What's old is new again...

[RIsaacs]

Dear Friends and Fans,

Here I am, back again from the ether to answer your Star Trek questions. The past several months have been exciting and gruelling, which has kept me from these boards.

My work on the Star Trek Player's Guide is completed, and I have moved on to finishing up my work on the Narrator's book. So I am now free to peruse and reply to this forum. I certainly appreciate your support, loyalty, and understanding.

The initial impulse in these kinds of situation is to inundate me with all kinds of questions about the new game system. I shall endeavor to answer those questions I can. All I ask for is that we keep questions to this thread, so that I can find them all in one place. I also ask for your understanding. There are some things I can't answer at this point, and some things that are just too complex to recount here without causing a stir. If I can't answer a question, I'll be sure to explain why. But I will strive to reply to all your posts.

On a personal note, it is nice to be back here. I didn't want to post because I needed to concentrate on the Coda System. But I'm back now, and I'm darned glad of it. I look forward to corresponding with you all again.

Q'apla!

[Don Mappin]

Magic Yoda says: “A big thread this will be.”

[Eric R.]

Three Huzzahs for the returning Admiral

Hip, hip,

Huzzarh!

Hip, hip,

Huzzarh!

Hip, hip,

Huzzarh!

If we had a Anthem I am sure it would be playing now, Welcome back Ross and prepare yourself, some of the lads have had that strange been at sea too long look in their eye for a long time.

[Greg Davis]

Well Ross, I'd like to be one of the first to welcome you back to Paradise!

I can't think of a lot of questions to ask about the new system, as I am, at this point, really just looking forward to getting my grubby paws on it, so I can take a look.

I'll admit that I'm a little leary of the whole "advancement" bit, as it seems a lot like the early epic-level rules presented in the Forgotten Realms 3rd Edition Campaign Supplement.

On this line of thinking, I'm curious to know if you'll be including stats for major NPC's of the various eras, and how they will stack up against player characters of comparable rank. I ask this because, in the last ICON-Trek game that I ran, I let a player make a Commanding Officer (Captain) character and, following the rules, he didn't seem like much of a Captain. Certainly, at the very least, not the sort of character that I'd want to command the ship I'd be serving on. I realize that converting screen characters to tabletop characters doesn't always work well, but I would hope for something that bridges the gap a little bit better.

So, I guess that I did have a question (of sorts) after all!

Thanks Ross, and, once again, welcome back!


Greg

[Caretaker]

Good to see you back here, Mr. Isaacs.

[Ineti]

Hi, Ross! Welcome back! Without further ado, a question.

The LUG core rules discouraged new PCs from having high ranks, such as captain. Does the new system follow that, or can PCs start at any rank?

[ImperialOne]

Welcome back to the boards, Ross!

Look forward to the upcoming release of the game... and the revelations that will precede it on this board

Charles

[qerlin]

Actually, my only question, Ross: Can you get me a cold beer?

[Highway Hoss]

Welcome back to the madhouse. I hope you enjoy yourself.

Now for a diumb question; is CODA just the system name or is it an acronym?

[C5]

Welcome, Creator !
Glad to have you among us.

No questions yet, but I'll find some eventually

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Hello Ross, and welcome back! I've got a couple easy ones:

Could you throw us some examples of what qualifies as an "advancement?"

Any material on provisioning starships for long journeys, or is this simply subsumed into the general design process? I was one of those folks eagerly awaiting LUG's "To Boldly Go..."

Also is there any chance there are (or will be in the near future) rules for primitive firearms. You know, for when you're fighting Gorn, or on Sigma Iotia getting a piece of the action?

Thanks for your time and attention.

- Daniel

[Dan Gurden]

OK, heres my question.

Does the conversion from ICON to CODA that was once spoken of still apply, and in your opinion how easy will it be to transfer characters and various rules and ships into CODA from ICON?

I have written a lot of home-brewed stuff, and have quite a significant on-going game and so a prime requirement would be compatibility between ICON and CODA, especially for established characters as I dont want to force a new campaign or characters on the players.

I can understand the need to be vague in reference to the rules, but your opinions of the compatibility would be appreciated.

[Kronok]

I would also be interested in conversion rules.

[Eric R.]

As this tends to be apart of planning as always feel free to answer all, none or some of the following.

What was the decision as to Enterprise's status within the game? meaning was it a combination of both the designers and Paramounts preference to leave that material alone for now or did one suggest to the other not to do it right now. (I can see Paramount pushing you all to include Enterprise material more than the other way around, as it makes perfect game sense to alow the new show to build up a background to use first). Did this effect the History portion of the core rule books as far as giving the detailed info which is the norm (both FASA and LUG did this, i.e. as you did in Price of Freedom) concerning the founding of the Federation. Instead did you devote more time to the shows actual time periods in these sections giving more detail to say the TOS era which has recieved very little save for the show itself.

And do you think you got lucky with leaving the Andorians out of the first books as player characters considering that they will be more fully explored in Enterprise, thus allowing you to build with more 'official' information.

Thanks for your time

[CodaTrek]

Hello Ross.
I trust that this post finds you well. It appears as if there will be a new approach with characters from the start. Rather than emphasizing (and assuming) that players will be Starfleet personnel, a broader range of character "classes" or "professions" seem to be treated almost, if not as equal as Starfleet from the get go. Is this in fact the case? To me, the Star Trek universe as a whole seems so rich with possibilities beyond Starfleet. Thank you.