Pros and Cons of Starfleet Operations Manual

[Space_Cadet]

I was wondering for those lucky ones that have the Starfleet Operations Manual... what are the pros and cons of the supplement? Cause i'm still debating on whether it is worth getting.

[Lowly Uhlan]

The cons:no personal development packages,Tom Paris on the cover,no attack fighters for the Akira,the first page of the character jacket still doesn't have enough spaces for skills. The pros:everything else about the book is great.Loved the "About your tricorder" section,starbase descriptions,advancement packages,new prof. development,the ships,new species(like the Regulans),really cool equipment section,new combat rules.great layout and the price is right.If you play the game you need this book.

[qerlin]

Pro: new abilities and some new skills (operate vehicles! about time!). Combat movements are a nice start & the fans should be able to build on the ideas easily. New races -- a nice set of choices, I think. The CGI'd Tiburon(ese?) was cool. Noticed the cat-guys have stayed with the S John Ross 'Regulan' name. The ships are useful, though a few of the stats seem off from the descriptions.

Cons: The first chapter was pretty lackluster, IMO. The ship stats may be wildly off from the Starships version (guessing). The descriptions don't find the stats in some places. Could have been a bit more in it. Character sheets: better the the original, but still a bit cramped lookng.

For 96-pages, I'd say 80 or so pages is crammed with brimming RPG goodness.

[Dan Stack]

How much use is it for a pre-Federation game?

[qerlin]

Mmm...not much, IMO.

[Hugh Casey]

Originally posted by qerlin
The CGI'd Tiburon(ese?) was cool.

This was actually a character who was on a episode of DS9. He was a BG character who was a member of a landing party, and they blew up his pic (A LOT!) to get this pic. So it isn't CGI... it's just a crappy photo!

Hugh

[E W Dawson]

Despite this books title, I feel it has great applicability to non-Starfleet and even pre-Federation games. One chapter lists expanded uses for existing skills as well as expand the combat skill groups with specific traits. Additionally, another chapter lists many new professional abilities for Starship officers which may be used for non-Starfleet starhip officer characters. These chapters make up much of this books rules-related material.

My pros: hardcover, full color, and relativiley inexpensive (I am used to buy expensive WotC Star Wars supplements) rank at the top of my list. I also like how the layout is very similar to the core books. And most importantly, almost everything I have found in this book was immediately applicable to my series.

My cons: some of the species photos in the species chapter are of poor quality (example, Regulans). Some of the starship write-ups, as mentioned in another thread, are of questionable quality. For example, the Saber-class is described as being agile, however, it has a helm modifier of -1. Also, I would be nice to have some better picture of these ships; it is difficult to make out just what some of the ships exactly look like despite the four different views they give us.

At any rate, hopefully Don will post his review of the product.

[Mac417]

Lotsa nice crunchy bits in this book. Mac like.

Aside from the damage rating on the isomagnetic disintegrator being listed as "see table" and having no table.

--Mac

[darkwing duck1]

I have to be honest. I saw it at my local game store, checked it out, and put it back on the shelf. While the material within was very well presented, and the overall package was very attractive is the presentation sense, I could not justify spending $20 for 80-odd pages in hardback of this material.

It would have better been split up and included with the Players and Narrators Guides. Nothing about it warranted a seperate book, let alone such an expensive hardback.

Apologies to the writers/developers who might read this. I liked it a lot , but I just didn't find it a good value.

[Jesse Heinig]

All of our upcoming books are slated as hardcovers, a policy that I've been led to understand that Wizards of the Coast is implementing now as well.

J.H.

Originally posted by darkwing duck1
I have to be honest. I saw it at my local game store, checked it out, and put it back on the shelf. While the material within was very well presented, and the overall package was very attractive is the presentation sense, I could not justify spending $20 for 80-odd pages in hardback of this material.

It would have better been split up and included with the Players and Narrators Guides. Nothing about it warranted a seperate book, let alone such an expensive hardback.

Apologies to the writers/developers who might read this. I liked it a lot , but I just didn't find it a good value.

[Sea Tyger]

I originally wrote this on the SOM ship's thread in the Utopia Planitia forum, so I figured I'd repeat the general assessments here:

1. Overall, I like the layout of the book. Even though it is rather thin, I definitely prefer the hardcover look.

2. Chapter 1 was well written, and has some good general info on Starfleet and its procedures. My mind kept screaming at me that it needed a listing of General Orders, et al, but since that was covered in the PG, it wasn't necessary.

