Will T20 ever be updated?

[MrMorden]

I have been playing Traveller since 1978, and I think T20 is the best version yet. However, I am a bit worried about the future of T20.

Will the d20 Traveller rules ever be updated, or more to the point...fixed? Space combat, computers, the overall organization of the book (like the fact medical equipment has its own section but does not appear in the equipment table!), and some other aspects are pretty broken. I can certainly fix these things on my own, but if there is going to be a T20 2.0 or something that will address these things in an "official" way, I can spend my time doing other things.

Was T20 just a one-shot book to bring Traveller to the d20 lovers? After all, there have been few real supplements for it, and certainly none that meet my "must have" criteria.

What about the mysterious T5? Will it be d20/T20 based, or something else entrirely? My current group plays a lot of D&D, and the only way I was able to lure them into Traveller was the fact that it uses 85% of the same rules. I'm really hoping for some more hardcover books, and updates/fixes to the current T20 rules...

...am I just peeing in the wind here?

Thanks!

 

[Spinward Scout]

I wonder if someone should give Hunter a 'helping hand' with this. I know a bunch of us voluteered for him a while ago, but he's incommunicado at this time. Maybe give the Spycraft people a call and see if they want a Spycraft Traveller?

 

[Falkayn]

There are a lot of books in the works for T20, and as a Moot Subscriber I can certainly attest that many of them are nearly done, 2320AD and the T20 Players Guide being the closest. It's the 80/20 rule, the last 20% takes 80% of the effort (layout, art, final edits, etc).

Real Life intervenes for all of us from time to time. I am confident however that Hunter and Martin will get things moving again soon.

 

[Michael Taylor]

Hi MrMorden

Not sure what you mean by "After all, there have been few real supplements for it". I have written over 250,000 words for T20 in the form of supplements, a sourcebook and adventures in the last 18 months. Is that not enough? And i'm not even the most prolific of the T20 writers. Martin is.

There are 8 TAs, with 4 more written waiting on art.
There are 7 Epic adventures set in the gateway domain.
There is the gateway to destiny sourcebook in print.
There is the 1248, T-2320 and player guidebook written waiting on production.
There are 2 golden age epic adventures with 1 to be written.
There are the Avenger titles, of which I did the golden age starships series (7 of them, 1 more being written). There are Martin's cluster books for the Marches coming up (one ready to post when Hunter re-emerges - called The Bowman Arm) and TNE adventures as well.

The above list constitutes over a million words over and above the orginal T20 book. Is there nothing in those million+ words that interests you? What are you looking for then?

regards

Michael

 

[MrMorden]

Originally posted by Michael Taylor:
Hi MrMorden

Not sure what you mean by "After all, there have been few real supplements for it". I have written over 250,000 words for T20 in the form of supplements, a sourcebook and adventures in the last 18 months. Is that not enough? And i'm not even the most prolific of the T20 writers. Martin is.

There are 8 TAs, with 4 more written waiting on art.
There are 7 Epic adventures set in the gateway domain.
There is the gateway to destiny sourcebook in print.
There is the 1248, T-2320 and player guidebook written waiting on production.
There are 2 golden age epic adventures with 1 to be written.
There are the Avenger titles, of which I did the golden age starships series (7 of them, 1 more being written). There are Martin's cluster books for the Marches coming up (one ready to post when Hunter re-emerges - called The Bowman Arm) and TNE adventures as well.

The above list constitutes over a million words over and above the orginal T20 book. Is there nothing in those million+ words that interests you? What are you looking for then?

regards

Michael

Michael, please don't be offended. What I really meant to say was that there are not that many supplements that appeal to me personally. I do all my work in the Spinward Marches, so Gateway to Destiny is not my cup of tea. The adventures are cool, and I own several of those.

The Player's Guidebook is REALLY interesting to me, that's the kind of thing I really want more of, an expansion of the general ruleset that fleshes things out better.

 

[Michael Taylor]

We will just have to wait until Hunter re-appears unfortunately. I'm waiting for the opportunitiy to publish all those manuscripts as much as you are.

 

[archhealer]

Just a question, for those in the know (And loosely connected to this topic):

A friend of mine somehow got his hands on some 'other' T-20 rules set and now he's bugging mme to let him use them (I said no) but the set includes a number of character classes I'm not familiar with, such as the corsair and a few others, as well as a variety of feats, class abilities, and skills that aren't in the THB. So, my question becomes, is this some bootleg version of the Players Guide, still in it's playtest mode, or is this a bootleg version of the playtest of the THB? As I'm sure it's a bootleg SOMETHING, and probably a playtest bootleg to BOOT (Hah!), I'm not going to use it, but I'll just be all the more excited if the Players Guide has more character and/or prestige class options for my devoted players...

