TRAVELLER 5 - My Thoughts And Comments REDUX

[pendragonman]

If you chose Fighter as a major/minor skill in higher education, does that rule apply? Would I have to pick Fighter 0 (weapon) -2 as a minor in Military Academy or do I get Fighter - 2?

This whole Skill/Knowledge is still tying me in knots, and Reading PDFs is not like being able to flip back and forth on the dead trees I prefer to heft.

Ok, find the list of skills for Wally in this thread. Wally went to the Naval Academy as a Marine officer.

His Major was Engineering (A Skill). What I actually wrote down is Engineering-2 (Power plants)-2 (for a total of 4 skill points).

His Minor was Tactics (A Skill). Tactics has no associated knowledges, so I got Tactics-2 (not the Avalon Hill game :smirk: )

While fighting is definitely a soldier skill and so you could take it as your academy major, before you do look at the skills you can get with the associated career. You will find that levels of Fighting is easy, getting skills that let you interact with civilians without killing them is hard. Chose your major wisely, young padawan.

 

[Spartan159]

BACK TO AMMO.

Another thing that can be done is to shorten the abstract round. Classic Traveller uses an abstract 15 second round. SnapFire fires one bullet per round. AutoFire fires four bullets per burst.

If not copy that, then something basic like that could be used.

This is more to my liking, shorter combat round with ammo tracking

The Star Wars D6 game is not big on tracking ammo, either. But, it's a little more acceptible in that game because even a small blaster pistol can hold enough Tibanna blaster gas for 100 rounds.

It's not as easy to accept in this game where there are 6 round revolvers and 13 round autopistols.

But, how it could be handled in D6 Star Wars was by using a Fumble. I haven't read the T5 task system yet (it's quite lengthy!). Is there some sort of fumble indicator?

If so, a fumble, early in the fight, could indicate a weapon jam. But, a few rounds (minutes) into the fight, a fumble could mean that the character has burned up all his ammo for that weapon.

pg 136, Spectacular Success or Failure, 3 1's or 3 6's on 3D rolls, you remembered that VFR Gauss mag in your hip pocket or you ran out of ammo Or Spectacularly Interesting, (pg 137) you did both if you rolled 3 1's and 3 6's on 6D+

 

[Jazzlvraz]

If you chose Fighter as a major/minor skill in higher education, does that rule apply? Would I have to pick Fighter 0 (weapon) -2 as a minor in Military Academy or do I get Fighter - 2?

Only in the Military Academy are you able to choose Fighter as a Major or Minor, and the pattern, per p.144, would be Knowledge, then Knowledge, then Skill from then on. You're not required to pick the same Knowledge each of those first two times, either.

 

[HG_B]

Hey, those dramatic points in the movies where after firing hundreds of rounds they suddenly need to reload at the dramatic moment, you know, when the critter/alien/zombie is right around the corner. :rofl:

Oh boy. I think that my players would lynch me.

Sounds like it is already time for Trav 5.1

 

[Spartan159]

Only in the Military Academy are you able to choose Fighter as a Major or Minor, and the pattern, per p.144, would be Knowledge, then Knowledge, then Skill from then on. You're not required to pick the same Knowledge each of those first two times, either.

What, no Heidelberg scars from fencing?? I don't recall seeing the limitations on Majors/Minors chosen for College/University/Military Academy although just for the record I was indeed thinking MA.

 

[pendragonman]

What, no Heidelberg scars from fencing?? I don't recall seeing the limitations on Majors/Minors chosen for College/University/Military Academy although just for the record I was indeed thinking MA.

See page 100. Eligible major/minor choices are listed on the bottom.

 

[Spartan159]

See page 100. Eligible major/minor choices are listed on the bottom.

:toast: Thanks, I did see that and it was promptly forgotten. Going to take some time for me to absorb all this data.

 

[pendragonman]

:toast: Thanks, I did see that and it was promptly forgotten. Going to take some time for me to absorb all this data.

It has taken me 5 chargen attempts to get it figured out. Take your time and make sure you have a copy of the most current errata file.

 

[thalassogen]

Some thoughts:

Semi-Auto und below: only AimedFire allowed
Burst and up: AutoFire and SnapFire also allowed

I would expect an option for semi-auto and below to also fire unaimed shots. So maybe SnapFire should not be dependent on burst (and up) capability? Would make sense to me.
Fire "one" aimed semi-auto or burst shot => AimedFire
Fire "several" unaimed semi-auto or burst shots, maybe moving (Speed=1 or 2) => SnapFire
Fire "several" burst shots, maybe moving (Speed=1) => AutoFire

(By semi-auto/burst I mean a weapon capable of this, not actually using that setting.)

Hm, as one combat round is about 1 minute, I would expect to be able to fire multiple times in a round and targeting different opponents. Any thoughts on this one?

 

[Levi]

Oh, I don't know if I made this clear above.



Here are the Personal Combat Range Bands

0 - Contact
R - Reading
T - Talking

1 - Very Short. 5 m.
2 - Short. 50m.
3 - Medium. 150 m..

Are there negative modifiers for ranged combat at bands <1?
I hope there are or I'll be adding them as a house rule. After all, with rifle/bow sized weapons the room just isn't present to get the muzzle on target. Rocket propelled missiles and grenades won't are (I am assuming that even in the far future most explosive weapons will have some provisions preventing the operators from inadvertently blowing themselves up).

