10 questions to ask Joe Fugate

[kafka47]

I don't know if Joe will go for it but if we could come up with our top 25 to ask Joe Fugate of DGP. He might go for an e-interview, even though he feels Traveller is well behind him and commends the guys at T20 for putting Traveller back on the correct track.

I will solicit now for the top 25 questions...

 

[far-trader]

The Starship Operator's Manual Vol. 1 is a favorite of mine and seems well liked by many. Were there any submissions completed, or nearly so, in the promised series detailing ships? Or did that first book come too late or set the bar too high?

OK so it's two questions, um, or three, or one question in disguise

 

[Whipsnade]

kafka47 wrote:

"I don't know if Joe will go for it but if we could come up with our top 25 to ask Joe Fugate of DGP. He might go for an e-interview, even though he feels Traveller is well behind him and commends the guys at T20 for putting Traveller back on the correct track."


Sir,

Wow! Where to begin...

First, please convey my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Fugate for all the work, time, and effort he gave to Our Olde Game. He and the rest of DGP added quite a bit to Traveller. Their work and efforts should not be forgotten.

As for questions:

1 - Did he and DGP have an ending in mind when they began the Rebellion? If so, what was it? If not, why not?

2 - What does he think of TNE's 'ending' for the Rebellion?

3 - If there was one thing he could change in DGP's body of work, what would it be?

I know I'm being 'piggy', using up 3 of 25 questions, but I can't help myself!


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[plop101]

I'll second the questions put forward by Far Trader Burns and Mr Whipsnade.

Expanding on their questions:

A. Was a Starship Operators Manual for the Type S Scout ship ever contemplated?

B. What does he think of GURPS Travellers' alternate time line? For that matter, what does he think of GT itself?

 

[theSea]

My cr0.02:

1) Are there any copies of Solomani & Aslan moldering in a warehouse anywhere? I know a lot of folks who would like to have one.

2) What happened to allow someone who's name I've never seen on a DGP product to gain control of the rights to all of that crunchy goodness? <yes we're sad there'll be no reprints in the near future>
Clarification: I'm certianly not looking for anyone to trash talk anyone with this question - I'm genuinely curious as to how the IP rights ended up out of the hands of the people who had done such fine work and into the hands of someone who - so far as I can tell - had little to do with the creation of said IP.

Personally - I'd love to have the opportunity to put some cash in the pockets of the people who did this work by purchasing reprints. I'm saddened by the fact that I probably will not have that opportunity... meanwhile I'll just have to content myself by buying whatever Traveller material FFE reprints.

3) What was the reasoning behind the whole 'Aslan are not _really_ a major race' thing? Much of the canon related to the Ancient coyns and the whole 'six races' thing from Twilights Peak seems to infer that the Aslan are/should be a major race. Was that not noticed or ignored for the sake of a cool story line?

4) Is there any unreleased DGP material to which the authors may still own the copyright out there - such as <what was completed of> Aliens Vol 3 (Zho and Dro) or Starship Ops Vol 2? <you know we'd really like to see more!>

5) Why the strong coverage of linguistics for Gvegh and Trokh? I love that stuff and am curious if there was someone on the DGP staff with a similar linguistic bent.

6) What's behind the empress wave thing - oops wrong guy

6) In retrospect, do you think the DGP products might have covered the OTU in a bit too much detail - leaving less for the imagination?

there - that should do- use whichever you wish. And thanks!

--michael

Oh yea - plop101 - I'm pretty sure I read that the Type S *was* the next planned SOM release.

 

[kafka47]

Keep the questions coming, as I really want this to be a fan effort. There is good news and bad news.

The bad news it has been a decade since he has thought about Traveller, so the memory is getting a little moldy but I am sure he will accomodate any of our questions.

The good news, is that he does still keep in contact with some of the original DGP group, sadly not Gary L. Thomas but Rob & Deb. So I will include questions directed to them as well.

I will keep this post active until next Monday which is when I will submit the questions and then post them here.

So keep up all the questions.

