Jeremy,

I'd like to see the Carnivons as well (we used your tourney cruiser to adapt most of the others for campaign play). Last year I even sculpted a General War era DN and a CA as we play our battles with minis exclusively. Maybe this winter I'll get to paint them:-)

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 02:09 pm: Edit

It would be cool to see some more "General War era" Paravians in a SSJ3 as well. CL 28 was just the tip of the iceberg.

But I second Jeremy's comment - GW Carnivons would rock.

By John Carroll (Jcwl) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 02:36 pm: Edit

Why not both?

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 02:39 pm: Edit

Is carnivon tech "generally available?"

I wonder, because I could see a LOT of use of heel nippers.

Just like I think that Paravian QWT would make a lot of sense for a pirate. Or escort.

By Dale McKee (Brigman) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 02:41 pm: Edit

'Both' is kinda what I was shootin' for, there, Tex.

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Why not so all out, and publish C#, Forgotten Empires, with the Peladine, Paraviand and Carnivirons?

Hrm, wrong topic for that....

By John Carroll (Jcwl) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Just backin' ya up there pard

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 11:27 pm: Edit

Well, GW Carnivons has long been promised as the central piece of SSJ#3. So, that should be a gimme.

However, the real question is whether doing an SSJ#3 version of CL is worth the investment of the Steves' time.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 03:14 pm: Edit

Well, there is also the issue of the empire(s) out LEFT beyond the Lyrans/ Kzinti/ Hydrans...

Peladine. Carnivons and I'd guess there would be room for a few more. Personally, I'd like to see a few little "empirelets" so the Hydrans have something besides "direct dudes" (Klink/ Lyran/ Vudar) to mess with. It'd give the Lyrans something new too. Right now they have Fighter seekers (hydrans) and drone seekers as their border enemies...

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 03:26 pm: Edit

About 5 years ago (has it REALLY been that long!), I created the Borak as a race that existed out beyond the Hydrans. Bottom line - a phaser only race with ships generally on the smallish size for their size class. The background and some of the tech (specifically remote fighters) needs to be reworked in light of newer products like J2 (and the background we've started to get on the early ISC). Most of the original SSDs were also lost in a computer crash, so some more rework there too. An old idea I should dust off at some point.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 03:41 pm: Edit

If SSJ proved to be a success and was published as frequently as once a year, it would take a long time to go through all of the "non-historical" ideas people have. From the Borak, to the Early Warp Romulans, to the Imperial Federation, to the countless other ideas that would all work. The issue has never been the lack of topics to use.

By Phil Shanton (Mxslade) on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 06:49 pm: Edit

I thought the idea of doing SSJ as a Captain's Log was that it could be done once a year so stores would carry it.

I know that the Steves are really busy with alot of things, so when they get around to it.

This something that can continue due to ideas long after SVC retires.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 10:24 am: Edit

Done as a CapLog, SSJ3 could be done any time. The trick is, it's a "product" and the "product year" only has time for so many "products". SSJ3 is competing for a limited number of slots against mainstream SFB, against FC, against the long-suffering F&E, against the long-neglected PD, against all of those other products we haven't had time to even start.

And, at this point, the "SSJ3 file" has only ideas, nothing actually publishable. So we would have to "do" all of it, which means that the equation of "how much work, how much money, how much sales" is not favorable. If somebody sent in a 20-page fiction story that was incredibly good but could only go into SSJ, we'd put it in the SSJ3 file and we'd have that much of the "work" done. If somebody sent in ... this or that ... which was so great it had to be published but so strange it could only go into SSJ, that would further reduce the "required work" part of the equation. Products that aren't in the "must do" category tend to get done only when there is a substantial chunk of "already finished work" in the file.

By John Carroll (Jcwl) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 12:19 pm: Edit

So if we, the end users, produce aceptable SSJ work then it can get into the production schedule?

By Scott Tenhoff (Scottt) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 12:49 pm: Edit

At least SPP shall have to check it to make sure all the rules questions are answered with anything proposed.

So while we, players, could submit everything. SPP's time still has to be budgeted to check all of the submittals.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 02:24 pm: Edit

John: Yes, and no. There are submissions that don't need a lot of work (some well-written fiction stories), and submissions that do need a lot of work (some badly-written fiction stories). If you can find big chunks of pages that don't need a lot of SPP/SVC/Playtest/Staff work, it helps make SSJ that much more plausible for 2009.

By John A Schneder II (Keltner) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 02:35 pm: Edit

I would love to have our group make up some GW Carnivon SSDs, playtest them, draft up relevant rules for the disruptor cannon/heel nipper/death bolt. But, this still won't save any time I'll bet as ADB will still have to look at them, approve them, etc. (Unless said stuff was just lying around in some file, made of whole cloth so to speak, waiting for testing).

If I thought I had any talent, maybe even a story with a scenario (not sure I want to hazzard that though, I hear the room is pretty rough on writers).

I remember seeing some GW Carnivon SSD's somewhere, but they were taken down for some reason quite awile ago.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 03:22 pm: Edit

For GW carnivons, it would take less time for us to do them ourselves than to check/test/edit ones done by others. So, no, that wouldn't save any time, and would probably just delay the project.

By Herb Diehr (Direwolf) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 08:54 pm: Edit

So, a complete race with SSD's and rules and such to fill 64 pages, done, would be of interest? Or, not?

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 09:51 pm: Edit

Another possibility would be an updated 'Best of the Web' from CL(19?)

Relatively little work on the part of SVC and SPP, as they would have to make sure stuff was formatted properly. And as it's all non-cannonical, balancing would be the onus of the submitters, rather than the Steves.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 10:04 pm: Edit

So who's going to nominate what's the 'best of the web?' I'd nominate my own stuff, of course

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 11:01 pm: Edit

Public agrement of players on this BBS on the best 5-8, and let the Steves decide what sees print?

If we go through with this, we would need to lay out some ground rules. So, should we go through with this 'fan designed' SSJ3?

By Randy O. Green (Hollywood750) on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 03:43 pm: Edit

If done correctly, this might help keep the May or November issue on track, and from the input so far, would seem fairly attractive to the customer base.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 04:30 pm: Edit

Before you all go off inventing races, rules, and SSDs, please make sure that is what SVC wants.

I only saw him ask for fiction.

By Kenneth Jones (Kludge) on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 07:18 pm: Edit

Guys publishable races/rules are hard. Trust me on this. You playtest stuff for years and think its air tight, but 3 minutes with SPP's review and... well it's not pretty. It's actually rasther damaging to your ego. If you can check your ego at the door then SPP is an extremely valuable resource.

Ask Steve if he wants XYZ before you go off half cocked.