A player found the Traveller 5th-edition book "too much to read" and asked for suggestions on what was "essential." I was pleased to read it all, every last table, no skimming (but I had to take it along on vacation to do it.)
I wrote up this summary for a player (IMHO):
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Have a look at Range Bands and Sizes, pages 36 and 54, to understand the terms in the Combat chapter.
There are range bands defined for many other measurements, such as Hot and Cold (in 25°C intervals), the Senses, etc. Hot and Cold damage is the square of the number of intervals away from standard 25°C temperature, in Hits/round. So mild cold one interval over (such as cold weather at 0°C) may do 1 Hit/round, but -100°C weather (5 intervals away) will do 25 Hits/round. The Referee will interpret bands for all measurements.
Read Character Generation pp. 58-111. Characteristics are the same as in Classic Traveller (STRength, DEXterity, ENDurance, INTelligence, EDUcation, and SOCial standing) and generated the same way for humans (on a 2d6 or "2D" roll), but there are Analog Characteristics that aliens might have (such as Agility or Grace instead of Dexterity). If a different characteristic is called for than your native characteristic, you will be allowed to use half of your own characteristic (round up). One exception: inherent Instinct counts as only an Education of 4, but beings with Instinct can generally act first because there is less "thinking" involved. Ranks are measured as Social, Charisma or Caste but may not mean much to alien races using a different characteristic.
A lot of typos exist in the Careers tables. You can download the errata so far from the first page of the T5 Errata forum on CotI (Citizens of the Imperium) (currently the errata version is 0.71). The most notable errata (IMHO!): the phase for Officer Promotion in many careers should be AHEAD of the phases for Commission (Enlisted-to-Officer) and then Enlisted Promotion, so that an Enlisted character can't get a Commission AND a Promotion in the same 4-year term. If an Enlisted character succeeds at a Commission, the next phase should correctly be Enlisted Promotion but they are ineligible, since they are no longer Enlisted but Officers.
If a Skill is divided into different Knowledges, you must apply the first two level-awards of the Skill to two different Knowledges or the same Knowledge. Third and later awards of Skill levels go to the Skill as a whole, and increase all Knowledges by 1 at the same time. There will always be one or two Knowledges higher than the main Skill. Exception: Some Knowledges will get an increase during character generation by special ways. A Knowledge can never be more than +6 higher than its main Skill.
Hemdian (bless him!) made a video about Character Generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElO4dKQNbyY
Tasks, Skills and Personals, pp. 124-189. The task system resembles what was introduced in MegaTraveller or Traveller 2300. A defined list of Skills follows and some Task Rolls you can do with the Skills are mentioned in each Skill. Characters get 4-6 skills per 4-year term during character generation.
To succeed at a Task, you have to roll LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO (shown just as <) your total (Characteristic+Skill+Knowledge) with a number of dice determined by the Difficulty Level of the Task.
There is a nifty interactive Task Roller calculator tab for T5 on Eaglestone's site (bless him AND canonize him):
http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/scripts/vilanitools.html
Roughly, I suggest you can convert to the T5 skill-level by taking a Classic Traveller skill-level, doubling and adding one. Some Skills are Default which means everyone gets 0 (they can do a roll on the skill, but the "This Is Hard" rule is always used since the Difficulty Level is always higher than their Skill of 0.) If a character's Skill (+ any Knowledge) is less than the Difficulty Level of the task, add another +1 Difficulty Level, hence "This Is Hard!").
If you roll 1's on any 3 dice, you get a "Spectacular Success" even if the roll failed numerically. If you roll 6's on any 3 dice, you get a "Spectacular Failure" even if the roll succeeded numerically. If you roll 3 1's and 3 6's, the result is "Spectacularly Interesting" (both spectacular positive AND negative consequences).
Personals are skills to build rapport with NPCs and see if you can persuade or coerce them to do what you want. You decide on the type of interaction, and there are Task rolls to see if you swayed an NPC, which are modified by different factors.
