766 backers and Marv on t5.10 space combat
Space Combat In Traveller5
Posted by Marc "Traveller" Miller (Creator)
Some things need to age for a while, and if they do they are better for it. I concede that one of the weak points in Traveller5 has been space combat. It is patterned on boardgame or miniatures combat and concerns itself with spaceships shooting at each other. We all know how that works, and its how things have been done for a long time.
Space combat in T5.10 is a new take on that concept, and I have three talking points about it.
* It is more role-playing oriented.▮
* It is fast-paced.
* It is Schroedingerian.
Role-Playing-Oriented.All of the players have something to do in space combat. A battle can be resolved without characters, and it defaults to some basic task values. But a player character can participate and (with appropriate skill) have an advantage in gunnery, or maneuvers, or defensive actions. Each player character has a role to play in the success of the action.
Fast-Paced.Small ship battles move quickly. A pirate raid, or a small naval battle can be resolved in under an hour, and often in much less than that. The Ship Cards record battle damage, and its easy to see what still works, and where the holes are in the ship.▮
It’s Schroedingerian.You know the quantum physics thought experiment: There’s a cat in a box along with a random thing that might kill the cat, or might not. You don’t know until you open the box. In Traveller Space Combat, the battle produces Hits and Penetrations and Damages, but they are recorded as OOA- Out-Of-Action. You don’t know how bad (or superficial) it was until after the battle. All you know during the battle is – It’s Out Of Action. During the battle, there are reports that the Drive Compartment is Hit (mark it OOA), or the Gunner is OOA. Maybe someone can respond with Damage Control to bring the Drives back on line, or First Aid to bring the Gunner back into action.
Only after the battle can anyone find out how bad the damage was, or whether the drives still work. I call that Schroedingerian.▮
There is also an interplay of potential weapons and defenses that my friend Rob Eaglestone calls RDME: a Rich Decision Making Environment. Defenses like the Grav Scrambler are able to fire in defense against Gravitic-based attacks (like Plasma Gun) and if it succeeds, stop the attack (and disable the attacking weapon). Laser turrets can be allocated to Anti-Missile defense (but if so, can’t be used in the Attack this combat round). Weapons can knock out sensors as well as other weapons. So: overall a Rich Decision Making Environment).
I am pleased with how Space Combat has come out, and I wanted to share that.
Part of it was inspired by a space battle scene I wrote in Agent of the Imperium. In part:
“Their burst of strange particles reached us just as we fired: carefully chosen to ignore most matter; carefully timed to degrade into energetic bursts once they had passed through our armor. They rocked our interior. I felt vibrations through my feet. Visuals and audibles across the bridge signaled damage. I heard a comment that our jump drives were shredded. If we didn’t win this battle, that would be the least of our worries.”
This space combat system is capable of generating battle scenes like that, and more.
Thank you all for your support.
Marc
