10 questions to ask Joe Fugate
- Thread starter kafka47
- Start date
Mr. Fugate,
I'm glad you liked it.
Reading how your GaaTae creation sparked your players' imagination in the same manner was great. I can just see them cheering GaaTae on as he 'solves' another 'problem' with his fists!
Getting the players to live in the session, to roleplay rather than rollplay should be any GMs goal and creating memorable NPCs and locations is one way to do that.
Like you, I too fiddled with die rolls to goose the session towards the paths I wanted. It was a narrow line to walk however. You wanted to tweak for certain results but you also don't want it to become blatant.
I never considered myself a good GM, serviceable maybe but not good. Sadly for me, the other members of mMy group considered themselves even worse and I got stuck GMing more often than not. At least that was their excuse!
DGP's Q&A sections often had roleplaying advice along with the usual rules questions. That advice was always of great help to me. I remember you writing about how you 'directed' players back towards the path you needed them on after they struck off on a tangent. I realised I'd had been using your 'loop' method, although not in a planned manner.
After reading your suggestion, I began writing down various 'loop' ideas within each adventure. They weren't extensive, just a sentence or two for each possible outcome of a major plot point, but they helped me improvise better when the PCs went off a tangent.
Can you share any more 'in game' moments with us? Playing with the DGP staff must have been a hoot. I have two that might interest you:
- I was running a customized 'Death Station' adventure and the PC leading the IISS team lost his patience with the group's attempts to gain control of the lab ship. (I'd 'up-gunned' the survivors because the IISS team had better skills and much better equipment.) The leader had everyone button up their vacc suits and prepared to 'blow' the ship into vacuum. As an NPC I'd tried to dissuade him finally asking if the idea was 'too simple'. He replied he liked simple because simple worked and blew the hatches killing all the survivors aboard. I took the opportunity to make one corpse a member of the local nobility and thus gave the group a long term nemesis!
- During the first session of a 'Marooned' adventure, one player who had always been quiet blossomed into the group's leader. It seems he had all sorts of real world outdoor survival skills and I, as a dopey GM, had not known this or worked it into any previous adventures. He took charge, gave the PCs' pursuers the slip, and led them on a planet crossing, year plus trek to the starport. Thanks to him, they wintered over in a mountain valley in style and passed through the planet's settled regions to the starport in perfect disguise as backwoods traders complete with furs and draft animals! The two or three sessions the adventure took were great fun for us all.
Hope you're enjoying Mr. Nilsen's arrival as much as the rest of us.
Sincerely,
Bill/Larsen
Loren:
Gary was always injecting language-related naming into things and the Trepida was one of them. There are several inside jokes in our work that are language-related and that's mostly Gary's doing. He even named some things in sanskrit (transliterating the sounds), doing things like naming an ice planet "hot place" and the like.
Actually, the idea with the tank is what it instills in those who encounter it, so it's a "backwards boast" ...
"Yikes! Everybody head for the hills! Here come the Trepidas!"
Joe,
Two parts to this post:
1. I wish to express a personal thanks. MT and DGP work in general meant a lot to me and my gaming group. I still play in that 'era' and I still troll e-bay for the rarer-than-gold productions (working currently on getting Arrival Vengeance and Assignment Vigilante, but would *most* like to get a hold of Rats and Cats - aka Solomani and Vargr).
I would like to thank you for:
A. The task system. I can run a game with it and a star chart and a page of weapon stats and that is all. (Well, two dice....). That I can't imagine in any other game... amazing!
B. Traveller's Digests: The art *WAS* traveller. I guess I owe Rob and his artists a big thanks. It wasn't just unrelated art. It *was* the scenarios, the ships, the people, the tech.... alive. And in colour on the covers. There were a few of those covers I would *love* to have had as a large wall sized print!
C. SOM v 1: It doesn't get any better for 'what is it like' than this product. It shares top billing in my list with the next item.
D. WBH: What hastn't it told me about worlds? Another amazing product. I just really wish I could have acquired a PC version of the generation system (Mac... cringe...shudder...nice looking though...).
E. The nugget approach to laying out adventures.
F. The equipment sheets!
H. The support for outlining the positions of each faction, thus legitemizing them or giving you a 'more than one truth' feeling about the Rebellion.
All of this and more are your legacy, along with many very very memorable gaming nights. That can't be understated.
I'd also like to convey my warmest wishes to all of your immediate family. They too laboured through the DGP period and paid a price for your art. I for one would like to recognize their sacrifice and say that even though you might not do it again knowing now what it was going to cost, let me say that I am very glad they have stuck with you and that a rapprochement has been achieved (seemingly). You can't buy back the lost time, but you can make the remaining time worth all the more and I believe you've done that. But I guess I just want them to know that the time they lost from you did bring some large measure of happiness to some thousands of souls out there. It might not be much of a bromide, but perhaps in retrospect it will help in some small measure of balance.
