Loren: We pay royalties to Paramount on everything, period. Sometimes we use new stuff just because we want to create something that is OURS and nobody else can use it, sometimes we just want to avoid the hassle of getting an approval form signed. In some cases, certain starships are covered by a separate contract (this may be what you were thinking) and we don't use those to avoid paying a separate royalty above what we pay to Paramount.

We could have used TOS disruptor weapons but frankly I'd rather invent new cool weapons. The Klingons never threw away a weapon and no doubt used dozens of types over the years.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 10:49 am: Edit

SVC: You had said it differently back then but it amounts to the same understanding (although I'm more clear now).

We were actually discussing the disruptor design in a picture I was working on and starships were part of your reply as an example.

And ya, I was thinking of the effort and royalties beyond the basic Paramount ones (FJD etc).

Sorry about the goof.

I agree that the Klingons probably had many designs and manufacturers. And if this picture is a GW era pic then the TOS design (TOS seems to be about mid Y150s) is an old design and these are newer ones. Or whatever.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 10:51 am: Edit

George, I had nothing to do with this cover. If I had it wouldn't have been as good. If it had been as good I'd quite my day job right now!

By Roger Bacon (Rogerbacon) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 11:09 am: Edit

I'm disappointed to see a D20 version but I can't begrudge SFG from making money with a large market. Still, I hope GURPS will continue to be the main system for Prime Directive. It really is the best, most flexible system.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 11:19 am: Edit

Roger: Whether GURPS continues to be the main system (or one of the systems) depends more on Steve Jackson than anything else. There are some issues which need to be worked through, and some points on which he has been absolutely inflexible.

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 12:43 pm: Edit

From mining the archives: There is little resemblance between Niven's Kzinti and SFU Kzinti. At this point it is little more than the name and the idea of "tiger-men".

Were items left out of the Psionic Skills list? Some of the skills contain references to "Detect Mind" and "Telepathy", but I don't see those in the list anywhere.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 01:01 pm: Edit

We would need Mr Thompson to answer that question.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 04:15 pm: Edit

I am trying an experiment here. Don't mind me...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Another experiment....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 04:17 pm: Edit

And another.... don't mind me....

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 04:28 pm: Edit

Hmmm...banner ads...

By Matthew Pulido (Talison) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Logo from the first with the text from the second would look great.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Yeah, I really hate the washed out green from the second one. Ken really got crazy on that one. I am pretty sure I rejected it at the time but when somebody wanted to see them I couldn't figure out which ones on his hard disk were the "right" ones.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - 09:13 pm: Edit

Agree. Logo from first, text from second.

Although - something in the banner should say that this is a official product, though (Paramount licensed). Problem with banner ads on the web is that anyone can buy them (and thus, do). I've seen lots of banner ads advertising people's 'roleplaying groups' that are little more than glorified forums hosted on their own website - "Starship L33t HAX0R" or "USS Ultracool, NX-9000" (always the latest and greatest out of Trekdom - Defiant-class, then Sovereign-class, etc)

I think it's important to point out that you are holders of a license and are putting out 'official' products - especially on the web, given the ridiculous cornocopia of unofficial and unlicensed Trek goods and material.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 02:41 am: Edit

SVC: I know you said months ago that you had hit a home run with the "open auditions" for artwork, but I have to agree with everone else: WOW!

Who is this guy?

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 05:45 am: Edit

Gary: Mark Evans used to be a very prolific artist in the CCG arena for years. He has a web page at http://www.cloudmover.net

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 08:56 am: Edit

There isn't a lot of space in a banner to say anything more than is there. I'll make sure Joe has something on the /prime page covering that issue.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 08:03 pm: Edit

ANDY PALMER: Please email me to confirm that you got the Klingon book and will have the proofreading report to me tomorrow morning. and if that's not going to happen, get in touch with me ASAP.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 08:49 am: Edit

E-mail sent (yes)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 10:27 am: Edit

Email received (and you said no, you were not going to get me a report before I had to start printing, despite knowing the deadline when you took the job).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 10:56 am: Edit

Doug and Andy; I'm trying to scramble the schedule to delay as long as I can, but I'm running out of time. My mistake was giving you guys the REAL deadline instead of a phony deadline two days ahead so delays wouldn't matter. Get me everything you have NOW and everything you can every hour on the hour.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 01:09 pm: Edit

I bought us a little more time ("bought" being the operative word as it cost cash to do it). I now have all of DL's reports and we're processing those and should print R20 this afternoon. Assuming Andy gets me the K20 report tonight we should be able to print it tomorrow (with a crew on double overtime, yeowch).

By Joshua J Brumley (Sweeper) on Sunday, August 14, 2005 - 01:16 pm: Edit

Hmm... I'm looking at the Poster now,and all I have to say it, "SWEEEET!" But I do find a curious thing though. Is it just me, or does the Sildarian look like he's wearing glasses? (Heh, "I vill crush your puny body vith my muscles and crush your puny brain vith my intellegence" ,best Arnold voice. ;) )

By Tony Maguire (Cutter) on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 06:51 am: Edit

The figures for 'Aux Dash' on page 148 of the d20 Prime Directive rulebook look wrong. Either 'Parsecs Per Month' should be 3252.3 (108.41 multiplied by 30) or 'Parsecs Per Day' should be 33.47 (1004 divided by 30). I'd be grateful if someone would indicate which is correct.

(Apologies if anyone else has already mentioned this.)

By David Lang (Dlang) on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 01:45 pm: Edit

Aux Dash was tweaked becouse the velocity for a 6-month run to go that distance was deemed too low, so the dash velocity was increased, but there is a limit that it can't be used as long so over a 6-month turn the result is the same total distance.