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Design: Frank Chadwick and Dave Nilsen Design and Development Assistance: Loren Wiseman Prevlous Design Work Consulted: Lester Smith, Ted Kocot, Terry Mclnnes, Charles Cannon Development and Design Oversight: Dave Nilsen Typesetting: Stephen Olle Proofreading: Stephen Olle and Anne Bedard Art Director: Kirk Wescom Cover Painting: Doug Chaffee Interior Illustrations: Bradley K. McDevitt and Kirk Wescom Graphic Design and Production: Kirk Wescom and Bradley K. McDevitt Thanks to: Michael L. Seale, FMC Corporation Design Test and Running Comments: Andrew Akins, john Bogan, Bryan Borich, Chris Bray, Franklin W.

Cain, Dan Corrin, Palmer T. Davis, Robert 5. Dean, Guy Carnett, Mark Celinas, Harold D. Hale, Will Hartung (with oak leaf cluster), Joe Heck, Bertil jonell, Scott Kellogg, James R. Kundert, john Lewis, lwing Macall, Jason Mahoney, Klaus Moeller, Chris Olson, Tom O'Neill, David Paxson, Bob Piper, Keith Potter, Hans Rancke- Madsen, Allen Shock, Edward Swatschek

Dedicated To: Joel, Gypsy, Tom, and Crow Not Dedicated To: Robert j. Lippert

Fire, Fusion, & SteelTM: Traveller0 Technical Architecture Copyright@ 1993, CDW, Inc. TravellerQQ is CDW's registered trademark for its science-fiction roleplaying game. Fire, Fusion, Steep is CDW's trademark for its technical manual for the Traveller@ universe. Made in USA. Printed in USA. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55878-157-9

Mk I, Mod 1 (January 1994)

P.O. Box 1646 Bloomington, IL 61 702-1 646

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 4Metric System of Measure .................... 5Interpolation ......................................... 5Technology Assumptions ...................... 6

Book I : M AJOR SYSTEMS ............................................... 9

Spacecraft Design ................................ 10Ground Vehicle Design ....................... 17Lift Vehicle Design ............................... 22Aircraft Design .................................... 27

Book II: SUBSYSTEMS ................................................... 36Material Technology ............................ 37Personal Armor ................................... 39Faster-Than-Light Drives ..................... .42Controls ........................................ . ..... 47Electronics ........................................... 49Defensive Systems ............................... 56Optional Features ................................ 61Power Production .................. . ............. 63Sublight (Maneuver) Drives.. .............. .69Lifters .................................................. 75Life Support ........................................ 77Cybernetics ......................................... 79Teleportation ....................................... 87Fire Control ......................................... 88

BOOK Ill: WEAPONRY.................................................... 90

Small Arms .......................................... 91

Gauss Weapons ................................. 101Chemically Propelled Round Guns .... .106Mass Drivers ...................................... 110Particle Accelerator Weapons.. .......... .112Meson Guns ...................................... 116High-Energy Weapons ...................... ,120Lasers ................................................ 123Munitions .......................................... 135Launchers .......................................... 147Airborne Weapons Mounts.. ............. .152

APPENDICES.. ................................................................. 153Standard Socket-Sized Weapons

and Defenses for InstallationAboard Spacecraft .......................... 153

Using Alternate Technologies ........... .154Design Examples ............................... 154

TL-10 7mm ACR (ETC). .................. .154TL-13 Plasma Cradle Gun .............. .156TL-13 GravTank............................. 157TL-14 Socket Barbette Turret.. ....... .159

Bibliography ...................................... 160

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FIRE, FUSION, & STEEL Fire, Fusion, & Steel (FF&S) is the technical architecture

manual for Traveller. It enables referees and players to design r items of equipment t o meet the specific needs of their

I' games. It isalso meanttoexplain thegenuine scientific basisofthe equipment in the game, where such basis exists, and provide the

, fictional rationale forothertechnical items. Wedothis because we believe that, t o the extent possible, a science fiction game ought to be grounded in real science. Of course, the game isn't just science, it is x ience fiction, and so the technology used in the

" game departs f rom reality in a number of significant areas. But it , only does so where required by the necessities of high adventure.

We believe firmlythat a grounding in solid science for much of the

' game's technology adds t o the sense o f realism, the "willing \& suspension o f disbelief," so important t o enjoyable roleplaying.

Beyond those goals, this manual also enables referees t o tailor Traveller rules t o fit a variety o f other possible science fiction niverses wi th different departures f rom scientific reality. While this gives unprecedented control of the game environment

!I t o the referee and players, it poses some problems for the organization o f this book.

For purposes of clarity, the environment in which Traveller: The N e w Era is played is called Imperial Space

hroughout this book. It represents no t a specific astrographic rea, bu t rather the specific future history detailed i n the game, long wi th the technological reality o f that future history. The

mpt ion o f this book is that the vast majority o f users will, at least initially, be using it t o design Imperial Space technical equipment. As a result, each chapter o f the manual is organized wi th all Imperial Space technologies first, and incorporated directly into the various design sequences. Then a section covering alternate technologies is provided at the end o f most chapters which details alternative technological approaches t o the issue addressed b y the chapter.

