VHB 2026 Errata

[Geir]

It says this about systems that require ship levels of power on page 44:

"Systems requiring spacecraft Power to operate will not function without a fission, fusion or Fusion+ system. These three are referred to as ‘nuclear’ power systems for brevity. A Power point value per Space compatible with the power output of spacecraft is associated with each of these nuclear power options."

Antimatter power was added to the book after this was written and should be included with the systems mentioned.

Ok good catch, only went to TL20 to match the High Guard source, but it could happen.

So we change:
Systems requiring spacecraft Power to operate will not function without a fission, fusion or
Fusion+ system. These three are referred to as ‘nuclear’ power systems for brevity.

To:
Systems requiring spacecraft Power to operate will not function without a fission, fusion, Fusion+ or antimatter system. These four are referred to as ‘nuclear’ power systems for brevity.

 

[Geir]

Small one, but p18 "Rockets thrusters (see page 52) can be Responsive..." should probably either be "Rocket thrusters" or "Rockets' thrusters".

Rocket thrusters

A larger thing, but it may be just me being obtuse: on page 69 the table of cutting tools has a "cut rate" column, but I'm struggling to find what the unit for this is. Is it additional points of armour per round (this would kinda make sense as it is next to the AP column)? A depth of material in mm/cm/m?

Curt Rate is defined in the High Guard update (p.130):

Use a cutting tool to penetrate a door or create a
breach: Average (8+) Mechanic check (DEX). See the
Cutting Tools table for the Tech Level, cut rate and
cost of each tool. A cutting tool removes its Cut Rate
in Resilience each round +1 for every point of Effect.
For example, a rescue cutter has a base cut rate of 3.
The Traveller rolls a 9 (Effect +1) on their check, giving
them a total cut rate of 4 per round.

 

[Geir]

In the Contents under Modifications, "OPTIMISED SECONDARY AND TERTIAIRY" should be "OPTIMISED SECONDARY AND TERTIARY".

Yes, unless it's some British spelling I'm unaware of... strangely, it's correct on the referenced page.
But also it should be (in the Contents), the whole thing: "OPTIMISED SECONDARY AND TERTIARY FEATURES" with the line that is just "FEATURES" directly below it eliminated.

 

[GabrielGABFonseca]

A small but obvious one, on page 4:

Finally, the book contains a catalogue of over 100 vehicles for use in Traveller universes.

Not any more it doesn't, I'm afraid

To spare you and the Mongeese the counting, it should read either "over 30" or "36 vehicles".

 

[Libris]

What? Haven't you heard of reactive armour?
No, you're correct.
It should be ammunition.

Close support infantry just love reactive armour, point defence, and electromagnetic armour.
Not only is the HEAT warhead throwing out all sorts of crap the fucking tank’s just adding to the mayhem!

 

[Terry Mixon]

There was a section in the draft version that let expectations play a roll in comfort levels. I can see why the upper end was likely pulled, though I think it worked and should stay, but at least put back in for military personnel being used to less.

"Expectations also play a part in Comfort Levels. Military personnel have lower expectations (by 1 Level or row on the table), and a person’s expectations based on SOC can be a factor, with each attribute DM plus or minus, shifting the Comfort Level up or down the chart by a row. In more permanent accommodations, this results in vastly different requirements for tenements than for luxury apartments."

 

[Condottiere]

Zero zero ejection seats, once the sensors detect the approach of drones.

 

[Geir]

There was a section in the draft version that let expectations play a roll in comfort levels. I can see why the upper end was likely pulled, though I think it worked and should stay, but at least put back in for military personnel being used to less.

"Expectations also play a part in Comfort Levels. Military personnel have lower expectations (by 1 Level or row on the table), and a person’s expectations based on SOC can be a factor, with each attribute DM plus or minus, shifting the Comfort Level up or down the chart by a row. In more permanent accommodations, this results in vastly different requirements for tenements than for luxury apartments."

Removing was an editorial decision, so I'll let the editors decide.

But I see the point in removing it and treating more as a Rule Zero or roleplaying sort of thing on the upper end. If your tank commander was a Noble, you'd hope that there wouldn't need to be a special comfy chair and entertainment system requirement - or separate dining accommodations. On a ship-of-the-line, however, such special accommodations could be more likely for the First Lieutenant who happened to be the eldest child of a Viscount.

On the lower end, it might just have a little too much tendency for designers to make 0.5 the new Space standard for any short-duration military vehicle with 2 or more crew, and that would be problematic. Deep vein thrombosis does not play favorites.

