Archive through December 19, 2005
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Prime Directive RPG: NEW GAME SYSTEMS:
FUTURE MULTI-SYSTEM BOOKS:
Archive through December 19, 2005
you are buying a 200 page book, of which 16 pages are something you don't care about (worst case), not a 24 page book. it makes a big difference
Really, how many people buy CLs and don't own a copy of ( and indeed have never played ) F&E???
[My hand goes straight up at this juncture]
I think very few people are going to HATE the fact that they've got 16 pages they can't/won't/choose-not-to use.
If they start hearing rhumours that certain needed things were dropped from a product to make it MULTISYSTEM then they might get disgruntled but what are the chances of that!?!
Just remember these things....
1. we're pretty much scheduled through the end of the year with single-system books for G, D6, and D20.
2. If we do a deal with HERO then those will also be done.
3. The market will determine if it will be possible to do other RPGs after the big four. That determination won't be made for many months.
4. It may turn out that there are cases where multi-system books make sense. If it does, we'll do them. If it doesn't, we won't. That determination is also many months away.
Would it be most economical to do 1 core setting book that is system-less (or at least only contains mechanics that go across all systems)? The setting book will probably make MANY references into the system book.
Then do a system book for each game system. Each one covers the mechanics for adapting the PD setting book into 1 game system.
Last, sell them in bundles. Take a book from the "setting book" pile, and a book from the d20 system book pile, shrink-wrap them together, and sell that for $x. Take a book from the same "setting book" pile, a book from the GURPS system book pile, shrink-wrap them together, and sell that for $y.
Then you adjust your print rates for each system book type based upon how well that system is selling. For low-demand system books, you might even do them as PDF only. You might even start out some system books as PDF only, and only put them in print if the demand for them is high enough.
And, if you decide to do "1 bound book" editions, you combine them into 2 sections of one book.
Though, it does increase the expense of "creating new covers", as each one has a different cover.
I doubt it is practical to do that. No matter which way you slice it, you are selling something they cannot use without buying something else that is bigger and more expensive to use than what they bought in the first place. The other problem is that you effectively have to do four or six books simultaneously to compile their system stuff into one book, which means in addition to the four-six setting books you have to do four-six system books, all at the same time. The market cannot absorb it.
Now, one theory would be to put the system stuff on-line on the BBS but that makes it hard to track the royalties paid to the system lords, who would probably disapprove the concept.
I don't really mind if PD: Orbital Facilities comes with Gurps rules and D20 rules and D6 rules and Fuzion rules and so on.
It's only going to be a few pages ( or at worst a few footnotes on every page ) I might someday take up playing one of the systems I don't play if by chance I already have material to back it up.
A THOUGHT TO SFU WRITERS and SVC. (And tell me if you think I'm wrong and why, please.)
From what I've been reading on this board about the various RPG systems I would like to suggest that if you are interested in the background material for writing SFU stories you should consider buying the GURPS versions of the books.
The reason is that GURPS tends to be the most detailed and realistic which is arguably a hinderence to some for it's playability. BUt it is valuable for the writer in that the detail in statistics can tell you as much as the actual background text does.
When you read the new Tholian template you will have a better understanding about what they are even though the color text is pretty much the same.
From what I understand the other systems will be somewhat less telling as the the nature of the various races.
I'd like to ask SVC if it would be possible to declare one system a default system for defining SFU background for the general universe. That is, for SFB, F&E and all the other game systems. So for instance, say there is an inconsistancy between RPG systems that independantly isn't a problem but when us writers are trying to create new material is there a particular system we should default too?
There aren't supposed to be any inconsistencies so we don't really need a default system. The background to GURPS THOLIANS, HERO THOLIANS, D6 THOLIANS, STORYTELLING THOLIANS, D20 THOLIANS, and all the rest would be 100% identical, word for word.
Anyone interested in just background (say, as a writer) could buy any of them and find, word for word, the same information.
SVC,
I think what Loren is trying to say is that, when a writer feels the need to dig beyond the color text and see how person/race/item/ship A stacks up against person/race/item/ship B for the purpose of figuring out the likely outcome of an action, the finer granularity of GURPS is an asset, in that it can show when A may have a very slight advantage or disadvantage in comparison to B (whereas a system with coarser granularity, such as d20 or d6, may rank both equally).
