Traveller 5 anyone?

[enpeze]

Does anybody know details about the new T5? AFAIK its a very thick book. Whats the difference of the game system in comparision to eg. CT?

[Whitestreak]

There are lots of differences, mainly in how things are done.

I am expecting my KS starter in the next few days, and until then, I cannot address what's actually in the volume. The playtest version did seem to be the source of the Mongoose system.

I am unsure if there is a background included, or if it's just the rules. I'm hoping for just the toolbox, since I prefer to create my own universe.

[Malenfant]

I am kinda baffled at why it wasn't split into multiple books though - there are lots of subsystems that really don't need to be in the core (a 600+ page corebook that is entirely rules is kinda ridiculous IMO).

Also, it's far more expensive than CT. Using the same logic that traveller fans apply whenever anyone asks how they should start Traveller, you can get all of CT (including rules and settings, which have been tried and tested for a very long time) for $35, or you can get T5 (which is new, an unknown quantity, and only includes rules) for something like $75 - or whatever ridiculous price was paid on the kickstarter.

It'll be interesting to see how it's judged more objectively when it's released to the public. I don't think T5 will do very well in the wild myself, given the continued existence of CT and MGT, and its very dense rules and dry writing style. But given it made a ridiculous amount of money on the kickstarter, I suppose it doesn't really have to.

[Anaraxes]

Is $294,000 (pledged) a "ridiculous" amount of money? That's a run of 4000 copies. Not bad for an RPG these days, perhaps. But it's not going to let Marc Miller move in next door to James Patterson.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Is $294,000 (pledged) a "ridiculous" amount of money? That's a run of 4000 copies. Not bad for an RPG these days, perhaps. But it's not going to let Marc Miller move in next door to James Patterson.

It's pretty amazing for an RPG actually. At the time it was the highest pledge total for a tabletop RPG, but then a couple of others came out afterwards that beat it quite soundly (IIRC Monte Cook's Numenara got about 500k), and a few have reached similar $100k-$200k levels.

The copies shifted - there were 2000 backers, not 4000, BTW - is not really that astounding in the grand scheme of things, but that's 2000 sold up front and probably a LOT of profit (especially compared to a conventional distribution FLGS model) especially when you consider that $24,000 was the original pledge target which should have been enough to produce and distribute the book. Not all of those even contributed enough to buy the book as a PDF - 190 (almost 10% of the backers) contributed over $1400 just for the sub-PDF levels.

[Drifter]

What all that is saying that there is a pent up demand for RPGs out there, if customers are willing to pony up that much money on a product sight-unseen.

I know I want a Travelleresque game, with SJGames production values. I don't know if I want a huge book of rules. I'm sure I'll be buying T5 in any case, unless the reviews are really bad (and I mean really, really bad). But a 600+ page book that is all rules is .. lets say "intimidating".

[DocGrognard]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Is $294,000 (pledged) a "ridiculous" amount of money? That's a run of 4000 copies. Not bad for an RPG these days, perhaps. But it's not going to let Marc Miller move in next door to James Patterson.

Yes, exactly. Ask Matt at Mongoose about the usual size of a print run. 4000 is great. And at 600 pages for 75$ its pretty much right in the ballpark for todays big doorstop books. Possibly a little low when once considers that getting a 100 page suppliment or adventure for less than $20.00 is damn near impossible. However, fair is fair; if you don't want to drop 75$ for a hardback, I fully understand, given that I regulalry see academic and professional books that I need for over 100. Its a high overhead market, and 4000 copies is minimal for print runs of real (non specialty, non-rpg) books.


The comparison to CT is a bit misguided, naive or at worst disingenuous; the CT disk and the T5 disk seem to be priced similalry. I'm not sure that one could pick up all the material on the CT CD in hardcopy, for 75$, let alone MGT books that could cover the same area.Besides, I doubt that anyone would consider that T5 was intended as a place where where one starts Traveller or aimed at the new to roleplaying crowd. Its blatantly the ultimate version for the ultimate traveller nerds (ie, including me before anyone gets offended) :)

As regard the OT question, I think there are significant changes in skill levels & generation and task resolution for sure, plus most of the starship design sequences are different but seem to produce compatable results. I'm waiting for myt copy to know for sure what the final version was.

I do know that one of the intended results of the kickstarter was to produce a players handbook version, so that may be helpful in terms of intimidation factor.