T5 ETA

[robapol]

Any further news on this one? I saw some of the mock ups at: http://www.traveller5.com/ and the binder version looks particularly impressive, kind of reminds me of AH's advanced squad leader.

Also I have been looking around the http://www.farfuture.net/ site only to find lots of broken links. Is this page still supported? Or is it the remnants of a long deceased company?

The CD version of CT looks intriuging. Does anyone know whether it will be PDF's only or whether it will come with support software?

Thanks
RobP

 

[robject]

Hi Rob, welcome to COTI.

Apparently, T5's ETA is still June 2007, though I wouldn't be surprised if the schedule slips.

The binder concept is popular with some players, and is extremely unpopular with retailers. Most likely, T5's core rulebook will be hardcover, like The Traveller Book.

farfuture.net is indeed live, more or less. It's a one-man operation.

The CT CD-ROM is all of the CT printed material in PDF.

 

[kafka47]

So long as I purchase the sheets separately from a binder, I have no problem with it. But, paying the cost of card stock plus heavy duty binders will add huge differences to the shipping costs. Plus, the promise of getting replacement sheets for a nominal cost.

To sell retailers, have them get a percentage if they opt for POD system that FFE can licence to them.

 

[mike wightman]

A three ring binder version will not sell well in Europe - and I include the UK in that - since we don't use the three ring binder format.

 

[clementk]

The binder concept's come up again? (boggle)

Just offer a front and back cover that people could slip into their own binders (using the see thru type) and either POD or buyers could personally print out a PDF version to punch for their own local type of binder.

I like printing out some pdfs and putting them in a binder, but there's no way I'd buy a commercial game like that, and esp. not in a store. AD&D2E's Monster thing, Aeon/Trinity, and the latest Advanced Squad Leader monster binder* have put me completely off the idea of commercial bindered games.


* and the last thing T5 needs to be is an expensive monster wargame needing the ability to fold in new rules sections or updates in on the fly

 

[Scott Martin]

The mockups RobP mentions date back more than a year (and possibly more than 2 years)

Stale thread, please move along...

Scott Martin

 

[robject]

Heh.

Actually, T5 could be published via DriveThruRPG PDF as well as hardback, eh?

 

[Arthur Denger]

I love the idea of a three ring binder, but marketed strictly as an accessory (perhaps on the internet, maybe even sold through CafePress or similar), for those players who wish to organize their own material and downloaded PDF hardcopies, etc. Let's keep the rules themselves in a 'permanent' published format. (I like the digest sized LBBs, and a return to them would be most welcome!)

 

[robapol]

I like the idea of a binder for several reasons:
i. Any rule amendments can be easily incorparated.
ii. Pages can be taken out for easy viewing.
iii. Binders tend to stay open on the page you leave them, unlike books!

 

[Anthony]

I dislike binders, because the book is less durable and harder to use in play. Binders are, however, a perfectly useful option if you want to print out a PDF book.

 

[rogermccarthy]

Been here, done it to death

Bottom line is that the shops won't touch ring binder games (and don't like selling LBBs or trade paperbacks much either) and binder shipping costs would become insanely expensive for mail orders - particularly for us poor sods outside of the US.

So there is no surer way of killing this game stone dead than to persuade Marc that binders are the way to go.

 

[Darq666]

Could make more than one version

 

[lordmalachdrim]

I may have been done to death as a topic of conversation but I'll say that I'm still very much interested in the binder idea. As for stores refusing to carry them...so what, that "Gaming" stores around me no long carry anything that isn't d20 and if you order a nond20 product though them it takes about a month to get it so I've moved all my RPG purchasesing to the net.

Oh and before I forget. Any new word on when it'll be coming out?

 

[Darq666]

/agree I would use a binder version as well. No reason the binder couldn't be ordered direct. Sell two or three versions retail: Hardbound, softbound, loose leaf punched. Either include a voucher in the loose leaf or make the binder available direct.

 

[Flynn]

I think the most economical on MWM's part would be to publish a printed version in either hardcover or softcover, and offer the same book on PDF. That way, if you want a binder version, you can print it out and do it yourself, but MWM isn't stuck with the cost burden and hit to his profits that a binder version would incur.

(Let's face it, if the binder concept were viable, wouldn't more RPG companies be using it right now? Since they aren't, I'd assume it's safe to say that the binder concept isn't economically viable.)

Just my two Credits on the subject. Take them for what it's worth.

Hasta,
Flynn

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Flynn:
I think the most economical on MWM's part would be to publish a printed version in either hardcover or softcover, and offer the same book on PDF.

Yup.

 

[Nick Nova]

Found this on the newly updated FFE website:

We've gone out on a limb and have announced publication of the 5th edition for June 2007. That date is, concidentally, the 30th anniversary of the release of Classic Traveller at the Origins Game Convention in Staten Island in 1977.

So It looks like T5 is just two months from launch!
Time for me to start saving up my Credits.

 

[far-trader]

I'm curious where you found this "newly updated" page? I think that was the same blurb posted quite a while back, but I could be wrong.

 

[Nick Nova]

Well it is clear that Marc has been working on the site, and since I've never been able to access this page before, I assume that it is new.

Bummer if I'm getting excited about nothing.

 

[Jeffr0]

The page looks old to me....