BTW, questions of product avialability is probably with Roger Sanger as are the rights to all things that would be published but I am sure he may remember something or two in broad sketches.

Cheers,
kafka47
The Traveller Archivist

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by far-trader:
The Starship Operator's Manual Vol. 1 is a favorite of mine and seems well liked by many. Were there any submissions completed, or nearly so, in the promised series detailing ships? Or did that first book come too late or set the bar too high?

OK so it's two questions, um, or three, or one question in disguise

Yes, I like this one. I also think the question might be phrased as "Were any plans made or materials collected for a volume 2?".

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by theSea:
1) Are there any copies of Solomani & Aslan moldering in a warehouse anywhere? I know a lot of folks who would like to have one.

count_of_interested_people++;

I too would very much like to know if there is a hidden cache.

2) What happened to allow someone who's name I've never seen on a DGP product to gain control of the rights to all of that crunchy goodness? <yes we're sad there'll be no reprints in the near future>

Yes, I too would like to know how exactly that came about.

3) What was the reasoning behind the whole 'Aslan are not _really_ a major race' thing? Much of the canon related to the Ancient coyns and the whole 'six races' thing from Twilights Peak seems to infer that the Aslan are/should be a major race. Was that not noticed or ignored for the sake of a cool story line?

My own thought is probably the whole latter day idea of what would constitute a 'Major' race was a silly an artificial distinction.

4) Is there any unreleased DGP material to which the authors may still own the copyright out there - such as <what was completed of> Aliens Vol 3 (Zho and Dro) or Starship Ops Vol 2? <you know we'd really like to see more!>

Yea Verily!

 

[kaladorn]

My own questions:

1) Did anyone ever decide the truth of what happened in Varian's apartment with Lucan, Windhook, Varian and whatshername? What were the real happenings? We've got several views, but I'm interested if DGP ever had an 'insider account'.

2) Why was DGP so infamous for errata? MT was a great game system, but with the exception of T4, has been the worst for errata. Was that just a time crunch? A case of trying to do too much too fast? A lack of playtesters or proofreaders? Or some other reason?

3) What do you think the best product that DGP produced was and why particularly?

4) Taken as a whole, looking at the investment of time and effort into DGP and Traveller that you made and the results obtained, did you have fun? Do you think it was all worthwhile? Put in the same place, would you do it again? Do you wish you'd never seen it in the first place or wish it had kept going long after circumstances brought DGP to a close?

5) How do you feel about the thought that the MT copyright holder's decisions may result in that entire chapter of Traveller history being sort of papered over or ignored as 'Forbidden Canon', and that much of the work done there will end up being edited out, written over, or ignored?

I too wish to echo LEW's comments. I think MT stands to this day (no offense to Hunter and QLI who I think are doing yeoman work) as the greatest version of Traveller and an amazing contribution to the gaming hobby and to the Traveller universe. I think Joe deserves some big kudos and if it were in my power, I'd buy the guy a big cold beer or six.

 

[Elliot]

At a rough count - there are 19 questions - so we need 6 more!

I'll add a few:

1) What would have come after the Sparkler war in Deneb/Zhodani relations?

2) Given the Solomani were becoming the big empire - did DGP plan to do anything with the Solomani Confederation. Was the later hints that the Sols were moving towards a pan-sophontist line under Joshua Dahvin a DGP or GDW idea?

3) What of the K'Kree? Lords of Thunder was a DGP purchase - would you like to have expanded on it?

 

[mike wightman]

Here are a few I would like answering please:

1. can we have an outline of the onnesium quest adventures (or is it one of those copyright things)

2. were there any plans for future hiver involvement in the MT/rebellion and how different are TNE/GT Hivers from how DGP would have developed them

3. not Traveller related but I would like to know how close AI ever came to publication and if it will ever see print

Thanks.

 

[T. Foster]

Great score in getting Joe to agree to this, kafka!

