During session 38 of our Classic Traveller campaign, the characters expressed some interest in going gun shopping and to look at other gear as well. While there is an equipment list in the Classic Traveller books, it is not super long or interesting. Well, I suppose it could be interesting, but of course it was written in 1977 and ignores a lot of ideas that have been generated since then. Normally I’d say that’s fine, but I don’t want to have to work out all this stuff item by item. I told them they can use the Mongoose Traveller 2e Central Supply Catalog. We’re going to use it for non-military grade gear.

My biggest issue with the Mongoose stuff is that the associated artwork doesn’t really mix with the retro-SF look and feel I want my game to have. For example, I don’t really want “tablet” computers in the game. I want it to say “hand computer” and look more like an Apple Newton than an iPad. So I want to make sure I give them good descriptions of the appearance of their gear.

Besides that stuff, I have long intended to adopt some better vehicle chase/combat rules. I wrote some years ago. They aren’t bad. I have been a fan of the rules presented in Cepheus Deluxe for a long time. Today I started going through the Cepheus Engine Vehicle Design Guide, and found that the CD rules are heavily based on them. Once again, the base CE docs are there when you need them. I’m going to spend some time over this weekend doing to test chases and dogfights. One fun thing – they include tactical rules in case a vehicle is moving at a relatively slow speed through a combat zone.

If these rules work the way I want, I’ll probably grab the text and table to create some quick reference sheets for my players, as well as sort of an online Ref’s screen to keep open when we are playing a vehicle combat. Something that includes the basic rules, hit location charts, and whatnot.

Speaking of The Cepheus Engine, this PDF bundle on DriveThru RPG is an incredible value. The core rules, ship design, and vehicle design. Awesome. (this is not an affiliate link).

Something I’m not seeing yet is a CE version of the Central Supply Catalog. That would be nice.