As I was writing my previous post about Warhammer, I dug out a couple of old Citadel bugbear miniatures, which had been cast as part of Citadel’s brief but much loved AD&D line. These figures had been stuck in a display case for almost 40 years, and pulling them out I was struck by how well they held up. The sculptor, Jes Goodwin, was able to capture many fine little details, including the minute stitching around the pointed leather cap on one bugbear.

I was also reminded that these bugbears were probably the last miniatures I had worked on during my initial burst of painting—and that they were never quite finished. I vaguely remember that at the time my paints had started to run out or go dry, and my brushes were all trashed, making working on all the small bugbeary details extremely frustrating. I’m pretty sure I got them to a “close enough” stage and then set my painting aside for what ended up being a very long hiatus.

As I looked more closely at these old miniatures, I began to think they could finished off without too much trouble. I also began to wonder what some modern paints and tone washes would be able to do for them. Rather than strip these miniatures down to the metal, I just started painting on top of my old work. Like Rip Van Winkle, these great little miniatures slowly began to come back to life. I can’t explain why it feels so satisfying to complete these long-neglected figures, but it does.

Bugbears of the Great Dungeon

BUGBEARS are giant shaggy goblins hailing from the ancient Boundary Mountains. Unlike their goblin and hobgoblin kin, the bugbears were never subjugated by the elves of old Norumbega. Today they live in small, fiercely independent bands scattered across the North. In the Great Dungeon, one particularly ornery clan forms a notable faction on the middle levels.

I use a standard stat block to describe different factions in the Great Dungeon, like so:

Bugbears of the Boundary Mountains CE

A clan of treacherous bugbears ready to exploit allies and ambush enemies.

Allies Dungmarket goblins

Enemies Orcs of the Shattered Bone, The Reapers

Locations Grumlug’s Lair (6th), The Back Landing (4th, outpost), The Whispering Halls (5th, lair), The Bleak Rotunda (5th, outpost)

Names

Names Barggut, Bedrut, Bruztig, Garyag, Hruguyed, Khotgub, Meraog, Rudgul, Rudlub, Rudorb, Sudurb, Sudya

Roster

Leader Chief Grumlug (CE male bugbear rogue 5/fighter 2)

Population 37 bugbears plus 15 noncombatant adults and 18 young

Roster List

9th (7,200 xp)—Chief Grumlug (U)

7th (3,600 xp)—bugbear leader

5th (1,800 xp)—bugbear scout, bugbear shaman

3rd (900 xp)—bugbear sergeant

2nd (600 xp)—bugbear

Below are 3.5e and 5e stat blocks for members of the Bugbears of the Boundary Mountains faction. The following text is Open Game Content.

3.5e

The following table can be used to generate random bugbear encounters:

Bugbear Encounters

d%	Encounter	Average EL
01–33	1d3+1 bugbears	5
34–41	1d2 bugbear leaders	8
42–58	1d3 bugbear scouts	7
59–83	1d3+1 bugbear sergeants	6
84–00	1d2 bugbear shamans	6

Individual statblocks follow. These use an abbreviated format: feats that are already incorporated into the statblock such as Toughness are not enumerated in the Feats line. Likewise skills that appear elsewhere, such as Listen and Spot, are not repeated in the Skill line.

Bugbear CR 2

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +4, Spot +4

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16

hp 16 (3 HD)

Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Climb +3

Melee morningstar +5 (1d8+2)

Ranged javelin +3 (1d6+2)

Statistics

Str 15, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 9

Base Atk +2; Grp +4

Skills Hide +4, Move Silently +6

Gear leather armor, light wooden shield, morningstar, 2 javelins

Bugbear Chief CR 9

Male bugbear fighter 2/rogue 5

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +8, Spot +8

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 20

hp 85 (10 HD)

Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +4

Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge, trap sense +1

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Balance +11, Climb +10, Jump +6, Tumble +9

Melee +1 longsword +13/+8 (1d8+5/19–20)

Ranged +1 throwing axe +12 (1d6+5)

Special Attacks sneak attack +3d6

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8

Base Atk +7; Grp +11

Feats Combat Reflexes, Deadly Precision*, Dodge, Mobility

Skills Hide +14, Move Silently +23, Search +8, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks)

SQ trapfinding

Combat Gear potion of haste; Gear +1 studded leather armor, +1 light wooden shield, +1 longsword, +1 throwing axe, amulet of natural armor +1, boots of elvenkind, cloak of resistance +1

Abilities

Deadly Precision: With this feat the bugbear chief can reroll any result of 1 on his sneak attack’s extra damage dice. The chief must keep the result of the reroll, even if it is another 1.

Bugbear Leader CR 7

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +4, Spot +4

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 17

hp 76 (8 HD)

Fort +9, Ref +4, Will +4

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Climb +10

Melee +1 morningstar +13/+8 (1d8+7)

Ranged mwk javelin +8 (1d6+4)

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 10, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10

Base Atk +7; Grp +11

Feats Blind-Fight, Improved Shield Bash

Skills Hide +6, Intimidate +6, Move Silently +8

Combat Gear potions of cure moderate wounds and heroism; Gear leather armor, +1 light wooden shield, +1 morningstar, 2 masterwork javelins

Bugbear Scout CR 5

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +8, Spot +8

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 17

hp 45 (6 HD)

Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +3

Defensive Abilities evasion

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Balance +7, Climb +8, Tumble +7

Melee morningstar +9 (1d8+4)

Ranged javelin +7 (1d6+4)

Special Attacks sneak attack +2d6

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 6

Base Atk +4; Grp +8

Skills Hide +9, Move Silently +11

SQ trapfinding, trap sense +1

Combat Gear javelin of lightning, potion of heroism; Gear +1 leather armor, light shield, morningstar, 2 javelins

Bugbear Sergeant CR 3

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +3, Spot +3

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16

hp 32 (5 HD)

Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +0

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Climb +3

Melee longsword +8 (1d8+3/19–20)

Ranged throwing axe +6 (1d6+3)

Statistics

Str 17, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 6

Base Atk +4; Grp +7

Skills Hide +5, Intimidate +2, Move Silently +7

Gear leather armor, light wooden shield, longsword, 2 throwing axes

Bugbear Shaman CR 5

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +7, Spot +7

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 18

hp 58 (8 HD)

Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +8

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Climb +2

Melee mwk shortspear +6 (1d6+1)

Ranged dart +5 (1d4+1)

Typical Adept Spells Prepared (CL 5th, Concentration +8)

2nd—darkness, web (DC 15)

1st—cause fear (DC 14), cure light wounds, protection from good

0—detect magic, ghost sound (DC 13), touch of fatigue (+5 melee touch, DC 13)

Statistics

Str 12, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 10

Base Atk +4; Grp +5

Skills Hide +8, Move Silently +10, Spellcraft +7, Survival +7

SQ summon familiar

Combat Gear javelin of lightning, wand of burning hands; Gear +1 studded leather armor, light wooden shield, masterwork shortspear, 2 darts

Noncombatant Bugbear CR 2

CE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Listen +5, Spot +5

Languages Goblin, Common

Defense

AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 13

hp 19 (3 HD)

Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +2

Offense

Spd 30 ft.; Climb +3,

Melee dagger +3 (1d4+1/19–20)

Statistics

Str 12, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 7

Base Atk +2; Grp +3

Skills Hide +7, Move Silently +9

Gear dagger

5e

The roster of the bugbear faction:

• Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)—bugbear chief (Unique)
• Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)—bugbear leader
• Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)—bugbear scout, bugbear shaman
• Challenge 2 (450 XP)—bugbear sergeant
• Challenge 1 (200 XP)—bugbear

Bugbear encounters can be generated using the following table:

Bugbear Encounters

d%	Encounter	Average Challenge
01–33	1d3+1 bugbears	4
34–41	1d2 bugbear leaders	8
42–58	1d3 bugbear scouts	7
59–83	1d3+1 bugbear sergeants	6
84–00	1d2 bugbear shamans	6

Statblocks for individuals follow.

Bugbear

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (hide armor, shield)
Hit Points 27 (5d8 + 5)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
15 (+2)	14 (+2)	13 (+1)	8 (-1)	11 (+0)	9 (-1)
Skills Stealth +6, Survival +2
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Common, Goblin
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear hits with it (included in the attack).
Surprise Attack. If the bugbear surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage from the attack.
Actions
Javelin (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Javelin (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Morningstar. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8 + 2) piercing damage.

Bugbear Chief

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 18 (+1 studded leather armor)
Hit Points 127 (15d8 + 60)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
18 (+4)	20 (+5)	18 (+4)	8 (-1)	12 (+1)	8 (-1)
Saving Throws Dex +8, Will +4
Skills Acrobatics +8, Perception +4, Stealth +11, Survival +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear chief hits with it (included in the attack).
Evasion. If the bugbear chief is subjected to an effect that allows him to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, the chief instead takes no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if he fails.
Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The bugbear chief deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when he hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the chief that isn’t incapacitated and the chief doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Actions
Multiattack. The bugbear chief makes two melee attacks. Alternatively, he can make two ranged attacks with his handaxes.
Handaxe (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Handaxe (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage .
+1 Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage.

Bugbear Leader

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 17 (breastplate, shield)
Hit Points 90 (12d8 + 48)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
18 (+4)	12 (+1)	18 (+4)	8 (-1)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)
Skills Stealth +7, Survival +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear leader hits with it (included in the attack).
Surprise Attack. If the bugbear leader surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage from the attack.
Actions
Javelin (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Javelin (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Morningstar. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.

Bugbear Scout

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (studded leather armor)
Hit Points 60 (8d8 + 24)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
18 (+4)	19 (+4)	16 (+3)	8 (-1)	12 (+1)	6 (-2)
Skills Stealth +8, Survival +3
Saving Throws Dex +6, Int +1
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear scout hits with it (included in the attack).
Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The bugbear scout deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the scout that isn’t incapacitated and the scout doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Actions
Javelin (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Javelin (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Morningstar. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.

Bugbear Sergeant

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (leather armor, shield)
Hit Points 39 (6d8 + 12)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
17 (+3)	16 (+3)	14 (+2)	8 (-1)	9 (-1)	6 (-2)
Skills Stealth +7, Survival +1
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear sergeant hits with it (included in the attack).
Surprise Attack. If the bugbear sergeant surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage from the attack.
Actions
Handaxe (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Handaxe (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) slashing damage.

Bugbear Shaman

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (studded leather)
Hit Points 75 (10d8 + 30)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
12 (+1)	18 (+4)	16 (+3)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	10 (+0)
Saving Throws Con +5, Wis +5
Skills Stealth +8, Survival +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the shaman hits with it (included in the attack).
Surprise Attack. If the shaman surprises a creature and hits it with an attack during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage from the attack.
Spellcasting. The bugbear shaman is a 5th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 11, +5 to hit with spell attacks). The shaman has the following cleric spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will)—guidance, sacred flame, thaumaturgy 1st level (4 slots)—bane, healing word, shield of faith 2nd level (3 slots)—hold person, silence 3rd level (2 slots)—bestow curse, mass healing word
Actions
Javelin (Melee). Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6 + 1) piercing damage.
Javelin (Ranged). Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage.

Noncombatant Bugbear

Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8)
Speed 30 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
12 (+1)	12 (+2)	15 (+2)	9 (-1)	12 (+1)	12 (+1)
Skills Stealth +6, Survival +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Goblin, Common
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage.

OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a

The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved.

1. Definitions: (a) “Contributors” means the copyright and/or trademark owners who have contributed Open Game Content; (b) “Derivative Material” means copyrighted material including derivative works and translations (including into other computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing work may be recast, transformed or adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distribute; (d) “Open Game Content” means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. (e) “Product Identity” means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts, creatures, characters, stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content; (f ) “Trademark” means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor (g) “Use”, “Used” or “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game Content. (h) “You” or “Your” means the licensee in terms of this agreement.
2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License.
3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License.
4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.
5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.
6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.
7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity.
8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content.
9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.
10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You distribute.
11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have written permission from the Contributor to do so.
12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.
13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.
14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.
15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
    
    • Open Game License v 1.0a, Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
    • System Reference Document, Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
    • System Reference Document 5.1, Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee, James Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell, Chris Sims, and Steve Townshend, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
    • Bugbears of the Great Dungeon, Copyright 2023, R. Dorman.

