Tokens and Cards I'm going to get or make to help ease play.

[Baron_Gerry_Rail]

After half a play thru, I've come to want a few more tokens and things to help me as a noob play the game. I purchased, well, everything, including extra sets of the Premium and Collector tokens, so that I could have a four player game going. Foolish me, I thought the Round Tokens were exclusively Expert, and the Hex tokens for "Trained".

• 1: I need an "Order of Play" card or sheet. It's rare that these appear on the back of game manuals, but it would be THE place to put it. I'm flipping thru the manual so much I need something else to use. That screams "Order of Play" cards. I'll need 4, one for each possible player. I may make an oversized one that has a bit of detail for each of the sub-phases.

• 2: a "First Player" Token. This can be anything, but since I like swag and to dress up my games, it'll be some sort of starship or something. Maybe Galactica, Executioner or a TIgress.

• 3: Player Tokens to place on Jobs or the Subsector Map (see #4). If I can, they wil be Traveller ship models 1-2" long. If not, they can be the ship cards or the ship card backs. I'm thinking to either take my premium Ship Cards and put them in hard case plastic, or to copy and print the ship card backs at half size onto 110 pound paper so they don't take as much room.

• 4: Subsector Map, well really a card with two areas: "Uncommitted" and "Piracy". The background would be a shaded subsector map, somewhere on the Spinward Main would be good. Player Tokens (#3 above) could be placed here during the adventure phase.

• 5: Wound, Damage and Misc. tokens. Yes we have them in cardboard, but dressing up my game requires me to use glass beads or cubes (the latter from the bgg store). Red for (Wounds), Smokey grey for (Ship damage), other colours for the misc. tokens called for by some cards. I might want to get something to indicate has been used, as I don't want to "tap" the card as that would make it look like it's been expended. (I understand the TM on "Tapped" by MTG has expired, so I'm not worried about using it here).

I've only gotten half way thru my Scout and Free Trader decks, there may be other effects I need tokens for, but I suspect having 3-4 colours for Misc effects as per #5 should cover that.

Anything I've missed? What would you use for any of the above? Do you know of any sources of Traveller Ship Models (ie Shapeways or whatever) ?

Gerry

[Baron_Gerry_Rail]

That's embarrassing.

The insert with the Fat Trader and the Far Trader are exactly what I need for item #1. I rediscovered them as I put away my first solo "run-thru" of Scout vs Free Trader. (20-17 for the Free Trader, Scout was going bankrupt btw). Still, an even briefer card with the Phase and Step names listed, on card stock, will be useful, 1 per player.

[Bezmozgu]

I've created 5/8" ship image counters that I'm using to mark which a is pusuing as well as to place on that a player places on a that occupies another player's slot.

[GodricTheWell]

I also ordered everything but after trying to play solo, and then with two friends... I have put it away and haven't taken it out since. I'm down with using icons, but not as hieroglyphics. Such a cumbersome approach to game literacy presents a steep barrier to entry—especially when there are typos.

But, I like your list. Depending on what arrives for the reprints, I may try and play it again—implementing the "aids" you're talking about. I've also considered creating labels for all my cards that just say, in plain English, what the words+hieroglyphs are trying to say.

**edit: also just noticed that the playmats have an icon key along the bottom... that could work if I plan to continue playing this game.

[Horizon Jeff]

While we know not every game is going to be for everyone, we obviously do want people to enjoy playing Traveller, and so it's always regrettable to hear when someone has a less than ideal experience.

The substitution of pictorial iconography for text is becoming increasingly common in board games, which was our main inspiration for using icons, but it's also being seen in miniatures (Malifaux, for instance) and card games (Game of Thrones is increasing the use of icons, though they don't use as many as we do). I do think as time goes on, they're becoming more prevalent because there are attractive upsides.

However, it's certainly true that we could have found some ways to present them better. One of the things we've done to try to address player concerns is add the sequence of play to the back of the new rulebooks. These books are available on the download section, and the back cover/icon key is available for download separately.

One player who at first experienced difficulty with the icons, but then came to favor them after a few games explained that once he stopped worrying about memorizing the exact terminology and instead just relied on picture matching, play proceeded much more smoothly.