Book 1: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
The crux of most RPGs: how to handle combat! Pages 200-234 cover this topic. I will be the first to admit, I've never been good at Traveller combat. When I first had Traveller, the combat matrix did not seem to work for me as it was an abstraction I was not used to. Years later, I now better understand the abstraction of all that and how it works. But when I got Striker, I made a homebrew between Classic and Traveller. As I always prefer armor as damage soaking, not affecting if you get hit or not (though that is what that abstraction does - I had just not realized it in high school)
Moving on to T5, we define the battle:
Characters attack, defend, move, and otherwise act to resolve the encounter in a series of combat Rounds. In each Round, every participant has the opportunity to move and to use a weapon (or to do some other activity: perhaps use a communicator, activate a device, or consult a sensor). After every participant has had an opportunity to act, the current Round ends and the next Round begins.
Seems simple. Though of course yet another only as necessary:
ROARN Resolve Only As Really Necessary
Combat is a comprehensive system addressing a broad spectrum of details: those details should be resolved only when necessary. Some damaged equipment can simply be discarded. Non-Player Characters who will not participate in future actions can be ignored. It may be that the only answer needed is whether the shot hit the target; there is no need to burden everyone with more detail.
So, ignore all the rules we are going to have? Well, moving on as for some people, combat is always necessary, and they want ALL the rules!
First, we need to define terms. The scaling uses range bands (and I've a string feeling you could do this on something like the space range bands below someone made (and no idea who but 99% sure I got it from COTI or the Mongoose forums years ago)
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| Space Range Table - if anyone knows who did it let me know! |
We track distance via range bands, though once we got close enough, such as in a starship (so I can use all those deck plan posters!) we'd probably have to calculate the range band from the from distance. We are given the example of range band 3 (Range = 3, or R3) is about 150 meters. Apparently, we can see a book (a Size 3 item) at that distance. And I'll note later that there is a handy table that does these translations for us.
Combat takes place in rounds. A round is about 1 minute (or 12 rounds in TFT as those rounds are 5 seconds I believe). The obvious example of a fight taking 12 rounds has lasted about 12 minutes. Each round has 3 phases: movement, attack and damage. We note that for personal combat, ranges 0-5 are pretty much it, unless we have vehicles involved. You can move to an adjacent range at the beginning of a combat round or two if sprinting. And you need to rest 4 rounds before being able to sprint again (and as someone who used to run, I sprinted almost 3 miles in a 5K. And about threw up which is why I did not sprint the 3.1 miles of the 5K but walked/ran the remainder. The sprinting to me is really heavily dependent on the character and I would say goes below the resolution of T5 combat). Which perplexes me a bit as some of those ranges are pretty wide. But we'll go with the abstractions. Speed tells you how many range bands you can normally cover in a round, and people are 1, whereas vehicles can be speed 1, 2 or 3. And unless moving directly towards the target, cannot get closer than R3. Which I've no idea why - maybe they are trying to cut you off. Anyway...
The attack is where we are supposed to know our combat numbers. Our shooting number is DEX + weapon skill + Knowledge (and see - again this odd split of skills vs knowledge. I could have a character that has a few gun skills, so add in the skill 1 + the knowledge 2? Seems like it but again, also seems we should just take the skill, err, knowledge, err. and you know why I have a hard time w/Traveller combat! And tasks. Melee is similar: STR + weapon skill + knowledge. Impact number is our current speed - err, so if standing, then 0? And yes, unless you moved the current round. Okey dokey then. The apparent size (humans = 5), though beasts can crouch (-1) or lay prone (-2). As noted in the senses, if apparent size is less than 0 (hah, not less than or equal!) it normally cannot be seen. The attacks can take place in any order. Hmm - if I am running a game with 3 players, who goes first? And there is a note on the first attacker gets a +1 mod for defending, which says that every responding attack against the 1st attacker is easier. Which is confusing - we add the +1 to the attackers' mods? Hopefully we'll have an example! Though if the 1st attack hits, that target cannot attack this round.
We have 3 types of attacks: melee (aka hand to hand), ranged, and impact (driving that speeder into your target will not end well for that target!). Melee is a 2D difficulty, impact is 2D, and ranged is the range, so that an R3 attack uses 3d6.
Finally, after all the attacks (which are simultaneous, the only thing possibly affecting who can do what is that 1st successful attack. But how do you decide who goes 1st?) Ahh, here it is: everyone decides who they are going to attack but can change their minds as the actions play out. So not all at the same time, and yes, a minute is a pretty long time actually.
An attack can also be something other than weapon usage. Call for backup, start up the vehicle, and so forth. Oddly placed in the same section is the rules on knocking someone out (automatic if hitting on the back of the head for 2d6 rounds), and the quick kill for those overpowering attacks.
Damage is weapon-based, and we also have various types of damage, such as burn and penetration. Armor is a damage absorber, and soaks in the appropriate damage types. A revolver, for instance, does 1d6 penetration damage, and you could have some AR-10 armor that will absorb 10 points of damage. So a pistol is ineffective against that armor. And the old reflec type of armor I assume comes into play, as does insulation and other types of protection. Anything beyond the armor value gets through and causes damage.