 

[TheBrain]

Don't worry Arch what your pal has got is the playtest Player's Guide files that you down load from the Moot section of the website, after you pay for your subscription of course. I've been through it and most of it just brings things like classes and some gear from T4 and TNE into line for a T20 game (for example the survival kit oddly missing in the THB). Along with some common sense rules that D20 doesn't address like the free to most starship using classes crew member feat which gives a PC enough knowledge to keep them from killing themselves and others due to unitentional stupidity(you know how to don a vaccsuit, get in a rescue ball, what an airlock release looks like and when the radiation detecor changes into pretty colors its time to leave.) None of it is a game breaker and as long your friend doesn't start handing out copies your not party to a crime.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Yeah, it's not a crime to use playtest material in your game -- that's what "playtest material" is for, to be tested in play. As long as no one is trying to sell it or distribute copies to others, it's OK.

As the Ref, you still have the right to look it over beforehand and decide what you will and will not allow. But as far as I can tell, most of it is not game-breaking. We use some of it in one of the campaigns I play in, mostly pieces of equipment and one of the characters uses one of the new classes (Medic) with some related new skills and feats.

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

MrMorden, with a little work, the adventures in the TAs and the Epic Adventures can be tweaked to be run in the Spinward Marches. I have a friend that runs all his gaming sessions in the Marches and he has adapted a couple of the EAs for there.

Hmm... That would explain all the writing he was doing a few months ago.

 

[Jame]

Ooo! OOOOO!!!

I have a question: which edition of D&D is T20 most compatible with, 3 or 3.5?

 

[far-trader]

Good question actually. It was all done before 3.5 so I'd guess 3.0 but what I recall of the differences I don't think there's anything that would cause a problem using 3.5 either.

 

[archhealer]

I always use the 3.5 rules. THe only things that really change for T20 are a couple of skills have to be switched around, and the rules for ambidexterity and fighting with two weapons are different... Other than that, I think 3.5 brings up a slightly smaller number of bugs in the system. Either one will work fine though, i'm sure.

On an unrelated, earlier comment: The playtest version of the players guide. Thanks for the input! I may in fact, on a case by case basis, allow him to use some of the material, that being the case. I'm really excited to get my hands on it now.

 

[Qstor2]

I'm not on the Moot but I was curious if there are any plans to convert T20 over to the D20 Modern SRD material similiar to what the publisher of Darwin's World did?

Just wondering...

thanks!

Mike

 

[Flynn]

Mike,

You probably won't see T20 updated to the MSRD, at least in work by Quiklink. If they do update T20, last I heard Hunter was considering a near-classless approach. However, there's nothing to stop you from doing the work on your own, though you wouldn't be able to sell it using the Traveller name without getting a license from Marc W. Miller.

Hope that helps,
Flynn

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Michael Taylor: The above list constitutes over a million words over and above the orginal T20 book. Is there nothing in those million+ words that interests you? What are you looking for then?

Personally, I am looking for things in print. T20H, GtD, the screen, and the weapons list, and that's it for print products. I've got them all.

I got one TA with my original Moot subscription, but honestly, I can't read PDFs and can't afford to print it, so I've only glanced at the one I have.

I own no other QLI products, and won't until they are in print. <fingers crossed />

Give me dead trees.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Yes, it would be nice of the T20 PDFs were sold by one of the Websites that allows buyers to print on demand.

 

[Cymew]

I know that Hunter is taking care of real-life issues at the moment, but are there anyone out there that have contact with him that can act as stand-in in order to get some of the manuscripts published and updates to the site done?

The RPG business is in a very sensitive state right now, and I think some visibility would be nice for the longevity of the game line.

If it can't be done, though, so much more understandable...

 

[Qstor2]

Originally posted by Flynn:
Mike,

You probably won't see T20 updated to the MSRD, at least in work by Quiklink. If they do update T20, last I heard Hunter was considering a near-classless approach. However, there's nothing to stop you from doing the work on your own, though you wouldn't be able to sell it using the Traveller name without getting a license from Marc W. Miller.

Hope that helps,
Flynn

I wasn't planning on selling any I was just curious

I know Thomas low Jones has been doing some stuff on the boards here with D20 Future notes.

thanks!
Mike