T5 Sensors

[darue]

[FONT=arial,helvetica]But, with T5, in impromptu situations, you're stuck having to figure a lot of stuff for each sensor scan.[/FONT]

You should also know where the sensor op is in their circadian sleep/wake cycle. The Op may be Tired. and IIRC there's a couple pages packed full of situational/environmental modifiers that may or may not be applicable, that a desperate player may advocate for the use of.

The sensor rules do seem a bit complicated.

a Referee's Screen with some quick references lists of "how different common tasks work" would probably help a lot. or a small pamphlet of Checklists!

As it stands, T5's got a steep learning curve, and just a lot to get one's head around. That said, it's well done, and probably "right" about most things, not too glossed over and not too much minutia.

Much of it reads like a specification document for a large ERP system.

Can't help but think a nice web based app to assist with a lot of this, including task resolution, may be needed. I see some folks here have made some nice tools already.

 

[Ulsyus]

Man, that seems like a lot to do for a single sensor task. And, we've got to do it all over again, with some different numbers, if the players use a different type of sensor for additional/different information on the target.

I know we play a game for fun, but if we're going to add emphasis to certain things, then those things can take time. Pilot and astrogation tests for jumps, medic checks for sleeping and awakening low passage passengers. Why not with sensors? In the real deal it'd be someone with expert systems working on that task in a focused manner. So it takes a bit of time? Doesn't that emphasise the activity? (within limits of course)

 

[robject]

Traveller5 has a kind of "Wall of Rules" effect: there are ways to handle everything in detail, where the characters have to play their part in a task roll. T5 rationalizes the systems, methodically and in detail. And that's what you get in the Big Black Book - and it's intimidating.

At the same time, T5 does try to communicate MOARN -- but I think it doesn't emphasize it enough. And it doesn't provide examples of "MOARN in action".

In other words, there are degrees of complexity in gameplay acknowledged, but the simple way doesn't get the page count.

And so: it doesn't tell you where to cut corners. So if you don't understand what the rules are doing -- if the rules are too complicated -- then it's hard to work around them.

The Core Mechanic

In my estimation, the core mechanic for all actions is the task system -- "everything else is commentary". If you want to cut corners during play, you do it by ignoring everything except the difficulty and the basic target number.

And for sensors, difficulty is Range, and the basic target number is Tech Level. Alternately, if a player is operating the sensor, use Characteristic + Skill; i.e. the pure canonical task roll. If you're on the planet, you use personal combat ranges. If you're operating a starship, you use starship combat ranges. That's it.

In MegaTraveller, theoretically, you could use Range as Difficulty too. Range would be calibrated to match difficulty levels; i.e. attack range is 7 or 8, long range is 9 or 10, and so on. I think it's interesting that T5's space combat ranges sync up with a theoretical MT difficulty level.

 

[Ulsyus]

In MegaTraveller, theoretically, you could use Range as Difficulty too. Range would be calibrated to match difficulty levels; i.e. attack range is 7 or 8, long range is 9 or 10, and so on. I think it's interesting that T5's space combat ranges sync up with a theoretical MT difficulty level.

In case I haven't said it enough before, I think MT set a new paradigm for RPGs with the task system. Given that it was a development of CT, it simply seems logical (I can almost hear Sheldon saying it) that the probabilities that worked in CT flowed into MT and hence, after some other iterations, into T5.

I do like the idea of using TL though, with mods for skill and such. It makes the effort of players, who scrimped & saved to have TL14 or 15 sensors installed into their rustbucket TL10 trader, suddenly pay off when they see those benighted corsairs come up in the holotank before they've been seen themselves!