Prime Directive...
- Thread starter Galahad64
- Start date
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
crazy_cat said:
If I remember right, Prime Directive games do not include ship building rules. You buy ship books, if any are ever published. PD games do use whatever mapping scheme a core book uses they are written for (squares, hexes). PD Traveller will need Starfleet skills in it so players know how their PCs can operate all the ship functions and Starfleet weapons. I'm curious what the warp drive travel rules will look like. I'm assuming all skill and combat rolls in Traveller PD will still be the 2D6 + SkillLevel + CharMod + DifficultyDM >= 8+ mechanic.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Sgt_G said:
3 times out of maybe 5,000 CharGens came up with an Emperor. Either from actor, Barbarian-turned-Navy officer, and a Blacksheep Noble. To be honest though, I wasn't capping off their Social Standing characteristic. 15 is the highest for player characters.
Sorry for the silence. It has been challenging these last two months. Please forgive the long post as I give you background and plans.
Many of you have probably not read about Operation Fetch, the plan to bring me to Amarillo. Steve probably describes the situation I was in the best. He wrote:
The Steves spent two days driving from Texas to the southeastern part of North Carolina. We spent two days surveying the situation, making final plans, and getting what we needed. Then we executed the plan. As Steve wrote:
I retired May 1. On the afternoon of May 2, I was on the road to Texas, arriving late at night on May 4. Over the space of two days (Sunday and Monday) we got the huge truck (26-foot-long cargo bay) unloaded and then turned in the following day. I had an office room at ADB and my home office had to be unloaded and set up in that area. Due to the rapidity of the move, not everything was protected as well as it might have been and as luck would have it, both of my computer desks died a terrible death and had to be repurchased and assembled.
What that meant for ADB was that we effectively lost three "people-weeks" of work. We promised a 144-page product for Origins. We were to leave for that convention on June 10; we needed to be printing it by June 7. Due to Steve Cole's broken leg and Steven Petrick's computer crash, followed by the backup computer's crash, we had little work done. We got it done, but little else.
The following week and a day was taken by Origins. We left on June 10 and returned late on June 17. Because of the push earlier, I had not yet become a legal resident in Texas. There are a series of hoops that must be jumped and bureaucracy cannot be rushed. I took the time to accomplish that. We got a Mac set up for me and I sneaker-netted the Traveller: PD files to my computer yesterday. The links to the artwork must be rebuilt and then I'll be in business.
What does this mean for Traveller: PD?
First, Matthew has been in the loop. He's known that my goal was to start again on TPD in July. He also knows that I'm going to have to continue other jobs at ADB -- marketing, proofreading, and editing. Matthew will continue to be completely involved for this product.
Next, you have to understand the cycle of publishing. We need to tell distributors and retailers about a product four months before release. If I want this out by November, then I need to know if we can finish it by August. Working on it intensively throughout July, I should be able to determine if we can do it and what it will include in the way of deckplans.
I know that we need to re-evaluate the careers so the bridge crew can be created. It is no one's fault; we went down the SFU path where these valuable officers stay on the ship and send others out. We should have realized (and did when we listened to you) that you'd want to recreate the cinematic experience.
We're going to do that.
We've been told that we need deckplans. We put out a call and got two -- one from Garth and another from another SFUer. Matthew, SVC, and I will be discussing our options regarding that. SFU ships are huge compared to many Traveller ships. I don't want to give you deckplans that you'll need a ginormous magnifying glass to read. If that means you get a separate book of 11x17 loose-leaf deckplans, then we may go that path.
Ships are described briefly in the main book. There are thousands of ships in the Star Fleet Universe, all with varying weapons, crews, and sizes. They are covered in more detail in our empire sourcebooks. I'm hoping the "big three" (Klingons, Romulans, Federation) will come out rapidly. I'll need to find a writer for other empires.
Mike West has designed a combat system so you won't have to drop out of your game, hunt up a copy of one of the combat games (Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander, Starmada, or ACTASF) to see what happens. That must be formalized and playtested.
