Archive through April 26, 2012
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Company-Conventions-Stores-Ideas: New Product Lines Development:
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New Product Suggestion Topic:
Archive through April 26, 2012
I like the concept of a monster module. I'd even buy a 2400 fleet box as well as 2500.
Courious how the Bansees or that other swarm would be handled in a miniature though.
I don't see the point in selling people stuff they already have. Worse, do that and we're blocked from doing more monsters years later.
There are FC cards for dragons but not SFB ssds. There are ssds for more Juggys but not FC cards for some of them. Their is a whole heap of monsters without minis (clear amoeba anyone?) If you don't like selling them old stuff, then make new stuff, although Master Monster Module has a nice ring to it.
MMMM, yum.
As far as Juggernaut's go (plural usage deliberate
) ... I would again suggest some smaller J-escort type "ships" and giving The Classic Juggie a C&C rating for THAT class of ship only.
It's never made any sense to me that whoever built the classic J didn't also have some smaller versions that it was developed from.
Once upon a time, I ran a SFB campaign where the basis for the scenario was a big-J with CA-sized escorts assaulting a class-M world with a SB and various planetary defenses and all the ships the defender could muster.
A few months later, I repeated the campaign and substituted the Planet Eater from TOS with a different defending Race/Empire.
Why did the Andro's come to Our Galaxy, what chased them out of their own?
MONSTER MODULE!
@Shawn: FC doesn't strictly need ship cards for the smaller Juggernauts, since the SFB SSDs can easily be used for Fed Com. There was an article in Cap Log I believe on making your own Amoebas out of glue.
@Gary: there have been published Juggernauts in sizes from frigate upwards in Captains Log, though I can't remember the issue number. Unless by "escort" you mean something with Aegis?
Regarding the Andromedans, I don't want their motivations explicitly defined. Their mystery is what makes them unique and "cool". It also leaves them useful as a Mysterious Bad Guy in Prime Directive campaigns. The GM can simply invent stuff for the Andros and be confident that the players won't know about it.
The Juggernaut CA and CL are in CL35, while the BB, DNM, DD and FF are in CL41.
(I'm still hoping they could be considered for a Juggernaut Empire Ship Card Pack on e23; not least if it could come with an FC version of the Fire in the Deep scenario.)
What if those two brash young captains shoot first, but instead a peaceful solution, the outcome is a full scale Federation-Gorn war?
This is the Star Fleet Second Universe (SF2U).With one change to history, the whole of the milieu changes. This is the basis of the popular literary genre of alternate histories, and the “what if” questions they explore. What if Rome never fell but continued into the 21st century? What if Hitler’s forces had not invaded Russia? What if the Confederates had won their independence from the US?
If the incident between the Gorn and Federation led to war, what would the SFU look like. Certainly alliances might switch. Imagine the Romulans allying with the Federation in war? Or the Klingons becoming allies with the Gorn. How would the western Empire’s change?
This can lead to several new ideas to market the SFU:
1. Scenarios and ships could be made for both SFB and FC, as well as special adventures for Prime Directive, scenarios for Federation and Empire, and a chance to write fiction in a universe not as defined as the main SFU.
2. Ship technology after Y57 would gradually diverge from the standard SFU designs. This is a chance to let the Empires take different approaches, much like the successful yet unused ship experiments in “The Ships that Never Were.” Also, the Federation might have sold ships and technology to the Romulans instead of the Klingons. Think of it, a Fed Destroyer reworked by the Romulans to feature cloaking and plasma weapons, or plasma becoming more used in the Federation. this means new ship and new books.
3. An interactive universe. Each year of real time can cover a length of time in the SF2U. For instance, the first year could cover the story of the First Gorn-Federation conflict. The next year maybe longer, covering 20 years until the next big war, and so on.
The results of vital outcomes that shape the future are made with the help of the players. In Captain’s Log and online ADB releases scenarios for SFB/FC, for Prime Directive, even for Federation and Empire. As players complete they report the outcomes, and depending on whatever outcome more people report, it becomes part of the timeline and affects future storylines.
All this can be covered in regular updates online and in Captain’s Log, and maybe an annual SF2U book with new history, ships, and details about the next year’s story.
Overall, this idea can be more interesting than introducing new Empires outside the main SFU. It would be fresh, open to a lot of new ideas and stories not possible in the crowded continuity of the main SFU, and it keeps the game focused on the money races for marketing the game to Trek and Sci Fi fans and keep them recognizable: the Feds, the Romulans and the Klingons.
Eric.... out!
Well, let's see.
The problem with alternative futures is that they're just so many of them, and if you do more than one (and we're already doing the vulcan thing) then they're just diluted.
