Ok, supposedly T5 will be here in June, and no one has retracted the last release date.

What would you like T5 to be or have?


Personally I'd like it to totally update the third imperium setting, I.E. the classic one, with more believable technology. I'd like to keep jump drive as is, as the time jumps take is one of the key elements in keeping traveller's social structure the same. But I'd like more tech that feels like thousands of years of advancement has taken place. We don't need to make it like transhuman space, despite what a lot of people would like, but having it as an option would be nice. An interesting element in T5 could be a major transhuman faction existing that wants to go bio/cyber/whatever, but are opposed by the teeming masses who fear that if anyone does go bio/cyber/whatever it will make the rest of humanity obsolete, and forced to either go bio/cyber/whatever themselves or be pushed into extinction.

So maybe one of the najor elemets of the imperium could be actively repressing certain technological advances that have been deemed unacceptable, and maybe groups like "Ine Givar" could now have a new focus, pursuing what they see as human advancement in the face of fear and oppression by the old guard....

But mostly I want a good, solid, playable system with some real customable character rules that offers a lot of choices over character development, and a core rules set that would allow for things like traveller, the new era and other traveller settings, like even the one in T4, the early third imperium or even the Interstellar wars period, to be done as sourcebooks using the core rules. I would basically love for it to be a solid rules set with basic ship construction and combat, and a basic setting for the third imperium, with more detailed 3I books possible, then branching into the other eras in later books.

(I know a lot of peeps hated TNE and megatraveller, but enough people would like them to make sourcebooks viable add ons to a solid system.)

I'd probably have a joygasm if it was done as 3rb page packages along with an official cover to slip into a 3rb book, but that's unlikely.... :bawling:

Properly Edited and Playtested

Well Illustrated

Well Supported

Oh well, anyhow, I hope they don't muck with the setting hardware too much.  A big part of Traveller's accesibility is its lack of super science.

I'd like a good set of miniatures rules for ship to ship and surface combat.  Nice miniatures and lots of them.  Ideally a nice multipart plastic imperial marine kit and a vehicle that can be built as a utility airraft, Astrin grav apc, or Trepidia grav tank.  (you add one pannel piece for the Astrin and a turret for the Trepidia)  an aliens sprue or two would also be nice.

Even so, I probably won't buy it.  I'm still very bitter about T4.  It left me less than impressed with Mr. Miller and Traveller fans in general.

Particularly, I'm mad that they kept stringing along the line that a revised game would be out and those of us who stuck with them wouldn't be hung out to dry.  Which we most certainly were.  Nor did Mr. Miller make any effort of his own to correct the matter after the fact.  Dude, let me give you a clue: if you don't want people to blame you, don't put "Marc Miller's Traveller" on the fucking covers.

Quote from: Dominus NoxWhat would you like T5 to be or have?

The classic game, cleaned up and complete.  Basically, I;'d like the rules to be best of Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, and T4, erring on the side of Classic Traveller and the doing things simply (e.g., starship construction from Book 2, starship combat akin to classic Mayday, etc.).  I do not want to see the tech updated to include cyberware, bioware, etc.  

I would also prefer the classic Third Imperium setting.  Basically, the Third Imperium was a place to have adventures, not the adventure and I wish they'd go back to adventures that take place on planets inside of the Third Imperium instead of meta-plot nonsense about the Imperium, itself, including war, rebellion, the virus, or whatever.  The Third Imperium should be a setting the way they were in the good old days before everyone got the bright idea to write novels masquerading as setting books.  You supply the setting.  I'll provide the plot and adventure, thanks.  If I wanted to read a plot, I'd buy a novel.

Quote from: David JohansenProperly Edited and Playtested

Well Illustrated

Well Supported

Oh well, anyhow, I hope they don't muck with the setting hardware too much.  A big part of Traveller's accesibility is its lack of super science.

I'd like a good set of miniatures rules for ship to ship and surface combat.  Nice miniatures and lots of them.  Ideally a nice multipart plastic imperial marine kit and a vehicle that can be built as a utility airraft, Astrin grav apc, or Trepidia grav tank.  (you add one pannel piece for the Astrin and a turret for the Trepidia)  an aliens sprue or two would also be nice.

Even so, I probably won't buy it.  I'm still very bitter about T4.  It left me less than impressed with Mr. Miller and Traveller fans in general.

Particularly, I'm mad that they kept stringing along the line that a revised game would be out and those of us who stuck with them wouldn't be hung out to dry.  Which we most certainly were.  Nor did Mr. Miller make any effort of his own to correct the matter after the fact.  Dude, let me give you a clue: if you don't want people to blame you, don't put "Marc Miller's Traveller" on the fucking covers.

