>However those languages are applied against any
>bonus languages the character can gain.

So, if a race gets 3 Automatic languages, and a character gets 2 Bonus languages, the character winds up with 3 languages and not 5, right? (And those are the 3 Automatic ones, the character doesn't get to pick 2 of them.)

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 04:00 pm: Edit

Michael. Completely correct.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 04:30 pm: Edit

TO ALL: I'm packing for my move (tomorrow) so will be off-line until the weekend, at the earliest. I'll respond to any additional questions by Monday evening.

By Ronald Young (Ryoung) on Sunday, October 02, 2005 - 08:21 pm: Edit

Haven't been able to check in on this board for a bit. Thanks for all the great answers!

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 09:54 am: Edit

TO ALL: I'm back.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 12:44 pm: Edit

ERRATA:

Marine (pg.53)

Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + int modifier) x 4

By Craig Tenhoff (Cktenhoff) on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 02:23 pm: Edit

Andy, is there a consolidated Errata yet or is it spread throughout the archive?

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 03:53 pm: Edit

One of my posts, in the immediately previous archive, has all of the rulings/errata up to that point. There hasn't been much since.

By Craig Tenhoff (Cktenhoff) on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 09:18 pm: Edit

Thanks Andy, I noticed that after I posted (duh!)

However it does need to get onto the Main PD page at some point, since not many outsiders know the ins and out of the board like some of us old timers

By Michael Gonzalez (Nathan_Brazil) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:35 am: Edit

Hi. I had some time/calendar based questions for a PD20 campaignI am trying to make. These questions are far more general and applicable to all SFU, so I posted here.

1.Some of the timeline references are mentioned in negative years (ex. -Y117 for the Seltorian revolt). In the SFU timeline is there a Y0 ?
The calendar math then becomes easy (ala Traveller):
-Y1 2 Years before
Y0 1 Year before
Y1 Vulcan/Human Contact

like
or is it like B.C./A.D.
-Y2 2 Years before
-Y1 1 Year before
Y1 Vulcan/Human Contact

2.How are years defined? Are they define as a specific rigid number of increments per year (always 365 days, no matter what), less rigid (leap years and that sort of thing) or some other system?

3.I'm sure this was tossed about before, but I am new here. TOS makes vague references that it takes place about 300 years from then (1960's) and other references like the Eugenics War taking place around 1996. Y1 is likely after 1996. Is there any correllation to any specific year/decade/century in the SFU Yxxx calendar to any year/decade/century in our calendar? Anything close?

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 08:45 am: Edit

Michael. I'll have to shoot these to SVC, as they're backgound questions.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 09:55 am: Edit

I can snswer these questions.

Yes, there is a Y0. It exists because of simple math, for example 150 years before Y150 is 150-150=0 (Y0), not minus one (Y-1).

Timeline matching: the one really specific instance is when a certain Fed ship captain makes first contact with the Gorns. This allows you to match Y157 in the SFU Timeline to whatever year this happened in Paramount's timeline. IIRC this places the Eugenics War in the 1980's -- but don't forget that would have been 20 years after TOS was on TV.

Years are standardized on Earth time, and the length of the years is given in Earth days; for example, in GK on page 35, it states that for Klinshai, the year is 599 local days and 449 standard days. (I don't have PD20-K, so I can't see if this got mistranslated. Andy, can you check this reference, please?)

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 10:40 am: Edit

>It exists because of simple math...

But that's his question: is this a case of simple math?

Personally, I think that the whole "Ynnn" thing is our way of describing the situation. Presumably, the people in the "actual" SFU called it "Stardate 127.0.0.1" or "Imperial Cycle 4096" or "14,963rd Day of the Reign of Hydraxan XLIV" or whatever.

Which means that yes, there is a Y0, because the whole years-numbered-as-Ynnn is just for our convenience.

And there's the old ethnic joke that Andorians like to tell about Rigellians...
ANDORIAN: "You Rigellians are always fighting!"
RIGELLIAN: "Nonsense! Why, none of our wars has lasted for more than a year!"
ANDORIAN: "How long is a year on Rigel?"
RIGELLIAN: "As long as it takes us to win the war."

