This Week at ADB, Inc., 21-27 May 2017
Steve Cole reports:
This was
a week of steady work on current projects.
New on Warehouse 23, Wargame Vault, and DriveThru RPG this
week was the LDR Master Starship Book. The revised (mostly minor typographical issues) Lyran Master Starship Book was also uploaded.
Steve Cole worked on Captain's Log #53 (fiction),
blogs, Federation & Empire SITs, production (Shapeways and die cut counters),
graphics for Master Starship Books and GURPS Prime Directive, and other projects. Steve took off a
couple of mornings to meet repairmen and get long-delayed work done on
his house.
Steven Petrick worked on Captain's Log #53, the Star Fleet Battles Module R3 revision, quality
control assembly and shipping, and the LDR Master Starship Book.
Leanna kept orders and accounting up to date.
Mike kept orders going out and rebuilt the
inventory.
Simone did website updates and some
graphics.
Wolf guarded the office, chasing away a
pair of pythons.
Jean worked
on the GURPS Prime Directive revision, managed our page on Facebook (which is up to 3,806 friends), managed our Twitter feed (224 followers), commanded the
Rangers, dealt with the continuing spam assault on the BBS, managed
the blog feed, took care of
customers, uploaded PDFs, and did some marketing.
The Top Ten Ways to Get a Scenario Rejected
10. Make your scenario too big for people to actually play, such as maxing out the command rating for five different empires.
9. Make sure your scenario just isn’t interesting or fun.
8. Make sure your scenario is so unbalanced that there is no way for one side to win.
7. Build a “trick key” into your scenario, some simple thing one side
can do (and the enemy cannot stop him from doing) to automatically win,
such as disengaging on Turn #1 and scoring the “appearance money” points
you get just for showing up.
6. Write a scenario that is just a BPV battle, or is just SG2 with no special rules or situations.
5. Write a scenario where carriers don’t have their escorts because you think that the escort requirement rules are silly.
4. Don’t pick a year for your scenario, just select ships, weapons, and
political situations from all over the timeline and roll them into one
battle.
3. Write a scenario that is historically impossible.
2. Write a scenario without a hook, or anything else to make it catch our interest.
1. Write a scenario that is “the first time they saw a ____ and boy were
they surprised!” (Hint: both players read the scenario and nobody is
surprised. Rarely, someone can write rules to account for a surprise,
but like we said, it is very rare.)
(c) 2005 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. Captain's Log #31.
RANDOM THOUGHTS #289
Steve Cole's thoughts on traveling to
Mars.
I have, of late, watched a lot of Mars Society videos on
YouTube (there are dozens, all worth a watch) and can see a lot of
frustration and exuberance in the speakers.
1. NASA isn't going to Mars, even if it says it is.
Their whole culture is geared toward what the vendors want to sell to
the government and there isn't any short-term profit in Mars. There
is also the problem that whatever program is started by one session of
congress or one president often doesn't survive into the next
one.
2. I have heard talk of a Mars Flyby mission, sending
people on a year-long trip to drop by Mars without landing. (They
might orbit a few days.) The point is that dragging along everything
they will need to land, stay some period of time, and take back off
will require a much bigger and more expensive space ship. This mission
seems worthless to me. They cannot accomplish anything from orbit a
robot probe cannot do, and it would have to be very risky and
frustrating for the astronauts. Everyone remembers the first man on
the moon; nobody remembers six earlier people who flew past it.
3. The single key point about Mars is the
gravity, which is 38% of Earth. Nobody knows, and nobody has tried to
find out, what happens to the human body with prolonged exposure to
gravity of that type. We know that a year in zero gravity causes no
end of medical problems, but would 18 months (the planned stay) in 38%
gravity destroy a human body or would the human body tolerate it
fairly well? We could find out with an orbital centrifuge (and 18
months of a few astronaut lives) but nobody is even planning that kind
of mission. The problem is that once you spend six months en route
(maybe faking gravity by spinning the ship with an empty rocket stage
on the end of a wire) and land on Mars, you don't know if 18 months
in 38% gravity is going to leave you capable of climbing back into the
rocket ship at the end.
4. Olympus Mons is so high that it
extends out of the atmosphere of Mars. Someday, tourists will take a
train to the top of it so they can say they have been in outer
space.
