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Thread: The End Has Come

  1. #1
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    The End Has Come

    There was some speculation about it when the LOTR RPG license ended, but it's now official. The Star Trek RPG line from Decipher is no more. From the man himself:
    From: Warren Holland
    Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 12:28 PM
    To: Patrick Goodman
    Subject: Re: Star Trek RPG License

    Patrick,

    We have no plans to continue the Star Trek RPG. Sorry. Unfortunately, the property was never profitable. We carried it for many years at a loss. We can't do that in today's environment so we did not renew the RPG license.

    Warren
    So what's this mean for me? Well, I've dropped my "Net Rep" duties, effective pretty much immediately. The projects I've been thinking about can go ahead without me having to worry about possibly getting approval from the licensee, since they don't have the license any longer.

    What this also means, though, is that I'm not feeling all that compelled to finish any of the errata work that I'd begun. It's a painstaking, time-consuming task that I just don't have the energy or the time to do anymore. It also means that the sterrata email address I set up, which is mostly just a spam magnet anymore, is going the way of the Labrador duck as well.

    I wish I had better news, but at least we can all end the speculation. The silence has been broken, and now we know the game's fate and can proceed from here knowing what there is to know.

    Patrick Goodman
    Former Decipher Net Rep...still a Keeper of the Flame, though
    Patrick Goodman -- Tilting at Windmills

    "I dare you to do better." -- Captain Christopher Pike

    Beyond the Final Frontier: CODA Star Trek RPG Support

  2. #2
    Oh well I sorta figured this was going to happen. Thanks for putting in all that effort anyway. Much of what you compiled has aided my game greatly.

  3. #3
    :O Labrador had ducks?!?!
    Portfolio | Blog Currently Running: Call of Cthulhu, Star Trek GUMSHOE Currently Playing: DramaSystem, Swords & Wizardry

  4. #4
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    Thanks for letting us know. Hopefully at some point somebody gets this license and gives it the support it deserves.

  5. #5
    Well, you never know. With the new movie about to make big waves in the next twelve months, WotC might pick it up as a D20 license - or maybe even Mongoose will pick it up for use with their new Traveller RPG. Or maybe the license is so undesirable at the moment that TFG could afford it and go the whole hog and finally call 'Prime Directive' by it's real name

    Me, I just discovered ICON so I have all the Trek RPG goodness I could possibly want and at bargain bin prices

  6. #6
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    Guys,

    I was talking to the Mongoose People at Gen - Con UK and they said they would be naturally be interested if a) Paramount put the License out to tender and b) It was affordable.

    Also, they would probably use their new Traveller Rules they have just got as a license as the basis for the game, just like they are to using it for the 2nd Edition Starship Troopers Game.
    "Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
    Cmmdr JT Wayland
    Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

  7. #7
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    What does that mean in regards to the pdf books at drivethru? Will they remain available or are they gone as well?

  8. #8
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    THanks Patrick,
    It's nice that we know have confirmation of what we all pretty much were aware offor the past several years.

    I'd like to ask Warren Holland how he expected the proerty to be profitable when Decipher wasn't putting out product so that it could actually generate some profit, but I'm glad the other shoe has finally dropped.

    Thanks to you, Patrick, and folk like Dan, Don, the old LUG crowd, and anyone else who plugged away, and suffered for the fans over the years. You guys tried. Thanks. It7s only because of your collective efforts that the game managed to say around on minimal life support as long as it did (perhaps they should have called it COMA instead of CODA?).


    Personally, I hope TREK doesn'T get picked up by WotC or Mongoose. I'd rather have no Star Trek RPG than a bad Star Trek RPG. Besides, there are a few "dead" but sericeable Star Trek RPGs out there.

  9. #9
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    Man that sucks, but then we all knew it! Thanks for all your hard work over the last few years Patrick, and we understand your decisions.

