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Thread: Revised Release Schedule (or... I WANT MY NARRATOR'S SCREEN!)

  1. #1
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    Exclamation Revised Release Schedule (or... I WANT MY NARRATOR'S SCREEN!)

    New Release schedule for products posted on Decipher's website:

    Updated 9/12/02


    Narrator's Screen
    A four-panel, foldout screen collecting all the tables in the Player's Guide and Narrator's Guide, as well as photocopyable forms to record decisions when creating alien species, creatures, and settings – so players need not crack the bindings of the core books.
    Fall 2002

    Limited Edition Set
    A collected set of the core books, packaged in a sturdy flip case. The books will have different covers and stylistic treatments than on the individual releases.
    Late 2002

    Starfleet Operations Manual
    A 96-page softcover book outlining Starfleet operations for officers – a player-narrator combo book. Topics include Starfleet protocols during Red and Yellow Alert status, the Prime Directive, and other basic information.
    Late 2002

    Personal Log
    An expanded character sheet with a supplemental booklet for recording adventure notes.
    Late 2002

    Starships
    A hardcover book detailing starships from several species, some friendly, some not. Expect to see Romulan, Klingon, Cardassian, and Ferengi vessels, and possibly a Borg cube, plus some support ships.
    Late 2002

    Aliens
    At 192 pages, this hardcover offers the same basic encyclopedic treatment as Starships, but for thirty to fifty alien species, with longer entries for the most important species.
    Winter 2003

    Creatures
    A 96-page book expanding upon the "Creatures" chapter of the Narrator's Guide, with numerous pre-generated creatures for use during gameplay.
    Winter 2003

    Worlds
    Spring 2003

    The Mirror Universe
    Spring 2003

    OK, me again. Notice that they went from giving a month for the release, and have gone to naming a quarter. Hmmmm.

    First of all (and this is a non-judgemental query to the Decipher people who frequent the boards), what's up with the release schedule? I mean, WOTC is able to say that a product will be out at a certain point, and it's out. Why can't Decipher do the same? (Please... I'm not saying that there is incompetance on your part... there are probably great reasons why... but can you kindly let us know what the problems are, and if there is any thing being done to fix them?)

    Second, can we get a better idea as to the release of the Narrator's Screen? Not to be impatient, but I'm waiting for it to come out before I start running my game! (OK, so I'm impatient! ) Will it be a week, two weeks, a month.

    I'm not looking for exact dates here, just a realistic timeline... is that too much to ask?

    Sorry if I seem to be venting... I just really like this game, and I'm anxious to play, and I want my screen, dammit!

    Hugh
    Hugh Casey
    My Online Journal

    "Oh, bother," said the Borg, "We've assimilated Pooh."

  2. #2
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    I'll throw out some guesses as to the issues here.

    1. There may not be many RPG people at Decipher. Maybe there's lots of work for a small number of people. Editors and/or proofreaders seem to be scarce (not a dig, just an observation).

    2. WotC doesn't have to get approval from Paramount (or any other company) for their products. I imagine getting stuff signed off from Paramount takes a significant portion of time in the production process.

    Personally, I think Decipher should drop the quarterly dates too and just say, X product will be out in 2002, Y product will be out in 2003. That way they don't get grief for missing a deadline.

    (Though the little voice inside me is whispering that LUG had the same 'problems' with product release. Did the same gremlin follow the creators to Decipher?)

  3. #3
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    **sigh**

    More waiting...

    I just want the Operations Manual...

  4. #4
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    Late 2002
    They're so true about the late part.

    Da Guru
    Space: The Foodless Frontier...

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    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/startrekforthed20system/

  5. #5
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    I hope this isn't a bad omen about Decipher's ST RPG line of products.

    Oh well... just have to summon my long experience of a Blizzard Entertainment video games addict...
    "The main difference between Trekkies and Manchester United fans is that Trekkies never trashed a train carriage. So why are the Trekkies the social outcasts?"
    Terry Pratchett

  6. #6
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    Aliens
    At 192 pages, this hardcover offers the same basic encyclopedic treatment as Starships, but for thirty to fifty alien species, with longer entries for the most important species.
    Winter 2003

    Creatures
    A 96-page book expanding upon the "Creatures" chapter of the Narrator's Guide, with numerous pre-generated creatures for use during gameplay.
    Winter 2003

    Worlds
    Spring 2003

    The Mirror Universe
    Spring 2003
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Personally I'm hoping that's a typo. Does winter come before spring now???
    Anyone who still uses Frames for a website should be shot.
    Does your sig area really need to be bigger then your post?

