Thread: Traveller^5 Kickstarter raises over $260,000 in 30 days

...an unbelivable result that has just blown me away. However, I also find it encouraging that there is so much support for our Grand Ole Game.

Is everyone else encouraged by this?

Obviously most of that support has been hidden (should I say "under a bushel", to align with a recent theme on this board?? ;-) or maybe it's just that the time has now come for old players to get back into it? Our kids are now old enough to be taught how to play? Or is everyone sick of MMORPGs and CCGs and just want a sit-down, face-to-face experience?

Here's a discussion topic: what has changed (if anything), and how would you continue to market the thing from this point on?

- ----------------------------------------------------------
David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
http://www.tip.net.au/~
"I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"

If it doesn't hurt Mongoose Traveller, it's great. If it hurts Mongoose Traveller, it is not a good thing.

However, since T5 looks to be a one-shot affair, it is probably more of a nostalgia thing than anything else.

Mike West

On Jun 30, 2012, at 6:28 PM, "Hyphen_DJW" <> wrote:

> ...an unbelivable result that has just blown me away. However, I also find it encouraging that there is so much support for our Grand Ole Game.
>
> Is everyone else encouraged by this?
>
> Obviously most of that support has been hidden (should I say "under a bushel", to align with a recent theme on this board?? ;-) or maybe it's just that the time has now come for old players to get back into it? Our kids are now old enough to be taught how to play? Or is everyone sick of MMORPGs and CCGs and just want a sit-down, face-to-face experience?
>
> Here's a discussion topic: what has changed (if anything), and how would you continue to market the thing from this point on?
>
> - ----------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>

No, I'm not particularly encouraged. I'll second that vote on this being a nostalgia trip for many, if not most, investors. I think that with Kickstarter being the hip investment vehicle, Marc and company have finally found a platform/megaphone to reach out to the masses who walked away from gaming decades ago. I wonder how many of them will actually play the game and aren't just looking for something to put on the mantle or display cabinet.

I've grown so annoyed by the continuous email pleas to invest in the project (despite the fact that they've hit their original milestone six times over) that I finally made the effort to unsubscribe from the CotI mailing list. Not confident that'll work as I got an "invalid confirmation string" with the link. Maybe the email reply will work.

MM's track record has been pretty bad since Imperium Games put out T4 (1997). T5 has been promised since at least 2007. Maybe now, with over a quarter of a million dollars, it'll get published. But if it isn't stupendous and nearly free of errata people will howl and moan.

Am I grateful to Marc for creating this wonderful game that I've played so much over the decades? Absolutely! But I won't blindly throw money at what could still be vaporware or hastily thrown together. Call me cynical. I don't mind. I'm one of those guys that played CT back in the glory days and I can't help but feel that this is just another flailing grasp to reclaim that glory.

Having said that, I really hope I'm proven wrong and T5 is the best thing to hit RPG's since Mountain Dew and late night pizza delivery. :)

\_/
DED
TNE @ Yahoo ml Admin

--- In , Mike West wrote:
>
> If it doesn't hurt Mongoose Traveller, it's great. If it hurts Mongoose Traveller, it is not a good thing.
>
> However, since T5 looks to be a one-shot affair, it is probably more of a nostalgia thing than anything else.
>
> Mike West
>
> On Jun 30, 2012, at 6:28 PM, "Hyphen_DJW" wrote:
>
> > ...an unbelivable result that has just blown me away. However, I also find it encouraging that there is so much support for our Grand Ole Game.
> >
> > Is everyone else encouraged by this?
> >
> > Obviously most of that support has been hidden (should I say "under a bushel", to align with a recent theme on this board?? ;-) or maybe it's just that the time has now come for old players to get back into it? Our kids are now old enough to be taught how to play? Or is everyone sick of MMORPGs and CCGs and just want a sit-down, face-to-face experience?
> >
> > Here's a discussion topic: what has changed (if anything), and how would you continue to market the thing from this point on?
> >
> > - ----------------------------------------------------------
> > David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> > http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjwdavidjw@...
> > "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
> >
> >
>