    Yeah I'm with TonyG, Mongoose have churned out some stinkers, in great volume, but uninspired, and poorly done. I'd rather stick with what I have. But yes I can see a new one coming out IF the film is successful!
    Ta Muchly

  10. #10
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    First off, I'm feeling about the same over this as I would over a relative - who's been in a degenerative catatonic state for years - finally expiring. There's the regret, yes, but there's also the Thank GOD aspect to it, in that we can finally stop hanging around the hospital bed, speaking in respectful mutters, and begin the process of moving on.

    Second, Warren Holland and His Crew of Dunderheads deserve nothing but the Death of a Thousand Prods to the Navel after the IDIOCIES they pursued over the past (near) seven years. We have Don's solemn word that the RPG lines were, in fact, moderately profitable...but as he also related, "moderate" just didn't cut it for Warren and HCROD. Mr. Holland, do not give us any crap about how you carried this for years "at a loss" when there has been massive public exposure of the fact that you and your gang of idiots just didn't f***ing care about the RPGs from minute one. As far as I'm concerned, it's a relationship that would have been better never started to begin with; and you, Mr. Holland, and the rest of your "company" can jump off a high bridge as far as I'm concerned.

    Finally, Patrick, I want to echo the sentiments of all those others who have posted: You and Doug and Don are to be given every congratulations on preserving a core of dignity and honour when Decipher concluded that such quaint sentiments "were not in their best corporate interest."

    Students are knocking at the door, so have to go, but I will be on later to continue the thoughts. Till then, all our thanks again, Patrick.

  11. #11
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    Thanks for the news Patrick.

    And thank you, and everyone else, who have tried to keep it alive.

    Not the best of news. But at least, if they did not renewed the license, someone else can pick it up. The really bad news would had been "We renewed the license as it was bundled with the CCG, but we will not continue the line as it is not profitable."

    But if WotC picks it up, I will officially support a Class & Level system

    Quote Originally Posted by Cut View Post
    What does that mean in regards to the pdf books at drivethru? Will they remain available or are they gone as well?
    Without a license that allows them to distribute them, Decipher will have to take them down. But I guess they will remain there until the current license have expired

  12. #12
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    Thanks for giving us the official news of what we all suspected, that the Decipher line of Star Trek RPG products has ended. I don't use the word "dead" b/c as long as people play the game, the game is not dead even if new books are not coming out.

    Personally, I have enough Decipher & LUG books to last me many years of Star Trek RPG sessions. All the necessary support materials are there. Now it's up to fans like us to create adventures for everyone to play in. I'm sure that all those creative minds on this forum can come up w/ many interesting adventures & I'd like to request that those of you who have the time & interest to write RPG material focus on adventures. After all, it's adventures that make this an RPG & not just a collection of interesting reading material about the Star Trek universe.

    However, I was looking forward to the Klingon supplement.

    I really don't care if another publishing company never picks up the license. I have no interest in learning yet another rules system. I'm perfectly happy w/ the Coda system.

  13. #13
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    NO WAY!

    ::looks around, grins sheepishly::

    Okay. You caught me. Yeah, like I'm really suprised...

    I'd like to publicly thank Patrick for having the persistence to get something from Decipher I was never able to as Net Rep. A straight answer. Many kudos, my friend.
    Former Decipher RPG Net Rep

    "Doug, at the keyboard, his fingers bleeding" (with thanks to Moriarti)

    In D&D3E, Abyssal is not the language of evil vacuum cleaners.

  14. #14
    I wonder if anyone was actually paid for the Klingon supplement.
    Portfolio | Blog Currently Running: Call of Cthulhu, Star Trek GUMSHOE Currently Playing: DramaSystem, Swords & Wizardry

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King View Post
    I wonder if anyone was actually paid for the Klingon supplement.
    Depends on where it was in the development cycle. I received partial payments for the two LOTR books I helped write, and I'll never see the remainder of the payment since the books will never be published.

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