  7. #7
    To be honest... Despite the fact that I want to treat myself for my Birthday...

    I am glad for the breathing room.

    It gives me a chance to buy Buffy, Farscape and LOTR without further dents into my bank balance... Those 3 core rules are going to do enough damage at £20 a pop as it is!
    DanG/Darth Gurden
    The Voice of Reason and Sith Lord

    “Putting the FUNK! back into Dysfunctional!”

    Coming soon. The USS Ganymede NCC-80107
    "Ad astrae per scientia" (To the stars through knowledge)

  8. #8
    i thought several people have left decipher to go else where so that probably didn't help any.


    Take a close look at farscape before you buy it, i was a little disappointed in it, especially after how good and original swashbucklers and spycraft was. It has a first 2 year episode guide that takes up about a third of the book.
    Garet

  9. #9
    Originally posted by Dan Gurden
    It gives me a chance to buy Buffy, Farscape and LOTR without further dents into my bank balance... Those 3 core rules are going to do enough damage at £20 a pop as it is!
    Just remember that the Farscape book isn't just the core book - its the ONLY book - I suspect that if farscape gets cancelled we might see more books (earn money of a property that has a declining lifespan) or no more books (Henson group decides to move on).
    If farscape get renewed then I have no ideas which way they'll go - Henson group hasn't commissioned more than one book (which may or may not reflect Henson knowledge of the possible cancellation - they might have decided that a wait and see approach would be best - No point releasing a set of books for a show that is about to go off air. Or they might not be interested in having to deal with the whole show/books continuity and a core book may be all they wanted to have, in which case we have a better chance of getting more books)

    Either way my interest in Star Trek RPG has probably gone on a hiatus for a long while - I wish I had waited for the limited edition instead of diving into the corebooks, but I had thought that the Ops Manual would be out around the same time and I couldn't see a desperate need for the Enterprise stuff. I'd have bought the Ops Manual pretty much anyway but I did have doubts as too whether or not I needed it or would have found it useful - information on the book was rather limited. With the delay my interest has lessened - there's nothing in the core books to give me any reasons to wait for the Ops Manual, no real sign that I couldn't just use the core and my own knowledge of ST to run/play games. I would like to see more information on the books - the only book that I am willing to buy based on limited information that decipher has given out is the Mirror Universe (and as decipher hadn't given out any information you can guess that it's the concept that I like rather than anything else) and there are one or two books that I'd probably not buy anyway - personal log mainly but maybe creatures too. Starships has potential but thats because Don (? I think so but there's too many informed people here with D for a first name so it could have been Doug) dropped a few hints about new ship rules/components (yeah I know he said something about Tellerites in the Ops Book but I don't know that race off hand to understand what makes them so great).

    So I'd like to see more information on the books (I know that they're still being written but at the moment the descriptions aren't much better than "Starships: Its got starships in it!" I'd like to know if there's going to be anything else other than a ton of stats and descriptions for starships - For example are we going to find out how races use their ships (in groups, singles) or will we go into ships for personal use or do all ships belong to governments. Would something like Vulcan ships and their use in starfleet fit into the starships books or into aliens - stats probably in the starships books but notes on why Vulcan has ships of its own design and starfleet has its own design style and you never see a vulcan ship with a starfleet registry might be better placed in the aliens book. (note this is an example - whether or not vulcan ships are in starfleet is something I have no clue on).

    Also I know that decipher can't say if the Enterprise information will be available - it's gonna hurt sales of the limited edition but what might work better is if we knew how much the other books are going to cover the Enterprise era - if the limited edition is going to be the only source for Ent info for a while then tell us but if all five (six if you count the movies seperately) eras will be covered in the new books then that would be useful to know (even if the stuff in the limited edition isn't available until a dedicated Ent source book).

    I can't promise that decipher will have me buying every book they make if they increase the descriptions and tell us more about what they want to do with the books and what they'd like to cover - I felt WotC would give me an idea of what was in each book and I felt confidant I would buy each book but they gave a flavour of the book, suggested more (and there was more) but it looked like a really weak set of books compared to the amount of stuff packed into the WEG books and was overpriced. Now decipher has managed to write two books that have made me feel confidant that they aren't going to write any books that waffle on about one thing which really could have been a short description and a stat box nor are they going to write a book that takes the most detailed and well know era and compress it into one book that barely provides any depth at all (the Rebellion Era Sourcebook from WotC left a really bad taste - much like a Next Gen/DS9/Voyager combined sourcebooks would do if they only dedicated a page to each season yet updated the stats for each character every season.) And I don't mind about slipping deadline - half my collection is rifts/Palladium stuff and they've been know to promised the same book for years but they have told us what they'd like the book to cover (even if they have gone in a different direction later but they would tell us about the change).

