Prime Directive is out.

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Originally posted by Eric R.
I never doubted the use of the Gurps Lite, as I had bought the World War II game a few months back and loved what they did with that and knew ADB was doing just about the same thing. I am glad that the SFB univse is getting fleashed out with the RPG.

I am glad to see that the creators have come here to get some feedback I think you will find we are a pretty diverse & Independant lot. Don's original hope was that this would become THEY site for Trek Rpging and that has obviously come closer with your participation.

On Deckplans how detailed are you planning on getting? Franz Josef level (everything including the Kitchen sink) or fasa's "Decisions at Midnight" level (Deckplans by the box)?

Further will the Marines be explored in the Federation book or have a book of there own?

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Heh, maybe we can even get our own topic heading here! :)

Current deckplans, like the Free Trader and variants in GPD. are detailed down to individual room, but really don't have room layouts. I'd imagine that future deckplans will include some more detail for important areas (or elast I hope they will, personally).

Marines will most likely be folded into the Fed book, though more detailed articles in the Module Prime series is always a possibility.

Alex Chobot

Happy to be here; love the feedback.

Skoleans look like Skoleans. If two lizard guys on two different venues look like lizards, I suspect that has more to do with lizards than with one looking like the other.

Deck plans...

Well, the market has an effect on this. The traveler and gurps communities buy these by the ton, but they seem to want them at a scale that allows them to move miniatures or cardboard heroes on them. Which means one table's worth of plans handles a really small ship. SFB ships would be ten times as big, and even if anyone would pay for plans that size, nobody would have room to lay them out. So my thinking (I need some feedback here, dudes) is to do a smaller-scale version of the whole ship and then larger detail version of "key compartments" and "typical compartments". For example, if there are 28 passenger staterooms, I don't really need to sell you 28 identical floorplans, just one of such a room (or a few adjacent rooms).

Marines....

I would see no reason they would not be rolled into GURPS FEDERATION, making it a little bigger if need be.

Articles in MODULE PRIME would give us a way to expand the text for any given book with afterthoughs and amplifications.

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Originally posted by stevecole
Happy to be here; love the feedback.

Skoleans look like Skoleans. If two lizard guys on two different venues look like lizards, I suspect that has more to do with lizards than with one looking like the other.

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Ah it was just a thought; I'd wondered if it was a tip of the hat. Anyway, going back to watch the episode, they don't actually look that much alike after all (though I may use them as such anyway). Interesingly enough, FASA did a write up on Sorrd's race (and the others from The Jihad) in Stardate Magazine, though there wasn't much information in it.

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Originally posted by stevecole
Deck plans...

So my thinking (I need some feedback here, dudes) is to do a smaller-scale version of the whole ship and then larger detail version of "key compartments" and "typical compartments".

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That sounds pretty good actually. I'd buy them. It's always nice to have loads of deckplans. Lots of civilian and unusual designs would be good, as long as they're accompanied by some good drawings of the ship as well (a la Franz Josef's Enterprise deckplans, or Federation Frontiers' miranda class). After all, it's nice to know what teh ship looks like outside as well as inside :)

I'm looking forward to deckplans myself. What would be really cool is to take the GURPS Traveler deckplan concept, which has the deckplans themselves and a sheet of Cardboard Heroes, and add like a 16-page booklet with stuff like exterior views of the ship, some form of class history, a partial listing of ship names, some generic (and maybe not so generic) NPC write-ups for the cardboard minis and other little ibts of info.

Alex Chobot

That sounds like one of the best Ideas I have heard for a long time. That would be a complete starter package for a campiagn or as we like to call it around here a series pilot :) The idea for Deckplans is also a good one even going back to the FJ tech manual most of the cabins on board a Federation ship of the era were the same for instance I couldn't see the need to have all 91 staterooms on deck B of a Starliner Transport container mapped out to use the heros.

Heh, especially if we deicide to do deck plans for something really big like a Federation CVA or the Klingon B10 battleship :)

Alex Chobot

Chello!

Steve, that's what I'd like to see--an overall blueprint/diagram of the ship's layout with important areas and stock areas in C(ardboard)H(ero) scale. You're right on the size of Trek ships vs. the Traveller ones. And WW, I'd love to see the B10V in entirely in CH scale! lol!

And I loved how you did the adventures in PD1...they were stand alone, but there was a certain continuity if you ran them that way (ie, the one in the Core book with the Tholian probe, Graduation Exercise and Uprising).

And one last thing: are y'all ever going to update "Titan and the Unicorn" for Captain's Edition? ;)

Tony

Hi again.

I did the deckplans for the Free Trader. These have the room layouts, but no room details (chairs, tables, control consoles).

