[TML] A census

[Bill Prankard]

"Commander X"

aka William R. Pranakrd IV
Current Age: A couple of months shy of 38
Currently Residence: A small town outside
Fayetteville, NC and desperately seeking to return to
Central Florida
Been Playing since: Mid-80s starting with CT

Introduced to Traveller about the same time I was
introduced to AD&D in the mid 80s while in High
School. Moved on to 2300AD and MegaTrav in college.
The 90s were an especialy heavy gaming time for me as
I would go to conventions and live with roomates who
were gamers.  Traveller was lightly played even though
I continued to snatch up anything TNE and then T4. The
late 90s was when I started to contribute to the game
through playtesting and contributing some of my own
gearheadedness to the T4 line.  When T4 ended, I moved
on to GT helping design weapons and other modules for
the Starships book and a few evil man portable
plasma/fusion weapons on the side.  I contributed the
write-up for X-TEK to BITS for their 101 Corporations
and a few ideas for 101 Religeons.  I was a regular on
#traveller IRC and even ran a few games there.

After 2001, I fell on some hard times that I still
have yet to get out of so Traveller fell on the back
burner. I did manage to get into T20 and help produce
Traveller's Aide #7: Fighting Ships of the Solomani
Rim War.  There's was also to be a book showing the
Solomani ships of that era that has yet to be
published.  This was my last contribution.

I am leery of T5 and when MGT anounced they were going
to be T5 "lite" I ignored it.  I downloaded the
playtest draft and at first I didn't think much of it.
Knowing me, I went to the ship design system first and
when I saw it was Book 2, not my favorite system way
too limited, I ho-hummed it.  Character creation did
get my attention.  Classic style, with life events! I
looked at ship building again and realised they fixed
a few things.  I fiddled with it and saw it works
better than Book 2, but I still can't wait to see how
they do HG.

I don't realy have a favorite flavor, seeming how I
played them all.  Each had their strengths and
weaknesses and each one fit with the time period they
were produced in.  Not too happy with Imperium
Games/T4, and it had potential with the differing
Milleu.  TNE was a gearhead's paradise.  FF&S was the
best thing since HG. GURPS has its strengths and
weaknesses.  T20 isn't bad once you get over the "7th
Level Scout" thing and I especialy liked the HG style
ship design system.  But now we got Mongoose, which is
like Classic kicked up a notch.  Yes it has some
issues (power alocation for ships, personal armour too
light, weapons too strong) all of which I hope will be
addressed in the suppliment books.

I did start runing a face to face game using MGT's
playtest draft.  It was set during the GT timeline
(1120 alt) 10 years after the 5th FW.  I placed it in
Aramis subsector using the Traveller Adventure as a
sourcebook.  The idea was to create a kind of "Return
to..." adventure that's been going on lately in the
D&D world. But with our retail world schedules, it has
been a  rare event.  We play when we can.