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Old 10-12-2011, 01:49 PM   #1
jo11yroger
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Default Traveller: IW Combat

I am currently running a 4e Traveller:IW -based game, and had some questions about the starship combat rules. I'd like to hear your takes on workarounds.

One note: I really like the rules. The vector combat is awesome.

1. It seems like any ship that can accelerate at more than .1G can dodge equally well (1/2 pilot's skill) - an indomitable, for example, can dodge as well as a fighter, and will probably have a much better pilot. Is there some way I can scale the dodge roll by acceleration? Size? Should I?

2. Ramming seems both (1) too easy for the attacker and (2) too destructive. A 20 dHp human light fighter, with 1 relative velocity, ramming an indomitable, will inflict 150d * 20 damage, or an average roll of 11500 damage. The indomitable has 400 dDR and 300 dHP - even if I divide the damage by 10, this 1 83 ton, $22M fighter will destroy a 190,000 ton, $32 BILLION dollar battleship. Additionally, the roll is a quick contest of skill between the fighter pilot at +12 (Indomitable's size modifier) and the indomitable at normal... And the indomitable doesn't get to dodge. By these rules, the fighter is both more lethal and harder to evade (assuming it survives point defense fire) than a laser? Heck, a missile with a relative velocity of +1 is more effective as a kinetic kill weapon than a shaped charge (300 dice of damage versus an effective 120 dice).


Any thoughts about how to mitigate this?

- rob
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Old 10-12-2011, 02:44 PM   #2
Ronnke
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
Default Re: Traveller: IW Combat

I have thought about this myself, and the conclusion I came to was that the maximum damage a collision can produce is the smaller of each ships dHP + dDR.

This is based on the collision rules as given in B431.
"If the obstacle is breakable, the moving object cannot inflict or take more damage than the obstacle’s HP + DR."

This means that the Kamikaze Vilani fighter pilot would only be able to do 58dHP (25dHP + 33dDR) damage to the Indomitable. And a missile impact without explosion would be 6dHP.

Last edited by Ronnke; 10-12-2011 at 02:47 PM.
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Old 10-12-2011, 03:42 PM   #3
jo11yroger
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Default Re: Traveller: IW Combat

Thanks, Ronnke. That's a good rule of thumb, and I think I can scale the damage to something that reflects that.

Do you have any opinions on how easy it is to ram or the nature of dodging?
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Old 10-12-2011, 08:33 PM   #4
Ronnke
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
Default Re: Traveller: IW Combat

I think the mechanics for ramming are fine. If you are on a jetski and trying to run into a cruise liner, then it's pretty easy, but if you are trying to run into another jetski, that's a different story. This purely comes down to the pilots ability to outmaneuver his attacker.

As for dodging, I think GURPS spaceships handles this better, as it takes into account the ships handling and things like defensive actions that the pilot undertakes.
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