VBAM and SFB

japridemor · Post by **japridemor** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:56 pm

I just saw on Starship combat News that VBAM might be ding a campaign book featuring ADB's product lines, most likely Fed Commander. Any news or announcements about this? I've just about given up on seeing Star Charts but would spend money on a F&E/VBAM crossover. And here I thought all VBAM work had ceased in favor of MAS.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:26 pm

Star Charts is still progressing, but there's going to be a lot of stuff in there and it's taking Tyrel no small amount of time to get there.

The contract with ADB has not yet finalized but I'd say the deal is 99% likely to go through. The objective of the deal is to create a campaign system for Federation Commander using the VBAM system. None of the details on what product/s would look like, but we've discussed everything from border commander scenarios akin to Jay's Wing Commander games in scope to a full-bore F&E-sized scenario. Both and more are quite likely.

Please note that it is not the intent of this deal to replace F&E. Rather, it will give more options for Federation Commander players, and provide an alternate strategic system for the Star Fleet Universe.

We haven't said anything about it yet, as the deal was still under discussion, and the announcement on the ADB BB that Starship Combat News picked up came as a surprise to us.

Regardless, we're all excited about this deal. How often do you get to do an official tie-in to the Star Trek universe in any incarnation?

While we've been pleasantly surprised and quite pleased at the positive reaction to MAS, it is certainly not taking over VBAM Games (though I can see where you would get that impression lately). I think I can safely say that we're all excited about getting back to our "core" and getting more VBAM Campaign system goodness out there for all to enjoy.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:29 pm

Let me add that partly why you haven't seen much lately about new VBAM Campaign system products is that this deal has been pending for a while. We didn't want to get something else going and then have this deal get approved. Naturally, it would pretty much trump anything else in the pipeline, and it was a concious decision to hold off starting any other Campaign System products until this was certain one way or the other. Star Charts was already under way when talks with ADB began, and it's our intent to help Tyrel wrap that up in a timely fashion. I've seen the latest draft, and it's coming along nicely.

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:21 pm

Charlie summed it up pretty well. MAS has been a nice side project for Charlie and me when we have too many VBAM solo-test games going. I have been running the same 14 player WC game for over a year now, and that shows no signs of slowing. With my Dilgar game on the horizon, and Tyrel's new PBEM, there is plenty of campaign activity.

Star Charts will be the next big VBAM book release. Tyrel is in the final stage of layout and editting there. I also have a carrier war supplement that is well underway. Like Charlie said the prospect of the Federation Commander campaign guide has given us some pause about how we need to spend time this year. If that goes through as planned I will probably delay the next BK book in the interest of time. I also have a stack of new optional rules that will find their way in to a free release somewhere, like VT, or some rule system.

I have the first draft underway, but had refrained from any official announcement until my name was in ink on the contract and everything was nice and legal from the company side of things.

-Jay

logan400k · Post by **logan400k** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:42 pm

And a fifteen years ago, with that old deal with Paramount and Franz Joseph in place, something like this would have never been possible. I imagine the contract must still be kind of very carefully worded but good for you guys! I am curious how that process got started, did Steve Cole and company come to you or vice or versa or is it one of those standing in line for a cappuccino stories?

-Sean

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:01 pm

Congradulations!

This might get me to open up my SFB stuff once again to stroll down memory lane.

Tyrel Lohr · Post by **Tyrel Lohr** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:43 pm

The VBAM Campaign System is very much alive, but unfortunately a lot of the activity has been bogged down by my lack of time to get the books finished. We have also been having discussions related to branding and reintroducing a strict consistency in presentation and formatting for all future VBAM Campaign System products released by VBAM Games.

All of the rules for the first volume of Star Charts are almost finished; I have a few more sections to type up, but that is more or less set in stone. The star system data is about half finished, and I spent two weekends entering data and getting things converted.

Those Who Serve, the new officer book, is still in the draft stage. The rules are getting closer to being set in stone, and I am finishing up the officer trait sections on this now.

After I get these two books done I have at least two other projects waiting in the wings to get finished up. One is the second volume of the Star Charts series, and is probably already about 25% done when it comes to text copy and new rules (the cover's almost done, too). I'll also put a Victory Track together with some additional rules when I know what will make the cut in the main books and what won't.

