Traveller combat

[DonM]

Good suppression rule for firefights?

Here's what I'm using now, cribbed from T4 with slight modifications to fit the CT system...

Suppression Fire: Sometimes a character may want to use automatic fire to interdict movement through a particular area – a doorway, the mouth of an alley, etc. This is a special case of the automatic fire and held action rules. It counts as a single action, but may attack multiple targets over the course of an entire combat round. The attack lasts from the time the character begins the action until that character’s turn to act the following combat round. Each character that enters the interdicted area is attacked immediately, with a negative DM equal to double the range number. If hit, the target suffers normal damage. Rather than applying the group hits by automatic fire rule, from a normal four round burst, three targets may be attacked; from a ten round or greater burst, five targets may be attacked over the course of the action.

Comments?

------------------
"I like Scouts, Scouts like me, we're just one big fam.... ARGGH!"

Don the Big Purple Traveller Dinosaur

 

[DrSkull]

That sounds good to me, and you could adapt it very easily into d20 as well.

------------------
Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson

 

[RobertFisher]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DonM:
Suppression Fire: Sometimes a character may want to use automatic fire to interdict movement through a particular area ? a doorway, the mouth of an alley, etc.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't people do effectively the same thing with semi-automatic weapons? Tom fires six or eight shots in the direction of the enemy to keep them hiding behind cover while his buddies Dick and Harry run to a new location.

Or is that just on TV?

I'm thinking it would be slightly different rules than with automatic weapons, but it seems to me like it should be possible.



------------------
Robert FISHER

 

[Ranger]

Actually, thats exactly what suppresion is in the modern military sense. Don's rule is good for "opertunity" or "pass through" fire, [and deals with how to set up a PDF (Primary Direction of Fire) or FPF (Final Protective Fire) two things that modern infantry units do routinely, but are gennerally ignored in gaming] but doesn't really deal with the idea of suppresion directly.
The problem is suppresion is really hard to model in a gaming sense because its almost entirely psycological. Its based on the targets fear of accurate fire, and its perception that is taking accurate fire. It builds up quickly, and dissapates quickly. Having said how hard it is, here are my ideas on how to do it.

CT method: For each "natural" hit a group takes it takes one point of suppresion. A natural hit is any roll of 8+ regardless if it fails to cause damage because of armor or cover (it would have been a hit, if those factors had not affected the combat).
Each point of suppresion counts as a negative on to hit rolls for the next combat round.
At the end of each round roll 1 die -1 for how many poitns of suppresion "disapate" over the next combat round. Use the standard morale modifiers out of book 1 (p. 36) to modify this roll.
If the level of suppesion reaches the groups morale level it is "suppresed" and can no longer fire or close range with the enemy.

I'm still trying to figure out a task based method to deal with this concept. If you really want to make this build up fast, use the Striker hit numbers, ie. 8+ is 1 point, 10+ is 2, and a 12 is 3 points.
I'm not sure if these rules should apply to players, since they should have the right to be stupid with their charactors and stand up in the middle of a fire-fight if they really want to.
I'm sure I am missing something, since I have no one at the moment to play test this with. Let me know if it works in practice.

Rob

 

[RobertFisher]

Interesting idea Ranger.


Now that I re-read Don's rule, it does seem more like opportunity fire rather than suppression fire. But I think something similar could be used for suppression fire.


Here's my attempt...


Robert's Suppression Fire: Sometimes a character may want to fire not to hit opponents, but to encourage them to stay behind cover and not return fire for a time. A single character can use suppression fire against more than one opponent, but all the opponents must be within 3 meters of each other. Suppression fire continues for the entire next round. (Or, if you're using an initiative system instead of simultaneous combat from Book 1, from the time the character begins the action until that character's turn to act the following combat round.) During this entire time, he is firing towards his opponents, and they know it. If an opponent leaves cover to return fire (or for any other reason), the character performing suppression fire immediately makes up to three attack rolls against him with a -2 DM (per the panic fire rule from Book 4). As with panic fire, suppression fire uses all ammo in the weapon.


