Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about the Gazelle Close Escort

[Major B]

If you are on the mailing list you should have seen an email from FFE this afternoon about a new title available on DTRPG called T5 Gazelle-class Close Escorts. If you have ever wondered how Close Escorts operate or what it is like to live on one, this has something in it for you. I will post a link the the DTRPG page in the news feed. Edit: link to the news feed is here: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=39075.

One of the things I included in there are T5 Combat Cards for the Gazelle, the Fiery, and a civilian variant. I ran into a bit of trouble there because the cards need 8.5x14 to show full size and I didn't want to break the 8.5x11 format in the document. I did however promise to post the full size cards here on CotI when the book hit distribution. The Gazelle's card is attached to this post and the others will be in replies below.

I hope the work is useful and interesting. Please feel free to post comments below. I am working on more and I will use all criticisms to improve whatever comes next.

 

[Major B]

Fiery Close Escort Combat Card

Here is the combat card for the Fiery-class.

 

[Major B]

Civilian Variant Combat Card

And here is the combat card for the civilian variant of the Gazelle.

 

[Spenser TR]

Purchased.

I am not at all a gearhead so my ability to compliment you adaquately on the technical accomplishment is questionable... but it is clearly a very serious effort on many axes, and I am very much enjoying soaking up all the details you’ve included. Thank you for this, and I look forward to your next work.

 

[Supplement Four]

How about an example of some of the details?

 

[Major B]

How about an example of some of the details?

S4, maybe a copy of the Table of Contents will give the best hints about what is inside. Take a look at the attached file and let me know if it answers your question.

Also, there are some reply comments about the contents in the TAS News Feed announcement. Link to that thread is in the OP.

 

[agorski]

Congratulations getting Marc's blessing and getting this published!

 

[Supplement Four]

S4, maybe a copy of the Table of Contents will give the best hints about what is inside. Take a look at the attached file and let me know if it answers your question.

Also, there are some reply comments about the contents in the TAS News Feed announcement. Link to that thread is in the OP.

S4 like!

Is it only T5 rules?

 

[Major B]

S4 like!

Is it only T5 rules?

Everything is based on CT source material then built using T5 rules. You will find all the love for CT and all the depth of T5 in there. Crew ranks and titles are listed both with Bk4 and Bk5 ranks along side the T5 structure for Spacers and Marines.

My primary source for the ship itself was JTAS4. That is what I set out to recreate. The 2nd ed. HG version was far less capable than the original.

I think that porting the operational and crewing details back to CT from what is written would be fairly easy, but why not take a look and tell me if I could do better at that.

 

[Major B]

Thank you Art - I appreciate your time looking at the draft and your feedback.

 

[Charles.Darney]

Purchased today. Skimmed during work; I'll be reading it more closely this weekend. Looks good, and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[acgetchell]

Nice work!

Great details.

I still think that the Fiery's 5th hard point should have been anti-fighter missiles, resupplied from the ship she was escorting (e.g. limited on-board magazines, but external resupply capable using machinery similar to drop tanks) , but if I ever get to play T5 that's probably the tweak I'll make.

Looking forward to the Mercenary Cruiser!

 

[jcrocker]

I bought a copy and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks!

 

[Major B]

Great details.

I still think that the Fiery's 5th hard point should have been anti-fighter missiles, resupplied from the ship she was escorting (e.g. limited on-board magazines, but external resupply capable using machinery similar to drop tanks) , but if I ever get to play T5 that's probably the tweak I'll make.

Looking forward to the Mercenary Cruiser!

AC, thanks.

I had a bunch of ideas for that 5th turret. My first was an electronic scrambler that could be used for missile defense. For each of the ships I went through several iterations of the design, rechecking against the ship's mission then rechecking assumptions then going back through step by step to make sure everything worked together the way I thought it should. I think I did that four or five times on the Fiery and once it made me go back and make a change to the Gazelle too. Finally I thought that the Navy brass would want to optimize the meson screen so that is what I went with. Their reasoning would have been that we have other escorts and fighters to deal with enemy fighters.

