Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Characters & Combat, page 26

Alright, it’s time for some COMBAT!!! Everyone’s favorite part of RPGs, right? More than half of Book 1 is devoted to character creation, so this should go by a bit quicker. Again, I’ve never read this stuff before, so this is all new to me. Here we go.

The first paragraph talks about cities and wilds, encountering both men and beasts. I guess that would include aliens, right? Not that there’s been any mention of them so far. And it’s interesting that the game talks about hand-to-hand combat before starship combat. I always imagined Traveller as a ‘big ships’ game. I guess that comes in the next book.

So, figuring out HOW the characters got into a fight will be dealt with in Book 3; this one just gets straight to the ‘kill each other’ phase of the conflict. The basic idea seems to be, roll an 8 or better to hit. There are modifiers, of course, but that’s the gist of it; 8 or better. Wounds vary depending on the kind of weapon, and combat rounds are 15 seconds long.

The procedure is straightforward; see if anyone’s surprised, figure the range, try to escape or avoid, then fight by indicating if and how you’re moving, and who you’re trying to hit with what. Well, that seems simple enough. Most RPGs have that sort of an outline. Nothing special there.

We start with surprise. Interestingly enough, only one side can be surprised. Both sides roll, and if one rolls 3 or more higher than the other one, they’ve got the drop on the low-rolling side. That’s a switch; in D&D, both sides can be surprised at the same time. Not in Traveller, though. as usual, there are DMs to the roll, which are on the next page. I’ll get to them tomorrow. The side that has surprise can, if they wish, avoid contact altogether, since the other side doesn’t know they’re there yet.