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Thursday, October 22, 2009

On Klingons Prime Directive PD20M

Jean Sexton reports:

On October 19, 2009, we shipped Klingons Prime Directive PD20M. Due to Real Life issues intruding, it was the book I thought that I could most likely finish within a year of the release of Prime Directive PD20M.

What is new and changed from Klingons PD20? Here are some highlights.

  • Information pertinent to PD20M players is in a format they will recognize.
  • The Paladin advanced class has been revamped.
  • Many of the species traits for the Subject Races have been reworked and there is information for age, height, and weight for the beings you would encounter in the Klingon Empire.
  • We listened to some additional tapes and discovered more information about the Bargantines.
  • We forced more information into the starship and personal weapons sections.
  • There is an additional page of starship art and it is gorgeous! Ted Geibel and Adam Turner are very talented artists.

ADB, Inc.'s books do not happen in a vacuum. They are a team effort and they reflect the strengths of us all. Let me tell you about the people who have worked on this book and their contributions.

Eric Olivarez did a splendid job of designing new chapter headings for the book. They catch the feeling of steel -- apt for "The Empire of Steel".

Jonathan Thompson had the lead in converting the d20 information into d20M terms. While some of the species were a breeze (having appeared in PD20M), others took much effort, especially in light of the disinformation the Klingons had put out about their Subject Races.

Ryan Opel spent a lot of evenings answering questions that popped into my head. How did so-and-so really spell his name? Please count behind me and see if the Klingons have tried to mislead us about the power this ship's engines produce. Only when he didn't have an answer was I forced to call one of the Steves.

Tony Thomas reworked all of the sample characters and really dug through those personnel files to discover the "real" people. We have warned him to be on the lookout for Klingon Dagger Teams when we release this sensitive information.

Gary Plana was there, providing information and background. His knowledge of the Prime Directive RPG games and their history was invaluable.

Steven Petrick had to answer many phone calls and questions. What's that square thing on the SSD? How do I know if this is a K refit thing or not? What year did this ship really come out? HELP! I can't find an SSD for this ship!!!!! Without his help I could not have checked the entire chapter on the starships. With his help I learned far more about the Klingon starships than I ever knew and realized that each change in design was logical and had a purpose.

Steve Cole was absolutely essential in getting this book to press. He did the layout and all the corrections to the text. He had the unenviable chore of making larger files fit into the same space and he did it seamlessly. He capitalized phrases and changed capitalized phrases into lower case (per ADB, Inc.'s "Capitalization Guide") without much protestation. He has been understanding when Real Life issues prevented me from working on the book as much as I would have liked to have done. And of course, he's the one who brought us the original book!

Thanks also go to Leanna Cole and the Coles's furkids (Ramses and Isis, two beautiful Bengal cats) who let Steve work late, late nights in order to get this done.