New Storyteller/GM with rules questions

[Xeldrakka]

Hail and well met folks. New guy on the block here who just recently got into Traveller. I picked up the books a while back hoping to find a set of rules I could apply to a home brewed sci-fi setting, and Traveller fit like a custom tailored glove. That said, there are some rules clarifications I'm trying to dig up for things I simply haven't found yet.

The first, and easier one, is how to handle dual weapon combat. I haven't seen any sorts of skills or rules in the combat section about how to handle characters who wish to run and gun with a pair of pistols, SMGs or cutlasses (fending off those pesky pirates). I'm figuring it's something I might have to house rule at this rate, but if anyone has come across official rules.. or have their own opinion on the matter, I'm all ears.

The second issue is combat between space ships and vehicles. I haven't seen any sort of damage conversion ratio for when weapons like the 22m Heavy Gauss Cannon (with it's 14d6, Mega AP damage) or the Orbital Defense Cannon. This sort of thing is bound to come up eventually in my campaign, so I'm hoping to have something to work with.

Thanks for any information you guys pass along, and it's good to be part of the community!

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Depends.

As for the dual wielding question, Traveller on the whole doesn't really get bogged down with such details. If the player wants their character to dual wield then they do. Now, if you want to assign a penalty to hit, I could also see that, but as far as I know it is not required.

Now, as for Vehicle and Starship damage scaling, I know that Traveller 5 scales by ten. So an Starship weapon will do ten times its Starship scale damage to a person. So if the ship's laser does 3D versus another ship would do 30D against a person.

Does that help? If not I am sure the board's resident rules lawyers can chime in.

 

[DeltaX15]

Welcome to the Hotel California!

First issue: I'm not aware of any canon rules for duel wielding.
When it came up in a CT game I was running, my initial solution was "On hand weapon: DM-2. Off hand weapon DM-4. If weapon has a stock, extra DM-2. Can't duel wield two weapons with a back/power pacK. Duel wielding uses 1.5 endurance per round"
That seemed to work well, so was adaopted as a house rule.

Second issue: The only starship weapons vs non starship rules I've come across (atm cant find the reference) are the use of sandcaters as giant buckshot shotgunss. To get the answer you are looking for, I would suggest you take a look at the Striker rules.

 

[Xeldrakka]

Alright, both of you guys more or less hit the same conclusions I hit. I'm running Mongoose Traveller myself, if that makes a difference, but for now this gives me enough to work with. Thanks.

 

[BytePro]

Howdy Xeldrakka,

Think Mongoose has a stated 50x starhip to personal scale multiplier (its a blurb in Core or High Guard in a sidebar, IIRC).

Thinking about it, back in CT (Classic Traveller) days, Hollywood double welder's typically shot sequentially, rather than simultaneously. At any rate, don't believe MgT covered dual weapons either, but applying multi-task DM (-2) seems appropriate for same turn use. Not allowing Aiming DMs would as well.

(FYI - there is a forum section dedicated to Mongoose rules under Other Versions.)

 

[Icosahedron]

Welcome Xeldrakka.
My rules were for Classic Traveller, not for the Mongoose game, but they may help. There are no official dual weapon rules, but my houserule was that aimed shots could only be taken with one weapon at a time, but if you wanted to take snapshots with two weapons, you'd roll twice and use the higher score. This represents the increased lead (or light) flying downrange.

As for ship firepower, I'm not sure that Mongoose has got that far yet, but earlier versions of Traveller tackled it in the publications 'Striker' and 'Fire, Fusion and Steel'.

 

[CosmicGamer]

how to handle dual weapon combat.

Lets start with there is probably a reason no professional wields two guns and you only see this in movies and TV. If you like your games to be like a movie, that's fine, but you may not want to read on.

I can't find the thread where I posted my thoughts on this; might well even be on a different forum.

The simplified version essentially is that for the same amount of time put into training you can have something like
Off hand skill 1
Dual wield 1
Primary gun skill 1
or you could spend all your time training just one hand and have
Primary gun skill 3

Add on top of that some DMs.
It's probably harder to shoot with your non dominant hand.
It's probably harder to shoot a single target with two hands.
It's nearly impossible to shoot two different targets at the same time.

