Traveller 5E

[Endie]

As a mildly-disgruntled purchaser of T5, I don't think it was a cash grab at all (although, naturally, I am sure that Marc *hoped* it would be profitable). It was a chance for him to try and use what he thought was a superior core mechanic (not a widely-held opinion) and the ultimate expression of the Traveller-as-coherent-simulator that not only Marc but many players thought they wanted.

It turns out that - on the tabletop - you can have a game or a simulator, and that making the latter actually work (even as framework to build a game upon) took several unpaid people years of additional work.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The campaign is now live, here are the youtube videos that go with it:

 

[apastuszak]

Just checked the Backerkit and this is ridiculously expensive. $350 for a full set of hardbacks and $170 for a full set of PDFs is a bit insane. This is a non-starter for me.

 

[Endie]

Backed it at the $349 dollar level. The "limited edition" covers are of no interest to me, especially given the price, but the huge number of pages in the rulebooks make the basic printed and pdf levels good value to me.

Given that it's already at 60k, it looks like being a strong success.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Backed it at the $349 dollar level. The "limited edition" covers are of no interest to me, especially given the price, but the huge number of pages in the rulebooks make the basic printed and pdf levels good value to me.

Given that it's already at 60k, it looks like being a strong success.

I backed at the same level. Not interested in the pricier alternatives.

 

[Grognardia]

"A Civ1 Primer, introducing adventures, worlds, and aliens of a whole new Traveller 5E setting"

This to me sounds very much like 'We couldn't be arsed to check the wiki for the canon setting, so here's a setting we made up from scratch."

Get ready for the psionic crocodiles with plasma rifles, lads!

 

[Jarac Rassen]

"A Civ1 Primer, introducing adventures, worlds, and aliens of a whole new Traveller 5E setting"

This to me sounds very much like 'We couldn't be arsed to check the wiki for the canon setting, so here's a setting we made up from scratch."

I mean, doesn't this go back to the debate "is Traveller a system, or is it a setting?"

Making their own setting is something I won't criticize.

 

[Endie]

I think that they're wise to make their own setting. People will, no doubt, use T5e with Charted Space (I imagine that I will), but this way they don't need to deal with us lot nit-picking them with 50 years of confusing and often-contradictory canon. This way they get to avoid years of "well, actually..."

 

[DeepSpaceAdventures]

Just checked the Backerkit and this is ridiculously expensive. $350 for a full set of hardbacks and $170 for a full set of PDFs is a bit insane. This is a non-starter for me.

Plus insane shipping costs to Europe. To just get the rules, you'll end up with $79 + $39 = $118 (or abt. 103€). And I wouldn't be surprised if tariffs were added to that as well.
Nah, I'll pass.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I might go for the digital tier in a while.

 

[steelbrok]

"A Civ1 Primer, introducing adventures, worlds, and aliens of a whole new Traveller 5E setting"

This to me sounds very much like 'We couldn't be arsed to check the wiki for the canon setting, so here's a setting we made up from scratch."

Get ready for the psionic crocodiles with plasma rifles, lads!

I'd be more curious to see the setting info than anything else

 

[Endie]

After four hours they're nearly 50% above the entire, completed Pioneer kickstarter, so it seems to be going well.

 

[nats]

I laughed when I saw the prices. Nobody even knows if the product will be any good and the tiers are insanely expensive.

Somebody has looked at both systems seen the popularity and thought lets meld them together and make chunks of cash from both the D&D and Traveller communities. It seems people will buy anything these days lol. Too much spare cash floating around in the world obviously. Honestly throwing down £350 on a set of books that you havent even seen is a bit silly. But then I am sure they are the ones who bought the first version of Traveller 5 when that Kickstarted, never learning from their mistakes.

There are two things that look good - the metallic referee screen is a decent idea. And the ship plans book - IF the plans are of a size suitable for minatiures, but they dont look like they are because the books would need to be a large folio size for that. So they are basically an unusable set of ship plans. And the miniatures themselves look like they will be 28mm - far too large for practical Traveller combat.

I dont like the art either. The Core Rule Book cover looks particularly terrible - it's like an 80s pop band poster. Seriously that is definitely not the Traveller I have in my mind.

So yeah, terrible.

I will see what these books are like when I've had a chance to read reviews and look at them in some shops in 5 years time when they are actually published .... but I definitely don't need yet another Traveller version so its only a passing interest to see another Traveller product.

Oh well. Next ....

 

[Endie]

I laughed when I saw the prices. Nobody even knows if the product will be any good and the tiers are insanely expensive. People will buy anything these days lol. It's pretty obvious somebody has looked at both systems seen the popularity and thought lets meld them together and make chunks of cash from both the D&D and Traveller communities. Honestly throwing down £350 on a set of books that you havent even seen is a bit silly.

There is one thing that looks good - the metallic referee screen is a decent idea. Thats the only thing worth considering but I dont like the art. The Core Rule Book cover looks particularly terrible - its like an 80s pop band poster. Seriously this is not the Traveller I have in my mind.

I will see what these books are like when I've had a chance to read reviews and look at them in some shops in 5 years time when they are actually published .... but I definitely don't need yet another Traveller version so its only a passing interest to see another Traveller product.

Dollars aren't pounds. And as regards your argument that "nobody even knows if the product will be any good," that's kickstarting. You are always taking a gamble: in some cases nothing will materialise. In others the results might not be all you desire. So if you're risk averse then just wait until the product ships and read the reviews.

As to the price, it strikes me as pretty reasonable for the very substantial rulebooks that they talked about. The D&D core rulebooks come to just over £0.08 per page if bought in a discounted bundle while the Traveller 5e version, which is going to be more than 2,000 pages long(!) comes to £0.13 per page.

Given that WotC have the biggest economies of scale in the marketplace, that they don't have to pay a rights-holder, and that they are now discounted versus launch due to amortisation over the last two years, the pricing seems entirely fine. I'm afraid that this is 2026, with huge uncertainty in printing costs, tariffs etc as well as several years of substantial inflation.Things just cost more than they used to.

 

[Vormaerin]

Endie, he decided at the time of announcement that this was fake Traveller and has stated the Mongoose Traveller and T5 were just moneygrabs. He's not going to be convinced that there is any value to found here at any price point. He has previous posts in this thread to that effect.

 

[Endie]

Endie, he decided at the time of announcement that this was fake Traveller and has stated the Mongoose Traveller and T5 were just moneygrabs. He's not going to be convinced that there is any value to found here at any price point. He has previous posts in this thread to that effect.

Good call: I'd forgotten that this was the same guy.

 

[Limpin Legin]

Good luck to them. If I was living in the States I can see it would be more appealing. I just will have to see if the books make it to UK retail. Besides this month I'm giving support to the re-launch of Tunnels & Trolls ... hell yeah