10 questions to ask Joe Fugate
- Thread starter kafka47
- Start date
Just as a comment, SOM, Vol. 1 is one of the absolute best look-and-feel things ever done for Traveller. It covers so well just what it's like to step onto a ship.
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
Right now, I am still using a surrogate computer. The main questions and my email on the desktop in storage.
Keep the thread active every month or so...until rennovations from hell are over and then I will have to face a baby, as my wife is due in August! So, I might not be answering until Sept...
Keep the thread active every month or so...until rennovations from hell are over and then I will have to face a baby, as my wife is due in August! So, I might not be answering until Sept...
You never know who might be lurking on the forum.
I was googling around and found this topic on this forum and realized I never got around to answering people's questions.
Lots of interesting and amusing speculation about the history of DGP, Roger Sanger, and Traveller.
In the time that has transpired, I have forgotten enough that I won't be able to answer rules questions. But I can certainly answer other questions as time permits, as long as I am not totally inundated with questions.
--Joe D. Fugate Sr.
Original Founder of Digest Group Publications
I was googling around and found this topic on this forum and realized I never got around to answering people's questions.
Lots of interesting and amusing speculation about the history of DGP, Roger Sanger, and Traveller.
In the time that has transpired, I have forgotten enough that I won't be able to answer rules questions. But I can certainly answer other questions as time permits, as long as I am not totally inundated with questions.
--Joe D. Fugate Sr.
Original Founder of Digest Group Publications
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
Respect Due
Hopefully, Joe you might want to look over the culled version of the questions that we formulated...some of which you have answered but maybe to have it all in one place. You might want to attempt these:
Background Questions dealing with the Group
1. The name of Digest Group Publications is a name that stood for consistently high production value and brought Traveller alive for hundreds of fans. Would the participants like to say a few words about themselves, how the Group members got into Traveller?
2. How did Digest Group Publications begin? What inspired you start publishing for Traveller?
3. How surprised are you that Traveller is still going so strong after 26 years?
a) What would you pick, as the single element you think is most responsible for Traveller's continuing appeal after all these years?
4. The Grand Tour had a feel that many of the adventures were part of a larger campaign. Was this a campaign that you or Gary ran?
a) If so, were there adventures that you would liked to see published but didn’t make the cut? Could you elaborate on any details that you might remember?
5. How much were you still able to play Traveller once you made the leap from fan to publisher?
a) Did you ever play Traveller (or have the urge to play Traveller) after DGP closed?
b) Do you ever feel the urge to play Traveller today, even if only for nostalgia's sake?
6. What do you think the best product that DGP produced was and why particularly?
7. How surprised were you it when GDW granted your company de facto stewardship over the Traveller rules and setting from roughly 1987 to 1990?
a) Was this a specific decision made between you and Marc Miller or was it more of a gradual evolutionary process?
b) 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?
8. 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?
a) Do you think it was all worthwhile?
b) Put in the same place, would you do it again?
c) Do you wish you had never seen it in the first place or wish it had kept going long after circumstances ended DGP?
9. 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.
10. The Starship Operator's Manual Vol. 1 is a favourite and well liked by many fans. a) Were there any submissions completed, or nearly so, in the promised series detailing ships? (i.e. what would have been in Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4) b) Or did first book come out too late or set the bar too high?
a) Similarly was any drafts of Starship Operators Manual. Vol. 2 for the Type S Scout ship ever contemplated.
b) were any plans made or materials collected for a volume 2?
11. 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 (Zhodani and Droyne) or Starship Ops Vol 2?
12. Are there any copies of Solomani & Aslan mouldering in a warehouse anywhere? I know many folks who would like to have one.<smile>
History of the Imperium
13. Did anyone ever decide the truth of what happened in Varian's apartment with Lucan, Windhook, Varian and whatshername?
a) What were the real happenings? We have several views, but I'm interested if DGP ever had an 'insider account'.
14. What would have come after the Sparkler war in Deneb/Zhodani relations?
15. Given the Solomani were becoming the big empire :
a) did DGP plan to do anything with the Solomani Confederation.
b) Was the later hint that the Sols were moving towards a pan-sophontist line under Joshua Dahvin a DGP or GDW idea?
16. What of the K'Kree? Lords of Thunder was a DGP purchase - would you like to have expanded on it? Or was a one-time venture?