5. While we're talking about Mars, let
me take a moment to discuss the current robot rovers. These things
were not expected to last very long because it was expected that dust
would cover the solar panels. As it happened, windstorms wiped off the
dust and the rovers continued for years. What I don't understand is
why they weren't designed with "solar panel wipers" that
would wipe the dust away?
This Week at ADB, Inc., 14-20 May 2017
Steve Cole reports:
This was
a week of steady work on current projects.
The weather this week was
cool.
Steve Cole worked on Captain's Log #53, blogs, Federation & Empire SITs
(he finished the latest update cycle), and other projects. Stephen and
Leanna took off a couple of days to drive to Denver and adopt a new
Bengal cat, Zephyr.
Steven Petrick worked on Captain's Log #53, quality
control assembly and shipping, and the LDR Master Starship Book. He started work on
the Star Fleet Battles Module R3 update and the Kzinti Master Starship Book.
Leanna kept orders and accounting up
to date.
Mike kept orders going out and rebuilt the
inventory.
Simone did website updates and some
graphics.
Wolf guarded the office, chasing away a
porcupine.
Jean worked on the GURPS
Prime Directive revision, managed our page on Facebook (which is up to 3,806 friends),
managed our Twitter feed (223 followers), commanded the Rangers, dealt
with the continuing spam assault on the BBS, managed the blog feed, took care of customers, and did some
marketing.
Monsters over Frallia
BATTLE #19: Fralli vs.Just about Everybody
Stephen V. Cole, USS Texas
MONSTERS: Ice Monster, Ancient Space Dragon, Moray Eel of Space, Death Probe, Juggernaut,
Metamorph.
FRALLI DEFENSE FORCE
550 Administrative Shuttlecraft
"Somebody out there doesn't like us!" the Fralli Field Marshal exclaimed as he began the briefing. "We have six monsters bearing down on our planet, one from each direction. Star Fleet has pulled out the defense squadron 'for maneuvers' and the Federation Police have sent the local cutter to enforce handicap parking at Texmex. We're on our own.
"We have considerable forces available, but unfortunately, all of them are administrative shuttles," the Field Marshal explained. "At least there is some good news; we have five hundred and fifty administrative shuttles. So listen closely. Some of us are going to die, but most of us are going to look good.
"And looking good is what this is all about!
"We will divide our forces into eight squadrons," he explained, "each consisting of a carefully calculated number of shuttlecraft. The first six will each move outward to engage one monster; the last two will constitute a final reserve here at the planet itself.
"The First Squadron, with 80 shuttlecraft, will engage the Juggernaut," he directed. "Charge that thing head-on, timing the attack to arrive nearly at the end of a turn about 100,000 kms from the planet. He may have phaser-4s, but he can only kill a few of us at a time. The rest, probably about 70, will fire point-blank into his forward shield. That will generate about 265 points of damage, enough to score about 90 points of internal damage, enough to kick his teeth in! That should leave the Juggerhulk a flaming wreck tumbling toward our sacred planet. After that pass, send all of your shuttles back to the planet for final defense and leave the flaming wreck to the Seventh Squadron.
"Eighty shuttles assigned to the First Squadron leaves 470.
"The Second Squadron, with 200 shuttlecraft, is assigned to engage the death probe. Again, attack him head on and fire at point-blank range near the end of a turn about 100,000 kms from our planet. He will kill about 20 of your shuttles, leaving 180. Those will score about 700 points of damage, enough to leave him wrecked, blind, and bleeding! Then send all of your shuttles back to the planet and leave the stumbling wreck to the Seventh Squadron.
"Two hundred shuttles assigned to the Second Squadron leaves 270.
"The Third Squadron, with only 30 shuttlecraft, will engage the moray eel," the Field Marshal explained. "Your mission is not to destroy the monster, but only to delay him. Have one of your shuttles fire at the monster each turn. The moray eel will then turn to strike at the shuttle, destroying it. All you have to do is keep him busy for seven or eight turns, enough time to kill all of the other monsters. At that point, you can let him go and follow him back here. Once he arrives, we¹ll have enough shuttles from the other squadrons to score 880 damage points in a single volley, after which, teams of a dozen shuttles can each score 44 points to trigger another death roll.
"The shuttles assigned to the Third Squadron leave 240.
