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Jan 6, 2010 14:56:07 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 6, 2010 14:56:07 GMT -5
Hey, welcome, Mike! A couple of questions for you:
1. How come WNMHGB 1.0 has so many more screencaps from the show, and in general more color and attention to layout than 2.0? Presentation really adds a lot.
2. Being an AD&D guy at heart, I like the idea of the Players Handbook — a more immersive book that the players can look at to roll up a character or get ideas from during the game — and the Dungeon Masters Guide — the actual nuts and bolts that only the referee needs, “behind the screen”. That said, I’m toying with the idea of using the Starfleet Technical Manual as a players’ book. They can look at it, at will, to stay in the right mood and feel, as well as get ideas (but not rules). What would still be lacking is a short character creation manual, ideally with lots of pictures. Would you consider putting together a book that excerpts just the player parts from your rules?
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Jan 6, 2010 15:28:42 GMT -5
Post by slortar on Jan 6, 2010 15:28:42 GMT -5
In order: 1. Version 1 is more or less a finished product. At some point, I finally just pulled the plug and decided to make it prettier. v2 until fairly recently (and maybe not even then) was very much a work in progress, so I spent more of an effort on adding "stuff" to it--random idea generators, actors and neat things to throw into adventures, etc, than making it look good. Also, I have the layout skills of a slug so that factors in. It's a fairly exasperating process for me. I have been meaning to add more pictures and color at least, just haven't gotten around to it yet. 2. I like that idea a lot. Even more so, because I've always thought of WNM as more of a one-shot thing. A lot of the decisions in tone and style were to make it easier to randomly draw in groups of people who might normally be intimidated by the idea of Trek gaming...and having to learn a huge new system...and a huge new universe. I also deliberately made it as easy as possible to come up with stuff on the fly, so you could--ideally--slap together an adventure on a moment's notice. At least, that's the theory. In the context of a one-shot, I like the idea of being able to toss the players a handbook with just the stuff they need while the GM can use his book to finalize adventure elements. I do have a Pocket Mod character creator, but I think it could go farther. Also, I have access to a rather obnoxiously large amount of TOS source material on my hard drive, so coming up with pictures/etc would not be very difficult.
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coffee
Lieutenant
"My chicken sandwich...and coffee." - James T. Kirk
Posts: 84
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Jan 6, 2010 15:38:02 GMT -5
Post by coffee on Jan 6, 2010 15:38:02 GMT -5
And if you ever decide to do a boxed set, you could take a tip from StarSiege: Event Horizon. That set had an adventure, a GM's book, and FOUR copies of the player's book. Much easier to get a lot of players up to speed that way.
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Jan 6, 2010 15:40:35 GMT -5
Post by finarvyn on Jan 6, 2010 15:40:35 GMT -5
1. I like the format of 1.0 and would like to add a second vote to making 2.0 a bit more spiffy.
2. I agree that having players book and GM's book would be more useful. (The Star Fleet Technical Manual does make a decent start on a PH, but doesn't contain any game mechanic material so needs to be supplemented. I bought an extra copy of SFTM just so my players could paw over it without touching my original from the '70s.)
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Jan 6, 2010 16:35:45 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 6, 2010 16:35:45 GMT -5
Heh, in my love for old things, I would only ever buy the first printing of the SFTM. They had quite a good print run originally, apparently, and due to constant reprints the demand has never been high. So getting an excellent copy of the first printing for cheap on eBay is really easy, in my experience. Got mine recently for $9.99, and there were several more auctions like it at the time.. The list price for the currently in-print paperback edition is $17.95!
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Jan 8, 2010 23:10:04 GMT -5
Post by Badelaire on Jan 8, 2010 23:10:04 GMT -5
And if you ever decide to do a boxed set, you could take a tip from StarSiege: Event Horizon. That set had an adventure, a GM's book, and FOUR copies of the player's book. Much easier to get a lot of players up to speed that way. +1 on this idea. StarSiege as a boxed set is, all issues or non-issues you might have with the RPG itself aside, very well done. The Troll Lords really hit it out of the park on that one.
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