mechascorpio
SOC-12
I think Marc could produce the T5 Core Rules in one large volume, exactly because there is a Mongoose Traveller containing lighter rules.
I'm just not getting what you're saying here. I keep seeing where you're drawing this relationship between the mechanics of the two publications (like the skill list), but I don't see how any great number of players are going to (or should) buy the Mongoose Traveller Core Rules and then somehow graduate to using T5 as some kind of "advanced Traveller". Maybe that's not what you're saying. But I don't think it's some sort of big plus for T5 to rely on other games or other versions of Traveller to introduce the market as to how to play it. And besides, if someone new wanted to come to T5, I would point them to the T4 core rules before telling them to read it, then unlearn it, then go to T5.
I'm not saying that the T5 Player's Guide won't be a friendlier, stripped-down, errate'ed core. I'm just saying that Mongoose and FFE are in a symbiotic relationship, and T5 is a part of that.
Perhaps in the sense that indications are that T5 has helped MgT's sales and grown MgT's sales and market, yes. But I wouldn't say that was symbiosis, and I doubt that was the intended effect.
So, yeah, I'm really not getting what you're saying. And, to me, it doesn't bode well for the approach that (currently?) seems is being taken with the promised T5 Players' Guide.
You want symbiosis? Someone amongst TPTB should be taking a close look at both Mongoose's Book 0 and its Core Rules and saying, "Okay, how do we apply this market and player friendly approach to Traveller 5?" IMO, that's how you get a functional "T5 Lite" and a "T5 Players' Guide". Look at CT Books 1-3 or the QuikLink book. Look at the T4 book.
If someone is serious about the effort, they won't look at the 650 page "Traveller5 Text Master" and try to decide what to chop out. They'll start from scratch using better executed publications as a guide, and try to figure out what goes in. Ideally, this effort should already have been underway for months, considering that T5 was "finished" over 6 months ago.