Upcoming stuff from me

[PGoodman13]

I don't know what, if anything, will ever be heard from Decipher again, but I've started trying to communicate with them once again. Don't hold your breath for anything, though.

In the meantime, I'm fixing to put a couple of FAQs for the PG out to some of my volunteers for vetting before I put up the PG Errata 2.1. I plan on putting together a rough PDF and should have it up, God willing, before the new year. I plan on having someone with some actual layout skills put together a really spiffy, professional looking booklet.

I'm going to try and get permission to unofficially release the Enterprise update for the PG, but I might not get the green light for that. I'll keep you informed one way or the other.

I've started working on the NG errata 2.0. I think this will be much smoother sailing since there was so much less wrong, type-setting wise at least, with the NG. Look for this towards the end of January, barring too much in the way of unforeseen catastrophe.

And finally, something I won't be able to get the green light for on an official basis because of a plethora of licensing snags, but it's something that's turned out to be nearer and dearer to my heart than I at first had imagined. I recently bought myself a copy of TAS on DVD, and having watched it all and read or listened to most of the commentaries, I've decided that I'm going to write my own Animated Series sourcebook for free distribution. Not sure what all will be in there just yet, but a write-up of the Edoans is a no-brainer, and some of the NPC-type races and characters will be there as well. Major NPCs that wouldn't appear elsewhere (M'Ress, Arex, Commodore Robert April, and a couple of others) will be written up, too. Don't hold your breath on this one; it's going to happen, but it's going to take me a little bit of time to do it.

In the meantime, I'm going to start on errata for Starship Operations Manual sometime in February, as I get the chance to juggle it into my schedule.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

You must do young Spock and I-chaya

[Cut]

Would Decipher actually answering you this time count as some sort of christmas miracle?!

Thanks for doing it, Patrick.

[PGoodman13]

You must do young Spock and I-chaya

Well, I'm going to be re-statting the main characters (all of them) for the NG errata. I don't see why it would be a problem to do the young Spock and the brave sehlat in question for the TAS book while I'm at it. (I'm going to have to solicit advice from fans for most of the 24th century characters, since I'm largely ignorant of that era.)

Thanks for chiming in with a request; it's that kind of thing that keeps me going.

[PGoodman13]

Would Decipher actually answering you this time count as some sort of christmas miracle?!

I'd count it as a miracle, Christmas or otherwise.

Thanks for doing it, Patrick.

You're more than welcome.

[D.S.McBride]

Once more, we've been given more news of action from you, Patrick, than Decipher managed in a fiscal year - and this, back during the period when they were actually claiming to be doing something vaguely resembling work.

Mention of TAS has twigged a couple of heartstrings; I was eight when that series premiered, and was absolutely wild to see new Trek coming on the screen, my mother having informed me that the series had ceased production four years prior. I still remember seeing "Yesteryear", and just falling in love with the portrayal of Vulcan, the background artwork - and all the voices (Jane Wyatt a notable exception) in place.

I have now officially discounted the realistic possiblity of anything further being released from Decipher, via Drive-Thru's auspices or otherwise; it's purely fan-based work from this point forward, and you, Patrick, are The Man for having taken on this mantle. I look forward with great delight to the release - whenever it's ready - of the TAS Sourcebook, and any other related works that the fan community can pull together to assemble and distribute. This, as far as I'm concerned, is our Christmas miracle: We've made it through another year, and determined that we are the best place to see the future of Star Trek role-playing realized. No place it should otherwise be, in my opinion.

And to all out there: Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

[PGoodman13]

Once more, we've been given more news of action from you, Patrick, than Decipher managed in a fiscal year - and this, back during the period when they were actually claiming to be doing something vaguely resembling work.

I always said that I'd keep you guys informed if I ever happened to hear anything. When silence reigned too long, I decided to do something myself. It didn't come without a lot of soul-searching, though. The bottom line is that I love Trek and I really dig the CODA system, and until I get a cease-and-desist order I'm going to keep supporting it.

It's only worth it to me, though, if other people get something out of it. It's time away from my wife and my daughter that I can't give them back. Tiffany understands because she's creative, too, and knows that being creative can be a solitary pursuit. Brontë's only a year old, so she doesn't quite understand it yet.

Daddy, on the other hand, suffers a bit. So to know that people out there really do appreciate the errata documents and the notion of some original material from me really does help me to know that people are getting something out of the work I'm doing. This is one of the reasons behind my question the other day.

Mention of TAS has twigged a couple of heartstrings; I was eight when that series premiered, and was absolutely wild to see new Trek coming on the screen, my mother having informed me that the series had ceased production four years prior. I still remember seeing "Yesteryear", and just falling in love with the portrayal of Vulcan, the background artwork - and all the voices (Jane Wyatt a notable exception) in place.

