No mention of a world size limitation in all those rule books.
Striker, B2, p41:
_ _ A. Movement: The movement rate of a spaceship is determined in the same way as that for a grav vehicle; the ship's maneuver drive rating is used as its G value. A ship with a G rating equal to or less than the planetary gravity may not take part in combat actions except from orbit.
You choose the rules that suits you, and ignore the rest. Even then, you rely heavily on what they don't say, rather than what they do say. Note that there is no mention of lift anywhere, only "ability of the ship to enter atmosphere".
Have to agree with
@AnotherDilbert here on this one, but I've got even more corroborating evidence that you neglected to look for.
LBB2.81, p26-37 deals with Space Combat and (wait for it) ... vector movement!
Specific (repeated!) mentions of gravity in vector movement are highlighted in bold text.
Note that the "standard design type A free trader" IS DIRECTLY MENTIONED within the vector movement rules.
LBB2.81, p27:
MOVEMENT
In clear space, without gravitational influence, and without voluntary acceleration by the ship, it could travel [...] forever.
LBB2.81, p28:
Acceleration involves altering a ship's vector by adding another to it; this new vector can come from thrust using the maneuver drive, or it can come from gravity. In either case, the method is the same
LBB2.81, p28:
Ships are restricted in the amount of acceleration which they may add to their current vector in one movement phase. Generally, a ship cannot accelerate more than 100 mm times its maneuver drive rating in Gs. Thus, a standard design type A free trader is capable of 1G acceleration, and cannot add more than a 100 mm vector per turn. This does not count acceleration due to gravitational influence
LBB2.81, p28-29:
GRAVITY
The section on planetary templates later in this chapter covers the construction on specific world disks, complete with gravitation bands which can affect movement. When the vector of a ship passes through the gravity bands of a world, the gravity may alter that vector.
[...]
The gravity vector is parallel to a line connecting the regular course midpoint to the planetary template center. It is added to the regular course vector (along with any ordinary course change vector) during a player's movement phase.
LBB2.81, p31:
lntruder Player Turn-
A. lntruder Movement. The intruder moves his ships using the movement, gravity, and other applicable rules.
A. Native Movement. The native moves his ships using the movement, gravity, and other applicable rules.
LBB2.81, p36-37 even has formulas and a table for easy use to determine gravity bands around planetary surfaces.
Note that the table provided on LBB2.81, p37 specifically details the surface gravity of Size: 8+ worlds (at 1.000G, 1.125G and 1.250G respectively).
- Size: 7 = 0.875G - 1G = -0.125G vector
- Size: 8 = 1.000G - 1G = +0.000G vector
- Size: 9 =1.125G - 1G = +0.125G vector
- Size: A =1.250G - 1G = +0.250G vector
Not to put too fine a point on things that ought to be beyond obvious enough already ... but you need to achieve a "negative G vector" if you want to
Go To Space Today™ from a planetary surface. That's just vector math for you!
Also, LBB2.81, p28 includes this tidbit:
Unused acceleration may not be saved or conserved to allow excess acceleration in following turns.
In other words ... THERE IS NO OVERCLOCKING of maneuver drives available for "bursts" of maneuver in CT.
Extra bonus points to anyone who reads through LBB2.81, p26-37 and realizes that "atmospheric LIFT due to streamlining"
is conspicuously absent from any mention AT ALL as an available modifier to movement vectors for starships and small craft. In fact, the closest thing you can get to the notion is (wait for it) ...
LBB2.81, p34:
Atmospheric Braking: Ships passing very close to the surface of a world with a standard or dense atmosphere may slow their speed through atmospheric braking. If any portion of a ship's vector passes within 10 mm of a world's surface, that vector is reduced by 10 mm in length.
Last I checked, being on the surface of a planet with a standard or dense atmosphere counted as being within 1000km (10mm using the vector movement scaling) of a planet. So a Standard or Dense atmosphere adds a 0.1G
drag force to vector movement under LBB2.81 (and LBB2.77 for that matter)!
So if we circle back to our vector math assumptions that resolve movement vectors and add in the atmospheric DRAG (not lift! drag!) of Standard and Dense atmospheres, we get this result:
- Size: 7 = 0.875G + 0.1G - 1G = -0.025G vector
- Size: 8 = 1.000G + 0.1G - 1G = +0.100G vector
- Size: 9 =1.125G + 0.1G - 1G = +0.225G vector
- Size: A =1.250G + 0.1G - 1G = +0.350G vector
So a "standard design type A free trader capable of 1G acceleration" CAN LIFT OFF from a Size: 7 world (0.875G) at either 0.125G vertical (Atmosphere: 5-) or
agonizingly slowly at 0.025G vertical (Atmosphere: 6-9) under LBB2.81 vector movement RAW.
That same "standard design type A free trader capable of 1G acceleration" is going to remain FIRMLY MIRED in the gravity well of any Size: 8+ world ... and adding Atmosphere: 6-9 only makes things WORSE ... not better!
No mention of a world size limitation in all those rule books.
BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO.
Any tabletop wargamer who can compute vector math in their head could figure it out (for themselves!) VERY VERY QUICKLY.