CT Only: Magical melee weapons

[jaz0nj4ckal]

Folks:
I am designing something of an old school Dr. Who (1970 – 1985) scenario, which will call for a few magical melee weapons to keep the environment feel. Due to the latter, I am having a hard time deciding on how I should approach magical weapons.

Most of my experience with magical weapons comes from my years of playing AD&D 2nd edition; however, a +1 weapon in Classic Traveller could cause some issues - and I will not even think about introducing a +4 weapon.

So – I am thinking of taking a different route – I will have a few creatures that only take damage from particular types of metals.

However, if I did want to give bonuses to hit and/or damage – what should be a max cap on the bonuses and penalties? A few ideas I have now are changing the weight and damage output to a larger weapon – for example: dagger/knife could do sword damage, but have the stat restrictions of a dagger/knife.

Looking for some ideas on how to handle this idea...

Thanks

 

[atpollard]

Various versions of Traveller have some melee weapons that are more than your grandfather's old marine cutlass ... ElectroStun swords and gloves and whips ... Light Sabres (a rose be any other name ...) ... Monofilament and vibro-blades.

Convert a few oldies but oddies to a hand axe or halberd or spear or even a great sword ... And you have that "other" feel.

"Lead slugs bounce off it's hide. Lasers do not burn the scales. The records in the derive the ship's archives mention that they used something called a "Sonic Mace" to damage the internal organs of the ancient ones without needing to penetrate the skin ... Otherwise, it appears that it's hide will absorb the first 5 dice of any simple kinetic or energy weapon. So our options are to use anti-tank weapons in the starship corridors, or find one of those darn Sonic Maces."

 

[rancke]

Looks like we're going to need a Wanderer forum.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

Looks like we're going to need a Wanderer forum.
Hans

I would vote for it.

 

[jaz0nj4ckal]

Various versions of Traveller have some melee weapons that are more than your grandfather's old marine cutlass ... ElectroStun swords and gloves and whips ... Light Sabres (a rose be any other name ...) ... Monofilament and vibro-blades.

Convert a few oldies but oddies to a hand axe or halberd or spear or even a great sword ... And you have that "other" feel.

I am sort of already doing this with the weapons found in Book 1. I do not have other versions of Traveller. Will look up to see if I can find the weapons.

"Lead slugs bounce off it's hide. Lasers do not burn the scales. The records in the derive the ship's archives mention that they used something called a "Sonic Mace" to damage the internal organs of the ancient ones without needing to penetrate the skin ... Otherwise, it appears that it's hide will absorb the first 5 dice of any simple kinetic or energy weapon. So our options are to use anti-tank weapons in the starship corridors, or find one of those darn Sonic Maces."

This is exactly what I want to achieve – thanks… for the great ideas and quick write up.

 

[jaz0nj4ckal]

I just found out that a friend has the Mongoose version of The Supply Catalog book, which has all sorts of weapons into. However, since the book is geared towards the Mongoose version - do you think I should change the amount of damage the weapons deal?

From my understanding - armor subtracts damage in the Mongoose version.

 

[atpollard]

I just found out that a friend has the Mongoose version of The Supply Catalog book, which has all sorts of weapons into. However, since the book is geared towards the Mongoose version - do you think I should change the amount of damage the weapons deal?

From my understanding - armor subtracts damage in the Mongoose version.

Compare a few common weapons ... Say Cutlass, auto pistol, and shotgun ... between CT and MgT. If the damage is close (or even identical) then you can probably safely assume that other weapon damages should be reasonable as well.

 

[Enoff]

Magical can just mean it has some unexplained power that hasn't been scientifically figured out yet.

Stormbringer was an entity from another plane

 

[Jame]

I am sort of already doing this with the weapons found in Book 1. I do not have other versions of Traveller. Will look up to see if I can find the weapons.



This is exactly what I want to achieve – thanks… for the great ideas and quick write up.

I wrote up a matrix for low tech armor. I should write it up and post it. It is in CT so that could help your purposes.

 

[rhialto]

I wrote up a matrix for low tech armor. I should write it up and post it. It is in CT so that could help your purposes.

Yes, yes you should.

 

[Timerover51]

Aside from the very straightforward results table for low-tech weapons verses weapons and armor in Don Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming, there is also a nice one in Iron Crown Enterprises Middle Earth Roleplaying, and an extremely detailed one in Iron Crown's Arms Law and Claw Law, part of the Role Master game. Claw Law does cover animal attacks against armor, as does the Middle Earth Roleplaying results table.

The results table in Skirmish Wargaming also gives the wound result with the same role as hitting, while Arms Law and Claw Law are extremely detailed. For reduced die rolling, Don's table is great, while a good middle ground is the results table in MERP. All of the Iron Crown tables include critical hits, with a wide range of possible results.

 

[jaz0nj4ckal]

Aside from the very straightforward results table for low-tech weapons verses weapons and armor in Don Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming, there is also a nice one in Iron Crown Enterprises Middle Earth Roleplaying, and an extremely detailed one in Iron Crown's Arms Law and Claw Law, part of the Role Master game. Claw Law does cover animal attacks against armor, as does the Middle Earth Roleplaying results table.

The results table in Skirmish Wargaming also gives the wound result with the same role as hitting, while Arms Law and Claw Law are extremely detailed. For reduced die rolling, Don's table is great, while a good middle ground is the results table in MERP. All of the Iron Crown tables include critical hits, with a wide range of possible results.

I am not familiar with these games, but will check them out. I have always been amazed at skirmish miniature games, and what can be achieved with only a hand full of d6 dice. ++laugh++ not sure why d6 dice mechanics has a sweet spot in my mind and heart.

 

[Timerover51]

I am not familiar with these games, but will check them out. I have always been amazed at skirmish miniature games, and what can be achieved with only a hand full of d6 dice. ++laugh++ not sure why d6 dice mechanics has a sweet spot in my mind and heart.

Both Don's system and the Iron Crown Games use d100 percentile dice, which I find much superior to rolling numerous D6.

 

[Enoff]

I think in "Mote in the God's Eye" one of the humans finds a Vorpal blade in an ancient museum. Or basically a blade that vibrates at such a high frequence that it can cut through most materials. I don't remember what sci-fi book I read where weapons had an edge made of a single molecule again allowing it to cut through most materials.

 

[Timerover51]

I don't remember what sci-fi book I read where weapons had an edge made of a single molecule again allowing it to cut through most materials.

Larry Niven uses that in his "Known Space" series. It is called "Sinclair Monofilament".