 

[Geir]

A small but obvious one, on page 4:

Not any more it doesn't, I'm afraid

To spare you and the Mongeese the counting, it should read either "over 30" or "36 vehicles".

Or just remove the 'over 100' and then it's just a catalogue.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Removing was an editorial decision, so I'll let the editors decide.

But I see the point in removing it and treating more as a Rule Zero or roleplaying sort of thing on the upper end. If your tank commander was a Noble, you'd hope that there wouldn't need to be a special comfy chair and entertainment system requirement - or separate dining accommodations. On a ship-of-the-line, however, such special accommodations could be more likely for the First Lieutenant who happened to be the eldest child of a Viscount.

On the lower end, it might just have a little too much tendency for designers to make 0.5 the new Space standard for any short-duration military vehicle with 2 or more crew, and that would be problematic. Deep vein thrombosis does not play favorites.

I can buy that.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I got my hands on the release version of the spreadsheet and made a few tweaks that I suggest you make for everyone else.

First, I went to all the vehicle tabs, including blank, and changed the cost column (AA) to number, no decimal places, and made it comma separated. It gets impossible to read without that.

Then I went to the Record tab and changed cell D17 to make those numbers comma separated as well. I had to tweak the formula to make that work. Here it is:

=IF(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")>999999,CONCAT("MCr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")/1000000,"#,###")),CONCAT("Cr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2"),"#,###")))

J43 on the vehicle tabs. Same sort of thing.

=IF(AA2>999999,CONCAT("MCr",TEXT(AA2/1000000,"#,###")),CONCAT("Cr",TEXT(AA2,"#,###")))

Please update the source. Our aging eyes will thank you.

 

[Geir]

I got my hands on the release version of the spreadsheet and made a few tweaks that I suggest you make for everyone else.

First, I went to all the vehicle tabs, including blank, and changed the cost column (AA) to number, no decimal places, and made it comma separated. It gets impossible to read without that.

Then I went to the Record tab and changed cell D17 to make those numbers comma separated as well. I had to tweak the formula to make that work. Here it is:

=IF(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")>999999,CONCAT("MCr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")/1000000,"#,###")),CONCAT("Cr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2"),"#,###")))

I need to update J43 on the vehicle tabs, too. Same sort of thing. Too late for me to work it out. I’ll add the formula to this thread tomorrow.

Please update the source. Our aging eyes will thank you.

You could do that for your own, but I would like it to match the 'book' numbers, as much as they burn my eyes as well.

If the standard changed, that would be great, but what I think is more plateable (and avoid the language difference in separators) would be to add KCr as a standard, and as much as it hurts my head, BCr (which I still say would be GCr, but I appear to be in the minority).

But, if KCr is implemented, would something costing Cr1350 be listed at KCr1.35? I could live with that, but it would seem a bit odd (I tend to drop the thousands separator if the number is 9999 or less, but I know that's not 'standard', so something ten times as expensive would be KCr13.5 but the cheaper version would just be Cr1350, which is well, idiosyncratic ).

 

[CordwainerFish]

=IF(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")>999999,CONCAT("MCr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2")/1000000,"#,###")),CONCAT("Cr",TEXT(INDIRECT($C$2&"!AA2"),"#,###")))

And to think there are people who say that FORMAT is human-unreadable.

 

[Sigtrygg]

What is a kelvin credit? Kilo credit by every standard known to humanity should be kCr. Wrong unit, no mark.

 

[Arkathan]

Kelvin credits come from the timeline created by Spock failing to save Romulus, travelling back in time resulting in the death of J. T. Kirk's father, and causing the five year mission to go to another captain.

 

[Terry Mixon]

You could do that for your own, but I would like it to match the 'book' numbers, as much as they burn my eyes as well.

If the standard changed, that would be great, but what I think is more plateable (and avoid the language difference in separators) would be to add KCr as a standard, and as much as it hurts my head, BCr (which I still say would be GCr, but I appear to be in the minority).

But, if KCr is implemented, would something costing Cr1350 be listed at KCr1.35? I could live with that, but it would seem a bit odd (I tend to drop the thousands separator if the number is 9999 or less, but I know that's not 'standard', so something ten times as expensive would be KCr13.5 but the cheaper version would just be Cr1350, which is well, idiosyncratic ).

They really need to get over wanting to see six numbers in a row with no seperation. It's rediculous.

I updated my post above with the formula for J43. Now people can fix their own if Mongoose declines to use commas or KCr, MCr, BCr, and TCr.