Let's see...in '73, I was seven. I caught every episode of TAS, and then didn't see it again for 32 years, when I bought the DVD set. I'm amazed at how well it's actually held up. The animation makes Speed Racer look positively elegant, but the writing is amazingly solid, for the most part. Some of the things they got away with, in a Saturday morning kiddie show, I find simply astounding now that I'm viewing them again for the first time since my childhood. Yes, there are some clunkers in there -- "The Magicks of Megas-Tu", for instance -- but episodes like "Yesteryear" and "The Jihad" are primo Trek by just about anybody's definition, I think.

I have now officially discounted the realistic possiblity of anything further being released from Decipher, via Drive-Thru's auspices or otherwise; it's purely fan-based work from this point forward, and you, Patrick, are The Man for having taken on this mantle.

You are, as usual, David, too kind. I find your confidence in me uplifting, but daunting as well.

I look forward with great delight to the release - whenever it's ready - of the TAS Sourcebook, and any other related works that the fan community can pull together to assemble and distribute.

Well, to be fair, I doubt any work will really begin on the TAS book until at least March. I want to get the Narrator's Guide errata finished, make sure that everything matches the PG errata, and make sure that the Narrator's Screen errata matches both. That exercise should take me through January. After that, I think I'm going to try and get Starfleet Operations Manual errata put together, which means working on ships, which means February is pretty much eaten up because that takes some time (and I might enlist some of the more knowledgeable shipwrights here for some help on those anyway).

Of course, if in the meantime I'm struck by a wayward follicle, I reserve the right to rearrange my schedule.

I hope everyone's Christmas or Hannukah (or whatever holiday you happen to celebrate this time of year) was a good one, and I wish you all the best for the coming year.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Sometimes the saturday-morning-cartoon-show-ness of it makes me cringe. A cloned Spock? Sure. But... why is he huge?

[Cut]

Never really seen TAS. Should get a friend of mine to lend me his DVD set. Now would be a good time anyway, as I have contracted a cold that my nephews brought over to my house for christmas

[PGoodman13]

Okay, the updated Player's Guide Errata is up; just follow the link for the latest and greatest.

Onward, now, to the Narrator's Guide Errata....

[PGoodman13]

Okay, update time. Narrator's Guide errata 2.0 is coming along (along with the Narrator's Screen errata, since they use the same charts and stuff), but slower than I thought it might. My current problems with my web hosting provider and some unexpected medical visits (nothing serious, we don't think, but we're still waiting on some test results) have taken a bite out of my time. It might still be done by the end of the month, but I'm thinking that about the second week of February seems more likely at this stage.

I've started fiddling with the beginnings of the TAS sourcebook, and I've already lined up an artist for part of it (TFVanguard has graciously agreed to let me use his schematics for the starship section of the booklet). Looks like March still before I get a chance to do anything serious with this one.

No word from Decipher, but that's not a surprise anymore.

More news as it occurs to me.

[PGoodman13]

I really need to quit setting deadlines for myself. Real life comes and swats at them way too much....

Narrator's Guide Errata is underway, but it's slower going than I'd anticipated thanks to that aforementioned life. It's also taking a little longer to compare PG and NG errata and make sure that things match than I had at first thought it would take. I've also discovered that one way to make sure that you get a comprehensive errata document for Book A (in this case, Player's Guide) is to start working on the errata for the companion Book B (in this case, Narrator's Guide). In so doing, I've found a lot of things that I missed when working on the doc for Book A, so there's going to be a version 2.2 of the PG errata out sometime in the not-too-distant future.

I think I'm going to take a cue from the Decipher forums (from which company I have, of course, heard nothing), and start a single thread listing all the errata documents so that the forum doesn't get cluttered up with sticky threads.

I'm looking for advice on video capture cards, by the way, for when I start the actual work on the TAS book.

That's all for the nonce. Wish I had some actual news, but what can I say?

[Mac417]

Patrick, are you needing a capture card to grab DVD screencaps? 'Cause there's ways to do that without one assuming you have DVD playback capability on your computer.

[PGoodman13]

Yeah, I've got DVD playback capability on the PC, and I'm aiming for screencaps to illustrate portions of the book. Help!

[Mac417]

Yeah, I've got DVD playback capability on the PC, and I'm aiming for screencaps to illustrate portions of the book. Help!

Real easy.

1) Play your DVD and pause it to the spot you want to take a screencap from.
2) Hit the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard. You've just copied (as in "...and paste") every pixel of images currently on your screen.
3) Open up an art program (MS-Paint will do) and hit Ctrl-V or click Paste in the Edit menu. Your image will be pasted into the open document. (You may be prompted after the command to let the program resize the document; go ahead and allow that.)
4) Crop and resize at will then save it under any filename and format you wish.