PatriciaJane
SOC-1
What are people's thoughts on the T4 ruleset? I love the space artwork in the books. What are its rules like compared with other editions? Does anyone in here play using T4?
Thoughts on T4?
- Thread starter PatriciaJane
- Start date
I've run T4. I don't care for the task system, and the version of my dead tree copy lacks "This is Hard"... which was a hack to avoid maxing stats to be able to do everything.
TIH: If base difficulty as set is more dice than the skill level, increment final difficulty by 1. Solves most of the character issues.
I also don't like that the core caps at TL 12, espeically since I don't care for the M0 setting and wanted to run M1100.
M0 was a badly broken product. FF&S II was hampered by the ineptitude at Imperium games.
Imperium Games was a disaster on many levels; the many unpaid or underpaid contributors, the M0 debacle... simply put, it's amazing how much got released.
I gave it a shot, many years ago. I went back to MegaTraveller.
I should sell my dead tree copies...
TIH: If base difficulty as set is more dice than the skill level, increment final difficulty by 1. Solves most of the character issues.
I also don't like that the core caps at TL 12, espeically since I don't care for the M0 setting and wanted to run M1100.
M0 was a badly broken product. FF&S II was hampered by the ineptitude at Imperium games.
Imperium Games was a disaster on many levels; the many unpaid or underpaid contributors, the M0 debacle... simply put, it's amazing how much got released.
I gave it a shot, many years ago. I went back to MegaTraveller.
I should sell my dead tree copies...
I liked Emperor's Arsenal and the way Armor protection eliminated weapon damage dice (reduced to 1 point per eliminated die for flexible armor, and total elimination of die per point for rigid armor). And weapons never did more than 3D damage after armor reduction due to overpenetration. Individual special weapon types modified those rules in some cases.
I rather like the alternative to the TIH rule that you have also noted in the past that subtracts 1D of difficulty per point of skill applied to the task. That also removes stat dominance and creates a parity between difficulty of task and training in skill.
I thought some of the individual books were good (I liked Pocket Empires and Psionic Institutes), but the period it was set in wasn't for me. I mean, it's just TNE's setting, but with more money behind the recovery, thus less PC influence, and a lower TL cap (so no shiny loot to be recovered) - I just stayed with TNE. The core system mechanics weren't, IMO, that great either - so I stayed with TNE, and if not that, then MT.
I was never that taken with the Foss art - his work is great, but it doesn't quite fit Traveller. If it had been some of Elson's or Mckie's work (to name a couple of artists from the same period) it would've fitted much better, in my opinion.
I was never that taken with the Foss art - his work is great, but it doesn't quite fit Traveller. If it had been some of Elson's or Mckie's work (to name a couple of artists from the same period) it would've fitted much better, in my opinion.
That was from Twilight:2000 and The New Era, but T4 removed the part where different weapons had better or worse penetration for the same damage, which I thought was a mistake.
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mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
not a fan of the T4 core rules, but I do like the way damage is handled, such that it is how I still do it in my homebrew rules.
FF&S is usable once you recognise the formatting issues with the equations.
I really like Imperial Arsenal, CSC, Imperial Squadrons and Pocket Empires, all of which I still dip into now and then.
I like what they did with psionics too.
FF&S is usable once you recognise the formatting issues with the equations.
I really like Imperial Arsenal, CSC, Imperial Squadrons and Pocket Empires, all of which I still dip into now and then.
I like what they did with psionics too.
I'll note that I don't mind the Foss ships at all... I like Foss and his ilk for the TTA setting... but I agree they're a poor fit to Traveller as many of us ran it, with Small or medium ship universes. (SSU caps about 5 KTd - IE, max CT Bk2 table entry; MSU caps about 20 to 30 KTd, or basically Star Trek TOS sized or SFB sized... I've thrice come up with between 18 and 20 KTd for the NCC-1701...) Foss' art is all Big Ships... other of his ilk (as seen in the TTA line of books) are definitely Big Ship Universe (where ships tend to cap at 500KTd), but some Foss ships look bigger even than the BSU.
The real standout art is the Elmore pencils in the corebook.
Like Mike, I like the psionics rules, and have since backported them to MT... my MT house rules have become my own custom edition.
I'll also note: My players were appeased by using 3d6+skill+(Stat/3) for fixed TN by difficulty; a search might turn it up i the background, but ISTR using multiples of 5 for the TN...
Then again, we liked the MGT1e playtest task system.
The real standout art is the Elmore pencils in the corebook.
Like Mike, I like the psionics rules, and have since backported them to MT... my MT house rules have become my own custom edition.
I'll also note: My players were appeased by using 3d6+skill+(Stat/3) for fixed TN by difficulty; a search might turn it up i the background, but ISTR using multiples of 5 for the TN...
Then again, we liked the MGT1e playtest task system.
One other thought on T4... as with D&D 4... if you're not already a fan, it's not a bad starting point... but it was different enough that it was problematic for fans of all three prior editions.
Conceptually, 1 skill per year is fine. It's the interactions with the task mechanics where it became a problem, especially since all the tables were "roll or pick" and attributes and skills both went up 1 for a single skill roll.
Conceptually, 1 skill per year is fine. It's the interactions with the task mechanics where it became a problem, especially since all the tables were "roll or pick" and attributes and skills both went up 1 for a single skill roll.
