D20 Future Q&A With Rodney "Moridin" Thompson and JD Wiker!!

[JDWiker]

Bummer... so little to no chance of it being released by you then?

No chance at all. It belongs to Wizards now.

Is that because you didn't do the AdCs, or because they were changed by wizards?

I did a handful of AdCs: the Bughunter, the Dimension Ranger, the Concord Administrator ... and I think that's it.

BTW, thanks again for answering all our questions. I guess it's a bit frustrating having a book you wrote be changed as much as it was, and knowing you had a system in there to start with...

Not really, no. They asked for a "simple" system, and mine wasn't simple enough. Honestly, I wanted it to not only serve as the starship combat system for d20 Future, but I wanted it to fill some gaps in the system for Star Wars (mainly to do with starship construction). But having things changed in the editing/development process is part and parcel of game design. I think the subject was just too big to give it a good treatment in a book this size.

JD

 

[JDWiker]

I wasn't hoping for a revisitation of Alternity's "Warships", but something with some of the same high points ... one of the major ones being important tasks for different PCs as "members of the crew" to play. That's going to be a major part of my Sci-Fi campaign model. So if everybody but the pilot has nothing to do but "Aid Another", then all that tactical ship combat will be less than fun. Not all of us want to play Star Wars Dogfighter, some of us want to play Space Navy.

Coincidentally, the rules I wrote were a melding of the Warships and Star Wars rules (the latter encompassing "Heroes as Crew" rules, so that all the players had something to do, if they wanted something to do, in a starship combat).

JD

 

[JDWiker]

Sorry, but thinking about it, this doesn't really help...

Perhas the question really should of been - how do I work out the purchase DC of a template on a ship?

Is the answer 'start from scratch'?

Sadly, I just don't know how to answer this; I didn't design the template system, and I wasn't included on the design process. So I don't know how it works. Rodney might have a better idea.

JD

 

[Acid_crash]

I read this thread and I feel a little upset and pissed that Wizards would advertise and tell us for a year about the book, tell us who's writing it (you two are really good writers and I applaud everything you two have given us) so we get excited, and deliver a book that just seems so half-*ssed done that it makes me wonder if they are going the way of TSR (I can dream ).

I wanted this book, but I'm not going to buy it. After reading on here that Wizards cut so much out that would have made it a much more useful book, and then looking at the size compared to d20 Modern and Urban Arcana (now talk about a almost pointless book in comparison to d20 Future)...they dropped the ball on this one.

Hearing that this is the ONLY book they are going to produce for the line, and they aren't planning on any more d20 Modern books coming out, it's like...I don't know how to really express it without using fowl language.

Aside from the rant, I do have a question:

Why don't you guys write your own d20 Future book and provide us with the book that this one would have been in the first place and show Wizards just how good a book like this one could have been?

 

[The_Universe]

I read this thread and I feel a little upset and pissed that Wizards would advertise and tell us for a year about the book, tell us who's writing it (you two are really good writers and I applaud everything you two have given us) so we get excited, and deliver a book that just seems so half-*ssed done that it makes me wonder if they are going the way of TSR (I can dream ).

I wanted this book, but I'm not going to buy it. After reading on here that Wizards cut so much out that would have made it a much more useful book, and then looking at the size compared to d20 Modern and Urban Arcana (now talk about a almost pointless book in comparison to d20 Future)...they dropped the ball on this one.

Hearing that this is the ONLY book they are going to produce for the line, and they aren't planning on any more d20 Modern books coming out, it's like...I don't know how to really express it without using fowl language.

Aside from the rant, I do have a question:

Why don't you guys write your own d20 Future book and provide us with the book that this one would have been in the first place and show Wizards just how good a book like this one could have been?

Although no one would doubt that there could have been more in the book, as someone who has purchased it, I can say with some certainty that it is definitely worth owning.

There's a lot of great material in the book, and you *not* buying the book isn't going to send any message to WoTC, or Hasbro. On the other hand, if the book sells *well*, providing Wizards with a good return on their investment, it's entirely possible that we'll see more.

At the very least, the more copies of D20 Future are in the hands of players and GMs, the more likely 3rd party publishers are to bring own products to support it, as well.

