Raise Shields!

Traveller has, from time to time, taken a little gentle ribbing over the fact that it has rules for spears and swords. This is a game of science fiction adventure in the far future. Well, so what if it does? Sci-fi classics from The Time Machine to The Dumarest Saga and King David's Spaceship had characters use swords and other melee weapons.

So there should also be rules for the use of that natural companion of the sword, the shield.

Shields are the oldest defensive technology of mankind. A shield is a portable barrier, often strapped to the arm or carried by one hand. It protects the bearer against attacks from the front.

Normally you use a shield with a one-handed weapon (blade, club, handgun). If the bearer wishes, he can fit his shield with a weapon rest so that the shield supports long arms (spears, long guns). All attacks with these weapons are at DM -2.  Very high-tech shields may incorporate stabilization and anti-grav to negate this penalty. Imagine heavy weapons carried behind a gun shield!

Unskilled Weapon Users

Can you find the Unskilled fighter in this group?

I read recently a post on anther blog about the differences in fighting capability in classic D&D. A 'normal man' has less damage resistance. His to-hit numbers are higher than the PC's, and his saving throw numbers are higher as well. The post made the case for the clear superiority of the dungeon-delving adventurer. Can the same be said for Travellers?

Well, yes!

I refer to TTB, page 37.

“Any character using a weapon in which he or she has no training is subject to a penalty of -5 when attacking and +3 when defending. All player characters automatically have an expertise of zero . . . in all weapons shown in this book. [I call this the Weapon Mastery advantage] This zero value is sufficient to avoid the no-expertise penalty, but it is not enough to provide a positive DM. Payer characters selecting their weapons should consider the potential benefits of their strength and dexterity levels and any DMs that might be available for those characteristics.”

The PC's Weapon Mastery advantage means a PC will never get caught at a loss owing to unfamiliar weapons. Any PC can take on ANY opponent on reasonably equal ground. A knife fight in an alley to a formal duel in the Duke's courtyard with laser pistols to open field battle. How many of us could say that?

Speaking of Weapon Master, here's one example of what it looks like. Note the way Shiu Lien's attacks change as she goes through a variety of weapons.

She uses:

• a sword, including dual-wielding
• a spear
• sword-breaker hooked swords
• a huge pole-arm (and an example of not meeting the Required Strength)
• a massive bronze cudgel
• a broadsword

all without breaking stride. That's Weapon Mastery.

It makes your two-term Other character seem a little more awesome, doesn't it? Fighting in a training hall, your PC could do the same.

Taking another look at Jack armor

Yeah, I know. It's not very effective as presented in CT. And it sounds dumb, as in "your armor ain't worth jack".

Recently I learned that there is a real, historical type of armor known as Jack. And it actually worked.

The CT definition of Jack (TTB, p. 43)

"A natural or synthetic leather jacket or body suit covering the torso and upper arms and legs. Jack is somewhat better than ordinary clothing or bare skin when defending against blades; it is worthless against guns."

Now read the definition of historical Jack:

Jack of Plate

"A jack of plate is a type of armour made up of small iron plates sewn between layers of felt and canvas. They were commonly referred to simply as a "jack" (although this could also refer to any outer garment). This type of armour was used by common Medieval European soldiers as well as by the rebel peasants known as Jacquerie. The present day equivalent is perhaps a bullet-proof vest.

The jack is similar to the brigandine. The main difference is in the method of construction: a brigandine is riveted whereas a jack is sewn. Jacks of plate were created by stitching as many as 1000 small overlapping squares of iron between two canvases. The garments weighed about 17 pounds (7.7 kg), which made them much more acceptable to the wearer than solid breastplates. They also offered a tactical advantage: they allowed soldiers to rest the butts of weapons firmly against their shoulders, which wasn't feasible with smooth-surfaced plate armours. Jacks were often made from recycled pieces of older plate armor, including damaged brigandines and cuirasses cut into small squares."

The real explanation of Jack sounds much more like Traveller's definition of Mesh armor. Also, the description given would put Jack of Plate at TL2, not TL1.