17. Can we have an outline of the Onnesium Quest adventures (or is it one of those copyright things) or if you remember what were going to be some of the fun and different things covered in that campaign?
18. 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
19. Did you and DGP have an ending in mind when they began the Rebellion? If so, what was it? If not, why not?
20. What do you think of TNE's 'ending' for the Rebellion?
21. If there were one thing he could change in DGP's body of work, what would it be?
22. What does he think of GURPS Traveller alternate time line? (whereby, Stephon Lives and Dulinor Dies) For that matter, what does you think of GURPS Traveller itself?
23. In TD#18. Marc W. Miller said it was planned from the inception of the Aslan and held as a deep secret until the Aslan were 'outed' in TD#17.
a) 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.
24. 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.
The Group in the Near and Far Future
25. Since DGP products took the Traveller gaming world by storm when they were first introduced, rather than wonder what happened, why not pull a Steve Jobs, come back, and do it again?
26. 4) Have you considered doing more work in the gaming industry? Perhaps more for Traveller?
27. The not Traveller related but I would like to know how close AI ever came to publication and if it will ever see print?
28. What happened to allow someone whose name (Roger Sanger) 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 certainly 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. )
29. Did Roger actually make all his IP payments to you?
a) And Did they clears the bank?
30. Why was DGP so infamous for errata?
a) MT was a great game system, but with the exception of T4, has been the worst for errata. Was that just a time crunch?
b) A case of trying to do too much too fast? A lack of play testers or proofreaders?
c) Or some other reason?
31. I have 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) dot-matrix print...
a) What software was used to layout the first two issues of TD? Macintosh desktop publishing? (The PC certainly would not have had anything comparable at the time).
b) What Software was used for the artwork? Or was it done pencil and paper and scanned or illustrated directly?
c) When the issues went over to typeset starting with issue 3 what method was used? What drove the change?
32. In retrospect, do you think the DGP products might have covered the OTU in a bit too much detail - leaving less for the imagination?
33. How do you feel about the thought that the MT copyright holder's (Marc W. Miller) 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?
34. In your farewell editorial in MTJ4, you mention that DGP inquired about 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?
35. Perhaps, you would like to highlight some of the work that you are currently engaged in and how we might be able to help any future business ventures?
36. Thank you all for participating in this interview. Are there any final words or desires that you wish to pass on to fandom?
Background Questions dealing with the Group
1. The name of Digest Group Publications is a name that stood for consistently high production value and brought Traveller alive for hundreds of fans. Would the participants like to say a few words about themselves, how the Group members got into Traveller?
2. How did Digest Group Publications begin? What inspired you start publishing for Traveller?
3. How surprised are you that Traveller is still going so strong after 26 years?
a) What would you pick, as the single element you think is most responsible for Traveller's continuing appeal after all these years?
4. The Grand Tour had a feel that many of the adventures were part of a larger campaign. Was this a campaign that you or Gary ran?
a) If so, were there adventures that you would liked to see published but didn’t make the cut? Could you elaborate on any details that you might remember?
5. How much were you still able to play Traveller once you made the leap from fan to publisher?
a) Did you ever play Traveller (or have the urge to play Traveller) after DGP closed?
b) Do you ever feel the urge to play Traveller today, even if only for nostalgia's sake?
6. What do you think the best product that DGP produced was and why particularly?
7. How surprised were you it when GDW granted your company de facto stewardship over the Traveller rules and setting from roughly 1987 to 1990?
a) Was this a specific decision made between you and Marc Miller or was it more of a gradual evolutionary process?
b) 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?
8. 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?
a) Do you think it was all worthwhile?
b) Put in the same place, would you do it again?
c) Do you wish you had never seen it in the first place or wish it had kept going long after circumstances ended DGP?
9. 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.
10. The Starship Operator's Manual Vol. 1 is a favourite and well liked by many fans. a) Were there any submissions completed, or nearly so, in the promised series detailing ships? (i.e. what would have been in Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4) b) Or did first book come out too late or set the bar too high?
a) Similarly was any drafts of Starship Operators Manual. Vol. 2 for the Type S Scout ship ever contemplated.
b) were any plans made or materials collected for a volume 2?
11. 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 (Zhodani and Droyne) or Starship Ops Vol 2?