Does the character want to look cool with their two guns blazing or do they actually want to hit what they are shooting at?

Perhaps for compromise and simplicity, something like this:
Give the primary hand a mere -1 penalty and the off hand a -3 penalty but the defender may have additional DMs too due to, as Icosahedron put it, "increased lead (or light) flying downrange".

 

[ShapeShifter]

Dual wielding is probably looked upon as more 'heroic' and not gritty, thus not appropriate for the RAW. If you're running a more gonzo heroic campaign then go for it! Welcome, BTW!

 

[DangerousThing]

Lets start with there is probably a reason no professional wields two guns and you only see this in movies and TV. If you like your games to be like a movie, that's fine, but you may not want to read on.

Realistically, the main reason that professionals don't do this is because the human brain is not wired for it. To learn to do this well you have to fight your own training.

• Despite what our managers want us to believe, humans multitask poorly.
• Trying to train you off hand can confuse the training with your dominant hand.
• You'd be dealing with twice the recoil.

Yes, it looks great in the movies. I run a cinematic campaign, so I'd allow it, pretty much as many people have done it here: +1 difficulty/+2 difficulty.

For weapons without recoil I'd rule +1 diff/+1 diff.

And of course, if the players can do it, so can the bad guys.

 

[Barsanuphius]

Oh Joy!

Let's see. Yes it does look cool with a pistol in each hand or a pistol in one and a cutlas in the other. However, keep in mind if you are using two weapons any particular person would most likely not wield or fire both weapons at the same time. Even in the cowboy films, the dual pistoleer is right hand then left then right then left again until he has exhausted all twelve rounds, of course this seldom happens as his pistols seem to hold 105 rounds reach. LOL..:rofl:

Welcome to COTI and Traveller, Many fun filled adventures to you.

 

[aramis]

Oh Joy!

Let's see. Yes it does look cool with a pistol in each hand or a pistol in one and a cutlas in the other. However, keep in mind if you are using two weapons any particular person would most likely not wield or fire both weapons at the same time. Even in the cowboy films, the dual pistoleer is right hand then left then right then left again until he has exhausted all twelve rounds, of course this seldom happens as his pistols seem to hold 105 rounds reach. LOL..:rofl:

Welcome to COTI and Traveller, Many fun filled adventures to you.

Most any competent SCA fencer has seen people use two swords at the same time. In the West Kingdom, it's a required skill for the rank of Provost in the WKGoD (Fencing Guild). It takes practice, but it can be done. Required weapon combinations for Provost: Single Sword; Sword and buckler; Sword and Dagger; Sword and Baton; Sword and short cloak; "case of rapier" (paired rapiers). One is often used to distract from the attack by the other at the same time - it's much harder to parry two weapons at once than to strike with two at once.

Firearms, it's much less practical. But for blades... quite practical. (Being of the 2nd rank below Provost, Scholar, in the WKGoD, I've fought with two weapons a lot. Usually rapier and dagger, tho in melee, I tend to use case. Well, I did up until I mangled my knee at work.)

 

[DangerousThing]

Most any competent SCA fencer has seen people use two swords at the same time. In the West Kingdom, it's a required skill for the rank of Provost in the WKGoD (Fencing Guild). It takes practice, but it can be done. Required weapon combinations for Provost: Single Sword; Sword and buckler; Sword and Dagger; Sword and Baton; Sword and short cloak; "case of rapier" (paired rapiers). One is often used to distract from the attack by the other at the same time - it's much harder to parry two weapons at once than to strike with two at once.

Firearms, it's much less practical. But for blades... quite practical. (Being of the 2nd rank below Provost, Scholar, in the WKGoD, I've fought with two weapons a lot. Usually rapier and dagger, tho in melee, I tend to use case. Well, I did up until I mangled my knee at work.)

Thank you Aramis, that takes me back many years to college. I was in Markland rather than the SCA, but had a lot of fun. I almost always used staves, anywhere from the dual short stick to a full length quarter staff. I could use a sword, but I was much better with a staff.

It is fairly easy to use two swords or staves. I think this is because they are short and our brain sees them as an extension of our arms. Of course now, 35 years later, I still can work out with a bo but I'm sure I'd hurt myself if I tried two staves without a lot more practice.