Babylon 5 Traveller is coming

[Greg Smith]

Matt's blog says it all. It isn't a new edition, There will be a setting book and a big book of ships (complete with deckplans). I'm guessing the Excalibur won't be in that one, otherwise it will be a really big book.

Who knows, we may finally get White Star plans.

 

[Traveller-61]

Nice to have some good news for B5 at last

Now if they could just get the Gaim to appear in the meantime I will be very pleased

DW

 

[lastbesthope]

You remember all those rants I've made about Babylon 5 rule changes, lack of promised compatibility and potential for complaint if Mongoose put B5 in the Traveller system?

Consider them repeated here.

I mean c'mon, yet another rules sytem for B5, albeit run in parallel, if anything that is only represented in 1E gets converted into the Traveller version it'd better get a 2E conversion as well or I will be miffed.

And please for goodness sake let's not end up with 2 versions of the deck plans for ships that already have them.

Rant over, for now.

LBH

 

[Greg Smith]

Somehow I don't think they'll be doing deck plans of the G'Quan to suit the Traveller 1.5m square standard.

 

[lastbesthope]

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Traveller system B5 persay, it just rubs me the wrong way that it's being ported to Trav when it hasn't even been properly ported to 2E which we were promised..

Well actually we were originally promised that all 1E books would be fully compatible, but then when it became obvious that wasn't going to happen they promised us conversion material, which we are still missing vast swathes of.

LBH

 

[AKAmra]

Hello to the Babylon 5 forums, this is my fist post here. I gather there are some edition issues here (1st and 2nd edition OGL, MGT/Babylon 5), no new thing for Traveller players (even a newbee Traveller player like me). Hopefully it will all get sorted out to everyone's satisfaction.

I'm interested in babylon 5 because of the announced MGT books, I wouldn't have looked into it otherwise. I've got the tv series on order, I hope I like it as much as many others do. I do like some aspects of the setting from what I've gathered online; starfighters are used, not set too far into the future, science seems to be on the "hardish" side, a "Lovecraftian" element (Third Space?).

Since this is a MGT version of Babylon 5, I presume that it will be marketed to appeal and be useful to MGT/Bab5 players - who may be new to the setting. Therefore, it should include those ships which are most common and useful for beginning players - the same ships which probably have already been done for the OGL version for the same reason.

This is as it should be, MGT/Bab5 isn't an expansion to OGL Bab5, it's a new game using the same setting. Conversion information may be useful for those that want to expand the setting information with OGL books, and it may sell a few OGL books to MGT players.

 

[Tolwyn]

Mhm, I have both RPG editions, yet another one :?

 

[AKAmra]

I can sympathize with you to a certain extent about multiple editions of a favorite game.

Call of Cthulhu (CoC) is one of my favorite games. I think the original BRP version is a great system for the game. However, we've got d20 CoC (mostly dead now), the Nemesis system and now Trail of Cthulhu, and Mongoose's Cthulhutech. On the one hand I would prefer if these talented writers would spend their energy on creating new stuff for Classic CoC, but on the other hand I recognize that some people just aren't attracted to BRP or Classic CoC.

The upside is that CoC material continues to be produced and some of it is useful regardless of preferred system. I have d20 CoC and Trail of Cthulhu and have downloaded materials for Nemesis, they all at least offer interesting ideas and fluff that I can use even though I'm not interested in the systems.

 

[lastbesthope]

It's not quite the fact that there are multiple editions, mongoose are not the first to do it, and they won't be the last, it's the lack of the follow through on the promised compatibility between editions that has gotten my goat.

If they hadn't promised compatibility between editions, I'd still have been a bit narked, but heh, I'm stoic about these things, I'd have gotten over it.

LBH

 

[Swampy]

I wonder if B5 OGL is dead as there has been nothing said about it from the powers that be for a while and the last new releases were in December last year. The only release this year that appeared on the upcoming releases was Lurkers Guide to the Gaim and that has disappeared.

 

[Greg Smith]

Matt did say he was trying to find a slot in the schedule for the Gaim book. There were also plans for an ISA book as well. He also said we would be getting the WS deckplans at some point.

