I spent a little time with TNE & Brilliant Lances (BL) over the weekend,
and had a few questions, comments and criticism. This isn't
comprehensive, especially since I haven't actually played the games
either for roleplaying or boardgaming. I just wanted to get this out and
get some feedback.
First, a major point: The design rules for BL say that only airframe
(AF) hulls can land on planets with atmosphere more than Thin;
streamlined (SL) hulls can only skim gas giants and land on
no-atmosphere planets. This would be fine, except that the sample
designs include a bunch of ships that historically have been
planetary-landing-capable but now show as SL. This includes launches and
other ship's boats. Thus, according to the rules: Scouts and Traders
(among others) neither land nor carry boats capable of landing. This
would sure put a damper on exploration and trading in an environment
where all the orbital ports have been trashed. There are two obvious
fixes. (1) Give rules for SL hulls landing and taking off slowly,
inefficiently, and with little maneuverability compared to AF hulls, or
(2) redo most of the common ships into AF designs. The first is
obviously better. There should be different flight characteristics for
SL and AF, but SL ships should be able to at least minimally function.
I'd still want airframe for any ship *my* character used, of course...
Second, also on the subject of sample designs: Designs that show up in
both the TNE book and in BL vary from one another, sometimes in fairly
significant ways. Make sure you're using the variant you think you are.
Third: Bays, turrets and ship weapons are presented in BL as a "small
sample" of possibilities. Will there be a more comprehensive list or
design process? Also on this subject is the interesting point that
spinal weapons (like jump drives) are not explicitly forbidden from
smaller vessels. The limit seems to be that if the weapon fits (some are
quite long) it can be used. I haven't yet tried to see how small a
vessel can carry such things.
Fourth, I would have liked to have seen a couple of "standard packages"
listed, e.g. a typical set of sensors and communications for typical
vessels and uses (trader, explorer, military). As it is, I need to know
more about the ship combat system than I want to for the RPG, and I'm
dependent on sample ships that have errata and design flaws.
I guess that's about enough for now except to say that overall, despite
the above comments (and plenty of other problems and features I don't
like), I do like quite a bit about both TNE and BL. My regular gaming
group pretty much wrote off the original Traveller in the late '70s as
hopelessly crippled -- we just didn't find much at all to like about it,
and this is a group that for many years stuck with FGU's Space Opera and
its errors, inconsistencies, silly bits, and FGU's usual abysmal
proofreading. MegaTraveller didn't win us back in the 80s (though I took
some stuff from it). TNE seems at least playable. I may end up primarily
using a homegrown system, but I'll be heavily influenced by TNE. If
Fire, Fusion & Steel is well enough done that I can model the technology
I want, and if some of the gaps in TNE and BL are filled, I might even
find myself running the game relatively straight -- though based on my
own history I have to doubt that. :)
Dave Kennard
[email removed]