Task/combat system for CT

[Doctor Rob]

First off, it's great to see the re-availability of CT.

My reason for this post is to ask if anyone knows of an improved combat system (and/or task system) for CT which I can download?
Cheers, Rob

 

[T. Foster]

Which you can download? No. But it's worth noting that 'Azhanti High Lightning' which is IM(and others')O the best CT combat system will be included in the next(?) volume of reprints.

For a CT task system (a somewhat contradictory notion IMO*) try to track down an early issue (#1-10) of The Travellers' Digest. The DGP task system (a revision of which became the MT task system) is explained at the front of every issue. To plug a place where I've recently dropped a big load of cash, last I checked Colin Michael's travellertrader.com site had several early issues for sale, at pretty reasonable prices.

*The introduction of a task system is the main differentiation between MT and CT. All the other rule-changes are minor by comparison, and the whole Rebellion setting is really just a pretext/marketing ploy. CT + task system (+ err, lots of errata) = MT.

 

[tjoneslo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doctor Rob:
First off, it's great to see the re-availability of CT.

My reason for this post is to ask if anyone knows of an improved combat system (and/or task system) for CT which I can download?
Cheers, Rob<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Another improved combat system would be At Close Quarters, published by BITS (http://www.bits.org.uk ). An updated version of the Snapshot rules, which should be published with the CT reprint shortly.

 

[Gatsby]

Yep, DGP's tasks, Azhanti combat (with Striker for BIG battles), and there you go. But...how about those pesky starships??? High Gaurd for Big engagements (Trillion Credit Squadron for MASSIVE ones), but what about those small skirmishes??

Gats'

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gatsby:
Yep, DGP's tasks, Azhanti combat (with Striker for BIG battles), and there you go. But...how about those pesky starships??? High Gaurd for Big engagements (Trillion Credit Squadron for MASSIVE ones), but what about those small skirmishes??

Gats'<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mayday (which will also feature in the games reprint) is basically book 2 combat with a hex grid. The game gives some (IMHO) less than interesting notes for using it with the High Guard combat charts (I'd have preferred book 2 style resolution with additions for the new weapons systems.) and some good rules for customizing missiles.

David Shayne

 

[Swordy]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doctor Rob:
My reason for this post is to ask if anyone knows of an improved combat system (and/or task system) for CT which I can download?
Cheers, Rob<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
http://www.cybergoths.u-net.com/BITS_website/Acrobat/BITStask.pdf



------------------
What's missing from this list?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Sorry I'm late, but I just found this site. Blame Murph, if you don't like what I say

I too would like to vote for the Azhanti High Lightning/Striker combat. I think this also would make a nice, simple, easy task system, with 8+ average, 10+ difficult, 12+ very difficult (maybe adding 6+ for Easy). If you want something fancier, I posted a 2D6 die rolling convention over on the "Traveller5/Task system" thread (for mine it would be 6+, 9+, 12+, 15+, etc.)

I also prefer the damage system of AHL/Striker. The original CT damage system was a nightmare of bookeeping, especially for the referee. And it did not really give the players a heightened sense of realism.

Originally, I didn't think much of the Striker Melee Combat system, but I have learned a lot about close combat over the last 15 yrs. Adding extra detail just adds difficulty and reduces playability without enhancing "feel" or realism. For every option you give a character, you take away one he would really have. It is better to leave it highly abstracted.

 

[Darium]

I agree with you there Uncle Bob. Combat should serve the story , not become something unto its self. I think when it comes to combat all you really need to know is ; -did you hit your target ?
-is it still in the fight ?
-have you been hit ?
-can you still fight or move ?