So Close, So Far: Warhammer

I was an avid reader of White Dwarf magazine in the early and mid 1980s, and I was painting miniatures when the license to produce AD&D figures moved from Grenadier to TSR to Citadel to Ral Partha over a few short years. So I had a ringside seat as Games Workshop began to transition away from providing third party support to games published by other companies such as Chaosium, Game Designers’ Workshop, and TSR. Instead, White Dwarf increasingly focused on new products from GW and Citadel under the name Warhammer.

Initially billed as the “Mass Combat Fantasy Roleplaying Game,” I really wasn’t sure what to make of Warhammer. I was certainly interested in incorporating gigantic, army-scale battles into my D&D games but I couldn’t figure out if Warhammer fit the bill. Could I use this boxed set as a D&D supplement? The early reviews were mostly positive but Warhammer sounded like a separate thing altogether. The notion of having enough money to purchase an entire army’s worth of figures, as well as having the time to paint them all seemed bonkers. 

At about the same time the art direction of White Dwarf and Citadel miniatures began to embrace a more gonzo, punky style that I wasn’t really sure I liked. Now, I was a huge fan of the artwork from the 1e Fiend Folio, which was quite a bit wilder than the art in other AD&D books. This is partly because the Fiend Folio was produced by TSR UK and as such featured UK artists such as the late, great Russ Nicholson. There was a lot of overlap between TSR UK and Games Workshop staff.

But the new Games Workshop/Citadel style was like Nicholson turned up to 11: more dynamic, bold, and cartoony, often infused with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and a grittier, post-apocalyptic look. Instead of staid, Tolkien-esque dwarven warriors we suddenly got snarling, tattooed dwarves with mohawks wearing Mad Max-style armor and wielding enormous cleavers.

Despite my reservations about the new art style, I bought a lot of the Citadel D&D miniatures in part because they included so many monsters from my beloved Fiend Folio. In general, these figures were better sculpted and better cast than anything that had come before. And the new art direction, with exaggerated elements, really helped make those tiny miniatures pop. The only thing I really disliked about these figures were the plastic “slotta” bases.

My miniature painting phase was relatively short-lived. And in 1984 TSR released an abstract mass combat system in the D&D Companion Set that adequately addressed my interest in army-scale battles. So I really wasn’t paying much attention to what was happening with Warhammer. By the time I got back into gaming in the 1990s, Warhammer was a phenomenon. I was vaguely aware of this development—local game shops suddenly had sand tables and displays of brightly painted figures—but no one in my immediate group ever took the plunge and I really knew very little about the game.

It seems strange, considering how much D&D I played over the ensuing decades, that I remained so ignorant of a hobby that had so much in common with D&D. I was always flabbergasted at Warhammer’s success: how could a game that was clearly so expensive and time-consuming have such a large following?

Flash-forward to a couple of years ago, when one of my friends bought a copy of the Harbinger Starter Set for Warhammer Age of Sigmar. He had painted up the two factions and we played out a scenario. It was a fun, fast-paced skirmish game. I was impressed by the streamlined rules and am a sucker for d6 mechanics—I also liked adding a random component to movement rates.

I’ve been watching many miniature painting videos over the last few years to try and improve my own painting skills and I’ve been frankly blown away by the work done by the Warhammer community. It’s clear that many of the next-level skills I’d like to master—color theory, wet blending, glazes—are old hat for Warhammer painters.

So given all this I picked up a boxed set of Warcry: Flesh-Eater Courts, not quite understanding the difference between Warcry and other Age of Sigmar sets. The Flesh-Eater Courts is a faction of ghouls, and many of the models would work well for the Eaters of the Dead band of ghouls in my Great Dungeon. I’d long been on the hunt for Large-sized ghouls for my Hulking Ghouls, and this Warcry set had three that fit the bill perfectly.

Opening the box, I was surprised that the models were still on the sprues and needed to be assembled. I also didn’t realize that the figures could be so customizable by swapping in a wide variety of different limbs, heads, or weapons that in some cases would produce completely different models. While I knew kitbashing was common in the Warhammer community, I didn’t know that the models were really designed to support this practice.

The models are made out of a very lightweight, fairly rigid plastic material that holds details extremely well and is roughly comparable to Bones Black. Once snipped from the sprues the parts had very little in the way of flashing or mold lines. Another surprise was that the appendages do not connect with pegs and sockets, but instead use a very clever ball and socket system. You have to get these parts aligned just right, but when they are seated properly they form surprisingly tight attachments with relatively little gaps.

I primed these models with Army Painter spray-on primer and used Reaper ghoul flesh acrylics for the base coats. The sculpts have lots of grotesque details—exposed flesh and sinew, eruptions of pus-filled boils and spikes, limbs held together with impaled bones, and so on. I didn’t try to go all-in on the gore, but did try a few different techniques to render diseased and bruised skin.

I was pretty happy with the overall experience of painting these Warhammer models. I’m not nearly ready to begin assembling an army any time soon, but I have been slowly backfilling my understanding of the game and its lore. I certainly expect to pick up a few more sets to round out my Great Dungeon of the North rosters.

Mining Dumarest for Traveller Games

I have been reading the first few novels in the 33-volume “Dumarest Saga” by the British science fiction writer Edwin Charles (E.C.) Tubb. At the outset I was not very familiar with either the man or his works, really knowing only that the Dumarest books had purportedly been influential on the Traveller RPG.

The Dumarest saga takes place in a human-dominated interstellar community that is ancient and spans thousands of worlds. There seems to be no single, multi-system government like the Third Imperium and apparently nothing like megacorporations, though the community does seem to share a common interstellar culture.

The overall tech level seems to be low interstellar, TL10 or maybe TL11, though it is hard to say: in these early books the protagonist, Earl Dumarest, is travelling through mostly backwater worlds and perhaps much higher tech could be found elsewhere. It’s not clear to me if this is a post-apocalyptic setting but there are hints that some of humanity’s capabilities are on the wane or have been lost altogether. Earl was born on Terra, the fabled homeworld of all humanity, but all knowledge of the world including its location appears to have been forgotten.

Each Dumarest book is largely self-contained and episodic. M. Harold Page has an insightful blog post on Series Architecture: The Same But Different in EC Tubb’s Dumarest that analyzes how Tubb effectively recycles a few key elements over and over again in new combinations to keep the books surprisingly fresh. It really shouldn’t work, but it does. I had planned to just sample a few entries because I was interested in the origins of Traveller, but I keep reading because the books are both entertaining and full of useful ideas for my game. I’ve only made it through the first five or six entries but so far if anything I think the influence of Dumarest on the game is understated.