But that doesn't mean its not a good idea as it would have been useful for last-ditch defense.

I'm also glad to hear you plan to modify it for your own use. That is what I was hoping when I decided to include the design details. If you get a chance, let me know what other changes you make and how they work in YTU.

 

[Garnfellow]

I bought it this morning a took a quick spin through -- looks nice so far. I am curious: was this something Marc commissioned, or was it written and then received his approval?

 

[robject]

I bought it this morning a took a quick spin through -- looks nice so far. I am curious: was this something Marc commissioned, or was it written and then received his approval?

It was an organic process:

If I recall correctly, Major B's work began when a group of associated Traveller5 shipwrights began designing and discussing the Gazelle. He took it and ran from there, keeping Marc and the shipwrights in the loop as he went. As it grew, at some point he/we realized that this was a product. I am fuzzy on these details though. I suppose I could look through my gmail.

 

[Major B]

If I recall correctly, Major B's work began when a group of associated Traveller5 shipwrights began designing and discussing the Gazelle. He took it and ran from there, keeping Marc and the shipwrights in the loop as he went. As it grew, at some point he/we realized that this was a product. I am fuzzy on these details though. I suppose I could look through my gmail.

That's a good description Rob. The group was working on a collection of ships and I asked to do the Gazelle and SDB since no one had claimed them. I seem to recall it was you and Magnus that said I should try to spin it off. I gave a close to final draft to Marc after a bit and he liked it enough to take ownership.

After that he did commission me to do something bigger but I won't talk about that until I make some more progress. He also gave me the green light to do one other like this and I hope to do more after that.

 

[Major B]

I thought it might be interesting to show a comparison of the Gazelle across several different rules versions.

This chart lists some of the characteristics of versions I referred to when designing the T5 version:

Some notes:
1. My biggest surprise was discovering the JTAS version (the original) and realizing how less capable the version designed using HG2 rules was in comparison. I tried to recreate the original, not the version I first saw in Supplement 7.
2. The MT version has some problems that make a straight comparison difficult. The design rules made recreating CT ships difficult. I suppose every version after that had a similar difficulty but MT seems more serious to me.
3. The first TNE version is a bit odd because the PAs are replaced by Lasers. I never played TNE so I can't really comment further on that one.
4. Crew size was pretty consistent except for the TNE and MGT versions.
5. Armor is difficult to compare across systems but I listed what they had. The most striking change was again the transition from HG1 to HG2.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Yeah boy!

That's a good description Rob. The group was working on a collection of ships and I asked to do the Gazelle and SDB since no one had claimed them. I seem to recall it was you and Magnus that said I should try to spin it off. I gave a close to final draft to Marc after a bit and he liked it enough to take ownership.

After that he did commission me to do something bigger but I won't talk about that until I make some more progress. He also gave me the green light to do one other like this and I hope to do more after that.

Yeah, now that you mention it I do remember that project...which also needs to be finalized and put out.

I thought it might be interesting to show a comparison of the Gazelle across several different rules versions.

This chart lists some of the characteristics of versions I referred to when designing the T5 version:

Some notes:
1. My biggest surprise was discovering the JTAS version (the original) and realizing how less capable the version designed using HG2 rules was in comparison. I tried to recreate the original, not the version I first saw in Supplement 7.
2. The MT version has some problems that make a straight comparison difficult. The design rules made recreating CT ships difficult. I suppose every version after that had a similar difficulty but MT seems more serious to me.
3. The first TNE version is a bit odd because the PAs are replaced by Lasers. I never played TNE so I can't really comment further on that one.
4. Crew size was pretty consistent except for the TNE and MGT versions.
5. Armor is difficult to compare across systems but I listed what they had. The most striking change was again the transition from HG1 to HG2.

I remember this chart. Way back in the getting serious phase.

And thanks for the acknowledgement, I again didn't think I did that much so really made my day when I saw it.

Beauty work.