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T5 - Pirates of Drinax

cym0k

SOC-12
I don't want to start a galaxy-wide edition war, or similar but I am on the verge of starting a weekly online RPG session. I fancy something sci-fi, and I am tempted to say "LET'S RUN TRAVELLER 5!"

I have worked my way through character generation so that is no problem, I have access to all the ships and systems produced by the community here. No problem. I've had a look at using skills and working out combat. I am getting there. Slowly.

What might happen if I try to run Pirates of Drinax with T5? Can anyone think of any major stumbling blocks right out the gate? For those who have been living on the 4r5e end of spiral arm for the best part of the century, it's a Mongoose Traveller free campaign.

I'm no stranger to running games, or playing online. Traveller (especially 5) is new though.

Thoughts, tips, advice to try something slightly different?
 
cym0k,

Great minds think alike! (and fools rarely differ :-)

I've been running the Pirates of Drinax campaign with T5 for several months now ... My players just completed the first Adventure module (Honour Among Thieves) and are moving on to the second module now ...

So far its been great fun and I must say quite easy to convert the few necessary elements to T5 .... For example I've done a T5 rebuild of the Drinaxi Harrier the players are using, one other ship in adventure module 1 (a 200dT free trader) as well as a few select 'on the fly' character conversions with some very simple assumptions mostly for skills...

The T5 BBB provides a rich resource of tools in contrast to the 'sparse' specific details in this particular campaign (which is a good thing) .... To be honest the hardest part has been reading, re-reading, re-re-reading, comprehending and then implementing the T5 rules set which apart from being riddled with errata (10+ pages!), poor layout & editing and fragmentation is actually working out very well.

I would love to open a dialogue as you begin your campaign and I can even share my campaign log and other stuff I've noted or customized along the way ... let me know...
 
I'd like to see more interchange between Traveller5 and Mongoose Traveller. Both have a lot to offer each other. Mongoose has a full publishing house and plenty of resources (a couple of which were written by Don and me). Traveller5 has a rich arsenal of standardized, adaptable tools, and foundational OTU text (and resources such as Marc, Don, Craig, Greg Lee, me, and others).

Communication between the two systems should be encouraged.

Yes, I'm biased -- in both directions.
 
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I don't want to start a galaxy-wide edition war, or similar but I am on the verge of starting a weekly online RPG session. I fancy something sci-fi, and I am tempted to say "LET'S RUN TRAVELLER 5!"

I have worked my way through character generation so that is no problem, I have access to all the ships and systems produced by the community here. No problem. I've had a look at using skills and working out combat. I am getting there. Slowly.

What might happen if I try to run Pirates of Drinax with T5? Can anyone think of any major stumbling blocks right out the gate? For those who have been living on the 4r5e end of spiral arm for the best part of the century, it's a Mongoose Traveller free campaign.

I'm no stranger to running games, or playing online. Traveller (especially 5) is new though.

Thoughts, tips, advice to try something slightly different?

Excellent idea, episode 6 has come out and you can run this as a backdrop to the campaign for the IN side. I'm planning to start it as soon as all the adventures are out, so I can impose my own order.

regards

David
 
What might happen if I try to run Pirates of Drinax with T5? Can anyone think of any major stumbling blocks right out the gate?

You have to account for characters, equipment, and starships. The rest probably just comes out in the wash, so to speak.

Mongoose characters can be converted to T5 with only minor inconvenience. T5 probably has the equipment you need, and if you can't find it, I can help gin it up. And Mongoose starships can work in T5 in a pinch really, but if you want T5 designs, I can help there, too (http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/ships/designs/).
 
cym0k,
When it comes to T5 the first stumbling block is correcting all the errors.

The next stumbling block is deciding which parts of other Traveller systems that actually work out of the box to use as a supplement in order to make it completely playable without ending up in ums and ar's over ambiguous tables and loose rulings on about 20+ new system ideas.

The next stumbling block would be taking players through character generation and explaining why the char gen is so screwed up for what's supposed to be the ultimate edition of Traveller but providing you've undertaken the error correction and have it sussed, it's purely a matter of aquainting the new players with the new character paths.

The next stumbling block is the completely brief aspects of gaming in the Far Far Future of T5 which is only really hinted at in the entire book.(you could game in one of the other time periods though and that will fix that issue, but then why not use the rules already worked out for those periods of time? Eg. CT(or MgT), MT, TNE or T4).

The next stumbling block is convincing players who may be long time Traveller fans to accept the rules you've decided work for you(this is harder than it sounds as every Traveller has 'there ultimate' rules for Traveller).

The next stumbling block is deciding which Traveller maps and stats to acutally use(seriously this one annoys the hell out of me. Personally I declare Travellermap.com to be the ultimate say on that but there are Travellers who will only go off there 20+ year old books and stats etc).

The next stumbling block is agreeing on the time frame for actual travel(amazingly another aspect that although it's been declared in every edition of Traveller I've ever seen as roughly a week per jump plus whatever hours from the jump point to system entry, it can be a game time waster of argument and frustration) T5 opened a new can of worms on this issue again.

That's about the main issues(there's more) so perhaps the final stumbling block is simply some therapy to get over the laborious task of overcoming those stumbling blocks.

Seriously though, if everyone agrees and you can all have a great time, that's what's important. Nit picky nigly little time wasting details are irrelevent. It's a 'fictional' universe to adventure in. There's the key word 'adventure'. At the end of the day, if the rules don't look right, make your own up, have fun and enjoy it. As long as everyone enjoys the game, that's what matters the absolute most.

So play T5, please let us all know how it went and enjoy it.

TRAVEL ON!!!
 
SR, it seems to me that some of your points -- gaming in the OTU, convincing players of the rules to use, maps to use, and timeframe for travel -- apply to Traveller in general, and the latter three apply to all RPG'ing. I will assume good faith on your part and that you accidentally failed to distinguish these points from your T5-specific points.

I will therefore assume that your list is intended to be a prelude to offering constructive solutions. I would like to see what you come up with, and we can all compare strategies.
 
To pre-empt SR, I will just say I will go with what ever is written in the supplement and not sweat it too much.

I went over my "player handout" I collated last night. I can get the majority of the rules and stuff down to less than 10 pages.

Dice pool Vs Assets. Not hard once written like that.

It is just listing the assets in a quick and easy and readable form..!
 
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