Basic T5

[robject]

This OP is going to be my sandbox for the "essential" chapters in Traveller5 -- specifically noting material that is "appendix"-grade. Implicitly, sections which aren't here I consider "advanced" or "optional" or both.

I plan to revise the list in this post as it's mulled over.

259 pages of rules, a 42 page skills list, and appx 80 pages of appendices.

Basic T5

Introductions (all) 8pp

Characters: 54pp

• Characters
• Careers
• Life Pursuits ...
• Tasks
• Personals

Skills list 42 pp
Personal Combat 26pp
Starports 8pp
Starship design 40pp
Starship Combat 18pp

Stars and Worlds (except for mapping) 71pp

Adventures: 34pp

• Psionics
• BeastMaker
• Events
• Adventures
• EPIC

APPENDIX: 80pp+

• Basic Information (all) 36pp
• Equipment List from the Adventures section: 23pp
• Weapon and Armor Lists: 4pp+
• Adventure-class Ships (from Starships chapter) combined with Travellers' Guide to Starships: 4pp+
• The Bestiary

 

[aramis]

Weapons and Armor should be right next to all the other equipment, or you get either "page-flip" and/or "Where the heck is that?" syndromes.

All "shoppie-store" needs to be together. And the use data for that should be to hand when purchasing, both for informed purchase and for copy down when purchased.

I'd suggest a "Stuff" chapter, after characters and before combat, with the equipment, weapons and armor, which then segues into Personal combat. Say, about 10pp, 5 from adventures, 5 from combat.

 

[Reban]

Can you get away without any of the Benchmarks chapter p.48?

 

[Murdoc]

Just a thought experiment here:

Book 1: Characters & Combat 130 pages
Book 2: Starships & Space Travel 58 pages (I'd include the How...Works stuff(31)=89 pages
Book 3: Worlds & Adventures 154 pages

Not sure where the Appendix stuff should go. Logically, it should be in B1, but for space (pages) reasons, might fit in B2 better for a total of 169 pages. If done that way, they'd all come out pretty much similar sizes.

Then there could be a Makers book (Including Sophonts, Robots, etc.), about 99 pages, and maybe one for miscellaneous stuff like Senses, QREBS, Personals, Technology, Computers, Psionics, etc. Hmm, only 47 pages; that could fit in somewhere else probably, like the Makers book for a total of 146 pages, very much like the other 3. Well that looks good so far, but what I am missing? That only seems to come out to 599 pages.

I assume Tasks in in C&C already?

 

[robject]

Brainstorms welcome.

 

[heckj]

Talking about "core" books, I think there's sort of two "core" books.

The first is what a referee would need to be able to run a game, assuming he was given an adventure as a seed and not expected to create a world/system/universe from whole cloth (and hence need the relevant rules to help guide that).

The second is what a player needs to know and be able to use to play in a game. And generally everything a player needs, the referee needs to run the game, so I think the second is a subset of the first - but maybe with expanded sections.

For example, to play a game, I think the players need to know about the rules for character generation, life pursuits, and skills. They also need to know how those apply with tasks, personals, and personal combat.

I think the players would benefit from anything laying out basic foundational knowledge of the game - so the tech level charts, details on starports, a basic listing of trade classifications and their implications, and any background on the T5 OTU would be useful. I'd also include personalities and brains in this section. Along those lines, adding a fill-form to help guide character creation and track the changes and choices that happen during PC creation.

Additionally, the equipment lists, weapon and armor lists, adventure class ships, and bestiary. What @robject all called out as appendix (80pp) .

For the referee's guide (so expanding on this set - or as a separate book?) I'd add in the Adventures, EPIC, Stars and Worlds (including mapping), Trade and Commerce, ACS Starship design, TL stage effects, QREBS and senses, and computers, and the basics (i.e. up to TL15-16) of "how things work" section from starship design, sensors, weapons, drives, etc. Starship combat.

The pieces of this that I think are truly supplemental are the sophont creation rules, lifespan of a sophont race, the extended examples of charts (world charts, for example, or system detail charts), genetics and rules about clones, chimera and synthetics. creature creation rules, heavy weapons (artillery, ortillery, and WMD), gun maker, armor maker, vehicle maker, larger starship design and higher TL options, computer-controls-consoles, small craft creation, "thing" maker rules and guidelines.