"The Fourth Squadron, with 10 shuttles, is assigned to meet the metamorph and slow him down by a turn or two. I want to you slap his face and leave his cheeks a burning red! With any luck, you will buy me just enough time before the last of you die horribly in a burning wreck of a shuttlecraft.
"The metamorph should get here pretty fast, and we'll pay with the lives of you brave pilots for the information we need about his weapons and defenses. We need 880 damage points to kill it, which we can generate with a massed volley by about 240 shuttles. That should not be a problem as we'll easily have more shuttles than that here to meet him and give him a bloody nose and two black eyes!
"Ten shuttles assigned to the Fourth Squadron leaves 230.
"The Fifth Squadron, with 40 shuttles, is to engage the ancient space dragon," the Field Marshal explained. "I want you to twist his tail and poke his eyes. Just piss him off, and maybe -- just maybe -- he'll take time to kill you all before he comes to the planet. That should get him here right after the metamorph is killed, and the combined shuttles of the First and Second Squadrons can fire a massive blow to rip his ears off!
"Forty shuttles assigned to the Fifth Squadron leaves 190.
"The Sixth Squadron, with 100 shuttles, will move out to engage the ice monster. This is the hardest one to kill, so you will move out first and engage about 150,000 kilometers from the planet. Your mission is to keep the ice monster busy in a whirlwind of a dogfight for at least five turns. Given the rate at which he can kill your shuttles, you should make it, but score some damage while you're at it. We need you to wear him down, since he's the toughest monster to kill, needing 2,200 damage points. Assuming you lose about 10 shuttles a turn, you should be able to score at least half of the required amount before he gets bored and comes to the planet. I need you rip his hair out and break some of his teeth! I need you to delay him to the point that he arrives after the metamorph and dragon are killed. When you let him go, follow him back to the planet, firing every turn at whatever range you can. We need every point. We should have well over 200 shuttles left here when he arrives, maybe even 300, and with those we will need only two turns to break his neck!
"Once that happens, the Third Squadron can let the moray eel loose and it should flyright into our phaser-3 barrage.
"One hundred shuttles assigned to the Sixth Squadron leaves 90 to be divided between the Seventh and Eighth Squadrons.
"The Seventh Squadron, with 60 shuttles, will remain here at the planet as a final defense. They'll engage whatever monsters arrive in the order of their arrival, as reinforced by the returning shuttles of the First and Second Squadrons. Your job is to gouge their eyes out!
"The final 30 shuttles of the Eighth Squadron will be prepared as suicide shuttles at all available base facilities. These will be my final weapon, sent to kill whatever is left.
"But whatever happens, this is going to get ugly!"
RANDOM THOUGHTS #288
Steve Cole's thoughts on the
game industry in general and on ADB in particular.
1. Steven Petrick has been doing his series of Master
Starship Books, and I do the graphics for them. Each ship has a unique
picture, which means I have to take the basic hull art and then add or
delete greebles (phaser bumps, tractors, hatches, mine racks, sensor
dishes, etc.) to create the specific ship variant. The way we did the
first few was that Steven Petrick would write up instruction sheets
and I would do a few at a time. He would then check them, mark fixes,
and wait for me to correct them. The problem was that I kept
forgetting to do them, or worse I would lose the handwritten
instructions he had spent hours creating. When we did the Lyran book I
told him to bring his instructions and sit down in my office and
we'd just do them. It took about four afternoons, not all in a row,
but they all got done. The LDR book took three afternoons (half of the
total hours) because they mostly involved just changing the size of
the phaser bumps (one pixel for phaser-3, two pixels for phaser-1/2/G)
and adding the LDR emblem. (We added the emblem because otherwise the
differences were all but impossible to see.) We're certainly
planning to do all future books on the new "do a lot of them at
once" concept. I do have to limit the hours because my eyes start
to hurt and I get nervous and jumpy, the same thing that happened in
high school when I built a three-foot sailboat model for my mother,
grandmother, and all three of my aunts. My mother had to limit how
many hours I spent doing tedious work.
2. When we
took the Starline 2500s to mail order only, it was because the
economics (those things are expensive to make) forced us to do this.
