Zhodani Guard commandos and teleporting?

Annatar Giftbringer

Emperor Mongoose
Greetings,

So I understand the Zhodani frequently use teleportation to place strike teams where they need to be. I just need to check that I understand the mechanics of this correctly. Standard gear for guard commandos is battledress and PGMP. On top of this they sometimes carry small warbots or other mission essential gear with them. BD and PGMP weighs 23 kg together.

Looking at the teleport power from the rulebook the weight limits are 0 kg, 10 kg and 500 kg. This would mean that a guard always has to use the highest limit, resulting in a very expensive (4 + range) and difficult (-4 DM) power, right? So they'd either need task chaining (having someone else psionically scout the location) taking extra time to lower difficulty and psi drugs OR work in pairs with one psion teleprojecting gear and the other one teleporting him/herself.

Have I understood this correctly?

This could also lead to interresting story development where a guard can't muster the psi points or won't take chances regarding difficulty and thus chooses to leave armour and gear behind and only flee himself. this leaves an empty BD suit behind enemy lines and a naked soldier somewhere in the woods...

Bonus question: How large is the medium Zhodani warbot? I imagine it more or less human-sized based on.... well nothing at all really (except possibly the arm strength, if it's noticably larger than a human those arms should be stronger?) but it's quite heavy att 900 kg.
 
They would likely use Psi Boost drugs and take extra time for the prep to help.

Having someone use Clairvoyance allows them to scout out the landing site, then use Telepathy to implant the image in the mind of the Teleporter. Then you have the Scout and the Jumper.
 
If I remeber corectly since the BD is specialy desgined I don't think it counts againts carried weight. Could be wrong though its one of those things I need to look up.
 
The Zhodani book does have this to say:

The principal difficulty of most commando operations lies with inserting the commando force behind the enemy lines in close proximity to its target. Unit clairvoyants scout out locations for teleports to insure safety and increase the chances of success. A commando groupment will seldom make more than two teleport jumps per day and never more than three. Distances travelled rarely exceed very distant range (5 to 50 kilometres), because of the disorientation involved and the effects of energy and momentum differences.

In long-range penetration situations, where teleport disorientation is to be expected, commandos jump to previously reconnoitered safe areas (such as small clearings in woods) where they can recover from teleport and then move out against their objective. In short range teleports, commandos are sometimes inserted directly onto the battlefield and open fire almost immediately.

And on their combat armor (the battledress functions the same in this regard):
Guards combat armour is based on the earlier officer model (including the computer weave and communications system) but has been further improved to enhance the psionic activity of the wearer. It rapidly cools or warms the body after a teleport, minimising damage from sudden energy gains or losses. This allows a character to jump up to 600 metres, up or down, in a single teleport, or up to 10 kilometres in a single hour when using successive jumps.

Bonus question: How large is the medium Zhodani warbot? I imagine it more or less human-sized based on.... well nothing at all really (except possibly the arm strength, if it's noticably larger than a human those arms should be stronger?) but it's quite heavy att 900 kg.

Book says it is a size 4 frame, which the Robot book says is about the size of a cow. The Classic Traveller Zhodani book says they are roughly the same size and shape as a human torso.
 
Annatar Giftbringer said:
So I understand the Zhodani frequently use teleportation to place strike teams where they need to be.
Not true. So the rest doesn't need worrying about all that much. Teleportation is more of an intense situation for story thing, rather than an everyday use thing (like riding a bike).
 
ShawnDriscoll said:
Annatar Giftbringer said:
So I understand the Zhodani frequently use teleportation to place strike teams where they need to be.
Not true. So the rest doesn't need worrying about all that much. Teleportation is more of an intense situation for story thing, rather than an everyday use thing (like riding a bike).
What would happen if a character could teleport 6 seconds into the past? You know teleporting along the 4th dimension? Lets say a character fired a shot with his laser pistol, then teleported 6 seconds into the past and fired again, and suppose that killed the opponent would would have otherwise have lived and shot and killed a player character? How useful would this ability be? Chronoportation.
 
Tom Kalbfus said:
What would happen if a character could teleport 6 seconds into the past? You know teleporting along the 4th dimension? Lets say a character fired a shot with his laser pistol, then teleported 6 seconds into the past and fired again, and suppose that killed the opponent would would have otherwise have lived and shot and killed a player character? How useful would this ability be? Chronoportation.

Book 4: Psion has the Temporal Manipulation talent which allows one to travel through time.
 
JBRocky said:
If I remeber corectly since the BD is specialy desgined I don't think it counts againts carried weight. Could be wrong though its one of those things I need to look up.

That's a really interresting idea! Official or not, I like it, thanks!

Jeraa said:
The Zhodani book does have this to say:

The principal difficulty of most commando operations lies with inserting the commando force behind the enemy lines in close proximity to its target. Unit clairvoyants scout out locations for teleports to insure safety and increase the chances of success. A commando groupment will seldom make more than two teleport jumps per day and never more than three. Distances travelled rarely exceed very distant range (5 to 50 kilometres), because of the disorientation involved and the effects of energy and momentum differences.

In long-range penetration situations, where teleport disorientation is to be expected, commandos jump to previously reconnoitered safe areas (such as small clearings in woods) where they can recover from teleport and then move out against their objective. In short range teleports, commandos are sometimes inserted directly onto the battlefield and open fire almost immediately.

And on their combat armor (the battledress functions the same in this regard):
Guards combat armour is based on the earlier officer model (including the computer weave and communications system) but has been further improved to enhance the psionic activity of the wearer. It rapidly cools or warms the body after a teleport, minimising damage from sudden energy gains or losses. This allows a character to jump up to 600 metres, up or down, in a single teleport, or up to 10 kilometres in a single hour when using successive jumps.



Bonus question: How large is the medium Zhodani warbot? I imagine it more or less human-sized based on.... well nothing at all really (except possibly the arm strength, if it's noticably larger than a human those arms should be stronger?) but it's quite heavy att 900 kg.

Book says it is a size 4 frame, which the Robot book says is about the size of a cow. The Classic Traveller Zhodani book says they are roughly the same size and shape as a human torso.

Yeah, that's the info I've got too, from reading the book. Thanks for the size info!

ShawnDriscoll said:
Annatar Giftbringer said:
So I understand the Zhodani frequently use teleportation to place strike teams where they need to be.
Not true. So the rest doesn't need worrying about all that much. Teleportation is more of an intense situation for story thing, rather than an everyday use thing (like riding a bike).

Have we been reading the same book? Everything in the Zhodani book makes it sounds quite common to me, with their armours having builtin teleport suits, the bulk of Guard groupments being made up of teleport specialists, and every sample Guard NPC having the teleport skill, to name a few things. Sure, not bike common, but at least to me it sounds like something they do quite often.

AndrewW said:
Tom Kalbfus said:
What would happen if a character could teleport 6 seconds into the past? You know teleporting along the 4th dimension? Lets say a character fired a shot with his laser pistol, then teleported 6 seconds into the past and fired again, and suppose that killed the opponent would would have otherwise have lived and shot and killed a player character? How useful would this ability be? Chronoportation.

Book 4: Psion has the Temporal Manipulation talent which allows one to travel through time.

There are also some chronoportation gadgets in Strontium Dog. Most of them are simply unneccessarily complicated frag grenades (such as a grenade that sends everyone and everything within is blast radius a bit forward or back in time, meaning that the planet they're on has moved and they suffocate, or the time loop trap...) but I also recall Johnny Alpha escaping an ambush with clever use of one of 'em.

The main effect from chronoportation would probably be a massive headache for the poor GM though :)
 
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