Sandcaster question

[Mgellis]

Quick question about sandcasters. I looked in both GURPS Traveller and GURPS Traveller: Starships and this did not seem to be addressed in either book.

Can a sandcaster be used to defend a ship other than your own?

For example, if you are in an escort vessel flying with a merchant vessel, and a corsair shows up, you could fire sandcasters to protect that ship rather than your own from the corsair's laser fire. Can this be done?

My guess is that the answer is yes, if the other ship is in the same hex as your own (as it probably would be if your ship was an escort). It is simply a matter of declaring not only which ship you are defending against but which ship is being defended...you would not be able to defend two ships with one sand canister. I imagine this can be done with any number of ships as long as they are all in the same hex and the ship using sandcasters has enough to protect them.

Any thoughts on this? Is this covered in any of the other Traveller books (GURPS or otherwise)?

Thanks.

Mark

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

Quick question about sandcasters. I looked in both GURPS Traveller and GURPS Traveller: Starships and this did not seem to be addressed in either book.

Can a sandcaster be used to defend a ship other than your own?

For example, if you are in an escort vessel flying with a merchant vessel, and a corsair shows up, you could fire sandcasters to protect that ship rather than your own from the corsair's laser fire. Can this be done?

My guess is that the answer is yes, if the other ship is in the same hex as your own (as it probably would be if your ship was an escort). It is simply a matter of declaring not only which ship you are defending against but which ship is being defended...you would not be able to defend two ships with one sand canister. I imagine this can be done with any number of ships as long as they are all in the same hex and the ship using sandcasters has enough to protect them.

Any thoughts on this? Is this covered in any of the other Traveller books (GURPS or otherwise)?

Thanks.

Mark

In CT, where sand is used as a marker on map, kind of... in that fire through the sand cloud is penalized. It represented a huge cloud.

In later editions, the rules only provide for screening one's own ship; the sand is "fired" upon detection of the beam-pointer on the rangefinder (per TNE/BL), and is an active defense during the 0.3-2 sec between beam pointer and incoming fire; it's fired on a reverse angle, and at high velocity, to scatter and partially absorb the beam energy; expected maneuvering will take this out of alignment in a matter of seconds.

So, pick a method. (I don't know the current location of my copy of GT to check it for which method it uses/implies.)

[nik1979]

I guess in theory, a ship using a sand caster to defend another ship has to be at least coordinating its maneuvers with the allied ship and is in between it and the attacker. Insert modifier based on degree of coordination.