Sadly the Gaim book was the first one in a long tiime I was really interested in.

 

[Faënril]

So what is the truth ?

is second editions will be abandonned and replaced by an Traveller version ?

 

[lastbesthope]

At this point, I think no matter what Mongoose do it'll irk somebody, even if it is just me, though I doubt i will be alone.

LBH

 

[Mouth of Sauron]

You're not alone in your disappointment over the unfulfilled promises of compatibility between editions LBH. Boy, that was a mouthful! Can't I ever write a simple to the point post? :lol:

And you won't be alone in being irked no matter what happens. Although what really irritates me now is the idea that this Babylon 5 setting book for Traveller could potentially take away a printing slot for a 2nd ed. B5 rpg book. Hope that's not going to be the case.

As was mentioned, where's the Gaim book? I asked about it at the beginning of June in the "anything else in the pipeline" thread and got no response.

In any case, I have a bad feeling that no matter what Matt says, the Traveller rules WILL be the next version of B5, while the current ruleset is forgotten. Might not happen right away, but I can easily see Matt posting sometime after the initial releases and lack of attention for 2nd edition, "I know I said we wouldn't do it, but . . . ."

(Why do I have to edit my posts so many times?)

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I hear you!

I hope the B5 book will bring some Traveller players to B5 and maybe even some B5 players to Traveller.

I have never played the B5 game, but I LOVE the setting. Traveller is my rules set and being able to play B5 in that rules set is my idea of perfection.

BUT, as LBH said, it would be VERY dissapointing to me if the only way to get White Star deck plans was to get them for Traveller. That's just not right! After all, there is no way the Traveller version of the White Star is going to be exactly like the B5/D20 version. The systems are not compatible in that way. BOTH versions should have their White Stars!

 

[lastbesthope]

I think you're misunderstanding me, deck plans are pretty much system neutral are they not, I mean c'mon, they're pictures.

I just don't want a different sets of pictures for each rule set. You may laugh, but it could happen.

LBH

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Well, they can't be too system neutral since the SIZE of things determines how much space they take up.

Traveller for example has HUGE fuel tanks (10%-60% of the total volume) for starships. I don't think B5 designs have that much fuel.

A bridge in Traveller is 10-20 displacement tons (1 dton is 14 m^3). B5 I am pretty sure uses a different size.

So, that means that a map of the bridge/fuel areas of a ship shouldn't be the same for both systems.

 

[rje]

Well, they can't be too system neutral since the SIZE of things determines how much space they take up.

Traveller for example has HUGE fuel tanks (10%-60% of the total volume) for starships. I don't think B5 designs have that much fuel.

A bridge in Traveller is 10-20 displacement tons (1 dton is 14 m^3). B5 I am pretty sure uses a different size.

So, that means that a map of the bridge/fuel areas of a ship shouldn't be the same for both systems.

I think this should imply that Traveller, as a potentially neutral rules book, would have to defer and adapt to existing style/design guides for B5 starships. I'd like to see Traveller B5 re-use the current B5 deckplans without change. (Would that give Mongoose the most bang for its buck? Or would they rather sell all-new remade plans to B5 and Traveller players? Uh oh...) If this means the B5 shipbuilding rules have some different parameters, so be it.

 

[rje]

And there's the big things to worry about. The change from D20. Characteristic and skill mappings, and weapons and armor.

Is there someone who's well-versed in both systems, who can comment about converting from one to the other, and back again?

 

[tneva82]

Well, they can't be too system neutral since the SIZE of things determines how much space they take up.

Traveller for example has HUGE fuel tanks (10%-60% of the total volume) for starships. I don't think B5 designs have that much fuel.

A bridge in Traveller is 10-20 displacement tons (1 dton is 14 m^3). B5 I am pretty sure uses a different size.

So, that means that a map of the bridge/fuel areas of a ship shouldn't be the same for both systems.

Well the B5 doesn't use traveller jump engines so fuel isn't issue. Bridge in traveller B5 would clearly be different size then. B5 deckplans shouldn't be different in different games. White star is a white star regardless of what rules you are using. So it's matter of adjusting traveller rules sufficiently so they fit.