How to fit Jack of Plate into the TTB combat matrices?  Like this:

Jack of Plate is Mesh+1. That is, 1 worse than regular Mesh against all weapon types. Available at TL 2, cost is 300 Cr.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Armor of St. Oswin

The Tale of Saint Oswin of Mavramorn, patron of non-combatant soldiers.

Fr. Oswin, wearing The Armor.

During the Stavanger-Mavramorn war, (100+ years ago) Fr. Oswin was a Mavramorn Army Chaplain. At the Battle of Five Hills, Fr. Oswin traversed the battlefield, praying and tending to the wounded. He went as always, unarmed, with his clerical stole over top of his light armor jacket. His actions and prayers saved many from death. As he knelt in prayer with a dying soldier, an enemy sharpshooter, an impious man, spotted him and targeted the chaplain. This despite both sides acknowledging chaplains as non-combatants, exempt from attack.

As the sniper fired, a bird startled from the brush ahead of him and took the bullet. The sniper tried to fire again, but his weapon hung fire. Finding no mechanical fault, he fired twice more, each time thinking he had a true shot, but Fr. Oswin appeared untouched. His fifth shot struck Fr. Oswin in the chest, but the chaplain continued his ministrations unharmed. At this sight, the sharpshooter threw away his weapon and made his way to the Mavramorn lines to surrender, asking only to meet the chaplain. When they met, the sniper explained what had happened.

Mavramorn soldiers inspected Fr. Oswin's armor, and found that it had not only a large hole in the chest, but another in the back. The bullet passed through Fr. Oswin without harming him. At this, the sniper fell at Fr. Oswin's feet and begged his forgiveness for his attempt to murder him. The priest forgave him, but the Mavramorn forces took him as prisoner. Fr. Oswin later baptized him into the faith.

The Army gave the Mesh jacket to a church on Mavramorn where it was venerated as a relic, the Armor of St. Oswin. After the war, both St. Oswin and the former sniper ended their days in peace in a monastery.

The weapon which failed to kill Fr. Oswin was recovered by Stavanger forces, but ever after it could not hit a living target. Time and again it was tested and new sights attached. It would hit practice targets, but when fired at a person it would always miss, or fail to fire. After the war it was decommissioned, and went to a church on Stavanger, and it also is now a relic of St Oswin.

Referee's Information:

"Drat. It's armored with collapsium."

From H. Beam Piper's The Cosmic Computer:

"The armor was only a couple of micromicrons thick, but it would stop anything. It was collapsed matter, the electron shells of the atoms collapsed upon the nuclei, the atoms in actual contact. That plating made eighth-inch sheet steel as heavy as twelve-inch armor plate, and in texture and shielding properties, lead was like sponge by comparison."

That, fellow Travellers, is collapsium. None of the Classic Traveller rules sets describe what starship hulls or vehicle armor is made of. That's fine, referees can make stuff up that works for them. But why not use a substance that has some SF pedigree, like Piper's super-strong metallic shielding? It's the sort of stuff you encase your ship's fusion power plant or jump drive in.

The only reference to this type of material I could find was in Striker, as shown here:

Taken from the Design Sequence Tables in FFE 005: The Classic Games

Why have high-tech Jack armor?

Armor TL Modifications for CT

It is common in the development of a technology that its earliest incarnations are bulkier, more expensive, and less efficient than later 'upgrades'. In High Guard, there is a progressively lower cost in credits and tonnage to apply a given level of armor to a ship. Although the Traveller Book does not discuss this, It makes sense that for personal combat equipment there can be a similar decrease in cost & weight as technology progresses.

Here I'm going to talk about upgrading PC's armor, by speculating on increases in function at higher tech levels. For simplicity's sake I am not going to introduce any new armor types – everything will reference the standard armor 'types'.

"Man, nothing's gonna hurt me in this suit. Wait, why can't I move my arms?"

There's an article in Dragon magazine which recommends tech level improvements to standard Traveller gear. The general concept as I recall it is for each TL past introduction, discount 10% from one of various factors – weight, price, effectiveness, size; to a maximum reduction of 99%

I have always understood the two sub-types from Bk4, Flak Vest (Cloth+1) & Cbt Env Suit (Cloth-1) as being slightly worse & slightly better respectively. So there is canon grounds for modifying and bettering personal armor.