FF&S for CT

[Supplement Four]

You know, I've often thought about tackling a project to bring a FF&S style device to Classic Traveller, if I just had the time.

Actually, we already have one of sorts. It's called Striker.

The problem is that the weapons designed in Striker are only useable with Striker (or, maybe AHL). It doesn't spit out all the Range and Armor DMs one would need for a Classic Trav game.

Wouldn't that be nice, though? To have an idea for a weapon (or maybe just customize a regular weapon, like an autorifle, by a different manufacturer that is maybe on a different world?), then then work through some steps, and end up with a Classic Traveller weapon, useable in the game, will all the required stats.

Now, I know the weapons we see in Classic Traveller were just "guessed at" to get their DMs. I know this because I've heard it from the TML. I asked LKW, point blank, how they came up with the Range, Armor, Advantaged/DisAdvantaged Stat DMs for CT. He told me, point blank, that, "we made it up."

Ever played the James Bond RPG? Great, fun game. There's an excellent resource in that game called the Q Manual. In the back, there's a system where by you can take any real-world weapon, use it's real world stats (like muzzle velocity and such), compare 'em to some charts, and end up spitting out game stats for the weapon for your James Bond campaign.

I ran a couple of the weapons that are listed in the game through that process, and guess what...what I ended up getting (starting with the real-world weapon, then using the Q-Manual process) ended up giving me exactly the game stats printed in the game.

I've got a great Palladium generic modern day weapon supplement that lists a lot of stats for modern day weapons. With a little work, running those weapons through the Q-Manual, allowed me to have a whole new set of weapons for my James Bond games.

And, I could feel confident that the stats I created for the weapons were representative of the weapon in the game.

Wouldn't it be great if we had something like that for CT?

I've often thought that I might be able to look at the finished product of weapons in CT and reverse engineer them to come up with some design tables so that I could take real world weapons (or even made-up ones) and create neat weapons useable in a CT game with a fair amount of accuracy.

Sadly, I just don't have the time to work on this right now.

But, I wish I did.

-S4

 

[Supplement Four]

You know, I've often thought about tackling a project to bring a FF&S style device to Classic Traveller, if I just had the time.

Actually, we already have one of sorts. It's called Striker.

The problem is that the weapons designed in Striker are only useable with Striker (or, maybe AHL). It doesn't spit out all the Range and Armor DMs one would need for a Classic Trav game.

Wouldn't that be nice, though? To have an idea for a weapon (or maybe just customize a regular weapon, like an autorifle, by a different manufacturer that is maybe on a different world?), then then work through some steps, and end up with a Classic Traveller weapon, useable in the game, will all the required stats.

Now, I know the weapons we see in Classic Traveller were just "guessed at" to get their DMs. I know this because I've heard it from the TML. I asked LKW, point blank, how they came up with the Range, Armor, Advantaged/DisAdvantaged Stat DMs for CT. He told me, point blank, that, "we made it up."

Ever played the James Bond RPG? Great, fun game. There's an excellent resource in that game called the Q Manual. In the back, there's a system where by you can take any real-world weapon, use it's real world stats (like muzzle velocity and such), compare 'em to some charts, and end up spitting out game stats for the weapon for your James Bond campaign.

I ran a couple of the weapons that are listed in the game through that process, and guess what...what I ended up getting (starting with the real-world weapon, then using the Q-Manual process) ended up giving me exactly the game stats printed in the game.

I've got a great Palladium generic modern day weapon supplement that lists a lot of stats for modern day weapons. With a little work, running those weapons through the Q-Manual, allowed me to have a whole new set of weapons for my James Bond games.

And, I could feel confident that the stats I created for the weapons were representative of the weapon in the game.

Wouldn't it be great if we had something like that for CT?

I've often thought that I might be able to look at the finished product of weapons in CT and reverse engineer them to come up with some design tables so that I could take real world weapons (or even made-up ones) and create neat weapons useable in a CT game with a fair amount of accuracy.

Sadly, I just don't have the time to work on this right now.

But, I wish I did.

-S4

 

[atpollard]

You tease.

The last time that I felt the urge to expand the CT weapon list, I found the broad range of projectiles that do 3D6 points of damage irreconcilable with any real-world values for mass, velocity, momentum or kinetic energy. Any link between real-life and Traveler weapons would result in a weapons list that bore no resemblance to CT (The Traveller Book).

Looking at it the other way, any new weapon will do 3D6 if it will stop a man and 4D6 if it will stop an elephant/car. Size, weight and ROF can come from real life. Armor and Range modifiers can be copied/guessed from similar weapons.

 

[atpollard]

You tease.

The last time that I felt the urge to expand the CT weapon list, I found the broad range of projectiles that do 3D6 points of damage irreconcilable with any real-world values for mass, velocity, momentum or kinetic energy. Any link between real-life and Traveler weapons would result in a weapons list that bore no resemblance to CT (The Traveller Book).

