Never heard of Savage Worlds, Scott. Post a link to their website?

By Scott Alan Woodard (Ogma) on Sunday, January 13, 2008 - 06:09 pm: Edit

http://www.peginc.com/

There ya' go!

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Sunday, January 13, 2008 - 06:50 pm: Edit

I'd never heard of it either. I read the "freebee rules" document, and the only concern I have is whether the rules have sufficient granularity for PD. I suppose a conversion would be possible, but it would not be as straightforward as the GURPS to D20 one (i.e., it would have to include a lot of many-to-one conversion).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 10:05 am: Edit

As a general matter, ADB will do PD books for any system given....

(1) someone to write them who is qualified to do so

(2) reasonable royalties, no advance, no guarantee.

(3) some indication that there are a significant number of science fiction fans for that system. I'm tired of people who say "Do one for our system; we sold 10,000 units of our fantasy dungeon".

By Scott Alan Woodard (Ogma) on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 10:50 am: Edit

Well, the license can be found here and it seems pretty straightforward: http://www.peginc.com/Licensors/Pix/SWLicense.rtf

In regards to your third point, Steve, are there a "significant number of science fiction fans" for Fudge??? For d6???

Pinnacle will soon be releasing a pulp Science Fiction (think Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers) setting called "Slipstream" that has already generated quite a lot of buzz.

Savage Worlds is a fast-playing set of easily adaptable rules. There are already 8 Official Pinnacle settings/sourcebooks, a few more licensees and LOADS of fan-made conversions available here: http://www.savageheroes.com/conversions.htm (including a Star Trek work-in-progress).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Scott: I read the license, and it's missing a lot of stuff I'd have to have clarified, but I'm sure none of it would be an issue. The cost ($500 or more) is going to be an incredibly tough sell to Leanna without a lot of data proving there is a market. (D6 has a huge market of hundreds of thousands of Star Wars fans, and it's licensing fee is half of what SW wants and is credited toward advertising. Fudge has shown data that it has plenty of SciFi fans, and it has no licensing fee at all.) And, I point out again, until I hear from a writer who is approved by Pinacle as qualified to do rules to their satisfaction, there is no project here. I cannot write them and do not know anyone who can, and have far too many projects unfinished on my desk to go looking for more work. If contacted by a writer approved by pinacle, I'll see if we can work something out that doesn't take much of my time, assuming you can convince Leanna we would sell 500 books. If you want to pay the $500 and get back $1 per book on the first 700 books, we can talk, if you can find an approved writer.

By Andrew Gelbman (Madprophet) on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 12:33 pm: Edit

What about the new Mongoose Traveller?

They have an OGL that doesn't seem to require much in the way of Royalties (The SRD covers most of the game except for a few mechanics that you have to refer the user back to the Main Rulebook for - similar to D20).

Traveller has an established fan base, the system is very mature and much of the work on a PD for Traveller could be cross marketed to Traveller fans and/or the general Trek fan base.

I have been a Traveller fan for years and have been working on a PD conversion. Best of all, you could expand the RPG options beyond the Starfleet Crew/Prime Team paradigm with ease opening up all sorts of aspects of the SFU (read additional products).

Any thoughts on this?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Mongoose-traveller has been on the "sure, we'll do it, get somebody to write it" list for a year now.

By Andrew Gelbman (Madprophet) on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 03:29 pm: Edit

Would you be interested in seeing what I have done with it?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 11:44 pm: Edit

Jean is in charge of RPGs. I have trouble spelling RPG.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 07:31 am: Edit

Andrew (and all other interested writers), if you want to produce something for Prime Directive, I would need a Project Memo (what you think must be done to either GURPS PD or PD20M to make it be your "core rulebook") and I would need sample pages--enough that I can determine if your writing is up to snuff.

And yes, I will be considerably harder on your writing than most writing instructors are today because you are writing at your very best when you audition. If I read about "you phaser must be ready" or "When you Fire your Phasers at teh Enemies, you will use the Photon Firing Chart to determine his Damage taken", I will have problems.

In addition, I do have an established PD writer who is interested in that game system, so I would need to check with him as well.

That may not be the answer you wanted, but it is the best I can give you.

Remember though, if you don't try, you will never know if you could have been the next great PD writer to be published by ADB, Inc.!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 10:19 am: Edit

It is the intention of the company to publish at least 10 RPG books next year. Two Fed books and two Tholian books (d20m and GURPS) as well as the core books and the first expansions for at least two new game systems. And we intend to publish at least ten RPG books in 2010 as well.

It could look something like....

