Weapons in the main rulebook

[Mage]

I intend to have a lot of combat in my traveller game when the book comes out, but would like to make a request. Please put in a load of weapons, add to the core book, and maybe charge a little extra for the content. You need weapons to role your game off, and not death star cannon stuff but weapons people would use, like pistols and things.

I found the runequest core book disappointing in the limited array of weapons. There was a bit of everything but not enough if you catch my drift, it made taking some weapon skills worthless.

That and I want to make this thread a suggestion book.

I'll start with guns that fire ice
And bows with explosive arrows, like in Turok Dinosaur hunter.

Suggestion anyone else?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

In one of my comment on email, I pointed out that there are no Bow weapons, no slings, nothing like that.

A sling might seem very primitive weapon, but stranded on a planet after having survived a crash, a sling (and club) are probably some of the first weapons you can make for yourself.

 

[Mage]

True. Also, since this is a sci fi game and will be used for modern settings, it will need to have explosives away.

Primitve weapons though would be useful, maybe covered in a survival section. Knives too.

But an advanced bow with explosive arrows would be nice too!

 

[AKAramis]

Actually, given the wide range of tech levels near each other in Traveller, having some bows, some slings, and such in the core would be good.

I noted elsewhere that the classic staple weapon of "mowing the halls", the Submachinegun was missing.

But also note that plans for a hardware supplement are right up there... Mercenary...

So yeah, a wide sampling of non-military guns would be nice in the core.

Also, it would be nice to have a shield skill and some shields...even high tech police agencies use them, not just TL2-3...

 

[Mage]

Indeed. Also, I think this book is being used also for a modern setting. So stuff like tommy guns would be nice, and futuristic retro ones too.

 

[EDG]

I would suggest that the default Traveller book should have nothing but a basic list of modern and futuristic weapons (e.g. projectile pistol, projectile rifle, laser rifle, etc). "Mercenary" can have all the other low tech stuff and specific/obscure weapons, and any other setting book can have the rules for their own setting-specific weapons. But don't waste space on archaic weapons in the corebook, it is supposed to be for futuristic SF after all.

 

[pasuuli]

Agreed. An assortment of weapons, from spears and bows to assault carbines with underslung grenade launcher to laser rifles. Stunners, thud guns, elephant guns, etc.

And by all means, let us be able to add HE to many/most ammunition types. A general rule like that gives us all sorts of possibilities.

And, I'd also like to see a few very high-tech weapons. Maybe a plasma sidearm (maybe TL16 or 17?).

 

[SableWyvern]

I would suggest that the default Traveller book should have nothing but a basic list of modern and futuristic weapons (e.g. projectile pistol, projectile rifle, laser rifle, etc). "Mercenary" can have all the other low tech stuff and specific/obscure weapons, and any other setting book can have the rules for their own setting-specific weapons. But don't waste space on archaic weapons in the corebook, it is supposed to be for futuristic SF after all.

This type of suggestion seems to pop up reasonably often ... "the core book should be sparse and short on detail, save any depth for supplements..."

Gotta say, I really don't get it. I could understand "I'd rather see more on X, and I don't want to see X missing at the expense of unnecessary detail on Y," but instead it's usually just "People should have to pay for a supplement if they want that info."

:?

 

[weasel_fierce]

for a good game, you should buy supplements because you want to, not because you need to.

If the book covers what original Traveller spread between book 1, book 4 and supplement 4, I'll be pretty peachy

 

[EDG]

This type of suggestion seems to pop up reasonably often ... "the core book should be sparse and short on detail, save any depth for supplements..."

The suggestion is that it should be short on less relevant detail, not on all detail.

If all you need is a line or two with say sword stats or bow stats or spear stats in amongst the projectile and laser and plasma weapons then that'd be OK, but I wouldn't want to see a massive, detailed D&D-type section of every archaic melee combat weapon ever invented .

This is a SF game after all - not a fully generic, covers-any-time-period thing. We should assume that the default scenario of the game is that the PCs will be in a futuristic environment, not that they're running around on a TL1 planet all the time.

 

[AKAramis]

I would suggest that the default Traveller book should have nothing but a basic list of modern and futuristic weapons (e.g. projectile pistol, projectile rifle, laser rifle, etc). "Mercenary" can have all the other low tech stuff and specific/obscure weapons, and any other setting book can have the rules for their own setting-specific weapons. But don't waste space on archaic weapons in the corebook, it is supposed to be for futuristic SF after all.

Mercenary is where the whiz-bang military hardware belongs.

Given the prevalence of polearms and blades in the stock setting, including a basic self bow, modern recurve, and a sling (still one of the more popular weapons of the entifada) adds a scant 3 entries. Adding a buckler and a riot shield add another 2, and 2 lines to the parying, and two lines to the armor rules.

