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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 19, 2013 6:29:28 GMT -8
Over complicated seems to be the buzzword here.
I haven't read it yet -- that would take months.
It seems, in an effort to create a unified combat system that accounts for everything from clubs to ship-mounted meson beams, he has created something that is at first glance incomprehensible.
It's like someone put a copy of Hero 6th and a math text book in Seth Brundle's transporter machine.
This is something that would have benefited from organizing the rules by tiers of complexity (ie, the "basic" combat system, the "advanced combat system).
"Daunting" comes to mind.
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Post by Kainguru on Apr 19, 2013 7:15:08 GMT -8
Oh that's hugely disappointing given the streamlined simplicity of the original and Mongoose's admirable treatment of the license. I admit that I had my suspicions that this might be the case when I looked back over the likes of Mega-Traveller and Traveller the New Era as later developments of the original. Though I remember the original starship movement and combat being a bit pressing at times . . . 13 years old and being told to calculate vectors etc (hell that shit was a bit too much like homework at the time) . . . something Mongoose did an excellent job of simplifying without sacrificing playability. Aaron
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2013 8:16:37 GMT -8
T5 is Traveller rule porn! You know you like it ;D
Haven't gotten mine yet, dang it.
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 19, 2013 8:56:23 GMT -8
Once Faire is over and I have a real chance to read through the mechanics, chargen, task resolution and combat, I'll know if I think it's playable without considerable study.
Just glancing? I'm not sure.
The striking thing is that it's almost all game mechanics. Only a handful of pages of setting (though much of it is mechanics to build setting...).
He created an almost modular characteristics system. Instead of Str, Dex, End, etc.
You have C1 through C6. Depending on your species, race, etc, those slots might have different characteristics associated with them. This seems to be mostly implemented in chargen and combat damage (stats still appear to act as HP).
I'm spitballing here, as I've only had a few minutes to page through it.
My initial reaction, however, is trepidation -- not glee.
And I'm going to coin a new disease -- Traveller's Elbow. 'cause my elbow STILL hurts from holding the book up as I was paging through it.
It. Is. Big.
Bigger than Hero 6th book 1. No shit.
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Post by Forresst on Apr 19, 2013 13:13:05 GMT -8
I guess I'm sticking to my mongoose Traveller books when I run my game coming up soon!
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Post by Kainguru on Apr 19, 2013 14:40:01 GMT -8
I guess I'm sticking to my mongoose Traveller books when I run my game coming up soon! Good move. They're sweet and neat Aaron
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Post by Forresst on Apr 19, 2013 15:21:44 GMT -8
Totally kainguru! Plus, I already own those ones, and I don't have the money for another iteration just yet. Plus, I really just like the feel of that one, I'm just gonna stick to that until such time as someone wants to make the jump or I have the extra monies floating around.
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Post by gandalftheplaid on Apr 19, 2013 17:49:38 GMT -8
I guess I'm sticking to my mongoose Traveller books when I run my game coming up soon! Can't fault that plan. It's a good system, and I think a good series of books.
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jaiden0
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 131
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Post by jaiden0 on Apr 19, 2013 18:59:20 GMT -8
Thanks, you have assuaged my envy. I will stick to my $300 investment in mongoose until someone convinces me otherwise.
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juberberry
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 132
Preferred Game Systems: Traveller, VANGUARD, Shadowrun 4, CP2020
Currently Playing: Traveller - rarely
Currently Running: Traveller, Shadowrun 4, VANGUARD
Favorite Species of Monkey: Ressus
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Post by juberberry on Apr 25, 2013 13:10:53 GMT -8
I've been following a couple T5 dissection discussions on the Google+ communities and the consensus seems to mesh with Stu.
The organization is terrible. The ToC is very inadequate for a 650 page volume and there is no (?!) index at the end. Things often do not proceed in a logical progression for the information. So rather than a process being listed in 1 2 3 4 it often gets listed as 1 3 4 2.
There is a lot of interesting bits in there but honestly it sounds like it's not going to pull me away from my Mongoose books any time soon.
Quite honestly I am somewhat relieved by this - my Mongoose collection has been growing and as such I was loath to have the desire to move to a new system since early on I read on a G+ thread they weren't making a whole lot of effort to make the new system backwards compatible.
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 25, 2013 13:42:54 GMT -8
I just started reading the book in earnest.
Yes, the organization is terrible. Horrifically so.
Why, for the life of me, dice roll probability tables warrant space in the front of the book (rather than an appendix in the back) completely escapes me.
Anyway, I decided to start the chargen section (as that's where I usually start).
I was a bit dismayed to find myself reading about how to roll stat checks. Traveller 5, it seems is now a roll-low system, btw. The TN of 8 is gone, apparently.
To depict differing difficulties, the player changes the number of dice rolls (1d6 for an easy task, 2d6 for average, 3d6 for difficult).
I still don't know how to make a character, though I expect I'll find that when I get to the starship design section.
I have a feeling there is A LOT of duplication in this book.
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juberberry
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 132
Preferred Game Systems: Traveller, VANGUARD, Shadowrun 4, CP2020
Currently Playing: Traveller - rarely
Currently Running: Traveller, Shadowrun 4, VANGUARD
Favorite Species of Monkey: Ressus
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Post by juberberry on Apr 25, 2013 15:10:48 GMT -8
"I still don't know how to make a character, though I expect I'll find that when I get to the starship design section."
Holy shit that made me laugh so hard!
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Post by gandalftheplaid on Apr 25, 2013 20:14:55 GMT -8
"I still don't know how to make a character, though I expect I'll find that when I get to the starship design section." Holy shit that made me laugh so hard! Ditto. Anyway, I'm sure there are more important things to ponder and discuss about the book but... The first thought that popped into my head about the 1/2/3d dice rolls was this: Sometimes I don't want to fully describe to a player how hard a task is. (Some level of marginal success is possible with unknown side effects.) Telling the player the number of dice to roll based on difficulty is a give-away. I'm okay with rolling for a player sometimes, but I really try to limit it.
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 26, 2013 8:17:22 GMT -8
There's actually a mechanic for that! (sort of)
(you can find it in the Chargen section)
The player rolls a portion of the dice and the GM secretly rolls the rest. I don't remember the exact breakdown of who rolls how many, but it is in there.
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Post by Kainguru on Apr 27, 2013 13:32:12 GMT -8
Mechanically it sounds more like Traveller: The New Era than Classic Traveller. Still original traveller did have those damned vector calculations . . . But no proper index?? That's sloppy for new book. Aaron
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