..Long live the.... Assault Rocket Launcher?!
* A quick review of Traveller: TNE written *
* for an audience familiar with Traveller *
* and MegaTraveller. *
[I won't comment about the parts wrgt which I might be deficient in
impartialness, although I must say that I was a little surprised to see the
HubWorlds here:) I thought it was supposed to be published in Challenge/
Imperiallines.]
[I also suspect that the fact that I know the T2k2 system will make
me miss things, simply because I unconciously fill them in]
[And, if I make some hideous errors, please bear with me. I only bought it
yesterday:) ]
The Basics:
TTNE is a softcover book, 280x220x20mm, soft covers, 384 pages, $25, ISBN
1-55878-116-1, GDW number 0300 (hey, that's my area code:). "Printed in the
U.S.A, Terra/Solomani Rim (1827 G867975-8)."
The page count is large compared to T2k2 (280), and DarkCon (336). The
price/page relationship is almost exactly the same as for Dark Conspiracy and
actually *lower* than for T2k2. Compared to Traveller and MegaT it gives
somewhat of the same heavy feel of The Traveller Book and not the more 'flimsy'
of MegaT.
The cover painting by John Zeleznik is a little too 'cluttered' for my taste
and IMHO, the title doesn't stand out as much as it should. Surprisingly,
the spine is probably more eye-caching than that of the 'average RPG book'
while the front, as I said, is slightly less eye-caching than average. The
back cover is an old Challenge cover by Tony Szcsudlo depicting a low berth
which is has obvious connections to PC's in TNE:)
Layout:
The interior layout is better than DarkConspiracy. The maps are much better
quality (much much better than the typical Challenge maps for example) and
most illustrations have a connection to the text. The one thing that I don't
like is that the page numbers are in the middle of the bottom of the page,
since that makes it harder to flip quickly through the book to find a certain
page.
Misc:
The first thing I noticed was that this book does *not* match with what
Dave Nilsen spoke about on GenCon/Origins: According to him then it was
supposed to be a 'rules' book in general terms and a 'TNE' book about the
setting. But this book contains elements of both and an extremely brief note
on various models of TL advancement.
Brief Table of Contents:
Introduction: 8 pages
Character Generation: 45 pages
NPC's: 16 pages
Virus: 10 pages
[Campaign:] Star Viking: 11 pages
[Campaign:] The Wilds: 15 pages
Tasks and Skills: 25 pages
Refereeing Traveller: 6 pages
Adventure: The Once & Future Emperor: 18 pages
Adventure: Idol Dreams: 15 pages
[Alternate Area:] Spinward States: 7 pages
[Alternate Area:] Pocket Empires: HubWorlds: 6 pages
Worldbuilding: 18 pages
Wilderness Travel and Encounters: 12 pages
Animals: 11 pages
Space Travel: 12 pages
Trade and Commerce: 11 pages
Maintainance and Repairs: 5 pages
Psionics: 14 pages
Robots: 4 pages
Combat: Planetary: 48 pages
(several subdivisions)
Combat: Space: 16 pages
Miniatures: 2 pages
Equipment: 52 pages
(several subdivisions)
Appendicies: 4 pages
Index: 1 page.
Character Generation:
I don't have much to say about this. It is the basic T2k2 model of
generation changed to fit TTNE. There is a larger amount of skills, and there
are a plethora of tables about things such as homeworld generation,
homeworld requirements for background skills and career entry requirements
(I like the last. I did a homecooked version of it for DarkCon to keep
the confusionlevel of my players down).
The effects of various worlds and TL's (as opposed to the Basic TL8 Terra
in T2k2 and DarkCon) are well detailed.
Characters *can* start with a ship (for the entire group). Every term,
some careers give a ship DM, and the whole party can add together their
DM's and roll on a series of tables. If they are lucky, they can get a ship,
if they are unlucky, all they get is a number of passages. There are strong
negative DM's in force anywhere else than in the Regency (Spinward).
It is also quite likely that their ship will be small, decrepit, mortaged or
modified (or all of the above).
NPCs:
First a intro about NPC's. What they are, what they do and how to make
them. Then 15 human NPC's, 4 Hiver, 2 Vargr, 3 Aslan, 3 Zhodani, 1 Droyne.
My main beef here is that the description of the Vargr IMHO reinforces the
'the vargrs pursuing you stop and start to bicker' stereotype.
The Virus:
Essentially the same as the data on the Virus in 'Survival Margin'.
Star Vikings:
History, Beliefs, Behaviour, Timeline, a Subsector. I haven't had the time
to read this thoroughly yet.