12. Are there any copies of Solomani & Aslan mouldering in a warehouse anywhere? I know many folks who would like to have one.<smile>
History of the Imperium
13. Did anyone ever decide the truth of what happened in Varian's apartment with Lucan, Windhook, Varian and whatshername?
a) What were the real happenings? We have several views, but I'm interested if DGP ever had an 'insider account'.
14. What would have come after the Sparkler war in Deneb/Zhodani relations?
15. Given the Solomani were becoming the big empire :
a) did DGP plan to do anything with the Solomani Confederation.
b) Was the later hint that the Sols were moving towards a pan-sophontist line under Joshua Dahvin a DGP or GDW idea?
16. What of the K'Kree? Lords of Thunder was a DGP purchase - would you like to have expanded on it? Or was a one-time venture?
17. Can we have an outline of the Onnesium Quest adventures (or is it one of those copyright things) or if you remember what were going to be some of the fun and different things covered in that campaign?
18. 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
19. Did you and DGP have an ending in mind when they began the Rebellion? If so, what was it? If not, why not?
20. What do you think of TNE's 'ending' for the Rebellion?
21. If there were one thing he could change in DGP's body of work, what would it be?
22. What does he think of GURPS Traveller alternate time line? (whereby, Stephon Lives and Dulinor Dies) For that matter, what does you think of GURPS Traveller itself?
23. In TD#18. Marc W. Miller said it was planned from the inception of the Aslan and held as a deep secret until the Aslan were 'outed' in TD#17.
a) 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.
24. 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.
The Group in the Near and Far Future
25. Since DGP products took the Traveller gaming world by storm when they were first introduced, rather than wonder what happened, why not pull a Steve Jobs, come back, and do it again?
26. 4) Have you considered doing more work in the gaming industry? Perhaps more for Traveller?
27. The not Traveller related but I would like to know how close AI ever came to publication and if it will ever see print?
28. What happened to allow someone whose name (Roger Sanger) 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 certainly 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. )
29. Did Roger actually make all his IP payments to you?
a) And Did they clears the bank?
30. Why was DGP so infamous for errata?
a) MT was a great game system, but with the exception of T4, has been the worst for errata. Was that just a time crunch?
b) A case of trying to do too much too fast? A lack of play testers or proofreaders?
c) Or some other reason?
31. I have 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) dot-matrix print...
a) What software was used to layout the first two issues of TD? Macintosh desktop publishing? (The PC certainly would not have had anything comparable at the time).
b) What Software was used for the artwork? Or was it done pencil and paper and scanned or illustrated directly?
c) When the issues went over to typeset starting with issue 3 what method was used? What drove the change?
32. In retrospect, do you think the DGP products might have covered the OTU in a bit too much detail - leaving less for the imagination?
33. How do you feel about the thought that the MT copyright holder's (Marc W. Miller) 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?
34. In your farewell editorial in MTJ4, you mention that DGP inquired about 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?
35. Perhaps, you would like to highlight some of the work that you are currently engaged in and how we might be able to help any future business ventures?
36. Thank you all for participating in this interview. Are there any final words or desires that you wish to pass on to fandom?
!!
Greetings! Nice to see you posting, hope you'll be able to do so again.
Okay folk let the man breath some!
"But I can certainly answer other questions as time permits, as long as I am not totally inundated with questions."
Casey
<Moot-Jester-in-Training Asu readies a can of Otaku-Away>
edit-generalized post
Greetings! Nice to see you posting, hope you'll be able to do so again.
Okay folk let the man breath some!
"But I can certainly answer other questions as time permits, as long as I am not totally inundated with questions."
Casey
<Moot-Jester-in-Training Asu readies a can of Otaku-Away>
edit-generalized post
TJP
SOC-12
Welcome Joe! Good to see you here. 
Fanboy stuff follows... Back in the 80's it was mostly the DGP material that really sold Traveller to me - so much so, that even after some 15-20 years, I'm still a Traveller nut. So thanks for all those DGP books and magazines, they provided many great ideas and roleplaying moments for me. If you're ever in Finland, I'll buy you a beer or ten.
Fanboy stuff follows... Back in the 80's it was mostly the DGP material that really sold Traveller to me - so much so, that even after some 15-20 years, I'm still a Traveller nut. So thanks for all those DGP books and magazines, they provided many great ideas and roleplaying moments for me. If you're ever in Finland, I'll buy you a beer or ten.