On Sat, Jun 30, 2012 at 7:38 PM, DED <> wrote:

>
>
> MM's track record has been pretty bad since Imperium Games put out T4
> (1997). T5 has been promised since at least 2007. Maybe now, with over a
> quarter of a million dollars, it'll get published. But if it isn't
> stupendous and nearly free of errata people will howl and moan.
>
> Am I grateful to Marc for creating this wonderful game that I've played so
> much over the decades? Absolutely! But I won't blindly throw money at what
> could still be vaporware or hastily thrown together. Call me cynical. I
> don't mind. I'm one of those guys that played CT back in the glory days and
> I can't help but feel that this is just another flailing grasp to reclaim
> that glory.
>
> Having said that, I really hope I'm proven wrong and T5 is the best thing
> to hit RPG's since Mountain Dew and late night pizza delivery. :)

To be honest I pretty much don't care about T5, I like some of the people
who are enthusiastic about it, and I hope it works well.

It is just that if I where going to run a game I would chose MgT's
character generation and skill resolution, and build up using bits
and pieces from other editions. Have been pondering how much of TNE could
be grafted on to that base. With simplification of in game functional
mechanics being the goal.

Again I hope they find their market.

--
Evyn

Also, to be honest, could not give a flying fling flang jang about T5.

The thing I loved about TNE was that it gave me the opportunity to create a fantasy / edwardian / pirates of the Caribbean world for my characters to play in filled with birdmen living in the haunted ruins on the other side of the mountain only to turn the game completely on its ear 10 sessions later when the Star Vikings showed up.

I can't do retconning the Coalition, I loved it way to much.

Derek Stanley
Sent from my iPhone...

On 2012-06-30, at 20:20, Evyn MacDude <> wrote:

>
> To be honest I pretty much don't care about T5, I like some of the people who are enthusiastic about it, and I hope it works well.
>
> It is just that if I where going to run a game I would chose MgT's character generation and skill resolution, and build up using bits and pieces from other editions. Have been pondering how much of TNE could be grafted on to that base. With simplification of in game functional mechanics being the goal.
>
> Again I hope they find their market.
>
> --
> Evyn
>

--- In , "Hyphen_DJW" <davidjw@...> wrote:
> ...an unbelivable result that has just blown me away. However, I also find it encouraging that there is so much support for our Grand Ole Game.

As a point, it isn't supporting "our Grand Ole Game" at all. It's:

1) people saying "oo, something written by Marc Miller. He's that guy that wrote that game I used to play years ago. Maybe I'll pick this up"
2) people saying "oo, another Traveller book, I need it to complete my collection/stick on my shelf in order to mine for info at some unspecified point".
3) people saying "I LOVE TRAVELLER!!! OMG, IT'S WRITTEN BY MARC MILLER! I MUST SUPPORT THIS BECAUSE I FEEL I NEED TO REPAY HIM FOR YEARS OF GAMING JOY!" (even though he's already been getting paid for that for years just by people buying any Traveller book).

Not many people seem to be motivated by - or even care about - what is actually in the book (which, from what I've seen of the playtest draft, is pretty awful and full of very outdated concepts) or are interested playing it as a bona fide RPG that offers anything new.

> Is everyone else encouraged by this?

I'm not. I think $100 is vastly overpriced for the book, for one thing. And call me cynical, but anyone who spends more than $100 (never mind $300, $500, or even up to $1000) on a single book, just to get a bit of card with a fictional "nobility" title has waaaaay more money than sense in my opinion.

> Here's a discussion topic: what has changed (if anything), and how would you continue to market the thing from this point on?

I wouldn't. Mongoose Traveller is the way forward, not T5. T5 is a sprawling "throw in everything including the kitchen sink" vanity project, designed without a decent editor to control it. It's also further undermining MGT, which seems like a really stupid thing to do to an active licencee.