w00t!

I came home from work, today (this sounds like the opening verse to a blues song) and found a package waiting for me ...

Bleedin' 'eck! You can land a Scout Ship on this.

Two packets? Or a packet and a box ...

And in the packet - a set of dice, a Travellers' Aid Society membership card in the name of Dietrich hault-Rauln (one of my few characters - I tend to GM more than I get the opportunity to be a player), a Jump Drive and two Cr25 coins.

Close-up of the TAS card - this is a really cool prop.

And inside the box - Captain Jamison's Beard! What a monster!

Two inches thick - you could repel a pack of Vargr boarders with it! Whatta book!

Marc signed the book himself - he signed all two thousand copies that went out to Kickstarter supporters. No wonder it took some time to get them all out.

And a patent of nobility ... pour moi?

Dietrich gets his gong. Another cool prop!

My favourite T5 quote so far is:

My God - it's full of tables.

Finally! X-Boat enroute.

I received this email tonight:

Marc Miller was hoping to have all Kickstarter pledges shipped by the end of June. Looks like mine just squeezed in. A year in the waiting, I'm really looking forward to finally getting hold of it.

At 2.4 parsecs per week, how long does an X-Boat take to get from Illinois to West Auckland?

Rumour has it, the book looks like this:

I hope to confirm very soon.

T5 Kickstarter in it's Final Days and Website Update #16

I talked about Traveller T5 going into Kickstarter back here. With only four days to go until the Kickstarter period ends, 1473 backers have signed up (ranging from 50 people committing $US1 each to show interest in the project to 8 people committing an eye-watering $US970 each to make this project fly) and over $US200,000 has been pledged.

After long thought, I committed to getting the book and the Jump Drive - essentially a .pdf copy on a flash drive - in spite of my earlier protestations. A chap using the handle Ojno the Red commented on my initial post, above, and his was the first piece of positive news I have heard from the very long development hell this project has languished in.

Will it satisfy everyone as a game system? I doubt it. The problem with Science Fiction is that there are many experts in specific fields and few generalists. This means that there is always someone ready to moan when you don't get a specific detail correct, no matter how unimportant it is to the general game or setting. And as it's a game, there will be those who love the game mechanics and those who don't. Cat Herding is an easier occupation than game designer.

So, I've staked my claim for a book for illogical reasons - just as well I'm not a Vulcan. I'm looking forward to reading the final book, and maybe running some Face-to-Face games as well. I think that once the rule book is out, setting and scenario material may very well follow - or you might actually have to use own your imagination, like we did back in the Little Black Book days, and make stuff up!

---

And in other news, I have just finished a big update of my modelling blog with new stuff I've finally finished painting. Those of you who are new here might like to take a look and see my other hobby - painting toy soldiers, specifically 15mm science fiction figures. I'm pretty pleased with the results (all the stuff I'm not pleased with gets tossed out the airlock).

T5 now in Kickstarter

A link popped up on Facebook yesterday that took me through to this Kickstarter page. After over a decade in development, it looks as if Traveller 5, or T5, is almost complete. From the blurb:

“This is Traveller’s 35th year, and Marc has worked for several years on what he calls the Ultimate Edition: Traveller5. It includes so many things that players have asked for, or that have been imperfectly handled previously. In fact, Marc recently said there are now systems and chapters that he didn’t know how to design way back then. But he does now, and they are included. T5 has technology beyond TL 15, clones, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, QREBS (!), alien senses, Flux. It has a whole series of easy-to-use Makers: GunMaker, VehicleMaker, ArmorMaker, RobotMaker, SophontMaker, ThingMaker. It includes mapping of star systems and worlds; there's ever the MOARN caveat: Map Only As Really Necessary, or referees would spend all their time just making maps of worlds and systems. There's a rationalized section on Psionics, and more, much more.”

Now, I was initially a bit sceptical about the final coming of T5. I still have all my Classic Traveller books, so being required to pledge $US140 (including postage to West Auckland) for a new, 600-page hardback version of the rules seemed a little steep. And while I like Mongoose Traveller, and have a lot of the MongTraveller supplements, I have yet to play it – so, again, is $US140 for a new version of the game really worth it to me?

Having watched Marc Miller’s pitch video on the Kickstarter page, I’m now in two minds about T5 – the Maker systems sound very interesting; like taking the design systems from High Guard, Striker, and Fire, Fusion and Steel and expanding them to cover all sorts of systems. The expansion of Tech Levels beyond TL 15 allows for items of Godtech to exist within your game, on a rational basis with other systems.

Part of me says, “we always just sketched it and winged it, because you do not need to count all the rivets to tell a story”, and part of me would really like some decent design tables.

I may very well end up taking the $US51 support option and get the rules on CD-ROM, or wait until they come out in print. Panzerboy Discontent is the only other blogger, I am aware of, to have mentioned the T5 Kickstarter, though there is a topic on the Mongoose Traveller Forum and on the Steve Jackson Games GURPs: Traveller forum.