Okay, let me take one of these questions every few days and answer it.
Here's the first question.
1. The name of Digest Group Publications is a name that stood for consistently high production value and brought Traveller alive for hundreds of fans. Would the participants like to say a few words about themselves, how the Group members got into Traveller?
=================================================
I'm glad people still feel our products were well done. They were certainly a labor of love for us all, and the original DGP team was a great bunch that had real synergy. We would bounce ideas off each other all the time, shoot them down, and then come up with better ideas as a result. It's that notion that no one really owned an idea but that our products were the group's output that really helped produce some nice stuff.
Anyhow, to answer the question. For me, I discovered Traveller in a hobby shop shortly after the Star Wars phenomenon hit in the late 70s. I was fascinated with the idea that you could "play" Star Wars with this Role Playing game, and the whole idea of an RPG was novel at the time, with D&D just coming out as well.
My gaming heritage was in SPI and Avalon Hill war games, and I certainly played my share of them, including War in Europe and War in the Pacific ... both monster games.
As more Traveller products started to come out, I began to get caught up in the background of the Imperium and the Spinward Marches, and Star Wars faded into the background.
I met Gary Thomas at work (I was a computer programmer) and introduced him to the game. Gary was really into the *role* playing aspect of the game and showed us all how to get in and stay in character (via ad hoc play acting) during the game.
This added a whole new dimension of fun to the game. Gary background and interest was in mathematics and linguistics, and he could speak some 8 languages, as well as read and write languages such as sanscrit.
I wanted to learn more about the Traveller Universe and decided maybe one way to do it was to ask Marc Miller if we could write for the game. We sent Marc some samples from what would become Travellers Digest issue 1.
Marc was very accommodating and offered to license us to produce product for a very attractive price ... Gary was flabbergasted that 1) I had the gall to ask Marc Miller directly if we could be licensees, and 2) that Marc would be so accommodating to us.
That was the fall of 1984 ...
I introduced Bob and Nancy Parker to the game ... they came to me via an ad I had posted in the hobby shop for gamers. They hung around and became part of the group.
Rob Caswell wrote us as a fan and sent us samples of his artwork. It was good stuff, so we started to use it. Rob would call us and kibitz on things Traveller for hours on end, and we found the discussions to be very useful, and he was full of fun ideas for the game.
Deb Zeigler is Rob's significant other (now wife) and her quiet and contemplative nature made you sit up and listen when she had something to say because it was always worth listening to.
Of course, there's my wife, Patty, who was never a hard-core Traveller fan, but she loved SF, so she understood our passion. She would mostly play hostess during the work sessions and playtests.
Once in a great while we would get her to participate in a game.
So that's how it all started. I'll move on to the next question in my next post in a day or so.
Here's the first question.
1. The name of Digest Group Publications is a name that stood for consistently high production value and brought Traveller alive for hundreds of fans. Would the participants like to say a few words about themselves, how the Group members got into Traveller?
=================================================
I'm glad people still feel our products were well done. They were certainly a labor of love for us all, and the original DGP team was a great bunch that had real synergy. We would bounce ideas off each other all the time, shoot them down, and then come up with better ideas as a result. It's that notion that no one really owned an idea but that our products were the group's output that really helped produce some nice stuff.
Anyhow, to answer the question. For me, I discovered Traveller in a hobby shop shortly after the Star Wars phenomenon hit in the late 70s. I was fascinated with the idea that you could "play" Star Wars with this Role Playing game, and the whole idea of an RPG was novel at the time, with D&D just coming out as well.
My gaming heritage was in SPI and Avalon Hill war games, and I certainly played my share of them, including War in Europe and War in the Pacific ... both monster games.
As more Traveller products started to come out, I began to get caught up in the background of the Imperium and the Spinward Marches, and Star Wars faded into the background.
I met Gary Thomas at work (I was a computer programmer) and introduced him to the game. Gary was really into the *role* playing aspect of the game and showed us all how to get in and stay in character (via ad hoc play acting) during the game.
This added a whole new dimension of fun to the game. Gary background and interest was in mathematics and linguistics, and he could speak some 8 languages, as well as read and write languages such as sanscrit.
I wanted to learn more about the Traveller Universe and decided maybe one way to do it was to ask Marc Miller if we could write for the game. We sent Marc some samples from what would become Travellers Digest issue 1.
