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High Guard Bodytext EVENTS 158pp.indd
T
RAVELLER
High Guard
C
REDITS
C
ONTENTS
Classic Traveller
Marc Miller
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AVY
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HARACTER
4
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
41
S
MALL
C
RAFT
D
ESIGN
56
C
APITAL
S
HIP
D
ESIGN
62
Mongoose Traveller
A
UTHOR
Lawrence Whittaker and Gareth Hanrahan
E
XPANDED
S
PACE
C
OMBAT
73
S
MALL
C
RAFT
87
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
High Guard ©2008 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden.
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.
1
I
NTRODUCTION
2
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
2
2
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
3
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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
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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
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Admission
Int 8+
Success
Edu 8+
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HOOSING
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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
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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+
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