Traveller 5th Edition Reprint Is Kickstarting

T5 seemed to me, to be just a much more complex version of T4

(I had no problems with TNE, other than the setting. It was basically just GDW's house rules at the time, which they had used in Twilight 2000, Dark Conspiracy, and I think Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.)


Mongoose Traveller is what most people really seem to have wanted, basically CT with some modern improvements.

mach1.9pants said:

Traveller doesn't need a GM? How does that work?

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Several subsystems are mini-games in their own right.

As with older editions...

Character generation is a minigame. it can be played solo.
Trade and Commerce can be run solo, if the player is fair about random encounters. Many players through the decades, including myself, have done so.

In prior editions (I have 5.1 already, but haven't actually read it yet, but have skimmed a few chapters of interest), tactical combat and, in MegaTraveller, even full up major battles, can be played as tactical wargames. I honestly don't know about 5.1 - I have issues with certain choices, and use it only as a sourcebook; the areas I'm interested in. In point, in CT, tactical battles aboard ship were extracted to the Snapshot boardgame.

Likewise, ship and fleet space combat was in prior editions able to be played as a 2p minigame; CT had Bk2 space combat as a minis-on table; a separate boxed game, Mayday, was a hex based version of same. T:TNE's space combat was 3 versions: core rules, Brilliant Lances, and (I can't remember the name)... essentially, Mapless, map and counters, and big ship fleet battles counters on hexmap.

T5 ship combat can be played as a minigame as well, but the big battlewagons are not in the core.

Many other RPGs can be used these ways, too... Traveller just is honest about that.

I don't want to say bad things about T5, but I do feel people should have an idea of what they are probably jumping into.
A friend and I have looked at some of the T5 files. We both agree that it's more than we want to deal with.
It has complex tables and mathematical formulas scattered throughout the files we saw. (Only had the time to look through a few of them.) The organization was also rather insufficient with things in one page might need you to look at another page somewhere else when they seemed to us to be things that should be together.

Hopefully the kickstarter version will have taken care of that at least.
We'll just continue with Cepheus or Mongoose Traveller v2.

I do hope they are successful, but I'm not going to risk the kickstarter. I'll wait until after it's out and someone I know gets it so I can see if it's been cleaned up and streamlined enough to feel comfortable again.

Of course if math and having to look up a lot of stuff doesn't bother you, this might be a good one for you.
For the rest, try Cepheus or the Mongoose versions of Traveller, preferably version 2. Both can be found on Drivethrurpg.com and they are fairly compatible with each other and for the most part, even classic Traveller. (As to differences in ship stats, we just hand wave it as variations from different manufacturers, or even the results of refits and repairs over the years.)

Stacie GmrGrl said:

I've never played Traveller. I take it this would be the ideal way to start my Travelling adventures?

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Dl the Cepheus Engine SRD or better yet Cepheus Light. This is also nice in print https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/80192

Stacie GmrGrl said:

I've never played Traveller. I take it this would be the ideal way to start my Travelling adventures?

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Like other people, I'd say no. T5 was to some extent a love letter to old Traveller fans with all that entails, including not having much regard for people who weren't already experienced players. An approximate analogy would be having two versions of D&D around, one based on 3.x (T5) and one that took the D&D5 approach (Mongoose 2e, Cepheus Engine). My own preference is Mongoose 2e, which has a really nice starter set containing all the rules from the main rulebook and which also utilises the OTU for which I've collected a huge amount of material over the years which I can use to advantage, but Cepheus Engine is as easy to get into, cheaper, and has the very good Clement Sector from Gypsy Knight Games which is another good setting.

barasawa said:

A friend and I have looked at some of the T5 files. We both agree that it's more than we want to deal with.
It has complex tables and mathematical formulas scattered throughout the files we saw. (Only had the time to look through a few of them.) The organization was also rather insufficient with things in one page might need you to look at another page somewhere else when they seemed to us to be things that should be together.

