Traveller_5th_Edition_-_Book_02_-_High_Guard.pdf

T RAVELLER

High Guard

C REDITS

C ONTENTS

Classic Traveller

Marc Miller

C REATING A N AVY C HARACTER

Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl Hany,

Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug Poe,

David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.

S PACESRAFT O PTIONS

S MALL C RAFT D ESIGN

C APITAL S HIP D ESIGN

Mongoose Traveller

A UTHOR

Lawrence Whittaker and Gareth Hanrahan

E XPANDED S PACE C OMBAT

S MALL C RAFT

E DITOR

Nick Robinson

C APITAL S HIPS

101

N AVAL A DVENTURES

145

I NTERIOR I LLUSTRATIONS

Andrew Dobell, Phil Renne, Carlos Nuñez de Castro Torres, Bradley

McDevitt, Carlos Martins

I NDEX

152

S PECIAL T HANKS

Marc Miller, Donald McKinney, Mike West

P LAYTESTERS

Adam Gulwell, Alexander Fennell, Roger Calver, Dave Lai, Scott Hughes,

Richard Perks, Omer Golan, Robert Seitz, Andrew Welty

All significant characters, names, places,items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.

This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game

License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom and of the United States. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations,

places or events is purely coincidental.

Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence.

Printed in the USA.

I NTRODUCTION

I NTRODUCTION

Welcome to High Guard .

in an ocean of vacuum. Such a society must control that ocean.

Its instrument is the Navy. Traveller assumes a remote centralized

government (referred to in this volume as the Imperium) possessed

of great industrial and technological might; but due to the sheer

distances and travel times involved within its star–spanning realm,

the Imperium is unable to be everywhere at once. As a result, the

Imperium allows a large degree of autonomy to its subject worlds,

calling only for some respect for its overall policies, and for a united

front against outside pressures.

This book is concerned with the navy: its people and its ships. Just

as the seafarers of old were intrinsically linked with the vessels they

sailed – be they tall–masted sailing ships or nuclear–powered aircraft

carriers – so too are the naval personnel of the Imperium. The navy’s

purpose is to safeguard the Imperium’s interests at the system and

interstellar levels; High Guard details this role in three ways:

• Expanded character creation. High Guard takes the basics of

generating a naval character and vastly expands the system

to allow characters to specialise across various disciplines

reflecting the navy’s structure. As characters progress through

this expanded character generation system, they will become

equipped with skills and life experiences that truly reflect the

rigours of a naval career.

To monitor the space lanes, the Imperium maintains a Navy. Because

these forces can never be everywhere at once, local provinces

(subsectors) also maintain navies, as do individual worlds. This

three tiered structure of Imperial, subsector, and planetary navies

produces a flexible system for patrolling space, while putting the

limited resources of the Imperium to best use. High Guard deals

with the navies of the Imperium, of subsectors, and of worlds.

• Expanded ship construction. Using the core starship

construction rules, High Guard offers greater depth for starship

design with more options, larger hulls, more powerful weapons,

and a deeper level of complexity to allow the construction of

ships ranging from small, system–confined vessels up to the

immense Capital Ships – fighting vessels displacing many

thousands of tons and equipped with the most advanced

weaponry and defensive capabilities.

The sheer size of the Imperium precludes the navy from concentrating

its forces in one place – if war broke out on one border of the

Imperium, it would be months before news reached the capital, and

long months more before the navy could respond. Instead, there are

one or more Imperial fleets for each sector, named for that sector.

The Imperial navy is the tool of diplomacy and conquest as needs

dictate, the Emperor’s own sabre.

• Expanded space combat. With more options and more powerful

weapons, High Guard reflects on space combat and provides

a more detailed system allowing Referees to plan epic space

battles (from fighter dogfights up to the clash of heavily armed

Capital Battleships) and for characters to take part in them.

The Imperial Navy has the largest and most powerful vessels in

space – dreadnoughts, battle tenders and other mighty warships.

S UBSECTOR N AVIES

Each subsector maintains its own fleet of ships, composed normally

of cruisers, escorts, frigates and medium–sized ships. Subsector

navies are primarily responsible for defence, patrol of the spaceways

and safeguarding trade and commerce across the sector. In wartime,

each subsector is required to put a fraction of its ships at the disposal

of the Imperial Navy to act as reserves and reinforcements.

