Re: What is FMA? - Shame on you Jon T!

>Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 09:22:46 +0000
>From: Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com>
>Subject: Re: What is FMA?
>
>That's pretty close; yes, "The FMA System"  is the name we gave to the
game
>engine of opposed polyhedral dice rolls, alternate activations etc.
that
>forms the core of both SGII and DSII.
>And yes, we are using FMA as the overall title for the skirmish game
system
>(already "previewed" in rough playtest form to the lucky denizens of
this
>list!!), which will be man-to-man level (as opposed to the squad-based
>level of SGII). FMC is a proposed (and partially tested) fantasy
version of
>FMA.
>FMA will see print as soon as it can be done, which means sometime
after
>FTFB2 and the Scenario Book (and either before or after FT3!).
>
>Jon (GZG)
>
>***************************************************************
>
>LET ME SAY THREE WORDS: BUGS DON'T SURF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>If you promised us BDS since the SG2 rules, when FMASkirmish is a
latecomer
>as is the latest generation of FT stuff, the least you could do is make
a
>pretense that one day you'll gift us with the product.....
>
>Jeez. Or is this just not popular enough to be commercially viable?

[Serious commercial games company mode on....]

Well, Tom, to be honest this IS part of the problem. SG is popular in
itself, but it also has a lot of competitors in the marketplace.
However,
FT sales (books and minis) FAR outstrip DS and SG put together, on both
sides of the Atlantic. Now, it could be argued that more product support
will increase SG/DS sales, and that may or may not be the case - but it
is
a tricky thing to balance when time is so limited. FT3 is needed due to
the
age of FT2 - we don't want to be forever reprinting a nine-year-old
product, and the new edition is commercially important to stay in
contention in this section of the market.
FMA has been in development (in one form or another) for a good few
years
now, and we need it out in print to give us a competitor to the other
skirmish-based systems on the market.
I really DO intend to do BDS at some point (and always have done), I
just
don't know when yet.
It'll be interesting to see the level of reaction we get to the Scenario
Book, from the Ground Pounders and the Vacuum Heads....

[Serious commercial games company mode off....]

Jon (GZG)
>
>;)
>
>****************************************************************
>
>
>Thomas Barclay
>Software UberMensch
>xwave solutions
>(613) 831-2018 x 3008