroic combat abilities, while nameless NPCs ("mooks") do not.

I'd like to achieve a Type 1 result. I tend to dislike systems that create a disassociated "PC Glow" that exists for no reason in-world. Thus all of my ideas would be ones that could apply to any PC or NPC universally.

Consider two different PCs. PC#1 has DEX 12 and Gun Combat-4. PC#2 has DEX 8 and Gun Combat-1. I don't want PC#2 to be somehow innately more survivable. It's rather that I'd like (a) for more PCs to end up more like PC#1 than PC#2 and (b) I'd like for some game mechanic that helps PC#2-type characters be more survivable in combat. Right now it doesn't matter who you are, your chance of being hit and getting killed is the same (barring armor/gear).

Does that make sense?

 

[CosmicGamer]

Kirk is supposed to be around 34 years old in The Original Series, meaning he's just finished his 4th term. Insofar as I can tell, Traveller simply precludes such a character with having reached the rank of Captain. I was wondering if anyone had experimented with shorter terms to explain how someone might "race through the ranks" as it were.

A Navy character who succeeds at their promotion roll in each of term and gets lucky with a couple event 12s can be Captain within 3 terms.

A 26 year old Captain.

 

[Giantmoth]

I had an idea to replace armour into shields in my groups homebrew setting, where starships would be much more dependant on their shield strength, the ships armourplating rationalised fluffwise together as hull, and the weight/cost of armour would be equivalent for the shields. I always thought as soon as things start going through shields, they'll do tangible damage to the spaceship.

I've yet had the chance to test this in play yet, but basically I wanted each successful hits against spaceships to drain one point of shields(armour). It may need to reach a certain damage threshold to actually drain it(say, half the armours value, so if 8, you'd need 4 damage). Each subsequent weapon in an attack(the attacker choses which hits first) is rolled against the new armour value. Once drained, it remains so until the ship phase, where the ship will automatically recharge a certain number of points, and may be boosted by a successful Engineering or Computers roll by a dedicated shield-operator. The default value could either be a set value for all ships, dependant on the ships power-plant, or dependant on a seperate ship component(shield generator).

Should one of the attacks get through and score an "armour" hit on the external hit-table, you'd permanently lose a point in your maximum shield strength, just like how you lose armour gradually in regular MongTrav ship combat. Perhaps the ship is covered in various shield-nodes that may be destroyed if the ship is hit, forcing the others to compensate for its lost area. Or perhaps you could squeeze in the shield generator somewhere on the internal damage table, making it so a powerful hit would drop the entirety of the ships shields.

I suspect this would make spaceships more fragile in general. In my own game, my players and I griped over how annoying fights became once armour values got high. A potential way to balance it out is to increase the amount of shield points(armour)a little. I personally really like the idea of being able to burn through even powerful shields by sustained barrage of fire, giving even small ships a chance to damage bigger and beefier ones with enough persistence, or higher numbers. As it stands in the core rules, no amount of ships sporting Pulse Lasers or even nuclear missiles could do a dent to a ship with armour 12+

 

[CosmicGamer]

Does that make sense?

Sorry, not yet. Perhaps some more explanation and comparison.

AD&D) Finding that treasure chest with loot and equipment (whatever is set up by the GM for the adventure)
vs
Traveller) Finding a crashed ship and salvaging it for loot and equipment (whatever is set up by the GM for the adventure)

AD&D) over time (success vs death over time measured in experience points) a structured increased of attributes and skills which gradually requires more time (experience points) to continue improving.
vs
Traveller) over time (success vs death over time measured in actual time) a structured increased of attributes and skills which gradually requires more time to continue improving.

Granted, the Traveller system does not provided for characters to innately be healthier hardier people as they progress. Characters who even in their sleep somehow are infinitely harder to kill than less experienced characters.

Consider two different PCs. PC#1 has DEX 12 and Gun Combat-4. PC#2 has DEX 8 and Gun Combat-1. I don't want PC#2 to be somehow innately more survivable. It's rather that I'd like (a) for more PCs to end up more like PC#1 than PC#2 and

For the DEX, I'm not sure how Traveller isn't like AD&D. Don't AD&D characters use random stats such that one can easily have more DEX or life or whatever and be more survivable than another? Next, wouldn't comparing a level 1 AD&D character with a level 4 be like comparing the Gun Combat-1 and Gun Combat-4 Traveller characters?

