T5 Table of Contents (Draft)

[T. Foster]

Not ready to write-off T^5 yet, I've been thinking about what I'd like to see in the Core Rulebook (from my proposed T^5 line of a couple days ago). I actually really like what I see below, with a few comments:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Avery:
Traveller5- Contents and structure for the basic Traveller (5th edition) game system.

Introduction
Foreword
The Vast Span of History
The Milieux
This Milieu
Foundations of Traveller
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This all looks good, and pretty standard. Since my preference is for the milieu/setting to be in a separate volume, I'd keep those sections short and sweet - introduce the idea of the OTU and multiple milieux without getting into the specifics or making people think those are the only possible settings for the game.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Basics
The Nature of Role-Playing
What You Need
Players Guide to Traveller
Master's Guide to Traveller
Die Rolls and Dice
Units of Measure
The Typical Setup
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Standard-issue Book 0 stuff.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Characters
Characters
Careers
Life Pursuits
What Characters Do
Character Creation
Humans and Non Humans
The Major Races
The Minor Races
Tasks
Task Library
Skills
Experience
Aptitudes
Heritage
Homeworld
Genetic
Cultural
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The sections on non-humans and Major and Minor Races should be saved for the Milieu book, except for a paragraph explaining that "although these rules only address humans, players can also play aliens (for which consult volume XYZ or your referee, etc)."

Also, the sections on Tasks, Skills, and Experience belong in a separate Game System chapter, not buried in the Char-Gen chapter. If the book is full-color (which it definitely should be) the pages of this chapter should be in a distinctive color; if we're stuck with b/w it should be tabbed on the margins, since more than anything else this (Game System) chapter is 'The Rules.'

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Interactions
Personal
Getting Acquainted
Friendships
Enmity
Getting Information
Bargaining
Persuading
Forcing Action
Fighting
Multi-Personal
Battles
Wars
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I like the perversity of burying the combat system like this, emphasizing that combat is just one method of interaction, and usually not the best one. IMO chapter on Interpersonal Activities is one of the underrated accomplishments of MT, and I'm glad to see something like it carried over.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Situations
Goals
Missions
Events
Encounters
Patrons
People
Animals
Monsters
Situations
The Unusual
Generating Encounters

Actions and Consequences
Events
Continuing NPCs
Patrons
Nemeses
Gimmicks
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Standard stuff, largely unchanged from Book 3.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Objects
Weapons
Equipment
Equipment Design
Vehicles (Land Sea Air)
Vehicle Design
Beasts of Burden

Starships and Spacecraft
Space Travel
Starship Operations
Starship Design
Starship Combat
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

High-quality realistic (not cartoon) illustrations of most, if not all, of the weapons, items, vehicles, and ships are sbsolutely essential.

Equipment Design is necessarily a pretty detailed undertaking, and should be left for a separate Technical Architecture supplement where it can be done justice.

Also, the Vehcile Design and Spaceship Design sequences should be integrated, as in MT. Although that system is imperfect and too detailed for many tastes, the consistency and vertical integration is extremely important, and giving that up would be a huge step in the wrong direction. Note that I also prefer 2 separate (but roughly compatible) Craft Design sequences in the Core Rulebook: Simple (comparable to Book 2) and Standard (comparable to HG, or maybe MT). Advanced (gearhead) craft design would be saved for the Technical Architecture.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
The Galaxy
Regions
Sectors and Subsectors
Star Systems
Stars
Mapping Space

