Has anyone ever successfully made a character with this game?
If you have could you kindly explain it to me, step by step?
Perhaps there is a guide somewhere online?
Quote from: Piestrio;612160Has anyone ever successfully made a character with this game?
If you have could you kindly explain it to me, step by step?
Perhaps there is a guide somewhere online?
Try Patrick Goodman's site -- http://strpg.patrickgoodman.org . He has a lot of chargen aids toward the bottom, including a guide.
I remember chargen being very confusing until I used some kind of resource, but actual play was pretty fucking cool. Good luck.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;612162Try Patrick Goodman's site -- http://strpg.patrickgoodman.org . He has a lot of chargen aids toward the bottom, including a guide.
"The character generation process in the Player's Guide is somewhat...disheveled."
So this is a guide on how to decipher Decipher Star Trek.
Quote from: James Gillen;612266"The character generation process in the Player's Guide is somewhat...disheveled."
So this is a guide on how to decipher Decipher Star Trek.
IIRC, the issue is that key pieces of character generation are all over the book. The actual resolution system is pretty easy (and fairly reminiscent of d20, IIRC.) But looking over that chargen aid, you can see that one part of chargen is on page 28, and one part is on, like, 174, and in between is shit like "Starship combat."
It's not the most terribly organized game in the world, because the main casualty is chargen, but it's up there.
I have no experience with Decipher Star Trek, but I have played Decipher Lord of the Rings. Character creation was not complex, but it was very confusing.
I'm not a fan of CODA, but if I had those chargen reference sheets, I might have played the damn thing.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;612286IIRC, the issue is that key pieces of character generation are all over the book. The actual resolution system is pretty easy (and fairly reminiscent of d20, IIRC.) But looking over that chargen aid, you can see that one part of chargen is on page 28, and one part is on, like, 174, and in between is shit like "Starship combat."
It's not the most terribly organized game in the world, because the main casualty is chargen, but it's up there.
"Editor's Note: I don't exist."
-
HoL
I took one look at this game once, and knew I would never run it.
I don't think there's any really good Star Trek game, but the one that came closest to being viable in my book was Prime Directive.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;612784I took one look at this game once, and knew I would never run it.
I don't think there's any really good Star Trek game, but the one that came closest to being viable in my book was Prime Directive.
RPGPundit
Give the Last Unicorn Games version a look. It is surprisingly good. Plus, there is a ton of fan-made material that is good and not wankery on the internet.
Quote from: RPGPundit;612784I took one look at this game once, and knew I would never run it.
I don't think there's any really good Star Trek game, but the one that came closest to being viable in my book was Prime Directive.
RPGPundit
What did you like about Prime Directive? Being a pretty big Trek fan I've always been turned off by the wonky canon and haven't every really given it a look.
Quote from: Piestrio;612972What did you like about Prime Directive? Being a pretty big Trek fan I've always been turned off by the wonky canon and haven't every really given it a look.
The canon thing about
Prime Directive and the whole
Star Fleet Battles universe is that it is based off of the
Star Fleet Technical Manual, which was TOS and more of a well-done fan creation when it was published. From that point on the ADB
Trek universe and the Paramount one diverged.
Quote from: Piestrio;612972What did you like about Prime Directive? Being a pretty big Trek fan I've always been turned off by the wonky canon and haven't every really given it a look.
So IGNORE 'their canon' - and go with wjhat you actually see in the shows and movies.
Thats what I've done.
The character templates in the main book are a good rough outline for making typical player characters in Starfleet. I've still had to tweak it somewhat tho.
- Ed C.
Quote from: Piestrio;612972What did you like about Prime Directive? Being a pretty big Trek fan I've always been turned off by the wonky canon and haven't every really given it a look.
Its ridiculously simple to ignore the canon (which I never bothered to learn) and just run the game as an "original series" Star Trek RPG. The system is quite sound, and the feel of the game is quite good for away-mission type adventuring.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;613299Its ridiculously simple to ignore the canon (which I never bothered to learn) and just run the game as an "original series" Star Trek RPG. The system is quite sound, and the feel of the game is quite good for away-mission type adventuring.
RPGPundit
The Prime Teams concept is actually something invented for the game, since (as Riker pointed out to Picard in Next Gen) the captain normally isn't SUPPOSED to go on field missions.