T4 pissed off a lot of people, and personally I think MM owes the people who bought it a PDF version of the rulebook that corrects it's flaws.

But if you get" Emperor's arsenal" and "central supply catalogue" thay're good sources for a lot of SF games.

But for god's sake don't get the adventures books they did for it, oh dear lord those sucked...

And Aliens Archive and Psionics Institutes.

And not a decent ruleset in sight.

What I've seen of various T5 playtest stuff from poking around the net hasn't impressed me.  I hope I'm wrong.  I hope Marc's a stand up guy who got used and abused as much as the rest of us did.  But damnit the trust is gone.  And as I said before, a lot of my respect for the fanbase is gone with it.

T5 is definitely a "make or break" moment for traveller. I'd hate to see the line die, tho with GT and T20 the idea will go on in some form.

I really think MM needs to make an apology to T4 suckers, and I'm one too, so don't get steamed when I say the peeps who bought t4 were suckered.

If I were marc miller, I'd offer a 30 day money back guarantee on T5. If you buy it and it sucks like t4, send it back in 30 days and get a refund. I think that would be tough, but the only way to earn back gamer confidence after t4.

Speaking of T4, since the only good things about it were emperor's arsenal and central supply, maybe he could give those away as free PDFs to make up for T4 outsucking galactic core black holes.

Decent art and coherent rules.

Does anyone know if T5 going to use the old CT method of character generation or use Templates/Kits/Classes?

It'll be more like T4 character creation, though quite possibly not as good.  The only problem with T4 chargen was the uber old man syndrome was really bad with a skill per year.  T4 really needed a few checks and balances like dying in character creation and fixed aging penalties.

So what exactly DO we know about T5?  And I'm asking as someone who's never, ever owned anything Traveller but who's always been curious about it.

Or is this info readily available and I'm just too lazy and shiftless to look it up?

Soon.

Playable.

With Lifepath generation for characters.

Quote from: MoriartySo what exactly DO we know about T5?  And I'm asking as someone who's never, ever owned anything Traveller but who's always been curious about it.

Or is this info readily available and I'm just too lazy and shiftless to look it up?

A few years ago there were bits and pieces of it floating around the Traveller corners of the internet.  To me, most of it read like they were mixing everything that was wrong with CT with everything that was wrong with T4.

Since I heard that T5 will be using a dice pool system that hews too close to T4 for my comfort, I'm not pinning too many hopes on it at all.

Having a cleaned up system that corrects some of the system generation stuff, decomplicates ship generation, but has heavily player-involved starship combat, and dispenses with some of the sillier stuff from CT and T4 personal combat, would be about as much as I could hope for.

Ahh, the flamewars we've had over this on CotI, going over the same issues over and over again...

Yes, all the info publicly available on T5 is outdated (unless Marc chooses to go back to it from whatever else he's moved on to). The only reliable person who will sometimes divulge vague news is robject on CotI. Earlier this year even the task resolution was still up in the air. I've seen two completely different versions, date unknown. Yet Marc, according to robject, says the deadline will be met.

The problem with Marc is that he's the anti-Kevin Siembieda. He's invisible. In some ways, that's actually charming. In others, not so much.

So here are the theses I'm nailing on the airlock of Marc's Beowulf:

a) MT-ish task resolution (probably a pipe dream--Marc wants to avoid it because, story goes, it's not his brainchild but DGP's)

b) hardish tech, updated in a fashion that is neither cyberpunk nor transhumanist

c) absence of rubber-suit aliens (Hivers and K'Kree can stay, Aslan and Vargr are out)

d) core setting: 3i right after the FFW; official declaration of TNE and MT metaplots as non-canon; Rebellion and Virus are null and void, fever dreams of sick heretics

e) adventure books: Zhodani core expedition; Project Longbow/Empress Wave; Grand Tour-ish campaigns

f) other than that, strict adherence to Foundational Description of Traveller as posted on downport (no worries here)

Quote from: John MorrowThe classic game, cleaned up and complete.  Basically, I;'d like the rules to be best of Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, and T4, erring on the side of Classic Traveller and the doing things simply (e.g., starship construction from Book 2, starship combat akin to classic Mayday, etc.).  I do not want to see the tech updated to include cyberware, bioware, etc.  

I would also prefer the classic Third Imperium setting.  Basically, the Third Imperium was a place to have adventures, not the adventure and I wish they'd go back to adventures that take place on planets inside of the Third Imperium instead of meta-plot nonsense about the Imperium, itself, including war, rebellion, the virus, or whatever.  The Third Imperium should be a setting the way they were in the good old days before everyone got the bright idea to write novels masquerading as setting books.  You supply the setting.  I'll provide the plot and adventure, thanks.  If I wanted to read a plot, I'd buy a novel.

seconded.

and it should be properly edited.