T5 - The Verdict

[Water Bob]

On The Turning Away...

-- Pink Floyd

​

Although I haven't read the entire book cover to cover, I've studied major parts of the game, and I've commented quite a lot about what I've found.

Yesterday, I came to a decision about T5 when I was answering a post about yet another problem found in the game.

What I said was...

As much as I wanted to like T5, it's really just too broken to play. The game is a mess. Yes, there are a couple of good ideas presented in the game--some brillant ones, even. But, as a whole, the game will bring nothing but heartache to the T5 Ref, constantly forcing him to tweak and fix and House Rule broken or ugly parts of the game.

The reason we pay for Core Rulebooks is to have someone else spend a lot of time and energy working out a fun, viable game system to use in our games. Otherwise, we'd just save the money and make up our own games.

T5, plain and simple, is just not delivering.




It's a shame, really. I had so much hope for T5. I feel like I did when the new Star Wars prequels came out: At first, elated at the idea of new Star Wars, then disappointed with the result.

Maybe T5 will turn into a viable game, down the road, after published supplements that not only fix the eratta but the downright broken parts, too. And, if that happens, I'll look at T5 again.

But, for now, with the game the way it is, I'm going to have to stick with Classic Traveller.

And, my opinion on T5 is: Thumbs Down.

 

[techno]

I'm afraid your assessment is completely accurate. T5 was a huge letdown.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I have to say the same too, I'm afraid.

I can deal with complexity and various other issues like a lack of an index to an extent, but when you actually start trying to process the rules and then find that they don't work - it becomes another matter. The mess surrounding a lack of an integrated hand-to-hand option in the combat system was pretty much the main turn off - a 650+ page book, nearly 40 years in development, and no express system for punching someone in the face! Yes, there are vague sections in the skill chapter about how to do it, and you can house rule to make it work - but why should you have to?

The book and layout is handsome in a nostalgic way, and there is some interesting new bits like genetics and so on, but it is unplayable as it stands - and very difficult to comprehend. An unchecked obsession with acronyms and tables (frequently provided without a key) makes it like trying to read Proust translated into hexadecimal.

 

[Mage of Spellford]

I just received my book today..and I must say that unfortunately from my brief scan I have a similar opinion. Beautiful book, it's cover blends nicely with my CT, MT, TNE, T4, T20, T2300AD, T2320 AD [Printed from a PDF - very nice] and of course Mongoose Trav, but it seems overly complex and is probably unplayable. Can't imagine trying to flip through that monster to referee tasks. Plus I was hoping that the CD included might have applications written seeing as how most of the book is systems and tables -- but nope just a bunch of CGI spaceships. Even these were basically meh? nice for nostalgia but not even close in quality to CGI available free on the Internet. $125.00 USD down the pipe.

I also received my Esteren Kickstarter books today. Very nice indeed. Quality, beautiful. and a well-thought out system. Might be my new goto game. Hmm.

 

[billd91]

I just picked it up as well because I pretty much have the core rulebook of each Traveller edition (and a lot more for Classic and Mega-). As the rulebook starts, there are a couple of nice things including memorializing for lost Traveller contributors over the years and a description of what Traveller is about. And then there are 33 pages of tables describing die roll distributions and tables explaining some of the minutiae of the rules all before dipping one toe into character generation. Way to bury the game under stuff that should be in appendices, Far Future Enterprises. The organization, so far, is terrible.

I'm starting to think T5 will end up as well-played (meaning not) as T4.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Message heard, steering to starboard.

 

[billd91]

Oh, it gets better. And by "better", I don't mean better, rather more detailed with cluttering minutiae.

There are 7 pages dedicated to a QREBS system (Quality, Reliability, Ease of use, Burden, Safety) to insert some variation into equipment quality.

Several (but not all) characteristics have analogous, alternative characteristics as well. This might make sense when describing the difference between a human's social standing vs a Vargr's charisma vs a Droyne's caste, but I'm not convinced it's as useful for Dexterity/Agility/Grace or Endurance/Stamina/Vigor. They certainly complicate the presentation of character generation particularly when a character with Dexterity (like a human) can use half his Dex to make Agility checks - yet I can't find any other races who actually use the other characteristic analogs in the core book (must be coming in a supplement).

There's a lot of chaff out there amid the wheat. The whole project could have really used an editor or, since it probably has an editor, an editor interested in producing a role playing game rule set that is accessible and usable (these rules really fall down on the Ease of use and Burden measures of the QREBS system) to players. For anyone actually intending to play Traveller, check out Mongoose's version or get the compilation CDs of Classic Traveller or MegaTraveller.

 

[billd91]

I do find some of the spirited defenses of Traveller 5 on Citizens of the Imperium kind of curious. It makes me wonder if I've discovered where old Universe fans go to die: T5 Fandom.