Hi. The United Federation of Planets, as represented in the Star Fleet Universe, is distinct from that seen in the Franchise. It draws from many elements in the on-screen source material covered under ADB's licence with Paramount, along with others derived from the Star Fleet Technical Manual; but over three decades' worth of new stories, empires, and technoligies have seen this version of the UFP go its own way. Recently, ADB put together a Federation sourcebook for its RPG series, Prime Directive; the D20M version was released in print form last year, while the e23 (online PDF) version of the GURPS edition went up yesterday. The D20M version will presumably end up on DriveThruRPG sooner or later (ADB upload their D20M books there, but send their GURPS stuff to e23 instead) while the print edition of GURPS Federation should be released later this year. I got the e23 version of GURPS Federation (I like collecting the GURPS material over the D20M stuff, personally) and if you have an interest in the SFU take on trek, I would definitely recommend it. It's got a series of planetary surveys for various major and minor member worlds (Earth, Mars, Vulcan, Andor etc; some of which are different than they are in the Franchise, though some of them have a couple of interesting nods here and there). It also looks at some of the ship classes used by Star Fleet (i.e. in games like Star Fleet Battles and Federation Commander) and details other branches of the Federation government. One of the most useful sections (from an RP perspective) are the deck plans it includes for the Burke-class frigate; one of the many ship designs indigenous to the SFU. What you won't find are any direct references to a cerain on-screen ship or crew; the terms of the licence require those events to be seen from a half-step away, at best. Still, there are plenty of other ships in the fleet to endeavour with, as well as no end of civilian hulls to take out for a spin. Oh, and for gaming purposes, it's not a stand-alone book; it works with the GURPS Prime Directive 4th Edition Core Book. (The D20M Federation book requires PD20M, which itself needs the D20M core rules to play. For GURPS users, GPD4e comes with a version of the basic GURPS rules included, so you don't need a third book.) It might be a little different than what many at home with the Franchise might be familiar with; but if you want to see how things go along that other fork on the road from TOS, it's as good a way in to the setting as any... from a Federation perspective, at least.
The D20M version of PD Federation is now online, too; with a different style of cover art to that on the GURPS version.
So what are the differences in canon? Presumably some of the info on Andorians was contradicted in Enterprise?
It's not so much a contradiction, more an alternate path taken with the source material (to include certain aspects from the Technical Manual, which the Franchise has not exactly considered itself beholden to). In the SFU, Andor (which looks like this) is the second planet in the Epsilon Indi system; a class-O* world which had been class-M a couple of billion years ago, but was deeply affected by the breakup of its former moon. The entry in PD Federation does take a look at the other worlds in the system, some of which have significant populations of their own. There are no Aenar (not within the bounds of the license), but there is a species somewhat related biologically to the Andorians at Antares (which is not at "our" Antares, but in a system much farther away from Sol). Culturally, the Andorians and Antareans don't get along. *There's a specific way that planetary categories are listed in the Star Fleet Universe; class-O is an otherwise Earth-like planet where most of the surface water is locked into glaciers.
There is a huge difference. As they paid for the licence for the Star Fleet Technical Manual they are not constrained by (and in fact due to legal issues cannot adhere to) on-screen canon. SFB was born at a time when Trek was over, and they were free to write their own history. Due to the way they licenced the material though unlike later publishers like FASA they did not have to try to shoe-horn in on-screen changes from the new movies and series. There are of course limitations in that they can only use races from TOS so no Bolians, Ferengi, Borg etc, (and the Klingons keep their TOS appearance) along with races of their own creation like the Hydrans and Lyrans. But the beauty of GURPS is that as you can make up what you want, if you really want your players to go up against a Cardassion Gul, you can do it.
Can they not even use the races out of TMP? If not that's a shame because they went to a fair bit of trouble to expand the Federation into a viable number of varying races.
On the other hand, there has been nothing to stop them from creating plenty of new species of their own; Brecon, Prellarians, Deians, Cygnans, Mantorese, Mynieni, and other SFU-native species are also listed as Federation members. The limitation placed on Franchise material seen in the SFU isn't so much of an issue if you're willing to take on board the range of new material created specifically for this setting.
No they can't but as Nerroth has said, they have been able to fill the Federation with an extremely diverse number of species of their own design. Even the Klingons have a vast number of subject races, so you do not need to be a Klingon to serve the Empire (though it helps!)
It's about time the Klingons and Romulans had some subject races - you don't get to be an empire unless you have subjects! Well, technically, you don't get to be an empire unless you have an emperor but maybe humans are too pedantic.
The print edition of GURPS Federation started shipping this week; here's hoping it won't be too long before it shows up at the FLGS...