Final part of a three-part post. Answers are *NOT* official.
-----8<-----
Traveller: The New Era --- QUESTIONS
Compiled by Guy Garnett. Contributions from Bertil Jonell (BJ), John
Driver (JD), Mark Gelinas (MG), Guy Garnett (GG), and the Traveller Mailing
List.
These questions have come up in the course of playing T:TNE, and were
reported to me along with the errata. They aren't really errors, but just
interesting observations and random rules questions.
Q: Is it balanced that starships take several critical hits from
various weapons (primarily anti-tank weapons) that *might* (or might not)
destroy a much smaller TL-8 tank? Or should the Critical Damage Table
(T:TNE, pp.326) only be used for weapons that are specifically
anti-spaceship weapons?
--- BJ
Q: When firing anti-vehicle weapons at starships, the rules (T:TNE pp.295)
specifically states spacecraft should use the ground vehicle hit tables and
the ground vehicle penetration rules. Shouldn't spacecraft use their own
hit tables and rules, instead of the ground vehicle ones?
--- GG
Q: When generating companion star type and size, the previous roll for
primary star size is a +DM. This will easily lead to values that are above
12, while results of less than 4 are impossible. The rules don't indicate
what to do with values that go off the top of the chart. Should they be
re-rolled, or should values be limited to 12? [Classic Traveller Book 6,
Scouts, has this same problem].
--- JD
Q: When generating a star system, what do you do when there are more
objects to place than available orbits?
--- JD
Q: What about when all the habitable zones are empty orbits?
--- JD
Q: Missiles are now riotously expensive. How about some standard HE
missiles in the starship combat game and the technical architecture
supplement? --- MG
Commentary: We have looked into this problem. You don't want to use HE
missiles in space combat; explosives just aren't effective at the speeds
and ranges involved. However, we have come up with a number of other
alternatives, which will be posted to TML and sent to GDW.
--- BJ, GG
Q: Nearly all of the vehicles listed in T:TNE, in particular the Tracked
ATV, Wheeled ATV, Air/Rafts, G-Carrier, Speeder, and Grav Bike) have
oxygen-breathing power plants of the gas turbine, MHD turbine, and fuel
cell types. No oxygen supply is listed in the vehicle specifications, nor
are any intake compressors. Therefore, none of these vehicles can be used
in Vacuum, Trace, Very Thin, Exotic, Corrosive, or Insidious atmospheres,
or in space. The only listed vehicles which are operable in these
atmospheres is the Grav Tank, and the starships and spacecraft.
Correct?
--- GG
Q: Energy Weapons skill is listed twice, once under Strength and once
under Agility, on the skill list. Shouldn't it be listed only under
Agility?
A: No. STR is the controlling attribute for energy weapons skill when
using Plasma and Fusion weapons. AGL is the controlling attribute when
using lasers.
--- MG, GG
Q: The starship and spacecraft listings don't seem to have an entry for
total fuel capacity. How do you tell how much fuel to purchase if you're
not gas-giant skimming.
A: Under the "Notes" section in the listing, the total fuel volume is
listed in kiloliters. Divide this number by 14 to get displacement tons
of fuel.
--- MG, GG
-----8<-----
[email removed]
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Science-Fiction Adventure
in the New Era