Timerover51
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DriveThruRPG sent me an email announcing the availability of the Traveller 5 Core Rule Book. It the following quoted page count correct?
Core Rules 5.09
- Thread starter agorski
- Start date
Yes, yes it is.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
A Core Rule Book of 759 pages.
I think by T5.1 we should be able to get that up to the 765~770 mark as a few things have fallen out of this draft that deserve to come back in and a few things that were in the Beta made a welcome reappearance. :devil:
But also keep in mind that the T5 Core Rulebook is the master rulebook. There is still the planned cut-down Player's Guide version that will be much shorter, and contain only the essentials for general play (The Core Rulebook is the Master Tome for GMs).
But the first priority is to get everything in the master rules squared away before putting together the Player's Guide from it.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
How are you going to sell Traveller 5 to someone who has never played either the game or an RPG? I have spent the last 13 years working with teaching various games to teens who have never played a historical board game, miniature war game, or role-playing game before, and the one rule is:
"The simpler, the better."
It strikes me that a cut-down Referee's Guide version that is much shorter and contain only the essentials for general refereeing might be a very salable item.
Hans
Yes, that is my thought as well. I think when the Player's Guide was being discussed in another thread a while back, several of us brought it up.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I did see your second sentence. The problem is as follows:
1. How many GM are going to spend the time to go through a 759 page tome?
2. How long will it be before there is a Player's Guide?
3. Is Marc willing to have an outside editor keep that from turning into another 200 to 300 page book? Starter Traveller, available from DriveThru, is 90 pages of rules and charts, along with a booklet with 2 adventures. That is the maximum length for a Player's Guide, and that is pushing the limit. One area that could be dropped is Psionics. Leave that for later. A reasonable target would be no more than 64 pages of rules and charts.
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That will probably depend on the individual GM. But your right, it is more likely to appeal to an experienced GM, and likely one who is already familiar with some version of Traveller.
Hopefully not too long once the 5.1 Revision is finished, as the Players Guide will largely be based on a selective version of its contents, if I am understanding correctly.
The Player's Handbook in most versions of D&D has been larger than that, IIRC, and it didn't seem to cause problems for newbies learning D&D.
You are right that a Starter Book should have nothing extraneous in it, but perhaps there is a difference between a Starter Book and the planned Player's Guide. The Players Guide supposedly is full rules for everything that the players need to know (minus all of the Makers and "Toolkit" elements that are primarily used by a GM behind the scenes).
A Starter Book, OTOH, might be better styled as a limited length PDF-only download: "Traveller5 Lite".
T5 isn't intended to be the starter edition. Mongoose is. Newbs are expected to get hooked on mongoose, then get wind of, and make the leap to, T5.
That was part of what Marc published about it back in 2007-2008.
Mongoose didn't use what Marc had, because what Marc had wasn't ready to roll. And the two have drifted apart.
But T5 is, essentially, "Advanced Traveller"...
Mongoose is going to a second edition, so, apparently, yes.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Hmm, interesting that Mongoose was supposed to be the lead in. So one possible progression would be Starter Traveller > Mongoose Traveller > Traveller 5. That seems a bit more doable. And after borrowing a friend's BBB, and having some interesting discussions on Vehicle Making, plus having the Mongoose Core Book and Vehicle Handbook, along with all of my vehicle data, this could be quite interesting.
So, I will be getting the 5.0.9 version from DriveThru, and see what use I can make of it as a toolbox.
Edit Note: Purchased and downloaded.
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OK, rather than a starter book, how about a players book? Having looked through the character creation rules, there is far more that I want to sort through. A streamlined, "this is how you do it, just with new, human characters" version. No genetics, sophonts, alternate stats, psionics, just normal humans. Once you can get that down, then the other concepts can be folded in, as needed. Previous editions that I have access to were far easier to grok the character generation. I know there is a checklist, but it seems far from complete. More of an outline, to be filled in later, much as the Table of Contents is, at the moment.
A player's book is in the plans. It's to follow once 5.1 is stable, unless Marc's changed the plans in the last 3 months. He doesn't want to revise two manuals at once.
Not seen 5.09, but from experience T5 character creation is not that bad, even if it can look a little bit overwhelming. I can understand the concern as my brain burns out looking at makers and builders, but character creation is (what's the phrase...?) a more accessible section of the book even if you could label it "feature rich". Check youtube for videos and guides too, they help. You may have already done this.
From what I've seen thus far, character generation has changed a little with version 5.09. While I've not looked at ALL of the character paths, the two that I have looked at look better streamlined and more easily comprehensible (from my perspective mind you!).
5.09
Great to see 5.09 come out. It shows dedication to cleaning it up. Did they produce a 5 errata?
I ask because the Far Futures website errata is still from 2013. Maybe it should be removed if it's not relevant. http://www.farfuture.net/Traveller5 Errata 20130728.pdf
Great to see 5.09 come out. It shows dedication to cleaning it up. Did they produce a 5 errata?
I ask because the Far Futures website errata is still from 2013. Maybe it should be removed if it's not relevant. http://www.farfuture.net/Traveller5 Errata 20130728.pdf
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