Classic Traveler Combat question

[tcabril]

All-
I have always been a big fan of Traveler (Classic) though I must admit it has been about 18 years since I played (I still have the original small box with books 1-3 in it!). Recently I began purchasing the compendium books from Far Future Enterprices (what a great idea if you ask me) because as I am getting older I am drifting back toward the old rpgs of my youth (and I am not a fan of D20 - which in my humble opinion is Rules Over Roleplaying - but that is for another discusssion...)
Now my question (as it seems that way back in the days we were doing damage wrong in combat and revovery).

Q1: When a character is injured in combat you roll the dice for the weapon (3D6 for example) and apply it to the targets STR, DEX and END. how is this distubuted? Is it highest die goes to STR and then the next to DEX, etc...? How exatly does this work?

Q2: The first hit (or damage) is applied to STR alone?

Q3: Can someone explain to me how one recovers from wounds?

I know I said I was a big fan and that these items may seem simple or trivial but I have not played for many many years and my current reading is confusing me to no end.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to start a campaign of Classic Travler soon and if I goof up to many rules - the players may just say "Lets go back to d20"!!!!

Thanks in advance all help is welcome.

 

[tcabril]

All-
I have always been a big fan of Traveler (Classic) though I must admit it has been about 18 years since I played (I still have the original small box with books 1-3 in it!). Recently I began purchasing the compendium books from Far Future Enterprices (what a great idea if you ask me) because as I am getting older I am drifting back toward the old rpgs of my youth (and I am not a fan of D20 - which in my humble opinion is Rules Over Roleplaying - but that is for another discusssion...)
Now my question (as it seems that way back in the days we were doing damage wrong in combat and revovery).

Q1: When a character is injured in combat you roll the dice for the weapon (3D6 for example) and apply it to the targets STR, DEX and END. how is this distubuted? Is it highest die goes to STR and then the next to DEX, etc...? How exatly does this work?

Q2: The first hit (or damage) is applied to STR alone?

Q3: Can someone explain to me how one recovers from wounds?

I know I said I was a big fan and that these items may seem simple or trivial but I have not played for many many years and my current reading is confusing me to no end.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to start a campaign of Classic Travler soon and if I goof up to many rules - the players may just say "Lets go back to d20"!!!!

Thanks in advance all help is welcome.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

It's all covered on page 34 of Book 1, but to recap:

a. When a character is wounded, a number of dice are indicated for the weapon type. Let's say it's 3D.

b. If this is the character's first wound, then ALL damage piles up on a single attribute, determined randomly.

c. If this is not the character's first wound, each die of damage is applied to a single attribute attribute. Book 1 doesn't specify how to determine which attributes; The Traveller Book adds that the player taking the damage gets to choose. So, if I was the player who just took 3D of damage, I could put the first die of damage on STR, the second on DEX, and the third on END.

d. If an attribute is less than the amount of damage applied to it, the extra damage goes to another attribute, determined randomly. Eg, if my STR is 4 and it takes 6 points of damage, my STR is zero and I need to take the other 2 points to either DEX or END.

e. One attribute at zero: unconscious. Two attributes: seriously wounded, and unconscious as well, I would imagine. Three attributes: time for a dirt nap.

f. Light wounds (one attribute at zero) require medical-1 skill or three days of rest. Serious wounds require medical-3 attention at a medical facility.

Hope that helps!

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

It's all covered on page 34 of Book 1, but to recap:

a. When a character is wounded, a number of dice are indicated for the weapon type. Let's say it's 3D.

b. If this is the character's first wound, then ALL damage piles up on a single attribute, determined randomly.

c. If this is not the character's first wound, each die of damage is applied to a single attribute attribute. Book 1 doesn't specify how to determine which attributes; The Traveller Book adds that the player taking the damage gets to choose. So, if I was the player who just took 3D of damage, I could put the first die of damage on STR, the second on DEX, and the third on END.

d. If an attribute is less than the amount of damage applied to it, the extra damage goes to another attribute, determined randomly. Eg, if my STR is 4 and it takes 6 points of damage, my STR is zero and I need to take the other 2 points to either DEX or END.

e. One attribute at zero: unconscious. Two attributes: seriously wounded, and unconscious as well, I would imagine. Three attributes: time for a dirt nap.

f. Light wounds (one attribute at zero) require medical-1 skill or three days of rest. Serious wounds require medical-3 attention at a medical facility.

Hope that helps!

