Prime Directive Traveller
- Thread starter Nerroth
- Start date
Page 42 of GURPS Federation has some relevant information on the kind of divergence which the Star Fleet Universe timeline takes on its path to First Contact; which is not the same as that taken in the Franchise (or that in the real world; it's said to begin its divergence sometime during the 1960s).
Speaking of First Contact, it's worth bearing in mind that in the SFU, there are three options on offer in that regard.
The traditional take was that, due to anomalies in the data tapes, there was no way to accurately state when humans and Vulcans forst met; so the year was abstracted into Y1 (which apparently echoes the calendar the Federation itself has adopted). This is the way the timeline is presented in SFB and in the GURPS and D20/M versions of Prime Directive.
The "Valkenburg Chronology" arbitrarily sets First Contact to the year 2400; both Federation Commander and the adaptation to Starmada use this option when presenting dates.
The "Amin Audeh Chronology", in contrast, sets First Contact in the more Franchise-familiar year of 2063; it has been mentioned in various works, but not been formally adapted for use in any particular work.
I guess that leaves the question; would the various Mongoose books use any of the above conventions when presenting the Star Fleet Universe timeline?
(Personally, I kind of like the idea of going with the Amin Audeh Chronology; it would be "new" in the sense that it would be the first time it would be formally used by Star Fleet Universe products, yet "old" in the sense that people coming from the Franchise would be presented with the year they would already be familiar with.)
Speaking of First Contact, it's worth bearing in mind that in the SFU, there are three options on offer in that regard.
The traditional take was that, due to anomalies in the data tapes, there was no way to accurately state when humans and Vulcans forst met; so the year was abstracted into Y1 (which apparently echoes the calendar the Federation itself has adopted). This is the way the timeline is presented in SFB and in the GURPS and D20/M versions of Prime Directive.
The "Valkenburg Chronology" arbitrarily sets First Contact to the year 2400; both Federation Commander and the adaptation to Starmada use this option when presenting dates.
The "Amin Audeh Chronology", in contrast, sets First Contact in the more Franchise-familiar year of 2063; it has been mentioned in various works, but not been formally adapted for use in any particular work.
I guess that leaves the question; would the various Mongoose books use any of the above conventions when presenting the Star Fleet Universe timeline?
(Personally, I kind of like the idea of going with the Amin Audeh Chronology; it would be "new" in the sense that it would be the first time it would be formally used by Star Fleet Universe products, yet "old" in the sense that people coming from the Franchise would be presented with the year they would already be familiar with.)
DFW
The contract with Paramount does not allow for things not already in the SFU at the time of signing to be added now. Everything seen in the movies and TV shows are off limits, but what you do at home is your business. That being said, if someone posts to the web anything not covered by the contract that is for use in SFU, that site gets reported to Paramount when discovered. It's part of due dilligence and IP protection that has kept this contract active all these years.
The contract with Paramount does not allow for things not already in the SFU at the time of signing to be added now. Everything seen in the movies and TV shows are off limits, but what you do at home is your business. That being said, if someone posts to the web anything not covered by the contract that is for use in SFU, that site gets reported to Paramount when discovered. It's part of due dilligence and IP protection that has kept this contract active all these years.
As far as I can see, the FASA Star Trek roleplaying game used only thectchapel said:
material from the original series. In their timeline the Federation calen-
dar begins with star time 0/0001.01 on January 1st 2000, and humans
have the warp drive around 2065, which is also the time of the contact
with the Vulcans.
However, since such early dates cannot be connected plausibly with the
state of the Traveller technology of the technology levels 8 to 10, it is
probably really the best approach to forget about all the Star Trek time-
lines and choose a much later date - and 2400 could work well enough,
I think.
Rick
Mongoose
Good point rust, but I think there's another point of view. The original Technical Readout (Franz Joseph) that the SFU is built on had an explanation in it that all of the information in it had been found on an air force computer around 1970 (there was a TOS episode set then). This meant that history started diverging into 'our' timeline and the SFU about then and they got an artificial technology 'boost' from what was in the book - making warp drive possible even as early as 2065ish!
Personally, I still think the 2400's is a better start date anyway, lol!
Personally, I still think the 2400's is a better start date anyway, lol!
Gentlemen, I see no reason to introduce a fourth way of dating things. We'll go with one of the ones already established in the SFU. Which one is chosen is the decision of Mike, Matthew, and SVC working together. 
It's my job to make sure that the one chosen is used consistently. I have to admit that I like the Y1- version as you can choose whatever year makes your heart happy and go with it.
Remember that our timeline has already diverged from the one of both ST and the SFU -- no Eugenics War has happened (praise be). This divergence may be even further back and start in the late 1960s. Judging what is our technology now and where our decisions have led us may not lead to the results that the SFU had.
It's my job to make sure that the one chosen is used consistently. I have to admit that I like the Y1- version as you can choose whatever year makes your heart happy and go with it.Remember that our timeline has already diverged from the one of both ST and the SFU -- no Eugenics War has happened (praise be). This divergence may be even further back and start in the late 1960s. Judging what is our technology now and where our decisions have led us may not lead to the results that the SFU had.
