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With a new Star Trek game on the horizon, what do you hope to see?
Personally, I prefer mechanics that helps me simulating a setting. As advanced enough without getting complicated enough to get in the way. Still, I hope for good setting books that distill and digest the information from the shows into good resources to use for prepping and running a game.
To my understanding, that is what they are doing with the setting information for Conan. :)
Well, I for one am glad to see a new stat'n'skill-based game with no class'n'level inclinations and set in the classic timeline to boot. I'm happy they're making it playable in any time period. I have a whole shopping list of things I'd like to see. More on that later.
Unfortunately, what I was hoping the most for is now a no-go.
I think they should have a conversion chapter, this would make it easy for any one to test drive their system or use their material for existing games.
They'd have to get WotC, Decipher and FASA to be on board with the licensing for that, which, uh, sounds like a huge amount of hassle.
Especially since, to the best of my knowledge, Decipher is no longer in existence.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
Considering that a conversion chapter most likely would be tables converting values between the systems, and a bit of text talking about differences in how granular the different system are in values, amount of skills, and other abstraction values... I can't see it really being a matter of copyright or patent law. So by what reason would it require licensing :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
However, I think it would be better as a separate document than spending page count on conversion tips and suggestions.
Game mechanics are not covered by copyright law, just the text. A conversion document would need no license, regardless of what Kevin Siembieda says.
I hope the art maintains the high standard the one or two samples show. Art has always been a sticking point with the Trek property.
Art is a sticking point with any RPG.
Not tot the degree it has been with Trek games.
In accordance with trekrpg.net noting it was my birthday, and with the announcements about - finally - some positive RPG developments on the horizon, I felt it was an appropriate and fortuitous time to sign on back in.
It's been damned near a decade since I last posted on here - I was so fricking disgusted by the whole DecipherTrek debacle that I honestly didn't see much value in continuing on discussing it, after Warren Holland and his Crew of Dunderheads a) insisted on the creation of a completely inappropriate and blockheaded system and b) did their Pontius Pilate bit when it turned out that the mine held silver and some gold but no diamonds or platinum (unless, of course, they actually fricking workedfor it) - but (and yes, I have lurked in, unsigned, every once in a while, which is how I learned about current developments) this news regarding Modiphius has definitely got some points that have the engine charging again.
I've looked around for some of the old crew and am very saddened to read of individuals' passing, and of others - such as the formidable, always gentlemanly and upstanding Patrick Goodman - having closed the door on trekrpg.net and, God willing, having found some happier climes to go to. My hopes are that, if Modiphius learns from both past screw-ups and successes, these persons will see it as a sign from above to re-up their membership here and begin participating once more. Nonetheless, I am very gratified that some of the here-from-the-opening-of-the-gates dudes are still quite present and vocal, and that new members have joined in.
I look forward very much to the online broadcast on Oct. 20, and hoping that the advancements continue. My hopes that this, along with FASA-, LUG-, and DecipherTrek will fulfill the site's proclamation about "Four RPGs, One Website", and will see a new generation signing in and contributing to the roundtable. My deepest good wishes and greetings to all here, and hoping to communicate again about upcoming revelations soon.
Having played the Decipher version, I thought it was pretty good. My only real complaint was the Tiers of Professional Abilities, which I thought were awkward and hard to apply correctly and complicated chargen. The rest of it was pretty solid.Quote:
Originally Posted by D.S.McBride
I know there was a lot of sturm und drang about it coming virtually on the heels of ICON, and the starting over from scratch felt like double-dipping (IIRC is was required by the restrictions of the license). The actual system doesn't deserve to be dinged for that, however.
Thank you for the reply, Chris. With regard to your commentary on the actual Coda system: Yes, it certainly did and does have its adherents, and the thing wouldn't have as sold as well as it did if it didn't have at least some degree of robustness in the game engine. My difficulties with Coda - and yes, I should have indicated that this is far more a personal reaction/opinion rather than a generally-held consensus - lie with its d20-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off origins, and the seeming belief that a "class'n'level" system would duplicate (as much as possible, anyway) the world of Star Trek just as well as a "stat'n'skill" (to use Owen's very apt phraseology) outlay. I recall one of LUG's original owners/designers stating on this site, back in '00-'01 or thereabouts, that the d20 system was now the "lingua franca" of the RPGing world, and that we'd better get fricking used to it.
