Earlier this evening, ADB uploaded Revision A of the "basic" version of A Call to Arms: Star Fleet version 1.2 to both DriveThruRPG and the Wargame Vault. The original version of ACtA:SF was published in hardback print back in 2011, as part of a joint venture agreed between Amarillo Design Bureau and Mongoose Publishing. Its goal was to take Mongoose's A Call to Arms game engine (which had been used for Babylon 5 and Noble Armada adaptations, and has been re-worked for the wet-navy Victory at Sea system) and use it to represent larger starship engagements in the Star Fleet Universe. However, a number of unforeseen complications arose which eventually led to a contract revision that shifted development focus for all three of the "joint venture" projects (which also includes the Starline 2500 miniatures line and the forthcoming adaptation of the Prime Directive RPG setup to the Mongoose Traveller game system) over to ADB. Version 1.2 of ACtA:SF is a result of this change. The game has been extensively re-worked in order to fix certain issues and imbalances that had cropped up in the prior edition, as well as to better represent various concepts in play for other SFU games (such as Star Fleet Battles, Federation Commander, and the Star Fleet adaptation to Starmada's Admiralty and Nova editions). The "basic" part is due to this file, for now, being a PDF upload only. A number of updates will be posted over the coming weeks, aimed at ironing out any lingering issues which may crop up now that the file is "in the wild". A more polished "deluxe" edition will be presented in the New Year, in both print and online formats. Hopefully, once things bed down with this new edition, the task of expanding into new books (with new empires, technologies, and so forth) can pick up in earnest.
Well, that didn't take long: Revision B of the "basic" ACtA:SF file went up today, incorporating the first wave of errata line items generated in public so far. For anyone who may have tried the original version of the rulebook, one of the big changes this time around is how drones have been handled. The range has been cut down from 36" to 24", with drones launched more than 12" from their target now carrying over into the subsequent turn. (Plasmas have also been tweaked, but are still resolved in a single turn.) Also, the bases of conversion used for the shield, damage, and movement scores have been revised and consistently applied across each empire - so no more Agile Trait, no more Klingon front shield rule, and a series of Damage values more in line with how tough a ship would be in SFB or FC. In all, the new version of the game should hopefully work better from an SFU perspective, and iron out some of the idiosyncrasies from the original edition.
In case anyone is interested in hearing more about the development process for version 1.2 of ACtA:SF, this week's Star Fleet Universe On Call podcast on Talkshoe will have Steve Cole (the founder and head of ADB) and Tony Thomas (the current line developer for this game system) calling in to talk about the game and to field questions asked by callers-in. It should kick off tomorrow (20 November 2014) at around 21:30 EST.
Revision C of the ACtA:SF-1.2 PDF has just gone up, which hopefully edges the project that much closer to the version that gets committed to print in the New Year.
My latest batch of ADB books arrived today, which includes a print copy of A Call to Arms: Star Fleet Version 1.2 Deluxe Edition: There's also a large print edition each of Captain's Log #50 and Captain's Log #51; the CL50 and CL51 Supplemental Files; and the Star Fleet Battles Klingon Master Starship Book.