Full Thrust now for free (basis for Power Projection)

[clementk]

News report (05/24/2005):
http://www.star-ranger.com/FullThrust.htm

Files at:
http://www.gzg.com

This means that Full Thrust (ship combat), More Thrust, Fleet Book 1, and Fleet Book 2 along with Dirtside II (ground combat) are *all* now free on pdf!

Well worth the look. These are all fun and fastplaying rules that don't require an offical setting or miniatures range, though there is a bare bones setting included and GZG does make miniatures. The fleet books do depict ships from that setting but could be used for your own ships or adapted.

Power Projection (link) is based on Full Thrust so this an excellent chance to try it out. The freebies are from the current Full Thrust 2nd edition soon going out of print and Full Thrust 3rd edition on the way. I find Full Thrust 2nd edition with possibly some bits from More Thrust an elegant space combat game playable in a short block of time; perfect for a pickup game or tournament. And now it's free.

Plug Disclaimer and personal note: not associated with GZG aside from being a happy customer. I first heard about GZG through a review in the defunct Mecha Press (link) magazine, a sister magazine to the still running Protoculture Addicts (link), by what would become Dream Pod 9 (link).

 

[Captain Tylor]

Thanx for the heads-up! I told you I relied upon you for cool stuff like this!

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Captain Tylor:
Thanx for the heads-up!

You're welcome. These really are excellent rules and even better they're now free.

FWIW, my take on Mecha Press and Protoculture Addicts.

Normally these days I post announcements such as my previous post there (see home button at top of any post by me) but this one is very useful for Traveller players IMNSHO. Actually I'm a little surprised it wasn't posted here earlier by someone else.

Additional: Forget to mention. The game comes with a sheet of counters you can use. Micromachines are excellent for this game but are harder to find these days. Pretty much any space miniatures or even toothpicks / clothespins / golf tees can be used with this game.

I'd point to a double-sided playsheet I use with the game but I can't find the link anymore. Hopefully another GZG enthusist on CotI can help.

 

[SgtHulka]

Please tell me more about Power Projection. I'm a fan of Full Thrust, Dirtside and Stargrunt, and definitely plan on using the latter to resolve merc-ticket style combats. And I look forward to the release of Full Metal Anorak to finally replace Snapshot.

But how well does Full Thrust translate to Traveller? I'm especially interested in how Book 2 and Book 5 combats are treated differently. Can you really use Power Projection for role-playing? Or is it only usable for wargame type scenarios? How does it differ from vanilla Full Thrust? Does it use Book 2 starship building rules, Book 5 starship building rules, or a whole new system?

Finally, if you were to take the same scenario, and play it using High Guard, and then play it again using Power Projection, how close would the tactics and outcome be?

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by SgtHulka:
But how well does Full Thrust translate to Traveller? I'm especially interested in how Book 2 and Book 5 combats are treated differently. Can you really use Power Projection for role-playing? Or is it only usable for wargame type scenarios? How does it differ from vanilla Full Thrust? Does it use Book 2 starship building rules, Book 5 starship building rules, or a whole new system?

PP works very well at the multiple ship levels. Similar to FT ships die fast and easy. So it's not quite at the roleplay level though some people have tried to adjust things better for roleplay. As is the weapons are too deadly and damage boxes too few for the average PC ship and PCs to likely survive sustained combat. Then again Traveller ship combat can be deadly at the PC level...

In play PP resembles FT with the realism switches on with Traveller weapons and defenses. It's a tad more complex than I'm used to with FT but still easier IMO than Mayday/HG.

PP:Fleet has conversion notes for HG (and by extension MT and T20) and looks easy enough to convert from other versions. So in other words you should be able to use most any Traveller ship.

Finally, if you were to take the same scenario, and play it using High Guard, and then play it again using Power Projection, how close would the tactics and outcome be?

I don't do HG but my understanding is it's a "set up battlelines and roll" version of Jutland. PP allows for maneuver while still having comparable weapons and defenses.

In general I find FT and its derivatives more intuitive and faster playing than their GDW equivalents. So either PP:Escort (smaller battles / intro game) and/or PP:Fleet (bigger battles, campaign game, and conversion rules) are well worth a look.

That and you get ship and nuclear detonation counters.

See http://www.powerprojection.net/ for more details.

HTH.

 

[The Oz]

I've been playing and working with PP:F for some time now and in general I think it does a good job of replicating the feel of HG combat. A battle in PP:F won't come out the same as the same battle in HG because ships can maneuver in PP:F but spinal mounts are still the really big ship-killers.

In a way PP:F is a combination of Bk2/Mayday and HG: it has vector movement like Bk2/Mayday but it has the weapons and defenses of HG.

PP:F is not suited to player character-level ship combat, however. It was not designed for that and it doesn't do it well, although people have tweaked it to fit.

 

[aramis]

There were at one point several persons interested in a more Player-scale conversion I, for example, figured that, due to the crewing, etc, for FT, it probably was around 10 Td to the 1 mass, since a fighter of 10T (the classic CT/MT fighter) compares well to an FT fighter, and is 13 tons (10 x 1.3), and the fighters in FT are 1.5mass each (FB1, PdfP11)

This would have been a thoroughly different scale.

It's still an area where a non-PP conversion could be done, at a much smaller scale... I had, at one point been working on just such a thing.

And I even figured out a mechanic to account for gunnery skills:
Skill level is a point pool for modifying die rolls. Refreshes at start of a new battle. (thus, gunner skill becomes a track by each weapon...)

 

[Supplement Four]

FYI,

I notice the links for the Full Thrust free download was updated in October 06. Requires updated version of Adobe Reader now.

Not sure if extra content is down-loadable.

But, I sure as heck downloaded it all.