    To decipher : in short "sell" the book to us, tell us what you've got planned, what options you're looking at and where things are likely to happen. If you plan to regularly do "Yet another starship book" rather than "The big book of starships" or books by era or race or whatever then give us hints because at the moment you've got a huge license with plenty of ground to cover and I'm not even sure if your plans are map every inch of the star trek universe or use broad strokes to paint a general idea. In fact I wonder what interest you have in developing the license because you've failed to maintain mine.

  10. #10
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    Overall it appears Decipher is on the rocky road with roleplaying games.

    While they have succeeded over the years with the "Host A Murder" games and their ccgs, both Star Trek and LotR are running behind schedule and have very limited "footprints" in the market. I haven't seen ads for them games, I have heard little buzz on the 'Net other than this site, there are few copies in the stores (many stores I have visited didn't even know they had been released, which tells about communications to the retail level), and there are very few reviews at the usual places.

    In many ways Decipher is acting as if the games will sell themselves. This ain't necessarily so. I like Trek, but even I want to feel wanted by the company putting out the product. The Nobilis folk over at Hogshead Games worked to get my interest. The Ars Magica folks at Atlas even throw me a bone once in a while; though they, too, are way behind in the release dates, at least I know what the next supplement is going to be like and I constantly hear buzz about good points and bad points before it hits the stands.

    Decipher has to work harder. I don't mean it needs to crank out more books or even faster. Instead, what is needful is a more "outgoing nature" -- let folks know what is going to be in the supplements, generate interest on the 'Net (especially at review sites), and generally do more than merely plop the games on the market.

    I want to see them succeed, but they are making it very difficult.

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by Ramage
    In many ways Decipher is acting as if the games will sell themselves. This ain't necessarily so. I like Trek, but even I want to feel wanted by the company putting out the product.
    And there you have the core of the problem: We who play RPGs are seen by Decipher (the management types, not the RPG studio) as their red-headed stepchildren. They don't know much about us, and they don't care. We don't buy cards, so they're just coasting along acting like we don't exist. If they'd realize that all we want is the same sort of information that their card players want, on the same kind of basis (they'd never dream of treating their card players in the way they're treating the RPG audience), things would be a lot better and they wouldn't have quite so many pissed-off RPG players waiting for even a scrap of information.

    They've been in the gaming business for years and years; they can't use the "Well, this is all new to us" excuse and expect us to buy into it.
    Patrick Goodman -- Tilting at Windmills

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

    Beyond the Final Frontier: CODA Star Trek RPG Support

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by PGoodman13
    (they'd never dream of treating their card players in the way they're treating the RPG audience)
    Let me start by saying how wrong you are on this one.

    Sory when I was a CCG/RPG distributor/salesman, I used to laugh my ass off any time Decipher would give us a shipping date for a Star Warsx CCG or Star Trek CCG product.

    They are always late to ship, at least they have stopped giving dates and now just act vague about it.

    Trust me, this isn't an RPG vs CCG thing, this is a Decipher thing.

  13. #13
    Perrryyy Guest

    Thumbs down

    Frankly, after reading this thread, I'm not all that worried. When the books come out, I'll pick them up, whether that's tomorrow, next week or the 3rd Friday of the week of the 15th month of 2050.


    I also believe some of you were in the "I don't care if I get the NG on the 2nd Wednesday of the 6th week of the 13th month of 2010, as long as the product is good" camp when we were all chomping at the bit when the NG & PG were about to hit stores. (paraphrased, and intentionally facetious). My how times have changed.

    Decipher guys, take your time. Put out a good product. I'll still be here (uness I die from clogged arteries due to an OD of peanut butter).

  14. #14
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    Gotta agree 100% Aslan.

    I worked for a gaming retailer when ST and SW CCG first came onto the market, and let me tell you, Decipher was abomitable about their release schedule. Time does not seem to have healed all wounds.

    BTW, it seems that the LOTR card game has been running behind sched. too, based on comments from another retail manager friend of mine.

    <sigh>

    H.
    Hugh Casey
    My Online Journal

    "Oh, bother," said the Borg, "We've assimilated Pooh."

  15. #15
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    I'm with Perry on this. If you really want the books you'll wait for them. Waiting's never fun, but such is life. It's not like they're running years later on this.

    I'm comfortable to wait. The quality of the product released so far is worth it, IMHO.

    Chill out already.

    "You can't take a picture of this; it's already gone." -Nate Fisher, Six Feet Under.

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