Any news on B5 yet?

[Razuur]

Speak for yourself Raesene.

The preview blew me and my players away.

Their eyes bugged at the map, as did my wife cuz it looked so *awesome*.

That said, i don't know what you mean by "suffers from a severe lack of realism", as Mongooose has been workig with JMS himself on this. I would say it is as accurate as can be.

Have you seen the previous RPG? This looks to blow it out of the water as I was severly disappointed with that one.

Each to there own I guess.

Razuur

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

I was wondering about the realism thing myself - I realise that the stars are not too scale given their relative distance

Anyway, chaps, the latest news on B5. There is a rumour (and just a rumour mind!) that the rulebook left the printers yesterday and is currently due to arrive at our warehouse this week - which, if true, would mean it would be available to distributors a week today and you could get your mits on it a week after that.

Of course, this may be just another insidious Psi Corps plot aimed at destroying morale. Personally, I won't believe it until I have a book in my hands, hopefully in a few days - I'll let you all know when I can confirm that the book does indeed exist!

 

[Ranger REG]

I'll let you all know when I can confirm that the book does indeed exist!

I hope so. I would hate those freighters carrying those books to get lost inside the jumpgate.

BTW, we don't wear mits in Hawaii.

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

BTW, we don't wear mits in Hawaii.

Oh, rub it in, why don't you

 

[KDLadage]

This is indeed a good sign.

Again, good luck! I have several players now that are threatening to hold my son hostage until I start the B5 game...

 

[KDLadage]

double post

 

[Neo]

I'll reserve my judgement until I've actually seen the book I think. Just looking through the preview I'm not that impressed, especially by the system map included which, IMO, suffers from a severe lack of realism.

Lack of Realism??? you do realise there aren't really Hyperspace pathways and Jumpgates and that no great old Minbari, vorlon and shadow empires exist beyond our system... don't you lol

sorry couldn't resist, it just cracks me up when people start demanding reaslism from sci fi and fantasy games .. the map isn't exactly going to be as accurate as an A-Z of Melbourne lol

 

[Ranger REG]

You mean Babylon 5 is real?

Then why are spending billions of dollars for an ISS, still not complete?

You should reword your "lack of realism" statement, Razuur.

 

[Raesene Andu]

Lack of Realism??? you do realise there aren't really Hyperspace pathways and Jumpgates and that no great old Minbari, vorlon and shadow empires exist beyond our system... don't you lol

I was thinking more along the lines of the scale of the map, with ALL of the various empires and homeworlds clustered around one another in a tiny region of space. I'll admit that my eyesight isn't great, but I can't see an obvious scale on the map. However, it looks to me as if Proxima (i.e. Proxima Centauri) is the same distance from earth as Beta Durani. Of course, the TV show itself paid very lax attention to the real world dimensions of space and the locations of known stars and, in fact, the scope of the TV show appeared to change size as it moved from one season to the next, becoming less believable as it progressed (a war covering the whole galaxy??).

The map in the preview appears to have inherited much of the TV show's dodgy steller cartography. This is unfortunate, although I doubt it will affect my decision on a purchase as I tend to create things like that myself.

It does seem to be the one things my sci-fi TV shows and RPGs get wrong, the whole scale thing. B5, although perhaps my favourite show of all time, is one of the worst offenders. When B5 started the Earht Alliance controlled around 14 systems (the preview map shows 14-16 I think, so spot on there), yet by season 3, the events in the show were supposed to be covering the whole galaxy, or more than 100,000,000,000 star systems. I had hoped that the new B5 RPG would attempt to finally set in stone some of the dimensions, times, and distances and I'm afraid that looking at the map in the preview I am a little disappointed (although I will wait to see the final product before making a final judgement). I did think the B5 cross-section was rather neat though, good work on that one.


And finally, to quote on of my favourite books...

Space is big. Really Big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's peanuts to space.

 

[Razuur]

I guess Id on' think that stellar cartography is an issue. Real starmaps would become outdated once the advent of Jump gates occurred.

The map is utitlitarian showing the primary jump gates and how they connect to the systems around them. We'll see when we get the book if Jump Times are included. I think it is a great way to "group" the empires together despite the fact that each empires worlds are probably overlapping one another in "Real Space" geography.

By your definittion, thw only way mongoose could produce a correct map would be a 3d holographic map with the precise star locations pinpointed.

And Ranger, "lack of realism" was Raesene Andu's verbage, not mine (I just messed up the word suffering")

As for as realims, JMS has consistantly stated that the "astronomy" of B5 was a scientifically accurate as possible. After all, it was NASAs favorite show. And NASAs Jet Propulsion Labs were even scientific advisors for CRUSADE.

For a piece of fiction - it is as accurate as it needs to be to feel real.

Razuur