What are the books about, and worth having?

[Cymew]

Hi!

T4 don't seems to be anyones favourite, but quite a few books were printed. Some of them have kind of opaque titles, though. What are they about? Psionic Institutes for examples. Is it about those institues, psi rules, a psi campaign?

And most important of all, are any of them good for plundering for material for other eras and rules?

 

[Cymew]

Hi!

T4 don't seems to be anyones favourite, but quite a few books were printed. Some of them have kind of opaque titles, though. What are they about? Psionic Institutes for examples. Is it about those institues, psi rules, a psi campaign?

And most important of all, are any of them good for plundering for material for other eras and rules?

 

[Granpafishy]

Greetings,
Well T4 is my favourite of the existing versions but there are a LOT of editorial problems, which is why I it think it went flop. As for the Psionic Institutes, then answer is yes to all three questions. As for era plundering, I believe they are worth it, but I'm sure there are others that would disagree with me. As far as rules, well as I said I like them, especialy when combined with the errata available and the T5 playtest materials.

 

[Granpafishy]

Greetings,
Well T4 is my favourite of the existing versions but there are a LOT of editorial problems, which is why I it think it went flop. As for the Psionic Institutes, then answer is yes to all three questions. As for era plundering, I believe they are worth it, but I'm sure there are others that would disagree with me. As far as rules, well as I said I like them, especialy when combined with the errata available and the T5 playtest materials.

 

[Whipsnade]

Cymew,

Yes, T4 does seem to be the red-headed step child of the Traveller ouevre. However, you are correct is thinking that some T4 materials are worth plundering. IMHO, they are Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, and Psionic Institutes. The rest of T4 can be used as bird cage fodder, especially First Survey, Starships, CSC, Emperor's Arsenal, and Anomalies.

First Survey illustrates the problem with T4 and Imperial Games. Ever planet listed has the same gov't code and Vland, the Vilani homeworld, has a population of 40,000. That isn't an editorial problem, or a hole in the rules, or a lack of proof reading. It is an indication of simply not giving a sh*t about doing the job at hand.

The three books I mentioned have their faults and omissions; like the lack of the much referenced 'Family Social Standing' table in PE, but they can be easily 'ported into your campaigns and they contain a wealth of materials to plunder.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

Cymew,

Yes, T4 does seem to be the red-headed step child of the Traveller ouevre. However, you are correct is thinking that some T4 materials are worth plundering. IMHO, they are Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, and Psionic Institutes. The rest of T4 can be used as bird cage fodder, especially First Survey, Starships, CSC, Emperor's Arsenal, and Anomalies.

First Survey illustrates the problem with T4 and Imperial Games. Ever planet listed has the same gov't code and Vland, the Vilani homeworld, has a population of 40,000. That isn't an editorial problem, or a hole in the rules, or a lack of proof reading. It is an indication of simply not giving a sh*t about doing the job at hand.

The three books I mentioned have their faults and omissions; like the lack of the much referenced 'Family Social Standing' table in PE, but they can be easily 'ported into your campaigns and they contain a wealth of materials to plunder.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Granpafishy]

The rest of T4 can be used as bird cage fodder, especially First Survey, Starships, CSC, Emperor's Arsenal, and Anomalies.

I agree with you totaly on First Survey, but I feel it needed to defend CSC (Central Supply Catalog). It does provides a lot of ready equipment for use. I've searched over a lot games for a good gathering of Sci-Fi equipment, and CSC seams to be the best around.

 

[Granpafishy]

The rest of T4 can be used as bird cage fodder, especially First Survey, Starships, CSC, Emperor's Arsenal, and Anomalies.

I agree with you totaly on First Survey, but I feel it needed to defend CSC (Central Supply Catalog). It does provides a lot of ready equipment for use. I've searched over a lot games for a good gathering of Sci-Fi equipment, and CSC seams to be the best around.

 

[Whipsnade]

Granpafishy wrote:

"... I feel it needed to defend CSC (Central Supply Catalog). It does provides a lot of ready equipment for use. I've searched over a lot games for a good gathering of Sci-Fi equipment, and CSC seams to be the best around."


Sir,

Let me edit my reply to Cymew's question; I should not have included CSC in the list of utterly useless T4 products.

Blame it on a misfiring neuron.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

Granpafishy wrote:

"... I feel it needed to defend CSC (Central Supply Catalog). It does provides a lot of ready equipment for use. I've searched over a lot games for a good gathering of Sci-Fi equipment, and CSC seams to be the best around."


Sir,

Let me edit my reply to Cymew's question; I should not have included CSC in the list of utterly useless T4 products.

Blame it on a misfiring neuron.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[T. Foster]

CSC gets a bad rap because of 1) its bland and uninspired layout/design -- from the title I was expecting something like the Cyberpunk Chrome Books (lots of in-milieu flavor text, lots of nice illustrations), not just a really big equipment list, 2) the Vehicle Design system in the back, which, while probably perfectly fine on its own, is utterly incompatible with every Traveller craft design system both before and since. That said, if you can forgive 1 and ignore 2, it's probably worth the $8 or so it'll probably cost on ebay (as opposed to the totally worthless T4 books: Starships, First Survey, Anomalies, Emperor's Vehicles, Naval Architect's Manual, Missions of State, and The Annililik Run).

