I would like more details on the "Makers"

[briansommers]

could someone give me a more detailed rundown on the Makers in T5?

I'm particularly interested in worlds and spaceships, etc.

Would T5 allow you to do an Eve Online-esq type of adventure?

 

[esampson]

"Makers" really are nothing much more than a system for building something. As an example the Starship Maker contains about 16 steps. First step is to decide the configuration or what is basically the shape of the hull (technically there are steps before that but I'm skipping them for brevity). The next step is to chose how big the hull is. The step after that is to choose what fittings your hull has (things like landing gear, folding wings, material the hull is constructed from, etc.). After you're done with that you move onto the engines of the ship, then fuel, sensors, weapons, etc.

At the end of the process you've got all the stats you need for your brand new spaceship. This isn't an 'in game' process. These aren't the steps the PCs have to do to build there ship. This is simply a system for generating the stats of ships that are appropriate to the T5 universe.

As for having adventures similar to what goes on in Eve Online, I think Eve traces an awful lot of its lineage to Traveller (although quite possibly indirectly). That doesn't mean the adventures would be just the same (not without changing major parts of the game system such as how starship travel occurs) but I think that a lot of the spirit would remain.

Of course Eve is much more heavily based around ship to ship than Traveller is (Eve being exclusively ship to ship) but you can still have lots of adventures with PCs being sent to chase down pirates or to spy on what the military of another nation is up to. It's just that a lot of that (not all of it, but a lot) will probably occur outside of the ship rather than inside.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Makers are nothing more than lists.

You start with a basic item, like a rifle. That will give you basic stats about the weapon: TL, Range, Mass, QREBS, Hit Type, and Damage.

When you move to the next table, you can decide to alter the weapon give the choices on the new table.

For example, if we wanted an assault rifle, then some or all of the weapon's stats will be altered. TL goes up. Range goes down. Mass goes down. Extra damage types added, and so on.

Each table you go to gives you new choices about the weapon, and if you select a choice, stats are altered.

When you get done with all of the tables, you've made it through the maker, and you have a new weapon, complete with stats.

 

[briansommers]

thanks.. that helps a lot.. sounds good.

 

[Original_Carl]

Would T5 allow you to do an Eve Online-esq type of adventure?

You mean the kind where you find a sweet spot to mine ice only to have some mercenary corp show up and blow all your ships to pieces and then camp your starport waiting for you to take off so they can blow you up again?

:file_21:

I love EVE.

 

[GypsyComet]

"EVE Online: A steep learning curve at the top of which is a griefer with a shotgun."

If you mean "wander around, mine stuff, make money, and buy bigger ships" then yes.

 

[briansommers]

yeah.. the later..

 

[Original_Carl]

"EVE Online: A steep learning curve at the top of which is a griefer with a shotgun."

HA HA HA HA HA!

 

[ekervina]

Yes, it is certainly possible in Traveller to have an adventure wherein you are part of a corporation, and one of the individuals in the corporation is a mole who leads you to an SOS beacon that turns out to be an ambush where they blast your ultra-expensive ship to atoms.

It is also possible to have adventures where the bank is actually a giant ponzi scheme run by an underhanded individual who transfers all of the investors' and depositors' money to someone else, then disappears.