Roms would not join the federation, and if they did, the result would be so unbalanced strategically that the Gorns would be destroyed in short order. One might posit the Gorns joining the Romulans, which would put the Feds into a world of hurt.
No new SSDs are needed.
Scenarios would be little more than generic "this many ships fight that many ships" and no more interesting than historical ones.
I don't see any reason to pursue this.
Just throwing stuff out there- you know- spit balling. Always a chance it will spark something, even totally unrelated.
I am unaware of the Vulcan thing.
@Eric, try here for the Vulcan thing: http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/23363.html?1328818454
and here for another alternate take: http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/29778.html?1330090604
The only alternative history/future that I have found interesting so far is the dystopian one that the Darwin encountered where the Andros win. The history/alt timeline related stuff in Andro Threat File was fun.
Forgot about that it was cool as well.
When I contemplated a Rom-Fed union, my thought would be a close alliance, or complete merger of the Gorn and ISC. That said, in the scenario, post Civil War Romulans were a burden at first to the Feds. Also had the ball ending issue that the local pirate cartels were flooded by those from both states who quickly turned pirate operations in the greater Federation into an insurgency. All early X2 timeline. Never got around to drawing up a firm proposal...
Things might change if the Vulcan-Rom reconciliation that was shown in TNG actually happened in OUR universe.
Yes, but in the SFU, which Star Fleet captain would the Romulan try to clone?
In the TOS episode "Balance of Terror", the Romulan Commander says something to Kirk along the lines of:
"In another time, you and I might have been friends."
I've always been intrigued by the idea, that in an alternate timeline, the Feds and Roms might have made peace in the Middle Years (TOS era). The Feds could have gotten plasma weapons from the Roms instead of the Gorns. Roms would have gotten warp from the Feds and used Fed ships instead of Klingon ones. Maybe even Federation ships might be equipped with cloaking devices in the "cold war" with the Klingons...
But there is certainly potential for a full scale conflict between the Gorns and Feds. Gorn and Fed ships always seem to play well against one another. Tough, relatively unmaneuverable ships with lots of crunch power trading punches. Ding, Ding!
In such a reality (Fed, Rom, Gorn allies) I'd want to see Earth just a couple hexes from the Klingon border (pretty much the entire area first captured in the early General War). Then have the Klingons allied with the Kzinti with the Kzinti mostly incontrol of the Lyran counties (who also took a beating from the Hydrans.) Hydrans ally with the Vudar to hold that space.
Star Fleet Duels, a Pocket Game
Now, this is not the old Pocket Games that you guys put the original SFB out in. This is the new era of pocket games. On the shelf in the games stores I go to, near the front, are these little boxed games. Some are card games, but they can be all types and genres. They are colorful, usually easy to play, and retail from $7 to about $20.
Here is an exampe. This is the pocket edition of a full sized game, Mr. Jack, from Asmodee games: http://us.asmodee.com/ressources/jeux_versions/mr-jack-pocket_3.php
So here is the idea for a product to sell in that format, It would include:
A small booklet of rules.
A fold out battle mat on paper.
Tokens (or small plastic toys) of a FED CA and KLI D7
Two “SSD”s (I see two cards similar to the ship cards in SFBF)
Chits for damage
Two Dice (or cards)
Basically, this should be a game of duelling between two ships. The rules should be very simple, fitting on two pages maximum. No speed changes, movement should maybe let them move 0, 1, 2, or 3 times per impulse, in a FEDCOM like 8 impulse system. No simultaneous movement: one person moves his ship his number of steps, then the other.
The map should have some kind of obstacles, like a planet and asteroids so that a simple fight game is more interesting.
Weapons should be way simplified. I might even suggest using a card based system like SFBF for firing, or using the dice.
Expansions could include: two more opposing ships, rules for 3 or 4 player games, scenarios. some new rules, and other possibilities.
Eric out!!!
You could probably reuse the damage chits from Battle Force if you wanted to do that ...
SFB cadet game?
No, simpler. So you can open it and play in five minutes.
Eric,
Have you ever played the Star Fleet Battle Manual game? A combat system similar to that could be used while retaining hex movement like FedComm.
The basic no frills free version of FedComm is almost what you are referring to, but it still uses the same ship cards.
Meshing SFBM combat (sans firing angles and all that guesswork) with FedComm simplistic movement sounds kind of like what you're talking about.
This one seems obvious to me, maybe so much that it's been overlooked in the past:
A "SHIPS OF THE SFU" WALL CALENDAR For 2013.
Easy to do, minimal Steve(s) time needed.
And also probably good as a Kickstarter project, the minimum run size (in terms of how many copies have to be pledged/printed) should be easily quantifiable.
Gary, we tried a calendar on Cafe Press and it wasn't a great success. 