RobMITC
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 67
Favorite Species of Monkey: Podcast
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Post by RobMITC on May 8, 2013 9:11:28 GMT -8
I've been reading through my book and have had a hell of a time trying to make heads or tails out of any of it. The organization is complete shit and I've tried reading through the chargen chapter a couple times and I still don't know when I am supposed to roll or choose and when I do roll, how does it work on one of the 3,000 tables.
I ended up reading the character creation chapter from an older version that was on the disc that was sent, and within the length of a paragraph it explained everything so much more clearly.
This is the first Traveller book I've ever read, so it's possible its not meant for me, and was intended for players who already know what they are doing.
In the end, it has given me a number of ideas and I would love to run through the character gen, but I don't think I will ever run something in this system as there are just way too many tables and minutia. Maybe I'll try a bastardized version where I throw out a good 75% of the book.
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Post by Stu Venable on May 8, 2013 9:28:34 GMT -8
I skipped chargen and am reading combat now.
I like the dice mechanics, though the explanation of it is annoyingly spread out.
Here's what I've gleaned:
- T5 is a low-roll system. - You're rolling versus Attribute + Skill. - Difficulty is reflected with the number of dice rolled. 1d6 easy, 2d6 moderate, 3d6 difficult. - If the number of dice needed is higher than your level in the appropriate skill, it invokes the This is Hard! rule -- meaning you must roll an additional die. So a 2d6 roll would be 3d6. - In appropriate tasks, you can take extra time (ie, you're being very careful and paying attention to detail) and reduce the number of dice rolled by 1.
See how quickly I explained that?
Still slogging my way through the combat system.
I'm beginning to think the system itself might be good, but the verbosity and organization make it too difficult to learn.
This is a book that is desperately in need of a TL;DR section.
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Post by Stu Venable on May 8, 2013 9:31:22 GMT -8
And I honestly believe this book is a great reference for T5 playtesters, and that's about it.
It's not meant for players of the original game (nor MGT), as the system is sufficiently different to require re-learning.
And it's not made for the RPG newcomer -- that's for sure.
But there are so many things that are going to freak people out being right in the front of the book. The "Personal Day" section? An unnecessarily complication. Want to put it way in the back? In an optional rules section? Great.
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RobMITC
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 67
Favorite Species of Monkey: Podcast
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Post by RobMITC on May 8, 2013 10:23:34 GMT -8
The actual roll part of the dice contests is pretty simple, it is all the various mods that add to or lower the TN where my brain just says screw it.
I actually like the idea of additional d6s for additional difficultly because characters should have an idea of their skill level and an idea of the task they are trying to accomplish, but when you can add 5 more mods to the TN with each one having a table, I would rather just come up with the number on the fly and go with it.
The core of the game seems easy and fun enough, but it seems like he had to create a rule for every possibility. Which means you either need a player with encyclopedic knowledge or check the book for every roll.
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Post by Stu Venable on May 8, 2013 11:40:13 GMT -8
Dice modifiers can screw up even the best games. The fewer the better. Catch the big story-significant stuff and ignore the rest, I say.
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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 May 9, 2013 12:13:35 GMT -8
Thank you both for continuing to voice your thoughts. T5 seems like it will be a very niche system. Those that learn it will love it and those of us who don't will keep on keepin on with MgT and CT.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2013 13:06:25 GMT -8
I received my Kickstarter PDF the other week and from my reading of it I agree that it is not a simple book to start to parse and understand. But I am working my way through it and if I have any other observations I will post them here. The one thing that I am interested in hearing your thoughts on was the three 1's critical and/or three 6's failure and how to handle a roll of 111666 . But overall I am looking forward to finding time to run a game in it and seeing how it goes.
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Post by Houndin on May 17, 2013 7:54:45 GMT -8
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Post by stork on May 30, 2013 14:34:46 GMT -8
The new phone book is here the new phone book is here! It said on the Fed Ex box Im 222 Apparently I live in Mire Delp 3222 hays c525677-9 Bah what a crappy sector to be in charge of. Hays in Delphi
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snoman314
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 225
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
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Post by snoman314 on May 30, 2013 16:53:02 GMT -8
The new phone book is here the new phone book is here! It said on the Fed Ex box Im 222 Apparently I live in Mire Delp 3222 hays c525677-9 Bah what a crappy sector to be in charge of. Hays in DelphiDamn, you're a 3 parsec jump away from the middle of nowhere.
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Post by greatwyrm on May 30, 2013 17:54:45 GMT -8
It may not look like much, but think of the parties you could throw before you ever got complaints from the neighbors.
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snoman314
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 225
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
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Post by snoman314 on Jun 2, 2013 22:44:40 GMT -8
Finally just got the shipping notification in my email..
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Post by mook on Jun 3, 2013 12:47:17 GMT -8
Bigger than Hero 6th book 1. No shit. OMG! Despite the reviews here of it being so convoluted as to remind me of the scene in Shawshank Redemption when Andy asks the warden if he's being deliberately obtuse -- this makes me want one anyway. (That's right, world -- I own a Hero book.)
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