Federation Commander

Magnum -

It's already been stated in this thread and elsewhere that we'll probably get a master rulebook... after the release of War and Peace next year. The reason for the delay is simple - why release a master rulebook when it'll be out of date almost immediately due to the release of some new races?

for what it's worth... the current draft of the "Federation Commander Reference Rulebook", which will eventually become the source for the Master Rule Book ends each section on a full page.

This will simplify the integration of new items (if necessary) as each new section will page on the front side of a new page.

357, I am going to agree with you but I still think a Master Rule Book should wait till Orgins. The Origins release will either be War and Peace or Hydran Attack accoring to the Legacy Board. (And of course that could change /shrug) I am hoping for War and Peace myself but will buy either one. And if it is War and Peace then hopefully a Master Rule Book can be put out there.(At Orgins)

Since a Master Rule Book probably would not be out before Febuary (SVC has said wholesalers have a bloody fit if they release things to close to Christmas.) That would mean that the new Master Rulebook could be outdated in 4 months. I say wait.

One solution would be to type all the rules with your favorite word processor program and save the file. Then when new rules come out, you just put them in their rightful place. Voila!

And this would make searching for a particular rule so easy (search function). That way you could track down all the nuances and perturbations of a particular subject no matter what sections of the rulebook they were scattered among.

[tongue in cheek]

Mike wrote:One solution would be to type all the rules with your favorite word processor program and save the file. Then when new rules come out, you just put them in their rightful place. Voila!

And this would make searching for a particular rule so easy (search function). That way you could track down all the nuances and perturbations of a particular subject no matter what sections of the rulebook they were scattered among.

[tongue in cheek]

Mike - that post is way too devilish for your 664th post. You should have waited 2 more posts to make such an infernal suggestion.

Don't think I haven't thought about doing that, though. I just haven't had the time. I have offered to pay my daughter to do it for me - but she wants too much per hour, and I'd still have to go behind her and double-check everything.

I don't know that anything here has shown a need for a master rulebook.

The rulebooks are pretty much addative. If you have Klingon or Romulan Border (or Academy), you can buy ANY of the Attack modules and they will work. Buying boosters is almost that simple. Boosters 1-12 will work with any of the core things. Some of the other boosters require weapons rules found only in other products. If you bought booosters 13-15, you could use some of the ships (sort of) but you wouldn't have the weapons rules from Tholian attack. Most of boosters 16-18 and for that matter 22-24 work with the core books nicely enough. Boosters 19-21 need Hydran attack.

The only strange thing about buying Klingon Border and Romulan Attack is that you will have the "add on" Romulan-Gorn ships but not the "basic" Gorn-Romulan ships from Romulan border.

That post was a setup for what is to follow...

...that post is way too devilish for your 664th post. You should have waited 2 more posts to make such an infernal suggestion.

...I've never been accused of being an angel...


Bwwwaaaaaa!

If you guys really wanted a master rulebook, you'd figure out that there is a way to get it. You have to figure out the one person who could order me to "publish" the "Reference Rulebook" and then figure out her Email address and contact her. She walks into a meeting and says one of two things:

"Three guys are pestering me about doing the Reference Rulebook. Tell them to stop bothering me."

"One hundred and six guys are demanding a chance to buy the Reference Rulebook, so I got the PDF off of your computer and started printing copies."

Nobody reveal her name or address! Those who want the RRB can figure it out for themselves. If enough of them do, you'll have it.

Leanna came into my office a bit ago, and asked why I had never released the Reference rulebook for sale.

So, we sort of have a plan.

After Comm-36 is released, I will integrate the "updates" therein into the CRUL and into my personal Reference Rulebook-2.

Leanna will then put the RRB-3 on the cart for $12 as a mail order only product. This is a quick and dirty REFERENCE book, not a polished product. For example, the errata is at the end of the rule (sub-rule, sub-sub-rule, whatever) but not "edited into it".

We will then announce a through-the-stores release for a $15 color-cover version in March. That version will have the errata "edited in".

Sometime around Christmas 2010, we will do a third version of the rulebook including the ISC, Vudar, and Andro rules (or whatever is in W&P).

Now, let me explain what I mean by Edited In.

Let's say you have a rule like this....

4W3b You can only arglebargle the framistans during even-numbered impulses.

then let's suppose that Communique 31 had errata

4W3b You can arglebargle the framistans only during odd-numbered impulses, not during even numbered impulses. Sorry, this was a mistake in editing at the last second.

The Reference Rulebook mail order not-color $12 version available 15 December 2008 would have:

4W3b You can only arglebargle the framistans during even-numbered impulses.
* 4W3b You can arglebargle the framistans only during odd-numbered impulses, not during even numbered impulses. Sorry, this was a mistake in editing at the last second.

and the color version in the stores for $15 in March would have

4W3b You can only arglebargle the framistans during odd-numbered impulses.

I am of course using an overly simplistic example. If the star-errata items were THAT simple I'd just fix them now. But it's NOT that simple, and would require three or four days of my time, a day of Petrick's time, two days of Jean's time, and about 10 days of waiting for staff reports to do that, plus we would then have to re-do all of the rulebooks (fifth edition) which would also involve SVC time, SPP time, Jean time, and staff time.

So, if it's worth $12 for you to have an integrated rulebook NOW then order it. If you're going to gripe and moan that it doesnt have a color cover, you couldn't buy it in your FLGS, and the errata is inserted rather than edited in, WAIT UNTIL MARCH.

The Reference rulebook will NOT include scenarios and will NOT include "ship descriptions".

Questions?

March sounds like it's going to be a good month...

Looking forward to it. Color cover... yummy.

Color cover on the $15 March 09 version.

B&W cover on the $12 Dec 08 version.

djdood wrote:Looking forward to it. Color cover... yummy.

Yeah, will need a good binder for that one.
Now... what artwork from the various products will I use in the binder?
So many choices...

Question:

Will the master rulebook have the parts that are irrelevant to the rules. By this, I mean the pictures (such as that of the Gorn battlecruiser on page 9) or the little non-rule sections between each of the chapters?

May I may a suggestion? Is it possible for the use and capitalization of the word "turn" in the rules to be standardized? I think that whenever it is used to refer to a game turn it should be capitalized. Reserve the lowercase version of "turn" for when a ship actually turns to face a new direction. I think Impulse and Sub-Pulse should also be capitalized when referring to those parts of a Turn.

It appears that an attempt was made to do this. For example, on page 6 under (1E2) it says, "The Turn is divided into eight Impulses." Immediately after that, though, "impulse" is used.

There is even a reference to the confusion of interchanging lowercase words such as these with different meanings at the beginning of section (2C) in the second paragraph.

Would it be too confusing to capitalize all uses of phases of movement and special maneuvers? Now would be a great time to fix this.