Klingons and Trill Sourcebooks...

[prophetsteve]

So "The Cardassians" has arrived and has set the bar for quality fan netbooks for the LUGTrek game...

I see this is a challenge to those writing the Klingons and Trill books to step up and get the ball rolling to get their books out.

We've heard that the Trill book is ongoing but we know next to nothing about the status of the Klingon book.

To the "The Klingons" writers, give us an update. Please don't tell us the book has gone the way of vapourware. After all, you have probably less than a year before DecTrek's equivalent comes out... get a jump on them and show us your vision of the Klingon Empire.

To the "The Trills" book, how about an update? You book has been the only one I've heard about recently (besides the Cardassian) and it would be interesting to hear what progress has been made?

[Caretaker]

Well, there were a few problems when boards were transferred many months ago. But those are getting worked out.

As for the actual book, the material we currently have is about to go through another analysis, edit and revision. Don't worry, it's coming, slowly but surely.

[Anomaly]

I think the Klingons fan book fizzled, but don't quote me on it.

[prophetsteve]

It probably did fizzle. Shame to, since those who want to play Klingons will have to wait for DecTrek's book which is probably 8-12 months away.

The ratio of finished netbooks to "vapourware" is very high. I know, I have promised various netbooks for various games in my lifetime and haven't delivered. What seems like a good idea at the time sometimes grows very stale and dies a slow painful death.

Thats why I was so impressed by the Cardassian Book (besides the quality I see in the material presented) was a group of people promised something and delivered.

And it renews my faith in the power of dedicated RPG fans to produce their own quality material.

[Captain Zymmer]

Get Brian and I to tell you the fate of the Hidden Frontier netbook.

I think the problem is the lack of available information plus the desire overwhelming comonsense with these projects.

IMHO

[prophetsteve]

In the case of Hidden Frontier, yes. Its like writing an Enterprise netbook at this junction, there really isn't a heck of a lot of canon information to make a book.

From having written netbooks single-handedly, I can attest to the amount of work it takes and the burnout-factor is high. Making a collaborative netbook is easier in the writing department but often is riskier....if enough people become disinterested or drop out, the project wanes.

Its why I don't write netbooks anymore, since the last few I have promised for other games died of burnout...and often the burnout means I get disinterested in the system for a good deal of time...

[Captain Zymmer]

I still think it all comes down to available material.

A Movie Gen net bookw ould be easy as there is soo much info out there that you would have to figure out what is rejected to make it all fit.

But with the Trill, so little is known, no wonder the book has had a hard time.

IMHO

[Anomaly]

We had that problem among us, frankly. Most of the Cardassian book was written by Jan of this year, with some smaller holes that needed to be filled. With the sale of the license to Decipher, we had no idea where the game was headed and were unsure as to where to step. So, from around Jan-April, nothing happened with the Spoonheads until all of that became more clear. We picked back up on it during the summer. Burnout was constant throughout.

The biggest problem I had was unfulfilled promises - people who had promised to write something or another and never came through. That was the most frustrating aspect. Because then I had to turn to writers who had finished theirs and ask if they would mind writing more. Not that they did - but I still hated to ask.

Then, Don gave us our wake up call around September. What's the status, will it see daylight? We set a hard deadline, and enforced it. Originally, I had marked up Book II in Word and was just going to do it that way - but I was dissatisfied with the results. So I went out and dropped a ton of money on Adobe InDesign so it could be marked up in PDF format - yes, I spent a bunch of money to make this book. Once I had that it took me a couple of weeks to get up to speed. There are still some things I'm unhappy with, but that's why you see a 'v1' in the ReadMe file. I plan on updating it to v2.

What will be in v2?

Eric sent in some great ground vehicles that I wanted to put in but it didn't make the deadline. I also wanted some more NPCs, not just the two that are there. I'd also like to include a full-blown adventure, so that the whole format more closely resembles the Way of D'Era. Perhaps a couple more ships.. But everything else I'm pretty happy with.

I hate vaporware as much as the next person - I swore to myself that I'd get the book out come hell or high water.

Kevin

[Captain Zymmer]

And you did and deserve a round of applause for it.