The Wilds:
Guidelines on setting up a campaing in the Wilds. History. Xenophobia/
Technophobia. Psionics. Special Careers available in Wilds. Common features
of society. The Virus in the Wilds. A long description of first contact to
a typical world. A subsector. Like with the chapter on Star Viking, I haven't
read it through in detail yet.
Tasks and Skills:
A refined version of Lester Smiths d20 Mk2 system is described. Things like
combining skills, enabling skills, averaged skills, opposition and undertain
tasks has been added. Long section describing all skills.
Refereeing Traveller:
The obligatory chapter on how to do it. Since I isn't a newbie I don't think
I'm qualified to comment on it:)
Adventure: The Once & Future Emperor
Adventure: Idol Dreams
I'll be brief about the Adventures because of the dangers of spoilers.
The first takes place in the 'Star Viking' or RCES area in Old Expanses and
the second is an alternate campaign beginning that takes place in Diaspora.
The Spinward States:
This chapter describes the state in the Regency, formerly the Domain of
Deneb, which has escaped the Virus, for those who'd prefer everything to
be as it was. I haven't found any explicit mention of it, but it seems that
ol' Norris still rules things, even though he should be in his 140's (and his
daughter in her 60's at least). History, Democracy, Economy, Zho-Regency
relations, Psionics, Robotics, Psion career, Regina subsector (It's interesting
to compare this Regina SS with the one in the Traveller Book, and of the
MegaT era and see the changes)
Pocket Empires:
Example of pocket empire: The HubWorlds in Massilia.
Worldbuilding:
Straight from good ol' 'Scouts' (except that the 'strange DM' to determine
moon orbits is gone) and that 'Collapse Effects' has been added.
Wilderness Travel and Encounters:
This chapter begins as in t2k2 and transforms into Traveller when it comes
to specific event encounters (wirebrushes, hallucinogenic pollen and 'jungle
drums'. Remember them from Traveller?:)
It ends with some short notes about exploration and surveys.
Animals:
Again the good ol' Traveller animal encounter table system, but changed to
new combat mechanic. I have fond memories of this system. I remember when I
(to the horror of the staff of Bergslagsskolan highschool in Karslkoga) wrote
a program that generated them automatically and printed out encounter tables
for *all* terrains on *all* worlds in the Regina Subsector:)
Space Travel:
Starship operating procedures and economics. Players might be be relived to
know that if your referee goes by the charts, it is impossible to encounter
a vampire in the Regency:)
Trade and Commerce:
I'm divided over this chapter. On one hand, I very much like the inclusion
of the local credits from 'Striker'. But on the other hand, the trade system
is the thoroughly unexiting one from Merchant Prince.
Quick! Somebody expand on the Traveller Book trade system and tailor it for
TNE! 10 tons of TL10 Computers or TL9 Agricultural Machines are much more
exciting than 10 tons of "A-C Ri Cr7000".
Maintainance and Repairs:
The t2k2 maintainance value and wear value systems are used, which IHMO
impresses the need for the PC engineers to actually do some maintainance
once in a while (for example, don't buy a subsidized line with wear value 10
unless the party happens to include around 40 engineers:)
Psioncis:
I haven't read this yet. A quick skim reveals a 'power level/stage of success
table' and the new paths of telephysics and arcana that encompasses some
skills presently found in the 'other' group.
Robots:
This is a brief chapter on robots (mostly DarkCon style) with a very brief
note about Robots in TNE. I miss some things wrgt Robots and Virus that
Dave Nilsen spoke about during the writers conference in Bloomington last
year.
Planetary Combat:
This is a long chapter, mostly identical to T2k2 but with a few minor
additions. The autofire system used is fortunately basic T2k2 and not
the one in the T2k2 Ref's Screen. The additions handle things that change
between TL8 combat and TL0 to 15 combat.
There is also a section on the various effects of the planetary environment
on combat.
Space Combat:
I've only tested this once, but IMHO it is the bright gem of TTNE.
I personally think it is the best small scale space combat system done
for Traveller that I've seen (and that includes the Traveller Book system,
Mayday, the MegaT system, High Guard (and Rebel Guard:)).
I don't feel up to describing it in detail, but in short it uses the
old range band system (but it should be usable with hexes. In fact I've found
one or two mentions of 'hexes' vice 'rangebands' in the text that suggests
that it was originally written for hexes and later cut down to range bands).
