How often do you use ANY Traveller ship combat rules?
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mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
You can build a role playing ship combat system out of this:
So there is all the stuff the pilot can do, all you need to do is add stuff for other characters to participate:
Gunnery - roll to hit with lasers, roll for anti-missile fire
Engineering - roll to increase effective power plant rating for this turn only, allowing double fire or to maintain maneuver drive rating after a power plant hit
Engineer/Mechanic/Electronic - roll to repair one damaged system (one roll per damage control party)
Navigator/computer - roll for ECM to disable enemy missiles, jam enemy comms, spoof enemy weapon locks..
Navigator/computer - use sensors to identify unknown bogies, obtain info about opposing ships
That sort of thing - I deliberately have left the nature of the actual roll for your favourite way of handling skill resolution in Traveller.
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At present, I prefer to borrow from the 1977 version of CT/BT B2 space combat; specifically, the absence of critical hits under that system.
As a further extension of this house rule, I presume that basic spacecraft hulls are armored against most space-environment hazards short of high-speed terrain impacts, and that most spacecraft systems are as robust and reliable as possible and are therefore (theoretically, at least) eventually repairable in the field with enough time and duct tape. This avoids the TPK risk from a Golden BB; you want to kill everybody, you need to board and do it the hard way: face-to-face. This could go a long way toward explaining why tradewar is officially tolerated: casualties should be fairly rare, and ransom-ready prisoners easy to come by.
Furthermore, given the widespread references to Hortalez et Cie in canon, I presume that the crushing costs of permanent, reliable spacecraft repairs may be covered by insurance. In the case of subsidized/mortgaged vessels, the insurer is probably another branch of the lending agency, and the premiums are included in the monthly payments. Damages resulting from malfeasance or misfeasance on the part of the insured will, of course, increase the premiums and therefore raise the monthly payments above their original level.
For vessels that are paid off and owned free and clear by persons who are not deep-pocketed nobility, IMTU spacecraft insurance may be purchased at the market rate, starting at 0.1% of the vessel's value monthly, and being adjusted upward in response to claims (particularly those that are sketchy or suspiciously frequent) and/or overtly risky PC behavior. This also provides a bit of post-mortgage-payoff financial leverage over the PCs for the ref to use when necessary.
Thus IMTU at least, both the lethality and expense of space combat may be largely tempered; while it remains something which responsible PCs should seek to avoid, it can be survivable, both biologically and economically.
YMMVIYTU, of course...
Let's face it: most game sessions play this way.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I have the former in place, as a requirement by the banks to ensure they get paid off even if the ship is lost and not saddle the players with 50 million credit in debt, and the latter with not quite so harsh a fee on average, but scaling up in dangerous space and not covered if players go beyond the risk zones they are covered for.
In the case of ship loss, assuming the players did not deliberately scuttle the ship and get caught, they get zero nothing but are out from the debt structure.
Alternatively, the banks have the option to handover some repo ship and force the loanee to continue to service the debt on the 'new' ship.
Otto Harkaman
SOC-12
I really tried to play and understand Traveller space combat at one point. It seems whenever you try to get deeply into the rule mechanics besides rolling up characters you step into a vague void. Sometimes I wonder if this whole thing isn't just a smoke and mirrors act to make money. 
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I really tried to play and understand Traveller space combat at one point. It seems whenever you try to get deeply into the rule mechanics besides rolling up characters you step into a vague void. Sometimes I wonder if this whole thing isn't just a smoke and mirrors act to make money.
LOL! Maybe Traveller could make money if it licensed D&D5E as its engine.
The problem is that combat is difficult. Once you get into combat, Traveller maybe has some schizophrenia. Combat tends to be more wargame-like than the rest of the game. Details and complexity threatens to eclipse the Rich Decision-Making Environment that Marc aspires to.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
The TPK potential of being in a metal box full of air when it stops being full of air is a really good meta-game reason to encourage boarding actions, and thus pirates.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Traveller needs a way to resolve ship combat as a role playing encounter rather than 'right lads let's get the hex mat out'.
There are many ways to do this but the key points are:
all of the players must be active
player decisions should matter
it should be exciting.
There is nothing exciting about breaking out the Mayday box to resolve an encounter between a PC ship and a hostile, there is nothing exciting about ten minute to half hour turns, there is nothing exciting about the one player who can understand vector movement taking over, there is nothing exciting about two dice rolls resulting in TPK.
There are many ways to do this but the key points are:
all of the players must be active
player decisions should matter
it should be exciting.
