The road to Decipher Trek continues...

[SIR SIG]

If its similar to any system I would say WhiteWolfs storyteller rules. With the likes of the skills compared to Vampire's Diciplines with higher values letting you have sub abilities of said skill.

All in all sounds great, especially with miniatures in the works.

Finally something to compare to my fleet of 34 MicroMachine ships

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SIRSIG
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever

[Don Mappin]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">will TrekRPGNet eventually shift its support to the new Decipher game? Or do you envision TrekRPGNet becoming a sort of "Five Roleplaying Games, One Website" amalgam of all that is Trek gaming? By this, I mean remaining devoted to LUG Trek but ushering in fan support of the new Decipher game as well.</font>

Eeek! I’ve been quoted!

No, I don’t envision my statements from several months ago changing – the Icon System and LUGTrek will no doubt continue to be played by a host of gamers after the new Decipher game comes out. Since what content we have is already online, I don’t see any reason to remove content, or for that matter, to not continue adding new submissions as they come in. (For Icon)

Material for Decipher’s RPG can be hosted in its own section, so there’s no reason why TrekRPGNet can’t support both.


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Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net

[Cochrane]

can Decipher cover the same topics covered by Icon? Can you have anything similar to the Vulcan or Romulan products?

[J.Ramirez]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dr. Jonas Bashir:
[
The article left me with more questions than answers! It seems the system will be a mixture between ICON and d20. Again, I haven't that much experience with roleplaying (knowing just five or six systems: GURPS, ICON, D&D, d20, Vampire...), so I can be soooo wrong.

But I'm clueless, Don. You left me standing in the middle of the road asking for directions.

But I'm not anxious, provided that your announcement will surely come earlier in time period than the Series V one.

The worst thing of all: I can't imagine the game system! And I found the final gameline structure weird. A main players' book and a narrators' book, gathering the four series each. Why does everything sound so similar to d20?

[/B]</font>

Why does it sound so similiar to d20?

Because it will be! It's d20 just covered up very creatively.

They said the overlays were the same thing as classes -- "a matter of semantics", they said. I disagree.

In d20, classes allow for advancement and gaining more skills as you rise in experience. In ICON, you gain improvement on your skills.

IMHO, they can say what they want, but as they said, ICON is gone...at least for them. Me, I'll stick with it.

Okay...enough ranting....time for my meds...<g>

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"Now then, pendejo, let's see what kind of swordsman you've become." -- Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez

[DanielK]

What scared me was the PRICE of the books. It was unclear as to being $60 PER book or $60 TOTAL for both books.

[Eric R.]

Well pleased to say the least. Don, your brief article sounded a lot like a military situational briefing before the big offensive starts rolling and were the field commanders who have to make sense of the vague "general outline" of the attack. Kinda like saying:

"Well start Here" points to map,"and finsh here" points at new spot on map, "Home before the leaves fall chaps, any Quations?" many hands rise, "right then, Good Luck boys."

Combined core rule book - great

Separate narrative rule - great

Separate SRM book - excellant though my mind wonders if they will be separated by time period.

Era Sourcebooks - Good

Big multiple race books - have doubts, but will wait and see on this idea it can work if done right I think.

Expanded Skill levels from 1 - 6 to 1-12 just what the doctor ordered.

Specialties - A bit confussed here, will they be the same as are old Specialization under a new name or something very differant?

Overlays to professions - I'll go with it as long as it does not produce a jumble of stats like d20 does. One thing I like about Icon was how simple it was to figure a character out by simply looking at the sheet.

Does Decipher have rights to the LUG intellectual property i.e. background material and etc. or will they have to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

Thanks for the look see and if we get updates like this all the time I will be very happy.

One last Thing, and I realise this might not be answerable, will there be Icon links in a new form for the system?

[Cochrane]

I'm sure the $60 was for both books combined.

Maybe have the species in one book follow a theme. Vulcanoids in one book, Nonhumanoids in another, Klingon subject races in another.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

My concern is whether the Klingon book will come out before some big new detail about the Klingons is revealed on Series V, thus invalidating a large amount of the information in the book.

[Cochrane]

Alternate Universes, Huth, alternate universes.

[Christian Moore]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cochrane:
If this website will cover Icon and Decipher, will it also cover FASA and Prime Directive?

Will Decipher approach maps differently from Icon?</font>

No. Remember that Paramount technically owns LUG's "approach" to the Trek universe. For example, our new Decipher Romulan Empire won't look any different than LUG's Romulan Empire.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">This one may be unacceptable, but might we see the map that would have been in the Icon Klingon book and will you have to come up with entirely new maps for planets and space?

</font>

You'll see the map Other planet and/or space maps will remain unchanged.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Does Decipher have the right to put out books on exact themes promised by Icon, but with completely different details? Such as Rigel?

</font>

Absolutely. I think people are a bit confused about what we can and can't do, and who owns what. I'll try to summarize:

Everything content-related that we produced for Icon Trek - all of the LugTrek "canon," if you will - is owned by Paramount. Any characters, maps, worlds, starships, etc. created at LUG fall into this category, and their content may be reused. What we *can't* reuse, however, is certain actual physical product. For example, while we can use our LUG conception of the Apollo Class, we couldn't reuse the *exact* art image depicted in the UFP book. We *could* have an artist do a new piece that duplicates the old piece in every detail, but we can't use the old piece.

As far as the system goes, WotC owns the Icon System trademark. However, legal precedent in our industry has established that system mechanics cannot be protected (which is the admission made by the OGL). So, we could (if we chose) release a new system almost identical to the old Icon System; we simply couldn't use the Icon trademark name.

Instead, we've chosen to learn from our mistakes and respond to three years of customer feedback by designing a new, and IMHO better, game system. We'll begin to give folks some glimpses of the new mechanics soon, but I can say this: you'll be able to use your old Icon material with the new game.

Hope this helps at least a little bit

Christian

[Christian Moore]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Imagus:
Personally, I'm hoping that if the Klingons get their own book, so will the Romulans and Cardassians.</font>

We'll see how the Klingons book does. If you really want to see new Rom and Card books (as I would), tell all your friends to buy the Klingons book

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">One q (if you can answer it) - beyond the official canon stuff and remembering the discussions over licences a few months ago, is there any continuity between the LUG and Decipher versions as regards background? Or will this have to be completely new?</font>

As I stated in my previous post, there will be complete continuity between LUG and Decipher background material.

Christian

[Christian Moore]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Eric R.:

One last Thing, and I realise this might not be answerable, will there be Icon links in a new form for the system?</font>

Yes.

Christian

[Caretaker]

Thanks, Christian. You've given me even more confidence in Decipher's RPG work.

I can't wait to see the actual thing when it comes out.

BTW, is Decipher going to add an RPG seciton to their website?

[Christian Moore]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Caretaker:
BTW, is Decipher going to add an RPG seciton to their website?</font>

Yes. We're talking now about the specifics of the site launch. We'll let folks know as soon as it's ready to launch.

Christian

[REG]

<font color="orange">We'll see how the Klingons book does. If you really want to see new Rom and Card books (as I would), tell all your friends to buy the Klingons book</font>

*slams his cup of bloodwine*

Well, it's about time! I have been waiting for that book. It felt like eternity that I have a better chance of seeing the Barge of the Dead first.

While you still have considerable influence at Decipher, Christian, I have two favors to ask.

Tell them to redesign their web site to be less fancy graphics, more useful content. And have their message board reconfigured to something more pleasing to our eyes. Hire Don Mappin and his evil twin Dan if you have to.

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Anyhoo, just some random thoughts...