Importing and exporting Traveller 5

[robject]

This thread is for notes on importing and exporting to and from Traveller 5.

At best, porting guidelines might never be more than advice. I suspect there are subtleties built into the different systems which makes porting problematic, beyond a first approximation.

I'm going to focus on skill levels, damage, and armor values, because those are the things I have thought a bit about, and would most like others' input on.

Rob's Classic Traveller Rules of Thumb, Personal Combat Damage and Armor, version 0

For CT, I tend to try to make CT damage == T5's "V1" damage, i.e. the sum of a weapon's damage dice. Typically though there is a T5 analog for a CT weapon, which is a lot safer feeling than actually porting weapons over to T5. On the other hand, assuming damage is roughly equivalent, I can use T5 generated weapons in CT as-is, although I have to approximate the strength DMs based on existing weapon types.

I tend not to map armor, since CT modifies the task roll with armor. I prefer to find an approximation of CT armor in T5, and vice versa (in effect, the low granularity of armor in CT prevents more than a few fundamental armor types, which is fine with CT).


Rob's Mongoose Rules of Thumb, Personal Combat Damage and Armor, version 1

The formula I use is:

   // damage
   var mgt_damage = da + 'D';
   
   if ( da > 3 )
   {
      var translation = parseInt( Math.sqrt( da * 3.5 ) * 2.07 ) + 5;
      var whole       = parseInt( translation / 3.5 );
      var mod         = parseInt( translation % 3.5 );
      mgt_damage = whole + 'D';
      if ( mod ) mgt_damage += ' + ' + mod;
   }

   // armor
   mav = t5av;
   if ( t5av > 10 ) mav = parseInt( Math.sqrt( t5av ) * 2.07 + 5 );

Damage
T5	MGT
1	1D
2	2D
3	3D
4	3D+2
5	3D+3
6	4D
7-8     4D+1
9	4D+2
10	4D+3
11-12	5D
13-14	5D+1
15-16	5D+2
17	5D+3
18-19   6D
20-21   6D+1
22-24	6D+2
25-26	6D+3
27-29	7D
30-32	7D+1
33-35	7D+2
36-38	8D
39-41	8D+1
42-45	8D+2
46-48	8D+3
49-52	9D


Armor
T5	MGT
1-11	1-11
12-14	12
15-18	13
19-23	14
24-28	15
29-33	16
34-39	17
40-45	18
46-52	19
53-59	20
60-67	21
68-75	22
76-84	23
85-93	24
94-102	25
103-112	26
113-123	27
124-134	28
135-145	29
146-157	30

 

[robject]

Rob's Classic and Mongoose Rules of Thumb, Skill Level Conversion, version 1

My first pass doesn't take Knowledges into account. I would think that a CT/MGT character will have knowledges based on their skills, and that a T5 character ported to CT/MGT would simply not translate knowledges (i.e. they'd not be used with tasks, though the referee and player could use them for reference or background).

I believe Classic and Mongoose Traveller's skill levels map to Traveller 5's skill levels, and vice versa, thereby making characters portable between rulesets.

Way 1

My first attempt grants +1 to the CT/MGT skill level if it's level 0-2, and +2 if it's level 3 or greater.

Way 2

CT/MGT      Traveller 5
   0            1   
   1         2 and 3
   2         4 and 5
   3         6 and 7
   4         8 and 9
   5            10

Classic and Mongoose characters generally have lots of 0 and 1s, a few level-2s, and maybe one or two at level 3. There's a rare 4, and I might have seen a 5 once only. So the range seems to be okay.

Where T5 has two possible values, I suggest the player allocates half of his skills at level X to the lower number, and the other half to the higher. For example, if CT Eneri has Rifle-2 and Pilot-2, in T5 he could have Rifle-4 and Pilot-5.

 

[DangerousThing]

Rob's Classic and Mongoose Rules of Thumb, Skill Level Conversion, version 1

My first pass doesn't take Knowledges into account. I would think that a CT/MGT character will have knowledges based on their skills, and that a T5 character ported to CT/MGT would simply not translate knowledges (i.e. they'd not be used with tasks, though the referee and player could use them for reference or background).

I really think that you need to keep knowledges in mind, especially for the Fighting skill. For example a CT character with Rifle-2 might translate as Fighter-2 (Slugthrower-2).

 

[robject]

I really think that you need to keep knowledges in mind, especially for the Fighting skill. For example a CT character with Rifle-2 might translate as Fighter-2 (Slugthrower-2).

That's a good suggestion.