Everyone notes Tubb’s distinctive use of the term “Traveller,” and can point out obvious elements such as Low, Middle, and High Passage (along with the Low Lottery) that were borrowed for the game. Other ideas appropriated by Traveller include slow drug, fast drug, and anagathics, after a fashion. I had always assumed Traveller psionics were directly descended from the Lensman series but the Dumarest books have characters with psionic talents that to my mind more closely resemble Traveller abilities.

But I think I see many other, subtler influences from Dumarest on the Charted Space setting.

The interstellar society described in the Dumarest books is highly stratified, with wealth and other resources unequally distributed across the population. M. Harold Page aptly describes it as a “Grapes of Wrath galaxy.” Most worlds have an aristocratic class of inherited nobility, a striving middle class of traders and managers and artisans, a struggling working class, and an even lower class of indigents and outcasts. As a game mechanic, Traveller’s Social Standing characteristic makes much more sense in this milieu than in, say, Star Trek, Ringworld, or even Dune.

Technology in Dumarest is similarly stratified, much like in Traveller. Although laser guns are available, slug-throwers, knives, and swords seem much more common weapons on many worlds. While there are anti-grav “rafts,” on-planet travel might also be via helicopters, planes, boats, or beasts of burden. Starships are fairly rare and expensive, and owning one is an indicator of extreme wealth.

A planetary Law Level is also an important characteristic that varies greatly from world to world. While some worlds appear to have fairly oppressive governments with correspondingly high Law Levels, others such as Scar have very low or no Law Levels at all.

Like Charted Space, the worlds of the Dumarest saga teem with native, alien life that seems (mostly) compatible with Terran biochemistry. No intelligent alien life has yet been introduced, but there are many books to come.

Just the first five or six books have given me the following random ideas for spicing up starports in my own Traveller game.

Travellers

Earl Dumarest is a Traveller, which is a slippery term to define as it’s not quite a title, profession, or status. Travellers are, strictly speaking, vagrants, drifting through the Dumarest universe from world to world without a home or regular employment or income. They are, by necessity, survivors, resourceful and clever.

Travellers generally conform to the standard sci-fi Space Bum archetype, “a spacer who wanders aimlessly; a vagrant in space; (also) a spacer who is regarded as contemptible.” As Jesse Sheidlower points out in Meet the Space Bum, ambiguous stock character of generations of science fiction, the term space bum reflects “all the nuances of the base word [bum]: idleness, aimlessness, vagrancy, worthlessness.” The Midjourney illustration attached to Sheidlower’s post really nails the romantic appeal of being a Traveller. Think Jack Kerouac, but instead of being blissed out at a Denver bus stop he’s hanging at a starport in Deneb sector, looking to score working passage to the Marches.

Earl Dumarest is a Traveller because he is on a quest to find his lost homeworld. While many Travellers are forced into the life by terrible conflict or bitter politics on their homeworld, some noncomformists might embrace the Traveller life as a way to escape the grinding tedium and control of early interstellar society.

The Space Bum archetype certainly fits with the Traveller RPG aesthetic. In Agent of the Imperium Marc Miller suggests that “Most people (indeed, whole species) never leave their homeworld: they never venture out of their gravity well, content to work, play, and even thrive on their home planet. Some postulate that there is a genetic basis for the drive of some (and the lack of drive in others) to reach beyond the bounds of a single world into the greater universe: a traveller gene.”

As most inhabitants rarely leave their homeworld, Travellers are considered inherently interesting, if maybe a little dangerous, to most people they meet. People want to hear stories of the Traveller lifestyle and the exotic worlds they’ve seen. People might seek out a Traveller for advice or aid regarding an unusual or difficult problem. In this sense they are natural magnets for patron encounters.

Travellers seem to be perpetually broke, always looking to put together enough scratch for passage offworld—and generally, that passage is going to be Low. Because they are inherently strangers, Travellers often attract suspicion from locals when dirtside, much like hobos, tramps, or bums. (Of these three categories, Wikipedia’s description of a Tramp probably comes the closest to Tubb’s depiction of a Traveller.) Their outsider status likely makes them suseptible to scrutiny and harassment from authorities, particularly on worlds with high Law Levels.

Interestingly, maybe the single best game mechanic to model a Dumarest-style Traveller is the Drifter career from Mongoose Traveller. (Note that the Wanderer assignment explicitly reads “You are a space bum [emphasis added], living hand-to-mouth in slums and spaceports across the galaxy.”) Drifter is the default career you land in when you’ve been bumped out of your desired career and can’t qualify for anything else.

Because of this I’ve always been a little disappointed when one of my characters has had to take a term of Drifter. But after reading a few of the Dumarest books I’m beginning to appreciate the “career” much more and can see the potential. And maybe the career could be spiced up with interesting events or benefits drawn from these books. The Skills and Training tables look mostly right, though I’d like to have some way to pick up ranks in Art, Gambler, and Persuade in addition to the core skills of Recon, Streetwise, and Survival.

Tourists

In the Dumarest books, Travellers are to be distinguished from Tourists. Both Travellers and Tourists are wanderers visiting new and different worlds, but from there everything else is starkly different. Fundamentally, a Tourist has a home to return to, and visiting other worlds is merely a temporary diversion from a “real life,” not a permanent condition. Many Tourists probably like to play at being real Travellers, but very few ever actually adopt the lifestyle.

Another important difference is that Tourists have money. They seem to be primarily drawn from the Nobility and travel High, dosed with Quicktime. They stay at the best resort facilities, frequent the best casinos, eat the best food and drink the best wines they can find. While Travellers are forced to engage with the worlds they visit, the Tourists stay always apart, protected by thoughtfully curated itineraries, armed guards, and secure fences.

Tourists are first and foremost consumers of goods, experiences, and people. Unfortunately, our own 21st century regularly provides all-too-many examples of clueless, exploitative, and self-indulgent Tourists. #SpaceVanLife. In the MgT system, Tourists can be modeled using the Dilettante assignment in the Noble career.

As seen in the Dumarest books, there is more than a touch of the decadent in the Tourists. The entertainments and amusements Tourists seek out are more often than not bought at the expense of the local population. Blood sports of all sorts—animal, human, and other—seem to be common.

