Power Projection: Good, Bad, Otherwise?

[Kpeterson]

I've been thinking about picking up Power Projection: Escort for a Traveller campaign I'm currently running. I'm anticipating some starship battles a few sessions from now, and I'd like to use a straightforward and enjoyable way to represent them.

Anyone here make use of PP in a Traveller campaign? I'm speaking in terms of use as a "side dish" in a Rpg campaign, not strictly wargame use. How has PP worked? Would you recommend it?

Comments, complaints, links to reviews?

Thanks.

 

[siefertma2]

Oooooh, I want to say that PP:E is what you're looking for because it's fantastic space combat wargame. However, I don't think it's well suited for RPG use due to the way the Traveller ship stats are translated for use in PP. For istance, ships get a dampage point for every 500 dt in displacement. So most PC ships (scouts, traders, etc.) will usually only get one or two DP. Given how deadly combat runs in the game, you'd be lucky if your ship last one round.

As I said, PP is a great stand-alone miniature wargame that is best suited for large capital ship fleet battles of skirmishes between escort squardons. But unless you're willing to do a little "tweaking" to the rules or you're not a wargamer, it might not be for you.

 

[mike wightman]

PP:E is fairly easily adapted to PC scale ships.
I posted something about it a while back...

 

[Ben W Bell]

In my Traveller Campaign I'm using PP:E and PP:F to simulate the naval engagements in the war. I'm giving players command of one side now and again for important battles, and the outcome determines the course of the war, while their characters help influence it from the personal level.

 

[Nellkyn]

I like it, a lot. So much so that I happily demo it and run participation games at cons. It is more complicated than Full Thrust but this is an aspect I like. I think of it as a wargame based on the background that is Traveller.

It's not aimed at PC level combat but don't let that put you off if you fancy having a go at converting it. If you're looking for a straight 'out of the box' PC starship combat system this won't be it. If you do play miniatures games I think it's worth picking up.

 

[siefertma2]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
PP:E is fairly easily adapted to PC scale ships.
I posted something about it a while back...

I assume you mean the following:

Look at it from an approximation of book 2 hits perspective.
In PP one standard laser battery (usually) inflicts 1-2 boxes of damage.
A standard laser battery can be up to 20 lasers (High Guard), which would be 20 damage rolls in book 2.
So for book 2 scale ships have 4 boxes per 100t (500t per box in PP/number of book 2 hits = 25), so 1 PC scale box per 25 tons or fraction thereof.
A single laser turret would be the equivalent to a standard laser hit and a triple turret could be a high power laser equivalent, etc.
As for the effect of skills aquick fix is to either convert the target numbers in PP to task levels (MT conversion) or double the target numbers and use skills as positive or negative modifiers.

 

[clementk]

Chiming in with a thumbs up across the board for PP:E, PP:F, and the game they both derive from, Full Thrust. PP:E is more usable for what most PC groups enounter, being at a skirmish/small encounter level, while PP:F is suitable for larger engagements used to resolve background events or a big battle the PCs' ship stumbles across.

Casey