Our group gave DecipherTrek a three-game runthrough; at the end, we concluded, en masse, that, "It just doesn't feel like Star Trek." Rather, it felt as though we - and Decipher - had attempted to fit a round, warp drive peg in to a square, team-of-horses hole. Not that there's anything necessarily bad about teams of horses as a game engine; just that they don't hold any interest for me - and our game group - in terms of powering starships and charging phasers/disruptors/whatall. I can't, unfortunately, make any statement with regard to how well or badly Coda might have turned out with LotR, as a comparison point; I and we had zero interest in pursuing that angle of Decipher's corporate strategy, and it remains a big - and not terribly interesting, for me - question mark.
I will apologize not at all for the past, current and future crapslinging that I - and others, to be sure - have given to Decipher as a company, in terms of how it handled Star Trek as a licensed corporate property. The events of '02-'07 will stand as a cautionary tale to current and upcoming RPG companies, with regard to wasted talent, squandered potential and utterly bulls***-headed profit-driven corporate idiocy.
Nevertheless, I should have made it clear that the above criticism of DecipherTrek is a purely personal/group one. That aside, I am still charged up with regard to Modiphius' take on matters, and hope that we can get something that captures the best of Icon's character-building system and Coda's starship combat.
Wow, you summed it up perfectly ! From the D20 clone complete with levels, classes & 'prestige classes' to the fact they rushed things out without even following their own system (Starships, read through those write ups and compare to the rules, engines and weapons specificially). I had high hopes, especially with ships, not being a fan of the FASA-like power allocation. Although fast and easy it still fell short though. Maybe the new game with a new system will more suit things. So far I think LUG is the best with nods to FASA for the character creation but little else, and CODA for the starships but little else.
And if they put out a Klingon supplement early they'll succeed where no one but FASA has yet, LOL
The big problem with CODA is that Decipher regarded it merely as a tool to sell more card games, rather than as a stand-alone prodeuct. Regarding it being a D20 clone, I am firmly convinced that when WotC bought LUG it had meant to ditch the ICON system and go to a D20 version of Trek. Since the writers of the CODA system were almost all ex-LUG employees, I suspect that they had already begun work on a D20-Trek and simply changed it to a D6-based system and continued in that direction. Only one of the senior staffers at CODA would be able to debunk this theory, as the CODA fans all have a knee-jerk reaction that "It's not a D20 clone!" I've signed up for the 2D20 Modiphius playtest as a GM and have great hopes as they have stated that it is NOT class'n'level, unlike CODA, which most definitely was.
You could, you know, just email Hite and ask whether any of that is true.
I don't think you have anything to apologize for actually. While the core mechanic isn't D20, the Professional Abilities Tiers certainly feel like D20. We wound up dropping those and just playing the core mechanic, which is very robust and pretty simple. I especially like the "floating" difficulty mechanic which is a lot less clumsy than adding/subtracting modifiers all the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by D.S.McBride
Despite that though, I think I'll always be a FASA man where Trek is concerned. It's what I cut my teeth on and it always seems to be what I default to when the Trek bug bites.
I've signed up as a GM for the playtest and my gaming group is on board with trying it out as a substitute for our next few monthly sessions. I've chosen the USS Venture option to run.
Owen, wonderful to see you on here again. Hoping things over on your side are very well, and that your personal RPG sessions continue on very successfully.
Just wondering: Are you still, by chance, in contact with any of the pre-Decipher implosion crew? It'd be great if some/any of those people were able to make it back in and see if this site could be a contributing element to Modiphius' success with their current project.
I wonder what he meant by "lay of the land". He seemed to like the people, so it can't be that.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King