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StarFleet Battles designers seeking MGT license?

M

Maladominus

SOC-14 1K
Interesting,

I was just browing the forums of my old digs... the Starfleetgames.com forums. These are the same handful of guys that have been making/designing Star Fleet Battles for 3 decades now.

So I was at the forum, just trying to see if there is any progress on D6 Prime Directive (a Star Trek based RPG, if you haven't figured out by now). Because the idea of a D6 system (fast paced, simple rules) interested me greatly, especially with a Trek-based RPG.

Instead, Steve Cole goes on tangent about how D6 is such a low priority right now, since they have several other more promising deals in the works.... including seeking license for Mongoose-Traveller.

Mongoose-Traveller and the SFB People bedding together??!! Interesting to say the least. One thing can be said of them, they know how to make a great *tactical* starship boardgame.



P.S. --- I was a long-time playtester for SFB in the late 1980s, when Amarillo Design Bureau and Task Force Games owned that game. I know the game quite well, but haven't opened my old SFB boxes in nearly 10 years.
 
Hoo boy...

This is probably about as close to a Traveller Star Trek as it would be possible to get. I can hear the blood vessels bursting in some folks on the TML as I type...

Most likely what we'd get is Traveller Prime Directive. Which in my mind would not be a bad thing at all.

Allen
 
Steve Cole seems pretty clueless about licensing. He rejects the terms of open licenses out of hand.

All he needs to do to do it is find an author, courtesy of the open license. But that would require curing a serious case of craniorectal insertion.
 
Maladominus said:
Mongoose-Traveller and the SFB People bedding together??!! Interesting to say the least. One thing can be said of them, they know how to make a great *tactical* starship boardgame.

P.S. --- I was a long-time playtester for SFB in the late 1980s, when Amarillo Design Bureau and Task Force Games owned that game. I know the game quite well, but haven't opened my old SFB boxes in nearly 10 years.
Click to expand...

I was into SFB back then... played it until it grew into "star fleet lawyers"; haven't opened the books in god knows how long....

Allensh said:
This is probably about as close to a Traveller Star Trek as it would be possible to get. I can hear the blood vessels bursting in some folks on the TML as I type...

Most likely what we'd get is Traveller Prime Directive. Which in my mind would not be a bad thing at all.
Click to expand...

I never turned Traveller into a Star Trek game. But, I did turn Space Opera into a Star Trek game. Was quite fun being able to design ST ships in the Space Opera system.

To make ST in Trav would require a re-work of the ship design system (to a degree) and a changing of the Tech Tree (IMO).

But, it's doable. And with the SDR it should be easy....
 
aramis said:
Steve Cole seems pretty clueless about licensing. He rejects the terms of open licenses out of hand.

All he needs to do to do it is find an author, courtesy of the open license. But that would require curing a serious case of craniorectal insertion.
Click to expand...

Cole treads a very firm line regarding licensing, because he's basically by fluke luck managed to get grandfathered in to this niche area that he has without getting pulverized by Paramount over the Trek franchise. His original license is with Franz Josef designs, not Paramount. So he has to be extra careful.
 
I played SFB way back then. When Starfleet Command came out I bought that and thoroughly enjoyed it until the hacks started and then the game designers downgraded the plasma torpedoes because of a bunch of whining by those who really didn't know how to play the game. Starfleet Command is/was a great game.
 
whartung said:
Cole treads a very firm line regarding licensing, because he's basically by fluke luck managed to get grandfathered in to this niche area that he has without getting pulverized by Paramount over the Trek franchise. His original license is with Franz Josef designs, not Paramount. So he has to be extra careful.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the whole franz joseph thing due to lack of effort by anyone to manage that IP back in the day really burns Paramount's ass. They're normally pretty nazi about their IP.. or any suspected, or imagined, malign against their IP.....
 
No, SVC implies repeatedly that he refuses to accept that open licenses are valid. That's a very different thing.

I'm WELL aware of the issues over the FJD license... My SFB days were 1983-1996. SVC won that suit.
 
I think a D6 Prime Directive is very unlikely now as WEG and D6 are apparently officially dead. The owner having gone out in a blaze of vitriol filled glory on RPG.net - or so I heard on the Pulp Gamer Podcast.

If you want a simple, cinematic Trek game, you could do worse than pick up Last Unicorn's Next Generation rules. As simple and fast as D6 and it reminded me of the old WEG Star Wars in a number of ways. There are some excellent fan supplements for the TOS setting for it online too.
 