Jean said:
Or you could take a specific battle in a system say, publish glorious full colour images of the ships, crew and marines- have stories and lots and lots of fluff. Finish of with new ship variants, named Captain and Admirals (as in ACTA 2nd Ed) and publish
Imperial Armour books are just wonderful for this sort of thing 8)
I am not convinced that this would work for a roleplaying game, whereDa Boss said:
the customers expect something interesting for their characters to do, not
just an illustrated story to read, and a battle is not exactly an adventure
on the player character scale which enables the characters to significantly
influence the outcome of the events. Considering the cost of "glorious full
colour images", such a book could well turn into a financial nightmare for
the publisher.
mm maybe you are right - but then books are pretty expensive things anyway - even the present mGP black and white books are 25-30 quid - the Imperial Armour books are 45-60 but are in a different league.
Now a rpg campaign set around the events of a SFU battle, with examples of how the players can infuence, interact and tell this story coupled with ACTA: ST stats. Could also be a winner?
I have played in a campaign (as many here doubtless have) where I have been one of a crw of three and later directed fleets in battle to decide the fate of whole star systems and the destiny of the galaxy.......
the right GM can (and has) set the scene for both and perhaps the right book can provide the tools to do so.
Now a rpg campaign set around the events of a SFU battle, with examples of how the players can infuence, interact and tell this story coupled with ACTA: ST stats. Could also be a winner?
I have played in a campaign (as many here doubtless have) where I have been one of a crw of three and later directed fleets in battle to decide the fate of whole star systems and the destiny of the galaxy.......
the right GM can (and has) set the scene for both and perhaps the right book can provide the tools to do so.
rust said:
Rust is correct. Without color POD, I don't see this happening -- not until we see major, major sales, and even then it would be risky. This sort of book has a high price tag for artists and for printing and that increased cost is quadrupled by the time that you purchase it -- and that doesn't count any import fees.
Da Boss, that is beyond what I can discuss. That is an upper, upper management decision. Let's wait to get both Traveller: PD and ACTA: SF out the door before trying to do cross-overs. That way we have a team of horses in front of our cart and not vice versa or some mish-mash of horses and carts. :shock:
(I don't know what happened, Captain Kumerian, Sir. The transporter went fizzle-fluffel-ploooop and then you said these showed up.
Yes, Sir. Just like that. Fizzle-fluffel-ploooop.
No, Sir. I don't remember it ever making a noise like that before.
I'll see if the Slirdarian Corporal can handle this mess and we'll get it off your bridge pronto. I'm sure the replicator can handle making you a new chair, Sir.)
[Edit: This is taken from Kumerian and His Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Jena Biblios.]
(I don't know what happened, Captain Kumerian, Sir. The transporter went fizzle-fluffel-ploooop and then you said these showed up.
Yes, Sir. Just like that. Fizzle-fluffel-ploooop.
No, Sir. I don't remember it ever making a noise like that before.
I'll see if the Slirdarian Corporal can handle this mess and we'll get it off your bridge pronto. I'm sure the replicator can handle making you a new chair, Sir.)
[Edit: This is taken from Kumerian and His Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Jena Biblios.]
mechascorpio
Mongoose
ctchapel said:
"gets reported" by whom? We might as well get this out of the way. If someone here stats up and posts (for instance) the Jem'Hadar for Traveller, is someone from ADB going to have the thread closed? Contact Paramount to have a C&D sent to Mongoose? What precisely do you mean?
Mechascorpio, the license is such that if any ADB personnel see such on a board that we frequent, that it must be reported or we will be deemed complicit in the illegality. Mongoose's personnel would be expected to deal with such a post appropriately.
That said, we don't go wandering the web looking for infractions of Paramount's intellectual property. It is their problem, not ours. However, we do vigorously defend our intellectual property when we find it stolen outright and violating the principles of "fair use." If we see things (while we are dealing with our own property) that violate Paramount's copyrights, we would, from courtesy, inform the copyright holders.
The way that it would work here is that we'd contact Mongoose, let them know that the post violated the terms of the license and Mongoose would deal with things as they saw fit. None of us want to lose the "golden license," so I suspect that the post would be deleted and the user warned not to do that again.
Basically, it boils down to what you do in private is your business. When it goes public, it becomes our business and that of our partner. Since SVC, Mike West, and I are on this board, we are expected to prevent/protest a misuse of licensed materials. It is something that we are honor- and duty-bound to do.
This is something that our own Forums and BBS deal with rarely as there is so much to explore, people don't focus on what isn't within the boundaries of the license. We must be like Caesar's wife and stay more pure than people ever suspect we must.
The flip side is that we'll still have that license 5, 10, 15 years down the road. It cannot be pulled as long as we obey the rules agreed upon. And that is a Good Thing.
That said, we don't go wandering the web looking for infractions of Paramount's intellectual property. It is their problem, not ours. However, we do vigorously defend our intellectual property when we find it stolen outright and violating the principles of "fair use." If we see things (while we are dealing with our own property) that violate Paramount's copyrights, we would, from courtesy, inform the copyright holders.
The way that it would work here is that we'd contact Mongoose, let them know that the post violated the terms of the license and Mongoose would deal with things as they saw fit. None of us want to lose the "golden license," so I suspect that the post would be deleted and the user warned not to do that again.
Basically, it boils down to what you do in private is your business. When it goes public, it becomes our business and that of our partner. Since SVC, Mike West, and I are on this board, we are expected to prevent/protest a misuse of licensed materials. It is something that we are honor- and duty-bound to do.
This is something that our own Forums and BBS deal with rarely as there is so much to explore, people don't focus on what isn't within the boundaries of the license. We must be like Caesar's wife and stay more pure than people ever suspect we must.
The flip side is that we'll still have that license 5, 10, 15 years down the road. It cannot be pulled as long as we obey the rules agreed upon. And that is a Good Thing.