 

[daryen]

If I may be so bold, my old CT group hated the normal damage method. We modified it two ways:
- Remove step (a). Damage is applied the same at all times.
- Change step (d). If the damage die exceeds the assigned attribute, drop the excess. So, if STR is 4, and the die roll is 6, apply the 4 points of damage, but drop the remaining two.

We did these changes so that characters were not necessarily knocked unconcious on the first hit, and to give them a little more staying power during the initial combat. Since we did the same to the NPCs, it was still fair.

This gives a little more "cinematic" or "opera" feel to things, but gives the characters more of a chance in pistol fights. (Past pistols, the changes just don't make much of a difference.)

 

[daryen]

If I may be so bold, my old CT group hated the normal damage method. We modified it two ways:
- Remove step (a). Damage is applied the same at all times.
- Change step (d). If the damage die exceeds the assigned attribute, drop the excess. So, if STR is 4, and the die roll is 6, apply the 4 points of damage, but drop the remaining two.

We did these changes so that characters were not necessarily knocked unconcious on the first hit, and to give them a little more staying power during the initial combat. Since we did the same to the NPCs, it was still fair.

This gives a little more "cinematic" or "opera" feel to things, but gives the characters more of a chance in pistol fights. (Past pistols, the changes just don't make much of a difference.)

 

[mike wightman]

We dropped the first hit rule as well, and only applied its effects on an exceptional success - but that's getting into major house rule territory

such as hit location and bleeding...

 

[mike wightman]

We dropped the first hit rule as well, and only applied its effects on an exceptional success - but that's getting into major house rule territory

such as hit location and bleeding...

 

[DaveC]

Further to this, how does one handle hits from creatures? The ones in 'Animal Encounters' have their damage pre-rolled, not split into dice. I thought of allocating it in thirds, but it seems messy. Any thoughts?

 

[DaveC]

Further to this, how does one handle hits from creatures? The ones in 'Animal Encounters' have their damage pre-rolled, not split into dice. I thought of allocating it in thirds, but it seems messy. Any thoughts?

 

[Supplement Four]

I tweaked the first blood rule a bit, too, as others have.

I can't logically explain why one hit (the first one rolled ramdomly) can take out a character, but a second hit is more likely to not take him out (second hits and all thereafter are not rolled randomly).

The first blood rule in CT is a character killer, and since I tend to have a lot of firefights in my game, I want to balance CT's lovely deadly-ness with keeping PCs alive.

Here's the compromise my group is using--

Each damage roll, one of the dice is rolled randomly on a target's stats. Other dice are applied to the physical stats as the defender wishes.


This keeps things tastey and deadly (Players will try to avoid combat, because a single hit can still take you out). But, I'm also not killing a character every time the group gets into a firefight.


--------------------

I also use a hit location chart. And, I adjust the number of random damage dice based on where the character was hit.

Head - Two dice of the damage are randomly applied.

Torso - The usual one die of damage is applied randomly.

Arm - No damage is applied randomly.

Leg - 50% of the time, damage is applied randomly.

---------------

Also, if a Spectacular Success is made on the to-hit combat roll (I use the Universal Game Mechanic task system designed for Classic Traveller), an extra die of damage is rolled randomly.


Players in my game still fear combat, but it's still fun (and not quite character-killing) to have many fire-fights during the course of a mission.

I mean, conflict is drama, and I do put a lot of conflict in my games, be it fist fights, fire fights, or a battle of wills between two characters.

------------------------------

One last thing I do is not use the CT Armor DMs on the to-hit roll. I use them on the damage roll (and I use the Striker armor values too.) If you're interested in this, you can see this stuff in one of the other threads I've written recently.


Anyway, it sure is good to see another CT player come back into the fold!

Welcome back, brother!

 

[Supplement Four]

I tweaked the first blood rule a bit, too, as others have.

I can't logically explain why one hit (the first one rolled ramdomly) can take out a character, but a second hit is more likely to not take him out (second hits and all thereafter are not rolled randomly).

The first blood rule in CT is a character killer, and since I tend to have a lot of firefights in my game, I want to balance CT's lovely deadly-ness with keeping PCs alive.

Here's the compromise my group is using--

Each damage roll, one of the dice is rolled randomly on a target's stats. Other dice are applied to the physical stats as the defender wishes.


This keeps things tastey and deadly (Players will try to avoid combat, because a single hit can still take you out). But, I'm also not killing a character every time the group gets into a firefight.


