Whats melee range?

nats

nats

Banded Mongoose
Just was looking over the referee screen and noticed that although the guns have ranges in metres (not stated in range bands unfortunately), blades seem to have this incongruous 'melee' range which doesnt seem to appear in any of the range bands at all. I know from previous experience that blades were close range and polearms were short range so whats this new melee range all about? And why dont guns have their ranges in terms of range bands - far easier than having to calculate distances using metres?

It all seems a bit confusing and this is the first time I have looked at the new Traveller stuff with anything other than the cursory glance. I was really really hoping that the new Traveller would have sorted out this sort of error. Am I missing something - or are these obvious errors in what should have been a very well tested and honed product? My first doubts are starting to creep in about buying the new stuff.
 
Melee range: "When a Traveller is within 2 metres of an enemy, they are said to be locked in close combat. At this very short range, certain rules apply."

"Traveller uses a scale of 1.5 metres per map square or hex for personal combat."

So it's 1-2 squares/hexes between combatants. As to calculating in meters, this allows for gridless tabletop play and rulers.
 
Do we have different books?! The quotes I gave were directly from the copy I have. BTW, I didn't see a pike in the equipment but still how does 'within 2 metres' become 3-4 metres?
 
Hmm seems a little over complex for what is effectively close range combat that could well be via guns or blades/polearms. I know D&D has special rules for moving away from targets when in melee etc but they dont have body pistols. So yeah not sure it makes sense to differentiate between melee range and close pistol range. But I am open minded enough to see what the new rules bring with regard to that.

And I can see that specifying a range in metres does allow a bit more fidelity than range bands so I guess I can see why they have gone to that.

I will take a look at the new book when it comes out anyway, what I hear of it is mostly good.
 
They actually still have range bands but it's only to describe modifiers for ranged weapons from their effective range score. Take the range effective score and divide by 1.5 to find squares or hexes. Obviously melee has only one range.
 
Page 73 explains melee and ranged. Bands are not used for character combat. DMs (and distance) can be figured out for each weapon. Players should probably write the DMs and ranges on their character sheet. Gone is the generic range band for ranged weapons.
 
Hmmm I guess its about time I change to 1m squares and work out speeds based on that. where each square would be 8mm for 15mm figures.
 
Reynard said:
Do we have different books?! The quotes I gave were directly from the copy I have. BTW, I didn't see a pike in the equipment but still how does 'within 2 metres' become 3-4 metres?
Click to expand...

There ARE pikes in Classic Traveller.

Also I have no idea how long a pike is.
 
A lot longer than 2 metres - more like 3-8 metres. Not very useful for most situations unless you are with lots of other pikemen.
 
Three to seven meters and pikes are best used in formation against tauntauns. Pikes aren't very useful for their design in the majority of Traveller combat situations, far too big for small melee battles and horrendous in ship board situations.
 
Reynard said:
Three to seven meters and pikes are best used in formation against tauntauns. Pikes aren't very useful for their design in the majority of Traveller combat situations, far too big for small melee battles and horrendous in ship board situations.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but they ARE melee weapons. :P So I shall point out that they're the upper maximum of melee range and a good surprise for your standard PC.
Especially if they go to a low-tech planet for some reason (you never know, just bear with me). Also low-tech Greek armies may have had swordsmen to get in close and break the pikes.

Also, for some reason some iterations of Traveller have had a "boarding pike" in their weapons books (looking at YOU, T20!). I never got why; I'd expect some advanced weapons such as lasers.
 
I think pikes may have been left out because they're so unusual in function and very specialized. They were for breaking formations and groups of units both infantry and mounted. Pretty much useless against ranged units. When charges have ended, pike men would switch to their sidearm, blades. Polearms would need a list of special rules including not so hot in small numbers and penalties for opponents within 3m (Melee range) and you can't maneuver them other than point forward and thrust.
 
Probably. I had wondered why CT included them (and halberds, which have a wider range of usage but the same space issues). I pointed them out as a sort of "maximum melee range situation," just in case.
 
Regarding the lack of weapon range bands: sure it was comfy and easy to know that every pistol always had the same DM at a certain range, and a rifle was always better than a shotgun at certain ranges and so on...

... But the new system, with individual weapon ranges in meters, is in my opinion vastly superior. Sure there's more to keep track of, but the new system also enables someone to get for instance a pistol with elongated barrel that gives it a range of +5 meters compared to other auto pistols, and also gives my gauss pistol superior range (and thus accuracy) compared to your body pistol, for instance.
 
In a modern age, not very practical, though may have been added for completion.

A shorter pointy stick in the two metre range can be effective at close quarters, and gives you reach.
 
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