Given that he's been away from the game/hobby for an entire decade, I doubt he'll be able to give us much help on specific canon-detail type questions. Also, any question which takes the form of "please bad-mouth x person or idea" is probably likely to get a diplomatic non-answer. But hey, maybe I'm wrong, so ask away. Here's my questions for him -- include as many or as few as you feel are interesting or appropriate:

How surprising was it when GDW granted your company de facto stewardship over the Traveller rules and setting from roughly 1987 to 1990? Was this a specific decision made between you and Marc Miller or was it more of a gradual evolutionary process? Considering how small in personnel and resources your company was, how overwhelmed or intimidated did you feel at being the head of something with such a large legacy and following, or was this a concern at all?

In your farewell editorial in MTJ4 you mention that DGP inquired abbout buying the IP rights to Traveller from GDW. Had you been granted those rights would you have remained in the game publishing business longer (and do you think you might even have still been publishing games today?), or would the circumstances that led to DGP's closing have happened regardless?

How much were you still able to actually play Traveller once you made the leap from fan to publisher? Did you ever play Traveller (or have the urge to play Traveller) after DGP closed? Do you ever feel the urge to play Traveller today, even if only for nostalgia's sake?

How surprised are you that Traveller is still going so strong after 26 years? What would you pick as the single element you think is most responsible for Traveller's continuing appeal after all these years?

What is the most valuable lesson you took away from your time as a game publisher, and what advice would you offer to someone else thinking of getting into the same business?

 

[William]

What I would like to ask is this - I have heard that you and the rest of DGP never quit your day jobs; did you ever consider just going for it and making DGP a full time game company? This might have given enough time to complete more projects in a timely and correct manner.

William

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by kafka47:
I will solicit now for the top 25 questions...

Um...why is this thread titled 10 questions then?

Good luck with your questions however many you come up with.

Casey (thinking Asu took over the keyboard for a mo) - who can't remember seeing any DGP published books in his local gaming stores back in the day

 

[kafka47]

Well, I gave the title so as not to intimidate anyone... If Travellers can think of more questions, GREAT! As, I think most people can think of, at least, 3 original questions. However, knowing the interest that DGP stirs up on this forum, I thought, that it might be 3 times that.

Incidently, Joe has not replied yet confirming the interview, just citing that it would be fun to do, especially if Deb & Rob can participate. Which I wish we could get the whole group on board. But, alas...

So I will continue to solicit for questions, until Joe gives me the go ahead. I might nudge him, a week from the original Monday deadline.

So keep those questions COMING. This might be our last chance and best hope to get all we can from the minds of DGP. I will post a brief cut off message, when Joe has agreed, and then we have to wait.

Cheers all,
kafka47
Traveller Archivist

 

[theSea]

addendum:

A query relating to the production of the early issues of TD

I've recently acquired some very early issues of Travellers Digest: The first two issues of TD were not typeset - rather they seem to have been laid out in a relatively low rez (by today's standards) dotmatrix print...

What software was used to layout the first two issues of TD? Macintosh desktop publishing? (the PC certianly wouldn't have had anything comparable at the time). What SW was used for the art work? Was it done pencil and paper and scanned or illustrated directly? When the issues went over to typset starting with issue 3 what method was used? What drove the change?

I know that's a bunch of questions - but they're all tied together so what the heck.

thanks,

michael

 

[Elliot]

I was reading the other day that Third Imperium magazine was printed using a Commodore 64 - that must have been hell!

 

[kafka47]

Don't forget all, I extended the deadline till I hear back from Joe...and will only bug him next week.

 

[theSea]

Originally posted by theSea:
3) What was the reasoning behind the whole 'Aslan are not _really_ a major race' thing? Much of the canon related to the Ancient coyns and the whole 'six races' thing from Twilights Peak seems to infer that the Aslan are/should be a major race. Was that not noticed or ignored for the sake of a cool story line?

You can strike this question , I've just read JF's interview with MWM in TD#18. Marc said it was planned from the inception of the Aslan and held as a deep secret until the Aslan were 'outed' in TD#17.

Thanks,

--michael

 

[Elliot]

Any updates on Joe?

Yours in anticipation....