Friday, July 31, 2020

Hunting Big Game in Traveller

Question: How many shots does it take to bring down an elephant?
Answer: Either One, or lots.

In CT the animal creation process is flexible and simple enough to allow a Referee to create new creatures on the fly. The table scales from 1 kg (rats, rabbits) to 44,000 kg (dinosaurs, dragons, whales).
  • A 6,000 kg creature (e.g. a forest elephant) has 9D/4D hit dice. Average 32/14, max 54/24
  • A 12,000 kg creature (e.g. an African bush elephant) has 10D/5D hit dice. Average 35/18, max 60/30
This is an elephant to scale with humans, for comparison.

Problem is, it is astonishingly unlikely that a Referee will roll up 'max hit points' with random rolling, at these levels.

Friday, July 17, 2020

A Cepheus Light Vehicle Chase

Rance, Edith and Halls are in a Rambler, a light wheeled ATV. Rance was following up a rumor about a Glorious Empire installation out in the distant back woods of Mardahak. What they found instead was an old factory in ruins and an ambush. They are fleeing from a group of brigands in a pickup truck. The brigands are pursuing them hoping to steal the Rambler. Edith drives off of the dirt road and across the scrub and grass choked fields.

Rambler:
TL 7, Wheeled Vehicle, Kcr 25, AGL +0, Speed 110 kph, Crew 1 Psg 4
Light dmg 6, Critical dmg 10 No weapons, Open, 200 kg cargo
2 shooters, 1 revolver, 1 pistol JoT-1, DM -2
Pickup:
TL 6 Wheeled Vehicle, Kcr 7, AGL +0, Speed 160 kph, Crew 1 Psg 2
Light dmg 4, Critical dmg 7 No weapons, Open, 500 kg cargo
2 shooters, 1 rifle, 1 carbine Driver-1, DM +1

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Athletics Skill in Cepheus Light

Here's a fun optional rule that can liven up your CL game.

At Athletics-3, characters gain the ability to use Parkour for movement around urban areas or aboard ships.

[From Wikipedia] Parkour (French) is a training discipline using movement that developed from military obstacle course training. Practitioners . . . aim to get from one point to another in a complex environment, without assistive equipment and in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, quadrupedal movement (crawling) and other movements as deemed most suitable for the situation (not to be confused with freerunning). Parkour's development from military training gives it some aspects of a non-combative martial art.

Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others and is usually carried out in urban spaces, though it can be done anywhere. Parkour involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and imagining the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features.

A practitioner of Parkour is called a traceur (M) or a traceuse (F).

Some examples of common movements are:
  • Vaulting over obstacles.
  • "Precision" Jumping and landing accurately with the feet on small or narrow obstacles.
  • "Arm Jumps" Jumping and landing feet-first on a vertical surface, catching the horizontal top with the hands.
  • Using a rolling motion to help absorb impacts from larger drops.
  • Running towards a high wall and then jumping and pushing off the wall with a foot to reach the top of the wall.
  • Moving from a position hanging from a wall-top or ledge, to standing on the top or over to the other side.