Bows are great (and in CT, I had several players who carried them) due to the ability to make ammo just about anywhere. Further, they're quiet, and don't set off detectors.

Slings are still in common use for hunting and warfare to this very day.

Bucklers are a concession to fencing.
Riot shields are neither obscure, nor rare...
and these two items are both notably absent in ALL editions to date.
Now, as for shield rules: Shields should be allowed to be used to parry just like any other melee weapon, and can be used as a blunt force weapon...
Parries with a shield might be worth giving a +1 to the skill for parry purposes. AV would apply to melee attacks from side or front, and missile attacks from the front.

The minimal space taken is worth it, for making the core rules truly core rules. I'd have given the agressors shields yesterday if there had been rules for them.

 

[Mage]

As it stands what people have wanted in this thread would take up no more than two or three rows in a table of weapons, not much to ask for.

 

[AKAramis]

As it stands what people have wanted in this thread would take up no more than two or three rows in a table of weapons, not much to ask for.

No, one bloke wanted to see the whole list from the old Bk4 & supp 4... most of which really belongs in mercenary...

We need PGMP's and FGMP's in the playtest, to see how the most extreme of the heavy manpack weapons work, but the FGMP's and 13.5mm and 30mm don't belong in the core.

We should see the Gauss Rifle (adding a carbine version would be nice), Laser Rifle and Carbine, Gauss Pistol, Body Pistol, Snub, (the autosnub would be nice), ACR, Accellerator Rifle, Assault Rifle, hunting rifle (.30-06) and a heavy pistol sidearm.

Giving us a musket and a blnderbuss would give us a base for extrapolation.

 

[Takei]

From a military perspective I'd like to see section (squad) level weapons included in the main book. So the modern equivalent would be assault rifle, LMG/SAW, under-slung grenade launcher.
Civilian weapons should include hunting weapons (rifle, shotgun, bow).
A selection of non-lethal police weapons would also be nice.

 

[Deniable]

Definitely include some of the primitive weapons because you don't know what you'll be facing. A couple of heavy weapons to point the way would also help. If the main book has some pointers to the bigger stuff then it will help those who only have the one book.

The only other thing I'd want is the SMG/SnMG.

The one thing to stay away from is making a weapons catalog. Have sword, not saber, cutlass, scimitar, falchion, etc. The same goes for auto-pistol, not 27 different types of superficially different weapons. TNE was pretty bad for this.

 

[AKAramis]

Definitely include some of the primitive weapons because you don't know what you'll be facing. A couple of heavy weapons to point the way would also help. If the main book has some pointers to the bigger stuff then it will help those who only have the one book.

The only other thing I'd want is the SMG/SnMG.

The one thing to stay away from is making a weapons catalog. Have sword, not saber, cutlass, scimitar, falchion, etc. The same goes for auto-pistol, not 27 different types of superficially different weapons. TNE was pretty bad for this.

Cutlass is quite different from Rapier and Foil, and both are different from longsword. The melee weapons really should be no less detailed than CT. MT's list of about 4 was too compressed.

 

[Deniable]

OK, I looked at the CT stats and they are different enough there to warrant the extra entries. What I was trying to avoid was what I've seen in other games where there are pages of weapons that are all fairly similar, such as "We give you 22 different assault rifles, so what if they have the same damage and range." Given that the core book has an announced page size, any feature creep will result in something else being left out. This is really my only concern.

 

[Andrew Whincup]

My preference is for the list to be brief, without necessarily being too short.

What always appealed to me about Traveller was that the list was generic, and that the differences were clear to someone with no military knowledge. I can tell the difference between a snub pistol and an autopistol. The difference between an SLR & an M16 is too slight (I know that fire selector switches are important, but it's probably a little too fine a detail for this point)

If we can keep it that way, maybe keeping the weapons to a single page, then I'll be happy.

At this point, I don't think there's a need for different ammunition types in the core book. If that level of detail is important for your campaign then you should probably be buying the mercenary supplement.

Andy

 

[Mage]

Different ammo probably would be a bit excessive, bar the exception of some sort of explosive shells for a shotgun. They belong in most first person shooters and should be in an rpg.

 

[SableWyvern]

The difference between an SLR & an M16 is too slight (I know that fire selector switches are important, but it's probably a little too fine a detail for this point)

If by SLR you mean semi-automatic FN-FAL, then, as far as I'm aware, Traveller has always made this distinction.

M16 is an assault rifle, FN-FAL is an autorifle/battle rifle and SLR is the semi-automatic version of the autorifle (just "Rifle"?). An SLR + a match stick and you're back at autorifle again. :wink:

Nevertheless, I take your point.