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aramis said:
No, SVC implies repeatedly that he refuses to accept that open licenses are valid. That's a very different thing.

I'm WELL aware of the issues over the FJD license... My SFB days were 1983-1996. SVC won that suit.
Click to expand...

Indeed. SVC is very narrow minded in this area.

Wow. I always wondered just how many SFB refugees were here. It is good not to be alone. My SFB days were 1979-1993. When the rulebook became more important than the game it was time to hang it up. The main problem I saw is that they kept trying to make a rule to cover absolutely every possible situation that may arise-they wanted everyone to play the game with the exact same assumptions that they had when they played it.

If we didn't meet at some of the same events or tournaments then we most certainly chewed some of the same drones.
 
if memory serves I think I started SFB in '79. Played the hell out of until probably '87~ish until I finally had enough with most game sessions being 60% rules arguing and 40% playing.

I used it as a space combat system for some ST~like games for a bit.

Anyone remember the very 1st Star Trek RPG that came out early 80s?

I've actually been interested in getting STar Fleet Commander..... my youngest is now 10 and I'm hoping at least with him I can give him the "geek" bug. My two older kids didn't catch it. My oldest boy is a console/computer gamer but not table top...

it's hard for chits to compete with pixels.....
 
I've still got the old FASA Star Trek RPG (d100 game system) and Tactical Combat game.
Played the RPG once. I used to play the Tactical Combat game a little more often, but again not played for years.
I've really got to get back on to eBay and clearing the games cupboard.
 
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tim_manley said:
if memory serves I think I started SFB in '79. Played the hell out of until probably '87~ish until I finally had enough with most game sessions being 60% rules arguing and 40% playing.

I used it as a space combat system for some ST~like games for a bit.

Anyone remember the very 1st Star Trek RPG that came out early 80s?

I've actually been interested in getting STar Fleet Commander..... my youngest is now 10 and I'm hoping at least with him I can give him the "geek" bug. My two older kids didn't catch it. My oldest boy is a console/computer gamer but not table top...

it's hard for chits to compete with pixels.....
Click to expand...

Actually the VERY first Star Trek RPG was put out by Heritage Models in 1978 and was based on the animated series. No ship combat in there.

The FASA game, which I believe you were referring to, owes a lot of its design to Traveller <g>

Allen
 
Allensh said:
Actually the VERY first Star Trek RPG was put out by Heritage Models in 1978 and was based on the animated series. No ship combat in there.

The FASA game, which I believe you were referring to, owes a lot of its design to Traveller <g>

Allen
Click to expand...

Ah, yep, that's the one. I didn't realize that the animated series had an RPG put out... interesting.

Though, I'll be honest, I don't really see much traveller influence in the old FASA system. The whol % skill system, tick marks to raise skill, etc. I played both at the same time and didn't see much relatiuonship.

Can you tell me how it owes it's design to traveller?

Hmm... gonna have to go dig up that game now... luckily it's in my garage with all other decades of game collecting stuff...
 
tim_manley said:
Hmm... gonna have to go dig up that game now... luckily it's in my garage with all other decades of game collecting stuff...
Click to expand...
Hmm ... my wife insists that I use the garage for the car. I've got to keep the collection down to two underbed drawers and one bookcase shelf. All of which is full. Thank the gods for PDF published games :D
 
Valarian said:
Hmm ... my wife insists that I use the garage for the car. I've got to keep the collection down to two underbed drawers and one bookcase shelf. All of which is full. Thank the gods for PDF published games :D
Click to expand...

LOL

if we're using the garage for the cars it means the zombies have swarmed the house....

garage is for storage, play, work-bench.... :-)
 
I was into SFB for a long time and quit only after a run in with SVC.

I hope he doesn't get involved with traveller and would not buy anything he was connected with.
 
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tim_manley said:
Anyone remember the very 1st Star Trek RPG that came out early 80s?
Click to expand...

I remember one by FGU with names changed to keep lawyers away...it was pretty bad.
One alien artifact changed the sex of the character when he walked through it..wtf?..and why would aliens care?
 
The very first was Zocchi's.
Heritage released two unlicensed.
Then S&S.
Then FASA
Then Twerps Twek
Then Prime Directive (tricode)
The LUGTrek
Then GPD
Then Decipher Trek
Then PD20
 
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