I’m thinking the worlds of my Traveller game ought to include many more encounters with sybaritic Tourists on holiday.

Local Attractions

All of these Tourists have made a long journey to see and experience something. And so far Tubb does a good job of creating worlds that have some unique hook to draw Tourists, such as watching the fungus blooms of Scar, enjoying the arenas of Toy, or hunting Thren on Solis. One of the most gruesome attractions so far is the Bloodtime on Logis, a single day in each year when all laws are suspended to allow the citizens to run wild and settle scores. It’s very much like the Purge, but on a planetary level.

These Attractions might involve the world’s native life: a particularly strange or valuable alien species, a mass migration, or a spectacular bloom. Other attractions are cultural: a religious rite, a unique architectural style, tournament, or festival. Imagine “Burning Man on Delta IX.” Other attractions might be technological, like the Computer on Toy or the wish-fulfillment tech of Folgone. Other attractions might be natural features such as waterfalls, whirlpools, volcanos, gorges, or mountain peaks. But in any case Tubb is able to produce some unique draw that doesn’t reduce an entire world to the tired old Planet of Hats trope. 

A series of Attractions could form entire Tourist circuits that wind through a subsector; a good portion of the High passengers seeking a ship could be traveling to the next stop on the tour. “We want to catch the hadj on Umat, then hit the big harvest festival on New Epping, and by that time that’s over the resort beaches on Kaula IV should be open for the summer.”

In Classic Traveller, the typical activities checklist for starships visiting a mainworld includes “Patron encounters,” “Planetary exploration,” and “Local areas of interest.” It occurs to me that the Traveller game could really use a nice random procedure to generate interesting local attractions for worlds, something to entice Travellers beyond the safe confines of the starport extrality line and out into the world proper.

While we have nice tables for generating patrons, we don’t have anything comperable for Attractions. Just as patrons offer a pull for the PCs to undertake a job, Attractions can pull PCs to explore their surroundings. Maybe an Attraction mechanic would incorporate trade classifications, or perhaps Population, Government, and Law Level codes.

In any case, starports should be crowded with guides, drivers, barkers, and hucksters all extolling the amazing local sights and sounds of their native world. Some will be legit wonders worth the visit, others lousy Tourist traps, and some might be outright scams.

The Stranded

The opening passages of the very first book in the series find Earl Dumarest emerging from his Low Berth only to discover that while in cryosleep his starship had been diverted to Gath, an inhospitable world that was not his intended destination. After a thief steals his money Earl soon finds himself Stranded with no immediate means to leave this planet.

To become Stranded on some crap backwater like Gath is one of a Traveller’s greatest fears in the Dumarest universe. Stranded Travellers are dead broke, or at least too destitute to afford even Low Passage offworld. The stranded are often hungry, hurt, sick, and lack adequate or reliable shelter, and thus are extraordinarily vulnerable to both natural and human predators.

This fear creates a real tension through many of the Dumarest books. Earl reports having been Stranded several times, a condition so miserable that he undertakes many dangerous jobs just to avoid being caught in such a predicament again. Stranded Travellers are often forced to take dangerous or demeaning jobs for minimal wages, enter into indentured servitude or military service, or worst of all, pressed into slavery. It might take months or even years to build up enough money to buy passage, and it seems likely many Stranded are forced to turn to crime in order to survive.

Just how bad must it be, to be Stranded in the Dumarest universe? It’s so bad that it creates a viable market for Low Passage, which is literally being frozen alive and shipped like cattle with an attendant 15% mortality rate. Your cumulative odds of surviving just four Low Passages is only a little over 52%, and eight Low Passages is 32%. That indicates true desperation! While the odds are likely better in Charted Space, they still aren’t great if the Low Lottery is still a thing. As The Traveller Book notes, “Since low passengers are typically without funds (who would travel low if there were any other choice?), the low lottery provides some chance for the individual to have funds upon arrival at the destination.”

Although part of a good Referee’s job is to find new and innovative ways to separate PCs from their hard-won funds, I’m not sure it would make for a very fun or engaging game to have the PCs just living out lives of quiet desperation on a string of crummy backwater planets. “Next session: Bluron sells his kidneys for a Low Passage to Planet Jerkwater, while Brenta takes a third-shift job in the planetary waste processing center.”

But that said, many class D or E starports ought to have throngs of Stranded desperate for offworld passage—along with recruiters looking to lure these poor souls into terrible contracts for rotten pay. Such scenes could provide lots of roleplaying opportunities, but also serve as a dire warning to the PCs: this is what happens when the credits run out.

Copyright Information

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright © 1977 – 2023 Far Future Enterprises. Traveller is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Far Future Enterprises’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Materials produced by Digest Group Publications (DGP) are copyright © Roger Sanger. Any use of Digest Group Publications’ copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this Web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights. Usage is intended to follow the guidelines announced by Roger Sanger on the Traveller Mailing List for preserving the overall Traveller milieu.

The 1000D Limit

Hfoileiiau, a small gas giant in the New Sol (MAGY 0503 D501956-7) outer system. The semi-major axis of Hfoileiiau is 8.49 AU, placing its orbit inside the 1000D limit of Aeetes, the system’s G3 V primary star.

The maneuver drive is the standard means of sublight movement in Traveller. A remarkable piece of near-magical tech, the M-drive is a reactionless system providing constant acceleration to the ship with virtually unlimited range and no fuel requirements, instead being powered directly by energy from the ship’s power plant.

Traveller is notable as a game that usually presents referees and players with a series of tradeoffs at every turn, whether it is in character generation, ship design, or combat. In most editions, including Classic Traveller and Mongoose Traveller, the maneuver drive requires few tradeoffs, and over the years many creative minds have proposed various setting-breaking exploits and hacks using the technology.

Perhaps as a way to prevent such shenanigans, both T4 and Traveller⁵ impose a 1000D limit on maneuver drives, which is an extension of a 10D limit placed on anti-gravity units in MegaTraveller. T4 Starships (1994) explains how this 1000D limit works. At TL12, advances in gravitics leads to the invention of thruster plates:

Gravity drives use the stellar system itself as their reaction mass (much as a train pushes against its track, and the planet below, rather than by expelling exhaust). A small change in a star’s momentum translates to a huge velocity change for the much smaller spacecraft. … Beyond a certain point, quantum-gravitic effects drastically reduce the efficiency of a gravitic-drive ship by a factor of a hundred or more, and thus they cannot maneuver effectively in deep-space unless they have an auxiliary drive, though they can remain there while, for example, computing jump parameters. The cutoff parameter turns out to be around 2,000 solar radii. Beyond this point, thruster plates are virtually worthless for anything beyond stationkeeping, and some alternate form of propulsion is needed (71).

