Classic Traveller has a moderately arcane combat system to modern eyes. For the most part though, it is not too bad. This is an example of how it can be interpreted. If you want to do things differently, there is no reason to assume that this is the only way it should (or can be interpreted to) work. In general though, I think that the following example is mostly sensible and will not cause too many feathers to be ruffled. (This is another thing that is being posted to here as a more permanent home than various discord messages and a file on my PC, but which was written a while back.)

Example of Combat

Joe H (777777) and Ursula LG (7A7777) are moving through a fairly crowded starport when they run into a trio of heavies sent by their current rival, Isaac. The heavies all have a UPP of 777777. One has a club and jack armour, one has a cutlass and jack + reflec armour, and the last has an automatic pistol and no armour. Joe and Ursula both have blades. In addition, Joe has a submachine gun and mesh armour, while Ursula has a laser carbine and jack armour. Both have skill 1 in their primary weapons, although Ursula has blade-2.

Given that they are starting in a starport, both sides spot each other about 50 metres apart, (medium range, 2 bands away). There is no surprise round, since the heavies want to send a message. Joe and Ursula are having nothing of this and a fight breaks out. There is no initiative, so we will have the players going first.

We will show relative ranges such:

|  |  |   Joe  |  | H1 |  |  |
|  |  | Ursula |  | H2 |  |  |
|  |  |        |  | H3 |  |  |
+--+--+--------+--+--+----+--+

Round 1

Joe and Ursula both spend the first round drawing weapons. Joe decides to evade instead of moving, trying to find somewhere to hide. Ursula opens the range instead, trying to get some distance to use her laser carbine more effectively. The heavies already have their weapons out, and the melee guys charge at Joe, closing two range bands. This uses 1 endurance, so they can run or strike combat blows 6 more times (having started with 7). The heavy with the gun opens fire on Joe, but stays still. Our ranges now look like this:

|  | U |  J |  | H2 |  |  |
|  |   | H1 |  |    |  |  |
|  |   | H3 |  |    |  |  |
+--+---+----+--+----+--+--+

The heavy with the pistol (H2) needs to roll more than 8 to hit Joe. The following DMs will affect this:

• Range is long (3 range bands apart): -6
• Target has Mesh armour: -1
• Auto pistol-2: +2
• Target is evading at medium range: -2

This means that H2 is rolling 2d6-7, and can not roll more than 8 anyway. Their shots go wide.

Round 2

Joe sees the melee-armed heavies charging in, and opens up with his submachine gun, while trying to open the range. Ursula takes aim at the gun-toting heavy, staying still for this round. The pistol-wielder attempts to close the range, still firing at Ursula. The melee heavies, still out of range for their weapons, keep moving in, still running, using another endurance (5 left). Our ranges look like this:

|  |    U    |  | H2 |  |  |  |
|  | J-H2-H3 |  |    |  |  |  |
+--+---------+--+----+--+--+--+

Joe and the heavies targeting him are at short range (within range of melee attacks unless something changes), while everyone else is at medium range.

Joe elects to fire a burst in full auto at the club-wielding heavy, with the following modifiers:

• Range is short: +3
• Target wears jack: +5
• Weapon skill is 1: +1

This makes the roll 2d6+9. There is no way that Joe can miss, so he rolls 3D worth of damage. Normally Joe would be able to roll twice to try and hit it. The dice roll 1, 3, 6. Since this is the first hit, the heavy will take this randomly to strength. 10 is more than 7, so their strength goes to 0. The remaining damage is randomly applied to one of the other physical stats, in this case we got endurance. One stat getting zeroed out is still enough to knock this heavy out, leaving them with 074777.

Because this is a full-auto attack, Joe can also hit nearby targets, at -3 plus all the other modifiers that would normally apply:

• Range is short: +3
• Target has jack armour: +5
• Weapon skill is 1: +1
• Group fire for automatic fire: -3

This makes the roll 2d6+6. Joe still can not miss, so rolls 3D for damage, getting 1, 2, 2. Again, this is randomly assigned, and we get it applied to endurance, which goes down to 2. This heavy has been rattled and is looking a little rough.

