PD20M rules Klingons
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Prime Directive RPG: NEW EMPIRE BOOKS:
RPG KLINGONS:
PD20M rules Klingons
We shipped Klingons Prime Directive PD20M to distributors on October 19, 2009. Due to Real Life issues intruding, it was the book I thought that I could most likely finish within a year of the release of Prime Directive PD20M.
What is new and changed from Klingons PD20? Here are some highlights.
* Information pertinent to PD20M players is in a format they will recognize.
* The Paladin advanced class has been revamped.
* Many of the species traits for the Subject Races have been reworked and there is information for age, height, and weight for the beings you would encounter in the Klingon Empire.
* We listened to some additional tapes and discovered more information about the Bargantines.
* We forced more information into the starship and personal weapons sections.
* There is an additional page of starship art and it is gorgeous! Ted Geibel and Adam Turner are very talented artists.
ADB, Inc.'s books do not happen in a vacuum. They are a team effort and they reflect the strengths of us all. Let me tell you about the people who have worked on this book and their contributions.
Eric Olivarez did a splendid job of designing new chapter headings for the book. They catch the feeling of steel -- apt for "The Empire of Steel".
Jonathan Thompson had the lead in converting the d20 information into d20M terms. While some of the species were a breeze (having appeared in PD20M), others took much effort, especially in light of the disinformation the Klingons had put out about their Subject Races.
Ryan Opel spent a lot of evenings answering questions that popped into my head. How did so-and-so really spell his name? Please count behind me and see if the Klingons have tried to mislead us about the power this ship's engines produce. Only when he didn't have an answer was I forced to call one of the Steves.
Tony Thomas reworked all of the sample characters and really dug through those personnel files to discover the "real" people. We have warned him to be on the lookout for Klingon Dagger Teams when we release this sensitive information.
Gary Plana was there, providing information and background. His knowledge of the Prime Directive RPG games and their history was invaluable.
Steven Petrick had to answer many phone calls and questions. What's that square thing on the SSD? How do I know if this is a K refit thing or not? What year did this ship really come out? HELP! I can't find an SSD for this ship!!!!! Without his help I could not have checked the entire chapter on the starships. With his help I learned far more about the Klingon starships than I ever knew and realized that each change in design was logical and had a purpose.
Steve Cole was absolutely essential in getting this book to press. He did the layout and all the corrections to the text. He had the unenviable chore of making larger files fit into the same space and he did it seamlessly. He capitalized phrases and changed capitalized phrases into lower case (per ADB, Inc.'s "Capitalization Guide") without much protestation. He has been understanding when Real Life issues prevented me from working on the book as much as I would have liked to have done. And of course, he's the one who brought us the original book!
Thanks also go to Leanna Cole and the Coles's furkids (Ramses and Isis, two beautiful Bengal cats) who let Steve work late, late nights in order to get this done.
Jean
RPG Line Editor
Congrats to everyone involved in PD20M Klingons.
Sounds orderable even if I don't play the game, just for the background material.
It looks like there is some additional background material over GK. Is this right? I'm reading that right?
While most of the differences are merely typographical, there is a bit different information from GURPS Klingons. The Klingons put out quite a lot of disinformation regarding the Bargantines and we corrected that. GURPS calculates size differently, so you may find the height/weight charts useful in writing fiction.
Most of the differences are changes from Klingons PD20. Those were extensive at points -- on the same level as the changes from PD20 to PD20M. I sent in a change document that was 3 pages long. I sent in over 600 KB in files to be inserted (and that doesn't count the species that appeared in PD20M where I wrote, "Replace everything 'here' with the information in PD20M and move it to this spot.").
It wasn't the simple cut and replace that SVC and I originally imagined, but I think we have a very solid book.
Randy, I would suggest that if you are going to have a story set in the Klingon Empire that this would be a good resource especially if you don't have one of the other versions. You learn a lot about why the Klingons are like they are, you learn about Princess Sangfroid and why she is honored today, and you get a solid feel for how the Subject Races interact with the Klingons. Consider it an introductory textbook, but much more entertaining since SVC wrote it!
Terry, on behalf of the PD Team, thanks!
We think this link has stabilized so that you can get Klingons PD20M: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88996
If it does not work, please let me or Leanna know.
Possible typographical errors in PD20M Klingons:
Page 73, column 1, last full sentence seems to say that Klingons have a repeating disruptor besides the standard issue disruptor rifles.
Page 87 lists the disruptor rifle and heavy disruptor rifle, which I would presume are the standard issue disruptor rifles, as being the only automatic disruptors and lists the infantry support disruptor and heavy support disruptor as being merely semiautomatic.
Real, modern world parallels: The infantry support disruptor and heavy support disruptor sound to me like the M-60 and M-2 machine guns used by the US military, both of which are automatic weapons.
Question: Should the infantry support disruptor and heavy support disruptor be listed as "A" for automatic in addition to or instead of "S" for semiautomatic?
I don't know the rest, but the ones marked S are definitely not also A and you'd be leading yourself astray to say that because it sounds like another weapon it might have features of that other weapon.
Ah, so the only disruptor automatic weapons the Klingons use are like submachine guns rather than like machine guns. I guess the infantry support disruptor and heavy support disruptor are more like disruptor versions of modern day sniper rifles than they are like machine guns. Ok, that makes sense if I think of it that way. Thanks!
OK, so this doesn't matter to me which way this goes, but there still seems to be a contradiction on PD20M Klingon, page 87. The text description of the Infantry Support Disruptor says that it is an automatic weapon whereas the chart on the same page says it is only a semiautomatic weapon.
If the text is changed to match the chart, then the text in the last full sentence of column 1 of page 73 seems to need to be changed to match as well. Alternatively, if the page 87 chart is changed to make the Infantry Support Disruptor automatic, then based on the page 88 description of the Heavy Support Disruptor being a larger version of the Infantry Support Disruptor, then the page 87 chart should most likely also be changed to make the Heavy Support Disruptor also be automatic.