Just bought T5
- Thread starter Frewfrux
- Start date
There are lots of reviews out there from people who have played Trav for decades...
thalassogen
SOC-12
Setting-wise you shouldn't expect too much - the core rules are just that: mostly rules.
Rules-wise you can expect quite a different system. TNE used the GDW house system based on a D20 and multiplying/dividing the target number based on difficulty. The T5 dice rolling system uses only D6 and the difficulty of a task defines how many dice you roll.
Another point: FF&S is condensed down to simple designers. No more higher math - just writing down some lines, addition, subtraction, multiplication. Done.
That's what concerns me the most. I know that the new rules are 'just rules' and can be ported to any milieu, but one of the unique things about my pocket empire is that it's primarily TL 9. At that TL, I've had to be creative with how the ships are designed. FF&S was great because of the granularity at which I was able to fiddle with ship design.
Will T5 be compatible with my current ships? Can you make a ship in FF&S but use it in T5? I'm sure there must be a way, right? I just need to be flexible enough.
While it would be frustrating to have just spent $135 on a rule set I can't use (I'm not about to abandon the pocket empire I've been detailing for years) I really am just happy to support the Traveller community. (That's why I bought T4, even though I had no intention of playing it...plus I liked the art.) Still, it would be nice to be able to use the latest version of Traveller.
thalassogen
SOC-12
The designs by themselves do not become invalid just by changing the rules, but you will most likely need to change/adjust the derived gaming values (ranges, damage, etc.).
In many cases they can. If you have to change the design (parameters) with a rule change then it is, by definition, invalid...
Vladika
SOC-14 1K
A person after my own heart! TL 9 can compel a seriously good game and ongoing campaign.
Indeed, I enjoy a good, gritty, lower-tech feel to games. Even pre-interstellar TL8 has enough opportunities to fill up books of adventures.
Back to TNE/T5. T5 has more in common with T4 than TNE, and doesn't support the conceptual variety of interstellar drives detailed by Fire, Fusion, and Steel. That said, it has a place for things like HEPlaR, and laser weapon ranges are TNE-based, not CT/MT-based.
As hinted at earlier, conversion is only as involved as you want it to be. I'd keep the drive systems exactly as they are; in fact, the only things I'd convert are sensors and armor.
You can but you may find that Jump and Maneuver values will have to change. T5 uses set sized 'engines' for Jump and Maneuver drives so you may find it hard to fit bigger drives in your ships than your used to under FF&S. At least thats what i found, but then i wasn't restricted to TL-9. The biggest problem i found was converting small 300dt and under ships with J-6 to T5, which it seems is now impossible if you want the ship to have any sort of function beyond being J-6.
Well, I don't mind at all just having to change some of the values around, as long as I can keep the same general concept of the vessel it will all be fine. The most prominent ship, and the one I'm most concerned about 'holding on to' is my Hammerhead-class scout ship. TL9 (often a mix of TL's, actually) Jump 1 (can make a variable number of jumps based on configuration), 1G (variable), 90 DT's (with a grapple for a 10 DT ship's boat), 2 9 DT modules spun around the hull for gravity (must be retracted and not spinning in order to manage a stable jump), and a 50 DT bay (most of the ship) for engineering that technically is replaceable with other 50 DT bays (with different engines/jump drives/fuel bladders), but cost and time to do so are so prohibitive that no one except the military ever really uses this feature.
That was the ship that allowed the worlds of my pocket empire to reach out and re-establish contact with other worlds outside their cluster of stars. It's kind of important to my continuing storyline to be able to keep it. As long as I have that, I'm okay...even if it might need a bit of tweaking.
I've looked over some example of ship conversions from other rule sets into T5 (there's several examples of this on these forums - yay) and I think I will probably be okay. I may need to create some things that are unique to my setting, but I'm more than okay with that.
Overall, I think T5 will be both a blessing and a curse in terms of ship designs. The simplified system looks like it should take me less time to create a new ship which will motivate me to finish my shipyard, but I will lack the full control to fiddle with the details which I may find frustrating.
Apart from ship/vehicle/item design, I'm not too concerned about the rule differences. In fact, I am intrigued by the new task system. It seems quite interesting.
starship_captain62
SOC-7
T5 ships and other tings
Hi
I am sure that just about any ship from a previous set of rules could be described in terms of T5, but there may be some changes in specifics such as power plants etc.
I just bought T5 myself a couple of weeks ago. I have not yet been brave enough to desighn a ship under T5. On the face of it it looks daunting.
In the last couple of days I have played around with the world building rules and inluded them with a little write up of a planet. Thosxe rules work very well. I am actually having a lot of fun playing around and trying various things out.
Cheers
Phil.
Hi
I am sure that just about any ship from a previous set of rules could be described in terms of T5, but there may be some changes in specifics such as power plants etc.
I just bought T5 myself a couple of weeks ago. I have not yet been brave enough to desighn a ship under T5. On the face of it it looks daunting.
In the last couple of days I have played around with the world building rules and inluded them with a little write up of a planet. Thosxe rules work very well. I am actually having a lot of fun playing around and trying various things out.
Cheers
Phil.
There are a lot of options.
I have two ship design walkthrus. They might help: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=30549
I've also got "Book 2" style design rules using T5, linked in the page above, plus about 67 draft design examples without walk-through information.
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I just go email confirmation from Canada Post that my shipment is expected to be delivered on November 19th. I ordered it on the 15th, and it's international....WOW! That was quick!
Kudos on the postal delivery systems of our two countries!!!
Oh, and I finally fessed up to my wife about spending the $175 for this. It went better than I thought. Makes me wonder if there's another purchase out there that *I* am not aware of. Hmmmmmm.
Kudos on the postal delivery systems of our two countries!!!
Oh, and I finally fessed up to my wife about spending the $175 for this. It went better than I thought. Makes me wonder if there's another purchase out there that *I* am not aware of. Hmmmmmm.
You may save some money on the deal. Every night you are reading and ruminating on that T5 thing is one night you're not spending money partying. I've been like that for months, saved a pile of money.
Hmmmmm...One would have to normally party for this to actually *save* money, but I appreciate the sentiment.
While I wait I thought I'd try my hand at some 3D imaging software. I went with SketchUp and drafted out the outline of the Hammerhead Scout.
If those rules don't show up soon I just may end up teaching myself a new skill.
VERY cool. What tutorials do you recommend for this? I tried Sketch years ago but there wasn't much to go on.
There's 4 videos here: http://www.sketchup.com/learn
I went over the first 3 and did the exercises along the way. From there I just winged it using the search feature on the help website (linked to in the help menu option) when I couldn't figure something out.
I'm using the free version, so there's a few advanced tools I don't have. Sigh. I know what ti ask for for Christmas now.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just checked the tracking and saw that it left the city of Oliver on the 15th and thought "well, that's weird."
I looked further into it and now I see that the tracking info that was emailed to me was to track the shipment of wine from my wine club.
ARGH!!!
Oh well. The grapple on my 3D ship needs some work.
I just checked the tracking and saw that it left the city of Oliver on the 15th and thought "well, that's weird."
I looked further into it and now I see that the tracking info that was emailed to me was to track the shipment of wine from my wine club.
ARGH!!!
Oh well. The grapple on my 3D ship needs some work.
