B5 Traveller... what to expect?

[Sean-Khan]

Anything new about this?

I'll have to say I'm anxious to get for this book, and hope it will be well done. I'm still not too familiar with the rules, but as I told in another thread, there's some things I don't like. I hope some rules/structure will be revised, made more straightforward - and I wish that the skill list would be consolidated a bit.

What do you expect from this book, do you have any hopes? Do you think current ship combat rules fit B5 well? I hope B5 ships will have well designed (combat) sheets for them, as I believe larger ship battles will be much more essential for the setting than fine-tuning ship costs and properties.

Why I wait for B5 traveller? I bought D20 book, but mainly for background material. I don't like how much stuff it has, how every class has million different things. I hope this book will make things simplier. And, Traveller character creation is legendary after all, I really want to see some B5 backgrounds, and I'm keeping my thumbs up for there being racial ones too!

 

[MongooseMatt]

Traveller character creation is legendary after all, I really want to see some B5 backgrounds, and I'm keeping my thumbs up for there being racial ones too!

In that case, I think you are going to like this one

 

[Sean-Khan]

Cool, thanks for hint!

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I am another person anxiously awaiting the B5-Traveller book.

 

[AKAmra]

I started renting the B5 series because of the announced Traveller B5 books, I'd never watched it before.

I'm on the last disk of season 3, enjoying the series and looking forward to getting the Traveller B5 book.

 

[Sean-Khan]

Oh I envy you AKAmra, to experience this wonderful series for the first time

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Don't spoil the Space Ducks though!

 

[Sean-Khan]

Don't spoil the Space Ducks though!

Oo, that horrible destiny of... oops, almost slipped :wink:

 

[AKAmra]

Space Ducks, that sounds.... interesting. It is nice having the whole series in front of me to watch as I want, not like waiting for season 3 of Battlestar Galactica (since I hate commercial tv and like to watch a few episodes at a time, I always wait for the DVD release of any shows I want to watch).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Actually, the whole Space Ducks thing goes back to some time during the second season original airing of B5.

The usegroup Rec.Arts.SciFi.TV.Babylon5 was active and JMS was a frequent poster (he even answered a couple of mine!).

The topic was "story ideas" and what could be said or not said about future episodes.

Joe made the comment that "if you say that the Shadows were really Giant Space Ducks" that would be OK. But if you said "A giant Space Duck should come around the moon and eat the Earth" that was a story idea and should not be posted.

Well, the duck jokes began and ran for a couple of years as I remember. Occasionally, you will still see comments about Space Ducks related to B5 and that is the origin.

Sadly, people could not keep from posting story ideas on the RAST.B5 board and JMS had to leave and the forum became moderated to avoid those problems. For a writer, having to prove the idea was yours and not stolen from someone else can be a problem. Even when you are right the court fees can kill you.

 

[Da Boss]

I will be interested in the new B5 RPG if it is well presented (in colour) with lots of good screen shots, plenty of fluff rather than boring stats.

If it is, as I fear, filled with mainly very average b/w illustrations and fuzzy screen caps and consists of lots of very dry traveller style stats I'll give it a miss........

 

[Erifnogard]

I started renting the B5 series because of the announced Traveller B5 books, I'd never watched it before.

I'm on the last disk of season 3, enjoying the series and looking forward to getting the Traveller B5 book.

Season 3 was my favorite overall, but some good stuff coming up in the next two for you. Don't forget to track down the movies as well if you can. Several of them were very good.

 

[AKAmra]

I started renting the B5 series because of the announced Traveller B5 books, I'd never watched it before.

I'm on the last disk of season 3, enjoying the series and looking forward to getting the Traveller B5 book.

Season 3 was my favorite overall, but some good stuff coming up in the next two for you. Don't forget to track down the movies as well if you can. Several of them were very good.

Thanks for the heads up, but already taken care of. I did a google search and found information on where I should insert the movies into the series for continuum.

I'm into season 4. I liked the Shadow War thread a lot for character development.

 

[Valarian]

Toward the end of Season 4 is probably my favourite episode, just for the understatement: Intersections in Real Time.

 

[aelius]

I am primarily looking for the B5 version of the High Guard rules.

 

[Loz]

I am primarily looking for the B5 version of the High Guard rules.

If you're looking for a separate B5: High Guard, then I'm not sure you'll get what you're after. The intention is to use High Guard as the basis for ship design, not to produce something separate and tied to the B5 universe. There are, of course, differences between Traveller ships and B5 ones, but these differences can be covered in quite a short way (and are) in the UB5 rulebook. Essentially, if you have HG, you can create B5 ships if you observe the differences the UB5 book will present.

 

[Valarian]

Loz, what are the character backgrounds like? Have you got Traveller style previous history for the Major Races (Minbari, Centauri, Narn) and League races (like Brakiri, Abbai and Gaim)?

How do the Earthforce career backgrounds (GROPOS and Fleet) work? Are they tied to the histories in High Guard and Mercenary, or are they separate previous histories in the UB5 book?

 

[Loz]

Loz, what are the character backgrounds like? Have you got Traveller style previous history for the Major Races (Minbari, Centauri, Narn) and League races (like Brakiri, Abbai and Gaim)?

How do the Earthforce career backgrounds (GROPOS and Fleet) work? Are they tied to the histories in High Guard and Mercenary, or are they separate previous histories in the UB5 book?

Each profession his its own events and mishaps tables, with additional tables for race and campaign history-specific events. Some professions, like Rangers and Psicorp, are completely detailed with their own skill tables. Some professions are clearly Traveller core rule analogues, and so refer to the main rules for skill tables. You'll still need the Traveller rules for chargen.

 

[Valarian]

Thanks Loz, did you manage to sort out how the prior history would fit in to the B5 timelines? Is it a case of working backwards through the character's history instead of forwards? Also, is there a release date for the book yet?

 

[Anonymous]

I hope this is not off-topic, do we know when this is being released?