Worlds
Worlds
World Generation
Terrain
Cities and Settlements
World Surface Travel
Mapping Worlds
Animal Encounters
Travel Times
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is the designated space for me once again to urge that T^5 include better (i.e. more scientifically-accurate) world generation rules and an optional system for 3D star-mapping. Traveller can survive without cybertech and mecha and nano-magic, but the 2D map and 'close enough' world-gen system date the system badly and do great harm to its supposed 'hard sf' reputation. For those who value simplicity above all, they'll still have the CT reprints and the CT-based T^20 system, but it would be nice at this point to finally make some concession to those of us who've been patiently suspending our disbelief for 20+ years.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Flora And Fauna
Animals
Land
Air
Sea
Plants
Land
Air
Sea
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is the third place Animals are mentioned in this TOC. Hopefully this doesn't mean a ref will have to flip between 3 different chapters to design and/or run an Animal Encounter. I'm not sure this really merits a whole chapter to itself, considering that (for example) Combat and Trade are buried in with other topics.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Technology
The Tech Level Scale
Alternative Technology
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The chapter on the technology scale from the MT Ref Companion is extremely valuable and was sorely lacking from T4. Although a paragraph or two discussing alternative technologies is a Good Thing, details on actually implementing them should be saved for the Technical Architecture (where they SHOULD be developed -- the alt-techs in FF&S1 were pretty half-hearted; a well-developed set of alt-tech rules could go a long way towards making Traveller the true Universal SF Game it always should've been).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Cultures
Populations
The Focus of Population
Historical Antecedents
Rival Factions
The Influence of Economics
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I must admit I can't imagine what this chapter would consist of. A quick primer in Anthropology, Sociology, and Economics?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Money and Accounting
Currency
Items of Value
Types of Accounting
Loose
Strict
General Fund
Barter
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good. Juggling money has always been something of a hassle in Traveller games, and it'll be nice to see some discussion and advice on the subject.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Information
Library Data
Museum Data
Information Analysis
Research and Development
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Since I favor keeping the setting largely out of the Core Rules, I'd much prefer a few paragraphs on the importance and means of gathering info to a true Library Data encyclopedia (which should be saved for the Milieu book). The R&D chapter from the MT Ref Companion was another of the unheralded triumphs of MT and I'd be very glad to see it make a return.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Activities
Con Games
Entertainment
Exploration and Surveys
Corporations
Manufacturing
Masquerade
Mercenary Operations
Military Operations
Naval
Noble Missions
Prospecting
Psionics
Quests
Research
Strategic Manipulations
Trade
Transport
Troupe (Bards)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Diplomacy should definitely be on this list, unless it's included as a 'Noble Mission.' Trade and Psionics are surely both significant enough to merit chapters to themselves unless all of these areas will be developed in such detail, in which case this will be a very long chapter.

This is also the designated place to once again call for a thorough overhaul of the Trade & Commerce system, using GURPS Traveller: Far Trader as a model and starting point. This is very necessary and long overdue.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Creating Adventures
Elements of the Adventure
Elements of the Campaign
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In addition to advice on creating adventures, the Core Rulebook definitely needs to contain something to play on the spot. This lack was one of the fatal flaws of MT. A good model would be the Traveller Book, with a few sample Patrons, a couple of Amber Zones, and one or two fully-developed Short Adventures. By the time a novice ref has run through all that he'll surely have ideas of his own (or at least more adventures will have been published).

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Appendices
The Traveller Card System
IMTU
Language
Calendars
The Milieux
Faraway Sector
Deck Plan Symbols
Outdoor Mapping
The History of Traveller
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The appendices should also include discussion of integrating Traveller and computers, both through software to automate the mechanical processes and online playing (via GRIP or otherwise). My wish is that the rulebook include a CD which has such programs already-created, which would be a huge boon and help set Traveller apart from its competition, but even if that isn't feasible some mention of computer-integration should definitely be made; this isn't the 1970s anymore.

In general, although I prefer keeping the setting as separate as possible from the Core Rules, I'd like to see interspersed through the book sidebars of Color Text, like the MT Players' Manual, or the sort of sidebars and throwaways that appear in most of the GT books. That way, although it's not being 'forced' on anybody, someone who's read the rulebook will have a fair idea of what the OTU setting is like, even if they never buy the Milieu Sourcebook.

Another essential is lots of clear examples, something that was sorely lacking in MT. A gimmick I've always liked, especially in Chaosium's games (RQ and others), is to use the examples to follow the story of a typical adventurer's career, which keeps the readers' interest (and encourages them to actually read the examples) as well as giving new players some idea of what they can expect from the game.

Also, as an alternative to this intimidating mass of material, I'd like to see a true Starter Edition of Traveller - a book of no more than 32-48 pp containing an Introduction, the Basics of char-gen, simplified Task and Combat systems, short lists of equipment and vehicles, and a couple of basic adventures (hijacking, stranded and broke, lost in the wilderness, etc) to let folks know what to expect. While I see the Core Rulebook as being thick, hardbound, and expensively produced with a pricetag of $40-50 (especially if it contains the soi-disant CD), the starter edition would be cheap ($10 or less), and allow a group to start playing in a single evening.

All in all, what I see here looks comprehensive and quite promising, much better than the rehash of The Traveller Book that was the T4 rules.