 

[T. Foster]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darium:
I agree with you there Uncle Bob. Combat should serve the story , not become something unto its self. I think when it comes to combat all you really need to know is ; -did you hit your target ?
-is it still in the fight ?
-have you been hit ?
-can you still fight or move ?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Do you know the 'Azhanti High Lightning' combat system? Because except for detailed rules for movement (which come from it originally being a boardgame; I largely ignore them in Traveller games) that's pretty much what you get with the AHL system: roll 2D to determine hit; then 2D+DMs (+ for weapon pen. - for armor) compared to damage chart with 4 possible results: No Effect, Light Wound (-1 DM to subsequent actions, possible Stun), Major Wound (unconscious / hors de combat), Dead. Light Wounds are cumulative (i.e. -3DM after 3 LWs, etc.), LW+MW = Dead. Very quick and simple. The only problems are melee (the AHL melee system sucks, but Striker (AHL with minis) fixes it) and what to do with wounded characters after the combat ends (which is pretty easily fixed too). The MT combat system, though based on AHL, is way more complicated and arcane, and bears no more resemblance to its forebear than MT craft design does to High Guard.

If you don't have AHL and/or Striker, you definitely need to pick up the next volume of reprints; they'll more than compensate the price of the replicas of 'Fifth Frontier War' and 'Invasion: Earth' that you'll never use.

 

[Murph]

Bobbsky, right as usual.

The task system we kinda ran is the one that Uncle Bob described. I think it works best with CT and has the added benefit of being "elegant".

The two best combat systems IMHO of simulating the down and dirty of gunshots/combat are: Striker/AHL and Cyberpunk 2020 Friday Night Fire Fight.

I have observed (and once participated) in seeing what gunshot wounds do to the human body, and these systems are good.

The object is to AVOID combat if at all possible, but if it is unavoidable, then WIN any way you can.

 

[T. Foster]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Murph:
The two best combat systems IMHO of simulating the down and dirty of gunshots/combat are: Striker/AHL and Cyberpunk 2020 Friday Night Fire Fight.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Interesting you'd mention FNFF, as that's another of my all-time fave combat systems; one which my players quickly learned to respect and fear. I have no first-hand (or even second-hand) experience with RL gun combat, but both of these systems always just felt 'right' to me: keep under cover, make use of supporting fire, and try your hardest NEVER to go up against a trained opponent with a rifle.

I've always aimed to keep my games closer to Real Life than Hollywood, and merciless combat systems like these are a big help -- if you're getting shot at by professionals, you've made a BIG mistake somewhere.

FNFF and the Lifepath system were the best things about that game, by far. Oh yeah, and those supplements that were written like in-milieu magazines. Jeez, now I'm wishing my CP set wasn't packed away in storage...

 

[Darium]

I don't think real life combat makes a good model for players. Not many have been in real combat , all they have to go on is Hollywood. Roleplaying is fantasy , I don't try to simulate real life. Real life combat is a disturbing experience which can't be simulated in a RPG (and I don't want to try). AHL's combat system however sounds like something Andy Slack wrote in one of his series (I have the reprints from his website). I don't have AHL but I do have Striker and an original copy of Fifth Frontier War. I am picking up the reprints anyway (I like to colect stuff).

 

[Uncle Bob]

I guess it depends on the experience you want to convey. When I played in Murphs game (twenty years ago) we were all college kids, with no more real-word experience than the average player (well, we were Texas college kids so we all knew what double base powder smelled like

) We quickly adapted to a style of combat that was more film noir (or maybe Wild Bill Welman) than Buck Rogers.

 

[Darium]

I assumed that the audience would want to play it light , for fun. But I do remember when I wanted more realistic action. I realize now that its more a question of individual tastes than of a style associated with an era.

 

[T. Foster]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darium:
I assumed that the audience would want to play it light , for fun. But I do remember when I wanted more realistic action. I realize now that its more a question of individual tastes than of a style associated with an era. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Individual taste indeed. The question then becomes which style our rules set should model. My personal preference would be to have something relatively 'realistic' (a la AHL) as a baseline, with included options for those who prefer a more Heroic style (such as allowing extra 'saving throws' and/or introducing some sort of get-out-of-jail-free 'hero points' system). I know I've seen other systems (GURPS maybe?) go this route. I probably wouldn't use these Heroic options, but I realize there are lots of folks who would, and I'd like to keep those folks playing Traveller rather than giving them up to D20, or whatever.

 

[Murph]

Bob, correct. We did evolve to the "film noir" style of gaming and combat. Combat was to be avoided unless you could get the odds on your side. Very much Sun Tzu in outlook. That is not to say that we did not have some pretty darn spectacular fire fights though!