Jan: d20M Feds
Feb: GURPS Feds
Mar: Core rulebook for new system #1
Apr: Feds for new system #1
May: Klingons for new system #1
June: Core rulebook for new system #2
July: Feds for new system #2
Aug: d20M Tholians
Sept: GURPS Tholians
Oct: Romulans for New system #1
Nov: Romulans for New system #2

Jan: Core rulebook for new system #3
Feb: Feds for new system #3
Mar: Tholians for new system #1
Apr: Klingons for new system #3
May: Tholians for new system #2
June: d20M Orion Pirates
July: GURPS Orion Pirates
Aug: Orion Pirates for new system #2
Sept: Romulans for new system #3
Oct: Core rulebook for new system #4
Nov: Feds for new system #4

and so on.

That's probably not exactly what will happen, but it shows you the kind of tempo and flow.

And yes, I did not even mention Feline Empires and Final Frontier and Gorns, but then, the limit is how many books Jean can edit per month. A new core book takes two-three months. A "crossover" (Klingons for new system #7) might take 2-3 weeks. And she has other things to edit.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 10:50 am: Edit

Now THAT was an invigorating post.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 11:54 am: Edit

Probably scared Jean half to death.

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 01:23 pm: Edit

Then please don't duplicate that post!

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 05:20 pm: Edit

It is ambitious; it will be challenging.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 05:29 pm: Edit

I'm looking forward to working on a project with you again, Jean.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 07:34 pm: Edit

It is always nice working with you, Loren.

By Andrew Gelbman (Madprophet) on Friday, November 14, 2008 - 03:16 pm: Edit

Hi Jean,
Well, I am not sure what you need in a project memo for Mongoose Traveller. According to the OGL the Mongoose Traveller Core Rulebook is the 'Main Rulebook'. Is there a form or format to this?

I have done a conversion of PD1 to Mongoose Traveller (the system converts rather easily). If you are interested, please tell me what formats you can read and I can send you some sample pages - say, the Starfleet Character Generation Tables.

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 11:54 am: Edit

Andrew, contact me by email, please. The address is in my profile.

Thanks,

Jean

By John Rudd (Johnrudd) on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 05:41 pm: Edit

A note on Savage Worlds and FUDGE versions of PD:

There are lots of places where people post documents that merely convert A to B. For example, guidelines on how to use d20M products with Savage Worlds ... or how to use Savage Worlds products with FUDGE.

What would ADBs position on such documents be? If I wrote a "How to use PD20 as source material for FUDGE" and/or "How to use PD20 as source material for Savage Worlds", would there be restrictions on where I could post it? Would ADB want to view it before I make it public?

(and, I expect the answer to "where can I post it" would depend somewhat on how exactly I reference PD products, in terms of reference vs quoting, and how much quoting)

anyway, I'm just interested in the broad-strokes of such a conversation document, and ADBs policies and thoughts on going down that path.

And, I would definitely still be interested in a FUDGE version (and FUDGE is now OGL, so the licensing should be familiar to anyone who has done d20 game systems), and a Savage Worlds version. In fact, my main reason for buying the PD20M copies this last month was to convert them (for my own internal use) to my own FUDGE material and/or Savage Worlds. In the process, I thought I'd make them available to other people.

By John Rudd (Johnrudd) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 08:22 am: Edit

I just looked at the catalog, and see that the status of the Savage Worlds and Fudge versions of PD are "writer at work" -- is there an estimate of when they're expected to be finished?

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 09:18 am: Edit

John, no, there isn't.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 11:48 am: Edit

John: The answer is "I'd have to think about it, and maybe ask somebody."

I'm not sure how legal such things are. I literally don't know. I can ask someone.

I don't know if such things would sell more of our existing books. If so, we'd want to host the documents here and have you post links to them everywhere.

I don't know if posting them would mean abandoning those projects. If GURPS Klingons can be used by Fudge players, is there any point in doing Fudge Klingons? Would we sell more copies of Fudge Klingons than we would sell copies of GURPS Klingons to Fudge players? Would we sell enough MORE copies to be worth the editing, production cost, cover art, and so forth? That's a corporate marketing decision which takes more than a coin toss.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - 11:06 pm: Edit

I think that a system which would work well for Prime Directive is the GUMSHOE System. It would not work for every campaign type, but it would work excellently for the type of stories told in the TV series, which are frequently some kind of mystery, or which require the characters to put some kind of clues together to save the ship/prevent a war/make safe First Contact/et cetera. It's been used with a variety of genres from Cthulhu to horror to science-fiction bounty hunters (Ashen Stars).