Book 8: Dilettante!
- Thread starter zonk
- Start date
spinwardpirate
SOC-13
I'd give an opinion, but I haven't seen a copy. From the original post, I'm guessing it has hit the stores.
Just bought it.
Looks good on initial viewing, there is one very unfortunate art selection, but the rest of the book does have good content-related material. Ultimately, that's what it is about right?
Content:
Again, just on first scan, I like what I see. Lots of options and ideas for running a campaign of the filthy rich. Solid mechanics for things like parties (at least the costs and the rule mechanic effects of them) and some good examples of the more outre predilections of the fabulously wealthy. There is more detail on Social Standing which is always good. The Addiction and drug rules look solid.
Presentation:
Generally decent, not either good or great.
Art in the opening sections for the individual professions (there are 21, and that is pretty good in and of itself) is lacking entirely in some cases. I liked how Agent and Psion did it, but 21 is a lot of different options, so I can spot MgT that small concession
It comes in lighter than the other books of this type at under 100 pages, but overall it looks good and may well get a lot of play in my campaigns.
One annoyance I've noticed. The Ship plans are numbered, but I see no key for what the numbers correspond to. Some things (Bridges and that sort) are obvious, but others are just rooms with numbers in them that give you little to figure out what they might be.
Looks good on initial viewing, there is one very unfortunate art selection, but the rest of the book does have good content-related material. Ultimately, that's what it is about right?
Content:
Again, just on first scan, I like what I see. Lots of options and ideas for running a campaign of the filthy rich. Solid mechanics for things like parties (at least the costs and the rule mechanic effects of them) and some good examples of the more outre predilections of the fabulously wealthy. There is more detail on Social Standing which is always good. The Addiction and drug rules look solid.
Presentation:
Generally decent, not either good or great.
Art in the opening sections for the individual professions (there are 21, and that is pretty good in and of itself) is lacking entirely in some cases. I liked how Agent and Psion did it, but 21 is a lot of different options, so I can spot MgT that small concession
It comes in lighter than the other books of this type at under 100 pages, but overall it looks good and may well get a lot of play in my campaigns.
One annoyance I've noticed. The Ship plans are numbered, but I see no key for what the numbers correspond to. Some things (Bridges and that sort) are obvious, but others are just rooms with numbers in them that give you little to figure out what they might be.
lucasdigital
SOC-12
Re:Ship plans. They're my work, and my keys probably didn't appear as a result of their late submission. I'll do my best to get the keys made available, maybe as an errata PDF.
Mk
Mk
I can understand, truly. Those things do happen, especially with time crunches. I do cartography for HERO and I started to just attach the keys onto the artwork itself (although the editor was always very good about including the keys in the text, I just started including the keys for the sake of completeness). Sometimes it makes for a tight squeeze but overall I've had good results. Not of course that anyone else has to do that
Also btw, they look very good in pdf form. Very clean even at high resolution, far better than some of the earlier pdfs in terms of image quality. Keep that up, looks great. Beyond that technical point, these are nice designs in and of themselves aesthetically.
Also btw, they look very good in pdf form. Very clean even at high resolution, far better than some of the earlier pdfs in terms of image quality. Keep that up, looks great. Beyond that technical point, these are nice designs in and of themselves aesthetically.
Folks should understand, it covers the filthy rich, NOT the nobility. There is some mention of the nobility in the section covering comparative social standings, but the book doesnt cover them.
I suspect we will see Book "x" : Nobles in the future.
I suspect we will see Book "x" : Nobles in the future.
Borrowed a friend's copy.
The non-deckplan art really left me cold.
CGen is interesting.
It does, however, give us a canonical rate of return on investments for the MGT setting... unfortunately it's higher than other Traveller materials would imply.
(Dilletant produces 3-7% APR returns on an investment portfolio --- essentially modern --- but Traveller ship loans are considerably lower ROI, 1.7% APR... where what I've seen shows modern shipping loans to be about 10% APR, with modern portfolio returns of 3-10%, mostly 3-4%... with inflation right about 2.2-3.5% per annum.... which means if shipping loans are the same relationship, it should be 0.5-1% per annum inflation, and probably about 1-2% APR ROI on investments. Or starship loans are massively subsidized...)
The non-deckplan art really left me cold.
CGen is interesting.
It does, however, give us a canonical rate of return on investments for the MGT setting... unfortunately it's higher than other Traveller materials would imply.
(Dilletant produces 3-7% APR returns on an investment portfolio --- essentially modern --- but Traveller ship loans are considerably lower ROI, 1.7% APR... where what I've seen shows modern shipping loans to be about 10% APR, with modern portfolio returns of 3-10%, mostly 3-4%... with inflation right about 2.2-3.5% per annum.... which means if shipping loans are the same relationship, it should be 0.5-1% per annum inflation, and probably about 1-2% APR ROI on investments. Or starship loans are massively subsidized...)
You just learn to treat your rich character's portfolio as an Ally in its own right, possibly with outlets in every port, small caches of wealth salted away like a squirrel's larder, held in safety deposit boxes in various banks, hidden in burial plots allocated to local branches of the character's family and so on.
Perhaps a Noble or Dilettante with such a portfolio could be the characters' ship's owner, bankrolling it if they go where she tells them to and so on.
Perhaps a Noble or Dilettante with such a portfolio could be the characters' ship's owner, bankrolling it if they go where she tells them to and so on.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
Putting this on the must read list. Can't have enough books about the decadent rich and alien drug addicts. Excellent.
Similar threads