There is enough variability in any of the game systems -- a range of possible outcomes for any given encounter -- that a fiction writer could select the outcome that drives the plot and not worry about whether that outcome is 20% likely in GURPS but only 17% likely in D20.
I was also thinking that a good deal of what a race is is in their stats and those change from system to system. What system is going to be the first system done that the other systems follow?
I mean, if you were to send the background to each system I'd bet the writers for each system would come up with stats that would have considerable variance. Currently you are sending the D20 guys the GURPS stuff to convert, right? This would sem to me to be a good trend since GURPS is most detailed (but then what do I really know?).
Stats tell a lot of the story and I was thinking that GURPS tell the story best.
If I read SVC right, he's trying to say "Authors shouldn't be looking at game rules when writing stories; the background [fill] text is the only part that defines the canon of the SFU", and so, the biases of the rules should not matter to authors, only to gamers.
(just curious to see if I got it right)
Sounds good to me.
William: That's right and works for most rules. But stats are another matter. Gary helped me figure out some of the details of how to use GURPS rules to represent the Tholian stats the way that was needed. (Writing a new rule could have worked but what happened worked better for GPD)
So, this other game system A might not have the same skill and the Tholian mode of travel will have to be represented another way, possably with different terminology altogether.
I doubt there will be any issue with the most humanoid of characters but as you get more alien with special abilities then there may be a difference that cannot be avoided without changing or making up new rules. Since doing that is likely not worth the effort then there may be differences. In that event...
HOWEVER: I'm likely putting the cart before the horse. The situation may well never come up so I'll not waste any more of anyones time. If the problem presents itself I'm sure it will take SVC about 5 minutes to decide.
I, myself, will default to GURPS. Why not? 
Someone once told me "if your reading gaming fiction and can hear the dice rolling in your head then it isn't very good fiction."
Loren: Have fun cross-statting characters FROM GURPS to Hero... (effectively now 5, vs 8 primary, and a bunch of figured ones, too...)
;)
I was probably making a mountain from a mole hill.
Of course, I totally get what the races are having read them all from the get go for 25 years but... ah never mind.
Let's just call it all a brain fart.
FUTURE RPG BOOK IDEA:
I know there will be a ground forces book and I hope it will have articles on such things as PDU set up and such. Discussing this in another thread led me to another idea. A book on Ship Operations.
Pick a ship and do the largest set of deck plans so far for it. Maybe a carrier would be best (see below). This book would take all the major departements and break down the details (albeit only so far since we don't actually know how to run a Starship). One of the most exciting parts of this book could be a chapter called Carrier Operations that discusses deck operations, deck crews, supply, ready racks, shuttles, fighter and THEIR PILOTS, command structure (who's the boss of what and when) and things like that.
I know there are many people out there that have real world experience working on ships and a few fliers too.
To my knowledge there isn't any such book for any game out there (particularly one as cool as Cole and Petrick could produce!). It would be, IMO, the hottest ticket on the shelf. An interesting read for people of ALL GAME SYSTEMS (not just for PD). There have already been a few short articles on this stuff and those are great but they're really just a primer.
One ship, one book, almost everything you need to know to understand the big picture.
The closing chapter could discuss some of the variances between races but that in general a starship is a starship and there isn't a lot of different ways to run them.
My dad's an ex-squid and my best friend's an ex-zoomie, so they tell me some things, but everything else I know about military areas of responsibility comes from Honor Harrington novels, so I'd really appreciate an SFU take on this.
Would everyone please remind me: who is doing which Racial Profile for GF? I know these:
Myself: Cygnans, Fralli, Mintakans
Mike West: Rigellians
John Sickels: Orions, Mantorese
I know this was posted on the BBS at some point in the past, but I've just spent half an hour looking for it, without success. 
John Sickles isn't doing Vulcans???
Its in RPG FEDERATION : Federation Background : first archive.
I'm doing Vulcans, to ensure continuity with Romulan history.
I've already started working on Mantorese background.
I'm going to ask us to move all discussion of GF over to the RPG FEDERATION topic.
Everyone remember where they parked ...
Any idea if we might see a HERO system version of Prime Directive?? It seems like the only system left.