"Silent Death is BACK!" Topic

Thanks for sharing those images, and the details on the size differences.

I was not aware that the Ad Astra ships are considerably larger.

Are there going to be any changes to the SD backstory?

Changes? If by that you mean we'll keep building on the very limited backgrounds provided in the core rulebook by publishing new House books and such and expand those desperately… limited…. backgrounds, yes, you can count on it!

As things stand already, Sheldon Greaves and I already have a number of unpublished manuscripts for several House books, plus the Campaign System playtesting will be recommending in the very near future.

Stay tuned…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

He might have been asking if the timeline was going to take another big jump like it did last time. The original edition was set during Imperial times after all, while the current one shoved the timeline forward to post-Grub Apocalypse. If you're really concerned about the backgrounds being limited, you'd be better off taking a big step backward and getting positioned to use all that setting fluff they wrote for Starmaster way back when – assuming you have the rights to it, of course.

Myself, I don't see the need for elaborate background fluff for a starfighter combat game, especially if you're fixing up the design system so people can use custom designs with more confidence.

He might have been asking if the timeline was going to take another big jump like it did last time. The original edition was set during Imperial times after all, while the current one shoved the timeline forward to post-Grub Apocalypse. If you're really concerned about the backgrounds being limited, you'd be better off taking a big step backward and getting positioned to use all that setting fluff they wrote for Starmaster way back when – assuming you have the rights to it, of course.

I'll tell you this much; we're moving forward, not backward.

Myself, I don't see the need for elaborate background fluff for a starfighter combat game, especially if you're fixing up the design system so people can use custom designs with more confidence.

Don't worry, we won't hurt ourselves…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I was not aware that the Ad Astra ships are considerably larger.

Just those. The capital ships for the Imperial and Zhodani fleets are quite small. I'd consider them to be Fleet Scale.

(quote with snip)
all the metal ship minis will be produced to order by RAFM Miniatures, and shipped directly to the purchaser from RAFM.
Order away.
Brother Jim wrote:
Is this what was done before ? As I am still waiting for ships to be sent from the caster from an order placed in 2009. And no, I don't expect them to show up after all this time.
(end quote)

Brother Jim,
RAFM has only ever been the manufacturer of the Silent Death ships, there is no connection to ICE other than that. They cast and ship what they have been paid for. I'm sorry to hear you had trouble in the past with a purchase. Hopefully this new endeavor will overcome any past difficulties with supply and administration.

Regards
Brock Van Schaik
Silver Fox Productions Inc.

If I was running RAFM, I'd offer Brother Jim some credit or dicount to make up for the $ he lost on the order.

He ordered his product through ICE not RAFM. Any discount or credit is in the purview of metal-express to issue as the current property holder.

If I was running RAFM, I'd offer Brother Jim some credit or dicount to make up for the $ he lost on the order.

He ordered his product through ICE not RAFM. Any discount or credit is in the purview of metal-express to issue as the current property holder.

Hence, gentlemen, why the official announcement that begins this thread (click on the link!) specified who people should contact regarding such matters.

Brother Jim needs to contact Sheldon Greaves concerning his wayward order, and we can work to resolve it accordingly.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I sent him an email last Friday.

Brother Jim,

Dr. Greaves is out of town IIRC. I'll follow up with him and confirm he's received your e-mail and is looking into the matter.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Brother Jim,

I spoke with Sheldon last night; he's definitely looking into resolving the matter.

Keep me posted.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Leland- any teasers on which House book we can expect?

Thanks

James

James,

I'll be cruel and tell you what I've got squirreled away… now mind you, they're *all* going to go through rewrites to incorporate newer ideas and frankly rather greater knowledge of assorted subjects Dr. Greaves and I have gained these past years…

*House Red Star

*House Tokugawa

*Luches Utopia

*Karelian Republic

Sheldon meanwhile has been lobbied by yours truly to take up the Data Sphere given his frankly impressive scholarship in matters pertaining to technology, cognition, nanotechnology, and other matters.

For now, it's baby steps getting the existing line up and running, ferret out and eliminate any kinks, and get up to speed. After that, things will get all the more interesting…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Thanks Leland- will you be doing the books both as PDF and hard copy?

Cheers

James

PDF for dead certain, and both if at all possible.

One problem at a time, just like peeling an onion…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

(Quote)
Chief Lackey Rich Supporting Member of TMP Fezian 22 Jul 2012 2:34 p.m. PST
(snip)
Myself, I don't see the need for elaborate background fluff for a starfighter combat game, especially if you're fixing up the design system so people can use custom designs with more confidence.
(End Quote)
Is the design system going to be tweaked to allow it to actually build the ships in the book ?? I think (it's been a while and my books are buried right now) the simplest "fix" would be doubling the "spaces" or "slots" (or whatever they were called) per fighter "frame". The point costs should also reflect the design rules. Basically I feel that all designs in the game should be buildable using the design rules.
I never got around to building Warhounds, so have no suggestions for them.

