This page gives answers to some of the Frequently Asked Questions about Power Projection. If your question isn't answered here, please feel free to email us using the form on the Contact Page.
Q. What is the difference between Power Projection: Fleet and Power Projection: Escort?
A. Power Projection: Escort is the introductory version of Power Projection. It focusses on smaller escort sized ships (<10,000dT in Traveller terms) that are far more vulnerable. The rules focus on the 'secondary' weapons that the ships carry. Games tend to be far shorter than battles involving capital ships, with movement being far more important. It's ideal as a game to pick and play quickly. The book has 12 ship designs that are not repeated in Power Projection: Fleet.
Power Projection: Fleet includes everything that Power Projection: Escort has (with the exception of the 12 ships mentioned) and adds rules for spinal weapons, gravity, ship conversion (from Traveller High Guard, T20 and MegaTraveller). There are 2 pages of colour counters, and 2 pages of B&W counters. There is an extensive section covering campaigns and planetary subdual operations ('power projection!'). The book is 72 pages long with the additional 4 pages of counters. By comparison, Power Projection:Escort is 28 pages long with two pages of counters.
[SDM 28/3/2003]
Q. What is the difference between Power Projection: Lite and Power Projection: Escort?
A. Power Projection: Lite was the limited edition initial release of the introductory version of Power Projection. It was released at GenCon UK 2002 in London, and approximately 75 copies were produced. Of these, around 20 were shipped to the US and sold through Warehouse 23, and the remainder sold at GenCon at the BITS stand, or posted to playtesters for comment.
Comments at GenCon lead to a change of name, as the perception was that a Lite game should be free. As the game was a compete standalone package, we renamed it Power Projection: Escort. The replacement edition has minor errata corrected, an extra SSD (the Vlezhdatl Class Pocket Strike Cruiser) and includes the new weapons added to High Guard through the d20 release, Traveller T20. In addition, the printing quality is improved. All these changes can be downloaded as an Acrobat PDF file on the downloads page of this site. There are no plans to reprint Power Projection: Lite.
[SDM 3/2/2003]
Q. What is the difference between the UK and US printings of Power Projection: Fleet?
A. Power Projection: Fleet was originally printed in the UK by BITS, but in 2007 Ad Astra Games printed a US edition of the game. This version includes most of the ships from Power Projection: Escort (with the exception of the Zhodq SDB, Zhodatl Missile Boat, and Vlezhdatl Pocket Strike Cruiser) but does not include the scenarios from Escort.
[SDM 21/4/2007]
Q. How do I get hold of Power Projection....?
A. In the UK and Europe, your local game store can order from Esdevium Games, one of the major UK distributors. BITS has also supplied direct to European distributors - however, to do this we need a big order (several hundred books) to make the shipping viable.
Customers in the USA and Canada (and elsewhere in the world) can buy direct from the US publisher, Ad Astra Games, or order from Steve Jackson Games' mail order wing, Warehouse 23, which stocks all BITS books. Mystic Station Designs also have the BITS product range available.
Two versions of Power Projection are available - Power Projection: Escort, the cut down introductory version (which concentrates on small ships) and Power Projection: Fleet (the capital ship and strategic version).
[SDM, 21/4/2007]
Q. How compatible is Power Projection to Full Thrust?
A. Power Projection is a close cousin to Full Thrust. The movement mechanics are near identical to Fleet Book vector movement, and the game uses the usual rows of structure boxes and threshold checks. However, Power Projection only uses 4 rows for all ships. The combat system is the location of the most changes - the standard battery results table is expanded, and many more modifiers are included to cover the Traveller universe's variety of weapons. Capital ship spinal mounts are considerably more lethal than usual batteries (a ship can be mission killed with single shot). Ship design is through conversion from the Traveller High Guard design sequence.
In summary - if you've played Full Thrust, you'll recognise the game here. As a comparison, if The Babylon Project's Earthforce Sourcebook Full Thrust based game was a sister to Full Thrust, Power Projection is a close cousin.
[SDM, 10/2//2003]
Q. INITIATIVE: If I read the combat sequence correctly, initiative is *very* important as the player with the initiative gets to resolve combat and inflict damage before his opponent writes his fire orders and attacks. This is partially offset by the defending player being able to allocate whatever he wants to area and point defense. Is this correct?
A. Yes. The initiative sequence is designed for multiple task force games, so can be harsh on a Power Projection: Escort sized battle. If you find them too harsh, feel free to adopt the following house rule: The player who wins initiative gets to fire a single ship, and then initiative passes to the other player, who gets to fire a single ship, and so on, alternating until all ships are fired or only one player has ships left (at which point they fire all ships off at once).
[SDM, 9/5/2003]
Q. ORDERS: Can you cancel and re-order jump in the same turn's movement orders? This means I could have a floating jump order...
