I haven't had as much chance to use the ship combat rules as I'd like, so I had a quick thought;

One thing I've seen before for Traveller is the Trillion Credit Squadron match - each player gets a pot of credit to build a fleet, which gets taken into battle against the other players.

So, why not a Trillion Throne Squadron?

The setting:

The two domains of Argand's Fall and Sirianus are former holdfasts of long-dead Rogue Traders in the Koronus Expanse. Both small but wealthy colonies claim the mineral-rich and uninhabited system of Kashak, midway between the two. The two systems are hiring mercenary, pirate and less scrupulous dynasty fleets to provide themselves with an effective warp-capable navy.

The rules:

Each player's fleet may field up to 100 Ship Points worth of warships. Players may freely select transports, raiders, frigates, light cruisers, cruisers, battlecruisers and grand cruisers.

Players may select any one Machine Spirit Oddity and Past History of their choice. Crews, Components and Background Packages may be purchased as normal from Rogue Trader , Into The Storm , Hostile Acquisitions and Battlefleet Koronus . Into The Storm and Hostile Acquisitions Ship Upgrades which do not have a specific SP cost may not be used.

Archeotech and Xenotech components may not be chosen unless specifically permitted by Machine Spirit Oddity, Past History or Background Package (e.g. a ship with Xenophilious is allowed one Xenotech component).

Ships will engage at a range determined by the best of their mutual detection ranges (using the Active Augury rules and their respective crew skill and detection score), and proceed with tactics according to the instructions of their respective creators (including, if required, switching to Silent Running and attempting to close for a surprise round).

Anyone interested?

Is there a reason you left out Battlecruisers?

Just playing random ship battles would probably be tons of fun in general. How would you handle characters in a game like this?

Magellan said:

I wouldn't. Ships have their crew rating - which you can, of course, shell out to improve. There is a vaguely narrative mission but there are no 'characters' per se.

HappyDaze said:

Yes. Incompetence . Edited above…

Just a check to make sure I understand how this'll work: you're soliciting ships/flotillas from people, of up to 100 ship points total, that you/your players will run through battles, based upon general instructions from their creators?

Sounds good. I've got a couple of fun things up my sleeve to throw at my players, but I don't mind throwing them up for an internet test drive as well/instead.

Quick question- what about consumables that technically must be Acquired for a component to work (torpedoes, attack craft, etc.)?
Such things don't have a specific SP$ cost, but the component isn't going to do much without them…

I think he's soliciting actual players. I don't think this is a bad idea, but at the same time I think we should have access to characters - character abilities are a large part of ship performances after all. I don't know about you, but I like to give every NPC ship a bit of history and some commander characters with decent stats (and equipment - what's a fight with no loot?).

I am interested either way, though.

Alasseo said:

Fair comment. Standard plasma torpedoes, furies, starhawks and sharks are available without restriction. More advanced craft are not.

Was planning to run through some set-piece skirmishes and post up the game as it goes - happy to go back and forth to players for tactics where significant things occur, but play-by-post per se always seems to be a bit too long winded to work properly..

History is fair enough - but I'd quite like to see no characters required (even if they exist as names). Crew stats allow extended actions anyway, just limited numbers, and characters (especially void-masters) swiftly make their crews mostly irrelevant.