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The bring back the LBBs as T5 Organization

  • Thread starter Thread starter Prometheus
  • Start date Start date
^One dimensional has its place as well, normally as NPCs but I get your meaning.

Sexy does have its place. I treat it as another skill, or rule. Hey we have “to hit” for everything else. Good role playing counts for something as well because sometimes “wine and dine” will get those blueprints better than “blast and smash”. People use sex as a weapon all the time, just not on the cover of Traveller.

Hell would you want the “Admin” skill to be featured on the cover? Some Tureka administrator pushing papers across his desk?
Ooooo I gotta buy that book. The cover must set the mood.
 
Avoiding sex will continue to set traveller apart art wise. The trick is to not go the other direction, as well...

Cover art needs to be both well executed and eye catching. THat can be done with a variety of topics for the art. I really would like to see a cover that is, like T20's, but more multi-gender. My absolute favorite cover, and one of the sexiest in traveller, is AM1:Aslan. That multi-breasted female is ironically one of the sexiest treatments of a female whatever in Traveller.

(as an aside, I don't like the barefoot Vargr depictions, but don't mind barefoot Aslan, Virush, or dandies.)
 
I agree about the Aslan on AM1. That's exactly the kind of thing that makes for great Traveller art.

(But, I can't tell that she is "multi-breasted" (if, by that, you mean more than two). She appears to have an abdomen that shows off her rib cage. (At least, that's the way it looks to me.))
 
Please to forgive....

Sorry, but I have been up since Sixday 2300 and now am tired and going to bed, but since I just got in, I had to post and find out what my LLB member number is.

I would like the number 13 or 23 if possible. Or what ever one I get. :p

I haven't finished this thread yet, but I do know a publisher and he's gonna send me some printing trade stuff, so soon (2 months+) I will have actual numbers to pitch in. :D

Having fun as always, and glad to be here.
 
13 is probably safe. If someone challenges you for it, just be sure you get to pick the weapons.
 
I'm in favor of the classic LBB look

Just joined the forums, and I'd like to toss in my 2 credits. I too started with the LBBs, but I think the depth of detail expected now for a pen and paper RPG would preclude such a design.

If they can pull it off, great! However, if not, and they go hard bound 8 1/2" x 11", then I'd like to suggest three things:

1) Go with the black overall color, with the single colored stripe running horizontally. Try to go for the look of classic Traveller. Those LBBs are distinctly iconic as far as RPGs go. In my opinion, NOTHING else compares in all these years of gaming.

2) Get quality binding.

I ordered two copies of the special edition Call of Cthulhu hardbound from Chaosium, the one with the haunted house on the cover (It was the same image on the 1st and 2nd edition boxed sets, as I recall). One of the books was almost totally separated from the cover, and the other was close to that upon arrival. Consequently I haven't ordered a thing from them since.

Yes, I could've argued for a replacement, but to what end? It was obvious from the binding job that they had gone cheap, and replacements would be the same.

I would be willing to pay extra to have high quality binding. My first edition Players Hand Book for AD&D is still firmly attached to it's cover, same with the Monster Manual. As a DM, those saw a lot of use. If TSR could do it...

3) Please keep the margins clean. Some companies have taken to using huge margins filled with scroll work, etc, and all this does is artificially inflate the page count. It also looks unpolished. (Again, my opinion).

Looking forward to T5 in whatever form it takes!
 
Cap Trooper said:
1) Go with the black overall color, with the single colored stripe running horizontally. Try to go for the look of classic Traveller. Those LBBs are distinctly iconic as far as RPGs go. In my opinion, NOTHING else compares in all these years of gaming.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what MGT (Mongoose Traveller) have done, and it seems to be quite popular with the majority of the buyers - if the poll on the Mongoose Traveller forum is anything to go by.
 
a 5x8 format lbb design is fine ...makes look up easy and is an inexpensive method of print ..<the reason they were that format in the firstplace cheap binding ...> and a lot of detail can be done in that size easily
 
As Uncle Bob posted a bazillion years ago, 8.5 x 11 is too big for the gaming table. 5 x 8 fits nicely. And even though UB suggests that 64 pages is all you need, Digest-sized books can pack in substantially more than that, and should when necessary.

I suggest that the T5 Corebook would be 8.5 x 11. Rules and Tools. Include companion volumes if it's too big -- there are plenty of logical extensions in T5 that could take up their own space.

The 5 x 8 T5 Playbook would only have the rules needed for playing with your RPG group. Skills, combat, interpersonals, equipment, vehicles, spacecraft.
 
I know it's been mentioned & shot down already, but I'd like pre-punched notebook-style. We can get our own binders, but that way errata and home rules could simply be added in, sections replaced, stuff like that.

And I understand that from a marketing as well as production viewpoint, it just does not make any sense. But as a long-time programmer, one of my 1st duties way back was to update the system books: every month or two we'd get a new package of documents, and the instructions on what to do with them: replaces book 3/pages 321-333, insert after book 5/section 5 appendix (there was a LOT of details in those manuals!) stuff like that. It made for complete and up-to-date books. I don't know if this is the case for anything anymore: most documentation is now electronic so you get the whole revised thing when you reload.

Since this will be released in PDF, I suppose I can do that myself anyway, except then I have to pay for paper & ink. But then, I could also reformat to my hearts content, such as getting all the tables together that should be together.

It also sounds that so far, there is no way to get it all in a LBB unless it is way too thick, so a 8.5x11 core book seems the only realistic solution, particularly in view of physical book displays.
 
mmbutter said:
ASL has been done this way since the early '80s.
Click to expand...

well - this WAS in the early '80s :rofl: I'm one of those old farts who played Traveller back in the LBB days and liked it! I think I need to snag me one of those Bring Back the LBB Book memberships.
 
Nah, they should simply publish the raw, DocBook or TeX source code for the rules. Then when you want to incorporate errata or your own changes, you can simply reformat and reprint the pages you want. Follow the "Section-PageNumber" format so that at most, you only have to reprint a single section instead of the entire rulebook.

Errata can be maintained via Patch files.

Somehow, I don't think this is going to happen tho...
 
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