2. I'd like to address some specific things you've said:
At one convention I attended, the refs had 3 tables going at once, different light cruisers in a fleet in the Solomani Rim. Each table is officers and captain of cruiser. Each has different allegiance (3 choices: neutral, dulinor, lucan). Game starts with NPC battleship and heavy carrier slugging it out when admiral is about to announce loyalty of fleet. This leaves PCs in charge of largest remaining fleet assets. Each table has a mix of each allegiance. So plots between ships and within ships... riots on the lower decks, black globes going up, fire control and fighters coming up, peace overtures, threats, one fighter launching after the CAG commander's faction lost on a ship then spinning 180 and depositing a nuke right down the throat of the AHL class cruiser.... but the memorable part was the chaos of this setting, of each player acting his role and having unknown (to the others) motivations and trying to find the motivation of the others.
For the record, when I played this, my ship escaped intact, after we had Marines with stun grenades clean up some gunners who were a problem in the lower deck (had a younger player playing the Marine major, I gave him direction, then went into my ready room... and the Ref, running the NPC Marine asked the Marine commander what to do... he said 'suppress the deck'... the Ref explained that had a fairly specific military meaning.... he then inquired again... the younger player waffled, looking for help, I was out of the room as a character so I said nothing, and thus the NPC carpe-diem'd and there were grenades going off in the gunnery deck). The 'role playing' here was the ref taking the role of the Marine Lt. and then later when the engineers told me they couldn't get the jump engines on line (Lucan symps, I think), I suggested that if the engineer didn't get them on-line, I'd have to send Lt. Mansell (the Marine who'd whammed the gunnery crew) down to 'assist in repairs'. Amazingly, my jump drive was ready shortly and I got my ship out of there, unlike the one that got the Factor 9 nuke up the launch tube....
Ah, now THOSE are memories.
Anyway, let me conclude by saying if you ever are up Ontario way, drop me a line. The beer or single malt is on me!
Thomas B, Ottawa, Ontario
PS - Hearing from Joe and Dave Nilsen is like Xmas. I'd be giddy if we could get Rob or Gary to speak to us or Marc too. The funny part is when I think of this, Loren seems almost commonplace now, and that's quite shocking when I sit back and think about it. It's not commonplace in a bad way, but rather in a good, warm, familiar way - like the way at Cheers where everbody knew your name and were always glad you came.
Two parts to this post:
1. I wish to express a personal thanks. MT and DGP work in general meant a lot to me and my gaming group. I still play in that 'era' and I still troll e-bay for the rarer-than-gold productions (working currently on getting Arrival Vengeance and Assignment Vigilante, but would *most* like to get a hold of Rats and Cats - aka Solomani and Vargr).
I would like to thank you for:
A. The task system. I can run a game with it and a star chart and a page of weapon stats and that is all. (Well, two dice....). That I can't imagine in any other game... amazing!
B. Traveller's Digests: The art *WAS* traveller. I guess I owe Rob and his artists a big thanks. It wasn't just unrelated art. It *was* the scenarios, the ships, the people, the tech.... alive. And in colour on the covers. There were a few of those covers I would *love* to have had as a large wall sized print!
C. SOM v 1: It doesn't get any better for 'what is it like' than this product. It shares top billing in my list with the next item.
D. WBH: What hastn't it told me about worlds? Another amazing product. I just really wish I could have acquired a PC version of the generation system (Mac... cringe...shudder...nice looking though...).
E. The nugget approach to laying out adventures.
F. The equipment sheets!
H. The support for outlining the positions of each faction, thus legitemizing them or giving you a 'more than one truth' feeling about the Rebellion.
All of this and more are your legacy, along with many very very memorable gaming nights. That can't be understated.
I'd also like to convey my warmest wishes to all of your immediate family. They too laboured through the DGP period and paid a price for your art. I for one would like to recognize their sacrifice and say that even though you might not do it again knowing now what it was going to cost, let me say that I am very glad they have stuck with you and that a rapprochement has been achieved (seemingly). You can't buy back the lost time, but you can make the remaining time worth all the more and I believe you've done that. But I guess I just want them to know that the time they lost from you did bring some large measure of happiness to some thousands of souls out there. It might not be much of a bromide, but perhaps in retrospect it will help in some small measure of balance.