The price was already high and once we knew the actual production cost
we'd have had to raise the retail prices several dollars per ship to
keep them in the wholesale chain. It was a tough decision, but we had
to make it and still feel we made the right decision. A mail order
site called up because they wanted to sell the ships and could no
longer get them from the wholesalers. I really had no interest in
selling to him as we were barely making a profit on them when sold to
mail order and there was no reason to give him a share of that meager
profit so he could compete with us. He insisted that we would make
more money because he sold to markets we did not. Dubious about that,
I said I would consider doing it at a "short discount" which
means less than the standard 46% off of retail we sell other products
to retailers. After carefully checking the numbers for a day or two I
said I could give him 5% discount, and he could raise the retail price
for his customers. He balked, demanding 35% as a "short discount"
so that he could make a profit. That would mean we'd lose money on
every ship we sold him, so I suggested that I might go to 10% (and was
thinking maybe I'd settle at 15%). He continued to demand 35%, which
he needed in order to undercut our price and take over the market from
us (which he thought was a swell idea). I suddenly found myself asking
"Am I just trying to make a deal so that I can feel good about
making a deal?" and decided that, yes, I was doing just that. I
went back to my original number sheet, checked the figures, and told
him that I really didn't need to do a deal with him at all. When
making deals, you have to be VERY careful that you're just counting
the emotional satisfaction of making a deal as one of the tangible
benefits. In the cold logic of the conference room with the budget
director and the marketing director, it's possible to come up with a
discount that makes sense. On the phone with a pushy competitor,
it's too easy to get talked into a discount that makes no sense at
all.
3. More than a decade ago, we needed a new piece of
equipment. There was a $5,000 version and a fancier $6,000 version.
Mindful of the bank balance, we decided to get the plain-Jane version.
After a year of using it, we knew that the other $1,000 (for automated
features that would have sped up the production process) would have
been worth it. We came up with a brilliant plan. Sell the nearly new
machine for $4,000, come up with $2,000, and buy the fancier and
faster machine. We ran a classified ad on the game industry discussion
board. The only interest came from a company owned by some friends.
(Dozens of companies are; game publishers tend to think of each other
as colleagues not competitors.) They offered to buy the machine, but
wanted to pay $200 a month for 20 months. After a moment of
reflection, I said no, it was cash or nothing. There were no end of
reasons for this. First, we needed to cash and were not in the
business of loaning money. Second, if they didn't pay, we didn't
have the resources to collect the money that a big equipment
manufacturer would have had. (More than a few friends in the game
industry owe us money we'll never see.) Third, if the machine
stopped working, they'd want us to fix it or would stop paying for
it, and we had no control over how they used it. In the end, we never
sold the machine, still use it, and have gotten quite used to its
inefficient non-automated functions. Turns out, we bought the right
machine in the first place. We have always used it just a few hours a
week; the fancier automated machine would be worth the money to
someone who used it several hours every day.
4. Back in 1979 when we were getting the final fixes made to
the SFB Pocket Edition rulebook, there were five or six people sitting
at the table. One announced that his father had read a few pages and
said we needed to remove most of the times the word "of" was
included since it wasn't really needed; for example, "Thanks
for all of the help" as opposed to "Thanks for all the
help." He insisted that this was "the way real books are
done by real publishers" and that we had to comply or look like
idiots. I was annoyed, had a lot of real rule fixes to make, but made
a few of the changes and ignored others. Much later I came to realize
that this is the matter of "writing style" and that there
are a lot of correct and acceptable styles. Owning the company, I'll
use my own, thank you very much. Many a staffer, playtester, and
commentator has been told "Never rewrite for style; leave that to
me."
5. Our SFB scenario "The Creature
that Ate Sheboygan III" is a tribute to an SPI game called The
Creature that Ate Sheboygan.
This Week at ADB, Inc., 7-13 May 2017
Steve Cole reports:
This was a week of steady work on current
projects. We released the new format of Communique and Hailing Frequencies on the 11th.
The weather this
week was nice. This was the week of the annual company picnic, a local
business show where we get bushels of chocolate and office
supplies.
The Starlist Update Project moved forward with
three new entries and an update.
Steve Cole worked on Captain's Log #53 (fiction), F&E SITs
(posted new LDR, Seltorian, Jindarian), blogs, art for Jean's RPG
books, placeholder art for the Kzinti book, and other projects.
