(Mongoose) Babylon 5 RPG - Full Details!

[TheAuldGrump]

Besides, how many of you have picked up the defunct B5 RPG and enjoyed playing it?

Well I did. I ran two campaigns, one of them twice, and ran it as late as last year. I actually liked the rules a great deal, in fact it is the only D6 based system I ever liked. If there wasn't a new game coming out for B5 I might ask what you had problems with, but there is so it would be sort of a moot point.

The shp combat system was I will admit rather hard for some to grasp, but I have always liked vector space combat. And the Minbari ships were deadly!

I really liked the fact that the avererage shot from the most common weapon would kill you dead. I was also fond of the fact that the average die roll was zero.

At one point in the campaign the PCs, having managed to disgrace themselves in a hostage situation, ended up guarding sheep in the low gravity helium rich environs of Mars.... 'Baaaaaa', boing!

The only thing I had against the Chameleon Eclectic version was the lack of updates.

The Auld Grump, who needless to say is looking forward to the new game.....

 

[Victim]

Of course, the SRD is free.

Also, including additional rules for OGL use would increase the page count and thus price of the book.

 

[Sulimo]

The only thing I had against the Chameleon Eclectic version was the lack of updates.

What made me angry was that the League of Non-Aligned Worlds book was finished but never saw print...or even electronic distribution.

I bought the CE game ostensibly to use with other systems (at the time it was ICE's Spacemaster)...but never got around to it. Probably because it dried up before much came out for it (only the Earthforce book). I did play a couple of one-shops though, which from memory were pretty fun.

The d20 game will probably get bought for the same purpose...unless the d20 implementation is so amazing it overcomes the D&D hatred one of our group* has.

*well, one of the groups.

 

[Ranger REG]

THIS JUST IN!!!

According to GamingReport.com, they received news that the planned Babylon 5 Core Rulebook will be a 302-page hardcover book priced at $44.95.

In case you are keeping score, this is the second d20 product to break the $40 price limit, the first being another science fiction game, T20: The Traveller's Handbook (also priced at $44.95).

(In case you're into statistics: T20 has a page count of 440 pages in a hardcover format.)

Correct me if GamingReport.com and I are wrong.

Article Source: http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=7421&mode=&order=0

 

[Darrin Drader]

Re: THIS JUST IN!!!

In case you are keeping score, this is the second d20 product to break the $40 price limit, the first being another science fiction game, T20: The Traveller's Handbook (also priced at $44.95).

This is about what I was expecting. Why? #1 This has a major name attached to it and Babylon 5 fans will pay the higher price because it's Babylon 5 (I certainly will, *shakes fists defiantly in Mongoose's general direction*). #2 Mongoose has to pay for the exhorbitantly priced license. If the rumors about the price of this license are true, they'll be personally knocking on my door and shaking the nickels out of my pockets in no time.

If given a choice, I would rather pay $35 for it, but realistically, I've been waiting for this so long, I would consider selling off certain body parts just to get my hands on it and then have a few days of uninterrupted reading to absorb it all. I just hope Mongoose doesn't decide to take me up on that offer of body parts so they can sell my kidney's on the black market

 

[Blacksad]

All I'm asking is to make it more receptable to the entire RPG community at large ... by providing the B5 in one complete package, sans the "this product requires" label.

Well, I think that you can't make it receptable to the entire RPG community, because there is people who will buy nothing that is not d20, and the opposite category.

I personally would be a bit leery to buy it as a OGL book, if it reprinted large portion of the SRD.

So we'll have to disagree on wether the d20 only crowd is larger than the any product crowd (but given that you could get vampire player who buy only vampire, same with other system, I think that I'm right).

 

[Crazy 'Scaper]

This is fabulous news. This is going to be a definte 'must-buy' for me when it comes out. I do have a few questions for Mongoose Matt.

Will the main book include stat blocks and write-ups for the major characters (circa 2258)? The brief description of Sinclair suggests so, but given that both the Judge Dredd and Slaine books didn't include such write-ups, I was wondering which root Mongoose would be going down?

Will multi-classing be allowed? Will I be able to play a Ranger/Telepath?

Which of the races of the Non-Alligned League will be available to PCs in the main book? Can you play Brakiri, Drazi, Gaim or Pak'ma'ra (not that's I'd necessarily want to play a Pak'ma'ra even though they do make good spies)?

How easy will it be to run crossovers with AEG's Farscape or WotC's Star Wars games?

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Hi guys,

Some more questions answered;

1. Yes, all the main characters are featured, with stats, in the main rulebook. Further more, they will be updated in the 'season' books.

2. We were going to ban multiclassing early on in the playtesting but finally decided it was very much needed for a game like B5. Ambassador G'Kar, for example, starts 2258 as a Narn Diplomat 2/Officer (ground forces) 3/Soldier 4. But then, he is arther more multiclassed than most

3. The 'core' League races are Brakiri and Drazi - these have been balanced to match the Centauri and everyone else in game terms. However, if you do not mind a slightly weaker character, then full rules are also given for the Abbai, Markab, Vree, Gaim and Pak'ma'ra. We even have the racial traits of the Dilgar in there, though we recommend they do not make too many appearences as outcasts in your campaigns On top of all this, more races will be featured in the 'season' books, plus the League will, at some time, get their own race book.

4. As for running crossovers, well, they are all d20 books, so any tweaking will be kept to a minimum. However, you have to be aware that we will never sacrifice any Babylon 5 concepts or rules just to make them more compatible with other games - that is not what we are producing. This is the Babylon 5 RPG, designed to stand alone and independent from anything other than the core d20 mechanics. Those same mechanics do provide common ground to integrate other systems, but I am afraid that will be your task to do

 

[Darke]

Dilgar are nice!

I have a question - will there be supplements for the "past" in the release schedule (in the future)? *like the Dilgar War

*still not may... ahhhhhhhh..

das Darke

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Likely as not yes, but not in the original line up (you will have to wait until 2004 for those).