Pro-CODA Propaganda

[AllenS]

This is directed at those people who like the Coda system over the Icon system. I am not trying to start an argument here. I need some good points about the system to resolve a debate. I know there are people who like Icon better and that's fine; Icon is a decent system. But I prefer Coda and I need some help explaining why to a recalcitrant player. So...

..What do you feel are features of the Coda system that give it an advantage over the Icon system?

I'm having trouble putting this into words, so I thought I would ask for help.

Allen

[C5]

I'm quite tired right now, so I'll be short.

- Better "success curve". A very skilled character can do extremely difficult tasks withouth having to rely on the drama die.

- Better starship combat. In every aspect (I'm comparing with ICON here, not Spacedock).

- Better handling of specialities. The way it's done in CODA removes the "what if I get the same skill twice" problem of ICON.

Those are the ones that come to mind right now, I may have some more to provide later, but right now I need sleep

[Don Mappin]

Damn! C5 stole my list! Those were exactly the points I was going to highlight!

[qerlin]

Faster, easier character creation IMO.

Starship combat is much better than ICON and character oriented (ie. better for roleplaying) than Spacedock.

[E W Dawson]

-Its similarity to d20-

I say this with some caution because it was/is a hot topic. But to me, this is the systems strongest point. My gaming group for the longest time was a one system only group. This has not been that big of an issue because there are so many games that use the d20 system. However, when the LotR game came out my group wanted to play but was wary about the games system. With virtually no problem my group picked up the new rules (including the character creation rules for the most part). Ironically, even with the systems many similarities to d20, Coda really has its own unique feel above and beyond the feel the setting alone provides.

[buck rogers]

I must agree with with my peers completely here. Coda not only has the BEST starship combat system ever produced for a sci-fi roleplaying game. But I find the LotR rpg is also outstanding, in every way. The creators of of the Coda system quite simply out did themselves. To put it another way I would consider the quality of Deciphers LotR when compared to WOTC D&D 3rd edition the same as comparing the movies (of the same names). Meaning "Lord of the Rings" is so much better (in every way) than "D&D". Please don't get me wrong I like and really enjoy D&D d20 and Star Wars d20 rpgs, Its just that I think the Coda system is just that much better!

[Space_Cadet]

I agree with the other poster.. character creation is a whole lot easier in Coda, especially compared with d20... I still haven't made a character in star wars d20.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

When I went back to D20 a few weeks ago to work on a fantasy setting I had totally forgotten how to create a character. That is not the worst part. It took me two hours to relearn it. I like Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition and will always play it but compared to CODA the Character creation is much more difficult.

[iltharanos]

I'll try not to repeat what others have posted, but ...

Starships, starships, starships.

The CODA system (especially with the new Starships book) allows you to create ships of the exact same class from the exact same species/organization and have them be completely different. The whole concept of edges, flaws and experience for individual ships seems to capture the feel of the Star Trek starships ... it gives them personality. In the ICON system, one galaxy-class starship was pretty much the same as the next.

All of this, of course, is just one facet of the CODA system's user friendliness. Characters are easy to make, and you even get guidelines for building your own species, ships, life-forms, planets, star systems, and governments (all in one book!). With the ICON system, the only guidance you got was with characters. If you wanted to make a new ship or a new alien life form or a new interstellar power ... you were pretty much on your own.

[T'lara]

Here is another feature the different Professions have a better division and the Elite Professions. Adding in the Tiers you can make a more personalized character than you could have in the the LUG system. As everyone said it is easier CC.

[Greg Smith]

The professional abilities and advanced careers give the players lots of different and interesting options for advancement.

In Icon you just spend your points on incresing skills and occasionally stats. In Coda there are plenty of different options for advancing your character.

[AllenS]

Thanks for the views. Unfortunatley, the person who I wanted to present this argument too has left the gaming group. But feel free to discuss the merits of Coda further

Allen

[tmccollum]

I like that Coda creaters realized that this game was about fun and not re-creating every detail the shows. Epic storytelling has the same basic components no matter what the time or place of the setting. Decipher gave us two books with enough meat to get the players going in many directions. There have been some complaints that the books were to generic, but I think that is mainly from people who rely to much on source books and not enough on their own ability as fans of the shows to "fill in the blanks" and make a fun game.

The only drawback I have is convincing people that Star Trek is a good setting for roleplaying and deciding which direction to go with the players.

Hmm... StarFleet exploration or Romulan Conquest. Or maybe Romulan exploration and StarFleet Conquest! all options are possible with this game!

[qerlin]

Originally posted by tmccollum
The only drawback I have is convincing people that Star Trek is a good setting for roleplaying and deciding which direction to go with the players.

True. I have that problem, and I was originally one of those people who was pretty certain Trek was a white elephant, gaming-wise (great idea, bad in execution.) Originally, the only reason I wanted to try Trek as an RPG was the ICON system, which I really liked. CODA's even slicker & I've been seriously considering doing up conversions from the d20 B5 game coming down the pike; it seems to be a universe people are more comfortable about the idea of RPG'ing in than Trek.

[Polanski]

Well let me be the bad guy and say that its similarity to d20 is CODA's downfall/shortcoming.

In all honestly I have all CODA books, I am happy with the value for money and the resources they offer but myself and my group find a considerable part of ruls unplayable without some considerable modification(at least in Star Trek case).

I realise that saying the above will not earn my any 'brown points' but that is the truth.

CODA is good, actually its quite good, just not for Star Trek. Star Trek has always been about role playing for me, while CODA takes too much of roll playing approch to it.

One does not have to look far to notice the shortcomings, for example stats for Lt.Commander Worf in Narrator's Guide place him as a security officer while he is clearly a command officer (I am sure someone has covered it in the past).
Have you ever tried to actually advance him to a supposed level he is at that time? I did and the number of advancements he would need to do so is simply not fair.

Advancements are like levels and for that I cannot forgive. ICON was much more flexiable when it came to the process of advancement itself and most of all there was no artificial number that said 'how good you are' advancements or level in d20 are exacly that.

If I want to pickup some levels in gardening I have to spend so many advancement points it is scary (and you would think that gardening is somewhat easy). Same goes for cooking and other basic skills, and when it comes to a skill based system GURPS rules supreme... a skill of 1 in temporal physics is not and should never be equal to skill of 1 in cooking. In CODA ... it does.

But as I have said ... CODA is good, probably much better than anything I could have done in a limited time and with limited resources.

I simply have choosen to remove advancements from the system all together, I tell my players to create their characters as they see fit and since that are a good, decent bunch that are after role playing they do that just fine, they justify every skill, every ability with a personal history and it is that personal history that keeps them in check for there is only so much you can do on board of the starship at peace time during six months. When it comes to the rest a good set of guideliness takes care of starting ranks and positions and we are off to play ... to bodly go where no one has gone before...


Kind Regards
Daniel