What do I really need from the BIG T5 book?

[cym0k]

Hello

First post as I dip into Traveller. Playing T5, or thinking about it. The game, system, whole thing looks wonderful.

Once I have a few ships, players and characters and the equipment organised (mostly from efforts across COTI and Google+) what do I honestly need when running T5?

My thoughts are: the core mechanic for tasks, personal combat and ship to ship combat (with weapon stats, armour stats, modifiers and so forth).

Am I missing something? I see a game progressing through 'do stuff, shoot stuff, fly around and shoot stuff, interact etc'. Everything else at a game level is just additional crunch or fluff. This of course can be interspersed with anything from politics to comedy in spaaaaaace. o:

Out of the 600+ pages, did I miss something rather more important than what I am thinking?

 

[Vladika]

Hello

First post as I dip into Traveller. Playing T5, or thinking about it. The game, system, whole thing looks wonderful.

Once I have a few ships, players and characters and the equipment organised (mostly from efforts across COTI and Google+) what do I honestly need when running T5?

My thoughts are: the core mechanic for tasks, personal combat and ship to ship combat (with weapon stats, armour stats, modifiers and so forth).

Am I missing something? I see a game progressing through 'do stuff, shoot stuff, fly around and shoot stuff, interact etc'. Everything else at a game level is just additional crunch or fluff. This of course can be interspersed with anything from politics to comedy in spaaaaaace. o:

Out of the 600+ pages, did I miss something rather more important than what I am thinking?

No...

 

[robject]

If the players like shopping lists, copy off the equipment list.

 

[robject]

Also, if you need to do any semi-random mapping, I suggest using the T5 mapping instructions.

You'll also need some animal encounter tables: http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/animals/t5animals.pl

 

[cym0k]

Thanks for the input. I know it sounds like a dumb question, but I am scouring through T5 for the elements needed during table play.

I have gone through and compiled a series of pages (and reordered them) for character generation, the next sections for me (if I run the system) are the parts that make it tick.

Combat seems nice. I like the way that characteristics are affected rather than 'hit points'. Something I would like to house rule into my D&D games somehow!

The next big thing is to get players and a scenario or two.

 

[robject]

Combat seems nice. I like the way that characteristics are affected rather than 'hit points'. Something I would like to house rule into my D&D games somehow!

Whoa... you are young in the ways of Traveller, my brother.

But yes, you probably could house rule that into D&D. Probably, you would divide damage by character level, then apply it randomly to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

 

[cym0k]

Whoa... you are young in the ways of Traveller, my brother.

Controversial I know!! I play one session of CT a few years ago, and really didn't 'get it'. I think the GM did all the heavy lifting and that left the players with little to do. And if you think about the setting, character generation and so on, it leaves players with a bit stranded if it is all done for you with no real spiel to sell it.

Picking up T5 is another story. I just like diving in and wrestling with it.