 

[T. Foster]

Another in-general thing I'd like see (and forgot to include above) which had been minimal in all editions until GT, is occasional sidebars explaining why and how certain decisions were made and systems developed. Clearly explain why the various systems work the way they do, including the abstractions and assumptions made; explain how the postulated future-technology is supposed to function (both pseudo-scientifically and story-wise) and why certain areas were explored and not others. While these sorts of things could be explained at Con seminars or as Designer's Notes in a magazine (or website), it'd be nice to have them there on the spot, so that readers can understand the intent behind the various rules and systems right away without a bunch of speculation and second-guessing (which we know there will be plenty of anyway; why encourage it?).

 

[RobertFisher]

T. Foster said, "...is occasional sidebars explaining why and how certain decisions were made and systems developed."

I'd agree. I didn't play a lot of wargames, but I remember at least a couple would have a "Designer's Notes" section at the back of the rule book. That was always my favorite reading, besides giving me a clearer idea of how/why the rules work.

------------------
Robert FISHER

 

[kafka47]

Ditto about the Designer Notes.

I would also like to see a large Library Data section, unless one would consider publishing that as a separate product. But, don't space out the rules. Have as many of the rules in one volume.

Further supplements ought to be there to develop the storyline. Like what Holistic does with the Fading Suns stuff.

 

[laning]

Avery, the draft TOC shows a lot of thought and at least one great new concept. The card system sounds like an excellent evolutionary leap forward.

I like a lot of the things people have said here in critiques/rants and for suggestions.

Looking at the draft TOC again now, so long after first looking at it when it was posted, I have a very different take on it. Before, I was inclined to step through it one line at a time in analyzing and responding. Now, the response foremost in thought is that anyone picking up the book has to wade through a lot of pages first before they reach the basic information needed to just start playing.

The structure of the book as presented in the draft TOC seems to have a grand concept in mind that includes the use of many concepts not as grand. It sets out to present this tapestry of conceptual thinking to the reader.

Thinking about just who the audience is for Traveller books, it seems to me that you have three kinds of people to accomodate and address yourself to. The first group are players of RPGs who want to play. Most people who buy the book(s) will be in this category. The second group are referees who are looking for additional source material to run a game, and the nuts and bolts of constructing and running a universe. Pretty much by definition, this group will be much smaller. The last group is people with an intellectual curiosity. Because they're interested in game design, or are interested in science fiction, or whatever. You can also subdivide each of the three groups into those who are initiates of how to play such games and those who are not.

I suppose you can add a fourth group of people who are collectors and just wish to add another item to their stash. I've certainly met people at gaming cons who buy and keep products still in the original shrink wrap without ever kenning the least thing about their contents.

The majority of people who would be reading T5 are going to be players who want to just get into it. The finer conceptual thinking is all well and good, but they want to play a game right now. They don't want to wade through two chapters composed of twelve sections before reaching the first page about character creation.

On the other hand, if people play and get the bug to play the game again some more, they'll start wanting to delve into the concepts. And of course, people with no acquaintance of RPGs as a concept will need something to help them into it. Usually, it's a friendly neighborhood referee, but not always.

Also, when thinking about identifying the audience for this book, you may want to appeal to a much, much younger age group than will already be familiar with Traveller. They will be much more interested in getting started playing the game than adults with an existing interest in the hobby.

So I'd suggest arranging the TOC according to function. The most frequently consulted material right up front, binding the referee material separately, and separate binding for equipment, NPCs, library data, etc. Good use of a sidebar system can pull this all together for people who develop the inclination to spend more time reading about concepts.

You'll still want an introduction to the concept of RPGs and this RPG in particular for the rankest newbies who are opening this book for the first time, but that needs to be less than one full page. Anything longer you've written about the concepts involved should go much further back in the book, and/or in sidebars. And I think you've written some really great guidance for players and referees over the years about the nature of role-playing games, etc. as part of your rules. Definitely include that.

The sidebar/inset suggestion is very good, as is the suggestion for designer notes. Classify sidebars into different types, each type being color coded. The types: Examples; Designer Notes; Milieu Information; ummm was thinking of another but forgot it. :-(

So, three volumes. Playing Traveller Manual with tasks, combat, simple spaceship/vehicle/equipment construction and lists, character generation. Refereeing Traveller Manual with discussions of metainformation about milieux, encounters, planet building, creating flora and fauna (including intelligent races), etc. Traveller Goodies Book with equipment lists, library data, etc.