This concept is continued in Traveller⁵. As explained in Book 2: Starships, “Maneuver is the standard in-system ship drive. It interacts with gravity sources to produce vectored movement. … M-Drives are subject to the 1000D limit: beyond 1000D from a gravity source, the drive operates at only about 1% efficiency” (101).

I think I understand the rationale behind this rule: it creates a limitation on what is otherwise a seemingly limitless technology. On its face the 1000D limit appears to be an innocuous change, but upon further examination, this change has some far-reaching and maybe unintended implications on the Traveller universe.

But first, let’s consider where the 1000D limit falls with some common types of stars:

1000D Limits for Main Sequence Stars

Type	Stellar Diameter (km)	1000D Limit
		(AU)	(Orbit No.)
A0 V	3,739,947	25	8
A5 V	2,543,164	17	8
F0 V	2,243,968	15	7
F5 V	1,944,772	13	7
G0 V	1,645,577	11	7
G5 V	1,226,703	8.2	7
K0 V	1,062,145	7.1	6
K5 V	927,507	6.2	6
M0 V	762,949	5.1	6
M5 V	478,713	3.2	5
M8 V	209,437	1.4	4

In general, the 1000D limit falls well beyond the habitable zone of main sequence stars. The 1000D limit for Sol would be 9.3 AU or 1.391 billion km, encompassing the entire inner system plus Jupiter, but falling short of Saturns’s orbit of 9.5388 AU. This means that maneuver drives in Sol’s outer system operate at only 1% efficiency. Under such circumstances a speedy System Defense Boat with 6g acceleration has its acceleration reduced to only 0.06g, or 0.588399 m/s².

Consider the Starjammer’s journey to the outer system of Desolation. This trip consisted of two distinct segments. In the first segment, the Starjammer constantly accelerated at 3g until the halfway point was reached. In the second segment the Starjammer decelerated at 3g until it arrived at the derelict liner Speedwell with a velocity of zero. The total time for this trip was 141.86 hours.

If we instead applied the 1000D limit to this trip, the Starjammer could only use constant 29.41995 m/s² acceleration until it hit the 1000D limit of Dross, the M2 V system primary, which is about 18.26% of the total travel distance. For the remaining 81.74% of the journey the Starjammer would be limited to only 0.2942 m/s² acceleration.

If I remembered enough calculus and functions I could probably produce a formula for incorporating the 1000D limit into the Starjammer’s trip. But I don’t, so I had to brute-force this problem using the nifty Uniformly Accelerated Motion Calculator at CalculatorSoup.

Let’s assume the Starjammer’s journey now consists of three segments: the first begins in orbit around Desolation and stretches to ½ the distance between Desolation and Dross’s 1000D limit. The second segment stretches from this point to the 1000D limit. And the third segment stretches from the 1000D limit to the location of the Speedwell in the outer system.

The Starjammer begins in orbit around Desolation and then fires up the M-drive, moving with constant 3g acceleration through the entire first segment. Then the Starjammer begins to decelerate at a little less than 3g through the second segment. At the end of the second segment the Starjammer’s M-drives efficiency drops to 1%. The trick here is to finish the second segment with a velocity just low enough so that the Starjammer can decelerate at 0.2942 m/s² all through the entire third segment and still arrive at the Speedwell with a velocity of zero.

We know the distance of each of these three segments. We know the starting velocity of the first segment and the ending velocity of the third segment are both zero. And we know the maximum and minimum acceleration rates in each segment.

Let’s tackle the third segment first. We know the distance from Dross’s 1000D limit to the Speedwell (1,566,856,472 km), we know the final desired velocity (0 m/s), and the maximum deceleration rate (-0.2942 m/s²). Using the online calculator, we can solve for the time (3,263,672 seconds, or over 906 hours) and the velocity at the 1000D limit (960,175 m/s).

So let’s try the first segment next. We know the initial velocity (0 m/s), distance (175,050,000 km), and acceleration (29.41995 m/s²). Using the calculator, we can solve for the final velocity of the first segment (3,209,350 m/s) and time (109,088 seconds).

This leaves the second segment. We know the initial velocity (3,209,350 m/s), final velocity (960,175 m/s), and distance (175,050,000 km). We can solve for acceleration (-26.79 m/s²) and time (83,966 seconds).

Trip Summary with 1000D Limit

Segment	Distance (km)	Acceleration (m/s2)	Initial Velocity (m/s)	Final Velocity (m/s)	Time (s)
1	175,050,000	29.4110	0	3,209,350	109,088
2	175,050,000	-26.7866	3,209,350	960,175	83,966
3	1,566,856,472	-0.2941	960,175	0	3,263,672
Total	1,916,956,472	–	–	–	3,456,726

Add all of this together, and the time for the Starjammer to reach the Speedwell considering the 1000D limit on maneuver drives increases from a little less than 6 days to a little over 40 days. But perhaps even more importantly, these calculations are far too complicated to use at a game table for too little benefit. For both in-game and metagame reasons, you’d be crazy not to just fire up the jump drive for an intra-system jump.

So the first implication of imposing the 1000D limit: travel within the inner system of most star systems is unchanged, but travel to and within most of the outer system will almost always be via jump drive. Alternative propulsion systems for deep space maneuver, like fusion drives or High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion (HEPlaR) drives, are not nearly as efficient as classic thruster plates.

If no gas giants orbit within the 1000D limit, the old trader trick of refueling at a gas giant on the cheap and then motoring to the mainworld using the maneuver drive really doesn’t work so well, does it? Conversely, any gas giants inside the 1000D limit, such as Jupiter in the Sol system, would likely become the locus for additional starship traffic.

I think this is a fairly big change to the OTU setting: I’ve always pictured sublight ships regularly shuttling back and forth from the outer system with raw fuel and ores, with microjumps of less than one parsec reserved for rare trips to the extreme outer system.

