I'm up for either the Brecons or Prellarians.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Nick Tellarites, Donovan Brecon. Somewhere around here are instructions how to do it. Two pages for each, including planet data, history, culture, biology, etc. Look at the pages in Klingons. To convince me to give you a third page your thing has to be REALLY fun to read.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 09:30 pm: Edit

SVC:

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Quote:

We still have about 50 copies of MPA we didn't dumpsterize but haven't sold one in weeks.

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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 12, 2005 - 10:42 pm: Edit

I remember your previous typo report, which was about 90% "you used the american instead of the british spelling".

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 12:47 am: Edit

I suspect Return to Terilek Prime is about as full of types as the Original.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 07:21 am: Edit

Everything channeled through you, SVC?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 09:51 am: Edit

Donovan: Until I can find somebody to run GURPS as a department head. I'm really tired of having that job.

By Chris Bonaiuto (Epyon) on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 04:19 pm: Edit

I have a quaetion about the Alpha-Centaurans...

Do they look like Humans?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Alpha-Centaurans are decended from a group of Humans that apparently were taken from Earth centuries before Zefram Cochrane invented warp drive. And as a side note, I've always taken Kirk's line in "Metamorphasis" when they meet Cochrane ("Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri") to mean that Cochrane moved to Alpha Centauri after iventing warp drive on Earth (because he was, of course, Human).

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 04:36 pm: Edit

ACs are virtually identical to humans with just some slight differences in neurology. They can interbrede with humans easily and share "recent common ancestry".

By Chris Bonaiuto (Epyon) on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 04:45 pm: Edit

Cool, thanks for thr quick answer, John.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 06:19 pm: Edit

One of the things I plan to do in GFed is end this sloppy scifi shorthand that every denizen of a planet is the same. There are ACs who are matriarchal and those who are not, but all of them are 100% human.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, May 16, 2005 - 01:35 am: Edit

SVC: The "Village" article?

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, May 16, 2005 - 03:13 am: Edit

I wouldn't mind seeing a fleshing out of THE PRIME DIRECTIVE ( I'll gladly write one as I think it holds together well ).

I didn't like that TNG episode where Westley Crusher smashes a greenhouse and Picard has to choose between a dipolmatic incident and the life of the boy. Picard starts claiming that he can't violate the Prime Directive in order to rescue the boy but in an ealier part of the episode the planet is not only being used for shore-leave but is also attempting to gain entry into the UFP!


As far as I can tell THE PRIME DIRECTIVE only applies to primative cultures and thus doesn't apply on that planet.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 16, 2005 - 10:22 am: Edit

All of this is already (and more than adequately) covered in GPD. The prime directive is to not interfere with uncontacted cultures. Beyond that is non-interference; the federation doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of member worlds. The greenhouse incident had to do with at third level, that being jurisdictional authority. If a visiting Navy ship has a sailor who commits a crime, the status of forces agreement with the host nation defines what happens. Often, as a courtesy, the host nation will just let the Navy deal with minor crimes but expects damages to be paid.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, May 16, 2005 - 11:33 pm: Edit

On the greenhouse thing, yeah it is a jurisdictional thing, it's just a pitty the writters wrote it as a prime directive thing.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - 05:06 pm: Edit

I had mixed feelings about that episode. On the one hand, I thought it was a good examination of how Starfleet deals with local laws and their application to crewmembers on leave, especially laws that were contrary to Federation law.

On the other hand, I saw that episode with some friends when it first aired, and I recall them all chanting "Kill Wesley! Kill Wesley! Kill Wesley!" Needless to say, they did NOT like the ending.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 12:01 am: Edit

Question about the early years of the Federation -- what era would have been the "Age of Exploration"?? That is, the pioneer days.

My view of Trek (which may or may not match SVC's view of SFU) is that once warp drive was invented, Earth sent ships out in every direction as far and as fast as they could go until they ran into another empire such as the Klingons and Romulans. They drew the borders, then the real explorers followed behind, surveying worlds and establishing colonies.

As some background filler for a fiction peice I'm writing, I called these explorers "The Pathfinders".

