Full Thrust

Introduction to Full Thrust Second Edition

The main 1992 rulebook, with movement, weapons, ship design, scenarios, and campaign notes.

Full Thrust Second Edition

Full Thrust Second Edition [GZG 1992] is the edition covered in this note.

Second Edition is the core rulebook most people mean when they talk about early Full Thrust. It is still compact, but it has enough structure to run proper fleet battles without leaning on later books.

Full Thrust Second Edition Table of Contents

Core Rules

  • Ship models and other playing pieces
  • Dice
  • Other equipment for play
  • Playing area
  • Units of distance
  • Sequence of play
  • Ship groups and classes
  • Course determination
  • Ship velocity
  • Thrust ratings
  • Movement
  • Making course changes
  • Movement orders
  • Special notes on movement
  • Fire control systems
  • Fire arcs
  • Beam weapon batteries
  • Bearing of beam batteries
  • Weapon ranges, firing and damage
  • Defensive screens
  • 'Threshold points' and specific systems damage
  • Ships leaving the table
  • Filling out the ship record sheet
  • Introduction scenario

Ship classes

  • Basic ship classes and hull sizes
  • Basic ship diagrams
  • Key to symbols used on basic ship designs:

Advanced rules fighters

  • Fighters
  • Fighter attacks
  • Anti-fighter defences
  • Fighter to fighter combat

Advanced rules weapons

  • Pulse torpedoes
  • Needle beams
  • Submunition packs
  • Mines
  • Minelaying
  • Minesweeping
  • Spinal-mount Nova Cannon

Advanced rules general

  • Sensors and target identification
  • 'Dummy' bogeys and 'weasel boats'
  • Collision and ramming
  • Merchant ships: damage to cargo and holds
  • Faster-than-light (FTL) drives
  • Leaving the table under FTL drive
  • Entering batile under FTL drive
  • Asteroids
  • Movement of asteroids
  • Non-FTL ships
  • FTL tugs and tenders
  • Starbases and other installations
  • 3D, or not 3d?
  • 'Q' ships

Advanced ship design

  • Ship design and points costs
  • 'Standard' and 'special' hulls
  • Hull cost
  • Drive systems cost
  • Fitting weapons and other systems
  • Symbols for weapons from advanced rules
  • Mass values and points costs for weapons and systems

Battle scenarios

  • Scenario A: the attack on convoy 990
  • Scenario B: mining station Con-Am 12

Campaign rules

  • Campaign games introduction
  • The campaign map
  • Use of an umpire
  • When fleets meet in a star system
  • The stand off
  • Campaign objectives and victory conditions
  • Repairs, replenishment and reinforcements

Campaign Scenario

  • The Lafayette incident, 2178
  • Campaign set-up
  • Time scale and victory conditions
  • Possible strategies
  • The forces
  • Campaign scenario map
  • The Lafayette sector

Background

  • The background and timeline
  • Man's road to the stars
  • Human history 1992 to 2183
  • Situation update: 2183

Appendices

  • Using miniatures
  • Starship model availability
  • The counters and templates
  • Copeland's models Full Thrust miniatures
  • Ship counters and course gauge template
  • Ship record sheet

This is the version where the game becomes a usable toolkit rather than just an early set of ideas. You get ship design, optional weapons, scenarios, campaign notes, and enough record keeping to make damage feel like something is happening inside the ships.

Why it still matters

Second Edition gives you the classic Full Thrust table rhythm. Orders are plotted, ships commit to movement, fire arcs matter, and the ship record tells the story as systems are crossed off.

The later Fleet Books improve a lot of this, but Second Edition is still the cleanest way to understand the base language of the game. If a rule discussion mentions thrust, firecons, screens, pulse torpedoes, needle beams, or ship mass, this is the layer underneath it.

What to watch

Do not treat it as the final form of the system. The Fleet Books revise important areas, especially beams, arcs, fighters, missiles, damage, and ship construction.

For a casual evening, though, Second Edition can stand on its own. Keep the optional weapons under control at first and the game stays readable.

  • Best for learning the original GZG core.
  • Good for smaller fleets and one-off scenarios.
  • Needs Fleet Book context if you want the common 2.5 style.

Useful sources