T5 ETA

[robject]

It is old. Very very old.

However, Marc hasn't retracted his deadline, and he is actively working on T5.

 

[kafka47]

My guess is then for PDF to be first with the chance to playtest those rules and then a full blown version sometime in 2100, Robject, you seem to have the inside track on this. How likely are we to see a deadtree of something before the end of this year?

 

[robject]

Clever deductions, kafka.

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by kafka47:
My guess is then for PDF to be first with the chance to playtest those rules and then a full blown version sometime in 2100 ...

I think I'll get the PDF. I don't think that I can wait 93 years for the dead tree version.

(Will they still have 'dead tree' versions in 2100?)

 

[kafka47]

I am sure the Vilani will insist upon seeing our deadtree copies and that is when the agathaics will wear out and we might actually see that we were right all the time.

 

[robject]

I'm allowed to say that the schedule is still in place.

In other words, I can't speculate here.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

You don't have to.

I'm a Zhodani-trained psionicist.

 

[Nick Nova]

robject wrote:
I'm allowed to say that the schedule is still in place.

OK, that's good enough for me. So I guess I'll keep saving up my credits in the hope T5 is soon to come.

If it doesn't, well then maybe I'll get some of those niffty miniatures from Ad Astra...

 

[robject]

Yeah, they're amazing, aren't they?

Marc's says he can have T5 ready by his original deadline.

My take is, fine, but no errors allowed.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

I don't believe it, robject. The June 2007 thing. It's mid-April. The text would have to be done NOW. Has it been proofread? Edited? Will it be? Has anybody even seen the finished version yet? Artwork?

Of course, one WANTS to believe it. The actual printed book would be ready for GenCon. And if Marc knows what's good for him and us, there'd be sundry T5 GenCon events, including demos by the man himself... which would be the most awesomerest thing ever, and would draw ME, of all people, to GenCon.

So, one wants to believe, oh yes. But one doesn't.

 

[robject]

As Kafka noted, it can't be ready in deadtree by then. Impossible.

 

[Jeffr0]

I'd buy the PDF if it was ready by then.

Just please... incorporate all spelling/grammer errors and all errata reported by myself and others BEFORE printing the #%&*@ thing.

(We've already got MT and T4 for that stuff.)

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

So wait, the PDF is designed to be some kind of public playtest file?

Given Traveller's edition history, that could backfire mightily.

As in, "&$%@!!! This is EVEN WORSE than T4! I'll never buy the actual BOOK!"

 

[robject]

Wow, you guys are way more savvy than I. Of course I can be pretty senseless sometimes, but wow.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

Hmmm, my irony sense is tickling.

To put things in perspective, this public beta pdf approach is not some wacky idea per se. That is, it's definitely wacky, but it's actually being pursued by at least one other company. ICE are doing it with the HARP scifi game.

So, absent concrete info about, well, anything at all...

 

[Anthony]

Paid public beta versions of electronic products are nothing new. Look at the first editions of many Microsoft products.

 

[far-trader]

Ooooh, Anthony pwnd MS

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

There's too much irony in this thread.

 

[aramis]

If MWM doesn't have a manuscript in playtest, at least 2 months of SERIOUS playtest before layout, I'm not interested.

An SJG-style 3-weeks and out only works because they have professional editorial staff, and the authors generally have playtested before turn-over.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Aramis:
If MWM doesn't have a manuscript in playtest, at least 2 months of SERIOUS playtest before layout, I'm not interested.

Gentlemen,

I'm sorry to dishearten all the true believers out there - and I'd like to think I'm still one of them - but I must strongly agree with Aramis' opinion here and for the same reasons he presents.

I've been involved with playtesting since the days of Avalon Hill and SPI. I can safely say that I have seen nothing resembling an actual T5 playtest. At the T5 forum here, I've seen bits and pieces of a few subsystems, several flights of fancy some of which included non-intuitive die rolling schemes, and scads of general questions asked of and posed by Mr. Miller. However, I've yet to see the entire T5 package, a substantial piece of the T5 package, or anything even remotely resembling a piece of the T5 package.

Cryptic remarks by those in the know aside, the June 2007 release may be just a giant beta release designed to spark, then gather, as much fan input as possible into T5. If so, a project to produce a finished version of T5 would still require several more months of concerted effort by a formally organized, dedicated playtesting group. Otherwise we may has just entitle the whole thing Son of T4 and get on with using GT and T20.

My fingers are crossed.


Have fun,
Bill