Fire for Effect! the Forward Observer Skill

The Forward Observer skill has long puzzled me. When I was a teenager getting into Traveller (in the 1980's) I could not get my head around what the Forward Observer skill was good for. Why did they include it? Now these many years later, I have an answer for that. It turns out that I've missed out on some exciting adventure opportunities!

 

The first reason that FO skill confused me is that to me this skill deals with Big Guns - mortars & howitzers; you know, artillery. Classic Traveller has next-to-nothing to say about Big Guns, at least ground-based ones. The Book 1 Gunnery skill is primarily about starship weapons. The skill text does say that “Gunnery may also be used for similar weapons mounted on ATVs or air/rafts.”

which suggests that these vehicles can have energy or projectile weapons. The Vehicles section mentions AFVs but nothing whatsoever about how to adjudicate fire from Big Guns. Starter Traveller didn't even mention AFVs.

 

A quick digression. Back in the day I did not conceive of the rules as a toolkit for adding my own features into a Traveller setting. I expected the publishers to do it all for me. I have since changed my outlook.

Where was I? Oh yes. Without rules to define and use Big Guns, I had no way to actually use the FO skill except in the most abstract sense. I also lacked the real world information and the sci-fi reading background to make use of the FO skill by whipping up some Big Gun rules.

I think the FO skill did not survive past the Classic edition of Traveller. If later editions still have it, please enlighten me in the comments. If you open up Book 1, it is available on the Service skills table for the Navy, and the Army. If you look in Book 4, Mercenary, FO skill appears on the Artillery and Marine MOS tables, the Staff and Shipboard skill tables. Note in Book 1 this is a skill for Navy and Army types; in Book 4, it becomes a Marine skill as well. It appears in Book 5, High Guard on the Shore Duty and Gunnery MOS tables. Book 4 also introduces the Field Artillery gunnery skill. I'll add a thought on that later.

(Banned) Weapon Research in my TU

Speaking of research . . . 

Recently I watched again the Star Trek film Insurrection. This will not be a movie review. In the film, there was a space battle scene in which the enemies of the Enterprise used an "isolytic burst" weapon. The Enterprise crew were surprised, as the weapon was banned by some treaty or other, for being unpredictable. I think it was supposed to be a scene to show how the Enterprise crew are creative and resourceful thinkers. Maybe it worked at that, maybe not. Watch the film and judge for yourself.

We never actually see what the weapon is supposed to do. Rather we get told about it by several crewmen, and then the Enterprise defeats it, and the enemies. The weapon might as well have been a 20th century ICBM, or a boring old laser beam.

So I thought, what kinds of crazy weapons could show up in my TU, as unique and probably banned weapons?

Well, there is the "stellar ray" from that post on Edmund Hamilton's "Crashing Suns". That's a crazy-powerful weapon.

Here are some of the unusual and illegal weapons that have been at least researched if not developed by star nations in my TU. The Talaveran Empire has declared a ban on all of them; any vessel found in Imperial Space equipped with such will be impounded and destroyed, or just destroyed if they don't surrender.

"The Imperial Ministry of Defense in conjunction with the Ministries of State and of Science have signed resolutions, later confirmed by the King, banning the experimentation, development production or use of the following devices. Some of these were explored by the Ministry of Defense, but were rejected by the Navy as being “irresponsible, inhumane and contrary to the ways of civilized peoples”."

More on Space Combat - The Select Programs

"The drive signature looks familiar - like a Suleiman-class scout . . . "

The 'Selective' group of Offensive programs have long confused me as to how the results should be applied. I have just now noted the following text from Starter Traveller Rules booklet, page 41. It does not appear in Book 2 (1977) but it does in The Traveller Book, on page 77. I've just never noticed it before. As I have stated elsewhere, TTB is my rules book of reference for my games.

"If a Select program is being used to influence attacks, the firing player rolls one die for each hit inflicted. On a 1 or 2, he picks the hit location, specifying one of the following: Maneuver drive, Power Plant, Jump drive, fuel, hull, hold, computer or turret. If the roll is 3+ roll hit location normally."

I have written before about how I see Classic Traveller starship combat as a Resource Management Game. This program is a great example of what I mean.

On the Nature of Book 2 Space Combat

This is not covered under Book 2 Rules. You figure it out.

Over the weekend I refereed a Book 2 space combat engagement with my boys. In the course of the battle, I discovered something I'd never noticed before. The boys have a fancy ship, the FNS Audacity, and were chasing down two ships of the rebellion against the Federation (my sons' ATU setting), now illustrated here!

But that's not my discovery.

I realized that Bk2 is not so much a tactical game, as it is a resource management game. It's not so much about maneuvering your ship or using that cool specialty weapon, but in maximizing the efficiency of the resources you bring to the game. 