But while the Amarillo people came up with their own stuff (like Hydrans) overall it's very much like Original Series. Which is a good thing. In retrospect one of the things I disliked about the
Next Generation era (and one reason I was disappointed with the take on pre-Federation history in
Enterprise) is that the producers of the later series made their own concepts when there were still a whole bunch of Original Series concepts that were not only there to explore, but would have been better than the new stuff they came up with. For instance, Orions are a very similar culture to the Ferengi, but they aren't half as irritating, require less makeup props to portray, and their women are A LOT better looking in harem outfits. :D
JG
I will never tire of pointing people at Where No Man Has Gone Before (http://www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/trek/).
Quote from: Future Villain Band;612286IIRC, the issue is that key pieces of character generation are all over the book. The actual resolution system is pretty easy (and fairly reminiscent of d20, IIRC.) But looking over that chargen aid, you can see that one part of chargen is on page 28, and one part is on, like, 174, and in between is shit like "Starship combat."
It's not the most terribly organized game in the world, because the main casualty is chargen, but it's up there.
In DC Adventures, the damage system is buried in the description of the Attack power. If you're the sort who skims "list chapters", you'll miss large and important elements of the system because they've been buried in skill and power descriptions instead of being at least recapped in the relevant mechanical sections.
As for DecTrek, I never had a particularly hard time with chargen, to be honest, and I think it is honestly one of the best written books I've ever read. The pages are dripping with inspiration and I don't know that it's physically possible to read them without coming away with piles of ideas for game sessions and such.
Trouble is I just haven't messed with it in a long time, and I don't have the patience to read through books that size anymore, which is why I was working on a Star Trek system of my own prior to my illness in 2011.
Quote from: jdurall;613633I will never tire of pointing people at Where No Man Has Gone Before (http://www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/trek/).
Nice catch, Jason. WNMHGB is a great system! :)
Quote from: Claudius;612291I have no experience with Decipher Star Trek, but I have played Decipher Lord of the Rings. Character creation was not complex, but it was very confusing.
Same thing, really, it was all over the book.
Thanks all :)
Aside from the core two books which ones are most useful?
I notice that some of them are quite expensive :\
Quote from: RPGPundit;612784I took one look at this game once, and knew I would never run it.
I don't think there's any really good Star Trek game, but the one that came closest to being viable in my book was Prime Directive.
RPGPundit
I had no idea there was a second person on Earth that played Prime Directive.
Being a fan of The Origional Star Trek series, and the Star Fleet Battles wargame mythos, Prime Directive worked for me.
Must be 15 years since I had a chance to play it.
Quote from: jdurall;613633I will never tire of pointing people at Where No Man Has Gone Before (http://www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/trek/).
Far Trek (http://fartrekrpg.blogspot.com/) isn't bad either.
Quote from: Sigmund;614203Far Trek (http://fartrekrpg.blogspot.com/) isn't bad either.
Not your fault, but I got a server error when I tried to download.
Quote from: jeff37923;614245Not your fault, but I got a server error when I tried to download.
I had to sign up with the file host site, but otherwise had no trouble. I'll get you the file, he shares it for free anyway.
Quote from: Claudius;612291I have no experience with Decipher Star Trek, but I have played Decipher Lord of the Rings. Character creation was not complex, but it was very confusing.
I don't remember that. I recall it being actually quite good. LotR wasn't well written, but the ideas were pretty good. Then Decipher dropped it off a cliff chained up in a padlocked safe. What a bizarre time that was.
Despite being a dedicated Star Fleet Battles player and trekkie at the time, I abandoned the original Prime Directive after two playtests. The tricode mechanics were wonky, and more importantly it was trying to be modern-day commando action and consequently ignoring the vast majority of the show. I was annoyed by moves like how they reduced phasers down to being like modern pistols rather than the super-weapons they were in the original show.
Where No Man Has Gone Before looks reasonable - it at least has ship combat and other features. I ran a long Star Trek campaign using a variant of the Corps system ( I've got some notes at http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/trek/ ).
I recently ran some Deep Space 9 adventures using the FATE system, but that was mostly by hand-waving everything, not really using the system much.
Quote from: Bill;614158I had no idea there was a second person on Earth that played Prime Directive.
I played it... although also about 15 years ago (which is scary).
Don't really remember much about the system, but the game using it was relatively ok.
Quote from: Bill;614158I had no idea there was a second person on Earth that played Prime Directive.
There's a lot of us who have Prime Directive, but I've never met anybody who's RUN it. :D
JG
Quote from: Sigmund;614203Far Trek (http://fartrekrpg.blogspot.com/) isn't bad either.
Too bad that I missed to order the print version when it was up at Lulu...
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;614671Too bad that I missed to order the print version when it was up at Lulu...
Same here, but it's compact enough that it wouldn't bother me to print it and slip it into some sleeves and a binder.