Put a smidge of milieu information as sidebars in the books, primarily the Playing T5 Manual, but also have a sidebar saying that the OTU is large and (hopefully) growing. You can choose to use the OTU and gain many benefits. It includes extensive star maps, information about worlds, a detailed fictional history thousands of years in our own future, its own alien races, governments, politics, wars, NPCs, and events. Or you can choose to create your own TU, and perhaps incorporate bits and pieces of material published for the OTU as it pleases you. Or not. But don't feel like there is only one star map and future history available for you to play in. Feel free to create your own TU if that's what you want to do. Another sidebar giving some guidelines on what to think about when planning your own Traveller universe.

But, to recap, my big concern is that people who just want to get started using the book to actually play Traveller should not have an obstacle of many pages of conceptual information before getting to the meat of it. The basics of doing an RPG actually come quite intuitively to most people given only a little bit of help. Go back to having more than one rule book: a player's book; a referee's book, and; milieu books. That way, the physical components of the game facilitate the functional process of playing.

The book should have exceptionally sturdy binding and a spillproof cover and be easy to photocopy forms, charts, and illustrations out of. It should be 8.5 by 11 size. The cover should be attractive and well designed. Personally, I favor the black background with red ruling and Traveller in red text. It's elegant and attractive (that was Paul Rich Banner, right? for the newcomer, and should appeal to the grognard Traveller as well. A good table of contents is important, and it should list tables and their page numbers. A good index is also essential. Only include color illustrations if you can keep the overall price within bounds. Black-and-white illustrations should be appropriate and good quality, and not too sparse. You may want to do a hardbound edition that includes color illustrations, with the softbound edition getting all black-and-white. Don't follow the art direction example of T5, eek!

I also suggest having starship construction be basic rules and advanced rules...both in the same volume. Not the referee's volume. Basic should be CT material, with slight revisions. Advanced should be MT material, with slight revisions. Neither FFS turns out to be all that realistic, even though you're paying the expense of so much complexity. Starship combat should also be offered in different flavors, all within the same volume. Mayday style, or MT style.

Although it is out of fashion in publishing these days, you should go way out of our way to ensure top quality copy editing, editing, layout, and reproduction. Physical quality can make a huge difference to sales as well as critical success. And at this point, Traveller's history has burdened any future products with a negative impression in this area that must be overcome to ensure success.

One of the first qualities, and most enduring, that caused so many of us to fall in love with your original rule system was its elegance of design. You didn't have to go to a specialty store to buy specialty dice. You didn't lead specialty lead figures or other gizmos. You could grab two six-sided dice from anywhere (every house in America has a Monopoly or Parcheezi game or something to borrow from), use regular notebook paper that almost any house (certainly one with students) has, and you're able to simply and quickly create and manage everything needed. Rules lawyers can't even get a foothold on the smoothly finished polish of that simple edifice, and it still is pretty cool. Plus, it has that great new car smell! :-> I think the elegance of design, clean writing style, and the error-free finished quality are what account for CT being the most popular version in the online polls. Strive to emulate your earlier achievement, at least in these respects, not replace it with something different.

For that matter, there's nothing so wrong with re-using some earlier material, IMHO. Character generation almost verbatim from T4 would be good. With the addition of a quick checklist for pre-enlistment options, background skills, and the like. T4 requires too much wading through text to get that info. Oh, and include Mercenary-style promotions and decorations. CT starship construction and MT starship construction both merit repetition, as do Mayday- and MT-style combat systems. Revise the world-building rules some, but just enough to fix the broken stuff, not a rewrite from scratch.

Include equipment lists comparable to or slightly more exhaustive than The Traveller Book. Having equipment lists will give a subtle bias towards a particular milieu, but that is easily worth the utility of having equipment lists of some type. Nice line-drawing illustrations of starships, vehicles, equipment, etc. should be shown.

Some starter adventure should be included. Something less boring than Exit Visa. It should probably include full data and deck plans on a free trader or scout, plus a real military vessel that the authorities would use.

Did I mention that I want the option of a CD or DVD of all canonical material that can be searched? The Spinward Marches has accumulated in sufficient number of complex layers that it is hopeless trying to keep it all in my head.

To quote Elvis...

Thank you. Thank you very much.

--Laning

 

[TheDS]

I agree with much of what's been said here. It looks like a good bit of thought has gone into the contents. A couple thoughts tho:

FF&S is my favorite book in the whole of my 40+ Traveller book collection. Even though I hate some of the stuff in it and have had to make up a lot of stuff, it's still the basic framework for the technology behind anything I try to design for any game or story I write. FF&S2 has got a lot going for it too, but it's not nearly as torn up from overuse as FF&S1.