What do I mean by resource management?

Marines and Vehicles

I explained here why I think Marines can get Ship Tactics skill, and that led me to thinking about something else.  They have a skill slot for Vehicle skill, as well as for ATV. Let's assume that ATV skill means Marine Force tanks, so what other types of craft could the Marines use? According to Starter Traveller (the version I have access to during the day) Ship's Boat is not included; but what if it was?


Let's see:

Pick your launch platform.

The Pinnace (at 40 tons) has enough interior space for it to carry a 10-ton AFV from orbit to the surface, or two G-Carriers, or five air/rafts. Marine armored cavalry delivered to the front lines. The Slow Pinnace has even more space, so it could load up 7-8 air/rafts, five speeders, or (tight fit) three G-Carriers.

Modular Cutters, with their very flexible 30-ton modules could transport mobile headquarters, medical or other buildings, supplies, fuel or artillery to the surface. Medical craft could provide care on the ground, or evacuate wounded in low berths back to the orbiting ships.

The Shuttle (3G accel) could be loaded up with anti-vehicle and anti-personnel weapons and become the Assault Shuttle, ready to bring heavy air support while transporting Marines. If each marine needs 1/2 ton of room for himself and his weapons, a company of 140 Marines could be aboard.

Single or dual place Fighters can be employed as air support for ground operations or to counter opposing air forces. Fighters would also fill the role of tank destroyer. Starship-grade weaponry should finish any ground vehicle with one good hit. I believe Striker says so in its section on aircraft.

Fighters or Ships' Boats (both 6G accel) could be manned by Marine pilots as screening elements, interceptors or attack squadrons. It would save a bit of crew space aboard if the ship's craft had Marine operators instead of Navy.

What else could Marine pilots do if we let Vehicle include the Ships' Boat skill? 

More on Skills - Ship Tactics and Fleet Tactics

I've no idea if the story is any good, but that starship is FANTASTIC. I want one.

Book Five, High Guard, introduces a number of new skills. Some are not really useful (like Communications) but some are. In particular there are the sibling skills of fleet tactics and ship tactics.  Their effects are as follows, quoting from Book 5, the combat rules section:

Fleet Tactics: The skill level of the fleet commander is a modifier to the initiative

die roll. See the initiative determination step.

Ship Tactics: The skill level of a ship's (or small craft's) captain affects its

performance. Subtract one from the skill level of the captain and divide it by two,

dropping fractions. The resulting number is used as a + modifier to the ship's

effective computer level (a computer model15 is treated as a modell6). The computer must be working at at least level 1 for the modifier to apply.

Now, using the simpler Bk2 rules, the skill description here just doesn't work. Computers are central to Bk2 combat, where in Bk5 they are handled more abstractly. So, to make the tactics skills apply to Bk2, let us work them back into the Bk1 Naval character generation tables.

Starship Combat!

Today my boys helped me test-drive my extensively house-ruled Bk2-style starship combat rules. I think it turned out rather well. We went from writing up ship descriptions to playing to finishing up the combat in only an hour or so, with some breaks to talk about rules interpretations. Some time after we began,a buddy of mine came by to pick up something and ended up playing one side with one of my sons.
 

Well, Traveller is from the 70's/80's!

With TTB/Bk2 rules as the foundation, I've added in/on:

• Starter Traveller's range band system for movement (keeps it simple)
• Turn order from Space Gamer #40, "New Space Combat System" by Steve Winter*
• Radiation damage tables from SS3: Missiles (nuclear missiles and particle guns)
• Structure Points for Hull hits from MgT
• Particle Accelerators, plasma & fusion guns from High Guard, and bigger versions of standard lasers & missiles 
• variant defensive weapons I term Countermeasures, one type for missiles and one type for lasers 
• armor rules (mentioned, but neither side was armored)

Path of the Lioness - Campaign Journal #4

Recently I listened to several episodes of Felbrigg Herriot's excellent CT podcast Behind the Claw, which is awesome and well worth your time. There's a link also in my blogroll. In Episode 5, he highlighted a paragraph from the Traveller Book I had never noticed before. In the section of the Space Combat chapter on Starship Encounters, the rules suggest combining the Starship encounter table (Herriot calls it a 'wandering monster' table) with the Reaction table from the Encounters chapter. You get a sense right away of how the other ship may act towards the PC's ship. This is a great shortcut for the Referee, and one I wish I'd noticed years ago.