--------------------

I also use a hit location chart. And, I adjust the number of random damage dice based on where the character was hit.

Head - Two dice of the damage are randomly applied.

Torso - The usual one die of damage is applied randomly.

Arm - No damage is applied randomly.

Leg - 50% of the time, damage is applied randomly.

---------------

Also, if a Spectacular Success is made on the to-hit combat roll (I use the Universal Game Mechanic task system designed for Classic Traveller), an extra die of damage is rolled randomly.


Players in my game still fear combat, but it's still fun (and not quite character-killing) to have many fire-fights during the course of a mission.

I mean, conflict is drama, and I do put a lot of conflict in my games, be it fist fights, fire fights, or a battle of wills between two characters.

------------------------------

One last thing I do is not use the CT Armor DMs on the to-hit roll. I use them on the damage roll (and I use the Striker armor values too.) If you're interested in this, you can see this stuff in one of the other threads I've written recently.


Anyway, it sure is good to see another CT player come back into the fold!

Welcome back, brother!

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Brass-Jester:
Further to this, how does one handle hits from creatures? The ones in 'Animal Encounters' have their damage pre-rolled, not split into dice. I thought of allocating it in thirds, but it seems messy. Any thoughts?

Think of an animal has having only one Stat from which to take damage.

Instead of a human having something like 78A, an animal might have 17/5.

The animal's full stat is 22, but it takes 17 points to incapacitate that animal and another 5 points to kill it.


Also notice, in Animal Encounters, that you can do an animal's damage two ways: One is to roll damage using the damage charts in book one (Claws, teeth, hooves, etc). The other way is to use the pre-rolled damage given in the animal description. CT gives you a choice.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Brass-Jester:
Further to this, how does one handle hits from creatures? The ones in 'Animal Encounters' have their damage pre-rolled, not split into dice. I thought of allocating it in thirds, but it seems messy. Any thoughts?

Think of an animal has having only one Stat from which to take damage.

Instead of a human having something like 78A, an animal might have 17/5.

The animal's full stat is 22, but it takes 17 points to incapacitate that animal and another 5 points to kill it.


Also notice, in Animal Encounters, that you can do an animal's damage two ways: One is to roll damage using the damage charts in book one (Claws, teeth, hooves, etc). The other way is to use the pre-rolled damage given in the animal description. CT gives you a choice.

 

[Supplement Four]

I've got a question along these lines---

(Something I've never quite figured out from the official CT rules.)


What do you do when an animal has more than one method of attack?

Let's say an animal has horns, teeth, and claws.

They all do 2D damage, but they all have different DMs on the to-hit roll.

Which one should you pick for the animal's attack?

It doesn't seem fair to the player if the GM always uses the most lethal attack (the one that hits most often).

Is there an official way of determining this that I'm not seeing?

If not, what is a good way of handling this during a game?

 

[Supplement Four]

I've got a question along these lines---

(Something I've never quite figured out from the official CT rules.)


What do you do when an animal has more than one method of attack?

Let's say an animal has horns, teeth, and claws.

They all do 2D damage, but they all have different DMs on the to-hit roll.

Which one should you pick for the animal's attack?

It doesn't seem fair to the player if the GM always uses the most lethal attack (the one that hits most often).

Is there an official way of determining this that I'm not seeing?

If not, what is a good way of handling this during a game?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

IIRC, the creature descriptions (for the ones actually described) give this info, WJP. If the descriptions don't say, then I would come up with an answer for each and every animal they encounter - attack A, then close and use attack B, or attack A unless surprised, then attack B and run away, etc.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

IIRC, the creature descriptions (for the ones actually described) give this info, WJP. If the descriptions don't say, then I would come up with an answer for each and every animal they encounter - attack A, then close and use attack B, or attack A unless surprised, then attack B and run away, etc.

 

[The Oz]

I would judge animal attacks by the situation. Generally I would figure the animal to use its longest-range attack first (in your example, the horns) and then I'd alternate the attacks depending on how I wanted things to go. If the animal was attacking to kill I might use the teeth more, if it was fighting to flee I might use the claws more (judging the claws as a weapon that could be used while running away).

 

[The Oz]

I would judge animal attacks by the situation. Generally I would figure the animal to use its longest-range attack first (in your example, the horns) and then I'd alternate the attacks depending on how I wanted things to go. If the animal was attacking to kill I might use the teeth more, if it was fighting to flee I might use the claws more (judging the claws as a weapon that could be used while running away).