Quote from: James Gillen;614467There's a lot of us who have Prime Directive, but I've never met anybody who's RUN it. :D
JG
I ran it, a couple of times, about 15 years ago. That seems to be the running date for that game, "about 15 years ago".
RPGPundit
Has anyone tried Prime Directive D20 (http://www.starfleetgames.com/prime/pd-d20.htm)?
Someone gave me a copy of the handbook, and it intrigued me. I would convert it to normal canon, possibly even make it post-DS9, but I haven't been able to find willing players.
I'm thinking of running Trek in HERO System, but I'm not totally sure I'd use the ADB version of the universe.
JG
What about GURPS prime directive?
No matter which system you decide to use, I highly recommend the following three websites for background or just some nice images.
Ex Astris Scientia (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/index.htm) is a good general site for all things Star Trek along with some great links.
Trek Core (http://www.trekcore.com/) is another good general site with lots of great screenshots.
The Starship Schematics Database (http://www.shipschematics.net/)is all ships, all the time, and covers Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Space Cruiser Yamato.
For LUG Trek lovers like me, I recommend TrekRPGNet (http://www.trek-rpg.net/) and Memory Icon (http://www.coldnorth.com/memoryicon/index.htm). Both of them a chock full of LUG Trek goodness.
Like FASA Star Trek, especially their Starship Combat Simulator? Then go give the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator Site (http://www.tacticalstarshipcombat.com/FASA/STSTCS%20Home%20Page.htm) a good look.
And now, why I have been looking up all these sites lately -
(http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/9/95/Kzinti_vessel_c2150s.jpg)
Kzinti
(http://www.courtjones.com/images/large_hod_startrek/Kzinti-Lunch.jpg)
Kzinti
(http://www.courtjones.com/images/large_hod_startrek/Kzinti-Sketch-Hunched.jpg)
Kzinti
(http://www.courtjones.com/images/large_hod_startrek/Kzin-Sketches.jpg)
Kzinti
(http://www.courtjones.com/images/large_hod_startrek/Thuft-Captain.jpg)
Kzinti exist in my Star Trek, much to the chagrin of canonista. Why? Because they are just too much fun in a game.
Seriously kick-ass images! :)
Quote from: James Gillen;615186I'm thinking of running Trek in HERO System, but I'm not totally sure I'd use the ADB version of the universe.
I ran some one-shots using Hero System, and so I have the original series crew written up.
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/trek/hero/
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;614267I don't remember that. I recall it being actually quite good. LotR wasn't well written, but the ideas were pretty good. Then Decipher dropped it off a cliff chained up in a padlocked safe. What a bizarre time that was.
Oh yes. In my humble opinion, Lord of the Rings Coda was a rough diamond. Full of great ideas, especially the magic system, and the advantages (I don't remember how they were actually called), very Tolkienian, but unfortunately it was marred by poor organization and some broken rules (too many hit points, characters got too powerful too fast, etc). I would have loved to see a second edition that fixed those problems. A pity.
I played a GURPS Star Trek game only once, in a con many moons ago (back when we
had cons around here).
This (http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/traveller-prime-directive.html) was mentioned in the "2013 wish list" thread and now I'm very much looking forward to it.
Quote from: jeff37923;615246Kzinti
Oh, you mean Aslan. ;)
Quote from: The Butcher;615485Oh, you mean Aslan. ;)
:p
In comparing feline humanoids, I always saw the Aslan as "domestic cats" and the Kzinti as "feral cats". I guess you could substitute the Caitians for Aslan in
Star Trek....
I like the 'start fleet battles' trek verse.
The Man-Kzin Wars books that spawned the Kzinti are a good read.
Once upon a time, in the earliest days of interplanetary exploration, an unarmed human vessel was set upon by a warship from the planet Kzin. But the Kzinti learned the hard way that the reason humanity had given up war was that they were so very, very good at it. Thus began the Man-Kzin Wars.
Born and bred to hunting, they had never encountered a species they couldn't treat as prey - until they met the canny pseudo-pacifists from Planet Earth. They nearly overwhelmed humanity on first contact, but fast as you can say "Ghengis Khan" or "Alexander the Great" the seemingly harmless monkey boys were all over the pussycats like ugly on an ape, with space fleets and strategic thinking that left the Warrior Race quite dazzled.
I really want the full run of these books (decipher) but the prices are nuts :(
Quote from: Piestrio;615841I really want the full run of these books (decipher) but the prices are nuts :(
Even second-hand on the Net?
jg
I find the corebooks are usually reasonably priced.
The sourcebooks are available in PDF though, and I recommend that route, as the print ones are scarce and prone to scalping.