So who else thinks this is basically the most awesome Star Trek RPG ever made?

Noble Knight was running a sale on all the books, so I finally replaced my lost copies of the corebooks for a mere $40 total.

Looking forward to reading them again.

Honestly? I like my LUG books better. I looked at both very very carefully. Then decided on buying this one--I like the way templates work, for races and training without being hard coded classes.


Just me.

Plus its mechanics work similarly to things I've written.


Not that Decipher dn't have some great stuff mind you. Just that I liked these better

I like Decipher's game, but...there's just something about FASA's game that draws me to it much more.

LUG had a lifepath system, right?

Or am I just crazy?

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;385744LUG had a lifepath system, right?

Or am I just crazy?

Depends on what you mean. It doesn't have random stuff like say Traveller, it does have choices of things you do that you learn from.

Quote from: Silverlion;385745Depends on what you mean. It doesn't have random stuff like say Traveller, it does have choices of things you do that you learn from.

Hm.

I played it once YEARS ago...and other than the GM being the worst GM I have ever played under, ever, in my entire life...I remember that my guy (the Captain) served a tour of duty on a Klingon vessel...I just don't remember HOW that came about.

Production values are great, system is solid enough, organization is goddamned terrible. The character creation process was designed by a sadist.

But I own them and I'm glad I do.

I was never impressed with it.

When I did my GURPS version - I started to update the FASA lifepath character generation system and make it compatible with GURPS.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;385747Production values are great, system is solid enough, organization is goddamned terrible. The character creation process was designed by a sadist.

But I own them and I'm glad I do.

I'll give you the organization was spotty, but I love the writing.  I've read so few books that filled my head with so many ideas.

I have neither the cipher nor the private key for Star Trek to do so.

Quote from: J Arcane;385738So who else thinks this is basically the most awesome Star Trek RPG ever made?

Personally, I'd say it suffers from the same problem that most licensed RPGs do. People who want to play in the featured setting usually know it as well as the authors of the RPG. Why would they buy it? Why wouldn't I use one of the bazillion RPG systems out there and adapt it for my take on Star Trek?

Quote from: 1of3;385792Why would they buy it? Why wouldn't I use one of the bazillion RPG systems out there and adapt it for my take on Star Trek?

Time.  Why would I spend 10-100 hours statting everything when I could spend a bit of money to get it?

Quote from: 1of3;385792Personally, I'd say it suffers from the same problem that most licensed RPGs do. People who want to play in the featured setting usually know it as well as the authors of the RPG. Why would they buy it? Why wouldn't I use one of the bazillion RPG systems out there and adapt it for my take on Star Trek?

Because I don't want to spent countless hours of my time shoehorning something into an existing system, or printing out reams of internet material, that none of my players will play anyway because it's not bound in an "official book" from somewhere?

Because an entire volume of house rules is a little much to expect people you game with online to absorb just to play an IRC or a PbP game?

Because it's a well written game that provides considerable inspiration, information, and ideas as to how one might run the game, and has been designed with a professional rigor that ensures it covers things more thoroughly and competently than some half-assed houserules are likely to without a lot more work?

Why does anyone buy any game when they could just write their own?  Because maybe they don't fucking want to write their own?  Because they have lives of their own outside of gaming and don't live in their mother's basement on unemployment spending 24 hours a day writing houserule supplements they'll never play?  

Ask a stupid question . . .

I think the GM's Guide to Decipher's system is one of the finest books ever written for RPGs. You could use it for a Star Trek game using any game system, even GURPS.

The player's guide doesn't even read like it was written by the same people. It is a disorganized mess. If you can "decipher" :hatsoff: the player's book, there is a pretty good system in there.

That said, I much prefer the writing style found in the ICON system. The ICON books have better fluff and are written in a much more entertaining way than the Decipher books.

Both systems have some issues; ICON, for example, just has way too many skills.

FASA Trek had one of the most enjoyable character creation systems of any RPG that I have read or played. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay of the game itself doesn't quite live up to the career path fun found when creating a Starfleet officer.

Alright, I see your point. It's just this game is quite terrible.

They have stats for different species? Why? Obviously it doesn't matter if you are Klingon or a Borg drone. Kirk will beat you up, because he is the captain. Being a Klingon PC doesn't make you more tough. It's a license to take more of a beating.

The game has statistics for Star Ships. Why? At most you would need to measure whether the alien ship is more or less advanced than the Enterprise. Even that doesn't work. Sometimes a single Dominion ship is a threat, sometimes the Defiant will blow them up by the dozen.

There is a list of subspace phenomena in the Narrator's Guide. Funny. It's just that all of those phenomena were only encountered in a single episode, because they were tailored as that episode's plot device. The correct rule would have been: "Here is a random table to roll up your subspace phenomenon's name. If you have had the same result in a previous session, roll again. NEVER USE THE SAME NAME TWICE. The phenomenon works however you want it to work." Because that's how these things behave on the show.

It should have adressed how holodeck episodes work. It should have adressed the difference between a myth and a story in Star Trek. All stuff like that.

The game in question is no game of Star Trek. It's D&D in Starfleet uniforms!