tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post6535511667840207645..comments2024-03-28T17:48:19.196-05:00Comments on The Other Side blog: Review: T4 Marc Miller's Traveller (1996)Timothy S. Brannanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02923526503305233715noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-83953454080912814772022-05-20T15:49:49.040-05:002022-05-20T15:49:49.040-05:00As far as something good to say about the edition,...As far as something good to say about the edition, it was the one with <i>Pocket Empires</i>, which was a game module that slotted into a campaign as a way to run, as the title indicates, small star empires by managing their resources, allocating their military strength, and so on. It is somewhat integrated with the roleplaying part, and does include the politics and interpersonal drama of having a ruling dynasty, but could have been better in that regard. Given the Milieu, the period shortly before or right after the foundation of the Sylean Empire, later to be called the Third Imperium, it was wide open for other small empires starting to emerge from the Long Night.<br /><br />Also, T5 uses basically the same system as T4, but with the clumsy half-dice removed. I'm not overly fond of the new system, myself, but some people seem to like it. T4 is also good for people who want a lot of skills on their character sheet.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-28370523842988422152022-05-19T20:10:19.770-05:002022-05-19T20:10:19.770-05:00A friend of mine received it early thru one of the...A friend of mine received it early thru one of the designers. I remember looking through the rulebook. It seemed a rehash of what had gone before. But something was definitely off, imho.Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16573515239455290988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-32438881737642785742022-05-19T18:24:58.761-05:002022-05-19T18:24:58.761-05:00This is the first edition I skipped on entirely, a...This is the first edition I skipped on entirely, although I went back to Traveller when GURPS was doing it. I was working at a game store when T4 came out and got the chance to do a thorough flip-through and the sheer number of typographical errors put me right off buying. Beautiful cover art by Chris Foss, but the contents would have driven me mad. Too much proofreading work in my background.<br /><br />"Though I will admit I do not recall the grisly "Low Lottery" from previous editions."<br /><br />I forget where it was introduced (maybe a JTAS issue, or one of the Library Data LBBs?) but that's been around for ages. It's one of the most direct pieces of evidence that Traveller was inspired by the Dumarest of Terra books by EC Tubb - the whole concept of wealthier passengers betting on how many Low Passage users will survive a given journey comes from there originally.<br /><br />"I mean, can you tell which book these two sections are from. There is a small hint."<br /><br />I think so. The first is Classic, probably LBB Traveller, the second is T4. Clues to me: The graphic design of Classic used that solid black bar instead of the thin double one, and didn't have a big page number at the top. More damningly, there's a typo in the second sentence of the second example (the words "meet and interact" are missing "PCs" and "with" there. Whatever its flaws, Classic was quite a well-edited edition.<br /><br />I'm also certain Classic didn't casually throw around "PC" and "NPC" without explanation of what they meant the way T4 did, since it was written early enough that assumed understanding of the term wasn't a thing yet. The first examples pells out "player characters" in full, and constructs the rest of the sentence as "non-player characters (NPCs)" while the second (T4) example just uses the abbreviations, probably to save character count.<br /><br />Like I said, I've done a lot of proofreading (both paid and unpaid) over the years. That kind of thing stands out to me. <br /><br /><br /><br />Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-7788109512852512702022-05-19T15:57:50.476-05:002022-05-19T15:57:50.476-05:00Two comments: first, Marc Miller didn't create...Two comments: first, Marc Miller didn't create Imperium Games. That was a guy named <a href="https://notanotherdime.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Ken Whitman</a>. He's a huckster who has been plaguing the gaming industry in general (and <i>Traveller</i> specifically) ever since. The part that makes his saga so sad is that he could have done great things, almost has done great things (Chris Foss art throughout T4? YES), but has such a half-assed way of going about things that we also get the complete lack of editorial oversight, or even basic proofreading, that torpedoed the T4 line in the end. His most recent con job on Marc was the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/d20e/spinward-traveller-tv-pilot" rel="nofollow">"Spinward Traveller"</a> TV pilot, which is still <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/d20e/spinward-traveller-tv-pilot/comments" rel="nofollow">receiving comments</a> from disgruntled people who are simply out the money they put in for the project. There's so much more, too. Anyway, that blog about Whitman's scams has much to say on the topic of that guy.<br /><br />Second, the Low Lottery goes all the way back to the LBB77 books. The idea originated in the E.C. Tubb Dumarest novels that were so influential on the implied setting of <i>Traveller</i> that would later develop into the Third Imperium. You can find the information in <i>The Traveller Book</i> on page 50, second column.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7913319789564397699.post-74953541984234654452022-05-19T15:04:37.971-05:002022-05-19T15:04:37.971-05:00The other item about T4 is how the task system was...The other item about T4 is how the task system was the direct predecessor for T5, the Big Black Book of toolkits.Michael Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07499151284629030483noreply@blogger.com