Wish list?
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
They can get electronic dice from Warehouse 23 and put 'em on a necklace.The problem isn't the lack of dice at the table... I have about 500 dice in a small drawer that we draw from ('The Amoeba' after its legendary tendency to absorb dice from other places and reproduce by budding off a smaller amoeba). They just can't for the life of them seem to keep them on the table (in any 2d6 roll, there's about a 1/4 chance of one leaving the 8x4 playing surface.... if they have more dice, odds go up astronomically). It's a rare talent.
But as we've gotten older, the fun is in the story, not the fists full of dice and bazillions of points of damage or the adding of dice...
But as we've gotten older, the fun is in the story, not the fists full of dice and bazillions of points of damage or the adding of dice...
Since I play in he living room, around a coffee table, and have done so since I was a youth, dice on the table is a rare thing. Most of my players roll into a paper plate or a pencil box, or on a gaming book or clipboard.
So lots-o-dice is paramount to askinng them to lose dice.
Supporting gamescience or chessex or kaplow is a good thing, but that goes too far (grin).
as for task system to be the determinant for whether or not I buy it... well, that it the one aspect of the game which will shape it for newbies. Newbies I've dealt with tend to be scared of House Rules... especially ones which drastically alter the core rules. Like task systems. T5 absolutely needs to have a simple mechanic, that creates the feel. Multi-dice is not a bad thing in and of itself, nor is roll low... but neither is terribly newbie-friendly. Likewise, I have almost every MT product ever released, and most of CT. I don't need reprints of anything but MT. If the central task system is broken, I've no reason to bother making the leap to T5.
And lets face it, any new traveller players I may get will either be T20, GT or T5 players, or will be newbies with only those and CT available. So, when the MT CD-Rom comes out, I'll no longer have the issue of my books wearing out.... when they do, reprint them.
I understand the frustration. I am not sure I agree with the sentiment of not buying the product at all.
Ok, listen I started out with Megatraveller.
This means to me as a player/ref that I simply cannot seperate the mileu from the mechanics.
Traveller is more to me than a campaign setting.
If there had been a MT corrected or a CT advanced, then that would have truly been the legendary system we would still would all be talking about.
What blew my mind in MegaTraveller from a game mechanics point of view?
1. A d6 based simple Task System -- The UTP blew my mind after the endless pages of charts I had grown use to with AD&D. Everything is a task. There are modifiers to the task but in the end it all just a task.
2. The idea that armor is not a To-Hit modifier. It reduces damage. The pen/atten was a bit complex and smacked off wargaming overkill but damn it was elegant.
3. Lifepath based chargen focused around careers. This was a revolution after the random D&D set of no background and the point based giveaway almost of other systems. BTW, if a quickchargen can also quickly forge an idea of the characters past life then that would completely work in my opinion.
4. Tools for a referee to create everything from a grav bike to a starship from a planet to the sector of space it exists in with a few dice rolls and have the results to be somewhat consistent.
Am I blind to that version's failings?
Heck no.
Tons of errata.
Design system that ticked off old-school gearheads.
The mileu tied into the player's handbook and the referee manual through sideline nuggets re-inforcing a mileu change a lot of old-timers did not dig.
An experience system with a random dice roll element which was bad enough to make players hurl dice at the ref's head.
What is the solution to this for T5?
Marc Miller has his own ideas. He is human. People do this sort of thing.
He is the only person really accountable for this.
However, if T5 is anything like T4 then the two biggest problems we will have is getting errata cleared up and the Task System.
Oh yeah and the experience system is just rigid as hell even with Life pursuits.
Someone else already mentioned the great clue on this. Plug and play parts. Options.
Optional experience rules.
Two task systems.
Why not? Confusing for a newbie?
Give me a break only if the newbie is twelve!
Systems do this all the time now.
Fuzion core rules for R. Talisorian does this. D&D even back the second edition had optional rules right there in the core rules texts. It gives players options without having to go all house rules.
We need options.
_
Ack makes a good point. Another about MT Task system is this: You could, on the fly, very easiliy make up a task UTP.
To crack a safe, difficult, mechanical or security, fateful, 1 min. Note: If the roll is blown, the alarm will be set off. This assumes tools of equal TL to the safe. Lower tech tools increase difficulty by one level, no tools by two levels. Higher tech tools reduce the difficulty by one level.
So that's the kind of example we want. Something where the GM with skill system in hand can pretty much run the game with a couple of dice and his imagination. And yet, if you want to build database scaled skill libraries, this works too.
To crack a safe, difficult, mechanical or security, fateful, 1 min. Note: If the roll is blown, the alarm will be set off. This assumes tools of equal TL to the safe. Lower tech tools increase difficulty by one level, no tools by two levels. Higher tech tools reduce the difficulty by one level.
So that's the kind of example we want. Something where the GM with skill system in hand can pretty much run the game with a couple of dice and his imagination. And yet, if you want to build database scaled skill libraries, this works too.
