End of the Decipher License?

[Renny]

Hi

Can anyone confirm that the Decipher license expired on july 31st?

Renny

[D.S.McBride]

Real, real good question, Renny - the only person I know of who would probably know the answer to that is Patrick Murphy. Decipher has been, for the last couple years, utterly and abysmally silent regarding getting the last half-dozen or so Trek works in the .pdf queue, so the likelihood of anything further coming out at this late date is negligible at best. If the license, did, in fact, run out on July 31, I'm going to try to take that in the most positive sense possible, in that maybe somebody, somebody who who actually gives a damn will pick it up and start to put work into it again.

[PGoodman13]

No clue, and I don't feel a great deal of hope of ever getting an answer.

[First of Two]

No clue, and I don't feel a great deal of hope of ever getting an answer.

Not from Decipher, anyway.

OTOH, if some other company DOES manage to get the license, I expect we'd hear from them... eventually.

Then we'd need to explain to them, at length and in great detail, just how the whole Decipher debacle blew, and how to avoid it.

I'll help. I've been using my position at the college to gain ranks in Overseer (Brutal).

[tonyg]

Sadly, I'm looking forward to the license expiring. While I appreciate all the work that various people have put (and continue to put) into the CODA RPG line, I believe that we'D all be better off without Decipher.

If the game were officially dead, it would be no worse off than it is now. If someone else were to pick up the Star Trek license, then at least there would be some Trek RPG stuff in the future.

[black campbellq]

I would have like a bit more for the game, but they've put out the books really needed to play any of the time periods seen on screen. The PG & NG give you the main rules, and ways to create aliens, critters, or whatever you need. The Aliens book and the Starships guides fill in a lot of the holes in the rules. With the Worlds .pdf, you've got everything necessary to run a nice full campaign.

Hell, I took what they had and worked up machine intelligence rules, more aliens, and a pretty nifdty 25th C campaign with new abilities, etc.

It always sucks when you get shafted by a company that just doesn't care about its customers (my main complaint on the matter) but it doesn't bother me at all. Most of the game systems I like are either dead or not well supported: the old James Bond system from the 80s, the Serenity RPG, Castle Falkenstein and Space: 1889... You just have to soldier on with your own imagination.

[Tobian]

As much as I disliked Decipher's handling of this, their system was excellent, and I LOVE the Starships books, and well, all the books actually. It was very nice, just murdered by an incompetent company!

I loathe the idea of anyone else taking the system and... making it in to D20 GAH

[Maltese_Falcon]

I also hate to see the license expire, but at least this leaves the door open for someone who really cares about the game to pick it up and run with it. And between what Decipher published, plus source material from other publishers (LUG and FASA) plus fan-made content, there is enough material to create rich Trek campaigns in any era for a long time to come. For my game (now post-Nemesis), I've converted worlds, ships, and even some homegrown NPCs from my FASA games to Decipher.

Yeah, Trek for D20. Ummm...I don't think it'd sit too well. The CODA system is quite clean and easy to use. Besides, there's already PD20 anyway, even though it's the 'Star Fleet Universe' and not official Trek.

--MF

[Renny]

Funnily enough, despite owning all of the Decipher material, and quite liking the CODA system, i'm using Savage Worlds for my own Star Trek games at the moment. I just want to see the license out of decipher's grubby hands.
I don't even know if anyone else would produce a new game, but lets face it, i'd still buy it

Renny

[tonyg]

I would have like a bit more for the game, but they've put out the books really needed to play any of the time periods seen on screen. The PG & NG give you the main rules, and ways to create aliens, critters, or whatever you need. The Aliens book and the Starships guides fill in a lot of the holes in the rules. With the Worlds .pdf, you've got everything necessary to run a nice full campaign.

Hell, I took what they had and worked up machine intelligence rules, more aliens, and a pretty nifdty 25th C campaign with new abilities, etc.

It always sucks when you get shafted by a company that just doesn't care about its customers (my main complaint on the matter) but it doesn't bother me at all. Most of the game systems I like are either dead or not well supported: the old James Bond system from the 80s, the Serenity RPG, Castle Falkenstein and Space: 1889... You just have to soldier on with your own imagination.

I agree with on many levels. I would have liked to see the Klingon book come out, along with at LEAST the rest of the stuff that was arealdy written and in the pipeline.

I wish Decipher would have supported the game. The started off doing something smart (essentially hiring a preexsisting RPG company to handle the new RPG line) but then had unreasonable expectations (expecting the RPG to rival D20 overnight).


Most of my favorite RPGs are also in the dead/not supported category. I bought several copies of the James Bond RPG stuff because of that, and now have everything backed up in pdf form too.

BTW black campbellq, didyou ever see the FRWL adventure for the JB RPG?

[black campbellq]

Most of my favorite RPGs are also in the dead/not supported category. I bought several copies of the James Bond RPG stuff because of that, and now have everything backed up in pdf form too.

BTW black campbellq, didyou ever see the FRWL adventure for the JB RPG?

I don't remember. I think I had, at one time, all of the adventures. I also started .pdf'ing the books as they fall apart. I've done up additional Q Manuals over time, but haven't had time to set up a new website to get it out there. (Some Indian guy has my work up online...uncredited, of course.)

The latest Q Manual has a bunch of new cars, guns, gadgets. I've been meaning to get drugs and poisons set up but haven't gotten around to it. Even kitbashed some computer warfare/hacker rules for a cyberpunk campaign I ran with the system.

[AllenS]

I was responsible for getting the From Russia with Love adventure up on Modus Operandi after I found it quite by accident. It is a beautifully done forgery. It was not done by Victory Games and the module itself contains numerous clues that it is a fan-made homage to the VG modules. It is also an excellent adventure with some interesting twists on the original story.

Allen

[black campbellq]

I was responsible for getting the From Russia with Love adventure up on Modus Operandi after I found it quite by accident. It is a beautifully done forgery. It was not done by Victory Games and the module itself contains numerous clues that it is a fan-made homage to the VG modules. It is also an excellent adventure with some interesting twists on the original story.

Allen

Neat site. I joined up. May upload my Q2 Manual to it.

[Mazza]

I imagine that if somebody else picks up the license, we won't see any product from them until after the next movie. They might have to go to a print on demand model too.

[D.S.McBride]

Argh. With the RPG field as it currently stands, whoever has the license after Trek XI comes out - please God let it not be Decipher - will, I think, most likely end up taking the route that Wizards is currently following. To wit, that the demographic possibilities for marketing a miniatures-based game will be explored, and - if the opportunities for making the cash registers ring is there - end up releasing a game where the RPG stuff is more or less an afterthought.

However translatable such a system might be to LUG- or DecipherTrek would, of course, have to be seen in order to make an assessment. Just my opinion on what, if anything, we might have the opportunity to see once Decipher's finally completed kicking the Trek ball around the office like a ball of discarded paper.