2. I'd like to address some specific things you've said:
Looking at the way you've written your last name above in the first instance makes me chuckle because it almost seems like a computer programmer's in-joke. (I'm thinking Kernighan and Ritchie here....) (Heck, that comment is probably an in-joke that anyone who hasn't seen a lot of programming language textbook examples would even get.... good thing no one has a PGMP!).
Care to speak more to this? I admit to being very interested. Any details you recall would be of interest.
As I said, with a task system, some dice, a few very basic charts, I've ran entire campaigns. A bit of acting, a bit of imagination, and a powerful underlying simple rules engine (the UTP system) let that happen.
At one convention I attended, the refs had 3 tables going at once, different light cruisers in a fleet in the Solomani Rim. Each table is officers and captain of cruiser. Each has different allegiance (3 choices: neutral, dulinor, lucan). Game starts with NPC battleship and heavy carrier slugging it out when admiral is about to announce loyalty of fleet. This leaves PCs in charge of largest remaining fleet assets. Each table has a mix of each allegiance. So plots between ships and within ships... riots on the lower decks, black globes going up, fire control and fighters coming up, peace overtures, threats, one fighter launching after the CAG commander's faction lost on a ship then spinning 180 and depositing a nuke right down the throat of the AHL class cruiser.... but the memorable part was the chaos of this setting, of each player acting his role and having unknown (to the others) motivations and trying to find the motivation of the others.
For the record, when I played this, my ship escaped intact, after we had Marines with stun grenades clean up some gunners who were a problem in the lower deck (had a younger player playing the Marine major, I gave him direction, then went into my ready room... and the Ref, running the NPC Marine asked the Marine commander what to do... he said 'suppress the deck'... the Ref explained that had a fairly specific military meaning.... he then inquired again... the younger player waffled, looking for help, I was out of the room as a character so I said nothing, and thus the NPC carpe-diem'd and there were grenades going off in the gunnery deck). The 'role playing' here was the ref taking the role of the Marine Lt. and then later when the engineers told me they couldn't get the jump engines on line (Lucan symps, I think), I suggested that if the engineer didn't get them on-line, I'd have to send Lt. Mansell (the Marine who'd whammed the gunnery crew) down to 'assist in repairs'. Amazingly, my jump drive was ready shortly and I got my ship out of there, unlike the one that got the Factor 9 nuke up the launch tube....
Ah, now THOSE are memories.
Any chance you could give even a brief synopsis of the approach or the methodology used here, if not the details? I'm interested to understand the approach you might have taken. This sounds like a great idea.
Hah! Someone who understands my methodology. It isn't about right and wrong or winning a point, it is about refining ideas and exploring strengths and weaknesses to result in a better and more sound final result (and the exploration of other perspectives has a mind-expanding value).
Anyway, let me conclude by saying if you ever are up Ontario way, drop me a line. The beer or single malt is on me!
Thomas B, Ottawa, Ontario
PS - Hearing from Joe and Dave Nilsen is like Xmas. I'd be giddy if we could get Rob or Gary to speak to us or Marc too. The funny part is when I think of this, Loren seems almost commonplace now, and that's quite shocking when I sit back and think about it. It's not commonplace in a bad way, but rather in a good, warm, familiar way - like the way at Cheers where everbody knew your name and were always glad you came.
Dear Folks -
i.e. "Vilani & Vargr".
My aliases for the two unpublished ones:
"MegaTraveller: Aliens 3 - Droyne and Zhodani (the Psionic Races)" would be "Bugs & Thugs".
"MegaTraveller: Aliens 4 - Hivers and K'kree (the Weird Ones)"; how about "Moonies(*) & Loonies"?
(*)Cults are sorta like manipulators, nes'pas?
Ya, Vargr vas in "Cogs und Dogs", nein?
i.e. "Vilani & Vargr".
My aliases for the two unpublished ones:
"MegaTraveller: Aliens 3 - Droyne and Zhodani (the Psionic Races)" would be "Bugs & Thugs".
"MegaTraveller: Aliens 4 - Hivers and K'kree (the Weird Ones)"; how about "Moonies(*) & Loonies"?
(*)Cults are sorta like manipulators, nes'pas?
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
"Droyne and Zhodani" ... Lizards and Wizards.
"Hivers and K'kree" ... A Fistful of Legs.
"Hivers and K'kree" ... A Fistful of Legs.
Hey some great posts! What fun, and Kaladorn, thanks especially for your kind words! Yes, with my kids grown now and them living life (one with kids of their own now), they understand better the DGP years in motivation.
I didn't really balance things well in those years, but my motive was to learn, share, and perhaps even make a go of it enough that I could be around more and set my own schedule. But it was not to be.
