What do you hope to see in the new RPG from Modiphius?

[Owen E Oulton]

The big problem with CODA is that Decipher regarded it merely as a tool to sell more card games, rather than as a stand-alone prodeuct. Regarding it being a D20 clone, I am firmly convinced that when WotC bought LUG it had meant to ditch the ICON system and go to a D20 version of Trek. Since the writers of the CODA system were almost all ex-LUG employees, I suspect that they had already begun work on a D20-Trek and simply changed it to a D6-based system and continued in that direction. Only one of the senior staffers at CODA would be able to debunk this theory, as the CODA fans all have a knee-jerk reaction that "It's not a D20 clone!" I've signed up for the 2D20 Modiphius playtest as a GM and have great hopes as they have stated that it is NOT class'n'level, unlike CODA, which most definitely was.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

You could, you know, just email Hite and ask whether any of that is true.

[Chris Donovan]

Thank you for the reply, Chris. With regard to your commentary on the actual Coda system: Yes, it certainly did and does have its adherents, and the thing wouldn't have as sold as well as it did if it didn't have at least some degree of robustness in the game engine. My difficulties with Coda - and yes, I should have indicated that this is far more a personal reaction/opinion rather than a generally-held consensus - lie with its d20-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off origins, and the seeming belief that a "class'n'level" system would duplicate (as much as possible, anyway) the world of Star Trek just as well as a "stat'n'skill" (to use Owen's very apt phraseology) outlay. I recall one of LUG's original owners/designers stating on this site, back in '00-'01 or thereabouts, that the d20 system was now the "lingua franca" of the RPGing world, and that we'd better get fricking used to it.

Our group gave DecipherTrek a three-game runthrough; at the end, we concluded, en masse, that, "It just doesn't feel like Star Trek." Rather, it felt as though we - and Decipher - had attempted to fit a round, warp drive peg in to a square, team-of-horses hole. Not that there's anything necessarily bad about teams of horses as a game engine; just that they don't hold any interest for me - and our game group - in terms of powering starships and charging phasers/disruptors/whatall. I can't, unfortunately, make any statement with regard to how well or badly Coda might have turned out with LotR, as a comparison point; I and we had zero interest in pursuing that angle of Decipher's corporate strategy, and it remains a big - and not terribly interesting, for me - question mark.

I will apologize not at all for the past, current and future crapslinging that I - and others, to be sure - have given to Decipher as a company, in terms of how it handled Star Trek as a licensed corporate property. The events of '02-'07 will stand as a cautionary tale to current and upcoming RPG companies, with regard to wasted talent, squandered potential and utterly bulls***-headed profit-driven corporate idiocy.

Nevertheless, I should have made it clear that the above criticism of DecipherTrek is a purely personal/group one. That aside, I am still charged up with regard to Modiphius' take on matters, and hope that we can get something that captures the best of Icon's character-building system and Coda's starship combat.

I don't think you have anything to apologize for actually. While the core mechanic isn't D20, the Professional Abilities Tiers certainly feel like D20. We wound up dropping those and just playing the core mechanic, which is very robust and pretty simple. I especially like the "floating" difficulty mechanic which is a lot less clumsy than adding/subtracting modifiers all the time.

Despite that though, I think I'll always be a FASA man where Trek is concerned. It's what I cut my teeth on and it always seems to be what I default to when the Trek bug bites.

[Owen E Oulton]

I've signed up as a GM for the playtest and my gaming group is on board with trying it out as a substitute for our next few monthly sessions. I've chosen the USS Venture option to run.

[D.S.McBride]

Owen, wonderful to see you on here again. Hoping things over on your side are very well, and that your personal RPG sessions continue on very successfully.

Just wondering: Are you still, by chance, in contact with any of the pre-Decipher implosion crew? It'd be great if some/any of those people were able to make it back in and see if this site could be a contributing element to Modiphius' success with their current project.

[Chris Donovan]

Unfortunately, what I was hoping the most for is now a no-go.

I wonder what he meant by "lay of the land". He seemed to like the people, so it can't be that.