[TrekRPGNet] Your input requested

[Renny]

Hey Imagus

Where are you ? I'm in Crawley, West Sussex and amazingly we have a weekly gaming group which has been running for two or three years. We have played Trek and LOTR amongst many others.

Don

Just like to reiterate everyone else's good thoughts. Hope whatever your personal emergency is, that it is resolved swiftly and successfully.

Whatever your decision is regarding the site, i'm behind you 100%

Renny

[Captain Blake]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Thank you to everyone that participated. If anyone has anything further to add, you're more than welcome to.

Well, I haven't been around all that much, and I'm not currently running anything Trek related, but I'd be willing to sign up for a membership. Just on the basis of how useful this site has been to me in the past.

Your ideas for Membership Perks sounds good to me.

Recently I have had a major personal emergency at my home that places greater demands against my time, energy, and funds. It's happened since this thread was started and will play a major role in my decision

Good luck with that.

Alex

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

I read through most of the posts and I hope I won't steal anyone's ideas or some such.

I wouldn't mind paying for a perk membership, although I probably will be out of action for several months or weeks at a time overseas somewhere I'd still keep it. The perks all sound good. Have you maybe considered an automated newsletter (which could be run by some volunteers to save on costs) with adds in them (top/bottom) to raise some funds.

Fact is Trek is dying. It has nothing to do with the political threads. Its simply dying due to a lack of interest. Those people who grabbed unto TOS got old and the younger generations didn't grab on in as many numbers unto Trek. Therefore, I'd think maybe morphing the site into a LOTR site would IMO be a safe bet in order to continue the site with everyone here.LOTR would thus become the main component while Trek would be relegated to 3-4 forums.

Another possibility would be to widen the scope of the RPG aspect of the site, maybe provide information to different games such as Victoriana, Heroes, Warhammer Fantasy, Inquisitor, etc... Widening the horizons might help get new people involved and maybe give you an opportunity to get some adds unto the site.

Personnally, I've always been amazed on how add-free this site has always been. I don't think anyone would blame you if some adds were placed in a few choice areas (no pop-adds...those are annoying) and of course adds related in some ways to RPG's when possible. I don't think we'd much appreciate looking at another thread with a giant Viagra commercial at the top...

Just my 2 cents at 9 in the morning...

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
[*]Recently I have had a major personal emergency at my home that places greater demands against my time, energy, and funds.

I hope this is resolved quickly, and as others have observed, that it's nothing threatening to life and limb.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
Therefore, I'd think maybe morphing the site into a LOTR site would IMO be a safe bet in order to continue the site with everyone here.LOTR would thus become the main component while Trek would be relegated to 3-4 forums.

I'm not sure that's the solution. Isn't the Trek portion of the site more active?

Anyway I have to say, while merely my feeling, if this were to become a LOTR site, and the Trek stuff relegated to poor stepchild I wouldn't be willing to donate, since I'm only interested in the Trek stuff.

But if it came to that, I'd certainly understand such a decision, and I wouldn't begrudge the necessity of it. But by the same token, I couldn't really justify paying for something I wouldn't use.

[Sundowner]

If i may stick my oar in for a mo'

I haven't had a chance to read all the comments posted here, but i do really appreciate all the work that many people have contributed to this site, especially the mods & to Don Mappin especially ( Really *BIG* Thanks all ).

I've been narrating trek only for a short while recently with ICON, and a little in the past with ICON & FASA, & i've found this is a great site to ask questions, find answers and read some great conversations RE Trek.

I would be sorry to see it go, as it's become an invaluable aid to my narrating, (& a fun way to spend the odd lunch hour when it's raining :-) ) I'd have no qualms subscribing & paying a fee for it, as i'd consider it money well spent on a hobby i really enjoy.

At the end of the day Don, it's your call & if you need to ask us to pay a subscription to defray your operating costs, i for one would have no objections whatsoever.

Sundowner

[Brandir]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
... Fact is Trek is dying. It has nothing to do with the political threads. Its simply dying due to a lack of interest. .... I'd think maybe morphing the site into a LOTR site would IMO be a safe bet in order to continue the site with everyone here.LOTR would thus become the main component while Trek would be relegated to 3-4 forums.

So is LOTR, unfortunately. Both of these games are dying while the powers that be at Decipher decide what to do with RPGs.