 

[T. Foster]

CSC gets a bad rap because of 1) its bland and uninspired layout/design -- from the title I was expecting something like the Cyberpunk Chrome Books (lots of in-milieu flavor text, lots of nice illustrations), not just a really big equipment list, 2) the Vehicle Design system in the back, which, while probably perfectly fine on its own, is utterly incompatible with every Traveller craft design system both before and since. That said, if you can forgive 1 and ignore 2, it's probably worth the $8 or so it'll probably cost on ebay (as opposed to the totally worthless T4 books: Starships, First Survey, Anomalies, Emperor's Vehicles, Naval Architect's Manual, Missions of State, and The Annililik Run).

 

[Cymew]

So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

 

[Cymew]

So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Cymew:
So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

Pocket Empires has inspiring commentary and exacting rules about how to grow your own Pocket Empire. Like the rest of the T4 corpus, it suffers from Rules Bloat, with a seemingly fractal pattern of details upon details, but the results (if automated with a computer program) can be sublime, enlightening, and probably deadly accurate, if they're not broken that is. That said, it's boring to play as a solo thing, or rather, one wants to ignore or fudge the detail after pushing the pencil and calculator around for a bit.

Psionic Institutes talks about the PIs, where to find them, how to rate them, what they offer based on their rating, what their overall quality and specialty is, etc. Very useful if you need a PI reference, reasonably milieu independent and bug-free. It also enumerates the 'special psionic skills' inside of it (the core rules only have the main psionic skills).

Central Supply Catalog is an interesting equipment catalog, not unlike an expanded version of the equipment list in the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia. It's divided up into sections based on equipment category, and each category ends with a summary list of equipment, TL, mass, price... The front of the book has a bonus section enumerating some random "Imperial Surplus" that's "up for grabs" on a first-come, first-served basis. And as mentioned earlier, the vehicles section has a vehicle design system loosely based on Fire, Fusion, and Steel. Again, it's a high-detail system, but it yields nice results if you've got the patience to use it. All of the vehicles in the book were generated thus, and one of them is a neat 4-dton "grav fighter" -- a ship that relies on a local planetary mass for its drive system -- that can pull 17 G's! An admirably elusive and obnoxious target indeed.

Rob

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Cymew:
So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

Pocket Empires has inspiring commentary and exacting rules about how to grow your own Pocket Empire. Like the rest of the T4 corpus, it suffers from Rules Bloat, with a seemingly fractal pattern of details upon details, but the results (if automated with a computer program) can be sublime, enlightening, and probably deadly accurate, if they're not broken that is. That said, it's boring to play as a solo thing, or rather, one wants to ignore or fudge the detail after pushing the pencil and calculator around for a bit.

Psionic Institutes talks about the PIs, where to find them, how to rate them, what they offer based on their rating, what their overall quality and specialty is, etc. Very useful if you need a PI reference, reasonably milieu independent and bug-free. It also enumerates the 'special psionic skills' inside of it (the core rules only have the main psionic skills).

Central Supply Catalog is an interesting equipment catalog, not unlike an expanded version of the equipment list in the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia. It's divided up into sections based on equipment category, and each category ends with a summary list of equipment, TL, mass, price... The front of the book has a bonus section enumerating some random "Imperial Surplus" that's "up for grabs" on a first-come, first-served basis. And as mentioned earlier, the vehicles section has a vehicle design system loosely based on Fire, Fusion, and Steel. Again, it's a high-detail system, but it yields nice results if you've got the patience to use it. All of the vehicles in the book were generated thus, and one of them is a neat 4-dton "grav fighter" -- a ship that relies on a local planetary mass for its drive system -- that can pull 17 G's! An admirably elusive and obnoxious target indeed.

Rob

 

[Granpafishy]

Originally posted by Cymew:
So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

Imperial Squadrons covers all detail on "Fleet, System, & Subsector" engagements. It also covers operational costs. And provides the rules for "Billion Credit, and Trillion Credit Squadrons" for T4. It does need Pocket Empire to be fully usable though

 

[Granpafishy]

Originally posted by Cymew:
So, since quite a few agree on recommending say:
Pocket Empires, Imperial Squadrons, Psionic Institutes and Central Supply Catalog,

would someone care to enlighten me a bit about the contents? What are they about?

Imperial Squadrons covers all detail on "Fleet, System, & Subsector" engagements. It also covers operational costs. And provides the rules for "Billion Credit, and Trillion Credit Squadrons" for T4. It does need Pocket Empire to be fully usable though

 

[jchurchill]

Pocket Empires has inspiring commentary and exacting rules about how to grow your own Pocket Empire. Like the rest of the T4 corpus, it suffers from Rules Bloat, with a seemingly fractal pattern of details upon details, but the results (if automated with a computer program) can be sublime, enlightening, and probably deadly accurate, if they're not broken that is. That said, it's boring to play as a solo thing, or rather, one wants to ignore or fudge the detail after pushing the pencil and calculator around for a bit
=================================================
Is this bloated gem still available? If not and only available used is it hard to find?

 

[jchurchill]

Pocket Empires has inspiring commentary and exacting rules about how to grow your own Pocket Empire. Like the rest of the T4 corpus, it suffers from Rules Bloat, with a seemingly fractal pattern of details upon details, but the results (if automated with a computer program) can be sublime, enlightening, and probably deadly accurate, if they're not broken that is. That said, it's boring to play as a solo thing, or rather, one wants to ignore or fudge the detail after pushing the pencil and calculator around for a bit
=================================================
Is this bloated gem still available? If not and only available used is it hard to find?