Vehicle Handbook: Questions, errors, clarifications

[EldritchFire]

I'm hoping others will use this thread to list all the mistakes they find and questions/clarifications they require.

Introduction

• End of the first paragraph and beginning of the second: Vehicle Handbook should be italicised
• Third paragraph: Traveller Core Rulebook should be italicised

1: New Rules

• Sloppy Controls quirk: remove forward slash (/) from the end of the first sentence (pg4)
• Faulty Sensors quirk: On 6+? you're only rolling 1D, you can't get higher than a 6 (pg4)

2: Vehicle Design

• The cost for armour is implied to increased the cost/space of the vehicle, but page 34 doesn't say it increases the cost/space, just a flat percentage of the total chassis cost

3: Core Chassis

• Can chassis options be combined? For example, open frame and rough terrain
• Unpowered vehicle tech table: do we need a 7–9 and 10+ TL? They both have the same speed
• Unpowered boat is listed at TL1, but the tech table starts at TL4 (pg19)
• Unpowered vehicle/unpowered boat/powered boat: should they have the open vehicle trait?
• Light walker: last sentence needs reworking: "…with even small models requiring a Traveller climbs into them rather than ‘wearing’ them". Should be "…with even small models requiring a Traveller to climb into them rather than ‘wearing’ them" (pg30)

4: Armour

• The full-page advert has 'see page XX'. Should be page 37 (weapon mounts) and page 43 (plasma missile rack) (pg36; thanks to ca_lazerdwarf)

5: Weapons

• Small Turret, first sentence: "…can traverse a full 360o…" Should be "…can traverse a full 360º…" (pg38)
• Anti-tank missile: "…though versions are also some times…" should be "…though versions are also sometimes…" (pg39)
• Early machinegun: 14 tons!? Only 1 space? Should be 0.25 tons (pg40)
• Earthquake bomb, heavy bomb, high-explosive bomb, & medium bomb don't have the one use trait
• Torpedo: has the description of the light laser cannon (pg43)
• Spacecraft Weapons: Turret weapons don't have a listed weight, how can we convert them? (pg44)

While not specific to any section, there is no mention of how to do 'hand-held' weapons for giant robots/mecha. Most Gundam-sized giant robots carry weapons in-hand in addition to integrated weapon systems, and I think it would be a great idea to include rules/guidelines for how to do that.

6: Customisation

• Control Systems: Is the -Cr25 a typo? I don't see why anyone would opt to save so little compared to the cost of the vehicle (pg47)
• External Power: 'Train' isn't a vehicle type. Is that supposed to be the rail rider ground vehicle option? (pg48)
• Computers: Second paragraph, first sentence there is a space before the period (pg52)
• Various options 'double their initial cost.' How does this work with multiple doubling? If I do it twice is it x4 the cost (double twice) or x3 (each upgrade costs the base price)?
• Manipulator arm: how much can they carry? What damage does it do? (pg59)

7: Bio-Tech

• Invertebrate trait should be bold (pg62)

8: Drones

• Base Station: Traveller Core Rulebook should be italicised (pg67)

 

[ca_lazerdwarf]

Page 36:
The fake ad-page has page references as "Page xx"

 

[EldritchFire]

Jayne's Guide

TL1–3

I'll be going through the pre-made vehicles to see if I can figure out how they were constructed.

Galleon

• TL3 unpowered boat, 800 spaces (1 hull per space for unpowered boats); KCr120
• Speed isn't listed for unpowered boats under TL4
• 425 crew = 425 spaces (?)
• Cargo: 32 tons (128 spaces)
• 10 bunks: 10 spaces; KCr2
• Light crane: 1 space; KCr1
• 70 black powder cannons: 140 spaces; KCr210
• Magazine for BPC: 70 spaces (sort of; it would give each weapon a mag of 11 since the ammo space holds 10 additional mags)
• Armour +5: 60 spaces; KCr18

Total Spaces Used: 834
Cost: KCr351

Seems to be under-priced and overfilled. And it's weird that there are 425 crew members, but enough bunk space for only 20 to sleep at one time.

[h3]Personal Land Yacht[/h3]

• 
  * TL3 unpowered vehicle: 2 spaces; Cr200
  * Crew: 1 space
  * Passenger: 1 space
  * Wind-powered: Cr400

Total price: Cr600
Total Spaces: 2

———

Raider's Land Yacht

• TL3 unpowered vehicle: 10 spaces; KCr1
• Crew: 1 space
• Passenger: 1 space
• Wind-powered: KCr2
• Bolt thrower: 2 spaces; KCr2

Total price: Cr5,000
Total Spaces: 4

Needs additional cargo, passenger, crew, etc. 6 spaces unused.

———

Sloop

• TL3 unpowered boat: 72 spaces; KCr10.8
• Crew: 70 spaces
• Passengers: 5 spaces
• Cargo: 16 spaces
• Armour +3: 1 space; KCr1.296
• Light crane: 1 space; KCr1
• Weapons: 28 spaces; KCr42

Total price: Cr55,096
Total Spaces: 121

Too much space used, cheaper than list price.

