I dabble on this now and then. The general idea is to include all of the history on a year by year basis, one page per year (except that some pages like Y171 are about 20 pages long). Included are scenario background/ob/result, summaries of stories, notes on leaders, the original time line with a lot of added notes. Let me see if I can find the sample I did.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 06:34 pm: Edit

I should comment that there is nothing anyone can to do help. I'll go through the source material as I have time. I do not need any one else to do that (and since I have the original text files and you do not, you see why).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 06:49 pm: Edit

Here's one year of the book.

SFU History Y170.pdf sfu_history_170.pdf (26 k)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 07:16 pm: Edit

I have no idea when I'll finish it since every hour spent on that is not spent on something else. It's a zero sum game to pick what I work on.

The theory is to only sell it as a PDF because that way we can update it easily, but then again, we pretty much do what the customers want and if people want hard copies I guess we'll print them.

Some of the data doesn't exist. We know the Fed and Klingon leaders and most of the Romulans and Kzintis, but hardly anyone else. If we someday do GURPS FELINE EMPIRES then we'll develop a Lyran king list and add it to that year's update of the history book.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 07:40 pm: Edit

Y170 was good reading.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 08:02 pm: Edit

It should be a valuable reference tool once it's finished. I could always ask the Board of Directors to make it an official project and (if they approve) work on it full time. Might take a month to finish, two for Jean to proofread and correct. At least, that would get us "to date" at which point we'd add more to it every time we printed a product and every time somebody noticed that a factoid in a previously covered product had been overlooked.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 05:24 pm: Edit

Well now that is something I would buy. Mind you would wait for my budget. However....... that budget is changing

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 05:47 pm: Edit

I have a few comments...

It is WAY too soon to start talking about cutting this up into various volumes of arbitrary year dates. Until we're "done" we don't know how the pages will break. I'm frankly thinking one big book is the better way to do it.

I don't know when this will be "moved to the top of the stack" and released, but I do not see waiting for it to include some future product that hasn't been designed. That can be added in a future update.

The plan is for this to be Alpha Octant only, with occasional Brief mentions of other areas only if they bear on activities in alpha.

Lots of years have more or less no entries and these may be combined in consecutive pages.

Lots of long articles exist like HISTORY OF THE GENERAL WAR and the plan is to slice them into annual pieces and put them on each year-page.

By David Bostwick (Zarquon) on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 06:34 pm: Edit

I love the pseudo-history of the Star Fleet Universe. This a great idea.

By Eddie Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 09:48 pm: Edit

Being a historian/librarian I like the idea. Shame the rest of us cant contribute in some manner.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 07:16 am: Edit

After the first release you can all participate in making it better.

But right now I cannot imagine anything you could do that would actually help. Did you have a specific idea?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Sounds like an opportunity to contribute new history...in the form of scenarios, fiction and articles for captains logs.

Of course, I could be wildly wrong again...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Yes, and No. Seriously, we print new scenarios, fiction, and articles all the time. This doesn't create any new opportunities, but perhaps a new motivation to write.

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 09:29 pm: Edit

I love this concept.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 02:21 am: Edit

As do I. Certainly a boon to fiction writers and universe reference nerds like me.

By Mike Bennett (Mike) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 09:08 pm: Edit

I certainly do not know the business, but more than $25 seems a little pricey. I still like the idea, though. All the history in one place along with representative stories to really flesh it out.

Funny thing...I am still wanting to know where the story is about the Gerard guy who was brought up by the Kzintis...

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, September 01, 2016 - 09:36 pm: Edit

I would be interested in the Universe Encyclopedia.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 11:26 am: Edit

Will McC: Actually, that's why I started it, for my own research convenience.

Mike B: Depends on what it is. If it's 500 pages long, do you really expect it for the same price as a 144-page captain's log? The only way to reduce the price (removing 2/3 of the content) defeats the purpose.

Wayne: A somewhat different product, not for this topic, but one we are also working on. Actually, I think Ryan is doing this one.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 02:37 pm: Edit

Another sample page, Y83.

SFU History Y83.pdf sfu_history_y83.pdf (20 k)

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 03:37 pm: Edit

Looking very good.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 05:11 pm: Edit

nice history there

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 02, 2016 - 05:37 pm: Edit

I know several of you want to help, but (barring your moving to Amarillo) it's not yet to the point that you CAN help.

The system is to pick a product not done yet, go through the original files looking for items of history, then copy them into the history book. Since the original text is here and the format of the new book is here that can only be done here. It really does not save any time for you to go through a product and retype the stuff I can just copy.

After you have a copy of the book, you can easily take a product I have processed, then process it yourself and check that against the book to see if I got that item. Without a copy of the book, you cannot check the book for completeness, so that has to wait for next year's PDF release.

By Aaron Port (Trueborn) on Saturday, September 03, 2016 - 11:10 pm: Edit

I think this is a great idea. As someone who has been in and out of the SFU, I don't have a great grasp of the timeline. This is a product I would really enjoy.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Sunday, September 04, 2016 - 09:38 am: Edit

Could this “Battle of the Firewall” be the F&E Scenario 1101.0 Firewall that first appeared in Captain's Module P3?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 04, 2016 - 10:49 am: Edit

Firewall went on for a long time.