 

[Reban]

The Burden, Descriptor and Type of the weapon define whether it Can be used in Close Quarters, Cannot be used in Close Quarters or if there is an Ease Of Use penalty under QREBS for the weapon.

For example a Launcher gets -3 to EOU (Ease of Use, from qrEbs)

but

An AT Missile Cannot be used in Close Quarters

Grenade is a descriptor but doesn't impose a penalty but a Grenade Launcher will have that -3 EOU. A Hand Grenade has varying levels of Hits based on range, so if you use it in contact you and your target will both be hit by the maximum hit dice and Effects

 

[Levi]

Glad to see there's a mechanism in place

 

[HG_B]

The Burden, Descriptor and Type of the weapon define whether it Can be used in Close Quarters, Cannot be used in Close Quarters or if there is an Ease Of Use penalty under QREBS for the weapon.

For example a Launcher gets -3 to EOU (Ease of Use, from qrEbs)

but

An AT Missile Cannot be used in Close Quarters

What range band fits with Close Quarters?

 

[Reban]

What range band fits with Close Quarters?

I said to myself it'll be so easy to check, I'll just look at the big range chart in the Personnel Combat chapter but noooo its not defined there

So back to the GunMaker section where I took the example from and it says:

CQ (Close Quarters)
Some weapons cannot be used in close quarters
(typically inside buildings and starships).

The way thats written makes me think its not just related to range but also to how many free deck squares are around you and other factors.

I reckon this applies to Range bands 1 and 0

But Personnel Combat really suffers from not being written in a comprehensive way.

 

[HG_B]

I said to myself it'll be so easy to check, I'll just look at the big range chart in the Personnel Combat chapter but noooo its not defined there

So back to the GunMaker section where I took the example from and it says: CQ (Close Quarters)
Some weapons cannot be used in close quarters
(typically inside buildings and starships).

The way thats written makes me think its not just related to range but also to how many free deck squares are around you and other factors.

Okay. Makes sense for older AT weapons. But, not the newest TL 7 models.

 

[Reban]

Okay. Makes sense for older AT weapons. But, not the newest TL 7 models.

Yes but with Stage Effects you might improve the Ease of Use of any weapons system. For example Improved weapons systems benefit from a positive mod to their QREBS.

And for clarity sake EOU is one of many possible mods to the Fighting Task in the combat system mentioned on p213. Its not explicitly stated anywhere I can find

 

[BadgerLord]

I just got my copy a few days ago. I agree with the OP the book is just plain awesome. It looks great, can be used as a bullet stopper, the art is good, it screams Traveller!

With that said, after a in depth skimming of the book, this is the first version of Traveller that is just too much for me. Too verbose, too much complicated math, too much man, too much.

I'm sure for many hardcore Traveller fans it is great, personally, although I'll never part with it, I'll also never run it, and honestly, probably never even open it up again. If I do run Traveller in the future it will be CT, or MegaTraveller.

To me, T5 is the ultimate SciFi toolkit RPG. I'm just too old and lazy to be able to commit to learning such a massive system.

 

[Murdoc]

Yeah, to be candid I've been thinking for a while that the T5 nearly-all-in-one approach was great from game design perspective, but far less so from a marketing one (which is something I hate to consider, but that's part of reality for now). It just seems like most people will have an easier time with large amounts of information if they are presented with them in pieces instead of all at once. The best analogy I can think of (I just woke up) is how when I spend money on unimportant things, I will have a hard time talking myself into buying something for say (made-up numbers here) $50, but can blow $100 total on $5-10 junk one at a time because each purchase looks like it won't be that big of a deal. Of course this analogy works literally for considering many people's purchasing decisions regarding T5 too, not just how much they have to mentally "swallow". So I think that if this BBB had been broken up into three books like CT, or even like MT, more people will be likely to buy it. But I'm not trying to be harsh though, I know Marc was concentrating on the actual game, and there were time constraints given how long it was in production, and then used the KS to try and hurry things up; I'd probably have done the same thing unfortunately. But I think this is the reality given that he/we want the thing to be sold for money. I guess time will tell for sure. This is just my hypothesis touched on by BadgerLord, because I don't find T5 more complicated than MT, less so in many areas, it just has more areas in one place.

 

[robject]

I just got my copy a few days ago. I agree with the OP the book is just plain awesome. It looks great, can be used as a bullet stopper, the art is good, it screams Traveller!

With that said, after a in depth skimming of the book, this is the first version of Traveller that is just too much for me. Too verbose, too much complicated math, too much man, too much.

[snip]

Its scope is ambitious. Instead of a dozen supplements, it's all wrapped up into one book.

It might help -- a lot -- to identify, and perhaps subordinate, the sections (and sub-sections!) which are optional or "advanced topics".

I'm going to start a thread on just that.

And, of course, examples examples examples, both easy and difficult.

 

[HG_B]

Yeah, to be candid I've been thinking for a while that the T5 nearly-all-in-one approach was great from game design perspective, but far less so from a marketing one (which is something I hate to consider, but that's part of reality for now). It just seems like most people will have an easier time with large amounts of information if they are presented with them in pieces instead of all at once.

Not really the problem here. The problem is being presented with a MASSIVE amount of data poorly formatted, incompletely explained & demonstrated.