Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
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I'm also frustrated with the scale in Traveler generally. Ships are _huge_. I live in a 20 dTon house but that'd be a light fighter.
If you think a Type T Patrol Cruiser ought to be the sort of thing that would make a good host for a PC group and start planning out customs inspection missions that are going to go bad you find out that the "Customs Gig" seats 24 and the Type T has an 8 man security force that has nothing better to do than go on such missions.
If you wonder the Gazelle might be a better choice because it has no security force but I'd rather have a 10 dTon Launch tan a 20 ton gig.
So yes, I am frustrated by the constraints built into the design systems that would be easiet to use.
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Ok, so what kind of time scale would you rather see? If it weren't for the Rate of Fire Bonuses - trying to hit anything at longer ranges would be exceedingly difficult.
There have been many times where I'd just about want to throw up my hands and go back to what I used to do in the bad old days before GURPS TRAVELLER ever got printed...
Use GURPS as the role playing rules, use TRAVELLER's original ship combat rules and take it from there. It worked for me long before GURPS TRAVELLER came out (ran two such campaigns easily).
Thing is - once the flaws in the TRAVELLER rules came to the fore (and STRIKER didn't help matters there either!), it seemed to make more sense to try and shift over to the direction that GURPS TRAVELLER was heading - including a mass based acceleration value instead of a volume based system that High Guard used.
What I really LOVE about the GURPS rules is not just the more realistic assessment for Fusion energy production, but also the sensor rules. Trying to reconcile the Traveller universe using the sensor rules from Mayday or Book 2: Starships just seemed to be a bit of an issue.
So, what are your thoughts on how long combat rounds should be, and lets see where that line of thinking takes us. Rather than shoot things down or accept things blindly - how's about looking at the road not taken. If I recall correctly, each "turn" in Traveller (Classic) was 1,000 seconds or just over 16 minutes.
I still remember hunting down the figures on ranges for Mayday and trying to reconcile them with High Guard ranges. ;)