That is the crux of the problem for this board at the moment. The games it supports are dying. Branching out into other games seems a good idea but I think that there are far too many forums out there with far too few subscribers. Unless Decipher buck up their ideas and support their two RPGs CODA will die and so will this board.

A brutal assessment but true.

I would pay a fee to become a 'guilder' member (or whatever name is given to payning subscribers). For me all that would be required is a little badge/avatar to indicate I support the site financially.

[Dr. Jonas Bashir]

Despite the exchange difference between the local currency and the US Dollar, I'm very willing to spend USD 12 to become a special (or whatever) member, because you deserve all kinds of support we could give you and your site. And, even more, the support you've shown to me and my projects deserves it.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

Originally posted by Brandir
So is LOTR, unfortunately. Both of these games are dying while the powers that be at Decipher decide what to do with RPGs.

That is the crux of the problem for this board at the moment. The games it supports are dying. Branching out into other games seems a good idea but I think that there are far too many forums out there with far too few subscribers. Unless Decipher buck up their ideas and support their two RPGs CODA will die and so will this board.

A brutal assessment but true.

LOTR is as of now a cash cow. Games Workshop even created its own independent board game and every month I see the LOTR section expand in the White Dwarf magazine and at the local stores.

LOTR also has the most chances of getting another company to pick up the license and continue the line whereas Trek's future, to my eyes, is uncertain.

I don't personnally use any of the LOTR stuff or the boards, but I believe it may help.

[Brandir]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
LOTR is as of now a cash cow. Games Workshop even created its own independent board game and every month I see the LOTR section expand in the White Dwarf magazine and at the local stores.

LOTR also has the most chances of getting another company to pick up the license and continue the line whereas Trek's future, to my eyes, is uncertain. ...

I agree that GW has made a fortune from the LOTR licence (some UK stores report that, since the release of ROTK, LOTR outsells all other GW products together).

But the LOTR RPG licence, well, I don't ever think that will be a 'cash cow'. A shame because it is an excellent RPG setting.

If other companies take over the Star Trek/LOTR RPG lines I suspect they will relaunch them with new gaming systems (to fit in with their own default standards - d20 anyone??).

[AslanC]

If Trek does find a new home, I really hope they hire all new writers to work on it.

No offense to those from LUG and CODA, but I would like to see someone elses take on the Cardassians (not a fan of Vesla), or the Andorians (same for the Keth's and the Ice planet) or the Romulans (really not a fan of D'era).

Now I know there are many of you out there who are fans of these things, and that is cool for sure

I am just saying that I would like to see some other angles and takes on these, and many other "fill-in-the-blanks" aspects of a Trek rpg.

But I agree that they may have a hard time either way finding an audience. 3 Trek games in the space of what? 5 years? 6 years? When did LUG-trek come out?

[AslanC]

And back on topic, I don't care about the exchange rate , as it would be profoundly unfair for consideration to be given to Canadians because our dollar is lower. Would it be fair then to charge the Brits less cause the Euro is worth more?

In the end I will pay the price asked and continue to enjoy this place

[Imagus]

Originally posted by AslanC
Would it be fair then to charge the Brits less cause the Euro is worth more?

{Facetious mode /on}
We don't care about the Euro - we still use the Pound!
{Facetious mode /off}

snigger!

[D.S.McBride]

Originally posted by AslanC
When did LUG-trek come out?

LUG, to the best of my limited knowledge, got the license in March '98. After a whirlwind period of game engine construction and playtesting, the Next Generation Core book was released in August. Ninety-nine was LUGs banner year, and publication ceased - I think - in March or thereabouts of '00.

In all, Last Unicorn got nineteen works out the door during a roughly eighteen month period, not counting the miniatures sets; compare that to Decipher, which - after two years since initial publication - is still struggling to pass the half-dozen mark.

[E W Dawson]

Don, any updates on the futrue of Trek-rpg.net. With the prospects at Decipher looking bleaker every day, I think the Coda gaming community needs a quality site like this one more than ever.

While I consder myself no expert on these matters, it seems to me that the next logical step would be to conduct a trial period of sorts. Perhaps provide some sort of fan-made content and see how we respond (i.e. how many of us donate to the site --I know I will be one of them).

In any event, I am anxious to discover the future of my favorite rpg websites. I have been following this site and the rpg community it serves for the past 4 years. While not all of those 4 years have been kind to this site or its community, I would hate to see it disappear now.