"Star Wars With Classic Traveller Books 1-3" Topic

Classic Traveller will do just fine. A Light Saber has the range and handling characteristics of a broad sword and the damage and penetration characteristics of a laser rifle. A laser pistol has the range and handling characteristics of an auto pistol with the damage and penetration of a laser carbine. One might ask why one would use a laser carbine but the main reasons are ammo capacity and range. At TL 13 laser pistols, carbines, and rifles have integral power cells with ammunition and weight equivalent to their slug throwing cousins.

Now vehicles need a touch of adjustment. The main issue is that they don't fit into the starship combat or personal combat damage paradigm. We'll assume their armor is combat armor equivalent though some soft vehicles might count as mesh. Either way we'll assume that the bonus to hit them due to target size cancels out with the penalty to penetrate their armor due to their heavier structure. If you dislike armor making things harder to hit, the modifiers work fairly well as weapon verses armor type damage resistance. At this point we just need hit points and a movement rate to hit modifier for vehicles with a trajectory that crosses the attacker's field of vision. Let's make it -1 from 100 to 300kph, -2 from 300 to 1000, -3 from 1000 to 3000 and so forth.

Ship movement needs some tweaking. Jumps are in Parsecs per hour but the fuel is sufficient for a month of operations. We'll ignore vectors, everyone did it anyhow, if your maneuver drive is slower your ship is slower and can't escape. From the starting line each ship moves its maneuver rating per turn with weapons other than missiles falling out of range at ten range bands. It's hard to outrun a missile. I'd also like to suggest reducing the damaged drive's letter code so a 1000 dTon cruiser can soak more damage than a 10 dTon Skiff. Ship to ship weapons are mainly equivalent to a tank gun. I think we'll put it at 2d6 x 10 and missiles at 1d6 x 2d6 x 10. Lasers penetrate as laser rifles, missiles as rifles, and sand casters as shot guns. It's a bit rough but what's more old school than a bit of roughness around the edges. Star Destroyers and Death Stars are terrain features not ships.

For vehicle hit points I think their volumetric hydrogen displacement tonnage already provides a size code. Let's just multiply that by a convenient number like ten and call it a day. The lack of vehicle damage rules in CT's core has always really bothered me.

Force fields play a major role in Star Wars. I think they roughly double the ship's hit points from the side covered and aren't affected by weapon type penetration modifiers. Angling them moves them around. I could probably make an argument for a to hit penalty against properly angled deflector shields. It Almost sounds like they're turret mounted. It's probably safe to assume that Sand Casters are replaced with force field turrets at TL 13. I know, Black Globes are TL16 but bear with me. The physics of the Star Wars universe simple make it easier to build force fields. Based on the predominance of ground vehicles like ATAT walkers I would also hazard that Antigravity is TL13 in the Star Wars universe.

Droids are essentially small autonomous vehicles with skills. I think I'd go with two or three skills at 6 and a UPP by type. Most droids are solid enough to count as having mesh armor. Battle droids have combat armor.

Astromech 48FAA0 Electronics – 6, Mechanic – 6, Engineer – 6
Etiquette 44A880 1000s of Languages, Steward -6
Power A4F550 Electronics – 3
Battle Droid 66A550 Laser Carbine -1, Grav Bike -1, Grav Tank -1
Juggernaut Droid B6A440 Laser Pistol -2
Destroyer Droid B79330 Laser Pistol -2, 28 Point Force Field

I think those are the major issues. The Jedi Knights are dead but I think a force wielding culture and training method might map best to Law Enforcement though one might see Rogue and Scout as viable options. Treat it as though the character was tested before their first term so PSI = 2d6 if they roll an 11 or 12 the Jedi or Sith will want to train them.

Makes sense.

I see the light sabers as more like katanas than broadswords, especially given the way they're used in combat, but that's my only quibble.

Seems as if they fight much more like unarmored samurai, or ronin, to me.

You've put a lot of thought into that: all seems to make sense!

John T

Thanks, it's come up on-line quite a bit and I recently wound up writing it all up again and thought I'd spread it around a bit.

The light sabre doesn't have the handling characteristics of a Katana because Classic Traveller's combat tables don't include a Katana, just the two handed broadsword.

The plasma sword is presented somewhere in CT. It seems to me that it's a Darrian weapon, but it's written up in JTAS, not the Darrians supplement.

LBB 8 covers robots.

Striker provides vehicle damage rules.

Yes, thanks, but I'm sticking with the core three books. I'm well aware of the full range of Classic Traveller material.

I think one of the disconnects that occurs when it comes to Traveller discussion is that people who tried it with just the core game have a very different experience than those who managed to have every last supplement. Alternate combat rules in Striker, Ahzanti High Lightning, and Snap Shot. More manageable star ship combat in Mayday. Capital ships in High Guard. The advanced character creation systems.

It reaches the point where it's virtually a different game. My point is that the core three books can handle Star Wars without a stack of supplements.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I like your ideas; I may try them out as well.

Back in 1979-81, we played in a Traveller Universe based on Star Wars, each of us starting as an unknown level 1 Jedi. Main difference was the use of 'Force Points' -- sort of wild card reference we could use for a mulligan, or, to impact something we were about to do using a Force Action.

Main referee difference was you didn't pick your Force Action, but would have a very short, five-minute 'scenario' (for lack of a better word) where your response to the situation would determine what Action you'd receive.

Otherwise, it was straight-up Traveller, with the use of snake-eyes automatic fumble (and associated fumble table) and boxcars critical hit (and table).

David, I don't think the three core books will give you any rules for robots.

You could use a character write up sheet for robots just as you would use them for regular characters, just give them different abilities then humans and such, after all in the Star Wars universe robots are characters to s degree.

There's a separate supplement for those.

I know the corebook doesn't include robots, that's why I made some up.

My brother was complaining about Han Solo jumping inside the shields in The Force Awakens. I said, "Have you seen Rise of the Guardians when Jack Frost asks Santa "I thought the elves made the toys?" and Santa responds, "We let them think that."

It's something I suspect applies to the Star Wars universe's droids and computers.

Meh. It's doable, and the ideas/mods make sense… But when is a game/system the sum of its modifications. I love classic traveller, but WEGs original "d6" STARWARS game captures the universe much better.