Damage to the player and NPCs is handled a bit differently: an NPC gets "out of action" if they take 10 or more points of damage (I think similar to Fate's mooks: basically, the goblins or low-level grunts and we're being a bit cinematic). Note that most types of attacks, if doing more than half the armor value and greater than the character's dexterity, they get knocked down.
We cover the impact damage and rules in a few paragraphs, the melee attack in several more, and ranged. In melee you can use your DEX points as mods in the combat, giving you a better chance at hitting. But you only have those mods equal to your dex, so a dexterity 5 has all of 5 points they can use before they are no longer available in this combat. You may also fight for your endurance rounds. Which seems to imply if you have a pretty high endurance and dexterity, you could simply evade until your opponent is worn out. And if not using weapons, your strength is the damage done.
The ranged attack covers distance (the number of dice to roll under), relative speeds (shooting from/to a moving vehicle), and the target's apparent size (size - range; a human at size 5 at range 3, 150m, is effectively a size 2. Similar in an odd way to the adjusted dexterity in TFT). I actually do like this mechanic as something far away is harder to hit as its relative size is smaller. And if we use just the range bands, and not have to count squares, it is actually not complicated.
We then have pages, and more pages, of charts and more specialized rules such as concealment, reloading, various types of ranged attacks (aimed, standard, and snap fire). And wow - there are 26 types of effects. I think there would have been more had the alphabet had more letters! A = corrode, B = bullet, J = Psi, and Z = tranq. And all the letters in between are used. Why the armor maker (covered later) can be pretty darn complex! And then you need to track all this! Though nicely done armor and weapon cards would have all this readily available, so it is not as bad as I am making out here.
The mod tables are sort of backwards to how I think of them. If you are behind cover, you subtract 3 from your die rolls in attacking, making it harder for you to hit someone. Of course, they also have to subtract 3 from their rolls, so that protects you. And the mods have mods based on the type of attack. Backwards because T5 is a roll-under game mechanic. Sort of like getting my head wrapped around dependency inversion in software (don't ask!).
When you are hit, as with Classic Traveller you apply the damage to your physical (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance) stats. You can pick, and when one is zero, apply to your next stat of choice. Some damage, such as cold, also can be applied to your intelligence and education stats.
Hits against things start taking down functions. Apparently randomly assigned though I'd allow aimed shots to take out specific things. Of course, we've not gotten to vehicles yet so this is even more abstract.
One of the nice tables shows us the number of 1.5m squares per range band. And larger maps. I'd have to print this out when running combat on deck plans!
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| Converting range bands to concrete distances |
I'd also have to make these combat cards for the players, so that they could play and not need a degree in Traveller combat. They would have a shooting/melee number per weapon, and I'd handle the impact as that is just the speed. A player may need several cards personalized to them with the weapon number and all the weapon stats. A very crunchy system!
We have a few pages of various combat charts, all very detailed and interesting. For people like me with little knowledge of guns, there is a chart indicating by weapon with the columns of off (safety engaged), single, burst, full and override (allowing the weapon to be used in battle even if damaged). Each weapon shows what it can and can't do, so that is helpful. And power weapons now have half, regular and double damage. Which is new and makes sense to me.
Some tables dealing with artillery and ortillery, military explosions (damage is range-based: see, these ranges are actually a pretty useful technique I think), WMDs, nuclear weapons, and 2 whole pages of environmental effects.
A page for various hit locations for various things (ships, vehicles, heavy weapons and so forth), along with a repeat of the diagnoses and repair tables (which I am not going to see if they match but they look the same from my memory at least!).
4 pages of examples, which I am not going to read at the moment, then several pages for various combat cards: human, alien, vehicles. Which, if I am understanding things, we don't have a single shooting number. I'd do a smaller card per weapon for all your weapons, ranged and melee. Though we do have a flux table for hit locations if you want to have random hit locations.
Lots more tables including weapons tables, penetration and damage charts and so on. And it is at this point I see the origins of GDW as a wargame company coming full circle back to the role playing: a lot of these tables look an awful lot like the complex tables in the 80's style wargames such as Squad Leader (which I had but could never play). And that is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just points out that the T5 system seems to be very heavily influenced by Marc's years of developing war games. And for a lot of people, yes, that can be fun to have such nuance in the mechanics. And I think with a few practice games and actual cards for the players. it actually would not be all that more difficult to actually play. At least in theory - in practice we'd have to see how it actually runs. But it will take a lot more pre-game preparation in my mind to get the appropriate cards and data in a format that the players can use at the table. A far cry from "roll 8+ to hit, mods for skill and weapon skill" and the single type of damage.
Is it a playable combat? I think with a lot of prep work it would be. How it would play out if you used all the rules may be a slog at times, but again, with a LOT of preparation, primarily a combat card per weapon per player so that you have those all-important numbers, it may be. I think I will try making a few combat cards at some point just to see if I can, and maybe run a small 1:1 combat game for two fighters. Not any time soon though!
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