Decipher Trek RPG announcement?

**templartiger** · 10-06-2005, 04:16 PM

Right now I am hoping that they at least publish something in whatever form.

**Sho-sa Kurita** · 10-06-2005, 10:50 PM

While I would dearly love shelf-filling eye-candy hardcovers, I'm not unhappy about PDFs. I get a lot of ebooks, large and small.

Some of you have asked about "these ebooks." They come in all manner of variety - amateurish to professional, lo-res, hi-res. Many of the better products come with multiple versions in a single zip, some of the common options being: a hi-res-full-color version, a hi-res-B&W version, lo-res versions of the same, versions without background graphics, sometimes even a special screen-formatted version (as opposed to page-formatted).

With Decipher, I would anticipate a 300 dpi full-color version and that's it. Regardless of format, one of the things I like most about ebooks is the ability to copy text out of the PDF into another app. Can't do that with a hard copy!

I've found a lot of great gaming material on RPG Now, and have picked up a few things from DriveThru RPG as well.

**D.S.McBride** · 10-06-2005, 10:53 PM

I hadn't intended to stir up any hornets' nests here - although looking back at the rather incendiary post, I should have expected some sort of response. An additional caveat is that my group and I don't really use the Coda material, except as conversion over to (mostly) Icon.

Why would I credit Drive-Thru? I really don't know the company from a hole in the ground, nor any of the other on-line distributors, but I can say this with at least some degree of knowledge: Decipher has had possession of this material for going on two and a half years and has done absolutely nothing with it. My impression - again, purely intuitive, and based on information gleaned from Don and Doug's posts - is that all Decipher is doing is shipping the works over to Drive-Thru, and letting them take the ball and finally - finally - granting it the privilege of seeing the light of day. I can't really see crediting Decipher with the action of holding these too-long bypassed works up to an auction crowd and shouting, "Okay, who wants a crack at it?" and then treating them as though they've done us some sort of favor. The material was created under Decipher's auspices, yes...but it was also left to languish there.

I guess that, in addition to this, I'm also recalling the extraordinary lengths that Don went to in order to try to secure these books' release, and being stymied again and again because the adminstration simply couldn't be bothered to reply. I'm extrapolating that, from that relation of bad attitude, the deal with Drive-Thru has been put together in a helter-skelter manner simply to get this situation over and done with before the license finally runs out.

Okay, enough of this from me. If I've ruffled any feathers or created offense, my apologies. Not my intention: It just majorly gets my goat when a supposedly professional organization makes a slew of promises that it has no intention of following through on.

**Mr Harkonnen** · 10-07-2005, 12:02 AM

Sorry about a newbie butting in but...

It's pretty obvious that Decipher is trying to make a quick buck off of the material that they've been sitting on for 2 years. The company is in trouble (maybe rightfully so) and they are dumping what is probably really good material for the Trek RPG. I was pretty pissed about the whole mishandling of the Star Trek line for a long time but got over it. They gave us a great game with the best core RPing system I've ever played and then said f-off to us fans of the game by holding out on the new material (and Engage! would have been pure heaven). So now that the chips are down, they'll sell us PDF's.

But since I've had a couple of years to cool off I think I will be buying the PDF's. I promiised myself at the beginning of this mess that I would never buy another Decipher product (I was that angry). But the promise of Worlds, Through a Glass Darkly, Enterprise (even though the latter is what, 32 pages and missing most of the material from seasons 2-4) is something I can't pass up. I remember reading here that Worlds would be a top notch product in terms of fluff, layout and artwork, and game statistics. We're losing something with an electronic format but I'll take it.

I won't say kudos for Decipher, but I will say I'll be happy for new material for the best RPG I've played.

EDIT: And it still remains to be seen whether all of this will actually happen. Probably will, but I can't fully trust Decipher.

**Doug Burke** · 10-07-2005, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by Mr Harkonnen

Enterprise (even though the latter is what, 32 pages and missing most of the material from seasons 2-4)

If it's the same one Don wrote for the late, lamented Limited Edition rules, It was written between Season 1 and Season 2, so it would not have any information beyond the the former.

**Mr Harkonnen** · 10-07-2005, 09:33 AM

^^Better than nothing though.

**black campbellq** · 10-07-2005, 10:42 AM

I doubt they'll get around to it, but the .pdf's better than nothing. Hell, half the crap I've published is .pdf-only.

**PGoodman13** · 10-18-2005, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by IceGiant

I find it interesting that alot of folks want worlds. That title has little interest for me (I would have bought the hardcopy like i did creatures but has about the same use. Dust collector)

Worlds is turning out to have quite a bit of interesting crunch to it, so I wouldn't necessarily write it off just yet.

For me I've been waiting for the klingon book since LUG, and even Mirror Darkly should at least be an interesting read.

Kieran Yanner just mentioned that he's begun work on Through a Glass Darkly (as well as Isengard for the LOTR line), and should probably have previews up for them in the next couple of weeks, barring catastrophe.

**black campbellq** · 10-18-2005, 01:38 PM

Well, DrivetrhuRPG's finally got a Decipher menu up. No products yet, but that's a good sign.

**Wiseman** · 10-18-2005, 02:04 PM

2 products are there now, LotR Paths of the Wise and ST Worlds.

**Atlirith** · 10-19-2005, 05:07 AM

Okay I was a good little drone and I bought ST: Worlds. Is that it though? Will they be releasing the Klingon and Mirror Universe sourcebooks?

Ive waited years and years for those, yes there are prime directive versions and yes Ive got the FASA version of the Klingon book, but that book is quite out of date, and Ive wanted a MU book for ages ;-)

Here's hoping against hope, again.

**PGoodman13** · 10-19-2005, 06:42 AM

Kieran's laying out the Mirror Universe book right now; I'm not sure where the Klingon book is in the queue. He's also doing double-duty laying out the LOTR RPG books, and is currently working on the Isengard book for that line as well.

**Hugh Casey** · 10-19-2005, 10:08 AM

Does anyone, by any chance, have the direct link to Decipher's Trek RPG forums?

I don't, and their site has been down for over a week now.

Thanks.

**PGoodman13** · 10-19-2005, 10:29 AM

Decipher's Trek RPG Discussion forums
Decipher's LOTR RPG Discussion forums (just to be thorough)

**black campbellq** · 10-19-2005, 01:12 PM

Damn this company! Worlds is another fine product. These guys have done such a good job with these books, and such a crappy job in customer service and marketing.

The world creation rules do a nice job filling in the stuff from the NG. The Travellers fams will probably love them. I worked out a new system in minutes, with no trouble.

Haven't worked through all the worlds themselves yet...

Thread: Decipher Trek RPG announcement?

Thread Tools

Posting Permissions