This is for a couple of reasons.

1) These were about the first set of deckplans done for the product line, and we were still working out the file formats and such. I created them on a PC, but (being publishers) ADB uses Macs. So to get my PC to talk to Steve Cole's Mac was an "interesting" process. So I kept the plans simple at first while we worked out the transfer bugs.

2) They needed to be small enough to be bound into the book without expensive fold out pages. This limited each image to a page (actually half a page or so with the explanatory text). So if there was lots of detail, it would get shrunk down and wouldn't be legible.

3) The Free Trader is used by the thousands throughout the galaxy, and is endlessly customized by the person who bought it/is using it. So any one interpretation of all the rooms actual contents would only be correct once in a hundred ships or so anyway. This way people can fill in the rooms with whatever they (or their adventuring groups) wish, although the general function of the rooms are labeled. (Bridge, crew quarters, engineering, shuttlebay control room, phaser control room, etc.)

That said, I have also done the deckplans for what is planed as the next expansion, at least that is the current plan if nothing unexpected happens, Module Prime Alpha. This is the Burke class Federation Frigate. It is an SFB ship, but very TOSish. It consists of a small saucer (old TOS style look) with a pair of small TOS warp engines slung underneath and hanging out the back. Sort of like a miniature Miranda class, but without the weapon "roll-bar". It's total length is about the diameter of the constitution class saucher. It has a crew of 160, and 7 decks, but several of these (deck 1 bridge, 2, 6, and 7) are relatively small. In SFB it has a pair of Photon torpedo launchers, 3 primary offensive phasers, and a pair of small point defense phasers.

This set (while larger than the Free Trader) was done with much more detail, control consoles, chairs, tables, beds, etc. 1) we have the file format worked out now so it should be possible to get all the detail to transfer. 2) This is a ship with a standard construction, so they should all look very similar. 3) There is going to be a bit more room in Module Prime Alpha. I don't know if we will have any enlarged scale rooms here or not, but I don't know if there will be room on the 16 pages or not for such a thing.

It is my understanding (subject to whatever changes that Steve Cole decides needs to be made, so who knows, this could change) that the Module Prime series will have 16 or so pages in the middle that you can remove (bend the staples back that bind the book, remove the pages, then bend the staples back in again). This means that we can put a deckplan (or some other fun insert) easily across two pages, so they can be a bit larger, and once removed from the book you won't miss any of the image down the middle in the binding.

GURPS Klingons should (last I heard) have a set of plans for a Klingon F5 frigate, an SFB Klingon ship, (being done by another person, not me). And the Romulan module will have (at least the current plan is this, but this module is also a ways down the road and anything can happen) deckplans of the Romulan Skyhawk destroyer (another SFB ship) which are being done by me as well.

This is the situation as I understand it, but Steve or Gary probably have other plans as well.

Anyway, I enjoy the doing the deckplan thing, and hope to be able to do more for them in the future.

Nick

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Originally posted by Lord Kjeran
Chello!

Steve, that's what I'd like to see--an overall blueprint/diagram of the ship's layout with important areas and stock areas in C(ardboard)H(ero) scale. You're right on the size of Trek ships vs. the Traveller ones. And WW, I'd love to see the B10V in entirely in CH scale! lol!

And I loved how you did the adventures in PD1...they were stand alone, but there was a certain continuity if you ran them that way (ie, the one in the Core book with the Tholian probe, Graduation Exercise and Uprising).

And one last thing: are y'all ever going to update "Titan and the Unicorn" for Captain's Edition? ;)

Tony

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Why just a wussy B10V? Go for the gusto and ask for the B11S. Or a Seltorian Hive Ship! :)

Wot's "Titan and the Unicorn?" I'm assuming it's a COmmander's Edition scenario, but that's before my time...

Alex Chobot

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Originally posted by WildWeasel


Wot's "Titan and the Unicorn?" I'm assuming it's a COmmander's Edition scenario, but that's before my time...

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Now I do remember the Commander's Edition, but I don't recall that scenario.....

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Originally posted by Capt Daniel Hunter


Now I do remember the Commander's Edition, but I don't recall that scenario.....

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It's probably hiding in an early CapLog or somesuch.

It is from an old Captain's Log scenairo. AFIR it involved a Kzin SCS (Titan) and its escort (Unicorn) ambushing an entire Romulan task force(?) that they caught with their engines, shields and weapons completely off-line. The objective was to destroy the bulk of the Romulan force before they could hot-start their engines and get into the fight.

Historically, it was part of Operation Remus. The Kzinti were protecting the Federation's flank and "stumbled" into the Romulan staging area.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm doing most of this from memory.