The FASA system seems rather hopeless to me now (when people call it a percentile system, it's not nearly that simple)- but somehow, it worked.  It had that 'classic' Trek feel that the other Trek RPGs could never seem to get.  And I agree that the Combat System was not as detailed as Star Fleet Battles, but amazingly, that worked too.  For one thing, you could resolve a ship-to-ship battle in less than 20 minutes.  Try that in SFB.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;909431The FASA system seems rather hopeless to me now (when people call it a percentile system, it's not nearly that simple)- but somehow, it worked.  It had that 'classic' Trek feel that the other Trek RPGs could never seem to get.  And I agree that the Combat System was not as detailed as Star Fleet Battles, but amazingly, that worked too.  For one thing, you could resolve a ship-to-ship battle in less than 20 minutes.  Try that in SFB.

JG

The FASA starship simulator was great fun.  Yeah, SFB of course is a better wargame, but where are the plugins for character skill?  This is a RPG we're doing here, we're not at a convention with guys who have memorized all the to hit tables and will always make the exact attack that has the most favorable statistical chance.

Also, like Rob said, the Tricorder was just plain cool.  The console layouts with chits to represent sliders and the tricorder are two examples of gadgetry at the table that aids immersion into the setting, not pulling you out for it's own sake.

I kind of like the concept of the dedicated away team, or Prime Team, as Amarillo Design Bureau calls it.  It would make for interesting troupe play, everyone had a Bridge Crew member, and a Prime Team member.  That way you get Picard up in space for when you need to not fuck up a diplomatic mission and Kirk on the ground gettin' shit done when it all goes south.

I actually liked the FASA starship game better than SFB because SFB became so bloated.  Forrest Brown of FASA said one of their design goals was to be able to set up the game, teach new players, and play the game to a conclusion in 4 hours or less.  First time I  played it was a Constitution class and two Enterprise class against 5 Klingon ships.  From start to end took us 2 1/2 hours to thoroughly kick Klingon ass.

We found character creation a bit on the slow side and my junior high friends didn't have the patience for the star ship combat simulator.  Still, it was a fun game.  Very well put together and thought out.  I'd read Dragon Quest first and second edition so the action point system wasn't new to me but it still felt a bit too boardgamey.  I was a narrativist in my youth.  I should dig up my Galaxies in Shadow files and put together some Trek stuff.  I've always wanted to run a Star Trek campaign.

Anyhow, I was working on a setting that's basically a lower / harder tech exploration game that's essential Star Trek's Federation encounter's Dune's empire.

I played plenty of FASA Trek, and sold it all on eBay years ago. It was never a good game, but it was "the Trek RPG" so we played it. Effectively, it was the only donut shop in town unless you made your own Trek game and I certainly played several different homebrews over the years. I knew two GMs who just used Traveller - which actually worked fine in a world of phasers and disruptors.  One GM did a good job to reskin Traveller ship combat to make missiles into photons and lasers into ship phasers and patterned his campaign off Star Fleet Battles.

The best Trek RPG play I've enjoyed was at the Los Angeles conventions with a great GM who reskinned the Buffy system for Trek. Damn, that worked awesome.

Quote from: Spinachcat;909448The best Trek RPG play I've enjoyed was at the Los Angeles conventions with a great GM who reskinned the Buffy system for Trek. Damn, that worked awesome.

I'm thinking of something similar.

JG

Quote from: Spinachcat;909448(...) reskinned the Buffy system for Trek. Damn, that worked awesome.

I only met two GMs who did Star Trek campaigns, one with FASA, one with a reskinned Cyberpunk/Interlock (which is not that far from Unisystem).

I'd use this:

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;909596I only met two GMs who did Star Trek campaigns, one with FASA, one with a reskinned Cyberpunk/Interlock (which is not that far from Unisystem).

I'd use this:

I checked out the free PDF.  It looks pretty cool.  It also led me to Rogue Space.  And now the print versions are sitting in my Lulu cart while I try to decide whether to order.

It does look cool...

Quote from: Gabriel2;909605And now the print versions are sitting in my Lulu cart while I try to decide whether to order.

Isn't that Lulu discount still in effect till tomorrow? Code: LULU30.

Remember, there's also Where No Man Has Gone Before, which is a D20 Modern version of Trek.  It includes such things as a table of random gimmicks that the producers insert into the next season in a desperate attempt to get better ratings.  

JG

I remember almost nothing about the game's system, but I do remember that the later books had really cutting-edge art and graphic design for the time. It was one of the first RPGs I remember that "Looked slick".

I still have the first edition boxed set, with a single volume rulebook. It is very TOS oriented, I think it may even predate STTMP. It had a Star Trek feel in background, but teh mechanics were clunky iirc.

The second and subsequent editions had much better graphic design, the Starship Combat Simulator was also available as it's own boxed game.

There's always the Whole Nother Generation article from that old Challenge magazine with the random plot generator and stats for races like Obnoxoids with their racial ability of Irritate Everybody 95%  and Chief Geek Wesley with his skill of Irritate Everybody 98%.

Quote from: estar;909311However there is a Star Trek Retro-clone out there Starships and Spaceman. http://www.goblinoidgames.com/spacemen.html

It not a FASA retro-clone but rather adapting D&D mechanics to a Star Trek game.
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I was bummed when the Next Generation went the whole honorable Klingon route. Although I appreciated Enterprise's explanation of how the TOS Klingons came to be.

1: Um... Wrong? (and right)

S&S is not a retroclone. Its a reprinting of the original board game and RPG. The RPG in 78 by FGU and the board game in 82. The original rules do not quite map to D&D stats but like Tunnels & Trolls does have some overlap and does use a 3d6 for generation.

Though Goblinoid Games did do a 2e. Which meant it was instead re-written to use or be compatible with Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future. So 2e is OSR.

It does though indeed make for a great Star Trek RPG. With the serial numbers filed off.

2: If you pay attention in TNG. Worf is about the only honourable Klingon in the series. The rest are oft shown to be just as conniving backstabbing thugs as they ever were. Worf just has a skewed ideal of what Klingons are and was very disillusioned when he found out they were not what he thought.

Quote from: DavetheLost;909634I still have the first edition boxed set, with a single volume rulebook. It is very TOS oriented, I think it may even predate STTMP.

The FASA RPG came out 5 years before TNG aired on TV.


Somehow it feels like that sentence is missing an acronym.