The manual itself is divided into three broad areas, o r "books": Major Systems, Subsystems, and Weaponry. By major systems we mean vehicles and craft of various sorts which incorporate a large number of subsystems in their design. The design sequences for these major systems include tables and subsystems unique t o the major system (such as tracked suspensions in the Ground Vehicle chapter), but will refer you t o subsystem chapters (such as Life Support o r Electronics) for material common t o a number of different major systems. Weaponry could be included in sub- systems but constitutes such a large body o f material as t o justify its own section of the book.

We hope that this organization proves t o be the most useful in the long run.

Special Note: It was our original aim t o make this manual complete under one cover. In the course of preparing the book, however, it became clear that that simply was not possible. A science-fiction game should always be open t o additional techno- logical treatments, and no one book should ever impose absolute limits o n what the game can cover. We've covered the most important subjects in this manual, bu t look for treatments of additional subjects ("wet" ships, robots, disintegrators, neural weapons, primitive transport, genetic engineering, jump projec- tors, etc.) in future products. Whenasuff~ient numberofthese have been published, they will be gathered into a single f o l l o w a volume.

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TECIINULOGY ASSUMPTIONS Traveller: The New Era is intended t o not be limited to a

single campaign background or to a single set of future science assumptions. Its rules are intended as a framework that will allow the play of a wide variety of science-fiction visions. Such different visions have distinctive technologies that separate them from speculative universes without such technologies. Matter teleportation, stardrives, and antigravity are all forms of technology whose presence in or absence from a setting have a major influence on the overall feel of that science fiction setting, and are all directions that can be explored in Fire, Fusion & Steel: Traveller Technical Architecture.

However, like any roleplaying game, Traveller must have a basic set of assumptions which drive a basic campaign setting. No t all referees wish t o design their own unique universes. Many would ratherstart playing in a standard campaign setting thatthey knowwill be supported byfuture productsand source material. For Traveller, this standard campaign is the Imperial campaign that was started with the first Traveller edition. This campaign will continue to be supported as the standard default campaign of Traveller: The New Era.

The purpose of this chapter is t o explain t o referees and players how the technological assumptions of this standard Imperial campaign fit into the variable technology schemes presented in Technical Architecture. Players and referees who have no desire to use a campaign other than the Imperial campaign may still find this information interesting.

Different Universes The approach taken by Traveller: The N e w Era is that each

of these different technological visions are actually different universes. The differenttechnologies seen in these universesare the result of differing physical laws. These physical laws will make certain technological breakthroughs more or less diffi- cult, perhaps even impossible. The more a universe's physics resist a certain development, the longer it will take t o make the initial breakthrough, and the more time will pass between successive improvements. Likewise, the physics of a universe will allow one form of stardrive to be developed, but no t another-say the use of naturallyoccurring warp points instead of Traveller's standard jump drive.

Travellerdivides the technologyof the future into two types: baseline technology and projected technology.

Baseline Technology: Baseline technology is technology based on physical laws that we understand and can effectively manipulate in the 20th century. This includes such things as firearms, internal combustion engines, nuclear fission, ballistic computers, etc. Baseline technology also includes one impor- tantset of extrapolated technologies: advanced power genera- tion. The ability t o create power of a certain quantity using a certain amount of fuel is the most important consideration for the use of any other technology, and hence is included in Traveller's baseline technology. This particularly refers to the harnessing of fusion technology at ever increasing levels of efficiency. It is this baseline technology that defines the Trav- eller technology, or tech, level.

Tech Leve1:Tech level is a shorthand scale to show the level of baseline technology available. See the table for examples.

In different universes, different projected technologies may be added at different tech levels, indicating the point on the baseline scale at which they initially become possible. But not all projected technologies will be possible in a given universe, nor will they become possible at the same time as in other universes.

Note that baseline technology levels have fuzzy borders. Certain technologies become available as experimental sys- tems before they are routinely useful and economically practi- cal. Furthermore, the model of Earth history can be misleading when applied t o an interstellar community, because worlds do not need to individually discover basic scientific principles. The best example is the discovery in Earth's history of microbes and the medical revolution that this brought about. A low-tech world would not have t o develop its own microscopes to learn about these facts. Such a world would only have t o be told about certain principles of infection and sanitation in order to realize the great health benefits that come from boiling water, maintaining standards of cleanliness, etc.

Also note that baseline technology allows unusual technical breakthroughs under specific local conditions. For example, on a world with a dense atmosphere and low gravity (an unlikely combination t o be sure), practical aircraft will become available before they were on Earth, as it would be easier to generate

sufficient power to keep an aircraft i n the air. Projected Technology: Projected technology

refers t o breakthroughs using physical laws not currently known (for example, stardrives and antigravity), or physical laws that we do know and understand t o some extent, but which we d o no t yet understand how t o completely ma- nipulate (the cloning of higher animals is an example of this). Because projected technology deals wi th the ability to do certain things in a universe because the physical laws there allow it, projected technology also refers to things no t normally thought of as technology, like psionics. Psionics is no t a technologyperse, but rather a natural phenomenon which can be exploited.

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