Ursula’s shot at the gun-wielding heavy goes as follows:

• Range is medium: +1
• Target is not wearing armour: +2
• Weapon skill is 1: +1
• Dex 10+: +2

This makes the required roll 2d6+6. Again, this is a guaranteed hit, since we will roll at least 2, making our total 8. We now do our damage roll of 4D: 2, 3, 3, 5. Again, this is the first wounds taken, so we randomly assign it, getting strength. This takes our heavy from 777 to 077, but we still have a die to apply. That is randomly assigned, getting dexterity this time, leaving the heavy with 027. Our heavy goes down, unconscious. Normally, I would allow some sort of morale check for the last heavy, but let us play this out.

Since everything happens simultaneously, you could also still resolve the attack from the pistol heavy if you like, but I am not going to here. So, the last thing to look at is the cutlass-wielding heavy. They are at short range, which is close enough for melee weapons. They can then make an attack with the following modifiers:

• Range is short: +2
• Target wears mesh: -2
• Weapon skill is 1: +1

So our heavy rolls 2d6+3. A roll of 4, 4 gives us a hit, so we can roll the 3D damage: 1, 2, 3. Randomly, this hits endurance: 771777. They can make 4 more combat swing (started at 7, but ran twice and now a combat swing). Joe is reeling, a bit.

Round 3

Joe decides to stay at short range, not moving. Ursula will close the range to short. The heavy is still happy at short range as well. This means that everyone is at close range.

Joe has a similar roll as last time with his submachine gun:

• Range is short: +3
• Target has jack armour: +5
• Weapon skill is 1: +1

This needs 2d6+9, and so hits again. The 3D damage roll comes out poorly: 1, 2, 5. The heavy can assign these, and puts the 2 and the 1 into dexterity, and the 5 into strength, leaving 421777 for physical stats. Pretty much any blow should take them out, but they are keeping going for now.

The heavy makes another combat swing (3 left), with the same modifiers as before: 2d6+6, and is unable to miss. Joe is going to take another 3D damage: 3, 2, 5. Again, since this is not the first wound in the fight, Joe chooses which stat that affects, putting the 3 in strength and the 2 in endurance: 341777. This still leaves 5 damage to be assigned, and there is no way that Joe will be able to stay on his feet. He assigns the damage to endurance, and drops unconscious with 340777.

Ursula, seeing that the heavy has reflec armour in addition to the cloth, and knowing that her laser carbine will be all but useless, elects to draw her blade and make a melee attack. Drawing a weapon and using it on the same turn gives you a -3 DM, but shooting would be -8 for the reflec, so this is not quite as bad. This is a melee attack with the following modifiers:

• Range is short: +1
• Target wears jack: 0
• Weapon skill is 2: +2
• Drawing and attacking on the same turn: -3
• Target parries with weapon skill 1: -1

Ursula needs to roll 8+ on 2d6-1. She rolls 4, 5, getting exactly 8 and making the hit. Blades do 2D damage, so Ursula needs to keep getting lucky. She does, getting 5, 5. The heavy (with current physical stats of 421) goes down to the blade, being unable to assign those without having two stats to zero, electing to drop to 400. Ursula could make another 6 combat swings, still.

End of the Fight

The combat is now over, with one heavy badly wounded and two knocked unconscious. Joe is also knocked out. Ursula drags Joe back to their ship. Joe wakes up after ten minutes, with stats set from 340 to 553, halfway to full (I round down). The gun-wielder does the same, from 027 to 347 with the club heavy going from 074 to 375. The badly wounded cutlass-wielding heavy needs to get to a medical bay where they will wake up with stats having gone from 400 to 411. They will be there for a while before they recover.