Looking at it the other way, any new weapon will do 3D6 if it will stop a man and 4D6 if it will stop an elephant/car. Size, weight and ROF can come from real life. Armor and Range modifiers can be copied/guessed from similar weapons.

 

[Border Reiver]

Integrating a vehicle design system like Striker with a game based on CT characters?

Aha, work's done already. It's called Megatraveller

 

[Border Reiver]

Integrating a vehicle design system like Striker with a game based on CT characters?

Aha, work's done already. It's called Megatraveller

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by atpollard:
You tease.

Maybe a bit...

The last time that I felt the urge to expand the CT weapon list, I found the broad range of projectiles that do 3D6 points of damage irreconcilable with any real-world values for mass, velocity, momentum or kinetic energy. Any link between real-life and Traveler weapons would result in a weapons list that bore no resemblance to CT (The Traveller Book).

The damage part is the easy part. You're right, most weapons do 3D damage. Only a few do 4D or more (and then you get into military weapons).

The hard part of putting together a design system like this would be the DMs. DMs for Range. DMs for Armor. DMs for Advantaged/DisAdvantaged DEX or STR.

That's where the work would lie.

And, once you got it together, you'd have to make sure one could use it to duplicate weapons found in official CT (The Traveller Book).

It may not be impossible, as you say. It just might require some thought and work.

See, we have the weapons the stats in the TB are based on (they're listed...er...somewhere...in one of the rule editions). And, we have the stats associated with them.

There's some correlation there. It will just take some time to figure out what that correlation is.

Maybe we could add on to Striker to spit out the desired DMs.

Maybe we could mod FF&S to spit out what we need in a CT weapon.

Of course, as you say, just eye-balling it from already established weapons works good too.

Heck, I do that all the time. I consider the weapons in official Trav (The Traveller Book) to be representative of generic weapons of that type. I'll design an autorifle, maybe give it more range, or maybe more punching power vs. a specific type of armor, by just tweaking the generic numbers.

That's fun. Quick. Easy. It works, in a game.

But...I was daydreaming about a system that would work.

I'm thinking Striker is a good place to start.

-S4

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by atpollard:
You tease.

Maybe a bit...

The last time that I felt the urge to expand the CT weapon list, I found the broad range of projectiles that do 3D6 points of damage irreconcilable with any real-world values for mass, velocity, momentum or kinetic energy. Any link between real-life and Traveler weapons would result in a weapons list that bore no resemblance to CT (The Traveller Book).

The damage part is the easy part. You're right, most weapons do 3D damage. Only a few do 4D or more (and then you get into military weapons).

The hard part of putting together a design system like this would be the DMs. DMs for Range. DMs for Armor. DMs for Advantaged/DisAdvantaged DEX or STR.

That's where the work would lie.

And, once you got it together, you'd have to make sure one could use it to duplicate weapons found in official CT (The Traveller Book).

It may not be impossible, as you say. It just might require some thought and work.

See, we have the weapons the stats in the TB are based on (they're listed...er...somewhere...in one of the rule editions). And, we have the stats associated with them.

There's some correlation there. It will just take some time to figure out what that correlation is.

Maybe we could add on to Striker to spit out the desired DMs.

Maybe we could mod FF&S to spit out what we need in a CT weapon.

Of course, as you say, just eye-balling it from already established weapons works good too.

Heck, I do that all the time. I consider the weapons in official Trav (The Traveller Book) to be representative of generic weapons of that type. I'll design an autorifle, maybe give it more range, or maybe more punching power vs. a specific type of armor, by just tweaking the generic numbers.

That's fun. Quick. Easy. It works, in a game.

But...I was daydreaming about a system that would work.

I'm thinking Striker is a good place to start.

-S4

 

[Golan2072]

Yes, a small-arms design system for striker would be great even for "pure" striker gaming; once such a thing would be ready, all you'll need to do would be to write down conversion guidelines from Striker to CT (including damage, armor DMs, range DMs and so on), in addition to tables for figuring out the various DEX/STR DMs.

 

[Golan2072]

Yes, a small-arms design system for striker would be great even for "pure" striker gaming; once such a thing would be ready, all you'll need to do would be to write down conversion guidelines from Striker to CT (including damage, armor DMs, range DMs and so on), in addition to tables for figuring out the various DEX/STR DMs.

 

[Gadrin]

you might want to check this out (free sample PDF) I just downloaded it yesterday.

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=BTR6109

It's for EABA (which I've never heard of) but the GURPS posters say they can convert it for GURPS with a minimum of fuss.

anyway, it might spark some ideas and has a calculator form built in for test-driving.

 

[Gadrin]

you might want to check this out (free sample PDF) I just downloaded it yesterday.

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=BTR6109

It's for EABA (which I've never heard of) but the GURPS posters say they can convert it for GURPS with a minimum of fuss.

anyway, it might spark some ideas and has a calculator form built in for test-driving.