Federation Commander

[domingojs23]

Dear Friends,

Given the uncertainty of PD:Traveller, and the imminent release of and great interest in Starfinder, the Sci-Fi version of Pathfinder, I'm now looking to do my PD Campaign with Starfinder. So, it would be a matter of adapting PD:D20M to the game, given the shared DNA of D20 and Pathfinder.

Since nobody responded to my last posts, perhaps I should also say something provocative. Ok, here goes - I look forward to using the Starfinder Ship Construction system for converting ships from SFB / FC to use in my campaign.

Cheers,

Gary

[Sgt_G]

Gary,

Disclaimer: I do not work for nor speak officially for ADB.

However, as has been posted on this and the other ADB boards many times over: What you do at your own gaming table is your own business. What you are purposing involves using copyrighted material from two different companies. As such, you may NOT post it on a web page or Facebook, and you defiantly may NOT sell it. The grey area would be e-mailing it to members of your players group. Nobody would be the wiser if you do that, but the moment someone from the group posts it, you'd all be up creek.

On the other hand, if you know the game system well enough that you can port SFB/FedCmdr ships to it, you might want to send an example to ADB (via e-mail) for them to consider. It would be helpful if you had a name in the other company for ADB to contact. You could come up with the greatest cross-over game in history, but ADB will never publish it, can never publish it, without cutting a deal and writing a formal license contract with the other company.

At any rate, have fun. I don't know this other game, never heard of it before, so I'm out as a play-tester. Hope it goes well.
_________________
Garth L. Getgen

Master Sgt, US Air Force, Retired -- 1981-2007 -- 1W091A

[Rags]

The evolution of two systems is essentially:

D&D 3.5 --> D20 Modern --> D20M Prime Directive

D&D 3.5 --> Pathfinder --> Starfinder

ADB does generally seem open to exploring ideas that they think will both generate enough revenue to be worth their effort and for which they will be able to allocate the time required for their staff to produce a product that will meet their standards. I can't see ADB diverting resources away from finishing PD Traveller to start this, but is just my speculation. On the upside, Piazo releasing the non-setting specific parts of Starfinder under the Open Game License does make it nicely accessible to third parties and PD D20M provides an already developed baseline set of D20 based rules that could be further developed into a PD Starfinder.

As for my thoughts for anyone doing a homebrew adaption for their own use, I have been running or playing in campaigns using the Pathfinder rules since the alpha test release however my knowledge of Starfinder is limited to glancing at some preview material Piazo released earlier this year. With that caveat that my experience is really only with the fantasy version of Piazo's ruleset and I have no idea what the Starfinder ship construction system is like so won't comment on that aspect, there is enough of a common root from D&D3.5 still in each system that I don't see the average GM having any difficulty porting across the classes, races, skills, equipment etc from D20M Prime Directive into Piazo's rule set. If you are of the opinion that adapting PD D20M to Starfinder rules will provide the gaming experience that you and your players want, then I would say go for it and enjoy the long tradition of GMs blending together what they personally consider to be the best of different editions and games.
_________________
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Gary Pollock

[JohnDDW]

Heck, there was magic in one episode of the animated series, so perhaps some phenominon happened that makes magic possible to the extent that starfinder has it.

[Steve Cole]

There was magic in the Holloween episode of TOS.
_________________
The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[ctchapel]

Catspaw

[domingojs23]

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the responses ! Actually yes I am quite familiar with the legal framework of the SFU / ADB, and I have no intention of violating it. Again, I just wanted to provoke responses since my last posts here had none. Sort of like my take on the "Corbomite Maneuver" hahahaha.....

But anyway thank you guys for furthering the discussion regarding use of Starfinder as "engine" for playing SFU. The reality is is that getting new players for PD is a very hard sell locally - and when I say local I mean the two countries where I am presently situated - New Zealand and the Philippines.

I am keen on Traveller as it is the RPG System I grew up with. I tried my hand at Gurps, but found it difficult to sustain the play-by-forum campaign I started here. For me, I really need a live playing group ... in other words, I think I can only run an RPG campaign if it's like the way I did it way back in High School with a live group. If only Mr. Tom Vallejos was my neighbor, I think we'd be playing GPD every night

So, my approach is to try to recruit local players in NZ (Wellington) or PHL (Metro Manila) - and generally the advice given was to tap D&D 5e players as they are the most numerous and accessible. It's however been also a difficult road to follow as they are not necessarily inclined to sci-fi, and a lot of conversion work needs to be done to port over PD.

The release of Starfinder is a great opportunity as it brings out a new and enthusiastic community of Sci-Fi RPGers who are potential PD players. The other alternative is tapping the other major existing Sci-Fi RPG community, players of FFG Star Wars. FFG is coming out with a generic version of their SW RPG, Genesys, so this would be a doable framework too.

The third option is to play virtually via an RPG framework I just bought into, Fantasy Grounds. I'm also keen to explore this, as it now allows anyone to join in via their computer. On the latter, my preference is using Traveller, but I'm open to using Gurps / D20M as well.

Cheers,

Gary

[gurps_gm]

[gurps_gm]