The panic fire rule is kind of weird. I'm tempted to say it uses ammo use is just doubled. (If you make all three attack rolls, use ammo equal to if you taken six shots.)


I don't have Snapshot, Striker, AHL, etc. (until FFE005 comes out), so I have Books 1 and 4 to work with. OK, I do have MegaTraveller, but I mostly ignore it.

Unfortunately, I don't have much opportunity to playtest this stuff right now either. (Just trying to figure out what rules I'm going to use when I try to introduce Traveller to my current D&D group.)

------------------
Robert FISHER

[This message has been edited by RobertFisher (edited 07 June 2001).]

 

[Myscha the sled dog]

For me I used heavy modifications to the CT series that included.

More detailed relationships between damage type and armor protection based on hit location.

Although it has been a few years since I have had the luxury of running such campaigns, my players enjoyed shopping for equipment as one of their tertiary character goals, in hopes of finding some form of armor system that would not hinder movement, but provided good protection for 6 on 6 fire fights, where sometimes all it takes is one shot to kill a character.

Through using protection, wounds can be severly decreased, and using hit location gives the player a sense of fear above and beyond the fear of getting popped.

The fire fights that would ensue had a Fallout/Fallout 2 feel to them (minus the action points) where running around in a hostile area with only a T-shirt one was a sure fire way to die very quickly.

To balance this, players would keep equipment load outs for various situations in their ship's locker, so when they entered a potentially dangerous area they geared up in a more warfare/military fashion, and when they were exploring in more high TL areas/urban locales they resorted to small concealed weapons and maybe only a armor vest under clothing (depending on weather).

I think in rpg games where projectile combat is frequent, that preparation is 80% the right kind of armor, and 20% medical responsiveness.

Players of Medical skill of 3 or higher, through the use of rather expensive medications, sould quickly field treat and stabalize a fallen comrade, long enough to get back to the ship (which was outfitted with more elaborate surgery sickbay for one patient)

 

[Darium]

With combat like everything else , I like to keep it simple. Just move the story along and don't get bogged down. But there are interesting ideas here. I hope T5 uses some of thease ideas as options to the rules rather than standard procedure.

 

[Phil]

I agree the psychological effects are tough to gauge in game terms (perhaps a morale check system similar to Ranger's ideas). Earlier someone mentioned automatic fire. the best autofire rules IMHO actually also came from GDW. Anyone remember Twilight:2000 Ver. 2. Autofire was simple and I think the best simulation of real world accuracy on full auto. Roll a d6 for every bullet in the burst. Every six hits the target. Skill doesn't even enter into the equation. Which is pretty true when a gun is bouncing around in your hands on full auto. Point in the general direction and hope for the best. Game Example: Our doctor (no combat rifle skill) cut off an enemy at the knees with an Uzi on full auto. She got lucky and rolled several sixes, end of intruder. its a simple, yet fairly realistic set of full auto rules.

 

[Darium]

The style of game can alter the how you look at the morale effect of being shot at. Are the characters in a cinimatic world where the laugh danger in the face whilst their foes fear to tread upon the field. Or are they fighting to keep their heads above the waterline of gritty realism, where one wrong move is the last they make? In many cases it not an all or nothing setup, more of a balence of the two. By the way I would recommend the following ; T4=griity realism, due to large number of modifiers CT=cinematic because of less rules and more open structure .

 

[Takei]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phil:
Anyone remember Twilight:2000 Ver. 2. Autofire was simple and I think the best simulation of real world accuracy on full auto. Roll a d6 for every bullet in the burst. Every six hits the target<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I really liked those rules. Had a great time with them in one game playing a Minimi gunner. It may not appeal to everyone, but rolling a bucket load of dice when on full auto kinda put me in the right mood

Paul Bendall