My biggest problem with this section was the almost haphazard organization of the uniforms graphics. For one, I completely disagree with Decipher's decision to not include the STTMP uniforms. Second, they completely skipped the 2320-2350 uniforms. Third, wtf is up with the mustard, TOS-style 2275-2351 duty uniform? If they were going to do this poor of a job with the uniforms, they should have left the section entirely out of the book.

3. Chapter 2 looks great. The only thing missing, IMO, is even more armed and unarmed combat styles. The Brawling style is absolutely outstanding. Chapter 3 is exemplary, as well, especially the fleet/flagship advancement packages.

4. The species chapter was also well-done. The Deltans were quite reasonable, and the Tellerites and Tiburonese were simply outstanding. As for the Regulans, it was well done and even left enough wiggle room for me to use my Caitians as a Preserver-seeded offshoot. I love it!

5. Equipment write ups were fine. The tricorder spread was excellent.

6. In the Starships section, I was pleased to see the expansion of the promotion edge to include flag ranks. Very nice explanation of the fleet captain and commodore ranks...it certainly fits the genre and on-screen evidence.

My assessment of the ships can be found here.

I am quite happy with the Starfleet Ops Manual, even with my problems with the uniforms and starships sections.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Jesse Heinig
All of our upcoming books are slated as hardcovers, a policy that I've been led to understand that Wizards of the Coast is implementing now as well.
J.H.

I applaud that decision. I prefer hardcovers over paperbacks. The FOTR Sourcebook is very nice. I'll be getting the SOM this weekend.

[Chris Landmark]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
4. The species chapter was also well-done. The Deltans were quite reasonable, and the Tellerites and Tiburonese were simply outstanding. As for the Regulans, it was well done and even left enough wiggle room for me to use my Caitians as a Preserver-seeded offshoot. I love it!

Heh. In my Starfleet Academy game, I've got a player who decided to go with a Caitian (using your species template; thanks, by the way). So I showed him the Regulans and his immediate response was "Oh good, they got the hearing right." So the Caitian template got altered; goodbye Natural Weapons, hello Wide-Spectrum Hearing.

6. In the Starships section, I was pleased to see the expansion of the promotion edge to include flag ranks. Very nice explanation of the fleet captain and commodore ranks...it certainly fits the genre and on-screen evidence.

It also kind of fits the way commodores worked in the Royal Navy durring the Napoleonic Era. Commodores came in two flavors: the Commodore who was simply a Captain with command over a squadron of vessels in addition to his own ship, and the "Commodore with a Captain under him" who, while still being a Captain, didn't have personal command over a ship (but he did get to hoist a broad pennant, like an Admiral). I've always felt that's what the whole Commodore/Fleet Captain thing should have been handled as.

Anyway, I'd like to say that the SOM has been good to me so far. A job well done to Decipher, and I'm off to order the Starships book!

-Chris Landmark

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Chris Landmark
...So the Caitian template got altered; goodbye Natural Weapons, hello Wide-Spectrum Hearing.

Well, Caitians are an offshoot race, after all. You're welcome, btw.

It also kind of fits the way commodores worked in the Royal Navy durring the Napoleonic Era....

Actually, prior to the Civil War, the U.S. Navy had zero flag officers. The leaders of our Atlantic and Pacific squadrons were called Commodores (they had their own commands, I believe). John Drake Sloat, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Squadron in 1846, was the man who led the "bloodless" invasion of Monterey, then California's capital.

The U.S. Navy has occasionally used Commodore as an official rank (usually during wartime), until it was abolished in the 80s and replaced with Rear Admiral (lower half). Today, "commodore" represents an officer of the rank of captain who heads a Navy squadron (modern squadrons being ships grouped by region and type...like Destroyer Squadron 24...but they don't operate together all of the time, like ships did in the 19th Century.

[Lt. Dade]

The broad array of topics, the blend of smooth flavor and tasty crunch, the clever and cautious handling of both on-screen and new material; I love my SOM. It's, frankly, an ideal player's book. Sure, I prefer my home-grown Akira stats or whatever, but I can't rightly complain about the material that's in that book.

Also, really, a 96-page full-color hardcover book at $19.95 is a bargain. I wish books could be cheaper, boys and girls, I really do, but there are just not enough role-players buying books in America to make cheaper books possible. Game companies would go out of business (and, in fact, have).

I picked up the SOM and the Fellowship sourcebook and couldn't pick one. I got them both, blowing two purchases' worth of gaming budget at once. I'm not sorry.

word,
Will