A. No, you cannot write the order 'Jump' and the order 'Cancel Jump' in the same turn's movement orders.
[SDM, 9/5/2003]
Q. FIRE ORDERS: How do computers control fire control? Does a ship with two computer icons mean that it can only track two and fire on two ships, or a ship with functional computers allocate fire upon as many ships as it has available batteries for?
A. A ship with an operational fire control icon can track and fire at as many targets as it likes. There are no limits to the number of targets that can be engaged by a single ship beyond the number of batteries and the bearing arcs.
[SDM, 22/1/2003]
Q. What are the Relative Computing Power (RCP) Values for the ships in Power Projection:Escort?
A. The values are as follows:
Broadsword Mercenary Cruiser RCP 2
Chrysanthemum Destroyer Escort RCP 3
Chtierabl Transport RCP 2
Fer-de-Lance Destroyer Escort RCP 3
Kinunir Colonial Cruiser RCP 2
Midu Agashaam Destroyer RCP 3
Plokl Escort RCP3
Shivva Patrol Frigate RCP 2
Viper System Defense Boat RCP 3
Vlezhdatl Pocket Strike Cruiser RCP2
Zhodatl Missile Boat RCP2
Zhodq SDB RCP3
[SDM, 21/4/2007]
Q. DEFENSES: Do sand clouds dissipate?
A. No, unless they are shot through with a weapon, or they contact a nuclear detonation, or they end up on a planetary template.
[SDM, 9/5/2003]
Q. BEAM WEAPONS: Can I fire a laser or energy weapon at a point in space? For example, could I use them to clear sand clouds?
A. Yes. Allocate 1 battery per sand cloud to reduce it by a level. The cloud does not disappear until the end of the firing phase (you can't 'clear a path'). Energy Weapons and Lasers may be used for this technique only. (Nuclear detonations from missiles will also have the same effect).
[SDM, 9/3/2003]
Q. MISSILES: Can I launch missiles at targets that are more than 30 MU away in anticipation of the enemy co-operating by closing distance?
A. Yes. You can launch a missile at any target, whether in range or out of range. Whether or not they hit depends upon the missile's travel.
[SDM, 9/5/2003]
Q. MISSILES: Do I have to disclose a missile salvos target when I place the counter on the table?
A. No. Although we provided missile salvo target counters in Power Projection: Escort, we don't refer to them in the rules. Feel free to use them, but so long as you have written the target down you don't have to declare the target. It's part of the fun second guessing the attack.
The missile salvo target counters were removed from Power Projection: Fleet. If you want to use them you will have to download the countersheet on this website.
[SDM, 3/4/2004]
Q. MISSILES: I'm unclear how bomb pumped laser missiles work. Can you clarify a bit?
A. Yes. Firstly have a look at the Power Projection: Lite to Escort conversion PDF on the downloads page which summarises BPLs on a single page.
Key points:
* The missile can travel a total of 30 MU. The laser shot can travel a further 10 MU from the point of detonation.
* BPLs do not get the second turn movement bonus for missiles.
* BPLs do get the short range laser bonus, but only if detonated within 6 MU of the target ship (which is in point defense range).
* BPLs do not get the nuclear missile bonus.
* Area Defense and Point defense fire only works when the missile's physical movement or detonation point is within 6 MU of the firing ship.
[SDM, 9/5/2003]
Q. DAMAGE (Combat Capability): If a ship's combat capability is reduced to zero is the ship still able to fire and maneuver or is the crew considered dead or wounded beyond the level to run the ship?
A. As written, the ship is assumed to have enough crew to continue operating normally. This is based on the fact that combat capability purely related to the ability to fight boarding actions. However, you may not find this detailed enough and want some way to measure crew casualty effects.
So...Optionally - complete loss of the combat capability icon (ie 2 threshold checks failed) means that the ship is incapacitated permanently the same way as a bridge hit with the additional limit that sandcasters do not work. Screens such as black globes, meson screens and nuclear dampers continue to function.
[SDM, 4/4/2004]
Q. SHIP DESIGN: How do I design new ships?
A. The conversion sequence used for Power Projection takes the results from the Classic Traveller Book, High Guard, 2nd Edition (which is identical in result to the rules presented in Traveller T20, the d20 Traveller rules) and converts them to a FT style SSD. MegaTraveller designs can also be converted. This sequence is included in Power Projection: Fleet.
[SDM, 3/4/2004]
Q. SHIP DESIGN: I'm doing conversions of some Traveller RPG ships to try the conversion system out. One ship has a triple turret with 2 beam lasers (USP 2) and a missile rack (USP 3). Would I represent this a single laser battery icon and a single missile Icon?
A. Yes. Where High Guard would treat them as two batteries, Power Projection does too.
Q. MINIATURES: Does the size of a miniature's base matter?
A. No. Simply measure from the centre point of the base (or the centre point of the ship if it has multiple bases).
[SDM, 9/3//2003]