I do apologize for all the personal drama that's delayed this. My position is now full time at ADB. I may not pull the 12-hour days I did on my "vacations" to Amarillo (I do still need to unpack and get things out of storage), but I will be working far more than I've been able to in the past.
Stay with us -- the ride has been bumpy, but the destination is glorious!
Many of you have probably not read about Operation Fetch, the plan to bring me to Amarillo. Steve probably describes the situation I was in the best. He wrote:
I could not effectively work from home for the past year -- getting out ADB's two monthly publications was difficult. The situation was destroying my ability to create anything that ADB (and Traveller PD) needed.
The Steves spent two days driving from Texas to the southeastern part of North Carolina. We spent two days surveying the situation, making final plans, and getting what we needed. Then we executed the plan. As Steve wrote:
I retired May 1. On the afternoon of May 2, I was on the road to Texas, arriving late at night on May 4. Over the space of two days (Sunday and Monday) we got the huge truck (26-foot-long cargo bay) unloaded and then turned in the following day. I had an office room at ADB and my home office had to be unloaded and set up in that area. Due to the rapidity of the move, not everything was protected as well as it might have been and as luck would have it, both of my computer desks died a terrible death and had to be repurchased and assembled.
What that meant for ADB was that we effectively lost three "people-weeks" of work. We promised a 144-page product for Origins. We were to leave for that convention on June 10; we needed to be printing it by June 7. Due to Steve Cole's broken leg and Steven Petrick's computer crash, followed by the backup computer's crash, we had little work done. We got it done, but little else.
The following week and a day was taken by Origins. We left on June 10 and returned late on June 17. Because of the push earlier, I had not yet become a legal resident in Texas. There are a series of hoops that must be jumped and bureaucracy cannot be rushed. I took the time to accomplish that. We got a Mac set up for me and I sneaker-netted the Traveller: PD files to my computer yesterday. The links to the artwork must be rebuilt and then I'll be in business.
What does this mean for Traveller: PD?
First, Matthew has been in the loop. He's known that my goal was to start again on TPD in July. He also knows that I'm going to have to continue other jobs at ADB -- marketing, proofreading, and editing. Matthew will continue to be completely involved for this product.
Next, you have to understand the cycle of publishing. We need to tell distributors and retailers about a product four months before release. If I want this out by November, then I need to know if we can finish it by August. Working on it intensively throughout July, I should be able to determine if we can do it and what it will include in the way of deckplans.
I know that we need to re-evaluate the careers so the bridge crew can be created. It is no one's fault; we went down the SFU path where these valuable officers stay on the ship and send others out. We should have realized (and did when we listened to you) that you'd want to recreate the cinematic experience.
We're going to do that.We've been told that we need deckplans. We put out a call and got two -- one from Garth and another from another SFUer. Matthew, SVC, and I will be discussing our options regarding that. SFU ships are huge compared to many Traveller ships. I don't want to give you deckplans that you'll need a ginormous magnifying glass to read. If that means you get a separate book of 11x17 loose-leaf deckplans, then we may go that path.
Ships are described briefly in the main book. There are thousands of ships in the Star Fleet Universe, all with varying weapons, crews, and sizes. They are covered in more detail in our empire sourcebooks. I'm hoping the "big three" (Klingons, Romulans, Federation) will come out rapidly. I'll need to find a writer for other empires.
Mike West has designed a combat system so you won't have to drop out of your game, hunt up a copy of one of the combat games (Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander, Starmada, or ACTASF) to see what happens. That must be formalized and playtested.
I do apologize for all the personal drama that's delayed this. My position is now full time at ADB. I may not pull the 12-hour days I did on my "vacations" to Amarillo (I do still need to unpack and get things out of storage), but I will be working far more than I've been able to in the past.
Stay with us -- the ride has been bumpy, but the destination is glorious!
