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T5 LBB's in a box - artists impression

These been quite a lot of discussion about what form T5 might come in.

Seems to me that the opinion across the forum is strongly in favour of the Little Black Books.

Well, for benefit of the Pro-LBB faction here is a quick impression of what T5 might look like if their choice of format is produced.
http://www.lucas-digital.com/T5/

I must admit that I am beginning to like the idea ;)

(note - a little bit of cover art can be good)



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Mark Lucas
Lucas-digital.com
 
*sigh* Looks good. Where can I get a set?
smile.gif
 
I'll buy a copy! Of course without REALLY small print those probably wouldn't be the real book-titles, but it gets the point across. I like the idea of minimal-yet-evocative box art with stark black book-covers; very classy. I'm asuming that the Stellar Atlas and box are supposed to be bigger than the rest of the books (9x12x2, like Deluxe Traveller); is that the idea? But if so, aren't those dice awfully big?
 
W O W !

Stylish, evocative, very definetly classy. I really think this is a winning concept.

Of course, the _content_ of that gorgeous looking package has got to be spot on as well...

But if looks half as good as that, T5 should sell like hot cakes.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lucasdigital:
Well, for benefit of the Pro-LBB faction here is a quick impression of what T5 might look like if their choice of format is produced.
http://www.lucas-digital.com/T5/
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very nice! I want that set!
 
Still would like it to start at book 10, and just call it 'Traveller', but DAMN! that's one jump route I'd follow!


Gats'
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lucasdigital:
These been quite a lot of discussion about what form T5 might come in.
9snip)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's very nice, but it seems to be a page that Netscape can't render. At least not Netscape 4.75 on Solaris 8. I did fire up IE to look at the page, but most other Unix/Linux/BSD/Non-MS users won't have that option.
frown.gif


Just letting you know.

William
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by William:
It's very nice, but it seems to be a page that Netscape can't render. At least not Netscape 4.75 on Solaris 8. I did fire up IE to look at the page, but most other Unix/Linux/BSD/Non-MS users won't have that option.
frown.gif
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can't imagine why 4.75 won't render it. His HTML looks fine, if a bit extraneous.

Anyway, here's a direct link to his picture.
http://www.lucas-digital.com/T5/index_files/LLB_artist_impression2.jpg

I didn't have any problems viewing it from Netscape 6 under Linux. (Personally, I'd highly recommend getting Netscape 6 or the latest Mozilla. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I like it better than 4.75.)



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Robert FISHER
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RobertFisher:
I can't imagine why 4.75 won't render it. His HTML looks fine, if a bit extraneous.

Anyway, here's a direct link to his picture.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks. My Netscape 4.7 for Windows has a problem rendering the page because it shows a 404 (Not Found) for the Style sheet. Netscape shows the error for the style sheet instead of the page.
 
Design looks great, love the addition of the minimal art on top of the box - hopefully the Ancient of Ancient ones will take note!!!!!!.

By the way, I never liked much art anyway - of it didn't match my idea, I found it spoiled my own imagination. I bought Traveller after watching the first Alien film and the minimalism of the black LLB's were always more 'sci-fi' and conveyed the coldness of space than the covers of MT/TNE/T2300.

Oh, I did like the early Cyberpunk stuff (e.g. Solo of Fortune) with photos instead of graphics.
 
Pretty good! I'd buy 'em.

Like Elliot, I am not a big fan of art in a game book. In an adventure, sure, but not the core rules, except some very generic pics (the solider in CT Book 4's awesome, and the b&w pics in T4 are cool). Honestly, I like games that remind me that they're games.

If pics go into T5, they should be black & white, like the few in CT and T4. It complements the black covers and may actually emphasize that Traveller is still good for generic sci-fi rather than just the Imperium.

So, another vote for the LBBs, although the names of the individual books could be better. Oh, and what exactly is the Mechanical Design Reference?

P.S.: It's a good thing the real books can't get that shiny and such. It honestly makes me feel slightly queasy just looking at it..

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-J. Jensen
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TCHarrison:
So, another vote for the LBBs, although the names of the individual books could be better. Oh, and what exactly is the Mechanical Design Reference?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The names on the books are the first 6 titles on Avery's 'T5 Line (draft)' which is another topic on this forum somewhere. The titles are all deliberately function-oriented, rather than colorful or evocative (so we'd have some idea what he's talking about). I assume the Technical Design Reference is supposed to represent an updated 'Fire, Fusion, & Steel'-type system (which was originally called 'Traveller Technical Architecture,' IIRC).
 
I also had trouble getting to view the page first quoted. I got a 404 message. This page comes in clear and sharp.

The concept looks fantastic. This package would go to the top of my MUST BUY list.
I Agree. LBB is the preferred format for Traveller rules. I also wish to see CD-ROMs for things like starship design, character/NPC generation, sectors maps and the like.

Take the good developments for AD&D (lots of adventures and sourcebooks, CD based software and data) and forget massive hardcover books and massive rules changes (like 3rd edition).
 
I'm sorry, but I think that this is a terrible idea. RetroTraveller is not going to do anything to increase the scope of the Traveller mythos.

Frankly, if the past year in the industry has taught companies anything it's that today's player/consumer and market are much, much more sophisticated than than ever before.

Players want hardcovers with great graphics. Players want sourcebooks and then adventures. Players want the product to catch their eye as well as their imagination.

All I'm seeing here is people asking for what's been done before. My guess is that if that's they way T5 goes you may as well not bother putting it out b/c it'll sit on the shelves.

Look at GURPS:Traveller. It's a radical departure in the rules, layout and format. And it's selling better than the previous two editions of Traveller. You have a franchise that's familiar and accepted by a multitude of players. You put out quality sourcebooks. You become successful and Traveller becomes successful.

Marc was kind enough to reprint all of the LBBs for us (I'm hoping that he'll consider doing the same for MegaTraveller). There, we all got the Traveller we've been asking for.

Then again we're a closed market. For Traveller to truly succeed and continue for another 20 years it needs new and fresh players, approaches and ideas.
 
I agree with the above post. During the early 80's one of my biggest gripes was with the artwork, or rather lack thereof. And as much as I praise the writing and publications of the Keith brothers, William H. Keith couldn't sketch his way out of a paper bag. His sketches in the original Traveller publication are just plain AWFUL, and there's no way that today's discerning Sci-Fi fan is going to let that one slide.

On the reverse note the one artist I truly did like who did Traveller art was the artist who used a lot of zippatone in his art, which was very refined. I can't discern his signature, but samples of his work are on pages 13 and 19 of the old hardcover edition of the first three LBBs. Whoever that guy is, he is truly an artist who, im my ever so humble opinion, should've done all, if not MOST of CT's art.

More on the reverse, I sometimes find some artwork to be too stylish, or stylized for its own good. I'm talking about really wacky and far out stuff here. The usually occurs more with fantasy art, where the artist, not having any kind of understanding of the Middle Ages (or rather gathered all his historical info on Medieval Eurpose from D&D games) draws scantly clad men and women in the most bizzare armor schemes, and holding unwieldly weapons. I've seen some of this type of trend in sci-fi art, but mostly in comics.

In terms of gameplay I want consise, clear, plain rules that utilize the D20 system. And I don't want to have to scratch my head on things like; how much does cloth armor weigh, because it's not listed in the weapon's table. And I don't want to have to go buy more damn supplements to learn the basics of the game.
 
That was David Deitrick, he does good stuff. We were going to try and tap him for some of the T20 artwork. (Speaking of which...)

Hunter
 
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