For Example:

The FSS Lioness (my boy's ship, a Type L Lab) was leaving Monjeera en route to Glaumvor, so I rolled on the Ship Encounter table. Result: a Type A Free Trader. Reaction roll: 10, Responsive. I decided that the Trader captain had in his cargo hold a load of cooking spice (quick roll on the Trade table) that was the current craze on Glaumvor; but the Trader had a freight contract which was taking them away from Glaumvor. So the captain offered to sell it to the Lioness, to avoid a financial loss. They conducted the trade, with the captain's assurance that it would sell high on Glaumvor. 

Arriving in the Glaumvor system, I rolled again and got a Subsidized Merchant, but the reaction roll was 5, hostile and may attack. The Subbie captain had a big shipment of the cooking spice, and reacted badly when he learned that the Lioness was competition. He raced away for the planet, to beat the Lioness to market. Captain Greene lit up his drives as well, then had an inspiration. He instructed his crew to load the spice aboard the Pinnace, which has better drives than either ship, then to take off for the planet to beat the Subbie to the punch.

Now, the Subbie's reaction roll was 5, hostile & may attack. Will the other captain risk opening fire?  There's a Naval base in Glaumvor, so he might not get away with it. Or maybe he'll plot revenge once they're on the ground. 

And the adventure continues . . .

Raid on Stataorlai - Amber Zone Reviews # 34

Amber Zone: Raid on Stataorlai, by Keith Douglass

Check out the series introduction here.

 

Location: Stataorlai asteroid belt, (Kyaenka 0605, Dark Nebula)

Patron: The PCs are recruited by a representative of Clan Hweaolriya (hereafter H-clan), the clan to which the PCs belong.

Mission: The PC's clan is at war with the Aeahekihiykhiy clan (hereafter A-clan). H-clan leadership suspects A-clan is assembling a fleet to strike at them, but they do not know where. The PCs are hired to do strategic reconnaissance of the titular system, looking for actionable intelligence of the suspected military buildup.

Complications: The system the PCs are investigating is under the control of the Eakhtawa (hereafter E-clan) clan; officially neutral but favoring A-clan. If the PCs offend the E-clan it could bring them actively into the war, on A-clan's side. As such, the PCs have to avoid any hostility with E-clan that can be tied back to H-clan.

Payoff: Pay is not mentioned in the adventure. The PCs may be considered active duty military and as such do not undertake the adventure for pay. The PCs are provided with a ship for this mission, so maybe they will be allowed to keep it in exchange for being available for other missions.

Strong Points: This is the first Amber Zone written specifically for Aslan characters.

However, this adventure can easily be modified to work for human PCs. The situation calls for a lot of planning, subtlety and coordinated action. Towards the end, the PCs will be able to take more direct action, which should be very high-tension. If they succeed they could short-circuit A-clan's war plans, and give H-clan a real edge.

Weak Points: This is a very linear adventure, the author gives only one way to go about handling it. Any other ideas by the PCs will be completely off-script, meaning the referee has to make it up as it goes. As I read the text, there is about a 50-50 chance that the PCs will be discovered in the first week. If they're 'made' then the mission is over. The ships of E-clan will pursue any unidentified ships – the text states that E-clan ships are 'always hostile'. The PCs actions are pretty much scripted for them by the mission parameters - there's not much freedom to choose.

What I'd change: I would give the PC's the possibility of cracking coded communications between ships at a Lagrange Point aka Trojan Point which might avoid the need for direct action. I would allow the PCs to try stealthy things to change the odds of them being discovered.I would also sketch out the course of the clan war, and allow the PCs other scouting or combat opportunities; stretching this adventure out into a campaign.

In My Traveller Universe: I don't have many asteroid belt systems in my TU, and few are Independents between even minor powers. The best bet would be to locate this adventure in Sutter's Belt (Dothan-Talaveran 0103). Either the Stedhard Alliance or the Kassiran Defense League could be using the Belt, but neither side would want the Dothan Alliance getting in on their opponent's side.

Map: The most of this adventure takes place in titular asteroid belt, so the referee will want to sketch up the belt with its gas giants & their Trojan points.

Dagger at Efate - Amber Zone Reviews # 12

Amber Zone: A Dagger at Efate, by John Lewis from JTAS #8

Check out the series introduction here.

Now imagine this displacing 800 displacement tons. That's a big dagger!

Location: Efate (Spinward Marches 1705)

Patron: The Imperial Navy, using wartime regs to compel the PCs to render assistance.

Mission: There is a starship approaching the planet that appears to be on a collision course with the planet, and specifically Imperial forces stationed there. The PCs must board the ship and determine the situation. If the ship is a threat, the PCs must neutralize the threat.

Complications: The ship's computer will counter attempts to dock with the ship. The controls have been cleverly locked onto the present course. They have eight hours only to change the ship's course. There is something very nasty hidden aboard the ship.