The best of both books must be gleaned into a third volume. Added to that, corrections that will take advantage of some of the wealth of information that has been published by players on the web. This includes being able to design a wet-navy! There are also plenty of real-world examples that invalidate the aircraft construction rules; the thing I'm most pointing out is take-off weight. Maybe in the '50s aircraft couldn't devote more than 25 or 35% of their takeoff weight to weapons load, but there are a lot of aircraft now that weigh less than half their maximum load, and plenty that weight less than 30%. And I want to armor more than my cockpit.

But anyway, for those of us who gotta know how stuff works, FF&S was a major boon, and it should be kept that way. Why are fusion reactors hardly more energy dense than reactors? Why can't I dump larger quantities of fuel into a fusion rocket and see a corresponding increase in thrust per kl of engine? Why don't fusion rockets improve like fusion reactors? Why can I get radically different weapons when I design a 20mm rifle and a 2cm gun? Why does a gauss dart have the same penetration as a ball-round rather than a DS round? Why were the warhead weights chosen arbitrarily; didn't anyone realize that weight increases with the cube of the bore, and 16 inch shells weigh 2700 POUNDS, not KILOGRAMS?

My next concern is a small one. Ever since I'd found out there was some clue about the "Baddies from the Core" lurking in the Megatraveller book, Knightfall, I read through it (didn't think much of it when I got it 10 years ago) and found a perfectly wonderful addition to the Trade rules. It goes something like this (pp 14-15):

When buying prospective cargoes, selling them is not guaranteed. On your destination world, you have to roll a task to find a buyer, and the difficulty is affected by things like population, law, and trade classifications, or whatever else the Ref wants to use.

TECH LEVEL EFFECTS have a modifier to value. The type of good being sold has an effect on the Tech Level Effect. For instance, a TL5 rock is just as good as a TL15 rock, so there is no TL effect on price. Information, however, tends to be more detailed and realistic on higher tech worlds, and are always more valuable if it's from a high-tech world. Hardware is really only useful if it's from a similar tech world; not a lot of call for wagon wheels nowadays, and if my auto-doc breaks, I don't have a way to get new parts for the TL15 computer. Novelties work in an opposite direction; hand-carved items are quite novel on high-tech worlds, and holographic art is quite interesting to low-tech worlds.

That's the gist of it. There's a few more examples for the other kinds of goods, but I don't want to plagerize too much. You should be able to figure it out.

I don't see anything like that added to Far Trader or TNE or T4's trade system, and it's a very powerful idea that I will be incorporating into all my future games.

Whenever possible or reasonable, there should be explanations about why something works, or why something was done. This is a big enough subject that it requires a seperate area and only in part would belong in the main books. It would be a perfect addition to an accompanying CD.

An accompanying CD is a MUST. A good set of programs to allow people to easily use the design rules must be provided. I've seen a lot of stuff out there, and so far, nothing does everything I need. Galactic is good, but I can't stand DOS interfaces. Heaven and Earth helps you build everything about a sector, down to every planet, and it's mouse-able, but it's difficult to quickly and easily access all that information, or present it for your players without totally re-writing everything. With some more work (and perhaps a paycheck) this could be a tool for building or displaying the whole of Known Space at any desired timeframe and also allow you to keep track of where the PC's and important NPC's ships are.

There are dozens of spreadsheets out there that help to build weapons, but none does exactly what I need. Some are quite good, and need only a little more polish. I started making one of my own, so I know how big this task is. In a few decades, when it's finished, it will allow the user to design anything from a butterfly to a gun to a tank to a ship to a world to a universe.

Like I said... decades...

But this is very useful stuff that needs to be added. The process of building things has always been a long involved one, even if you know in advance what you're doing. God help you if you need to tweak!

On top of that, a simplified creation system is going to prove useful. The QSDS is a great idea, but I think it still needs simplifying and shortening. I should be able to whip up the basic stats of a ship or vehicle in 10 minutes or less. When I need heavy detail, then I'll delve into FF&S3.

Dice: I must say, being able to use 2d6 is a very powerful simplification. But there are times when you need to be able to use other dice. I would recommend that everything on the basic level be compatible with 2d6 (or d66). But there will be times when you want to simulate something a little more accurately, and 2d6 just won't do it. In such cases, do not be afraid to use any-sided dice.

Players' book should have everything a player needs to know about the game, and a little bit to show him what to expect of a game and a referee. It will have the minimum knowledge for players and experienced referees to get started.