IanBruntlett
Emperor Mongoose
Jean said:
The most important thing is that you are safe and presumably happy in your new home.
captainquirk
Mongoose
Glad you got out of that situation, Jean
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Sgt_G said:
I got the point. Was just ignoring it.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
YEAH!
Cross-posting from the ADB board:
Just my opinion, but I would rather see the PD:T books all be twins to the PD:GURPS & PD
20 books. That means no addition material that isn't specific to the game-engine. Why should PD:T players get extra cool stuff like deck plans and planet maps that PD:GURPS / PD20 players don't get? If it were up to me, the Klingon book would have had the D7 instead of the Gunboat, but that ship has sailed long ago (no pun intended).
I would like to see about twenty or so ships worth of deck plans in a stand-alone book (may or may not include planet maps, depending on page count), and perhaps each individual ship with plans printed on 17 x 22 heavy-gauge paper.
I think the book should have the following:
Fed CA (players will DEMAND this one)
Klingon D7 (players will expect this one)
Fed FFG
Romulan SkyHawk
Romulan Snipe
Fed Police boat
Orion Light Raider (I know Nick did a set of plans, and someone else said they are also working on the same ship)
Orion CR raider cruiser (no plans in the works that I know of)
Free Trader
Klingon D5 or F5 (no plans in the works that I know of)
Klingon E3/G2 (no plans in the works that I know of)
That's eleven. I think we need at least one each Gorn, Lyran, Kzinti, and Hydran ships. Oh, and SVC will need to decide whether or not the Tholian PC plans are still valid.
Just a gut-feeling, but I think most players at first will want to play a Fed CA or maybe a D7. But sooner or later, I think many will realize it will be more fun if they go to a smaller ship, like a FFG or F5. I'm biased, but I also thing that a Cops & Robbers campaign would be a lot of fun, so the book needs to have (in my opinion) police boats for Feds, Klingons, and Romulans, as well as Orions pirates and civilian targets.
Just my opinion, but I would rather see the PD:T books all be twins to the PD:GURPS & PD
20 books. That means no addition material that isn't specific to the game-engine. Why should PD:T players get extra cool stuff like deck plans and planet maps that PD:GURPS / PD20 players don't get? If it were up to me, the Klingon book would have had the D7 instead of the Gunboat, but that ship has sailed long ago (no pun intended). I would like to see about twenty or so ships worth of deck plans in a stand-alone book (may or may not include planet maps, depending on page count), and perhaps each individual ship with plans printed on 17 x 22 heavy-gauge paper.
I think the book should have the following:
Fed CA (players will DEMAND this one)
Klingon D7 (players will expect this one)
Fed FFG
Romulan SkyHawk
Romulan Snipe
Fed Police boat
Orion Light Raider (I know Nick did a set of plans, and someone else said they are also working on the same ship)
Orion CR raider cruiser (no plans in the works that I know of)
Free Trader
Klingon D5 or F5 (no plans in the works that I know of)
Klingon E3/G2 (no plans in the works that I know of)
That's eleven. I think we need at least one each Gorn, Lyran, Kzinti, and Hydran ships. Oh, and SVC will need to decide whether or not the Tholian PC plans are still valid.
Just a gut-feeling, but I think most players at first will want to play a Fed CA or maybe a D7. But sooner or later, I think many will realize it will be more fun if they go to a smaller ship, like a FFG or F5. I'm biased, but I also thing that a Cops & Robbers campaign would be a lot of fun, so the book needs to have (in my opinion) police boats for Feds, Klingons, and Romulans, as well as Orions pirates and civilian targets.
I have played in a number of excellent Trek Campaigns - we usually played senior officers on board and/or command staff.
Whilst we had one epic campaign where we started with nothing more than a Runabout - this did end with us commanding whole fleets and deciding the fates of the whole Quadrant - Awesome
I don't recall an instance where we ever used a deck plan - ships stats yes, ships images oh yes - lots needed.....
