Background Compendium?

[Ogre44]

I was looking through the product list and noticed that while there is a nicely compiled collection of all of the rules for Federation Commander in the Reference Rulebook, there doesn't seem to be any such item for the background material.

I am guessing that all of the background is spread throughout the boxsets, Captain's Logs, and Briefings.

Are there any plans to gather all of this together to make it more readily available to players?

I for one would be quite interested in such a product as obtaining all of the boxes may well be beyond my means, much less all of the past Captain's Logs.

[Scoutdad]

A background copmpendium would be nice... but with over 30 years of internally consistent SFU history to draw from - I fear that would be too great an undertaking for even WebMom to pull off.

[Ogre44]

That's what I was afraid of.

Is there at least a timeline available to give an overview of events between and within the empires?

[Bolo_MK_XL]

Here's the current official timeline in pdf format:

http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/Timeline.pdf

[Dan Ibekwe]

Remember that FC is a lot less concerned with the 'official' SFU timeline than SFB or F&E are.

[mjwest]

When looking at the SFU timeline, remember that you have to add 2400 to the year to figure out the "FC year".

And, as Dan points out, FC is way less concerned about many details. When looking at the timeline, focus on the historical events (start/end of wars; treaties; etc.) and not on things (e.g. ships) and technology.

[Nerroth]

To expand into the rest of the Star Fleet Universe, the timeline for the Lesser Magellanic Cloud from SFB Module C5 is also up as a pdf:

http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents ... istory.pdf

The timeline for the Omega Octant, at least so far as the end of the Seventh Cycle (Y221, or 2621 in FC terms), is in the Omega Master Rulebook; however, it's not available online at the moment.

There is a truncated timeline (which goes as far as Y123/2523) in the playtest Module E2 for the Triangulum Galaxy; it's not online either. Hopefully, if M33 ever gets a formal published module for SFB, events set after that date may be put to print.

[Mike]

One thing I have never understood is why the SFU timeline is not important to FC.

Yes, I understand that FC is supposed to be quicker, more fun, less detailed, etc. than SFB. That still is not a good reason to be unconcerned about the timeline. I would think that the type of players drawn to this type of game would want a background to set things in context.

Another thing I have never understood that is related to all of this is why the "year after warp was discovered" dating system was scrapped in FC. Why the actual "A.D." years? The dates that are mentioned in FC do not match with dates mentioned in TOS. Yes, the SFU timeline "diverged" at that point toward a general galactic war and the TOS timeline went on toward a more peaceful chain of events, but they both should have begun at the same time.

[JimDauphinais]

In regard to dates:

Actual years based on AD are friendly for casual players. Also, 2400 is a much rounder number than 2063 (and 2063 quite frankly isn't very far away). Finally, note that TOS NEVER specified an AD reference. The later material did, but not TOS.

In regard to why history is not that important (at least technology wise):

My understanding is that it was because there would be no refits and adding the Early and Middle Years stuff had not yet been envisioned. All ships were to be be of the same era so that they could reasonably fight each other. Moreover, the complexity of the refit options was removed. Technology changes were limited to slow, normal and fast drones (as seen in Klingon Attack).

The success of FC led to other things including the Middle and Early Years stuff.