Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

[Mastermind]

Love the lethality on some weapons..Gauss. Laser..

 

However, confused on the use of EB on Plasma/Fusion Guns. Seem that now they are more survivable. That is unless I am missing some obscure rule about overSTUN damage.

 

What am I not getting?

 

[Ternaugh]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

The builds are a little weird. They have Penetrating, which only applies to the STUN of a normal damage attack without GM permission (though I'm guessing that the goal was to make it apply to BODY, more on that in a moment), and Reduced By Range, which makes them most effective in the zone normally considered a "damage space" in older rulesets.

 

I'm guessing that the reliance on normal damage is to allow Battle Dress to actually function something like Traveller, without being totally impervious to other weapons fire. As defined by the TH rules, Battle Dress is the only Hardened armor, which means that it would avoid the effects of Penetrating. And this is why I think that Penetrating was meant to be applied to BODY, not STUN in regards to these weapons. It allows what would be for most characters a "kill" without boosting the DCs up to extreme levels (around DC 36-40, depending on how you do it), and then requiring even more tinkering with Battle Dress. As it is, an average of 16 BODY through all but Battle Dress with no defenses for the FGMPs will most likely ruin anyone's day.

 

Additionally, it wouldn't surprise me greatly if the authors were relying on TNE as their source for the weapons (they have noted that the Battle Dress is based on TNE designs). High-energy weapons were somewhat less powerful than previous designs, leading to changes in weapon characteristics in the "Mark I, Mod. 1" printing. I can't easily find it, but I believe there was a Challenge Article, along the lines of "Putting the Heat Back Into Plasma" concerned with it.

 

JoeG

[Mastermind]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

OK..But why then are Starship based Plasma/Fusion RKAs?

 

I'll have to track down that article though.

 

I remember having to redesign all the Weapons in TNE when I got FF&F. For some reason when you plugged all the numbers using the formulas in that book, they were about one more level up across the board. We stuck with the lethality.

[Ternaugh]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

I'm guessing because they didn't need to worry about people being hit by it in direct fire mode.

I'm really thinking the normal damage thing just a workaround for personal armor issues.

 

Also, check your TNE books to see if you have "Mark I, Mod 1" on the copyright page. If you don't, you've got one of the first printings, and that would be why the guns don't match up with FFS, because they didn't use it to build 'em. Another way to tell, the personal energy weapons section is expanded in the "Mark I, Mod 1" printings to two pages by itself.

 

JoeG

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

theres an article from Challenge called "Putting the heat back in fusion" that addresses some of the design issues. no idea what issue part of it is also in the Regency Vehicle Guide

[Savinien]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

What the hell is a 'challenge' and all the definitions for the abbreviations you guys are throwing around?

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

ooops... sorry

 

Challenge Magazine from GDW was the successor to the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society[JTAS]

 

FFS is "Fire Fusion and Steel" which came in 2 versions

FFS v1 for TNE from GDW

FFS v2 for T4 from Imperium Games

 

V2 isnt worth it, badly laid out, and poorly edited, and very buggy

 

Hero comparison, Ultimate Vehicle does everything FFS does for the most part, so between 5th ed or 5th ed revised and TUV you dont really need it except for idea mining, or for various conversions if your a gearhead like me

[tancred]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

Most of the weapon write-ups that I did were conversions from CT.

These were in fact mostly straight ports over from Dark Champions, using the "Antique Equivalents" sections from the LBBs to tell me which DC weapon to grab.

 

Some of the weapons are from later editions, which I don't have. In those cases, other authors did the conversions and I just worked them up in Hero Designer.

 

I don't remember now why the Plasma/Fusion Guns were done as EBs rather than RKAs. I'm pretty sure that every time I've seen them written up they were done that way.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

Now the Challenge Magazine was a awesome , I have many of them in magazine bags and

stored away in a magazine storage boxes. I need to pull them out and look them all over.

[Mastermind]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

LOL.

 

Savinien=N00B

 

I think I have challenges from about 33 to the end. very cool ideas for so many different games.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

LOL.

 

Savinien=N00B

 

I think I have challenges from about 33 to the end. very cool ideas for so many different games.

 

 

Please tell me that was a joke, rather........... rather than something that is ultimately sad.

[Ternaugh]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

Challenge Magazine was one of those "read from cover to cover" magazines. I didn't play Twilight: 2000, for example, but would regularly read the material in Challenge so that I could borrow ideas for Traveller. Additionally, they weren't limited to just GDW's game systems. They would frequently have material for other game systems, like Shadowrun; Torg; It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show; and Paranoia and many more.

 

And they had some very interesting "humor" pieces, including a "swimsuit" issue, and a parody writeup of Star Trek: TNG which had the following skill.

 

Starship Piloting: This skill includes navigation' date=' operating impulse and warp engines, and operating all electronic equipment (except for the subskill Open Hailing Frequency,which is a psychic ability available only to women and ethnic minorities).[/quote']

 

JoeG

[Gorillagrod]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

 

I don't remember now why the Plasma/Fusion Guns were done as EBs rather than RKAs. I'm pretty sure that every time I've seen them written up they were done that way.

 

In both Star Hero and Terran Empire, plasma/fusion guns were done as EBs. Whether underpowered or not, it seems like it's staying true to the original Hero plasma guns. Maybe that's where the choice came from. I thought it was interesting myself, I started playing Traveller with Traveller T20, and the FGMPs did like 20d12 worth of damage or something...simply insane in a d20 world, it could blow up a tank in that game without much effort-probably the idea.

 

Incidentally that was an abnormally long sentence. I abused many a comma back there...tragic.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

the Challenge Swimsuit issue was fun...

 

Cthulhu dressed as a lifeguard sitting in a lifeguard chair

wearing a bib with a human silhouette

[clsage]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

Cthulhu dressed as a lifeguard sitting in a lifeguard chair

wearing a bib with a human silhouette

 

Rep for just mentioning such an image.

 

-Carl-

[tancred]

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero

 

In both Star Hero and Terran Empire, plasma/fusion guns were done as EBs. Whether underpowered or not, it seems like it's staying true to the original Hero plasma guns. Maybe that's where the choice came from. I thought it was interesting myself, I started playing Traveller with Traveller T20, and the FGMPs did like 20d12 worth of damage or something...simply insane in a d20 world, it could blow up a tank in that game without much effort-probably the idea.

 

Incidentally that was an abnormally long sentence. I abused many a comma back there...tragic.

 

That must be why the EB rather than RKA choice, seeing them done that way for Star Hero and Terran Empire. (It's been a LONG time since we did those write-ups; I really don't remember now.)

 

FGMPs SHOULD do an insane amount of damage. IIRC, in CT even rolling minimum damage (all 1's) is an all-but guaranteed kill on a character, and average damage will take out most vehicles, even armored ones.

 

As to Challenge magazine, I was one who was very disappointed by it. I did NOT want to pay more for so many pages of non-Traveller stuff, and let my subscription lapse after something like 2 issues.

I do miss the Journal; great magazine.