Still, I have many fond memories of the DGP years, especially the many new friends I made, from Marc, to Gary, Rob, Deb, Bob and Nancy Parker, Tom Peters, James Holden, Lester Smith, Bill and Andy Keith, ... the list goes on and on.
I spoke a few times with Loren and Frank, but never really got to know them. Still, they had become real people to me -- more than just by line names on some game publication.
And the works we were able to produce we put our heart and soul into, so I'm glad to hear they meant something special to others of you.
I would tend to agree the Starship Operator's Manual and the World Builder's Handbook are our two greatest publications. WBH still ranks up there as a really fun system for fleshing out star systems and worlds. Lots of useful material for making it feel like you are actually there.
WBH Cover Art Prints?
I own the original art for the World Builder's Handbook cover ... would anyone be interested in lifesized prints of that cover painting? Don't have any idea what the price would be ...
FAST COMBAT?
I don't remember many of the rules details but I do remember the concept. The basic idea is to have a quick way to figure out if you are still in the battle or not for the NPCs, and just a bit more info for the player characters.
You don't really care about the details of NPCs since there can be so many of them for the ref to run, so the idea is to lighten the ref's management burden. If they NPC's still standing, then he's opposition to the PCs. Otherwise, he's out of the battle and that's that. Minimal detail.
Leave it to the ref to make it an interesting fight. Once in a while, have some guy they thought was down "come back".
For the PC's just figure out if they are ok, wounded (less effective) or out. Worry about the details after the battle.
After the battle, figure out what really happened in terms of damage. OK can mean not a scratch or some minor damage. Wounded can mean minor to major damage. And out can mean serious damage to dead.
The "fast combat" rules involved some pre-setup computations and table lookups to determine weapon, armor, and range relationships and some difficulty modifiers.
Then some simplified tasks for various common combat activities.
Then combat was in one minute intervals with these simplified tasks. Players would describe what they wanted to do, the ref would describe what the NPCs were doing, we'd roll a few dice for tasks and see who was left in the battle. We used counters and a simplified map of the battlefield.
Then the next turn, and so on.
I had notes on all this somewhere, but I've lost track of the notes. Perhaps someone can take these basic ideas and reconstruct a fast combat system from them. Conveying effect and keeping things moving by minimizing the computational workload were the keys that made it work.
I didn't really balance things well in those years, but my motive was to learn, share, and perhaps even make a go of it enough that I could be around more and set my own schedule. But it was not to be.
Still, I have many fond memories of the DGP years, especially the many new friends I made, from Marc, to Gary, Rob, Deb, Bob and Nancy Parker, Tom Peters, James Holden, Lester Smith, Bill and Andy Keith, ... the list goes on and on.
I spoke a few times with Loren and Frank, but never really got to know them. Still, they had become real people to me -- more than just by line names on some game publication.
And the works we were able to produce we put our heart and soul into, so I'm glad to hear they meant something special to others of you.
I would tend to agree the Starship Operator's Manual and the World Builder's Handbook are our two greatest publications. WBH still ranks up there as a really fun system for fleshing out star systems and worlds. Lots of useful material for making it feel like you are actually there.
WBH Cover Art Prints?
I own the original art for the World Builder's Handbook cover ... would anyone be interested in lifesized prints of that cover painting? Don't have any idea what the price would be ...
FAST COMBAT?
I don't remember many of the rules details but I do remember the concept. The basic idea is to have a quick way to figure out if you are still in the battle or not for the NPCs, and just a bit more info for the player characters.
You don't really care about the details of NPCs since there can be so many of them for the ref to run, so the idea is to lighten the ref's management burden. If they NPC's still standing, then he's opposition to the PCs. Otherwise, he's out of the battle and that's that. Minimal detail.
Leave it to the ref to make it an interesting fight. Once in a while, have some guy they thought was down "come back".
For the PC's just figure out if they are ok, wounded (less effective) or out. Worry about the details after the battle.
After the battle, figure out what really happened in terms of damage. OK can mean not a scratch or some minor damage. Wounded can mean minor to major damage. And out can mean serious damage to dead.
The "fast combat" rules involved some pre-setup computations and table lookups to determine weapon, armor, and range relationships and some difficulty modifiers.
Then some simplified tasks for various common combat activities.
Then combat was in one minute intervals with these simplified tasks. Players would describe what they wanted to do, the ref would describe what the NPCs were doing, we'd roll a few dice for tasks and see who was left in the battle. We used counters and a simplified map of the battlefield.
Then the next turn, and so on.
I had notes on all this somewhere, but I've lost track of the notes. Perhaps someone can take these basic ideas and reconstruct a fast combat system from them. Conveying effect and keeping things moving by minimizing the computational workload were the keys that made it work.
