T5 now in Kickstarter

A link popped up on Facebook yesterday that took me through to this Kickstarter page. After over a decade in development, it looks as if Traveller 5, or T5, is almost complete. From the blurb:

“This is Traveller’s 35th year, and Marc has worked for several years on what he calls the Ultimate Edition: Traveller5. It includes so many things that players have asked for, or that have been imperfectly handled previously. In fact, Marc recently said there are now systems and chapters that he didn’t know how to design way back then. But he does now, and they are included. T5 has technology beyond TL 15, clones, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, QREBS (!), alien senses, Flux. It has a whole series of easy-to-use Makers: GunMaker, VehicleMaker, ArmorMaker, RobotMaker, SophontMaker, ThingMaker. It includes mapping of star systems and worlds; there's ever the MOARN caveat: Map Only As Really Necessary, or referees would spend all their time just making maps of worlds and systems. There's a rationalized section on Psionics, and more, much more.”

Now, I was initially a bit sceptical about the final coming of T5. I still have all my Classic Traveller books, so being required to pledge $US140 (including postage to West Auckland) for a new, 600-page hardback version of the rules seemed a little steep. And while I like Mongoose Traveller, and have a lot of the MongTraveller supplements, I have yet to play it – so, again, is $US140 for a new version of the game really worth it to me?

Having watched Marc Miller’s pitch video on the Kickstarter page, I’m now in two minds about T5 – the Maker systems sound very interesting; like taking the design systems from High Guard, Striker, and Fire, Fusion and Steel and expanding them to cover all sorts of systems. The expansion of Tech Levels beyond TL 15 allows for items of Godtech to exist within your game, on a rational basis with other systems.

Part of me says, “we always just sketched it and winged it, because you do not need to count all the rivets to tell a story”, and part of me would really like some decent design tables.

I may very well end up taking the $US51 support option and get the rules on CD-ROM, or wait until they come out in print. Panzerboy Discontent is the only other blogger, I am aware of, to have mentioned the T5 Kickstarter, though there is a topic on the Mongoose Traveller Forum and on the Steve Jackson Games GURPs: Traveller forum.