We've been playing for a couple of weeks now using Fleet Book ship designs to
represent the Terran and Vilani ships (NSL and FSE, respectively). This has
been okay, but led to some nagging inconsistencies in the way the game plays.
I've been working on a set of ship designs for what we call "version 2" of the
campaign. With these designs, I'm trying to create a closer approximation to
the relative combat factors and costs of the ships found in Imperium.
I've posted the first draft of these designs at:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/v2ships.htm>
The original bitmap files and the conversion rates I used may be found at:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/V2ships.zip>
We've yet to playtest any of these designs. Once we have, I'll try to post the
final version in more of a "printer ready" format.
I'd appreciate whatever comments or feedback anyone might wish to send me
via private e-mail.
Thanks.
Jeff spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> I've been working on a set of ship designs for what we call "version
Always wished I had a copy of that game. One that might be
interesting to run as FT/SG2 or DS2 crossover would be Invasion Earth
which I do own.
> I've posted the first draft of these designs at:
Snazzy. What did you use to produce these? They look good. WIth my luck, its a
piece of Mac software...
> We've yet to playtest any of these designs. Once we have, I'll try to
I note that none of these ships has what I would call a spinal mount from
Traveller. (That is, a larger than size class 3 battery or a
big rail gun - depending on if it was a PA or a Meson gun). And I
guess you are assuming shield are Nuclear Dampers, Sandcaster turrets and
bays, etc. all sort of abstractly represented? And no one, I imagine, has a
black globe?
Still, all in all, looks like a lot of good work. I see you've made the Vilani
more missile heavy and the Terrans more beam heavy. I might have went the
other way. I always figured beams were the more 'classic' armament (massive
laser bays, PA barbettes, etc) for a
high-tech society.
BTW, Has anyone else (or more correctly, i'm sure someone has, but who and
where) produced ship sheets for FT (FB preferably) and some added rules for
the common ships in Traveller (Scout Couriers, Merchants, Patrol Cruisers,
etc). If so, could someone repost the URL?
I have a rack of old traveller minis and a hankering to run some
Traveller FT/SG2 stuff. That UN PA sure looks a lot like Traveller
Combat Armour/Battle Dress....
Tom.
/************************************************
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> > We've yet to playtest any of these designs. Once we have, I'll try
No spinal mounts mentioned in Imperium (and none in the FB design rules
either), so why include them in the campaign?
Imperium doesn't use the Traveller background AFAIK - at least none of
the Traveller versions I've seen have mentioned the Earth-Vilani war in
the early Human space-faring era. 'Course, I haven't read that much of
the background material.
> Still, all in all, looks like a lot of good work. I see you've made
That's the way the game background in Imperium makes them <shrug>
Regards,
> Thomas Barclay wrote:
> the Vilani more missile heavy and the Terrans more beam heavy. I
Based on the Imperium combat factors, the Vilani have a heavy missile armament
and the Terrans have a heavy beam armament. The Terran Missile Boat is a
design to help compensate for the weapons imbalance.
Long range combat uses the missile combat factor. Short range combat uses the
beam weapon factor.
The combat in Imperium is conducted initially at long range where only missile
factors are used for the CRT. After each combat round, a roll is made for the
range for the next combat round. The Terrans will typically desire to go to
short range where their beam weapons will be superior.
Therefore, the Vilani will have a first fire without much of a Terran response
in most fleet combat actions.
Fifth Frontier War would also be a good campaign. Or try Imperial Squadrons
for Traveller 4th Ed. (Combines TCS and FFW)
Michael Brown
PS I just finished rebasing all of my 15mm SF (lots of Martian Metal and Ral
Partha) for SG PPS I did an SG org for Broadsword, let me know if interested.
----------
From: Thomas Barclay
Sent: Monday, October 12, 1998 4:40 PM
To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Imperium/Full Thrust campaign
Jeff spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> I've been working on a set of ship designs for what we call "version
Always wished I had a copy of that game. One that might be
interesting to run as FT/SG2 or DS2 crossover would be Invasion Earth
which I do own.
I have a rack of old traveller minis and a hankering to run some
Traveller FT/SG2 stuff. That UN PA sure looks a lot like Traveller
Combat Armour/Battle Dress....
Tom.
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay
Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255
"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes
it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
-Bjarne Stroustrup
**************************************************/
In the Library Data referred to as "Nth Interstellar War"
Michael Brown
Be advised I usually read my mail only once a day, evenings in California
> At 06:40 PM 10/12/98 -0500, Thomas Barclay wrote:
*grin*
You're in luck. I used Microsoft Paint and the version of Adam Delafield's
Shipbits which Kelvin Henderson modified for use with the Fleet book. The
bitmaps are in the ZIP file.
> I note that none of these ships has what I would call a spinal
True. That may change after my compatriot has had a chance to critique them.
Or not. He's not particularly fond of single arc weapons, but he might
surprise me.
> And I guess you are assuming shield are Nuclear Dampers, Sandcaster
Yup. Best I could manage without a radical departure from FT.
> And no one, I imagine, has a black globe?
Not in this era. This is probably only Tech level 11 or so. These wars
occurred just prior to the development of Jump-3 drives (about 2000
years before the formation of the Third Imperium).
> Still, all in all, looks like a lot of good work. I see you've made
Although that's probably how I would have done it as well, that's not how
Imperium did it. I guess because the first round of combat is always at
missile ranges, they decided to favor the Vilani with a preponderance of
missiles.
I've tried to make these designs as representative of the original combat
factors in the game as I could.
There are some examples of the counters at:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/Imperium.JPG>
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/Terrans.JPG>
The three combat factors along the bottom of the counter are beams, missiles
and screens. The smaller number in the corner is the maintenance cost.
The conversion system I used is at:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/V2ships.txt>
Once I finalized on this, 90% of ship design process was done already.
> At 02:20 AM 10/13/98 +0100, you wrote:
Imperium begat Traveller and was then incorporated into the "deep background"
type stuff. Because of this, it's a little touchy to try inferring backward,
since they hadn't fully worked out the details of their technology and such.
Actually, the brand new GURPS Traveller (by Loren Wiseman) has a fair bit of
detail on the period and an extensive timeline. This was a nice bonus since it
came out just after we started on this campaign.
Actually, the name "Vilani" never appears in Imperium. In the game, the
Imperium is always referred to as just that; The Imperium. Unfortunately, that
became very cumbersome when referring to the game and the political entity in
the same sentence. Hence, I've taken to referring to them by their name from
Traveller.
> Jeff Lyon wrote:
> >Imperium doesn't use the Traveller background AFAIK - at least
OK.
> Actually, the name "Vilani" never appears in Imperium. In the game,
It does in the Swedish edition (c) 1977... that's why I knew the name
"Vilani".
Regards,