I did have one more rules question, and maybe it rightly belongs with Marc. One of the differences between CT and MT I never quite saw anyone ask about:
In CT, you lost d6s off of your stats. So, as the fight progressed, you became less capable until you were combat incapable. In MT, you get wounded then pass out, but stat damage isn't applied until post battle, so you never fight at reduced capacity.
Do you know if there was a real-world logic to this change? I would think being wounded would reduce your effectiveness before the point where you just keel over, but maybe I'm wrong. I wondered if somebody had looked into this and come to a different conclusion from some sources (like the Army, ER, police, etc....)?
Or is this just a 'game simplifier'?
Joe, one last: Do you know who owns the rights to the cover paintings for the TDs? I know Sanger-san has the rights for all the MT stuff, but did you guys just license your art, leaving the artists the rights to resell it, or did you actually own it lock, stock and barrel? The covers on some of the TDs were singularly attractive and would make lovely framed works.
Having yourself and Dave and Loren being out there and present on these boards has been a great Xmas treat! I really wish that I could have played a session across a table from any or all of the people who envisioned and realized the game....
Tom B
In CT, you lost d6s off of your stats. So, as the fight progressed, you became less capable until you were combat incapable. In MT, you get wounded then pass out, but stat damage isn't applied until post battle, so you never fight at reduced capacity.
Do you know if there was a real-world logic to this change? I would think being wounded would reduce your effectiveness before the point where you just keel over, but maybe I'm wrong. I wondered if somebody had looked into this and come to a different conclusion from some sources (like the Army, ER, police, etc....)?
Or is this just a 'game simplifier'?
Joe, one last: Do you know who owns the rights to the cover paintings for the TDs? I know Sanger-san has the rights for all the MT stuff, but did you guys just license your art, leaving the artists the rights to resell it, or did you actually own it lock, stock and barrel? The covers on some of the TDs were singularly attractive and would make lovely framed works.
Having yourself and Dave and Loren being out there and present on these boards has been a great Xmas treat! I really wish that I could have played a session across a table from any or all of the people who envisioned and realized the game....
Tom B
Tom:
We bought first North American publication rights to the art. Ownership of the art stayed with the artist and he could resell his work if he wanted.
On the WBH cover, we bought the first publication rights from AC Farley just as always, then I negotiated a deal with Farley to buy the piece outright because I liked it so well.
So now I am the owner of that one piece of art, at least. As to the rest, they are owned by their artists. Roger got all the pieces I painted, so those are in his hands now. The rest depend on what the artist did with them.
We bought first North American publication rights to the art. Ownership of the art stayed with the artist and he could resell his work if he wanted.
On the WBH cover, we bought the first publication rights from AC Farley just as always, then I negotiated a deal with Farley to buy the piece outright because I liked it so well.
So now I am the owner of that one piece of art, at least. As to the rest, they are owned by their artists. Roger got all the pieces I painted, so those are in his hands now. The rest depend on what the artist did with them.
Kaladorn,
The way I always saw it, the "apply damage after fight" was all about the adrenalin pumping through your body during the fight. You are so up to speed you don't drop until you calm down.
Joe,
I just figured another question for you. Since you transfered your DTP'd data to GDW a fairly error prone way (by GDW retyping it all!) how come there was no errata for the Referee's Companion? Or have I just missed it?
The way I always saw it, the "apply damage after fight" was all about the adrenalin pumping through your body during the fight. You are so up to speed you don't drop until you calm down.
Joe,
I just figured another question for you. Since you transfered your DTP'd data to GDW a fairly error prone way (by GDW retyping it all!) how come there was no errata for the Referee's Companion? Or have I just missed it?
I made the same explanation for my players. Note, tho, that once you convert to stat damage, further combat is at the penalty....Originally posted by Cymew:
Kaladorn,
The way I always saw it, the "apply damage after fight" was all about the adrenalin pumping through your body during the fight. You are so up to speed you don't drop until you calm down.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
I stuck with the CT method. It's a very elegant mechanic.
That explanation of the damage (and Joe's comment about follow-on fights) matches with what one of the paramedics on COTI once said discussing gunshot wound lethality (or lack thereof).
As to the art, I wonder if any of the artists are around and willing to do prints? Hmmm....
I have to go look up who did the covers I really like. The cover of SOM was neat and has clearly inspired another thread here where people are spitting out renders and avis of jump transitions...
As to the art, I wonder if any of the artists are around and willing to do prints? Hmmm....
I have to go look up who did the covers I really like. The cover of SOM was neat and has clearly inspired another thread here where people are spitting out renders and avis of jump transitions...
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