What's Coming in T5

[Blue Ghost]

Yes. Yes he does.

There are no "levels" or XP in T5. Skills can be increased through use.

Would now be an inappropriate time to ask for a Traveller group "Hallelujah!" Would it?

Seriously, thank you. A ton of reasons for this. Too many to list. I can go spackle the down stairs bedroom in peace now.

 

[Vile]

There are no "levels" or XP in T5. Skills can be increased through use.

It's the way of the future.

Can they be increased through training?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Probably (I couldn't find that bit).

 

[robject]

I can't believe my eyes. Please confirm. Are you telling us that T5 will include a weapon design system that produces CT compatible weapons?

I can use T5 to build a weapon, and I can end up with, say, the SMG, with all the Range stats, Armor stats, and DEX bonus/penalties?

Are you really saying that? Or something else?

S4:
It produces enough data to use it with MGT; it's not producing CT-style tables. Damages are in the same range as CT, tho'

Wil is right. Damage is in line with CT; it doesn't produce DEX mods. Sorry to get your hopes up.

On the other hand, I wonder if there's a simple fix. T5 weapons have a Burden DM. Perhaps that could be part of the DEX bonus/penalty for CT. I haven't done any comparisons to see how closely they resemble one another.

A damage conversion suffices to use it with MGT.

 

[Supplement Four]

Wil is right. Damage is in line with CT; it doesn't produce DEX mods. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Crud.

I've wanted a design system that creates CT tables for years, decades, even.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I've wanted a design system that creates CT tables for years, decades, even.

So write one!

 

[robject]

Crud.

I've wanted a design system that creates CT tables for years, decades, even.

It's not perfect, but in 30 minutes I extended T5's gun construction rules to produce DEX targets close to those in TTB -- in fact they're only off for the Laser Carbine. I also figured out how to approximate the armor and range DMs. That would take another 30 minutes to build, then perhaps some time to tune because I suspect the correlations aren't quite as straightforward as in the DEX mods.

If you want a less-biased opinion about my solution, ask Wil / Aramis.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Another question; is there any chance that the life expectancy of characters will be lengthened? I ask because over the years I've heard a lot of talk about removing the "aging gene"/"genes" and toxins from the human genome and environment. Allegedly this is supposed to increase our life span many fold. It's not quite anagathics, but something akin to it.

 

[robject]

I don't think they're significantly lengthened.

 

[aramis]

It's not perfect, but in 30 minutes I extended T5's gun construction rules to produce DEX targets close to those in TTB -- in fact they're only off for the Laser Carbine. I also figured out how to approximate the armor and range DMs. That would take another 30 minutes to build, then perhaps some time to tune because I suspect the correlations aren't quite as straightforward as in the DEX mods.

If you want a less-biased opinion about my solution, ask Wil / Aramis.

Rob basically is saying he can get the two easiest components to fudge out of it... and completely ignoring the to-hit mods components (which is 90% of the tables...)

To make CT weapon tables, you'll be rewriting most of it anyway. The process can be made to work, but deconstructing the extant tables is probably more effort than its worth.

 

[rancke]

Another question; is there any chance that the life expectancy of characters will be lengthened? I ask because over the years I've heard a lot of talk about removing the "aging gene"/"genes" and toxins from the human genome and environment. Allegedly this is supposed to increase our life span many fold. It's not quite anagathics, but something akin to it.

Even leaving out genetic tinkering, life expectancy should be linked to the TL of the medical care the individual has access to. The present aging rolls works fine for TL6, but are not plausible for higher tech levels.

Sadly, this is one of the Traveller tropes that are so deply embedded that fixing it may be more trouble than it's worth. Like the flat galaxy, it is probably better to ignore it.


Hans

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, if T5 is still a working draft, then it should be easy to amend.

 

[robject]

Rob basically is saying he can get the two easiest components to fudge out of it... and completely ignoring the to-hit mods components (which is 90% of the tables...)

To make CT weapon tables, you'll be rewriting most of it anyway. The process can be made to work, but deconstructing the extant tables is probably more effort than its worth.

And in T5, it would involve reverse engineering the tables into something more consistent. It's not all that difficult; it won't produce the semi-arbitrary results. It will smooth some areas, but the result would be just as playable.

 

[DangerousThing]

Even leaving out genetic tinkering, life expectancy should be linked to the TL of the medical care the individual has access to. The present aging rolls works fine for TL6, but are not plausible for higher tech levels.

Sadly, this is one of the Traveller tropes that are so deply embedded that fixing it may be more trouble than it's worth. Like the flat galaxy, it is probably better to ignore it.


Hans

I agree with Rancke2, though I would add in genetic tinkering. The medical science doesn't seem to keep up with the other sciences. I don't see any reason why the life-span of humans is essentially equal to today's. A spot of genetic tinkering and we could live for hundreds of years.

I even had a campaign where this had occurred (average lifespan of 300 years), and am working on an SF webcomic in a similar background.
-
Jay

 

[stealth]

I read once where statisticians worked out that people couldn't live past 300 years because accidents would kill them by then. So good guess.

 

[Original_Carl]

The aging question is a good one, but I think gravity has more to do with our lifespan than a genetic limitation.

Although, now that I think about it, rather than genetic tinkering maybe fiddling with the programming of your cells could cause them to regenerate indefinitely and so, aside from accidents, you could have a character that lived forever.

Isn't this what anagathics are supposed to address?

 

[DangerousThing]

I read once where statisticians worked out that people couldn't live past 300 years because accidents would kill them by then. So good guess.

I've heard a different statistic that says that the average lifespan - assuming no aging/disease - would be about 2,000 years. And no, I don't remember if this is mean, median, mode, or any of the other definitions of "average." This sounds more likely to me than 300 years but math doesn't always make intuitive sense to me.

 

[DangerousThing]

The aging question is a good one, but I think gravity has more to do with our lifespan than a genetic limitation.

Although, now that I think about it, rather than genetic tinkering maybe fiddling with the programming of your cells could cause them to regenerate indefinitely and so, aside from accidents, you could have a character that lived forever.

Isn't this what anagathics are supposed to address?

Removing the genetic limitation on aging and adding in protection from disease and such doesn't mean somebody would live forever. Don't forget there is still accident and murder.

Anagathics were, as I remember, extremely expensive and rare. A genetic solution would be much less expensive and might be inheritable.

I strongly feel that lifespans in Traveller are too short. I would start at around 150 years and go up with better medical care.

Any society where the rich could make themselves live for much longer than average would be rather different from our current society. The very rich would be extremely old and would control society to a far greater extent than the rich do today.