Need Some Info!

[Eustravath]

My gaming group is very shortly coming to the end of our Shadowrun game (we play every damn thing) and will be moving into a Star Trek Next.Gen/DS9 game. We have a few setbacks. Procrastinators that we are, only a few of us have the sourcebooks and supplients required to play efficiently in a group of 10 players and 1 GM. Total count is 3 NextGen rule books, 2 DS9 rule books, 1 Original Series rule book, a Federation guide, a Vulcan guide, a Romulan box adventure, 1 Players Guide and, 1 book that's full of bloody starships whos tittle I can't recall. All of this from Last Unicorn. There are rumors of "I might have some of the old stuff in a closet somewhere" flying around, but most of us have little trust in the relyablility of these rumors, mostly because the individual in question has a pentient for coming back with water damamged books that have past long into uselessness.

So, now you've got the back story, here's the information I need: What the hell is Decipher doing, and is it anything at all like/compatable with/convertable to, the Last Unicorn publications?

Any help here would be fantastic.

PS: Anyone says "Welcome to last week" and I'll hunt you down. I'm not sure how freindly this forum is, but I've dealt with some nasty ones, and I'm hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.

[Sarge]

Don't worry, you just found the friendliest board on the net. If anybody welcomes you to last week, it's only in jest.

As for ICON and CODA, the systems are different, but it's easy to convert from one to the other, and this is the place to ask for advice with any difficulties you have.

The best piece of news is this: all the background material in ICON is still valid for CODA. Same history, same personalities, same atmosphere, same technology. Almost everyone here who runs CODA Trek still refers to their old ICON books for ideas, characters, and background.

[calguard66]

Would it muddy the watters too much if someone suggested using the GURPS: PRime Directive rules instead, if you're familiar with GURPS?

GURPS:PD is well written, and would avoid having to learn a new system. I also find GURPS very flexible, whereas (IMHO) ICON and CODA are better suited to creating characters that one would "expect" in the game, as opposed to unique concepts.

On the other hand, CODA is very well done, and if you need to learn a new system anyway you may as well go with CODA... it will also keep you from having to convert future CODA products to GURPS, tho I understand that they are coming out with GURPS:PD supplements as well.

[Eustravath]

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

[Dan Gurden]

If you have a tonne of paper... Go the the main site and download and print;

SpaceDock Ship construction Rules and
Ship Recognition Manuals 1-4.

This will give you an advanced starship construction and combat system, thats far superior to the old ICON stuff. And all the TNG era starships (= one or two more) for Starfleet, the Cardassian Union, the Kligon Empire, and about the same for TOS era too in SRM 4.

And the rumours are true, SRM 5 The Romulan EMpire is on its way... Oneday soon.

You can also download 'Fires of Armageddon' the Dominion war sourcebook.

All of the above is in ICON and 100% compatible with what you have already. Oh Yes. And its all free too... Not only that, the Author Steve Long was one of the writers of the RPG, and so this is also about as official as you can make it.

There are all in PDF format at http://www.trek-rpg.net/
and are located in the 'Computer Core' under Netbooks.

There are also a few fan based sourcebooks. Evan has written up an Enterprise and Voyager sourcebook, expanding the usefulness of the books to a new era and new quadrant... and there is a fan based Cardassian sourcebook. These too are also free and can be found at;

Cardassian Sourcebook;
http://forum.trek-rpg.net./showthrea...&threadid=3032

Enterprise and Voyager Sourcebooks;
http://www.farrealms.de/

If you can track it dowm, Mactavish also wrote an excellent Artificial Intelligence sourcebook thats out there somewhere... If anyone has an online link, put it here.

Trust me. All this, several reams of paper and at least 5 large lever arch folders will really expand what you have.

And to answer your question. CODA (the Decipher rules) is also written by the LUG team that wrote ICON, while not immediatly compatible, there were notes for conversion in the CODA systems and mechanics forum, which converted from ICON into CODA.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Welcome Eustravath

Well as someone else has already mentioned, GURPS: PD is a wellmade game. However, the drawbck is, it isn't really true to Trek canon, and is based pretty much on the 'fictional' Trek universe of Starfleet Battles, which bears only a passing resemeblence to the 'real' Trek universe.
So, the problem is, any supplements they bring out won't match up well with information from any series beyond TOS. Thus you will see none of the TNG and beyond era ships, technology, races, etc etc etc.

So I would recommend the Decipher CODA system, which is both a solid system, and will match as close as possible to onscreen information

Of course, if you're not bothered about Trek canon, as some people here aren't, then that may not be an issue for you.

[Eustravath]

Wow!

I'm suppremely glad I stumbled onto this forum, all of you guys have been very helpful.

Much appreciated!

[Karg]

Welcome aboard, as someone with little time on thier hands, i find this site a tremendos resource

Karg


PS Welcome to last week