Striker

Striker was a boxed set of rules for miniatures military combat in the Traveller game system, oriented towards small infantry units and some armor, with some provision for aircraft. There were also extensive rules for designing military vehicles and weaponry of various types, and quantifying their attributes for use in the game.

Canonicity

Technically, GDW called Striker "a complete adventure game of rules for miniatures", which makes it some kind of hybrid in the Classic Traveller canon between an adventure and rules. Notwithstanding, it did not receive an adventure number to show its place in the series of official adventures that were published for CT, nor did it receive a rule book number. There has never been any doubt expressed anywhere that Marc Miller considers it firmly part of CT canon, the only issue (and it's a pretty trivial issue) is exactly what the proper name is for its place within canon.

It was published by GDW in 1981, in small format. Its full title was 'Striker: Rules for 15mm Traveller Miniatures'. Readers will note that miniature figures are not strictly necessary for a complete and enjoyable game using Striker rules; acceptable substitutes can be improvised. Also, any miniatures used wouldn't necessarily have to be 15mm size. Finally, it is extremely easy to change the distance scale used in the game, and almost as straightforward to change the time scale. In other words, fans of 1/285th-scale and 1/300th-scale miniatures combat could easily use Striker, as could referees seeking to resolve high-powered combat in a boarding action or starport.

Striker is also available in the reissue version from Far Future Enterprises.

Credits

• Designer: Frank Chadwick
• Development: John Harshman
• General Assistance: Loren Wiseman; Rich Banner
• Aircraft Design System Assistance: J.D. Webster
• Playtesting: Greg Novak; Tom Harris; Neil Lasater; Steve Anderson; Frank Dixon; Don Grafmeyer; Chuck Kallenbach II; Peter Matthews; Al Bonzie; Gerhart Lushan; Tom Reed
• Illustrations: William H. Keith, Jr.
• Art Director: Rich Banner
• Assistant Art Director: Chris Purcell

Contents

Striker consisted of three rule books, a separate folio of sixteen numbered pages of Design Sequence Tables, and a separate folio of six unnumbered pages of combat tables.

Rule Book 1: Basic Rules (48 pages)

Rule Book 2: Advanced Rules (48 pages)

Rule Book 3: Equipment (48 pages)

All of this was in an 8.5-inch by 5.5-inch box with an attractive, full-color painting of what appears to be a small-unit commander with a map box and some headquarters troops equipped to approximately TL9 in the foreground, and a grav tank in the background, with open grasslands and a large rock outcropping behind the tank. All the sophonts shown are humans.

Description

A well-edited and professional game product, probably not surprising since GDW at the time was one of the more experienced and important publishers of wargames rules on the scene. Players could game out military battles from a handful of characters up to approximately battalion size for the most ambitious players, using every piece of military weaponry and equipment they could think of in the context of Traveller, no matter what Tech level. All they needed were the rules, a couple of tape measures, a pair of dice, a playing surface such as a large tabletop or empty floor space, and small miniature figures made of lead to represent the troops, or a suitable substitute. Homemade or store-bought miniatures of terrain features and buildings are strongly recommended.

Referees conducting a normal role-playing session should find Striker a useful 'source book' for ideas and gadgets, and even inspiration for adventures and NPCs.

The most remarkable achievement in Striker was a coherent rule system that let players design combat vehicles and weapon systems from any Traveller tech level and have them fully described for use in the rest of the Traveller game system as well as in Striker. The design system was roughly similar to the High Guard rules for spaceship design, but the Striker system necessarily provided finer detail to match the smaller size of Air/Rafts and armored vehicles compared to spaceships.

Any player who had CT Book 4: Mercenary and was hungry for more would almost certainly love the content Striker attempted to provide. Any player who ever wondered exactly how battle dress, grav tanks and high energy weapons would act on a battlefield would enjoy these rules.

The rules were very appropriate for Traveller campaigns based upon mercenary units, and for resolving army and marine combat of different kinds, as well as dealing with mobs and various groups. They were also very useful for fleshing out how militaries in general functioned in Traveller and what equipment they had.

Striker also played well as a stand-alone game even for some people who weren't interested in the rest of Traveller, but were interested in modern and/or science-fiction combat games.