What was the concept behind T5

[Blue Ghost]

I seem to recall that AHL dropped a lot of "stuff" that made up Snapshot, but then again I haven't read the AHL supp in eons. I seem to recall that Snapshot let your do basic Traveller combat damage, but that AHL had something akin to "life force" from MT. Again, it's been ages since I read the supp, but that's how I recall it.

Thanks for the thoughts on T5. I'm not a fan of it. I still think CT with a MT hit/pen combat mechanic is the ultimate version of the game. Thanks for the thoughts. I've a clearer picture of what T5 is all about. thanks again

 

[tjoneslo]

Have some love for At Close Quarters, the T4 version of Snapshot. At least the dice are closer than for CT.

 

[whartung]

AHL differs from SS in that it's using the Striker style hit/pen/dmg system along with a tweaking action points movement system in contrast to SS which was Book 1 combat on graph paper.

I never looked much at the MT starship design system. High Guard pretty much focused on pure combat attribute of the ship. Weapons, power for weapons, maneuver, how maneuver affects combat (i.e. agility), and crew for said weapons and the systems that support them (i.e. the ship and drives).

In CT ships were basically Doll Houses for play and a rudimentary economic system. In HG ships were tools for combat. in MT, not really sure what they were.

In TNE, they were starships. TNE went for a single design system from horse carts to star destroyers, all with consistent effects on combat, but system not solely designed for combat. TNE made a stab at modeling materials, applying combat affects to those materials, and then trying to build vehicles and what not out of those materials.

TNE combat is quite generic, with an exception carved out for lasers. Lasers is death by a 1000 knitting needles, everything else is basically crushing heat damage from the outside in as structure fail to contain the energy.

TNE put objects in space, gave them electromagnetic profiles, then modeled sensor systems to pick such objects out of space along with hi tech mechanical system able to actually track, and act, against such objects.

It's perfectly fair to quibble how well TNE did in terms of the "reality" it was trying to mimic, but the key point is that it started by basic materials, basic laws of physics, and went from there rather than "let's start with a 2G 200 Ton freighter with a laser and build a combat, economic, and design system around it extrapolating in all directions".

TNE combat modeled the damage in fine detail to vehicles much like Leading Edge games (among others I'm sure) tried to model human damage at the organ level. (Albeit TNE didn't go as far as LE did.)

TNE finally learned that death from a 1000 knitting needles isn't what killed ships, it was big hits by big guns that break big things all at once.

 

[Blue Ghost]

AHL differs from SS in that it's using the Striker style hit/pen/dmg system along with a tweaking action points movement system in contrast to SS which was Book 1 combat on graph paper.

Well, I guess that explains some things. The two copies of AHL at the local game store were pretty beaten up by being opened and reopened over and over again. The manager cobbled a complete copy from the two trashed copies, and sold it to me at a discount.

And when I read the AHL supp … it revisited APs, which I was okay with, but like you say, the movement rules were changed, and I recall one or two other things that made me scratch my head as to why AHL was published. To me Snapshot was a complete Traveller game that even though it repeated a lot of the Traveller game elements in the little green book (I think it had a quick chargen system...something quick and dirty), it added to the basic combat system. With AHL I got a sense that the Snapshot rules were rewritten for the sake of it. I saw no improvement in AP application in AHL over Snapshot, and I've been wanting to say that for thirty plus years now.

It's like you had your choice; basic T combat, Snapshot, and "reworked" allegedly "improved" Snapshot by way of AHL for personal combat. I really shook my head at it. Snapshot may be personal combat on graph paper, but it was functional, and meshed with the basic combat rules from any edition of CT. AHL, in my opinion, didn't.

The hit/penetration thing was needed, but it's like because the LBBs were spacing out tech and rules, I got the same vibe, only more so, and not in a good way, with AHL because of Snapshot. I mean we were already buying the LBBs as they were published, and here's this massive "board game" version of Traveller that has a personal combat rules revision. And you had to buy the whole thing to get the AHL supp. I can't remember using the deckplans for the AHL more than twice in any Traveller session, much less it's version of personal combat.

Just my opinion. But thanks for the reply.

 

[Bromo33333]

Three dimensional reality manipulation requires energy.

Perhaps psionics directly tap into the hyperspace dimension.

Quantum Physics, while it does not contradict the previous theories of energy and motion, really show that relativistic and classical mechanics, as well as the laws of thermodynamics are special cases of Quantum Physics.

I suspect when you get to the TL's that allow for "reality manipulation" that a Jump Drive resembles Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's "Infinite IMprobability Drive"

in the 1990's we developed a super high tech "{magic" system surrounding skewing the probabilities in Quantum mechanics. Telekenesis was changin brownian motion into linear motion and the chair flew across the room. Problem being, that the temperature in the object would drop 10's of degrees C in the process so you had to be careful...

Lots of other things, too.

 

[whartung]

in the 1990's we developed a super high tech "{magic" system surrounding skewing the probabilities in Quantum mechanics. Telekenesis was changin brownian motion into linear motion and the chair flew across the room. Problem being, that the temperature in the object would drop 10's of degrees C in the process so you had to be careful...

Just trying to imagine this in a "Stranger Things" kind of scenario, where the Hero shoves a guy across the room, a faint cloud of condense water forms around them, and not only are they thumped by hitting the wall, they're starting to shiver from the cold.

 

[kilemall]

AHL deck plans are probably better off used as 'facility' maps, not actual ships most players would ever play on.


I look at AHL rules as the bastard child of SS and Striker. I just went whole hog and stuck with Striker which except for pistols is going to be effective range for most weapons anyway on ships.