A review of T5

[pendragonman]

Yep, Vargr are uplifted Wolves. Space Wolves. Doggies is derogatory.

I think it's pretty silly if Mongoose made them dogs--and just another reason I stay far, far away from that version of the game.

Which is why, when hunting corsairs, I carry a dton of MilkBones. Put them on the viewer, and say "Now sit! Good Doggie."

Usually gets them angry enough...

Just like showing the saucer of cream to the Aslans.

 

[HG_B]

I think it's pretty silly if Mongoose made them dogs--and just another reason I stay far, far away from that version of the game.

Actually, the doggy meme started with CT...

 

[aramis]

Re: Vargr and Wolves:
I have never imagined Vargr as dogmen, though I expect that the same characteristics that made wolves suitable for domestication contributed to their selection to uplift. Though to address an earlier post by aramis dating C. l. familiaris to 15ka, Crockford and Kuzman's (2012) criticism of full domestic status notwithstanding, Germonpré et al. (2009) find DNA evidence for c. l. familiaris dating to 31.7ka.

Re: Combat:
Surely Traveller is big enough to accommodate combat monkey groups and groups interested in other aspects of role playing.

The Alaska crime lab can't tell a wolf hybrid from a husky with sufficient reliability for juries. They usually can tell a wild wolf from C. Fam., but circum-human wolves, not so much.

 

[atpollard]

Re: Drama and Combat.

I have generally found that Characters interact with their environment, for the most part, through talking or fighting. Of those two interactions, fighting is in greatest need of a detailed rules system ... I have role played extended conversational encounters that required absolutely no die rolls.

I have a little more trouble imagining a combat encounter that required no die rolls.

 

[Supplement Four]

I have a little more trouble imagining a combat encounter that required no die rolls.

The NPC shot you. You're dead!

No, he didn't. He only winged me.

No, you're dead.

Who says?

Me. I'm the GM. My word is law. You're dead.

That's it? I'm just "dead"?

Yep.

You're the worst GM ever, and this game sucks.

 

[Shonner]

Re: Vargr and Wolves:
I have never imagined Vargr as dogmen

Or furries. The furthest Vargr are removed from furries, the hell of a lot more I'm interested in having them in a game.

Re: Combat:
Surely Traveller is big enough to accommodate combat monkey groups and groups interested in other aspects of role playing.

It's big enough in my opinion. Too big. Huge, in fact.

 

[Supplement Four]

I'm sure that, somewhere out there, there is an rpg without a combat system. I'm just at a loss to think of one. And, the rare one that is thought of by someone else, I'm sure, isn't a widely popular game.

I can't imagine the market for an rpg with no combat system.

 

[Jazzlvraz]

I have a little more trouble imagining a combat encounter that required no die rolls.

For those of similar sentiment: there once was a minor masterpiece called "Amber Diceless Roleplaying", by the late, lamented Erich Wujcik. It was one of the best games I've ever been in, especially when carried into improvisational theatre, er, I mean Live-Action Roleplaying...and at a game convention, at that.

Two dozen players, one story wrapped around a real, catered, cocktail party (sans alcohol, dammit), more than three hours long, and it worked. Over a decade in the past, and I still run into folks who talk about it.

 

[Vladika]

I can't imagine the market for an rpg with no combat system.

Neither can I. That being said, combat, at least dirt-side, should be a pretty uncommon event. Traveller combat is deadly, IF the dice are rolled and the players take their honest chances. The odds are not in your favor over the long haul (and that "long" isn't all that long).

I feel, like a prior poster, that it turns into a Munchkin Fest if the GM bails the characters out to often. Let them learn to think their way though, not blast away at every opportunity.

But then there are those who just have to play a "Level 93 Mighty Munchkin". Maybe they are better suited to a video game where their magic pistol never runs out of ammo and you just have to rack up several hundred kills an hour?

 

[Bloo]

The unifying idea is conflict, be it physical, mental, social, etc.

I have a little more trouble imagining a combat encounter that required no die rolls.

Amber.

Conflict resolution
In any given fair conflict between two characters, the character with the higher score in the relevant attribute will eventually win. The key words here are fair and eventually - if characters' ranks are close, and the weaker character has obtained some advantage, then the weaker character can escape defeat or perhaps prevail. Close ranks result in longer contests while greater difference between ranks result in fast resolution. Alternatively, if characters' attribute ranks are close, the weaker character can try to change the relevant attribute by changing the nature of the conflict. For example, if two characters are wrestling the relevant attribute is Strength; a character could reveal a weapon, changing it to Warfare; they could try to overcome the other character's mind using a power, changing it to Psyche; or they could concentrate their strength on defense, changing it to Endurance. If there is a substantial difference between characters' ranks, the conflict is generally over before the weaker character can react.