A man's job and well done

Now if only we can get together a Movie Gen group

I doubt it highly though

[Michael Barratt]

For those of us with limited space on our computer drives (stupid MP3 habit, *snarl*), could y'all give us a "table of contents" for the Cardassian Book?

On the front of Netbooks: the only ones I've taken part in before were AD&D ones... I had a very flushed out world in AD&D land, and a lot of focus on Elemental magics which went well in a netbook on Element Magic... Now I'm taking part in the Adventure/Planetary sourcebook for LUGTrek, and I'm loving it. I don't think that one will fizzle - though it may be a tad delayed.

For the most part, I'm loving this group effort, and I've never seen a game so taken by the fans before LUGTrek.

The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

Taken by the fans eh?

Hmmmmmmm...

That might be revolutionary talk there my man...

But oh what sweet talk it is

[Dan Gurden]

As Doc Bashiers 2IC on the Trill book I can give you an update there.

At the moment it seems to be just me and Jonas with many of the others either AWOL or forced to drop out due to time constrainsts.

My application was severely curtailed due to continuing computer faults, which sould hopefully be fixed now.

As for whats done. BrianK has entered some great ships that are complete and ready, Anarchy Bob and myself cobbled together some character/symbiont rules along with a 'Courage' replacement that needs futher development and playtesting...

The ecology, anthropology, biology and histories are mostly finished, history (my section) has been delayed...

NPC's are on hold while we decide how to do them; ie; which Dax gets included or do all 3? Among others...

I plan on some social studies and need far more work on the Symbiosis commission. After that theres layout and artwork for which we have nobody involved...

Theres a ton of stuff there, and plenty thats finished. But it require completion.

However, we have vacancies for;

Artwork.
Character Creation Rules playtesting.
Layout.

And if anyone has some really great ideas they want to see.

[Dr. Jonas Bashir]

Dan said it best. I don't think I can add anything.

Don't worry, we're still alive. At least, that makes me proud of my team.

[Eric R.]

I found that there was two things to this to make you successful 1.) Don't get eyes bigger than your stomach. I originally thought I could handle the government, military and History sections I worked a little on all three (mainly the Military) to the point last december I could not even think of a Cardassian consequantly I could not write anymore I was litterally filled to the brim with the subject. I finshed the Military section and then handed back the government section and then later the history. By September I had done very little else but had gained some interest and started working again unfourtunatly my original military section needs extensive rewrite due to both original Ideas and poor layout on my part. When the creative juices got flowing again the dealine was past. v2 will feature an even more of an orignal military section hopefully and with those ground vehicles mentioned above.

2.) Have a good strong editor even if that means your ready to pound him in the ground every once in awhile, you do your job and they do theres and eventually you might surprised to fine what little jems where laying about.

[prophetsteve]

As I see it, these really are the guidelines for netbooks....

1. Set the subject and scope of the netbook immediately and try not to divert from it. If possible write an outline of what the book will include...that will give you a roadmap to you writing.

2. As has been said, don't bite off more than you can chew... choose a subject you know you can finish.

3. Know your subject. If you want to make a guide to Ferengi, then at least have watched the Trek episodes they appeared in. If you know nothing about Ferengi except they have big ears, then maybe another subject is more appropriate...

4. Pace yourself. Don't go gung-ho into it in the beginning.... work on it every day if you want but if every waking moment is spent writing this netbook, you risk burning out long before its completed. Balance is the key to keeping you on track.

5. Work with others if you can but choose carefully - unreliable co-writers can lead to the death of a netbook very easily.

6. Ask for opinions and constructive criticism for works-in-progress; keep an open mind but don't let them divert you from the original scope of the book (unless its a big improvement over what you had in mind...).

7. Don't promise anything. Only when you know you can achieve something should you make claims... otherwise you'll get eaten alive...

8. Don't rush the product. Release it only when its ready and complete. Generally you shouldn't need to worry about #8 unless you have broken rule #7.

9. Never feel that you cannot improve your product after its released. A "ready" netbook is one that can be used as a complete product by the reader and player... however, even the publishers add more volumes and new editions of their soucebooks. So why can't you?