Brother Jim,

actually, the fixes are proving even simpler than expected, as most of the templates and most of the Core Ships weren't really all that far out of sync with one another. Some of the Core Ships in fact used less slots than their existing design templates provided, while others went over the top, but not by all that much (while a few were also just plain nonsensical, but that's another thread!). Other fixes are addressing the size and fit of weapons in gun turrets (this was too easy to abuse, and yes, that's coming from yours truly, the designer of the Black Widow!), and the excessive slot cost of Damage Reduction for a number of the templates (which was the biggest source of disconnect between the Core Ships and their actual design templates).

The Warhounds all fit their templates IIRC, but we'll review them once again just to be sure. As there are only a small number of "Core" Warhounds, the job is all that easier as all of the designs that followed AFAIK conformed to the published design system, as did the bulk cruiser template and designs found in Kashmere Commonwealth.

As for the justification of having a background coupled to an open design system, why the Hell not? It's fun for us writers, and keeps us sorta kinda gainfully employed…

And besides, this *is* *sci-fi!* You can use or discard the background story as much as you desire. As long as you're having *fun* playing Silent Death: The Next Millennium whether its with our "canon" background and factions, or Star Wars, or Space Battleship Yamato, or Buck Rogers, whatever, no-one at MX is going to get upset…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I hope you (personally) do well with Silent Death, as opposed to the guys who were running it in the last few years.

Chiming in on the design system, the main difficulty I saw with custom designs was the staggering number of torpedoes some ships could haul. Putting torps on the table was too cheap for customs IME, and they tended to dominate games unless they were countered by similar designs.

Rich,

torps have their own limitations, and can be decoyed and/or jammed as well as simply evaded or shot down, or intercepted by opposing torps.

Dr. Greaves and I addressed various ways to use and counter torps in the Fighter Tactics Manual. At the risk of overstating the obvious, torps are one-shot wonders. Once they're gone, they're gone.

Then there's the element of Warhounds and their onboard ECM systems, which can "sweep" torps a little too easily for my own liking (unless I'm doing the "sweeping," in which case that's just fine by me).

One last thing, is that torps are too often really glorified missiles with a longer range and endurance that the actual missile systems found in SD:TNM. Torps carried by fighters or gunboats do not present that significant a threat to escort-class warships or large freighters like Kashmeri bulk cruisers. They simply lack the damage potential to even seriously damage such ships on their own.

Warhound-specific torps are the other problem; they're too slow to track fighters or gunboats, and are too big to be carried by fighters or gunboats under the current rules of design. This frankly defeats the purpose of having fighters or gunboats being able to effectively threaten the escort-class warships to the comparable degree of say an F-18 Hornet packing an anti-shipping missile being able to threaten a modern frigate or destroyer. This is something we're going to revisit later as well, the idea of certain classes of larger fighters and gunboats being able to carry Mk.60 through Mk.100 torpedoes in limited numbers and give thus give them a real ship-killing potential (and making those anti-convoy or anti-warship scenarios all the more fearsome and faster playing).

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Rules staying the same?

Lee

The design system will be undergoing some alterations long overdue, however the Core Rules will not change. The core ships will also long-term be redesigned to adhere to the revised design system.

We'll also of course scour the House ship designs as well to makes dead certain that they too conform to the revised design rules.

The Night Brood ship are also undergoing a substantial makeover, being redesigned from the ground up. The simple fact is that the Night Brood as they are currently published are too powerful and grossly imbalance the game when pitted against core ships and one too many pre-Fighter Tactics Manual ship designs. This has been a pet peeve of the current design team since we first played Silent Death so many ears ago, and we intend to redress this imbalance rationally and with an appropriate degree of playtesting to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Breath of fresh air to hear the words Silent Death, Traveller and the name Leland R. Erickson about the place makes me want to sculpt some ships again :o)
L

Another question

If we buy the rules now, will we get a discount when the new version comes out?

For me it means PDFs, moving soon and more stuff not feasible.

Lee

Lee,

my apologies for the slow reply! No discount is planned at this time; we're still very much a start-up, so do bear with us as we claw our way forward!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Np,
Grabbed the rules in PDF and re read them.

Are there any boarding action rules you would suggest?

Lee

Hmmm… best thing I can suggest is first ask yourself how detailed you want to be on boarding actions? If you just want a simple system, I'd recommend assigning a simple numeric value to a basic crewmember, a dedicated "space marine," a Night Brood and Blood Worm if you're using Night Brood, and just have a straightforward die roll off by adding up the factors for all live crew versus boarders, and each throws a die. Add the total number of crew/marines/etc. to the total, higher number wins.

You can fine tune your system from there, unless you want to go whole hog and use a boarding action as an excuse to break out your favorite infantry skirmish rules and set up another table for a nasty close-range shoot 'em up…

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net