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Traveller5 unboxing video

Hemdian

Hemdian

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So, my package from the Traveller5 Kickstarter arrived today. I am now the proud owner of a very nice (and heavy) book, a couple of tee-shirts, a CD-ROM, a ‘jump drive’, a number of dice and coins, and some cards:
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Yori/Spinward Marches
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Marfa/Massila
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Alard/Fornast
  • Peter LS Trevor ... member of TAS
  • Knight of the Domain of Deneb (Yori/Spinward Marches)
  • Duke William Durrant of Patu/Core

The ‘gold’ coins are a couple of millimeters larger than a quarter, similar weight, a face value of 25 credits from the “Imperial Bank of Regina”, bears the head of Duke Norris (dated 1116) and the legend “Standard value guaranteed for all debts.”

And here is a breathless and barely articulate unboxing video. (Unscripted and unrehearsed.)

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
Quick evaluation. The ‘jump drive’ was blank ... but that’s okay for me because I also got the CD-ROM. On the CD-ROM there are ...
  • 2 broken but fixable links
    • Careers (was Traveller5-078.pdf, should be Traveller5-078-109.pdf)
    • Defenses (was Traveller5-394.pdf, should be Traveller5-395.pdf)
  • an extra file (Traveller5-083a.pdf),
  • and four missing files:
    • Nobles (Traveller5-093.pdf)
    • 1001 GunMaker Examples (Traveller5-240a.pdf)
    • 1001 ArmorMaker Examples (Traveller5-261a.pdf)
    • Technology (Traveller5-497.pdf)
 
God bless you sir for recording the video!
You appeared to be so patient whilst showing the camera everything, I don't think I would be able to keep so calm. Well done.

The extra merchandise looks really excellent. Superb quality.
Also, considering the number of boxes Marc Miller has to pack and ship, it looks like your box was packed with extreme care.

The book itself looks to be the highest quality I have seen, especially for a book of it's size.

I am now even more excited to get my hands on my book when it arrives.

Once again, thanks a lot for recording the video and having the patience to show us everything in the box.
Enjoy :)
 
Hemdian said:
Quick evaluation. The ‘jump drive’ was blank ... but that’s okay for me because I also got the CD-ROM. On the CD-ROM there are ...
  • 2 broken but fixable links
    • Careers (was Traveller5-078.pdf, should be Traveller5-078-109.pdf)
    • Defenses (was Traveller5-394.pdf, should be Traveller5-395.pdf)
  • an extra file (Traveller5-083a.pdf),
  • and four missing files:
    • Nobles (Traveller5-093.pdf)
    • 1001 GunMaker Examples (Traveller5-240a.pdf)
    • 1001 ArmorMaker Examples (Traveller5-261a.pdf)
    • Technology (Traveller5-497.pdf)
Click to expand...

The Technology file is also in the Traveller5-477.pdf file. The two example files are missing...
 
Hemdian said:
So, my package from the Traveller5 Kickstarter arrived today. I am now the proud owner of a very nice (and heavy) book, a couple of tee-shirts, a CD-ROM, a ‘jump drive’, a number of dice and coins, and some cards:
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Yori/Spinward Marches
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Marfa/Massila
  • Sir Peter LS Trevor of Alard/Fornast
  • Peter LS Trevor ... member of TAS
  • Knight of the Domain of Deneb (Yori/Spinward Marches)
  • Duke William Durrant of Patu/Core
Click to expand...
Great video Sir Peter!
Makes me wish I'd had the T's.
 
Last edited:
When he took out the book, with the freakin' cover, and flipped through it....I got wood.

Man, I can't wait to tear into it. It looks like my kinda-thing.
 
"1" on the spine

Hemdian, like I told you before in another alias, the "1" on the spine is like a cruel joke. LOL. If they make an adventure-book also of that size, they had better include 20 pages of general health, nutrition and exercise information so we don't die before finishing the adventure but last for enough decades as necessary!
 
Supplement Four:

I have watched that video a few times now along with my son and my brother.
We are all really excited about getting our hands on it.
Until then we shall be continuing our CT gaming which involves the use of your excellent RULE 68A.
Thanks a lot.
 
Baltech Budapest said:
Supplement Four:

I have watched that video a few times now along with my son and my brother.
We are all really excited about getting our hands on it.
Until then we shall be continuing our CT gaming which involves the use of your excellent RULE 68A.
Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for saying so, man! People want structure, and probably for that same reason, people stray away from CT's unstructured method in favor of a tried-n-true task system.

I'm still a huge fan of the CT method--because the GM can customize each throw to the specific situation. Others like one-size-fits-all task systems. I get it. But, I wanted to show how you could have a standard throw in CT and still have room for the GM to get creative if he wanted.

I'm glad you got some use out of it!

Though I'm excited about reading T5, I already know that I probably won't dig the task system. It's got some innate flaws, in my opinion. I've discussed before how I dislike players know the what the total of the throw is before they roll it. But, hey, CT combat is like that, right? And, I sometimes say, "Roll STR on 3D or less" in a CT game. So, that's probably not going to be a deal breaker for me.