Steven Petrick worked on Captain's Log #53, quality control
assembly and shipping, and the LDR Master Starship Book.
Leanna kept orders and accounting up to date.
Stephen and Leanna celebrated the 40th anniversary of their engagement
with a trip to a local mystery escape room (they did not get out).
Mike kept orders going out and rebuilt the
inventory.
Simone did website updates and some
graphics.
Wolf guarded the office, chasing away a
racoon.
Jean worked on the GURPS Prime Directive revision, managed our page on
Facebook (which is up to 3,804 friends), managed our Twitter feed (224
followers), commanded the Rangers, dealt with the continuing spam
assault on the BBS, managed the blog feed, took care of
customers, and did some marketing.
Top Ten Reasons for the Paravians to Go to War with the Rest of the Galaxy
10. A translator-error at "First
Contact" when the commander of the Federation Marine brigade, Colonel
Hiram Sanders, invited the Paravian delegation to "Join him for dinner."
9. What the Vulcan "Hand-Salute" means in Paravian.
8. The Romulans have all the really cool bird-ship names.
7. All the other empires' fighter-jocks laugh at the "Thunder Duck."
6. To compensate for the plasma torpedoes making the QWT look so ... inadequate.
5. One too many "Why did the Paravian cross the galaxy?" jokes.
4. The inevitable tragedy every time the Paravians met one of those "Oh-so-compulsive" cat species.
3. "But Wing-Commander, the Seltorians just looked so yummy!"
2. The tragic results of inviting the new Tholian ambassador to tour the climate-controlled hatchery.
And, the number one reason for the Paravians to go to war...
1. One word -- Omelettes.
-- Contributed by Stephen J. Schrader for Captain's Log #30
(c) 2004, ADB, Inc.
Things Are Still Progressing
This is Steven Petrick posting.
More line item reports are trickling in on the Lyran Democratic Republic Master Star Ship Book which will make it better and more complete when released.
The Kzinti Master Star Ship Book is getting ready to go to the checkers. SVC has begun the process of providing "placeholder" graphics so we can get an idea of the page count.
For the next Captain's Log, the battle group tactics for Star Fleet Battles have been received, the article completed as a first draft, and Jean Sexton is currently reviewing it. The Federation Commander battle broup article is nearing completion.
Work is moving ahead on the monster article, and other things are in hand.
This Week at ADB, Inc., 30 April - 6 May 2017
Steve Cole reports:
This was a week of steady work on current
projects. We celebrated the fourth anniversary of Jean¹s move to
Amarillo.
The weather this week was cool but
nice.
The Starlist Update Project moved forward with
four new entries.
Steve Cole
worked on Captain's Log #53 (fiction), blogs, F&E SIT updates, Communique,
Hailing Frequencies, finding art for Jean¹s RPG books, and other
projects.
Steven Petrick worked on Captain's Log #53,
as well as quality control assembly and shipping. He was wrapping up the SFB Module C3
Revised Rulebook and the LDR Master Starship Book.
Leanna kept orders
and accounting up to date.
Mike kept orders going out and rebuilt the
inventory.
Simone did website updates and some
graphics.
Wolf guarded the office, chasing away an
ocelot.
Jean worked
on the GURPS Prime Directive revision, managed our page on Facebook (which is up to 3,796 friends), managed our Twitter feed (223 followers), commanded the
Rangers, dealt with the continuing spam assault on the BBS, managed
the blog feed, proofread Communique and the LDR Master Starship Book, took care of
customers, and did some marketing.
Weapon That Never Was ... Or Was It?
Tribble Launcher
Being an economic powerhouse, the Federation
sponsors a tremendous amount of research. While some of this results in
useful gadgets like the type-G missile rack, replicators, and 8-track
tapes, an equal amount of the research goes towards developing useless
items such as positron flywheels and public television.
One item
that should have been more useful than it turned out to be was the
Shoulder-Fired Tribble Launcher. Designed to take advantage of the
allergic reaction Klingons display around tribbles, the intention was
that special forces and heavy weapons units could disrupt Klingon
attacks and troop concentrations by lobbing live tribbles into their
midst. Like all "non-lethal" weapons, troops had to carry the thing
around looking for the rare circumstances in which it would work, then
make an effort to set up (or find) just the right tactical situation.
