T5 Poll part II: What system do you want in T5?

[robject]

There's another reason:

4. People (including the owner) who want to publish stuff using the system have fewer gaps to fill.

It seems that CT became a bit "leggy" due to point #4. I don't think the other systems suffered from this at all, so perhaps it's a minor point.

 

[ravells]

Good point, robject. If T5 was a consolidation of CT with errors repaired and updated for a 21st Century readership, that would be enough for me.

I do feel that trying to maintain a 60's / 70's SF feel to Traveller is probably not going to work these days. When traveller was written, that period of SF was what the player base was raised on. There has been so much SF since then, a new model might be preferable.

Ravs

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
I don't see why a characters statistics would not figure in to how good they were at a task. If I'm shooting a bow, having a high dexterity or a low dexterity should definitely play into my ability to hit with it.

It depends on what the skill shows. In my home grown system, your skill shows objectively how good you are. Two people with Bow-17 have the same chance to hit. However, the one with Dex 17 spent a lot less training time to get Bow-17 than the one with Dex 10 did. He started from a higher default and he advanced in skill faster.

(My system uses points to design characters, but not once they've been designed. Instead, characters roll to increase skills whenever they've trained in them for so and so many weeks. High attributes give better chances of improving).


Hans

 

[robject]

Originally posted by ravs:

I do feel that trying to maintain a 60's / 70's SF feel to Traveller is probably not going to work these days. When traveller was written, that period of SF was what the player base was raised on. There has been so much SF since then, a new model might be preferable.

Ravs

I wonder about that, too, but if Traveller is anything, it's Old School sci-fi, from the Solar Queen, to the Patrol, to Citizen of the Galaxy, to Dumarest of Terra.

There are many other RPGs that have the new stuff covered.

And who knows - sometimes retro can be cool.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

If Traveller were a fantasy game, we wouldn't be yelling at each other nearly as often as we are wont to do occasionally...

FRPG designers have it good--they just need to worry about datedness (or not) of rules. Sci-fi designers have to worry about datedness of rules AND setting. Tough job. The shift from Leiber to George RR Martin is incremental. The shift from Asimov to Gibson is massive. And if you want to emulate the latter that has direct rules implications (cybertech etc.).