Starship Warden Kickstarter

[cadriel]

This is something I was surprised to see. Troll Lord Games is putting out a Kickstarter for the Starship Warden, which claims to be Jim Ward's complete starship:

www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/1715/landing

The Starship Warden is a 650+ page black and white, hard cover book; a sandbox adventure setting written by James M. Ward and Christopher Clark. Designed for use with the Siege Engine but fully playable with the original Metamorphosis Alpha ruleset.

I'm a bit surprised to see this, given that Jim published his previous work through Goodman Games. Does anyone know more about this and why it's going through TLG and published for the Siege Engine instead of Metamorphosis Alpha?

[Falconer]

I’m intrigued but can’t find any info about it. There’s nothing on the TLG Forums. How does this relate to “Epsilon City,” which was released through Goodman?

[geoffrey]

Wow. I'm very curious about this vast dungeon hurtling through outer space.

[Finarvyn]

Jim Ward posted something on this project back in June.

We are so close to done. Chris Clark has been working very hard on editing the 700 page product. There are 17 main deck maps and 16 between deck maps. Stephen Chenault suggested we do in between decks and Chris did an amazing job putting those together. They are an entirely new feature for the Warden. Again, this is all first edition work and adds in Siege Engine Troll Lord rules. Goodman games is still selling the original MA and you can get a download of MA.

He didn't say why he was working through TLG instead of Goodman Games.

[Melan]

I wonder if this is based on his old MA campaign notes, if it is newly written, or if it is a mixture of the two.

[Falconer]

You can also get MA on Lulu.

[cadriel]

Well, the Kickstarter's live:





The book is being written for StarSIEGE, with this aside:

But, if you are loyal to the old MA, don't despair, the Starship Warden is written to allow you to use your original Metamorphis Alpha Rules and begin a lifetime worth of play.

What's particularly irritating with the Kickstarter's format is that the stretch goals only apply if you spend $150 on the boxed set. That's more than I'm interested in, and I don't see a lot of merit in buying in.

[Falconer]

Hrm, I had long been looking forward to “Jim Ward’s megadungeon,” but so far my enthusiasm is rather uninflated. I’d like to see some sample maps and some sample statblocks (or other evidence of it being compatible with MA). I’d like to hear a bit about what is being written by Jim Ward and what is being written by Chris Clark.

[Starbeard]

Here are some clarifications made by Christopher Clark from the project's comment section:

This was written for Met Alpha AND Star Siege, I promise. I know because I wrote a lot of it. Any MA mutation used by a creature on board has an explanation in the book. IT IS a Metamorphosis Alpha product that also works 100% with Star Siege. That's how we wrote it. What this book does not cover is Met-Alpha character creation. If, however, you have a copy of (and plan to use) the original (or even a follow-up edition) of the Metamorphosis Alpha rules, you will NOT have to convert anything found here. Short form: If you have the Goodman Games book, OR Star Siege, OR the original book with the lightning bolt cover (I actually have three copies of that one - all in poor condition because I use them ), you are ready-to-play. NO conversions are necessary on your part. Open the book and play (that's what I do at cons!).

Yeah- there are two easy stat conversions (that are 1-to-1 conversions, so you basically just change the name of the stat), and it is entirely set up for 1e play. There are a couple of Star Siege stats you won't use, but just ignore them. - and we included mutation charts for some areas with high radiation.... IT IS classic MA, I promise.... just with a few extras.

The Epsilon City material from Goodman fits into Deck #14, and is, in fact, recommended in the text (so all of that material is not just compatible - it actually works within the backgrounds and story springboards provided). The Goodman version of Epsilon City was rather small though (only about 2 square miles), and so the Epsilon City found here is massive by comparison, and has been further fleshed out. I also did a fairly accurate, although small, layout map of the entire Warden - it covers the bottom half of page #2 in the prototype copy (and so that might change) we prepped.

(On the question, "What about MCC compatibility?")
I just started playing MCC about five months ago. This is only apropos as I lack the system mastery to confidently do conversions or additions that would simplify the use of the Warden as an MCC supplement. I did incorporate some of Jim Wampler's previously penned MA material (with his blessing), but I lack the ability to do an MCC conversion any justice. Granted - I am not the only one involved in this project .

Jason Fury:
Steve thanks for the reassurance. I guess I'm just not sold on running the Warden with anything other than MA. But time will tell, don't mind be being wrong

Christopher Clark:
...and you don't have to, Jason. Jim and I wrote this for him to use playing 1st ed. at cons, while I play another system entirely. I kinda like Star Siege too, but I am no good at running 1st ed. MA (I do play it when Jim GMs ).