Take a look at the book, and THEN decide whether to buy it. Don't cheat yourself in an attempt to stick it to the MAN!

 

[Sketchpad]

Personally, I'd like to see WotC take JD's construction system and release a dual statted book for SW and D20F

 

[RodneyThompson]

Sorry, but thinking about it, this doesn't really help...

Perhas the question really should of been - how do I work out the purchase DC of a template on a ship?

Is the answer 'start from scratch'?

Ack, sorry, I missed this one.

There are two ways you can approach it. If you are talking about purchasing the templated ship from scratch, you can simply purchase all the components of the ship, including the upgaded ones. If you're applying the template's upgrades to an existing ship, however, you need only make Wealth checks on the individual components being upgraded.

The other option is to take each component, convert it to a dollar value, total that up, and then convert back to a Purchase DC.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Why don't you guys write your own d20 Future book and provide us with the book that this one would have been in the first place and show Wizards just how good a book like this one could have been?

Well, I do plan on including a lot of stuff that I felt was left out of the book in any book that I can con a publisher into putting out...but as any writer can attest, selling a publisher on a book is not an easy task.

Also, I'd like to address some concerns and a general attitude around here that has me a bit worried. I know everyone is upset that you're hearing JD say that his starships section was heavily altered, and you've probably heard me say something I wrote was cut a couple of times. The fact of the matter is that this process occurs on every book, it's just that we are (for right or wrong) giving you a bit of a peek behind the scenes of this process. There was a ton of stuff cut out of the first book that JD and I collaborated on, the Hero's Guide for the Star Wars RPG. Some of it eventually saw its way into free web enhancements; some of it didn't. The point is, you shouldn't think that this was some special case where evil, moustache-twirling villains at WotC decided to screw us poor, benvolent authors and their malleable fan base over. It's just a normal part of the editing process.

Secondly, don't count out the possibility of support from WotC. I have been told that an entire 16-page chapter that I wrote will be appearing as a free web enhancement sometime in the near future. Additionally, while I haven't heard anything in any official capacity, it wouldn't surprise me to hear WotC is planning on increasing its support for Modern/Future in the next 2 years at all. They've been doing well financially, and have even hired on new members for it's R&D staff (a contrast to the job cuts of two and three years ago).

Also, I think it's totally unfair to call the book half assed. I mean, while the starship combat system might be different from what JD wanted and sections were cut, the fact of the matter is that it's still so jam-packed full of mechanics and ideas that you're going to have a hard time convincing me that it's anything but a solid book. I knew this problem was going to crop up when we were writing it, though. I did the whole gear chapter, and as I'm going through there I'm realizing that there's no possible way I could please everyone with it. I couldn't include every single gun, armor, or piece of gear. So I create the gadget system in order to expand on it. Still not enough. I'm going through, trying to hit my word count, realizing I'm having to make hard choices on what I'm gong to include. The truth is that science fiction is just too big for any one book to adequately cover. All it can do is lay down a solid foundation for you to build on, which I defy anyone to tell me this book doesn't do.

I'm not ranting or tooting our own horns here, but I think there's been too much focus on what's not in the book and not enough on what is. And now I'll go back to being your Future Q&A slave!

 

[BrooklynKnight]

I like the latter. Makes more sense, though one problem arises. On one-man ships, there's nothing really stopping you from just jinking every time you make a full-move, since you won't be taking any attacks anyways. Not really a problem, but it lessens the severity of the penalty.

When using the drive skill in standard modern, dont you loose the distance you can move when you do stunts and evasive actions and such?

Jinking and evading implies moving the ship, another or alternate balance point to that could be decreasing how far the ship can move when evading or jinking.

For example, a Jink is a small sudden and short movement. And Evade is a larger sweeping longer movement. (Obviously a jink would take half as much movement as an evade).

 

[Piratecat]

Cut or not, d20 future is the most inspiring thing I've read in some time. Fantastic work, guys. I'm sorry that more of the original text didn't make it in, but I love what's there. This book is definitely worth the money.

I noticed that there is a table missing from the last chapter (table 13-5, I think) where alien weaponry is detailed. Could you please give us the missing details for the weapons in question? Thanks!