High Guard is organised into the following chapters.

Chapter One: Naval Characters

Chapter Two: Expanded Ship Construction

Chapter Three Small Craft Design

Chapter Four: Capital Ship Design

Chapter Five: Expanded Space Combat

Chapter Six: Sample Small Craft

Chapter Seven: Sample Capital Ships

Chapter Eight: Naval Adventures

P LANETARY N AVIES

Planetary navies are responsible solely for the defence of their

home system, or a handful of related systems held by the same

duke. At minimum, the planetary navy protects the space up to the

main world’s jump limit, but in most systems, it will have bases in

orbit of the main world and the gas giant, as well as a presence at

any inhabited worlds or asteroid belts. Planetary navies tend to be

eccentric at best – officers are often retired or cashiered command

staff from the subsector navy, poorly educated locals using out–of–

date tactics, and third or fourth sons of noblemen. The equipment

is equally eclectic – a combination of local designs, antiques and

monitors.

T HE I MPERIAL N AVY

The force that rules the space between the stars controls both

transportation and communication, and as a result, controls all

intercourse between worlds. The instrument of such control is the

Navy.

An interstellar community operates under many unique restrictions,

most notably the fact that it consists of many island–planets set

I NTRODUCTION

System Defence Boats & Monitors

A considerable percentage of any starship is taken up with jump

engines and fuel tanks. This means that a non–jump–capable

ship can defeat a starship of equal or even considerably greater

tonnage. System Defence Boats are 300 to 500 ton patrol boats

used for planetary defence. Monitors are the same concept on a

capital scale – a monitor is a multi–thousand ton warship with

all its tonnage allocated to weapons and manoeuvre drives.

Most monitors are constructed from planetoids, or by stripping

the jump engines and fuel tanks from an outdated warship hull.

It is rare for a brand–new monitor to be built using modern

technologies, although especially important worlds can justify

such protection. Sector capitals are often protected by such

‘supermonitors’.

or bombarding enemy worlds, supporting the Battle Squadron

advance, or harassing enemy supply lines.

Assault Squadrons (AssaultRons) have the duty of capturing enemy

worlds, and are made up of ortillery ships and troop transports.

Often, a naval force can take control of space, but face significant

resistance on the ground, and the only way to hold a world is to put

boots on the ground.

Carrier Squadrons (CarRons) are made up of tenders or carriers—

single large ships which carry well–armed smaller ships which

actually do the fighting when battles are joined. When the craft

being carried are in the ten to thirty ton range, the ship is a fighter

carrier. When the ships being carried are in the 10,000 ton range,

and the large ship is 200,000 tons or more, the ship is called a

battle tender or transport.

Naval Operations

Naval vessels generally operate in task forces or squadrons, rather

than alone; the merits of each individual ship supplement and

complement the others in company with it. Squadrons are given

a numerical designation when they are created, which are tacked

onto the squadron type to give their full squadron name. A BatRon

given the designation 175 would be known as BatRon 175, or it is also

acceptable to refer to it as the 175th BatRon .

The points of greatest danger to carried squadrons are immediately

prior to jump (when the craft or ships have been recalled) and just

after returning to normal space (when the craft have not yet been

launched).

Tanker Squadrons (TankRons) are mostly composed of huge fuel

tankers, which carry the millions of tons of hydrogen fuel needed by

a jump–capable fleet. As such vessels are very vulnerable, a tankron

is normally led by a cruiser and accompanied by numerous armed

escorts.

The squadrons are also prefixed with a classification dependant

on what part of the fleet they serve with. A front line regular fleet

unit would have the classification ‘Imperial’ prefixed; a planetary

squadron is usually referred to as a colonial squadron and prefixed

‘Colonial’. Reserve squadrons are considered to be part of the

regular fleets and keep the Imperial classification.

Scout Squadrons (ScoutRons) are rarely maintained full–time by the

navy, but are instead assembled as needed. ScoutRons are made up

mainly of ships borrowed from the Imperial Scout Service, together

with a handful of larger fast frigates and stealth ships.