Payoff: Possibly none other than recognition for having rendered service to the Imperium. Ambitious PCs might leverage a successful and minimal-damage result into a contract as military auxiliaries. Cash remuneration seems unlikely in this scenario.

Strong Points: This is another solid problem-solving scenario, which will require some cleverness on the part of the players. There are a number of possible ways for the PCs to avert this disaster; from brute force to finesse. The ticking clock aspect keeps the tension up, so the PCs can't be too indecisive. Even if the main target is missed, a ship collision with the planet's surface is likely to cause a lot of damage, so half measures won't do.

Weak Points: The referee had better drop some hints so that the PCs search the ship thoroughly, or the nasty surprise will take them out, unawares. That is, in my mind, unfair to do to players.

What I'd change: If the PCs are very familiar with the Broadsword-class, (the assumed class of ship in the AZ) the referee can substitute any other kind of ship to change the game. If it seems they are being too clever, maybe there are some robotic sentries aboard, or the ship's automated defenses activate to hamper their intervention. At the last, there might be a suicidal agent aboard, secretly undoing whatever the PCs try!

In My Traveller Universe: This one I would place on Hudson, a part of the Talaveran Empire. I would alter the backstory to resemble the political infighting and separatism within the Empire: Restorationists from Bishor have taken a major gamble on this strike giving them the political leverage to wrest Bishor from Imperial control and return it to the supposed heirs of the planet's hereditary rulers. 

As this mission takes place in space, maps are not of the essence, except for deck plans of the Broadsword or whatever ship is used. These are available from numerous published sources, like JTAS #8 or CT Adventure #7. For the referee who wants to have a lot of surprises, the best bet is to design a custom ship, and create the deckplans yourself.

Crystals from Dinom - Amber Zone Reviews # 11

 Amber Zone: Crystals from Dinom, by Marc W. Miller 

Check out the series introduction here.

Unobtainium!

Location: the planet Dinom, Lanth 0201, Spinward Marches Dinom is a vacuum world and the setting of Double Adventure #2, Across the Bright Face. Dinom has recently gone through a worker's revolution, and is still unstable.

Patron: Quadric Industries, a manufacturing company that needs its shipment of macguffins from Dinom. Regular shipments have not happened since the rebellion; the shipment of macguffins has actually been misplaced.

Mission: Quadric contracts the PCs, the crew & troops of a mercenary cruiser (the text specifies a Broadsword-class) to land on Dinom, find the macguffins and protect a QI ship which will land and load the shipment. The cruiser will then protect the cargo ship while it returns to Quadric's HQ.

Complications: The locals are suspicious, unfriendly and armed. The company that sold the macguffins was dissolved in the revolution, and Quadric does not know where their offices are, nor if the shipment or information about it are still there. The revolutionaries have made the company office their HQ and made a mess of it. The revolutionary space force will object to the PCs and company leaving with the macguffins. The macguffins are large and heavy.

Payoff: Quadric promises MCr 4-5 for successful recovery of the macguffins.

Strong Points: This adventure has opportunities for problem solving, NPC interaction and combat, both on the ground & in space. The setup is for a large crew and squads of ship's troops, but an aggressive group of PCs could pull it off without the troops. The threat level is not too high this time, the OPFOR is not a truly organized military force. There is no point in the adventure where everything could go wrong; it is unlikely the PCs will be defeated except by their own foolishness. The payoff is pretty generous for a low-threat mission. Especially if the referee has DA 2, there is enough here to work with to develop a campaign on Dinom, like perhaps a counter-revolution.

Weak Points: the OPFOR is perhaps too easy for a mercenary unit, as they have no military arms. The actual search of the company offices for the macguffin's location could be a tedious exercise in dice rolling. Like so: 

Player: <roll> “Did we find it?” 
Referee: “No. Fifteen minutes have passed, roll again.” 
Player: <roll> “Did we find it?” 
Referee: “No” 
Player: “#$%@*#!!” 

Having DA 2 on hand will give the referee maps and other background data, but the enterprising referee can make that up for himself.

What I'd change: The OPFOR can easily be given better guns to up the challenge level. I'd make all of the spacecraft involved under Book 2 rules; for such a small engagement, this works better and makes the OPFOR craft comparatively more a threat. Ship stats are given in High Guard (Book 5) format. I would adjust a few details if the PCs don't have a merc unit backing them up; making the mission more dependent on stealth.

In My Traveller Universe: I would set this adventure on Storishale, in the Alliance of Dormarc. The Alliance is dithering enough that the rebellion would not be put down effectively, and while it is not a close match to Dinom, it fits the need for low population and necessity of sealed environs. 

The adventure came with a city map, and planetary maps are in DA 2, so I have not made up any other maps.