Federation Admiral Public Update

MarkG88 · Post by **MarkG88** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:07 am

mwaschak wrote:Thank you for your support everyone.

SVC is editing the manuscript on his side of things now that the big ADB move is done. I should have some more details soon.

-Jay

Great!

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:28 pm

Latest news from ADB as at 18 Feb 09 is that Federation Admiralty will be released "second half of 2009". No doubt they'll put a more specific date on it when it gets closer to publication.

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:02 pm

We just found out ourselves yesterday, as well. Originally, it had been ADB's hope that we would make a late spring release, but I think their recent office move precluded that.

I would like to note that the FC Support Ships book listed directly stemmed from the Federation Admiral book. My understanding is that book is going to feature ships that are important at a strategic level - repair ships, tugs, shipyards, etc. i.e. all the stuff a typical VBAM game needs.

We told ADB our material would need those kinds of ships, and that gave them the encouragement they needed to look at bringing those non-tactical ships over from SFB to FC.

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:26 am

Yeah, I heard about the support ships product. Looks cool. AFAIK it'll be black & white like the Briefing #1 product.

There's a few campaigns for FC running in various parts of the world, and I'm glad there's going to be more support for FC campaigns.

mwaschak · Post by **mwaschak** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:47 pm

terryoc wrote:Yeah, I heard about the support ships product. Looks cool. AFAIK it'll be black & white like the Briefing #1 product.

There's a few campaigns for FC running in various parts of the world, and I'm glad there's going to be more support for FC campaigns.

Me too. I was really excited when SVC said they would release the supporting product. It is great way to get all those shipyards, FRD, and whatnot on the table during key FA battles.

-Jay

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:14 pm

Just a quick question: will Federation Admiral be suitable for 100% PBM play or will there be some element in it that requires face-to-face interaction?

I'm so looking forward to this product!

P.S. A hardback option on Lulu would be great!

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:08 am

Yes, it will be 100% suitable to PBeM play. It's being published by ADB, not by us, so the formats the book will be available in is entirely up to them.

Shadow Warrior · Post by **Shadow Warrior** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:49 am

Charles Lewis wrote:Yes, it will be 100% suitable to PBeM play. It's being published by ADB, not by us, so the formats the book will be available in is entirely up to them.

Awesome! I'm even more fired up now!!

ADB print their products themselves so it'll be their usual options I guess, bound or unbound, holepunched or not.

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 8:52 am

Charles Lewis wrote:It's being published by ADB, not by us, so the formats the book will be available in is entirely up to them.

Does that mean that it won't be available through the usual on-line .pdf RPG stores?

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 2:00 pm

Yes. Because of the licensing issues, we are effectively serving as contractor writers for ADB. Whatever venues ADB products normally appear in is where Federation Admiral will be. They also sell direct.

However, ADB does not currently sell any of their products in PDF form, so I doubt very strongly that Federation Admiral will be available in PDF form.

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:51 pm

Poot - that's really unfortunate

,

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:02 pm

ADB's stance is that releasing their products in PDF would pretty much sacrifice the value of their license as they would no longer be able to control its presence on the internet. I'm not sure I agree with them, but given the value of their license, I don't blame them for playing conservative.

On the plus side, they are firmly embedded in the traditional distribution channels, so if you have a local store, they should be able to order it in for you. ADB also sells direct, though I don't know what the costs would be going to the UK.

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:37 am

I know that ADB has a UK distributor. (Not sure of the name. Does Esdevium sound right??) So it would definitely be orderable through a UK brick and mortar store.

Gareth_Perkins · Post by **Gareth_Perkins** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:42 am

Yes - Esdevium ship most RPG/Gaming goods in the UK,

I'm not sure I agree with them,

Obviously not given VBAM Games marketing strategy

It's more a utility thing than an availability thing (although that is a minor annoyance as well) - since I tend to play VBAM across the internet, sat in front of a PC (and not face-to-face at a games club or whatever) the .pdf versions are somewhat more useful, handy and convenient (plus, spilling coffee on them isn't so permanent),

Nevertheless, will soldier on...

Charles Lewis · Post by **Charles Lewis** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:38 pm

I feel your pain...I'm a big fan of searchable PDF rules, myself. Steven Cole has been in the industry for 30 years; we weren't inclined to argue when he holds the keys to the kindom.

However, that's the "price" we're paying to play with the big boys. Not only do we have high hopes for the revenue this project will bring to the company, we're also hoping it'll bring more players to VBAM in general.

The fact that this is the closest any small game company is likely to ever get to officially getting to play with one of the most venerable licenses/settings in sci-fi is icing on the proverbial cake.