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, combat mechanics don't require dice - they could be cards or just words... I recall roleplaying games without dice or mechanics. We called them 'Army men' or 'Cowboys and Indians' and played where-ever with cheap plastic figures and lots of narrative and acting out...

There were no stats, rules, or dice. Nor a Referee, or Game Master for that matter. Of course, with all that in mind, it wasn't totally atypical for roleplay combat to dissolve into real world 'combat' - especially with siblings... :rofl:

 

[Spaceresearcher]

Interesting views on the VARGR

Very interesting views on the Vargr all. Great to read the responses. Myself I'm certain there meant to be a sentient thoughtful race. The idea of wolf men seems kind of removed from that notion. (Eg, we've all seen werewolf stories and the Vargr are not monsters, but intelligent thoughtful beings with more going through there minds than primal urges and tearing other species to shreds with there bare claws). That's simply not the way they have been depicted. In face living and working alone side humans throughout the Imperium.

I'd like to see perhaps different races, such as the wolf line, German sheppard lines, boarder collie lines, labrador lines etc. Surely depending on which strains were part of the ancients experimentation would have resulted in a varied race of wolf/dog people. Just like humanity has many different races, so too would the Vargr, perhaps mirroring humanity as the ancients would have surely wanted to emulate for whatever experiment they were carrying out.

Further to this was the fact that the Zohdanni and other races were a product of Ancients creation and origin. Obviously they were trying to simulate totally different beings on large scales from some larger purpose. Perhaps the ancients were a race of very patient beings with immeasurable life spans(very high tech, so they must surely have worked out a way to extend life, especially if they could create it via experimentation).

So it would seem to me that Vargr would surely be a lot more complex than rampaging wolf men(similar in nature to those we know from the horror movies). So I would hold K9 men.

 

[Bloo]

So it would seem to me that Vargr would surely be a lot more complex than rampaging wolf men(similar in nature to those we know from the horror movies).

Who describes them that way?
"Wolf men" (as opposed to "Dog men") does not equal "Werewolf".

 

[Shonner]

So it would seem to me that Vargr would surely be a lot more complex than rampaging wolf men(similar in nature to those we know from the horror movies). So I would hold K9 men.

My Vargr look like werewolves. But they don't act like them. And they don't act like civil servant humans either. Vargr speak their own language. Their mouths can't make english-sounding words anyway. My next game will have some Vargr that understand english. Just don't speak it. I have not decided how they'll communicate back to Solomani characters yet.

 

[Hyphen]

I'd like to see perhaps different races, such as the wolf line, German sheppard lines, boarder collie lines, labrador lines etc. Surely depending on which strains were part of the ancients experimentation would have resulted in a varied race of wolf/dog people. Just like humanity has many different races, so too would the Vargr, perhaps mirroring humanity as the ancients would have surely wanted to emulate for whatever experiment they were carrying out.

Sean, have you seen DGP's "Vilani & Vargr"? If not, remind me to show you a copy when you come over for our "Grand Tour" game. V&V does just what you're after, differentiating between a series of Vargr "strains" - even going so far as to place them across the Vargr Enclaves.

Now, what I want to know is how to pronounce "Vargr". ;-)

I've always said "var-jer", but I've read responses from others who insist it is "var-grrr".

What you y'all do in your universes?

 

[Gallowglacht]

I use var-grr.

 

[madmike]

I use var-grr.

As do I

 

[Vladika]

I'd like to see perhaps different races, such as the wolf line, German sheppard lines, boarder collie lines, labrador lines etc. Surely depending on which strains were part of the ancients experimentation would have resulted in a varied race of wolf/dog people. Just like humanity has many different races, so too would the Vargr...

Chihuahua Vargr? Pekingese Vargr? Papillon Vargr? Pomeranian Vargr? Pug Vargr? :nonono:

Or maybe those could just be the names for Vargr ships? o:

I'm sticking to the "Wolf" theory.

 

[atpollard]

Could they be bred 'miniature' and 'toy' size for clandestine insertions?

 

[HG_B]

Could they be bred 'miniature' and 'toy' size for clandestine insertions?

Ninja poodle Vargr?