Interview with Marc Miller

[Leitz]

Do I detect a bad experience or two?

As any successful writer will tell you, a good story needs conflict. The 'OMG what do we do now?' thrill is what makes the story interesting.

But all that is about the Referee and the players, it's independent of any rules system and has no bearing on Traveller as a game.

Who?? Me??

I've had a D&D DM like that once, I left the game. We started great and then were to be tossed in a mine slave labor where he expected the players to be happy to fast forward a few years. Idjit...

But Traveller refs and modules, even game reports I've seen lately, still seem to be a bit of the "You're in a bad place, now get out." habit. When I create a character that I like, I'm also creating his goals and sharing them with the DM. Those goals tend to be pretty big and provide enough challenge for anyone. Whatever the DM has is just icing on the cake.

I think T5 is going to cause some issues unless folks start cranking out gear. The rules aren't bad, though I prefer CT concpets. However, there's so much background gearhead stuff that needs doing that you're going to be in "stuff creation" mode for a while.

Granted, for some folks that is the game. I used to be really hyped about ship design, even if I wasn't good at it. T5 gives you a lot of design decisions to make. So if you're a gear head gamer for any aspect, T5 would be a good buy. I could see the emergence of an entire CoTI meritocracy based on weapons systems, ship design, planetary and system data.

L

 

[Sturn]

To me, T-5 is an over-engineerd, over complicated cram-everything-into-one-stuffed-box. After looking over everything that's going into T-5, I wouldn't use over 20% or so of the material. So why would I want to pay for the other 80%? This is not a value purchase.

I might have thought this also until I considered the "beta" material's intention.

The idea (T5 experts tell me if I'm wrong) was to get all of the rule systems in place first. The final, print product will not be the massive number of pages on the CD. I'm assuming the first printing will be several books in the CT tradition, or a BBB perhaps with supplements to follow. All of this information is not intended for one book.

Why design the entire system, including supplemental material, from the start? Why not just release the core then add on supplements? To avoid hiccups and errata to the core rules when making the supplements. Several game systems have come out with supplements that leads to changes or poor integration with the original core rules. Look at some of Mongoose Traveller's supplements. There are already several changes brought about by later releases. Getting all of the supplemental material together before publication avoids having to do this. The later print releases won't have to make changes.

I agree the CD release is a hodge podge of information that you have to study to understand. I however do love the idea of a complete set of massive rules being put in place as the base for a final line of products.

 

[beowulf2044]

I'm not a 'gear-head'. So for those who self-identify with this concept, then it appears that T-5 was made for you. It wasn't made for me.

 

[Icosahedron]

When I create a character that I like, I'm also creating his goals and sharing them with the DM. Those goals tend to be pretty big and provide enough challenge for anyone. Whatever the DM has is just icing on the cake.

Hmm. We all tend to identify with our characters - that's what the game is about, but if a player's goals for his character are too 'big', they can border on munchkinism. The GM has to juggle the goals of all the PCs and integrate them into one coherent story, which is a bit more than icing the cake - unless you're the only player, of course. One-on-ones are different, but in a group game, often not everyone will get everything they want, especially if some players have big goals for their characters and some players have more mundane ambitions.

I agree, though, dropping previously successful PCs into a slave mine for several years is not the same as opening a story with an escape attempt, or having them in the mine for no longer than it takes them to engineer an escape - both of which would be acceptable plots IMO.

 

[Icosahedron]

I'm not a 'gear-head'. So for those who self-identify with this concept, then it appears that T-5 was made for you. It wasn't made for me.

This was the beauty of CT. If you wanted simple, you could design your ships with LBB2, if you wanted gearhead you used LBB5. If you wanted simple, you could conduct trade with LBB2, if you wanted gearhead you used LBB7. If you wanted simple, you designed worlds with LBB3, if you wanted gearhead you used LBB6.
Initially, it also had the stated goal to act as a framework, so that the Referee and players made what they wanted of it, leaving little for canonistas to argue over (until the supplements and the OTU bloated the game later).
The system may have had integration problems, but in many ways it was all things to all people, 'made for everyone', and maybe that is part of its continued success and popularity.

 

[aramis]

Bk 5 wasn't terribly gearheady, tho', especially compared to Striker...

 

[Antony]

Well I wish T5 well if it is ever released. I too have the CD. Going through it my players and I decided we will use Gurps Traveller for character generation and TNE/FF&S1 for everyting else.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Tentatively impressed...

Reading MWM might actually get me to buy T5, if for nothing else than a refernce source.

As one person elegantly said, CT was worthwhile, warts and all, because you could plug and play with as mucgh complexity as you wanted. I can become an obesessive gearhead, but found out that my players didn't care that the jump drive adjustment port needed a 2.5mm star screwdriver for access. Now i gearhead in the background, so if they break something, i can at least sound convincing when they wonder why their ship is falling into the sun...

And I have looked over most of the TRAVELLER systems. I Work with CT but steal...errr...borrow pieces from everything else. I like having the MT secondary characteristics handy on a character sheet. I read FF&S frequently for ideas. I like having the TNE contacts available for adventure ideas. Mix and match, file off serial numbers, whatever it takes!