If you sell it as Star Trek - people will def want to play the command crew
If you sell it as Star Trek Prime Directive - which I read as Special Ops / Marines / Strike teams etc - then thats fair enough and people should be expecting that sort of background.
A good case however can be made for a Starship Command based game / supplement where players are basically the cast equivalent from the shows /films.
Whilst we had one epic campaign where we started with nothing more than a Runabout - this did end with us commanding whole fleets and deciding the fates of the whole Quadrant - Awesome
I don't recall an instance where we ever used a deck plan - ships stats yes, ships images oh yes - lots needed.....
If you sell it as Star Trek - people will def want to play the command crew
If you sell it as Star Trek Prime Directive - which I read as Special Ops / Marines / Strike teams etc - then thats fair enough and people should be expecting that sort of background.
A good case however can be made for a Starship Command based game / supplement where players are basically the cast equivalent from the shows /films.
By nature, each rulebook varies. Twinning them is a sure path to disaster.
GURPS has no classes, no careers. d20M has classes. Traveller has careers. Those careers won't necessarily be the same as d20M's classes. They will allow you to play the game you want to play.
Equipment will work the same. Ship information will be the same. They will be presented in the way the game system prefers. Our worlds will have temperatures in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, for Traveller.
Progress report: I'm in chapter 2, making the changes and standardizations that we need to have in place before I send a PDF out to the TPD team (which includes Matthew). No need for them to spot things that I already know need to be fixed.
We will be adding bridge crew information to our version. That way you can either be the officers (a la TOS) or know the type of character your Prime Team is interacting with or play two characters -- those who do the "ship stuff" and those who do the "away stuff." How you play the game is totally within your control.
GURPS has no classes, no careers. d20M has classes. Traveller has careers. Those careers won't necessarily be the same as d20M's classes. They will allow you to play the game you want to play.
Equipment will work the same. Ship information will be the same. They will be presented in the way the game system prefers. Our worlds will have temperatures in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, for Traveller.
Progress report: I'm in chapter 2, making the changes and standardizations that we need to have in place before I send a PDF out to the TPD team (which includes Matthew). No need for them to spot things that I already know need to be fixed.
We will be adding bridge crew information to our version. That way you can either be the officers (a la TOS) or know the type of character your Prime Team is interacting with or play two characters -- those who do the "ship stuff" and those who do the "away stuff." How you play the game is totally within your control.
I think you misunderstood my use of the term "twin".Jean said:
That's all game-engine stuff, so of course that needs to be in there.
That's the "twin" stuff. The fluffy bits that don't change from one game engine to another. The way one game describes an item might be a little different from how another does, but it's still all the same items. If one game wants to use feet and inches, and the other uses meters, that's cool (assuming the conversions were done right).
What I didn't like is the idea that one game system might get a different set of items that the other game systems don't get. Let's say, just as an example, PD:Any-RPG has a list of the types of ships in the fleet, and that list only shows the basics of dreadnought, heavy & light cruisers, destroyer, and frigate. I just don't think it's fair that another game system gets an expanded list that includes all sorts of variants including command cruisers, carriers, scouts, and drone frigates.
That's what I meant about the books being "twins".
However, comma, if that stuff is in the core rules for one game system, then PD:Any-RPG players should be able to buy a supplement with all that cool stuff "missing" from their books. They should not be required to buy the core rulebook for a game system they don't play to get that stuff.
Another problem I have with putting two tons of fluff material in the core rule book is the shear size (and price) of the book. Personally, I don't see the need to put 200 pages of planet maps and deck plans in the core rulebook. Personally, I want all that stuff in another separate book. A few pages of maps and such is okay, but to double the page count for all that is a bit much, in my opinion.
Feel free to disagree with me on any or all of the above post.
Sgt_G said:
I think we would be remiss if we chose this kind of 'fairness' over making a book as good as it possibly can be. If several years seperate the publication of similar books, then other, newer, perhaps better ideas will surface in the intervening time, and we would be letting you all down if we did not act upon that.
