[TML] First Session CT Questions

[Keith Grant]

Warning - long, long post ahead.


<<snip>>

> - Book 1 combat is simultaneous, I presume.

Thats correct.

> 
> -Is using Tactics (the skill) to determine
> initiative a popular variant?
> 
> - If I did use Tactics, I assume the way to
> implement it would be to total
> the tactics skill of all sides in a battle, and
> award first actions to
> the side with the higher total. Or is that too
> weighted in favor of the
> higher skill, making Tactics too important?

I've never used Tactics for determining initiative,
since I stick to treating combat as simultaneous.  It
does affect surprise, as well as having an effect on
the morale of NPC hirelings.

I also use the skill to dole out information.  Things
like guessing at how fast the enemy will be able to
react to a particular maneuver, or judging which units
might be about to break.
 
> - Does anyone use Dexterity to determine who acts
> first?

I've never heard of anyone doing that before.  Given
that dexterity can already have a substantial effect
on how good a shot you are, I think it plays a
significant enough role in combat already.  If you use
it for initiative too, anyone unlucky enough to have a
3 dex is going to be looking for a new character in
short order.

> - Is a better approach to use the system as it is,
> treating
> `surprise' as the initiative system, when it
> applies?

I've never had any problems with using the combat
system un-modded.
 
> - Do you always use the Mercenary expansion (with
> the extra rules, weapons
> and armor) when you run Book 1 combat?

Usually, yes.  Most of the players I deal with have a
hard time with believing that the automatic rifle will
still be the de-facto standard weapon for infantrymen
5000 years from now.  Trot out the gauss rifle, and
the suspension of disbelief goes a lot farther.

> - When you run Book 1 or Snapshot combat, do you use
> the modifiers listed
> for armor, range, stats, and posture? Or do most
> people just apply skill
> and skip the rest of the modifiers? What effect does
> this have on combat
> (i.e. how different is it because of this)?

I use all the modifiers listed, and will sometimes add
one more on to represent unusual circumstances like
breathing Pysadian atmosphere or having an Aslan
trying to rip your arms off while you're shooting.
 
The armor modifiers are particularly important -
without that one, an imperial marine in full
battledress is as easy to kill as a ragged peasant. 
Not even remotely believable.

> - I assume that any sort of combat with
> military-grade weapons (ACR and
> better) is significantly more deadly than Book 1
> available weapons, by
> as much as an order of magnitude. Am I correct,
> generally?

The ACR isn't much more deadly than an autorifle.  The
one extra die of damage usually isn't enough to kill
you, and the autorifle will often knock you out when
it hits anyways.

The gauss rifle is significantly more deadly than any
of the book one weapons, largely because of the extra
shots it gets when firing ten round bursts.  From
there up, it just gets deadlier and deadlier.

> - Do law level restrictions generally make use of
> military grade weapons
> available only in formal mercenary actions and
> `anything goes'
> planets? Do you generally just say to your players,
> "Forget using
> those weapons unless you have a mercenary ticket, or
> are going into a
> situation where you don't care about any
> restrictions."
 
There are relatively few planets where the local law
level is low enough to carry around military grade
weaponry.  Having a mercenary ticket is one way to get
around that issue, but there are other options too. 
Lets not forget that the planetary law level doesn't
apply inside the starport extrality line.  Balkanized
worlds will have different law levels in each country
- maybe one of them is more permissive than its
neighbors.

Oh, and there's also ship-to-ship combat.  For
hijackers, privateers, pirates, or any merchant crew
unfortunate enough to fall victim to any of the above,
those military grade weapons will come in handy as all
hell.

> - Are there interstellar (Imperial) restrictions on
> possessing these
> weapons (especially high energy weapons and battle
> dress) on board a
> ship?

In canon, none that I know of.  IMTU, fusion and
plasma weaponry, as well as battledress require
expensive permits.  The permits are issued ONLY to
mercenary units of platoon size or larger with a
proven track record of adhering to the Rules of War as
well as fiscal stability (you don't want them going
bankrupt and liquidating those FGMP-15s on the black
market).

Sometimes, you can get them through less than legal
channels, but if the imperial marines catch you
without your permits in order, the hammer comes down
hard.
 
> - Does a law level sufficient to own military grade
> weapons imply the
> freedom to buy these weapons, assuming a proper tech
> level? Or do you
> generally have to go to a low law-level world and
> then deal with an arms
> merchant who imports weapons from off world, with a
> significant mark-up?
 
Worlds with a low law level and high tech are few and
far between.  As an example, purchasing a gauss rifle
would require a tech level of C and a law level of at
most 2, plus a pop code of at least 4 in order to
support a gun shop.  In the Spinward Marches, only six
worlds meet those criteria, and one of them is red
zoned (Lewis/Aramis).

My usual solution is to allow the players to buy the
cool toys at a markup on a world with a low enough law
level and a high enough population to support an
import shop.  Alternately, on some high-tech, high-pop
worlds with a big starport, there may be a shop inside
the extrality line where firearms are less strictly
controlled.


> - Do you allow PCs to purchase military grade
> weapons and armor during
> character generation? Or is this why the `gun' and
> `blade' mustering out benefits are so important?

I allow them to purchase only that equipment that
would be available on the world at which they mustered
out.  Gun/blade benefits are unrestricted by local law
level or ready cash (though I still don't let them
choose high energy weapons, since they don't have
permits for them)


Hope all this helps,
Keith Grant

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