Saturday, April 23, 2011

Battleglove

Battlegloves are heavy gauntlets that can be worn by humanoids and cover the entire hand and forearm, articulated with artificial muscle and hydraulics. A Battleglove attacks uses the character's Brawling skill, delivering STR+2D punching damage, and has a STR+3D crushing grip. Battlegloves can also be used as a "reaction skill" to parry brawling and melee combat attacks. It also has three slots allowing it to be equipped with extra weapons.

Battleglove
Model: Talsorian Industries Battleglove
Type: Special
Scale: Character
Skill: Various (Brawling or other, see below)
Cost: 900
Availability: 2, X

Roll one die three times to determine which weapons the battleglove comes equipped with.

1...Pop-up Blaster
2...Micromissile Launcher
3...Flamethrower
4...Grenade Launcher
5...Whip
6...Gas Jet

Pop-up Blaster: Mounts an internal blaster that attacks using the Blaster skill for 4D damage. Ammo: 50 (reloads cost 25); Range:3-7/25/50

Micromissile Launcher: Fires explosive heat-seeking guided miniature missiles. The target must be at least partially exposed for the battleglove to lock-on for the first shot. The missiles will pursue the target, even around corners of up to 90 degrees (will loose tracking on a roll of 5 or less on 2D). Attacks are made using the Missile Weapons skill, ignoring cover and line-of-sight modifiers (after initial lock on). If the attack succeeds the missile explodes (damage: 4D/2D/1D; blast radius: 0/1/2). If the attack misses, the attacker rolls 2D and on a roll of 8 or more the missile corrects its course and a second attack roll can be made.  Ammo: 4 (reloads cost 50 ea. missile)  Range: 10-50/100/200

Flamethrower: This is a small, high-pressure flame jet that attacks using Missile Weapons skill and may be "swept". The attacker decides a starting point and an ending point and makes a Difficult roll. If successful, anything caught between the two points is ignited. If the roll is missed use the Grenade Deviation Diagram. Damage is 2D the first round, 1D for 2 rounds afterwards. Hard armor protects normally. Soft armor must be at least +1D physical to protect against the flame, and is reduced -2 pips per attack. Ammo: 4 (reloads cost 100) Range: 1 meter

Grenade Launcher: A modified support grenade launcher, stored in a popup mount. Attacks using Missile Weapons skill. Basic grenades come in fragmentation, incendiary, stun, dazzle, sonic, concussion, and gas varieties. Each type has its own area of effect, usually between 2 and 5 meters. For example, a typical concussion grenade is damage: 3D/2D/1D; blast radius: 0/1/2. Ammo 1 (reloading takes one round; reloads cost 30 ea.) Range: 10-35/75/150

Whip: A 2.2 meter long alloy tentacle that can either whip for STR+2 damage, strangle for STR+1D damage per round (target must make a Difficult STR or DEX roll to escape), or act as a short-range grapple. Attacks using Melee Combat skill.

Gas Jet: A pressurized canister of gas (any type) is installed in the glove that attacks using the Missile Weapons skill. Effect depends on the type of gas which can be resisted by a Difficult STR save. Teargas: -1D DEX for 1D rounds; Nausea: vomiting and -2D DEX for 2D rounds; Sleep: unconscious for 2D rounds; Poison: 4D lethal damage. Unsealed armor does not protect against gas. Ammo 6 (reloads cost 275) Range: 2 meters

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Traveller inspirational reading

There's a great post over at The Zhodani Base today recommending some classic sf novels that influenced Traveller. I tried to comment, but the website ate my post. You can't go wrong with any of those books, and you're sure to get some great ideas from them.

There are a couple more novels that relate to CT that I'd recommend. Andre Norton's Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet are part of a series that recounts the adventures of the Free Trader Solar Queen and her crew. No points for guessing how they relate to the game.