Hits are resolved on a general hit location table with 20 areas (segments
of a globe imagined to surround the target) which is special to each class
of ship. Antennas, Locks and Hatches are damaged first, then the hull has
to be penetrated, and finally interior components are damaged. Some components
have different damage capacity in some ships and there are common tables to
determine that an interior 'Quarters' hit in fact was a hit on the Life Support
or Passenger Staterooms.
Miniatures:
A two page short course in 'how to paint'.
Equipment and Technology:
The equipment chapter starts with a very short three-page treatment of
various models of TL advancement and a referral to the 'Travller Technical
Architecture' sourcebook.
It then jumps straight into the equipment lists. The first thing I noticed
was that medical slow, combat slow and fast drugs are gone (even though
fast are mentioned in 'Survival Margin'). Power storage batteries are given
a thorough (and realistic I suspect) treatment.
The equipment illustrations are much better than in T2k2 and DarkCon but
the picture that is entitled 'sniffer bioscaner' shows a NAS backpack and
handset.
Starship Weapons:
Starship weapons have changed again (but to the better IMHO). Laser turrets
now contain one laser of varying TL and MegaJoulage. They are fed with a
low number of continous MegaWatts and are obviously pulse lasers driven with
energy storage in the form of a homopolar generator. Maximum ranges vary from
8 to 80 bands (one band is 1/10 lightseconds, aka 30000km) and they are *not*
Xray lasers as they were in MegaT.
Missiles now consist of a small nuke (on the 50 to 500 ton TNT range) that
pumps a number of Xray laser rods. They weight 7 metric tons each (ouch!) and
are hideously expensive (like 750kCr to 1.25MCr) so I hope somebody designs
conventional ones carrying a 1000kg shaped charge for example.
I haven't had the time to combine the figures of the energy in each pulse,
the number of pulses per space combat turn (30 min) and the continous effect
needed to drive the turret against 3G3 but I'll try to do it sometime soon:)
Personal Weapons:
Lasers have changed here too. The Powerpack now contains a battery, coolant
system and a homopolar generator on TL8-9 weapons. TL13 lasers use chemical
laser cartridges to store the energy, and hand held fusion and plasma weapons
use similar (much larger) cartridges.
The PG and FG series could perhaps be reintroduced as TL15+ weapons?
There are some bugs in the small arms stat table. One that inspired the title
of this article is that the Gauss Pistol has a damage of 1 and Pen of 1-Nil
(impossible in this system) and the Gaussrifle a damage of 2 and a pen of
1-Nil. IMHO the damage for the Gaussrifle should be upped to 3 or 4 to be on
the same order as that of TL7 assault rifles and the gausspistol upped to 2
(to make the damage and pen figures match for it).
Another suspected bug is that all hand held lasers except LR-13 have a
penetration of Nil while the starship weapons have penetrations less than 1
(aka *very* good at penetrating...)
My brief reading of the weapon stats table suggests that a Assault Rocket
Launcher firing HEAP has the best combination of high ROF, low recoil, high
damage and good penetration, which is why I suspect it has replaced the Gauss
Rifle as the most effective weapon (unless the lasers should have a pen of 1
or so).
Vehicles:
The standard complement of vehicles are available.
Starships:
Scout/Courier
Far Trader
Free Trader
Yatch
Gazelle-class Close Escort
Lab ship
Patrol Cruiser
SDB
Subsidized Merchant
Donosev-class Survey Ship
Subsidized Liner
Broadsword-class Mercenary Cruiser
All have their own damage data and hit locations data. Armour varies from
10 (traders) to 101 (SDB). This should make it possible to any yahoo with
a muzzle loaded cannon to threaten the adventurers in their trader:)
The ships generally behave more like in Traveller than in MegaTraveller.
For example, they appearently use fuel guzzling fusion rockets for drive and
a antigrav (now called Contra-Grav, but called antigrav in the skill section)
system for start adn landings (Three loud cheers for the fusion rockets!).
Powerplant fuel is listed as '1 year duration' in all cases while the
engine fuel (reaction mass probably) is listed as a number of G-hours
varying between 11 and 52.
(You know what this means? This means that the normal scout (40 Ghours)
only can accelerate for 20 hours and deaccelerate for 20 hours before it
runs out of fuel. Insystem transfers will take a *lot* of time
hencetoforth. And there will be no scouts at 0.5c threatening the worlds:)
It was nice to see that the illustrations used for shipsboat, modular
cutter and shuttle are the same as they were in the Traveller Book:)
Closing Comments:
Generally positive. The way things work seems to be moving towards
good ol' Traveller.
- -bertil-
- --
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
exercise for your kill-file."