[Starbeard]

I decided to back at the $20 digital level. So far it just gives PDF versions of Starship Warden and the full Starsiege rules, not any of the other add-ons. I'm fine with that, I don't have the space for the print product, nor the wherewithal to keep packing it up when we inevitably move again. I'm sure I could grab most of the extras in digital format after release if I really want to, and still save on the cost of buying in at the appropriate level now.

[hamurai]

A pity they made it primarily for their new StarSiege game. Even if it's not a lot of conversion to the MA rules, it still is, which slows play unless you do it all before the session. The fact that they misspelled StarSiege (as StarSeige) more than once doesn't impress me either.

I'll wait for now and hope they'll add some more of the actual content to the page, like maps and (what I'm hoping for) random tables.

[soundchaser]

Did the physical book ever publish?

[hamurai]

Looking at the last comments on Kickstarter, it seems that art replacements are delaying the project a lot.

[Finarvyn]

I probably should have backed the thing, as I own pretty much every METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA thing out there, but I was bummed that they chose a hardback book format instead of a boxed set with piles of maps. I'm second-guessing but still think that a box of maps would have been better.

[hamurai]

Aye, maps should be loose to be taken out and laid upon the table.

[soundchaser]

The Kickstarter was “live” in December or that was something else, or goofed up?

[hamurai]

December 2019, yes. It was supposed to deliver Oct 2020.

[geoffrey]

[This post and all below it were originally in a separate thread, which I've merged with this thread --- Zenopus]

I am very curious about Jim Ward's mammoth The Starship Warden recently published by Troll Lord Games:
Click here.

If you have it, please let us know what you think!

[jeffb]

I'd like to hear as well.

I could have used it years ago when the MA Kickstarter came to fruition and interest in my group was high. I wasn't terribly impressed with the stretch goal adventures that were produced. With MA, I don't have the confidence level to run from scratch.

[Falconer]

I found this thread where we discussed it as the Kickstarter was going live. Just posting that here in case anyone else needs a refresher.

[DungeonDevil]

Is this a big book of detailed deckplans for the Warden?
Some forums chatter questioningly about what ruleset this is written for, and I cannot find any clear answers.
Any details?

[jeffb]

Aug 30, 2021 18:35:56 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

Is this a big book of detailed deckplans for the Warden?
Some forums chatter questioningly about what ruleset this is written for, and I cannot find any clear answers.
Any details?

I'm not 100%, but I believe I saw that it has some basic Siege Engine rules included in the book- which means stat blocks are very compatible with O/TSR.

[thegreyelf]

Aug 30, 2021 18:51:29 GMT -6 jeffb said:

Aug 30, 2021 18:35:56 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

Is this a big book of detailed deckplans for the Warden?
Some forums chatter questioningly about what ruleset this is written for, and I cannot find any clear answers.
Any details?

I'm not 100%, but I believe I saw that it has some basic Siege Engine rules included in the book- which means stat blocks are very compatible with O/TSR.

Precisely this. It is indeed a massive book full of detailed deckplans for the Warden. It also includes the SIEGE Engine rules at the beginning, and for the most part, stat blocks are designed to be compatible with Castles & Crusades / Amazing Adventures. Jim uses different rules for poison and radiation than the standard SIEGE systems, but you could easily choose which version to use in your game. He also includes some information about his original rules for things like weapon class vs. AC. It's one of the more complete offerings I've seen, but it's also admittedly intimidating to approach because it's so gigantic. For those interested in the history of the game, it's a must own. It's essentially the first science fiction megadungeon.

We released a new, expanded version of Amazing Adventures StarSIEGE with the Kickstarter that expands sci-fi rules even further, but we haven't put StarSIEGE out in wide release YET. It's coming, but Steve is mulling over a few things about how to release it, and it'll be scheduled after TLG gets through fulfilling all the Kickstarters we have on our plates.

[Zenopus]

FYI, Troll Lord Games is about to sell out of this, and are not planning another printing.

3 copies currently left on the TLG site (currently sold out)

Starship Warden product page

See also this recent K&KA thread started by Falconer, which is where I learned about this:

knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17669

[Zenopus]

I've merged the two threads about the Starship Warden kickstarter.

[Finarvyn]

I bought one and it's a really big book. I really had hoped for a boxed set full of blueprint maps.

[Starbeard]

Apparently the rumor now is that they've pulled the Warden stuff with no plans to reprint because Jim Ward is planning to do something with it through his own company.

So there may be more yet, and hopefully it involves a big box of fun maps.

[Zenopus]

I surmised as much because the last update to the Kickstarter, the same one that announced it was going out of print, also mentioned that Ward and Clark were "getting their IP all assembled".