Travellite

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Okay, this is probably my last post on Classic Traveller for a bit. After the last two editorials covered my initial reaction and further thoughts on the game's crunchier elements, I think we all knew it was going to end with me kludging together a summary of how I'd run the game.

Now the boring answer is that I could just use bits of the book for worldbuilding and character creation, then use some ultralite system like Ask the Stars, 2400, or Any Planet is Earth. But as an experiment, I tried to trim things down as much as I could while maintaining a closer feel to the mechanics of the original. 

Of course I'm 40 years late to the party on this, and there will be much more thoroughly thought-out CT hacks floating around online, but here's mine. 

So here's the core, focused on the nitty gritty of personal combat. Anything not mentioned is carried out as noted in Classic Traveller.

Travellite

Character Creation - Death as Disaster

When you would die during a term of service, Complete the term, but lose d6 from a random attribute (to a minimum of 1) and immediately muster out.

Rolling

Roll 8+ on 2d6 to succeed.

Die Modifiers (DMs) are typically 1, or 3 in extreme cases.

Get positive DMs from:

• Skills (each point grants +1)
• High Stat (9 or more grants +1, C(12) or more +3)
• Help from allies or situation (typically 1, 3 if major or multiple)
• Weapon

Negative DMs from:

• Lack of Skill if it's something specialist (1, or 3 if highly specialist)
• Low Stat (5 or less grants-1, 2 or less -3)
• Hindrance from situation (typically 1, 3 if major)
• Shooting at Long (-1) or Very Long (-3) Range
• Armour

Ignore basically anything else that grants DMs, rolling things like Cover into the situational DM of +/-1 in general or +/-3 in major cases. 

Weapons

Entries are formatted as: Max Range, Damage, Universal DM (if any), Situational DM (if any). Universal and Situational DMs do not stack. 

Hands: S1D, +1 Close (i.e. Short max range, 1D damage, +1DM at Close range)

Beast: S2D, +1 Close

Dagger/Club: S2D, +1 Close

Sword: S2D, +1 Short

Polearm: S3D, -1 Close

Pistol: M2D, +1 Short

Shotgun: M4D, -3 Close

Rifle: V3D, -3 Close

Mods

Heavy:+1D, -1 to all attacks (this stacks with the weapon's DM)

Energy: +1D

Auto: Fire at a close group of 3 targets at -1. Consume more ammo.

Armour

Entries are formatted as: Universal DM, Specialist DM. These do not stack.

Mesh: -1, -3 vs melee (i.e. -1 Universal DM or -3 vs melee attacks)

Ballistic: -1, -3 vs non-energy guns

Reflec: -1, -3 vs energy weapons

Combat: -3

Notes

As you'd expect, this changes the effectiveness of certain weapons in certain situations compared to the original book, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to keep things more transparent and fast-moving.