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:51 am

I am still slugging away on the Techbook. One of the major hold ups for me has been the CSCR 2.0 since a lot of the tech book introduces new unit abilities. I am hoping to launch a playtest once RoundCon is over and I have time.

gambler · Post by **gambler** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:44 pm

This is cool news...

So of course, an immediate question.

Will the races be limited likely to the ones seen 'officially' so far in Federation Commander, or will ones that are part of the SFU but not officially integrated yet, also be included (Hydrans, Lyrans, ISC)?

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:38 pm

gambler wrote:This is cool news...

So of course, an immediate question.

Will the races be limited likely to the ones seen 'officially' so far in Federation Commander, or will ones that are part of the SFU but not officially integrated yet, also be included (Hydrans, Lyrans, ISC)?

That is something I am still working on with Stephen at ADB. So there is nothing official on this yet. However the plan is to have the base book have all the needed rules and conversion mechanism for FC ships. As the universe expands we will get the chance to do more campaign material as well.

-Jay

gambler · Post by **gambler** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:33 pm

Some random things here:

To get people in the mood for the 'Star Fleet Universe' who may not know much about it...
http://starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/general_war.htm

Also, I recently picked up the "Campaign Designer's Handbook" which was produced by ADB and has some interesting concepts in it, especially the tech trees (it suggests you have to research 'sideslips' - a tactical movement option!). I remember a comment by Steve Cole awhile back to the effect of "If anyone knows how this thing is supposed to work, please tell me." So far VBAM seems a much more coherent system from what I've seen of my copies.

Anyhow, this is something I'm really looking forward to.

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:57 pm

gambler wrote:Some random things here:

To get people in the mood for the 'Star Fleet Universe' who may not know much about it...
http://starfleetgames.com/sfb/sfin/general_war.htm

They have a lot of good material online. I have been reading like crazy to make sure I get the full spectrum of the universe. In some ways it is very similar to a typical VBAM setting, and in others, very different.

gambler wrote: Also, I recently picked up the "Campaign Designer's Handbook" which was produced by ADB and has some interesting concepts in it, especially the tech trees (it suggests you have to research 'sideslips' - a tactical movement option!). I remember a comment by Steve Cole awhile back to the effect of "If anyone knows how this thing is supposed to work, please tell me." So far VBAM seems a much more coherent system from what I've seen of my copies.

I look forward to hearing more. Technology is one of those rules that can stay relatively simple and still introduce quite a bit of change in how a campaign flows. I will probably include some more complicated rules, but part of the problem is since the campaign material is to support FC, we can't really include ships officially that won't appear in FC at some point.

However it will still be a substantial universe with a very rich history of scenarios.

gambler wrote: Anyhow, this is something I'm really looking forward to.

Thank you! I will hopefully have more updates for everyone once I have a more solid idea about what the framework will look like.

-Jay

gambler · Post by **gambler** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:07 pm

I'll let you know any fun points in the Campaign Designer's Handbook (CDH) (which can still be bought 'new'). The technology trees are actually pretty applicable to Federation Commander, although I don't buy some elements (the movement tech tree looks cool, but since I've never played an SFB/FC game that has ships which can't sideslip or HET, I don't think that particular tree is very valid). I don't recall if there are race specific tech trees, instead I think it's based on individual classes, with the basic non specialized classes in a straight vertical line, with the variants as 'branches'.

My guess is though that Fed Commander won't need much at all in the way of tech trees as the ships aren't really given a timeline if I remember right. In some ways, I'm not sure of the idea of restricting the VBAM sourcebook to Federation Commander, as it's SFB that has the feel of an overarching, rich history, not FC, but I'm sure you'll end up with folks like myself who would quickly 'convert' the VBAM sourcebook to include more of the SFB history.

Anyhow, no matter my minor reservations (almost no product is precisely what anyone wants, the great thing about VBAM is the ability to extend/modify products rather easily!) this should be fun to watch the progress of.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:15 pm

I've got the CDH. It doesn't really apply to FC since FC doesn't use refits.

Also, our mandate is specifically limited to Federation Commander. Whether it'll ever open up to include SFB remains to be seen, but we've got to plenty to do with the FC material as it is.

andstrauss · Post by **andstrauss** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:48 am

It's not like you guys don't have anything to do, but I'd love to see a VBAM Battlestations. It will be great when the Battlestations Fleet Admiral is out.

Cheers,