And BeRKA mentions the "obsolete" CT computer rules. While they do seem a bit dated today, I think that when they were written they were a clever attempt to add computer management to space wargames. There were other sf combat games that achieved a similar effect with different rules. In Star Fleet Battles you had energy management rules, and later in BattleTech you had heat management rules. In CT it was computer program management. So to me the CT computer rules make much more sense when seen in the context of wargaming conventions where it's taken for granted that there's something, whether energy, heat or programs that the player has to finesse to get the better of their opponent.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

D6 Slugthrowers

I was looking through my copy of D6 Star Wars 2nd Rev. & Exp. and something caught my eye. I don't think I've ever read the rules all the way through. I've played in a D6 game and had fun. ( It wasn't SW, just generic space opera). But I've never GM'd it. Maybe that's why I never read all the rules. I just skimmed the relevant parts. Anyway, I was checking out the entry on Slugthrowers. There's only one gun listed, a pistol, and it's kind of interesting.

Slugthrower
Model: Coruschal WeaponsWorks "Dagger" Combat Pistol
Type: Slugthrower pistol
Skill: Firearms: Slugthrower pistol
Ammo: 16
Cost: 300
Availability: 2, F
Range: 3-10/30/60
Damage: 3D
Game Notes: -1D damage when used on a target with body armor
Capsule: Coruschal WeaponsWorks was a prominent munitions manufacturer until the planet Coruschal fell into civil disarray. Currently, the planet is a decaying urban sprawl, filled with street fighting between warring factions. Coruschal WeaponsWorks' firearms are generally regarded as high quality among those who still use such weapons, though contact with the planet has been cut off by the fighting.

Did they just sneak an adventure seed into a weapon description? I think they did. A planet that's "...a decaying urban sprawl, filled with street fighting between warring factions." That sounds almost cyberpunk. The idea of using the D6 System to run a cyberpunk game sounds kind of cool. And the gun does 3D damage. That's right in line with the damage done by guns in Cyberpunk 2020. So it occurs to me that you could steal just about any slugthrower you wanted from CP202 to use in D6. And you could other weapons too, like a MonoKatana or Nunchaku.

Someone's already thought of this, although they did it in the opposite direction. Over at Mockery's CP page there's a list of D6SW weapons converted to Interlock stats. But I'm interested tossing some of those shootin' irons into D6. The damage is so similar I wouldn't change most of it. (D6 is not for sticklers for realism.) Just a few tweaks here and there. The biggest difference are the d10 weapons. The average roll of 1D10 is 5.5. The average roll of 1D6 is 3.5. So 1d10 is roughly equivalent to 1D6+2. Just add up the dice and convert to a die code. For example, a Barrett-Arasaka 20mm rifle does 4d10, which would convert to 6D+2. Easy.  As for melee weapons, just treat the damage they do as a "+" to STR in standard D6 fashion (with the same max. of 6D; and maybe reduce all those nD+3s into nD+2s). So Nunchaku would do STR+3D. Sweet. Now you can have nunchuk skills. "You know, like nunchuk skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills..."

As for the note, "-1D damage when used on a target with body armor" I'd rule that only applies against armor of a higher tech level, like that worn in an interstellar society. For a "cyberpunk" planet (or orbital station, etc.) of a slightly lower tech level I wouldn't apply that to the local armor.

I know all this makes me sound like some kind of gunbunny. That's not what I'm aiming for (pardon the pun). Giving all slugthrower pistols 3D of damage is fine by me. My only point with this post is that if you want a wider variety of slugthrowers and martial arts weapons for some kind of cyberpunk-ish adventure the ones from CP2020 work great in D6. So the next time your party crash lands on a cowboy planet, just throw this little number that I got from Mockery's site at them.

Slugthrower
Model: Colt "Peacemaker" Revolver
Type: .45 Long Colt revolver
Skill: Firearms: Slugthrower pistol
Ammo: 6
Cost: 300
Availability: 2, F
Range: 3-5/18/35
Damage: 2D6+2
Game Notes: -1D damage when used on a target with body armor

Now where's did I leave that MonoKatana?