Game Over for Decipher?

[AslanC]

My gawd would I kill to see a 2nd Edition Icon system... think of all the things they learned doing CODA... it might be a kick ass system!

Ah if wishes were horses and all that ... sigh...

I kinda hope the Trek license takes a break for a while too, I can't justify buying anymore core books.

[Tobian]

Err, isn't Coda second edition Icon?

[REG]

Err, isn't Coda second edition Icon?

*gasps*

Are you trying to give me a heart attack?

[BouncyCaitian]

CODA in and of itself wasn't bad at all. I rather liked it's system. But I'd like to see the intergration of SPACEDOCK with CODA for a more detailed starship system.

[Balok]

I think [Mongoose has] the opposite problem as Decipher - in my opinion they release too many products. I think LUG (when they were healthy) was reasonabe with their rate of releases.

I bought one, exactly one, Mongoose product -- the Ultimate Arcane Spellbook. So bad was the editing and production values on this book (the errata ran to 32 pages as a PDF) that I swore never again to buy a Mongoose product. It was a complete waste of money. Interestingly, this book seems to have gone out of print (it's no longer listed on the website, but can be obtained at places like FRP Games). So I'd just as soon NOT see Mongoose get the license; their quality control is really bad.

[REG]

Maybe Tobian should help Mongoose with their editing problem.

[Tobian]

Hey why pick me, do I do lots of typo's or something ?

Yeah it has to be said mongoose does not have a track record on editing and spell checking, Conan is legiendary for it's typo's!

They do seem to be just bringing out TOO much stuff, hence the loss in quality controll.

[REG]

Hey why pick me, do I do lots of typo's or something ?

As if I want that Brit-based company to dig deeper in an already deep hole. I figure the more time you spend editing at Mongoose, the less time you spend here (and off my d20 back).

They do seem to be just bringing out TOO much stuff, hence the loss in quality controll.

Ehhh. Customers like the tremendous output rate from Mongoose, but obviously there is a drawback.

[Modem]

Possible senario:
Paramount looks at the 'Trek' situation in terms of marketing and role-playing games, and decide to NOT award a new license to VotC.

"Then who?" you ask.

Simple, who's been doing a Trek-based game for...yesh, HOW LONG?!?!

These guys:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/

Let's see:
Award winning miniature rules-check
Award winning miniatures-check
Fantastic miniature makers and game writers-check
An RPG that been around a long time, and will probably be around 'with the cockroaches'-hmmm...Gurps, D20, D6...yeah-check, Check, and CHECK.

Imagine what ADB could with an actually 'Trek' license:
Starship Miniatures-DONE, add-ons (movie-era and up) would be easy and IN SCALE (once the scale's been adjusted, or newwer scale started to allow ships like Picard's Ent.)!!!
Rules for said miniatures-DONE, though might need a slight overhaul to allow movie-era and beyond ships.
RPG rules-DONE...Three, MAYBE four times over (Imagine ADB buying CODA)
Add in Ground-Based Miniatures (and rules), and you've got 'lightning in a jar'.

Guess what I'm getting at is:
If ADB could get the contact, one that would keep 'Trek' and 'SFB' still in their own little worlds, but would still allow ADB to churn out miniature and rules of quality for the actual 'Trek' universe...then hey wouldn't that be WIN/WIN all-the-way around?

[BouncyCaitian]

Good idea

But we've got Three Versions of Prime Directive rolling out here soon

[REG]

Possible senario:
Paramount looks at the 'Trek' situation in terms of marketing and role-playing games, and decide to NOT award a new license to VotC.

"Then who?" you ask.

Simple, who's been doing a Trek-based game for...yesh, HOW LONG?!?!

These guys:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/

Played that since high school, the wargame. How I could understand what I think is a law-grade rulebook is beyond me. Many of my all-nighters are due to SFB.

IIRC, PD didn't come out until the 90's.

Guess what I'm getting at is:
If ADB could get the contact, one that would keep 'Trek' and 'SFB' still in their own little worlds, but would still allow ADB to churn out miniature and rules of quality for the actual 'Trek' universe...then hey wouldn't that be WIN/WIN all-the-way around?

Yeah, but Paramount is still sore over the legal dispute that still allowed ADB to do what they're doing. And I honestly don't think it is a win-win for ADB. If they get the official Trek license then gamers will expect official products, and the SFB line will suffer because it is no longer unique anymore.

[PGoodman13]

And living not very far from ADB, and knowing the guys involved (last time I went to their offices, it was a three-man operation, and one of those was the lady at the front desk answering the phone and dealing with the public), the very notion of Amarillo Design Bureau handling the official Star Trek license fills me with enormous dread.

Trust me, these guys don't care about Star Trek as much as they care about the SFB universe, which ain't the same thing. They also don't much care about the role-playing game, since they just licensed GURPS to make Prime Directive and are doing fairly easy ports to other open, license-able systems.

This would be worse than what we've got now, I'm afraid.

[Tobian]

I think that soreness will probably stop them going in that direction, and it will be confusing for customers to work out which book is for what paradigm: Right now it's simple because it's a whole other rules set and company..

I don't think I'd make a very good Copywriter REG, I struggle enough with my own meagre output, and don't worry if I was, I would MAKE time

[spshu]

Simple, who's been doing a Trek-based game for...yesh, HOW LONG?!?!

These guys:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/

IIRC, PD didn't come out until the 90's..

Task Force Games designed the RPG. ADB/Star Fleet Games is the designer of the Star Fleet Battle game not the RPG and only gain ownership of Prime Directive RPG and Star Fleet Battle around 1999. They only sold the backstock to the 1st Edition of PD and choose to use GURPS for their first edition of PD.

Yeah, but Paramount is still sore over the legal dispute that still allowed ADB to do what they're doing.

From discussion on this forum, Task Force Games did some restructing of the Star Fleet Battles/Prime Directive license to include Paramount, so I do not think Paramount will completely base its decision on that. They might see it as a chance to open the previous licensing agreement, which ADB might not like to do.

ADB did mention that they might open their print on demand (POD) printers to other publishers. They have ruled that out at this time as they figure out their own demands for the POD printers. So in the future an alterative publisher of the Coda line might be able to work with them.

[REG]

In any case, it's better for ADB to stick what they're doing best and that is the Star Fleet Battles boardgame, and contract designer/publisher to do RPG for them.