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 12:02 pm: Edit

I have no idea if there is a Y0 in star fleet or in christianity. I don't care. It doesn't matter.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:08 pm: Edit

We use standard Earth years.

The only reference to time in TOS was....

"I am going to lock you up for 200 years!"

"That would be just about right."

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Let's say no Y0. That is, the point between Y-1 and Y1 might be a Point Zero which would be 12:00:00 AM, December 31st. Before which you are in Y-1 and after which you are in Y1.

Sort of like how Centuries are counted.

That's my vote. Do I get to vote? Does anyone care?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Ken did the character sheet and sent it a couple of minutes ago to JT and AP for checking. We should be able to post it in a day or two.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 06:19 pm: Edit

SVC. I haven't received it yet.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 06:50 pm: Edit

Ask Ken.

By Michael Gonzalez (Nathan_Brazil) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 01:23 pm: Edit

The main reason is the math question. I am a history nut and some of my calculations are based on your answer. I did not until recently have the RPG portion of SFU. How fast and when races achieved certain travel rates impose minimums as to when certain events could have occurred. Some examples:

1.How long was it before the Tholian remnant left? Besides the mass of the Dyson Sphere and resupply issues, the Tholians could have done it with available engine speeds, taking only 196 or 197 years (-117 to Y79 depending on Y0) assuming they left right away. IIRC their galaxy is only 12,000,000 LY away.

2.Romulans from Vulcan to Romulus could have travelled with available engine speeds the F&E distance in Y1 in 3 years. But, they probably took longer because they had to explore the space until they found the planet they eventually colonized. In addition, there had to be that "number" of years before the Vulcans forgot about them.

3.Before there was an RTN, the Andromedans had to build it. This meant travelling to sites the long way and then building the stations. I have the Andromedan campaign page somewhere, but I remeber it had three routes from our galaxy to the LMG. If each of these battles took place by a break point or terminator in a segment of the RTN, then this increases the time. There is the time it took to travel a portion of the 100K-200K LY distance, find a nice spot for the RTN segment, build it, map the area, and move on.

4.How fast did the Kings (regardless of which type) book out of our galaxy and not leave traces of civilization? Easy if they lived on their ships all the time, not as easy if they actually lived groundside?

5.Even with the Old Kings leaving old slow ships behind, this gives indication of the Klingon rate of expansion. Other races' development of engines, gives indicator for their rate of expansion.

Its for these reasons of speculation I asked questions like that.

By Michael Gonzalez (Nathan_Brazil) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 01:31 pm: Edit

SFU D20 question:

What are the starting ages, heights and weights for all the other races? The 3.5E PHB (or D20 Modern book if you use that) has the listing for humans, but what of the other races?

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Michael. Good question. I'll work on putting that together (GURPS doesn't have that level of detail on character dimensions so it hasn't come up before in the SFU). It will likely be a couple of weeks given the amount of work to be done, official review, etc. I'll post regular updates.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 01:55 pm: Edit

Michael:

---

Quote:

1.How long was it before the Tholian remnant left? Besides the mass of the Dyson Sphere and resupply issues, the Tholians could have done it with available engine speeds, taking only 196 or 197 years (-117 to Y79 depending on Y0) assuming they left right away. IIRC their galaxy is only 12,000,000 LY away.

---

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 05:20 pm: Edit

A lot of the detail of how the Tholians got here from there hasn't been published yet. When Loren and I were discussing it about a year ago, once we made a couple of decisions (subsequentally approved by SVC) and the numbers fit reality within about three percent.

Any time the numbers in SFB match reality within 3%, we call it a close fit.

So ... the Tholian Old Home Galaxy is definitely M81. (Which is also where one of the Omega races originated, but that's another story.)

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 05:37 pm: Edit

Gary, M81 has been published. The whole "how" was set at GAMA this year.

The Omega situation was also delt with and in a minor foot note in the big story.