There is nothing exciting about breaking out the Mayday box to resolve an encounter between a PC ship and a hostile, there is nothing exciting about ten minute to half hour turns, there is nothing exciting about the one player who can understand vector movement taking over, there is nothing exciting about two dice rolls resulting in TPK.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Hmmm, well that depends on how you do it.
Even if my players were not interested, I would tend to hex/graph it just to keep it clear in my mind, but you should be able to talk up what is going on and have all manner of fiddly rolls they are doing to be integrated into the fight, hence a lot of my effort towards Ship Tactics and design, so they have a sense of fighting the ship and spend a lot of quality time doing the Scotty thing.
I do hear you on the 1000 second turn fight, and wanted to scale it down to 100 second rounds.
Problem is the relative speed scales mean a lot of shots before you significantly move even with 1000 second turns. The speed to action vs. movement ratio for character-based timing scale is not good for that purpose. Hence my engagement thread.
Going into a fight with at least one of the combatants at high-vee changes that dynamic, but isn't a good default to count on.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Don't get me wrong, I love wargames and boardgames.
But most of the player's I have run Traveller for over the years hate them. Their eyes glaze over at the mention of Mayday, Brilliant Lances, even Power Projection.
If I build the tension while they try to identify the bogey, if I keep them all interested by giving them something to do, and if the ship combat can be resolved as fast as a fire fight then they love it.
I do use counters or ship minis if available (mine are under lock and key) and either a simple range band system or a circular radar template I stole from Grand Survey (print it out on acetate or laminate it and you can use it over and over).
I do not break out wargame mini rules for personal combat and I do not break out a boardgame to resolve vehicle or ship combat during a role playing game.
I have played and refereed for groups who used Striker for every personal combat and Mayday-LBB2 hybrid for every ship combat.
In such games the combat took over the whole evening - that's not a role playing game it is a wargame.
But most of the player's I have run Traveller for over the years hate them. Their eyes glaze over at the mention of Mayday, Brilliant Lances, even Power Projection.
If I build the tension while they try to identify the bogey, if I keep them all interested by giving them something to do, and if the ship combat can be resolved as fast as a fire fight then they love it.
I do use counters or ship minis if available (mine are under lock and key) and either a simple range band system or a circular radar template I stole from Grand Survey (print it out on acetate or laminate it and you can use it over and over).
I do not break out wargame mini rules for personal combat and I do not break out a boardgame to resolve vehicle or ship combat during a role playing game.
I have played and refereed for groups who used Striker for every personal combat and Mayday-LBB2 hybrid for every ship combat.
In such games the combat took over the whole evening - that's not a role playing game it is a wargame.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Well since my group ARE wargamers, every one, the distinction is lost for them.
All SFB and Starfire guys, every one. One of them is even one of the SFB canon Hydran guys.
They tend to roleplay wargames too.
A Taiwan/PLAN and an Indian/USN Harpoon battle both hinged in large measure on how we were going to present/spin it on CNN for instance- we were all fighting for strategic goals of moral supremacy on the world stage and potential enemies fearing for future deterrence.
Roman/Carthaginian battles in particular seem to bring out the 'make it personal' with their command elephants, and this one mocking voice one of my friends has for Prince Rupert makes me go crazy Roundhead.
The Die Roll as Drama is also effective for them.
Now if you are talking pure RPG people, then the answer is buffer them from the mechanics, speed it up so it plays like a TV/movie battle episode, put in lots of meaningful rolls but not 250 laser battery rolls, announce range closing and have NPCs explain what that means, Scotty Drama, and use the mechanics to help you describe it so they get the feel but don't have to manage the grit.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I would love to referee/play in your group 
My first love was wargames, my first real wargame book was the Airfix Napoleonic rules as a Christmas present (1974).
My first love was wargames, my first real wargame book was the Airfix Napoleonic rules as a Christmas present (1974).
lostscout5
SOC-12
I would love to referee/play in your group
My first love was wargames, my first real wargame book was the Airfix Napoleonic rules as a Christmas present (1974).
I started with avalon hill's PanzerBlitz
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
One of my first games was Panzerblitz, the first edition version. And I have one of the original Star Fleet Battles from Lou Zocchi using paper cut outs of the ships with firing strings.
Having said that, if I got really pushed by players for space combat, I would probably break out either my Warp War game or my Imperium game, and totally ignore all of the Traveller stuff. Never have been pushed to that degree. I have a very dim view of space combat, even though Space Viking is one of my favorite science fiction stories.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
I picked up PanzerBlitz and it's sequel at a thrift store or church sale, and loved the amount of background material.
I think it's suitable for Striker.
I think it's suitable for Striker.
5E has gone to an OGL SRD...
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Huh?
We could, in theory, free-license 5E mechanics to do T25...
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