Battle Squadrons (BatRons) are built around dreadnoughts and

battleships, and are designed to smash through enemy lines and

engage other Battle Squadrons. Auxiliary craft attached to a BatRon

are limited to a few fuel tankers and fast–moving tenders and

couriers, and must stay out of the line of fire when dreadnoughts

clash.

High Guard

Refuelling operations for a task force are another danger point,

as forces which are low on fuel and manoeuvring in a gravity well

are especially vulnerable. The high guard position, so named

because the ship or ships involved are higher in the gravity well

than their companions, is used to mount protective operations

during such manoeuvres.

Cruiser Squadrons (CruRons) have a core of cruisers accompanied

by escorts and frigates. These are the work–horses of the Navy,

given assignments such as holding captured systems, interdicting

C REATING A N AVY C HARACTER

B ASIC C HARACTER C REATION FOR A

N AVAL O FFICER

This chapter follows the normal stages of character creation as

detailed in the Traveller core rulebook, pointing out where and how

players and Referees can branch away from the standard career

paths in order to use what is available in Traveller: High Guard .

facility where he is extensively prepared for his chosen specialist

field and prepared for command.

If a character attends naval college, he spends four years there

preparing for his career in the navy. To enter naval college, the

character must pass the Entry roll. If successful, he may choose a

course and attempt to pass the course in order to gain its benefits. A

failed course after gaining entry means the character flunks out and

spends his first term in the drifter career.

C HARACTERISTICS

The basic six characteristics of a naval character are the same as

any other character. The Imperial Navy holds a position of great

prestige across the stars, with correspondingly high Social Standing.

Planetary navies are also prestigious postings on a local scale – if

a planet can afford only a handful of warships, then the captains

and other officers occupy an exalted position in society. By contrast,

the subsector naval forces, while possibly the most important and

active part of the navy, have the lowest standing in general. Naval

characters tend to lean toward higher Dexterity, Intelligence and

Education characteristics.

No character may attempt to enter Naval College after his first term,

the Navy has plenty of potential recruits eager to fill their ranks

and never wish to be seen as the second choice for any new officer

recruit.

Any graduate from a Naval College will be commissioned and

immediately start his first term at rank o1. A successful education

at Naval College will leave the new officer with a full set of basic

skills, some training in his chosen specialist field and, of course,

his commission as an officer. He will not have an Event or Mishap,

losing any benefits he may have gained. In addition he will not gain

a mustering out benefit for the term he spent in college.

H OMEWORLD

Naval characters tend to hail from long–settled, high–technology

planets, and especially from worlds with a large orbital or asteroid–

based population. There are often long traditions of naval service

in a family, where generation after generation sends its children to

space.

A graduate will not immediately be placed within his specialised

service, instead serving in the Crewman roll of the navy of his choice

(it is fairly uncommon, but not unknown, for promising graduates

to opt for a naval career in their own planetary navy rather than the

more prestigious Imperial Navy, for example).

T HE N AVAL C AREER P ATHS

Characters produced by this career system may either be recently

mustered–out Naval officers, or if the Referee wishes to run an

active Naval campaign (see page 145), they can be still serving.

S UPPORT C OLLEGE

Admission

Edu 7+

Success

Int 8+

There are ten distinct Naval career paths – Crewman, Engineering,

Pilot, Gunnery, Command, Support, Small Craft Pilot, High

Command, Naval Intelligence and Naval Research. A character may

also spend four years at a naval college before embarking on his first

career term.

Honours

Edu 10+

E NGINEERING C OLLEGE

Admission

Int 8+

Success

Edu 8+

C HOOSING A N AVAL C AREER

There are two distinct ways to choose to roll a term on a naval career

path. Either simply meet the listed Qualifications of the path as

normal, or meet the ‘Previous Service’ terms listed for each naval

career. Some of the more exalted careers can only be reached by

working your way up the ranks.

Honours

Int 10+

G UNNERY C OLLEGE

Admission

Int 8+

Success

Int 8+

Honours

Edu 10+

Naval College

The Navy has a long tried and tested method of attracting high

quality recruits to its ranks by the use of Naval College and

scholarships. A prospective officer will spend time at an educational

F LIGHT C OLLEGE

Admission

Dex 8+

Success

Edu 8+

Honours

Int 10+

C REATING A N AVY C HARACTER

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