 

[Terry Mixon]

What is a kelvin credit? Kilo credit by every standard known to humanity should be kCr. Wrong unit, no mark.

Like was said last time this came up, keeping the same format will work for virtually everyone. It won't be technically correct for that single aspect, as you have noted, but following the pattern is better.

Are you listening, @MongooseMatt? Seriously, either use comma separation for numbers or use KCr, MCr, BCr, and TCr. People can't read these long numbers and it’s crazy this hasn’t been addressed yet.

 

[WHULorigan]

What is a kelvin credit? Kilo credit by every standard known to humanity should be kCr. Wrong unit, no mark.

Of course, even though it is currently incorrect, one might argue that in a future "Imperial System of Metric Unit Prefixes (SI - "System Imperiale"), Deca-, Hecto, and Kilo- would be made more consistent overall with the modern prefix abbreviation table that eventually emerged over time if "da-", "h-" and "k-" were changed to "D-", "H-"and "K-".

 

[tytalan]

The meson guns in the book don’t make sense they shouldn’t do both Blast and AP at the same time. As it is now the Mesons decay inside the target tank ignoring armor and blast around the target tank also. I’m not sure if this is fixable with the game mechanics but my suggestion would be two sets of traits if directly targeted it would have the AP and Radiation, if used as Artillery it should have the Artillery, Blast and Radiation traits. This would make more sense and give the weapon the versatility that the lore suggests

I will say that the current size of even the light meson gun invalidates some lore since the Terrapin Meson Sled which is the artillery companion to the Trepida and the Astrin and is supposed to be part of that family of vehicles is only supposed to be 20dt. But I’ll be honest I think the meson guns are at least twice probably closer to three the size they should be when you compare the to starship meson weapons. Their range is only a fraction of the range of the SS version, they only do a fraction of the damage (the largest only does only does 8d on SS scale and is 20% larger than the small meson gun bay which does 5D times 10 (small bay damage modifier) or 5d times 100 in vehicle scale). The simple truth is that meson vehicle weapons are over sized by a huge amount.
.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The meson guns in the book don’t make sense they shouldn’t do both Blast and AP at the same time.

Yes they should.

The meson gun has a burst radius, antything in that radius is affected by it, even if inside armour or a vehicle. Armour is ignored.

As it is now the Mesons decay inside the target tank ignoring armor and blast around the target tank also.

As it should be.

I’m not sure if this is fixable with the game mechanics but my suggestion would be two sets of traits if directly targeted it would have the AP and Radiation, if used as Artillery it should have the Artillery, Blast and Radiation traits.

No need, the rules as they are are what has been intended for the meson gun since its inclusion in Traveller.

This would make more sense and give the weapon the versatility that the lore suggests

In your opinion, in mine it is fine as it is.

I will say that the current size of even the light meson gun invalidates some lore since the Terrapin Meson Sled which is the artillery companion to the Trepida and the Astrin and is supposed to be part of that family of vehicles is only supposed to be 20dt.

That ship sailed when they introduced 50t meson bays at TL11 in HG...

But I’ll be honest I think the meson guns are at least twice probably closer to three the size they should be when you compare the to starship meson weapons. Their range is only a fraction of the range of the SS version, they only do a fraction of the damage (the largest only does only does 8d on SS scale and is 20% larger than the small meson gun bay which does 5D times 10 (small bay damage modifier) or 5d times 100 in vehicle scale). The simple truth is that meson vehicle weapons are over sized by a huge amount.
.

Here are the original rules:

"A. Fire Missions: Each meson accelerator is given a separate fire mission order. Because the meson beam travels at nearly the speed of light, meson accelrators suffer no delay for flight time (although they do suffer delays resulting from crew quality). The firing sheaf is a circle centered on the MPI (after deviation), with a radius equal to the weapon's burst size. For example, if a weapon had a burst size of 10 cm (100m), every unit within 10 cm (100m) of the MPI would be affected. A meson accelerator may fire with less than its stated burst size; if so, the fire mission order muststate the new burst size.
B. Effects: All personnel within the burst area of a meson accelerator are killed; all vehicles and weapons are destroyed; all buildings collapse and any smooth ground surface becomes broken ground.
C. Spotting: Meson accelerators may not be spotted by counter battery radar; they may not be spotted during a fire phase, only in a movement phase." Striker Bk 2

"Meson Accelerator: All targets within the burst radius (50m) of the meson accelerator are destroyed." LBB:4