With a 1000D limit microjumps are probably quite common in star systems with any sort of activity in the outer system. If the main world has a low hydrographic percentage or no surface water at all—and all sources for hydrogen are outside the 1000D limit—fuel suddenly becomes a much more dear commodity.

Maybe in a universe with a 1000D limit ships circumvent the restriction by using a slingshot effect to island hop between worlds in the outer system. Ships might use their maneuver drive to accelerate around and around a gas giant to build up momentum and then “hurl” themselves at the next closest gas giant.

Naval doctrine around system defense probably also shifts with 1000D limits in place, possibly giving more of an advantage to the native force occupying the system. A classic intruder scenario is an enemy fleet jumping into the outer system, refueling at a gas giant, then making for the main world at top speed in normal space. A native force defending a system therefore has to protect both the main world as well as the gas giants, forcing some tough choices if there are multiple gas giants. Does the native commander concentrate all assets at one strong point or spread them out over several, diluting their effectiveness?

If no gas giants were inside the 1000D limit the native force would probably see an intruder force jump into the outer system and refuel. Messengers seeking reinforcements could be dispatched to a neighboring system. The intruder would either need to “waste” fuel on an intra-system jump to the main world, still giving the native force at least a week to prepare, or make way using manuever drives. This would take multiple weeks and provide extra-system reinforcements time to arrive.

So possibly defense of any gas giants beyond the 1000D limit becomes a much lower priority with this restriction in place? This might be just as well, as SDBs and monitors cannot be easily transferred between gas giants in the outer system. A SDB jump-shuttle becomes a near necessity for moving defense boats around the system.

If any gas giants were inside the 1000D limit, the native commander could concentrate defenses on a much smaller number of points, and transfering assets between strong points is easier: the distances are necessarily shorter and maneuver drives can be used at full efficiency.

This might force some intruders to just jump directly to the main world’s 100D limit and lay siege without refueling, which is a huge gamble given the inherent command and control lag of jump. A 1000D limit forces an intruder to commit assets with no certainty as to what defenses will be found when it emerges out of jumpspace. A native force might only have its standard picket of SDBs and monitors at the end of the jump, or maybe this picket has been reinforced by a BatRon or an entire task force. As is sometimes said in these parts, “Hard tellin’, not knowin’.”

I don’t think any of these changes outright break the Official Traveller Universe, but all told, I’m not sure adding the 1000D limit into my MgT game is really worth the effort. As setting background the concept provides some nice handwavium, but as a game mechanic it seems to just make travel in the outer system a bit too messy and inefficient for my taste.

Copyright Information

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright © 1977 – 2023 Far Future Enterprises. Traveller is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Far Future Enterprises’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Materials produced by Digest Group Publications (DGP) are copyright © Roger Sanger. Any use of Digest Group Publications’ copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this Web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights. Usage is intended to follow the guidelines announced by Roger Sanger on the Traveller Mailing List for preserving the overall Traveller milieu.

Mind-Bogglingly Big

“Space … is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space” —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

From Atlas Obscura’s article on the Maine Solar System Model.

Northern Maine is home to an interesting throwback to the old roadside attractions: the Maine Solar System Model. Last summer I finally had a chance to visit this 3-D scale model of the solar system, which demonstrates the enormous distance between planetary bodies. The entire inner system is easily walkable, with the model Earth being exactly 1 mile from the model Sun. The outer system, however, is best traversed with a car, with the model Pluto being 40 miles away. It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon and has helped me imagine intra-system travel in Traveller.

Starships in Traveller have two types of drives. The jump drive (J-drive), usually used for travel between star systems, allows faster-than-light movement of up to six parsecs. Regardless of distance, the duration of travel is generally one week. The maneuver drive (M-drive) provides constant acceleration and is usually used for intra-system travel. In a typical trip through normal space a ship uses its M-drive to constantly accelerate until it reaches the halfway point, and then uses the M-drive to decelerate throughout the second half of the trip, arriving at the destination with a velocity of zero.

In our recent Traveller adventure “The Professor’s Charter,” the PCs needed to pilot their starship the Starjammer from the planet Desolation in the inner system to a position in the outer system where the derelict liner Speedwell was expected to be found.

Because the Desolation system is a known haven for pirates, smugglers, and otherwise bad actors, I wanted this voyage to occur in normal space for dramatic reasons. That meant the time required to reach the Speedwell needed to be less than one standard week; otherwise, the quickest and safest way to get there would be to just use the Starjammer’s jump drive.

The Traveller Book (1982) and the Mongoose Traveller Core Rules (2022) provide handy formulas for calculating intra-system travel time, distance, and acceleration. The Starjammer’s M-drives provide constant 3g acceleration, which is 29.41995 m/s². Knowing this it was easy to place the Speedwell 1,916,956,472 km away from Desolation. For context, this is roughly equivalent to the distance from Earth to the midpoint between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. With constant 3g acceleration, the Starjammer would need 141.86 hours to reach the Speedwell. (Had the PCs wished to use their jump drive, which would have taken an average of 160 hours, I certainly would have let them.) 

While distances in the millions or billions of kilometers are probably impossible to comprehend, players can readily understand travel times of hours, days, or weeks. Players can also follow progress when it is expressed as percent complete: “you’re 30% there, you’re halfway there, you’re 90% there, etc.”

If kilometers are simply too small to be useful for most descriptions of intra-system distance, other units are available. The astronomical unit (AU), which roughly represents the distance between the Earth and the sun, is 149,597,871 km and is often used to express orbital position within a star system. If Earth’s orbit is 1 AU, Pluto’s average orbit is 39 AU.

A couple of handy units of distance to also consider are the light-second (299,792 km) and light-minute (17,987,548 km), which represent the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1 second or 1 minute, respectively. The benefit of expressing distances in light-seconds or light-minutes is that this also tells us the lag time in communications and sensors.

With these units in hand, here’s an overview of relevant distances in the Desolation system:

The Desolation System

Location	Distance from Dross
	Kilometers	Light-Seconds	Light-Minutes	Astronomical Units
Dross (M2 V primary)	-	-	-	-
Desolation (B401200-E)	35,900,000	120	2.00	0.24
Dross 100D Limit	38,600,000	129	2.15	0.26
Halfway Point	958,478,236	3,197	53.29	6.41
Speedwell (Type M subsidized liner)	1,952,856,472	6,514	108.57	13.05

Note that Desolation orbits inside the 100D limit of its star, meaning that incoming starships need to jump outside that limit and then travel to the main world, likely adding a few hours to travel time. This jump masking normally only occurs with red main sequence stars like Dross.