I'm eager to dig through T5 and see what it offers. From the video, I just like the look of the damn thing. It reminds me of the first time I opened The Traveller Book. THAT'S the way a Traveller book should look...not the glossy, super-hero-y stuff Mongoose is offering.

I've got my mug ready to lift my spirits in toast to this new era of Traveller!

When the dust settles, I may still be a die hard CT fan, destined to never change. But, I'm open to being persuaded.

Persuade me, T5. Yeah, yeah. Persuade me.
 
Supplement Four said:
I've got my mug ready to lift my spirits in toast to this new era of Traveller!

When the dust settles, I may still be a die hard CT fan, destined to never change. But, I'm open to being persuaded.
Click to expand...

My sentiments exactly.

I love CT for many reasons. One of them is the unstructured nature of the task system, which is why I think RULE 68A fits CT like a glove, keeping the spirit of CT whilst providing a loose structure which gives the GM lots of room to still ref the game 'on the fly'.

I also like structured task systems in other games.

I know exactly nothing about T5. I am waiting eagerly for someone to post some kind of summary or review so I have an idea of what the system is like.

Regardless, once I get hold of the book I will dive in and absorb it as much as I can.

I will also support T5 as much as I can from this point because it is Marc Miller's creation and I owe him, big time, for providing me with many years of pleasure.

Let's hope this the beginning of a new era (pun intended) for Traveller.

P.S. Sorry to the OP for going off topic slightly, and thanks again for having the patience to record your unboxing experience.
 
Baltech Budapest said:
I know exactly nothing about T5. I am waiting eagerly for someone to post some kind of summary or review so I have an idea of what the system is like.
Click to expand...

I haven't received my book yet, but from what I understand, T5 uses the updated version of the old T4 task system. That's basically this: Stat + Skill, then roll that number or less on a number of dice. The number of dice represents difficulty.

For example, if you wanted find out about who to talk to about smuggling cargos, this would be a Streetwise task. Take EDU + Streetwise skill. That's your target number. The difficulty of the task is represented by the number of dice throw. If you had EDU-7 and Streetwise-1, then you'd have to throw 9- to be successful on the task. Extremely easy means throw that number or less on 1 or 2 dice. Average would be throw it or less with 2 or 3 dice. Hard would be 4 or 5 or 6 dice.

That's the basics.

I really dislike that task system, but I'm hoping the rest of the book will win me over.
 
Supplement Four said:
I haven't received my book yet, but from what I understand, T5 uses the updated version of the old T4 task system. That's basically this: Stat + Skill, then roll that number or less on a number of dice. The number of dice represents difficulty.
Click to expand...

Way back on the TML I remember someone had an alternative formulation to avoid the high-stat, low-skill issue. Something like (1/2Stat+2xSkill).

T5 has a couple of new (as far as I know) mechanisms.

This Is Hard Rule: If character Skill < # Difficulty dice, then Add a Difficulty dice.
Example: Skill-1, 2D Difficulty (average), then Task becomes 3D (difficult).
But, if (Skill + JOT Skill) >= #Difficulty dice, the rule does not apply.
Example: Skill 1 + JOT 1 vs Average task = 2D (Target number still Skill+Stat).

Cautious option: Double time required for task and reduce Difficulty 1 die.
Example: Skill-1 can keep all Average tasks at 2D by doing them all cautiously.
 
Bloo said:
Way back on the TML I remember someone had an alternative formulation to avoid the high-stat, low-skill issue. Something like (1/2Stat+2xSkill).

T5 has a couple of new (as far as I know) mechanisms.

This Is Hard Rule: If character Skill < # Difficulty dice, then Add a Difficulty dice.
Example: Skill-1, 2D Difficulty (average), then Task becomes 3D (difficult).
But, if (Skill + JOT Skill) >= #Difficulty dice, the rule does not apply.
Example: Skill 1 + JOT 1 vs Average task = 2D (Target number still Skill+Stat).

Cautious option: Double time required for task and reduce Difficulty 1 die.
Example: Skill-1 can keep all Average tasks at 2D by doing them all cautiously.
Click to expand...

This is Hard was t4 errata.
Cautious was in MT, TNE, 2300.
 
Bloo said:
Way back on the TML I remember someone had an alternative formulation to avoid the high-stat, low-skill issue. Something like (1/2Stat+2xSkill).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was way back. Believe it or not, that debate grew out of a problem I had with T4 in my campaign. I switched from MT to T4 when the latter came out, and we had a fairly long campaign using the T4 rules.

I posted my issue on the TML. It blew up into a large discussion (I bet you can find that old discussion in the TML archives--that was back in the early 90's). Marc was on the TML then. Someone, another TML member--not Marc (I've forgotten who), came up with the It's Harder Than I Thought rule. Marc thought it was a good idea and used it as part of the T4.1 task system. He changed a few other things and printed it on the T4 GM's screen.

The rule is now called the This Is Hard rule, as part of the T5 task system.

As Aramis says above, the cautious option actually started with CT when the UTP task system was introduced (DGP's task system for Classic Trav) and naturally became part of MT (because DPG was driving the bus on that edition of the game), then found its way into this current task system.
 
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