Combat, pages 210 - 235, uses the Task resolution system. The Difficulty Level (number of dice to roll) is determined by Range plus added difficulty based on type of attack (Regular, Autofire, Snapfire). If the Size of an object you are trying to aim at is less than the Range band of distance, you can't see it any more and you can't shoot at it. A standing person is Size 5, but if crouched or prone the Size will go down accordingly.
Browse the GunMaker and ArmorMaker sections as well, where gear is devised by the Referee based on Tech Level and QREBS (quality). Guns, other weapons, Armor, Vehicles, and generally all gear can improve with Tech Level: lighter, better quality, more features. See the Tech Level Stage Effects table; the one on p. 500 is authoritative [other tables elsewhere in the rules had errata and the notes say to go back to p. 500].
Successful attacks create damage "Hits". Armor subtracts from this damage. There are many Armor stats besides physical damage, for things like hot/cold, radiation, electrical stun, etc.
Generally, the Hits that pass armor protection are translated into Severity, and the Severity is rolled as a number of dice, and applied to the physical Characteristics in a way similar to Classic Traveller.
Hemdian made a video about Character Combat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipJivyMWgMs
You may browse other bits of the game. The first 21 pages and pp. 631-640 are fluff^H^H^H^H^H important musings about the nature of a roleplaying game, and how to design an adventure. Starship types are the classic Traveller types given in pp. 358-359, and color pics on pages 641-656. Worlds are defined with the same numbers as Classic Traveller, but there are Extended stats for a mainworld's Importance, Economic and Cultural factors (but not much is defined). A star-system may average almost 10 worlds per system, but with the ease of interplanetary travel the Extended stats are considered the same for all subsidiary worlds.
Genetically modified (geneered) characters and robot and android characters can exist. Technology goes up to TL 33, so extremely high-tech beings may be encountered, but they suffer a "technological crisis" and either choose to revert in technology or disappear entirely from our plane of existence.
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I wrote up this summary for a player (IMHO):
-----
Have a look at Range Bands and Sizes, pages 36 and 54, to understand the terms in the Combat chapter.
There are range bands defined for many other measurements, such as Hot and Cold (in 25°C intervals), the Senses, etc. Hot and Cold damage is the square of the number of intervals away from standard 25°C temperature, in Hits/round. So mild cold one interval over (such as cold weather at 0°C) may do 1 Hit/round, but -100°C weather (5 intervals away) will do 25 Hits/round. The Referee will interpret bands for all measurements.
Read Character Generation pp. 58-111. Characteristics are the same as in Classic Traveller (STRength, DEXterity, ENDurance, INTelligence, EDUcation, and SOCial standing) and generated the same way for humans (on a 2d6 or "2D" roll), but there are Analog Characteristics that aliens might have (such as Agility or Grace instead of Dexterity). If a different characteristic is called for than your native characteristic, you will be allowed to use half of your own characteristic (round up). One exception: inherent Instinct counts as only an Education of 4, but beings with Instinct can generally act first because there is less "thinking" involved. Ranks are measured as Social, Charisma or Caste but may not mean much to alien races using a different characteristic.
A lot of typos exist in the Careers tables. You can download the errata so far from the first page of the T5 Errata forum on CotI (Citizens of the Imperium) (currently the errata version is 0.71). The most notable errata (IMHO!): the phase for Officer Promotion in many careers should be AHEAD of the phases for Commission (Enlisted-to-Officer) and then Enlisted Promotion, so that an Enlisted character can't get a Commission AND a Promotion in the same 4-year term. If an Enlisted character succeeds at a Commission, the next phase should correctly be Enlisted Promotion but they are ineligible, since they are no longer Enlisted but Officers.
If a Skill is divided into different Knowledges, you must apply the first two level-awards of the Skill to two different Knowledges or the same Knowledge. Third and later awards of Skill levels go to the Skill as a whole, and increase all Knowledges by 1 at the same time. There will always be one or two Knowledges higher than the main Skill. Exception: Some Knowledges will get an increase during character generation by special ways. A Knowledge can never be more than +6 higher than its main Skill.