 

[Jak Nazryth]

For higher skills with younger characters you might want to look at the point-buy system (sorry forget which page) but it's at the end of the character generation chapter. You can take the cannon Traveller points acquired for each term and double them, or multiply by 1.5 etc... For character development during game play, I award 1 point for each standard game night. If it's a very hard or dramatic fight/ending, or if the players go out of their way to come up with an unusual, witty, fun way etc... to win an encounter, I award 2 points. Between adventures / game nights players can "buy up" their skills, and even attributes, based on the costs withing the point buy system. IMO "doing" gives you more experience than "study". But IMTU player can study/learn per the rules, AND they get 1 point per game night / encounter as well.

For "the force" use the psionics rules and modify them to the needs of YTU

 

[Infojunky]

1. How did you (or would you) handle Luke Skywalker-esque character advancement in Traveller? It seems impossible to implement with the rules-as-written.

Yes. And the problem is?

The easiest answer is implement an Liberal experiance system.

2. How did you (or would you) model younger, highly-skilled characters like Luke, or Captain Kirk in TOS being the youngest captain in Starfleet history?

This is easy intensive Player/Gamemaster involvement during the generation process. Or as you stated adapt the career system to the needs of your game.

3. How did you (or would you) handle Star Wars/Star Trek-like energy shields on starships? Sandcasters make physical sense, but they simply aren't genre-appropriate for the sort of setting I imagine.

Consider this, use Sandcasters as listed, but make them passive, i.e. no roll necessary. I figure it this way to have basic 1d6 shields 1 sandcaster per 100 tons is required, 2d6 requires 2 per etc.. etc... As your "Turrets" are damaged each shot has a percentage chance of penetrating your "Shields". Or with a successful sensors roll, your shots can shoot at holes in your targets shields. You also can "Angle" your shields vs. a specific target by assigning some percentage of your shields against it, with other enemies having and increase chance of hitting a unshielded location.

4. How did you (or would you) model Flash Gordon dodging through laser fire, or Han Solo avoiding Stormtrooper blasts? Traveller is a very rare RPG in that highly developed characters become neither harder to hit nor do they gain additional hit-points. That makes good sense within hard sci-fi but makes it hard to emulate certain genres. I know that most Traveller gamers avoid combat; our group likes combat. Has anyone experimented with house rules to help the highly-skilled survive? Some ideas I've had:
a) "Gun Combat" includes training in dodging as well as shooting (like Equilibrium's Gun Kata), so when you dodge you apply your Gun Combat skill as a negative DM to the attacker
b) As above, but Athletics
c) Allow an "Active Dodge" where you roll a skill (Athletics?) 8+, applying the Effect as a negative DM
d) Some sort of "Toughness" skill that subtracts from all damage (like innate armor?)
I'd like to avoid any sort of "Hero Point" system as I find that simply creates a resource-management subgame with a Hero Point economy. I'm looking for a solution that works within the existing ability scores and framework.

Well, as the token Gun-Bunny in my Traveller group I use solid tactics, mostly misdirection and surprise with occasion overpowering mindfuck in terms of blowing something big up.... And when all else fails beating-feet like there is no tomorrow. And you are right Traveller doesn't do cinematic combat centric games very well, but consider this most grunts will have at most a skill level 1 in their primary weapon skill, they also will be very tank brained, in that if they have a target they most likely won't notice another one until the 1st one is down, loud noises will get them to hunker down etc..etc... This might help http://www.military-quotes.com/murphy.htm

With all that I have considered using Dex Mod as a negative mode in fire combat. I have used creative athletics use for negative DMs as well.

But mostly remember this is a roleplaying game, and if you are not roleplaying combat you might want to rethink the game you are playing. In that if your players want to do something big and stupid give em a chance to describe what they want to do then assign them a mod.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

amacris and others

In comparing the D20 system with Traveller:
Hit points in D20 are supposed to represent the dodging and weaving as a generic survivability as opposed to actually performing the actions, splitting skill levels for parrying and so on found in Traveller. There is a bit of that in in D20 (-5 to AC for a +4 to hit or some such), it is factored differently.