While it was used by some special forces units and actually did work as
advertised, most troops issued such weapons quickly discarded them as
too heavy to carry around "just in case." In one instance, Federation
special forces used the weapons to lob tribbles into a prison camp,
causing panic among the Klingon guards and facilitating an escape by
hundreds of Federation prisoners.
Each missile is one tribble (in
a canister), which (if it hits someone) causes 2d of crushing damage.
Each tribble+canister weighs half a pound. When the tribble reaches the
target, roll against its health (in GURPS this is 15) to see if it survives. If the tribble
does survive, any Klingons within 10 yards must roll a fright check.
-- Contributed by Matthew Francois for Captain's Log #28
(c) 2004, ADB, Inc.
Looking at the Inter-Stellar Concordium
Jean Sexton muses:
When I started playing Star Fleet Battles Galactic Conquest, I started by playing the Frax. When a person left the game in the second ongoing campaign run by Mike Incavo, he thought I might be interested in inheriting the Inter-Stellar Concordium. I gladly accepted this much larger empire.
Through careful alliances I built up my empire to be a formidable place to attack. I became known as the ISC Queen as I used in-game rhetoric to help keep enemies at bay until I would be ready for war. A dear friend attacked my empire, letting me learn more about how combat and stationary defenses worked. I knew it was a diversion to pull my forces south, but no one outside my alliance knew that I had so much income that I had built multiple starbases, had put money into research and development to build fighters much earlier than expected, and then had enough money to put those fighters on disputed borders. (Lots and lots of fighters as one foe discovered to his dismay -- and enough money to replace them all the next game turn so his damaged ships were facing fresh attrition units.)
When I came to ADB to work on the RPGs, I started looking at the one-paragraph species description of the species that inhabited the ISC. They seemed so one-dimensional, except for the Veltressai. Q'Naabians are the weird-atmosphere guys. Pronhoulites are Gorn-lite. Rovillians are from the water planet. And Korlivilar are a cross between Kzintis and Lyrans, the obligatory nod to the cats.
Pronhoulite
I wanted them to be so much more, to be their unique selves. I started with the Q'Naabians because there was a conflict in their information -- were they chlorine or ammonia breathing? What's this thing they have with history? That turned into an article in Captain's Log #51. Steve Cole told me the next issue of Captain's Log needed another article, so I moved to the Rovillians and they appeared in Captain's Log #52. A story came in about the ISC, and suddenly it became necessary to develop their government, based on chats Steve and I had earlier. I hadn't grasped a point in the first story about the ISC and that became a look at how the ISC found out more about the Gorns and Romulans.
As Steve and I chat and I look at the information about the Early Years ships of each nation, I slowly find out more about each of the species. The Pronhoulites have ships named for people; those names suggest a background of a kingdom. The crew quarters of the ISC ships have to be modular so that Rovillians can have a small pool, Q'Naabians can have their chlorine, Korlivilar can have their quiet, Pronhoulites can have their warmth, and Veltressai can have an entire Quad in the room.
As we work on each part, slowly the bones of an ISC Sourcebook are coming together. I look forward to working on it.
This Week at ADB, Inc., 23-29 April 2017
Steve Cole reports:
This was a week of
steady work on current projects.
The weather this week was
cooler, and it snowed on Saturday (but not very much). The Shapeways
store having been delayed by a death in Sandrine¹s family, we
continued recruiting other ships from other sculptors for a stronger
opening.
Romulan DemonHawk render
Steve Cole worked on Captain's Log #53 (fiction), blogs,
F&E SIT updates (every SIT has been posted, some updated several
times), and other projects.
Steven
Petrick worked on Captain's Log #53, quality control for assembly and shipping, and
the LDR Master Starship Book.
Leanna kept orders and
accounting up to date.
Mike kept orders going out and rebuilt the
inventory.
Simone did website updates (finishing the
Wall of Honor fixes) and some graphics.
Wolf guarded the
office, chasing away a unicorn (which made Jean very sad).
Jean worked
on the GURPS Prime Directive revision and the ISC Sourcebook, managed our page on
Facebook (which is up to 3,794 friends), managed our Twitter feed (221
followers), commanded the Rangers, dealt with the continuing spam
assault on the BBS, managed the blog feed, finished proofreading the
LDR Master Starship Book, took care of customers, and did some
marketing.
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