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Traveller has always had a tendency to add more complexity in supplements, T5's biggest error in my opinion was including a large amount of that in the core rules. Compare Fire Fusion and Steel or some of the expanded world generation systems (DGP's expanded world generation in MegaTraveller gave you 65 pieces of data and required you to generate axial tilt, planetary albedo and orbital eccentricity) to the more basic systems in the core rules. T5 tried to include a lot of that in the core.

T5 has potential if they’ve fixed the issues

RPG Review issue 22 published my review/play through of character generation with the last printed version of T5. T5 is comprehensive, it’s more like an entire game line than a core book. However, the presentation was terrible. It sounds like this time they have fixed the issues that should have been fixed before going to press last time. I hope so because I backed this again. Link to my review: http://rpgreview.net/node/137

Coronoides said:

RPG Review issue 22 published my review/play through of character generation with the last printed version of T5. T5 is comprehensive, it’s more like an entire game line than a core book. However, the presentation was terrible. It sounds like this time they have fixed the issues that should have been fixed before going to press last time. I hope so because I backed this again. Link to my review: http://rpgreview.net/node/137

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Pretty much this. The reason T5 is so big is that it is comprehensive. It's a tool box (as Doctor Futurity mentioned above) to run pretty much any style of science fiction game you want, not just the Third Imperium setting they developed.

It includes numerous bits you wouldn't use / need in it's associated setting. It includes personality transfers (through wafers that download a personality into a body), positronic brains, robots / synthetics / androids, cloning, genetic engineering including chimera, None of this is really "must have" for a typical Third Imperium setting game. Throw in systems for "building" starships / spaceships, vehicles and guns, and it gets... big. Thirteen "core" classes / careers are included. You can get buried in star system detail if you want to -- or stick with the basic world generation system. The level of detail you want to get into is a matter of choice. Because it's all one system you can expand the level of detail as needed. Skill / task resolution has changed too, it's now stat + skill with success being to roll under. The difficulty of the task is reflected not in a higher number, but in an increased number of dice being rolled making it harder to "roll under" (T4 did this too iirc, older systems like MT used higher numbers for difficulty rather than dice). In keeping with Traveller completeness there are tables displaying the percentage chances of rolling a given number, rolling under it etc. for every possible dice roll. And the rationale for everything gets explained, often in somewhat pedantic detail.

There is a "simple" core game included in this along with tons of options for expanding and detailing it, tweeking systems and designing the setting you want. Not to say that there aren't other things that could be added (i.e. expanded year by year character generation or large commercial / military starship construction) but it packs in a lot of crunch. I'm looking forward to this revised / updated printing of T5 making it more accessible / user friendly. Three books with some more organization and indexes / glossary is good.

*edit* For wording / grammar.

Now, having said the above, I should point out that Megatraveller / T4 were the last systems I used to run a Traveller game. I collected D20 Traveller as a curiosity and T5 to support a return of the system. I have the basics of Mongoose Traveller version 1, but not two. If, or more likely when I run another game I'm likely to use an older system and borrow freely from the ideas in T5. It's easier than retooling everything I have in place.

One of the nice things about Traveller editions is the relative ease of porting goodies from one edition to the next. Except for TNE of course which used GDWs then house system, designed originally for Twilight 2000, they have all shared the idea of using multiple D6 for most everything. Along with a lot of older fans, I avoided that one (TNE) and renewed my Traveller habit with T4 "Marc Millers Traveller" from Imperium Games.

*edit* D@mn it! Now I'm wondering if going straight T5 might be better... arghh!!! Such is life

mach1.9pants said:

Traveller doesn't need a GM? How does that work?

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Because if nobody shows up for your game because they're too busy watching Critical Role, you don't need a GM.

I really enjoyed the GURPS Traveller books. The book on interstellar trading goes into the high detail expected in GURPS source books and I've used it in other games as well.