The Traveller Map data indicates that the Desolation system also has two gas giants and nine additional planets, but as these were irrelevant to the Professor’s Charter I didn’t bother to determine the locations of these other objects.

One thing I did not quite grasp when prepping or running the Professor’s Charter was how paltry Traveller sensor ranges are beside the enormous distances within a star system. Even after years of playing the game, my expectations are still biased by Star Trek, where “long-range scans” can seemingly pinpoint and track individual ships from parsecs away.

The Traveller Book states that “Ordinary or commercial starships can detect other ships out to a range of about one-half light-second,” or about 150,000 km. “Military and scout starships have detection ranges out to two light-seconds,” or about 600,000 km. “Once a vessel has been detected, it can be tracked by anyone up to three light-seconds,” or about 900,000 km (76). For context, this is not quite the safe jump distance from a Size 6 world.

The Mongoose Traveller Core Rules provides a more nuanced series of sensor range bands, but these are notably shorter in distance than the guidelines from The Traveller Book. The longest range band is Distant, defined as 50,000+ km, only about one-sixth of a light-second and beyond.

MgT High Guard addresses this by setting an upper limit on the Distant band of 300,000 km, or about 1 light-second. This distance is also “the maximum practical range that attacks can be made” (26). High Guard also introduces two new range bands: Very Distant (up to 5,000,000 km) and Far (over 5,000,000 km). These changes bring MgT sensors more in line with CT sensors.

But in any case, Traveller sensors can detect only out to a miniscule distance against the scale of a star system. The upper limit of Distant is “only” 1 light-second, while Very Distant ranges from 1 to 16.68 light-seconds. Sixteen light-seconds is roughly the safe jump distance from a typical small gas giant, while the safe jump distance from a large gas giant might be twice that.

This implies that a lone commercial ship traveling through an outer system is a little like a blind man moving through a vast and featureless desert, only able to sense what is immediately around him. As the Maine Solar System Model scale is 1:93 million, the Distant range band would only extend out 10-½ feet. If there is trouble out there, he won’t know it until it is on top of him. Conversely, trouble won’t be able to sense the blind man any earlier.

The following table shows the journey of the Starjammer as it moves from Desolation to the Speedwell:

Travel to the Speedwell

Location	Trip Completion	Distance (km)		Velocity	Time (Hours)
		Traveled	Remaining	(km/s)	Elapsed	Remaining
Start	0.00%	0	1,916,956,472	0	0.00	141.86
First Report	2.24%	42,865,200	1,874,091,272	1,588	15.00	126.86
Halfway	50.00%	958,478,236	958,478,236	7,507	70.93	70.93
Far Range	99.48%	1,906,956,472	10,000,000	767	134.61	7.25
Very Distant Range	99.74%	1,911,956,472	5,000,000	542	136.74	5.12
Distant Range	99.98%	1,916,656,472	300,000	133	140.61	1.25
First Contact	99.9948%	1,916,856,472	100,000	77	141.14	0.72
Very Long Range	99.9974%	1,916,906,472	50,000	54	141.35	0.51
Long Range	99.9987%	1,916,931,472	25,000	38	141.50	0.36
Medium Range	99.9995%	1,916,946,472	10,000	24	141.63	0.23
Short Range	99.9999%	1,916,955,222	1,250	9	141.78	0.08
Close Range	100.0000%	1,916,956,462	10	2	141.84	0.02
Adjacent Range	100.0000%	1,916,956,471	1	0	141.86	0.00
End	100.0000%	1,916,956,472	0	0	141.86	0.00

The halfway point to the Speedwell is about 958 million km from Desolation, roughly equivalent to traveling from Earth to a point between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. At the halfway point the Starjammer is moving at 27,025,200 km (!) per hour, or a little over 2.5% of light speed (c). In order to avoid zipping by the Speedwell, the Starjammer needs to begin decelerating at the same rate it had been accelerating.

As can be seen, the Starjammer has to complete over 99% of its trip before the Speedwell comes within even the most distant range band. And the decelerating Starjammer needs only one hour and fifteen minutes to move through all seven range bands in the Core Rules.

If pirate ships had been waiting around the Speedwell and were expecting the Starjammer, they could probably get in a few shots before the Starjammer could react. And if any kind of battle occurred, it would take nearly two hours before radio transmissions reached Desolation, and then days before any ships could investigate. This is why commercial ships in Charted Space are so often armed: help is often very, very, very far away.

A prosperous, high population system with a Class A or B starport and multiple inhabited secondary worlds might well have sensor nets around all major planetary bodies. These nets might consist of automated satellites and stations posted in orbit and to the various LaGrange points, monitoring and reporting traffic around each planet out to their respective 100D limits. This information would be continuously relayed throughout the system, though more distant stations would have an inherent time lag. A sensor net like this would allow commercial ships to keep tabs on other in-system ships.

Such blanket coverage is likely the exception rather than the rule, and even then will only see a small fraction of space in the system. Ships operating outside these 100D limits would be effectively invisible to system control, and an asteroid belt would be a nightmare to cover. A system with a Class C or D starport might have a sensor net around the main world and maybe a gas giant or two, while a system with a Class D or X starport might be lucky to have a sensor net around the main world.

In Traveller, the isolation of distant worlds even with magical tech like the maneuver drive perhaps helps explain why most development in a star system tends to coalesce around a single world. It’s just too much hassle to try and work resources in the outer system when one can just use the jump drive to trade with a nearby system. From a referee’s perspective, this means that most systems are largely unexplored, or at least unexploited, even if inhabited for thousands of years. Which means most systems have plenty of adventuring potential in the outer system, even if the inner system seems thoroughly developed.

Copyright Information

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright © 1977 – 2023 Far Future Enterprises. Traveller is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Far Future Enterprises’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Materials produced by Digest Group Publications (DGP) are copyright © Roger Sanger. Any use of Digest Group Publications’ copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this Web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights. Usage is intended to follow the guidelines announced by Roger Sanger on the Traveller Mailing List for preserving the overall Traveller milieu.