Originally posted by Berg:
Is there a thread here perhaps that summarizes this method, as I keep hearing about it and would like to use it....
Yes.
This came up in the old thread (under my old idea) of Sensors for Classic Traveller.
Click on this link:
http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=44;t=000310;p=3
If you've got Mayday, the system is basically the same.
Mayday is more slanted towards using range bands on a hex board while Starter Traveller is slanted towards using range bands like that described for personal combat in Book 1.
Both systems (mapping on a hex board, or just the GM keeping track of ranges using lined notebook paper).
I tend to default to the hex board method.
If using the hex board method, you basically need two counters for a ship: one counter to represent the ship, and one counter to represent the future position of the ship (provided the ship doesn't change its velocity).
A ship can change it's velocity by an amount equal to it's M-Drive each round. So, a ship with a 1G drive, from relative stop, that accelerates during the round, will have a velocity of 1 hex per round. This ship can accelerate another hex in the next round, and it's velocity will be two hexes in a round.
And so on...
The ship can alter it's future position marker by a number of hexes equal to it's M-Drive (either accelerating, decelerating, or turning "banking").
Some Traveller combat systems use three markers when using the Range Band method with a hex map: 1 marker is past postion along with the other two markers I already described.
That third marker is used so that the player remembers the direction of his travel (so that a ship doesn't move into a new hex and, on the next round, start automatically moving off in a direction that would be impossible given the ship's current direction and inertia).
This isn't Star Wars - it's hard to turn using the more realistic Range Band method that considers inertia and velocity.
Is it that different, easy to convert?
It's a very easy system.
If you've got Mayday, you've got all you need to covert Book 2 to the Range Band method.
1 Range Band = 10,000 km.
So, one hex, or one square on a grid, will equal 10,000 km.
Your M-Drive will tell you how many hexes you can alter your future position. Your speed can build each round if you keep accelerating.
When you convert from Book 2, just remember the scale: 100mm = 1 Range Band = 1 hex.
Divide all the ranges you see in Book 2 by 100, and that's how many Range Bands we're talking about.
For example, look at the Defender's DMs table for space combat in Book 2. It says use a -2DM for range greater than 2500mm when using laser fire.
That's 25 range bands. Simply use the -2DM when a target is 25 hexes away from your ship.
Range greater than 5000mm is -5 to hit. That's 50 hexes. Etc.
No.
HG is an abstract combat system. Book 2 combat is much less abstract, and it focuses more on role playing (if, for example, damage to the ship indicates that a crew member has been wounded, then your ship's medic will be helping that charcter, inside the ship, during the combat).
When I run Book 2 combat, I switch, back and forth, between what's going on inside the ship (the Engineer trying to repair damage, for example) and what's happening on the hex board between the combatants.
With my new sensor rules, this type of gaming just got "cooler" because my players are now saying, all the time, "What's on the sensors! Check the sensors!"
Now, as I said above, Starter Traveller is more geared to Range Band movement without a hex board. You can use a hex board, like I do, but you don't have to at all.
The GM will keep track of range on a simple piece of lined notebook paper. All he has to do is keep the distance between the two vessels accurate--he's not worried about actual position on a hex map.
If two ships are docked, and then one accelerates away, using it's 3G drive, then the two ships are now 3 Range Bands apart.
Let's say that ship keep accelerating at it's fastest pace, on round two, it will have a velocity of 6 Range Bands--but the distance might not be 6 RBs...because the other vessel, with a 1G drive, went after it.
So, we've got a ship that accelerated for two rounds, using it's 3G drive. And, we've got a ship with a 1G drive chasing it.
The two ships are now 4 RBs apart.
Simple.
If you like the abstract HG method, then I'd use Range Bands the Starter Traveller way.
If you like to plot movement on a hex board, then I'd use the Mayday method of using Range Bands.