Referees' book should have that ref-only material. It should go into detail about how to do all those common tasks that were only glanced on in the players' book. Much of it will look like more detailed info, and indeed will be.

Milleux books will have the various milleux of the game. Start with something early, like the Interstellar Wars. After 6 months, move to a later period, like maybe the last century of the Rule of Man. In 6 months, you present the Long Night, particularly the Aslan Border Wars and Generation Ships; those people who thought they could escape the Long Night by going somewhere else and starting from scratch. Would look like a pocket empires thing. 6 months later, you reintroduce Milleu 0. There are a few more possible spots in history to spotlight (like the Civil War, Frontier Wars, Vargr incursions, Zhodani Core expeditions, K'Kree-Hiver war, Solomani Rim war,...) before you get to 5FW/1100 milleu. You have the Rebellion again. You have the New Era again. You have the 4th Imperium. You have the Far Far Future idea you've been taunting us with.

Each Milleu is given 6 months of time for people to play it and see what it's like before you publish another one. And you go in order. This way, people new to the story won't know what's going to happen next. People familiar with it will have a lot more Library data. And with each Milleu, you release a CD that has the Library data on it. You include the "current" map of known space, which has different display modes; you can see what each individual Major Race knows and you can get the Referee's view and see it all.

Equipment guides and such: Include a picture of what each thing is. Try to get two or 3 or so items on each page; I hated how RCEG wasted so much space. I also want a small format the size of an index card or playing card for most things. This way, I can hand the card to a player, and say "This is your gun. There's the ammo tracking chart. There's the Wear tracking chart." Or I can say "Here's your ship. This is where you keep track of ammo and fuel. And this card here is for you to keep track of your current cargo and passengers. Don't forget to make your payments on time."

I realize the ship's card will need a format closer to BR than BL. That's ok. The data card doesn't need extensive notes; that's what the datasheet on the CD is for.

Keep an eye for how things look on the page. If stuff doesn't flow off it, it's not going to be read. That's the main reason I haven't read thoroughly any of my T4 stuff, and one of the reasons I bought so little of it.

Get some one to proofread it once or twice. I don't know where all those misprints or errata come from, but I've got so many marks in my books (and that evil Page 75 thing) it's ridiculous. Hardcover seems to add about 20% to the cost, but I think it lasts a lot longer. Then again, maybe my MMT / Milleu 0 books are in such good condition cuz I don't read them often...

I wish GURPS wasn't such a hodge-podge of pseudo-science, and I wish their tech scale was closer to the Traveller scale. I'd like to get into all those GT books I have, but they're hard to digest. Don't let T5 be hard to digest. A person should open the book, and next thing they should know, their boss calls wondering if they're gonna show up for work today because they've been captivated for the last 10 hours and didn't know the whole night had passed. (Ah, FF&S,... what memories!!)

Details for tech-heads, simplicity for the rest of the world. (Maybe I shoulda said that first?)

------------------
"This is a spaceship! Why did you throw that grenade here?"
"I was just trying to get the bad guys."
"Uh guys,..."
BOOOMM!

 

[aramis]

FF&S for T5 should be no more complex than MT. Personally, I would preferr an erratta-free MT design sequence, possibly shifting back to 14 KL Td's, and including armor thicknesses/volumes.

Streamlined system should be a pick and choose from preselected sets of material ala the QSDS, but tied to the FINAL and not the DRAFT version of the ship design sequence.

Both design systems should:
... support up through TL 20...
... support multiple sizes of turret, including the various canonical sizes (1, 2, 3, 5, 50, 100 Td) and smaller ones for single beam, etc.
... be consistantly formulaic in derivation, with the formulae in the rules, but table driven in use. (Ex: JDrive size is R+1 percent.) Mention should be made that the grid or coil is that +1, or some such bit.
... easily use either system for PC scale AND Capital scale vessels.
... have supporting rules for using all the goodies in the system. (MT didn't...)
... support non-OTU equipment (As TNE's FF&S1 did) but do it simply and cogently, and without all the nastyness of FF&S.
... tie in to the vehicle design system seamlessly.
... have examples worked through CORRECTLY (A problem with MT, TNE, T4 all.)

I Like the MT option of using personal combat mechanics with vehicle and starship weapons (but defenses just didn't get converted... sigh).

<sargasm mode on>Say, Avery, just how much would you want for the MT rules sans background... <sarcasm mode off>

------------------
-aramis
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