Hemdian (bless him!) made a video about Character Generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElO4dKQNbyY
Tasks, Skills and Personals, pp. 124-189. The task system resembles what was introduced in MegaTraveller or Traveller 2300. A defined list of Skills follows and some Task Rolls you can do with the Skills are mentioned in each Skill. Characters get 4-6 skills per 4-year term during character generation.
To succeed at a Task, you have to roll LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO (shown just as <) your total (Characteristic+Skill+Knowledge) with a number of dice determined by the Difficulty Level of the Task.
There is a nifty interactive Task Roller calculator tab for T5 on Eaglestone's site (bless him AND canonize him):
http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/scripts/vilanitools.html
Roughly, I suggest you can convert to the T5 skill-level by taking a Classic Traveller skill-level, doubling and adding one. Some Skills are Default which means everyone gets 0 (they can do a roll on the skill, but the "This Is Hard" rule is always used since the Difficulty Level is always higher than their Skill of 0.) If a character's Skill (+ any Knowledge) is less than the Difficulty Level of the task, add another +1 Difficulty Level, hence "This Is Hard!").
If you roll 1's on any 3 dice, you get a "Spectacular Success" even if the roll failed numerically. If you roll 6's on any 3 dice, you get a "Spectacular Failure" even if the roll succeeded numerically. If you roll 3 1's and 3 6's, the result is "Spectacularly Interesting" (both spectacular positive AND negative consequences).
Personals are skills to build rapport with NPCs and see if you can persuade or coerce them to do what you want. You decide on the type of interaction, and there are Task rolls to see if you swayed an NPC, which are modified by different factors.
Combat, pages 210 - 235, uses the Task resolution system. The Difficulty Level (number of dice to roll) is determined by Range plus added difficulty based on type of attack (Regular, Autofire, Snapfire). If the Size of an object you are trying to aim at is less than the Range band of distance, you can't see it any more and you can't shoot at it. A standing person is Size 5, but if crouched or prone the Size will go down accordingly.
Browse the GunMaker and ArmorMaker sections as well, where gear is devised by the Referee based on Tech Level and QREBS (quality). Guns, other weapons, Armor, Vehicles, and generally all gear can improve with Tech Level: lighter, better quality, more features. See the Tech Level Stage Effects table; the one on p. 500 is authoritative [other tables elsewhere in the rules had errata and the notes say to go back to p. 500].
Successful attacks create damage "Hits". Armor subtracts from this damage. There are many Armor stats besides physical damage, for things like hot/cold, radiation, electrical stun, etc.
Generally, the Hits that pass armor protection are translated into Severity, and the Severity is rolled as a number of dice, and applied to the physical Characteristics in a way similar to Classic Traveller.
Hemdian made a video about Character Combat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipJivyMWgMs
You may browse other bits of the game. The first 21 pages and pp. 631-640 are fluff^H^H^H^H^H important musings about the nature of a roleplaying game, and how to design an adventure. Starship types are the classic Traveller types given in pp. 358-359, and color pics on pages 641-656. Worlds are defined with the same numbers as Classic Traveller, but there are Extended stats for a mainworld's Importance, Economic and Cultural factors (but not much is defined). A star-system may average almost 10 worlds per system, but with the ease of interplanetary travel the Extended stats are considered the same for all subsidiary worlds.
Genetically modified (geneered) characters and robot and android characters can exist. Technology goes up to TL 33, so extremely high-tech beings may be encountered, but they suffer a "technological crisis" and either choose to revert in technology or disappear entirely from our plane of existence.
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I can indeed cut back on some paragraphs for the players, or make it clear those parts are optional "gravy". If ever I get my shambling campaign off the ground, I'm going to be telling them that I will use a rules-light approach for difficult parts of the rulebook.
