FASA & a Mobile Artillery piece???

[ChallengerHK]

I'm on a page on Facebook (or whatever it's calling itself this week) where a guy made the claim that Roddenberry had FASA's contract canceled because he saw art of something like a mobile artillery piece for ground combat. I don't believe that Roddenberry canceled FASA's contract for a second, but I'm wondering if there's any truth to the idea that they were working on a ground combat system. Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

[Captain Tracy]

You might email Guy McLimore directly, and get your answers straight from the mouth of the horse.

Contact info for Guy should be easy enough to turn with a bit of Google-Fu; and also, you might look for him on YouTube and try contacting him with your questions that way.

If you have real trouble finding his email, PM me, and I'll dig through my old emails and see if I still have a good addy for him - which could be well past it's expiration date.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't believe that Roddenberry canceled FASA's contract for a second, but I'm wondering if there's any truth to the idea that they were working on a ground combat system. Has anyone ever heard of this?

FASA managed to anger the Star Trek Office (Gene Roddenberry and his representative, Richard Arnold), which was responsible for vetting all tie-in manuscripts (in addition to them being vetted by Viacom Consumer Products).

According to Richard at the time, FASA took numerous liberties with TNG factoids when creating the TNG "Officer's Manual" (1988), and changes that were requested to the submitted draft were ignored in the final manuscript. For example, the illustrators decided that Data had no toes, despite Lore's limbs having been shown in "Datalore". But yes, GR was disturbed by the RPG's emphasis on combat over exploration.

So when the "Season One Source Book" (1989) came out, it had not been submitted by the same route (only via Viacom) - and it had many errors and assumptions, such as Betazoids coming from the planet Haven (a complete misinterpretation of the episode "Haven"). As a result of GR's misgivings (about this choice by FASA to avoid him) , and aspects of the Pocket novels and DC's comics that had annoyed GR, all tie-in contracts were renegotiated - and a memo was released to those who won back their license explaining what could be done in future. FASA's license was not renewed.

So yes, GR stopped their contract. (Or they were urged not to renew.)

 

[ChallengerHK]

And...a ground combat system?

 

[Therin of Andor]

And...a ground combat system?

As I said, GR preferred that Trek RPGs concentrate on exploration, not combat. But he was never comfortable with RPGs, especially the ones more like the previous "war games" (such as "Star Fleet Battles", semi-licensed through Franz Joseph, not Roddenberry and Paramount).

I do not recall RA specifically calling out a "mobile artillery piece for ground combat" in his complaints, although we did see that laser thingie in "The Cage" and "The Menagerie", so if it was a 24th century extrapolation of that, I guess FASA assumed it would pass muster.

I recall a previous time FASA was discussed here, one of its contributors disputed RA's recollection of things, but I had numerous chats with RA about the situation just after it happened.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I was bummed when FASA lost their license. I was a huge fan of the FASA RPG and Starship Combat Simulator back in the day. I also loved that they tapped Diane Duane's version of the Romulans and Mike Ford's version of the Klingons in those two supplements. Plus, some of the ship designs they came up with remain famous to this day.

I still have all my old FASA Trek stuff. Every once in a while I'll pull something out and re-read it just for fun. As RPG systems go it was a bit clunky, but it had an exquisite crunchiness to its mechanic that most people don't like anymore.

 

[mike hill]

I no longer have the books, but I recall that one of the two FASA TNG supplements had a one man antigrav "sled" mounting a huge phaser cannon. This may be what the OP is referring to.

 

[Dukhat]

I no longer have the books, but I recall that one of the two FASA TNG supplements had a one man antigrav "sled" mounting a huge phaser cannon. This may be what the OP is referring to.

That was artwork from the TNG Officer’s Manual. I don’t think that was the same thing.

 

[Christopher]

A mobile artillery piece? Oh no, not another thread about Star Trek cannon!

 

[ChallengerHK]

A mobile artillery piece? Oh no, not another thread about Star Trek cannon!

I gotta give you that one :-)