I have two problems to deal with. Three, actually. First, while this story will probably never be seen in an ADB publication, I am trying to keep it "true" to SFU as much as possible. Ergo, if SVC's view of the early years differs greatly from mine, the next two porblems are moot. But it's acceptable, is the name "Pathfinders" okay, or would you prefer something else?

My second problem is I think I screwed up the timeline. I mention that one character's grandfather was a famous Pathfinder. Given the year the story's set in and that characters approximate age, she would have been born in ~Y125. Her father would have been born between Y90 and Y95, which would then make the Pathfinders and the "Age of Exploration" start no earlier than Y75 and run to Y100 or so ... which seems too late to me. Yes?? Maybe?? Not sure?? Perhaps her grandfather was "the last of the Pathfinders"?? The other option is to change it to make he her great-grandfather.

As I was writing this, an idea came to me. Perhaps the very early days of the Federation goes something like this:

Age of Discovery -- Warp drive invented, alien life confirmed (Vulcans, etc)
Age of Expansion -- Ships sent out in all directions to see what's out there
Age of Contact -- Other Empires contacted,such as Klingons and Romulans, sparks conflict and/or plants seeds of future wars
Age of Exploration -- Pathfinders survey space inside defined borders of the Federation
Age of Colonization -- Mass migration of population to planets colonized by Pathfinders
Age of Civiliation -- The "modern" United Federation of Planets in the years just before the Great General War.

There is, of course, some overlap between the Ages. Not sure what the Y-dates would be for each.

Comments???? Feel free to incorperate these ideas, or not, into GPD-Fed as you see fit.


Garth L. Getgen

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 04:25 am: Edit

what era would have been the "Age of Exploration"?? That is, the pioneer days.

As you've defined it, Garth, the Age of Exploration would have begun with the founding of the Federation, and would still be going on in Y225. The borders were not static until Y102, so there would have always been more territory to explore.

Not to mention the Federation Survey Area to coreward, which is it's own 55-gallon can of worms.

Considering the number of stars per hex, and the number of planets, moons, and so forth, I don't think exploration would EVER end.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 09:02 am: Edit

I don't thing the "age of this or that" concept is workable. All of them are going on all the time.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 10:51 am: Edit

Fair enough. Got no problem with that. I'll admit, when I re-read my idea it sounded a little goofy. As to the "Age of ...", I didn't really expect you to use those titles even when I posted the idea.

Comments bout the term "Pathfinders"?? I borrowed that from the history books. It was used to describe the post-Lewis-&-Clark explorers such as Captain John C. Fremont and Major Stephen H. Long.

Gary, regarding the number of systems per hex, I know -- I'm the one that calculated something on the order of one million stars / stelar bodies per F&E hex.


Garth L. Getgen

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 05:30 pm: Edit

I've got a question about the established information about the Brecon. Has their homeworld been named or plotted on the map? I was digging through my copies of GPD (1st ed) and the old Federation book and can't find them. Also, has the contact date been established, and if not, what era was it in?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 06:08 pm: Edit

I don't know. Doesn't mean it hasn't been nailed down, but I'm kinda busy. Gary, can you do this one?

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 10:28 pm: Edit

The location of the Brecon homeworld has never been decided. Published info states that they were found by a Fed Galactic Survey Cruiser (I don't know which one) so the Contact date has to be after Y140.

I would put them to the coreward side of Federation territory, but that is all I can say. There just isn't a lot of background on them, so I guess you get to write it.

If you have questions, email me -- I see that faster than posts here.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - 11:25 pm: Edit

You'll see more from me in the morn then. Thanks for the feedback.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 07:17 am: Edit

Would it be possible to get the formatting settings (font size, borders) for a GPD page so that I may judge the size of my page?

And, is there any objection to my introduction of the 'Brecon ape,' a near sapient creature, unreleated tot he Brecon themselves, which has a pet/servant relationship on their world and began to be seen in such a role in Federation space in the early years of the General War? This would include noting their basic existince on the world page and a half to 3/4 page entry in the creature section if it exists.