[cross-posted] My impressions of T5: I find some features of the game very strong and suggestive of adventure ideas: --If the senses are quantified on a (logarithmic?) scale you can unerringly derive success rolls to sense things; a character's ability in a sense vs. the intensity of it. For example, underground ruins may have explanatory graffiti on the walls with helpful hints in an alien language like "Carnivorous plant storage pen -- don't go there!" but will characters be able to detect it if it's written with, say, embedded heat-strips emitting faintly in the colour Xir (infrared) or in Mag or Lek (electromagnetic "colours")? I'm not done with just the book senses, either. Alan Dean Foster's books on the Thranx had these mantis-like aliens with feathery antennae able to "faz" (something not covered by sound, but sensing air turbulences caused by distant surfaces??) An outstanding Thranx character might take one faz of a corridor and say, "Four guys around the corner 40 metres distant, two with rifles, two with pistols. No, I don't know who they are; I can only resolve gross shapes, not faces." If it's windy, however, it randomizes the currents and faz will disappear like a snowed-out video screen. --WeaponMaker, Armor Maker: incredibly detailed, but allows you to define a line of weapons by manufacturer. Thrill to the innovative, advance high-tech edge of Eclipse Arms ("Don't just shoot them, Eclipse them!") or groan at the jams and misfires of Grubb Technologies ("This barrel collects more grime than a reporter for the Regina Tattler!") --Maker systems in general. You can get a good plot when a mad scientist "makes" something he shouldn't have.
