Traveller d20 Starship construction and combat system

[jeff37923]

Ok, what else is worth getting in the book? I like the current D20M classes a lot myself, but how about the gear etc? Could that be ported over?

A discussion on d20 Modern classes in T20 can be found at this link (to the Citizens of the Imperium board). I see no reason why you couldn't use them in T20.

Gear can be a problem, particularly with weapons since the combat systems have some differences and T20 weapons would be extremely lethal in d20 Modern (a FGMP-15 does 9d20 damage with a crit on an 18 or higher). There are conversion rules for armor in the main book to bring it back and forth. Everything else can move freely between systems.

T20 is pretty much "one stop shopping" if you want to start a d20 science fiction game. Granted, most of the stuff is realistic and based on science so you won't find people getting mutations from exposure to radiation or other science fantasy stuff - but just about everything else is there. You get complete world generation rules, prior history rules, vehicle combat & construction rules, creature creation & ecosystem rules, and the starship combat & construction rules.

 

[Aussiegamer]

If you are looking for a cheaper, free!, alternetive then have a look at my system. It is d20 based and has a good ship building system (though I am still working on it :\ ).

I think it is a mid ranged system, not too hard but not too easy either.

 

[Olive]

A discussion on d20 Modern classes in T20 can be found at this link (to the Citizens of the Imperium board). I see no reason why you couldn't use them in T20.

Thanks for the link.

Gear can be a problem, particularly with weapons since the combat systems have some differences and T20 weapons would be extremely lethal in d20 Modern (a FGMP-15 does 9d20 damage with a crit on an 18 or higher). There are conversion rules for armor in the main book to bring it back and forth. Everything else can move freely between systems.

So why are the guns not leathal in T20? Cos of the armour rules? Why couldn't you just dump the armour rules into D20F?

 

[RPGRealms]

So why are the guns not leathal in T20? Cos of the armour rules? Why couldn't you just dump the armour rules into D20F?

Actually guns are quite lethal in T20. T20 doesn't use hit points, rather it uses Lifeblood for 'lethal' damage, and Lifeblood is generally equal to your Constitution score. Armor helps, but your best bet is to avoid combat at all if possible. If you can't avoid it, cover and concealment are your best friend...

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Armor helps, but your best bet is to avoid combat at all if possible. If you can't avoid it, cover and concealment are your best friend...

Kinda like real life.

 

[Olive]

Kinda like real life.

Or indeed in a PL7 game where a plasma rifle still does 3d8... it's certainly enough to force a massive damage check fairly regularly.

 

[tjoneslo]

Can I use it with the d20 Modern class system?

You can, I'm the one writing the D20 Modern for Traveller conversion (link above). You can uses the classes, feats, skills, combat and other features of D20 pretty straight, but I was adding advanced classes and the like to keep the Traveller flavor.

I've been told that it gives everyone a role. How true is this? Care to give detail?

This has alos been discussed above. More concrete examples include: The engineer controlls the power plant output, so they can give more power to the engines and the pilot gets a boost to their dodge rolls or the gunner gets more power for their weapons to do more damage. If the sensor operator gets a good result finding the targets, the gunner gets a boost to their to-hit roll. The interactions like that go on.

How easy would it be to convert into the D20 Modern wealth system (which I like)...

The same as converting any other non-D20 modern book to use the system.

Sell me on this really expensive book!

If you are interested in space SF, its got a lot of world building materials: Vehicle and Starship construction, Solar sytem and world construction, (alien) animal encounter generator, two trade systems, A highly deadly combat system that scales from personal to startship combat, a character background generator, and some neat ideas on running SF campaigns. All in one (expensive) book. But the only other lines I've seen with all this stuff have it spread over several books and it ends up being more expensive that way.

If you can't tell, I'm another big fan of the system.