Marc was very accommodating and offered to license us to produce product for a very attractive price ... Gary was flabbergasted that 1) I had the gall to ask Marc Miller directly if we could be licensees, and 2) that Marc would be so accommodating to us.
That was the fall of 1984 ...
I introduced Bob and Nancy Parker to the game ... they came to me via an ad I had posted in the hobby shop for gamers. They hung around and became part of the group.
Rob Caswell wrote us as a fan and sent us samples of his artwork. It was good stuff, so we started to use it. Rob would call us and kibitz on things Traveller for hours on end, and we found the discussions to be very useful, and he was full of fun ideas for the game.
Deb Zeigler is Rob's significant other (now wife) and her quiet and contemplative nature made you sit up and listen when she had something to say because it was always worth listening to.
Of course, there's my wife, Patty, who was never a hard-core Traveller fan, but she loved SF, so she understood our passion. She would mostly play hostess during the work sessions and playtests.
Once in a great while we would get her to participate in a game.
So that's how it all started. I'll move on to the next question in my next post in a day or so.
Dear Folks -
Joe Fugate (JOE FUGATE!!!) wrote:
Second, I think that you've already given us a clue as to another question:
Joe Fugate (JOE FUGATE!!!) wrote:
First, let me get the fanboy stuff out of the way and say to Joe WOWWOWWOWWOW! (oh, and thanks for offering to answer some of our lame questions
Second, I think that you've already given us a clue as to another question:
(here's the bit I mean)
M
Malenfant
Guest
I must profess that I don't know all the names from the DGP era and have no specific memories of particular individuals from that time, but I'm definitely glad Joe is here.
I am a big fan of the DGP work and think it's among the best written for the game. Especially the WBH (which I had tons of fun with) and the two aliens books - I remember when DGP closed its doors I was sooo disappointed to find that the other aliens books weren't going to be coming out
. I also think it's very frustrating that it's all inaccessible for authors of the game due to all the legal issues. I know there's not much that can be done about that though, but it's still frustrating .
I just wanted to thank Joe for being part of the gang at DGP and for his part in bringing us that material anyway, and I look forward to hearing what he has to say about that time
I am a big fan of the DGP work and think it's among the best written for the game. Especially the WBH (which I had tons of fun with) and the two aliens books - I remember when DGP closed its doors I was sooo disappointed to find that the other aliens books weren't going to be coming out
. I also think it's very frustrating that it's all inaccessible for authors of the game due to all the legal issues. I know there's not much that can be done about that though, but it's still frustrating . I just wanted to thank Joe for being part of the gang at DGP and for his part in bringing us that material anyway, and I look forward to hearing what he has to say about that time
Thanks guys for the kind words about DGP. Yes, Roger Sanger owns it all now and although he could sound convincing and had a fist full of cash when he talked to me in 1994, sadly it looks like he's mostly talk and very little do. I'm as disappointed as any of you on that count.
At any rate, we had some interesting stuff planned for the Alien books, especially Zhodani and Droyne, which was to be our next release. I'll divulge some secret stuff that links Knightfall, the Referee's Kit, and the next Alien book ... curious yet?
Don't worrry. We'll get to it!
At any rate, we had some interesting stuff planned for the Alien books, especially Zhodani and Droyne, which was to be our next release. I'll divulge some secret stuff that links Knightfall, the Referee's Kit, and the next Alien book ... curious yet?
Don't worrry. We'll get to it!
Definitely curious!
Add my thanks, Joe, for all the great work that brought such enjoyment back then and continues to do so to this day!
And I hope your clock is off or something, or are you a nightowl, posting at 3:31am!? (Oops, don't answer that - there are much more important Traveller questions to get to!
)
Add my thanks, Joe, for all the great work that brought such enjoyment back then and continues to do so to this day!
And I hope your clock is off or something, or are you a nightowl, posting at 3:31am!? (Oops, don't answer that - there are much more important Traveller questions to get to!
I'd like to add my thanks, Joe, for your contributions and the hard work of DGP to the Game We All Love. I, too, feel that DGP's work set a standard that has rarely been met with any level of consistency, and has become the yardstick against which I measure a Traveller product's quality.
Thank you for your part in making Traveller shine,
Flynn
Thank you for your part in making Traveller shine,
Flynn
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