Using Fullthrust for ship combat

[infojunky]

I have been puttering around with ship combat recently. Looking for alternative missile mechanics I opened the Fullthrust rules set.

I have touched this before, but has anyone done up adventure class ships in Fullthrust terms?

Related do you class smallcraft as fighters and gun boats and the like or as small ships?

I am looking as the Fullthrust Project Continuum rules from the Emerald Coast Skunk Works site.

 

[Nightwind1]

I have been puttering around with ship combat recently. Looking for alternative missile mechanics I opened the Fullthrust rules set.

I have touched this before, but has anyone done up adventure class ships in Fullthrust terms?

Related do you class smallcraft as fighters and gun boats and the like or as small ships?

I am looking as the Fullthrust Project Continuum rules from the Emerald Coast Skunk Works site.

Google "Power Projection Fleet" and "Power Projection Squadron".

 

[vegas]

Google "Power Projection Fleet" and "Power Projection Squadron".

Actually the second one is "Power Projection Escort". It's a BITS product. They are nice but not really adventure scale. PP Fleet has the rules for converting HG ships to PP, so that is probably the one you want to look at even though in includes a bunch of fleet & campaign level stuff you probably don't care about.

Funny thing: I have been doing the same thing you are, infojunky, noodling around on a home brew small ship combat system. I hope you post whatever you come up.

 

[infojunky]

Google "Power Projection Fleet" and "Power Projection Squadron".

Have both and they don't handle adventure class ship very well.

 

[mike wightman]

I did some conversion notes for adapting ACS to power projection about fifteen years ago - I can see if I still have them...

there's also Squadron Strike:Traveller.

 

[infojunky]

I did some conversion notes for adapting ACS to power projection about fifteen years ago - I can see if I still have them...

I would like to see them, or at least how you went about it.

there's also Squadron Strike:Traveller.

Honestly I would rather not...

 

[infojunky]

Actually I think its more about just designing the ships.

Ok, from the start of the current notes;

Using the hex based cinematic movement rules, From the Emerald Coast "Cool Play test rules"

And by extension the Project Continuum rules for construction.

Taking that in hand it becomes a matter of ship construction. With the question of how to handle Jump drive fuel, as its a volume rather than a mass.

Right now a scout has one FC, Freetrader two Etc.etc...

As for weapons I toying with rewriting the swarm missile launcher into a smaller weapon more akin to Traveller.

 

[Quint]

I think the issue is do you want FT/MT to emulate Traveller, or do you want your Traveller game to simply use FT/MT Tech with some modifiers - which leads into if you have Small Ship (BK3) or Big Ship (HG) setting?

I switched to FT/MT years ago in varying ways. I mainly settled on a modified SS setting, with a FT space being equal to 10 or 20 dtons. This has worked out pretty well, but I'm also happy with the lower level of granularity that comes with that.

D.

 

[aramis]

Quint makes a good point.

It is easy enough to port in traveller did Ives.

Also... FT mass units ... If you want adventure class ships, avoid Power Projection entirely... Its size ratio makes Gazelles tiny. Use the FT FB1 ship design, with a MASS being 10Td, which matches the bk2 fighter given subcraft bays at craft mass ×1.5. Use the traveller drives of your choice (bk 2, 5, or both). Ignore the turret limit from ct.

Ifb you can find it, the Earth force Sourcebook for The Babylon Project has a few extra weapon systems... Someone worked out the fb1 sizes for them. (The ship combat for TBP is by Jon Tuffly, and is fully FT compatible! It has a few skill uses for combat effect.)

Edit: found the TBP:EFSB build tables on the way back machine. http://web.archive.org/web/20021204191910/http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Nebula/1520/design.html

 

[Quint]

Also... FT mass units ... If you want adventure class ships, avoid Power Projection entirely... Its size ratio makes Gazelles tiny. Use the FT FB1 ship design, with a MASS being 10Td, which matches the bk2 fighter given subcraft bays at craft mass ×1.5. Use the traveller drives of your choice (bk 2, 5, or both). Ignore the turret limit from ct.

That was pretty much my rationale, as I played around with it (pre-PP or TBP). There some interesting rounding issues in the smaller tonnages, and I eventually scrapped some of the Traveller explanations of tech and dton requirements, but simply stayed with the need for "hydrogen purging/cleansing" to keep costs in alignment but give more room to play with even if travel times remained the same.

D.

 

[infojunky]

Ignore the turret limit from ct.

I already had.

Ifb you can find it, the Earth force Sourcebook for The Babylon Project has a few extra weapon systems... Someone worked out the fb1 sizes for them. (The ship combat for TBP is by Jon Tuffly

Ok now that looks good.

 

[infojunky]

That was pretty much my rationale, as I played around with it (pre-PP or TBP). There some interesting rounding issues in the smaller tonnages, and I eventually scrapped some of the Traveller explanations of tech and dton requirements, but simply stayed with the need for "hydrogen purging/cleansing" to keep costs in alignment but give more room to play with even if travel times remained the same.

D.

That sounds a lot like what I am seeing.
Right now I am just penciling up various ships by their gross characteristics.