RE: UMF-II: was New Life for Millennium's End

[Mike Fortey <forteymj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> My comment was based on the prior comment (Mike
> Fortey?)

Aye

> who suggested a 10
> page primer on weapons and their use.  My comment
> was intended to mean
> "taked advantage of multimedia" rather than
> following a strict ebook format,
> perhaps I chose a poor example.

I guess it's up to cybergames if they want to stay
with e-books or go with print. An e-book with integral
multi-media would be nice, but there is also a printed
demand for such a book. 

>Do we really need a game book to go into what is well
>covered in lots of firearms and training books
>already available.  

Well, maybe you don't need to, but most gamers would.
For starters, most gamers don't tend to use anything
much for reference that isn't in the rule books.
Secondary, UMF-II could offer information thats
scattered in a variety of books for the price of one
book, would have additional game-orientated
information, would not require ordering or a visit to
a specialist distributer and (most importantly) would
sit on a shelf in the games shop and make people who
didn't even realise they needed it, purchase it.


>That type of skill has no direct game impact and if
>my players wanted to know how 
>it was done a good weapons training book or video
>would do a much better job explaining it then any
>game book could.  Right tool for the job.

Again, you could offer a four sentence description and
3 diagrams in UMF-II for game use, which would be
interesting background and saves someone who just
wants a bit of depth from buying a specialist video or
publication. It DOES have a bearing on the game
though... how long does the action take to perform?
It's not in the rules. The rules do need a 'time to
perform 'X' action' table. Reloading is another
obvious ommission... most players want to reload in a
single turn.

Obviously, as 'dedicated' list reading players, we
have a lot more interest than most gamers in ME, but
the main focus of the discussion as far as Cybergames
is concerned is 'will it make money', and I believe
that out of all the printed products that they could
publish for ME (or most other games), a UMF-II with
conversion charts from other systems, more guns, fancy
gizmos and consise but informative essays as to how
kit is really used would be a good seller and have
decent cross-market sales. 

There's probably enough on firearms to already fill a
book, but other useful material would include consise
'layman' information on eavesdropping devices and
their limitations as well as essays on the
uses/limitations of night vision gear, effects of
incoming fire on materials, and pursuit driving.

Hell, you could probably have enough material to do a
UMF-II and a 'Covert Operations Guide' too.

Mike





>As far as which systems to include, I'd suggest
>Fuzion/Hero (given that
>cybergames is already going to be supporting the
>systems) and White Wolf

D20 too? It's only a matter of time before someone
writes a 'black ops / X-Files' contemparary D20 system



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