New ADB/Mongoose tabletop projects

[Nerroth]

Last weekend, ADB (the developers and current publishers of the Star Fleet Universe series of tabletop games) and Mongoose Publishing (who once held the Babylon 5 and Starship Troopers wargaming licences) signed a new contract establishing a joint venture between the two companies; which will primarily manifest in three new product lines now in the pipeline.

One of the new lines, given a teaser pic here, will be a Star Fleet Universe adaptation of Mongoose's A Call to Arms game system; once used for B5, adapted to the historical Victory at Sea game, and currently ticking over with a game based on the Fading Suns RPG setting.

Another new line will be an adaptation of the Prime Directive RPG to the Traveller game engine. There have been PD rules for GURPS, D20-3.5 and D20M so far; it will be interesting to see how well the setting works in this new environment.

The third new line is what ADB will refer to as Starline 2500; Mongoose may use their own name, but haven't said yet what they may choose to call it. There are a few preview pics of one of the first 3D prints to be tested over here; in time, if all goes well, this series should gradually supersede the current range of ship minis ADB have available for the Star Fleet Universe.

There should be a formal press release on Wednesday, but it will take a little time for some more concrete pieces of info to emerge about the three new lines.

 

[Nerroth]

Here's the press release.

An early Q&A posted on the Mongoose blog:

Q&A on A Call to Arms: Star Fleet

The forums have been alive with news of our recent agreement with Amarillo Design Bureau was made public earlier this week, and a lot of questions have been raised. We will be having a 'big reveal' in 3-4 weeks time, including a look at the first miniatures, but for now there are a few things we can put to rest.

When is A Call to Arms: Star Fleet due for release?
We are currently aiming for (and on schedule for, though it is early days!) being in stores the first week of December. December is a 'short' month for distribution though, and if this is missed, we may delay until the first week of January. But we want December.

Star Trek or Star Fleet?
Star Fleet, which concentrates on The Original Series ships. However, in practice for the miniatures game, there will be little difference. There will be no characters from the TV show or movies, and no Excelsior. However, in return, we get a Trek universe that is internally very consistent, that has lots of opportunites for conflict, a veritable ton of ship designs, and the ability to add new ships and fleets to our heart's content. It is a good trade off. You will still be able to face down Romulans and Klingons!

What fleets will be covered in the main rulebook?
Fairly extensively, Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Kzinti and Gorn. There will also be a range of civilian ships and a smattering of Orion pirates and Tholians.

How long have you been planning this?
Quite some time! The rulebook was written some time ago and is now undergoing playtesting, and we started work on the miniatures about a month ago. Actually, this was relatively easy for us to 'get in to,' as we had already drafted a set of Trek rules when we approached Paramount for a licence a couple of years ago. That did not work out, but this will!

Babylon 5 was good while it lasted, but the licence expired - will the same happen here?
There are no term limits or dates of expiration in our agreement with ADB. Both companies are looking forward to this lasting for a long, long time, and there are various nuts and bolts built into the agreement that make it beneficial for both companies to keep pushing ahead with it.

Star Fleet Battles is all about power allocation - will this appear in A Call to Arms?
Yes. Sort of. Kinda. Remember, we abstract out in A Call to Arms as it is a fleet level game but in short, yes, useage of power will at least be acknowledged.

Why change the scale of the ships?
Because doing them this way will make them ten times better, and we started this with the intention of creating the best Trek gaming experience possible. The differences between old and new models won't be excessive and the rules certainly won't be affected. Anyone who used Fleet Action scale models in ACTA: B5 will know this! In any case, ADB will keep the older models in production for anyone who wants them. But we hope you will like the new models!

What will be released first?
All going to plan, on the first week of December you will be able to pick up the main rulebook, three squadron box sets (five ships a piece) for Klingons, Romulans and the Federation, and three fleet box sets for the same. All ships released in these sets will be available as singles in blisters for specialist shops and mail order, and there will be monthly releases thereafter, at a rate of 2-4 boxes a month, depending on content.

There will be a supplement for the rest, right?
We are currently looking at Gen Con 2012 for the release of this, working title We Come in Peace (Shoot to Kill) - that _will_ change! It will bring in more fleets and new ships for the existing ones, a bit like Fleets of the Fading Suns but bigger.

Does this mean the end of Noble Armada?
Not as far as we are concerned. Noble Armada, while sharing a rules system, has a very different feel, with different technologies and boarding actions going on all over the place! Also, as we now do all our ship modelling in-house, it is exceedingly easy for us to add new ships and fleets to Noble Armada. The short of it is, you keep playing, we'll keep supporting!

 

[Solariabsg25]

I'm looking forward to this, as much as I love Star Fleet Battles, it is just too complex to run anything more than 2-3 ships a side with 2 players.

I'm also interested to see what Mongoose can do without having to worry about the licence becoming prohibitively expensive (cough-B5-cough).

 

[Nerroth]

Well, to be fair, both Federation Commander and the Starmada conversion are already more streamlined than SFB; though the latter is perhaps closer to what A Call to Arms: Star Fleet would probably be like.

 

[Nerroth]

There have been a few updates about how A Call to Arms: Star Fleet works; this blog post has an overlook of some of the key game mechanics, this older one shows how they tried to get a grip on seeking weapons, and there should be more details up on the blog (and elsewhere) in the run-up to the book's release (which shoudl be late next month, all things being equal).