 

[MongooseMatt]

. And it's weird that there are 425 crew members, but enough bunk space for only 20 to sleep at one time.

Those are dedicated bunk spaces, as in permanent sleeping arrangements. Most of the crew have to live with slinging a hammock between a couple of the cannon.

And yes, this one is supposed to be overfilled with the crew - not a nice place to be :0

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

The Rakatama G/carrier (p.145) has a fusion gun in a small turret. small turrets (p.38) can mount up to 4 spaces of weapons, a fusion gun (p.40) requires 16 spaces.

 

[EldritchFire]

TL 1–3 vehicles done and added to the above Jayne's Guide section.

 

[EldritchFire]

Added:

Page 40: Early machinegun is listed at 14 tons! I think that's a type and it should be 0.25 (to match with the 1 space listed).

 

[MongooseMatt]

Needs additional cargo, passenger, crew, etc. 6 spaces unused.

Okay, BIG point to make here

Remember, 1 Space is used for a passenger strapped into a seat in a car - you can use more Spaces per passenger to give them room to move around. You will see this pop up time and again on vehicles in the book for anything larger than a car or lorry where you get walkways and the like.

Think of it as Common Areas in ships. You want people to move around on these vehicles!

Also note the pricing rules in the first chapter - almost everything has been rounded down to an extent.

Side note: I knew this was going to happen when we were creating these vehicles and that reverse engineering our stats would raise questions. There are going to be times when you look at a vehicle and think 'how did they do that?' because a performance customisation (say) has been applied but, because it did not do anything to the vehicle other than modify stats, it has not been listed. So, you will see 'odd' vehicles that have a different speed, range, change in Spaces, etc, because of those customisations.

The Golden Rule is that this is all just fine. The VHB is not like High Guard in that every credit and ton is accounted for, though we intentionally placed a little 'wiggle' room in that book - in the VHB, it is far more apparent, as we wanted an easy system that can create just about anything, and do that in the least time possible. Once you have done a few vehicles, you will fly through the creation of new ones.

Incidentally, we did, at one point, think very seriously of doing something very similar for ships, where the construction system was based on effect not components. But we figured you guys would lynch us

 

[EldritchFire]

Okay, BIG point to make here

Remember, 1 Space is used for a passenger strapped into a seat in a car - you can use more Spaces per passenger to give them room to move around. You will see this pop up time and again on vehicles in the book for anything larger than a car or lorry where you get walkways and the like.

Think of it as Common Areas in ships. You want people to move around on these vehicles!

RIght, I do recall that being mentioned. However, I do wish that would have been put in the vehicles in the book. I see them as examples to follow, but I can't do the equation if I don't have all the variables (to quote Tony Stark ).

Also note the pricing rules in the first chapter - almost everything has been rounded down to an extent

Yeah, I remember that from the intro chapter. Mass produced vehicles have rounded off prices..

Side note: I knew this was going to happen when we were creating these vehicles and that reverse engineering our stats would raise questions. There are going to be times when you look at a vehicle and think 'how did they do that?' because a performance customisation (say) has been applied but, because it did not do anything to the vehicle other than modify stats, it has not been listed. So, you will see 'odd' vehicles that have a different speed, range, change in Spaces, etc, because of those customisations.

I'm going through them mainly to get a better idea of how it all works and make sure I'm doing it right.

The Golden Rule is that this is all just fine. The VHB is not like High Guard in that every credit and ton is accounted for, though we intentionally placed a little 'wiggle' room in that book - in the VHB, it is far more apparent, as we wanted an easy system that can create just about anything, and do that in the least time possible. Once you have done a few vehicles, you will fly through the creation of new ones.

I'll be honest, I was expecting more HG in the VH, but I really like what all y'all did with it…

Incidentally, we did, at one point, think very seriously of doing something very similar for ships, where the construction system was based on effect not components. But we figured you guys would lynch us

…and I would have love to see HG do something like this instead of accounting for each ton and credit. As someone with no prior Traveller experience, I have no prior investment in how things 'should be' done.

Im just happy y'all are making a quality product that I can purchase and play! Thanks to you and the team for all your hard work. It's greatly appreciated by all of us!

 

[arcador]

Commenting on the OP most errors are minor and easily fixed imo.

 

[EldritchFire]

Commenting on the OP most errors are minor and easily fixed imo.

Exactly. Which is why I'm bringing them up, hoping the next version of the PDF is able to fix the minor errors.

 

[Skaran]

A bit of a resurrection here.
I was just wondering about the tech chart for the Helicopter, Aerodyne and Ornithopter types. In particular the listed ranges for these vehicles. These seem excessively large especially when in 'real life' the longest ranged helicopter in the world the Lockheed AH‑56A Cheyenne has a range of 1971 km at TL 7-8
The fastest helicopter the the Eurocopter X3 has a top speed of around 321 kph at TL7-8 which puts in the fast category so this seems OK, most vehicles would go in the Medium speed region.
For my universe I am thinking of halving these base ranges. Though is this table correct as it stands?