Which version of a STAR TREK Roleplaying game was the best -OR- since there is no current licensed version of it as a Role Playing Game - which system is the bnerst fit for adapting the STAR TREK setting & Universe ?


- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;357848since there is no current licensed version of it as a Role Playing Game

There's still Prime Directive... and GURPS Prime Directive... and that's what I'd vote for.
Everything I'd want to do with Star Trek derives from TOS perspectives.
I'd want that weirder, wilder, more-colorful setting. I like the idea of Prime Teams... even if they weren't part of the show they make a whole lot more sense than beaming down half of the bridge crew... and I've got no interest in playing in any sort of licensed setting where I've got to worry about being in line with that 'canon' bullshit.
I don't really want to play Star Trek, I want to play a sci fi game with those sorts of elements, and GURPS Prime Directive would do that just fine for me, as well as having all the other GURPS sci fi supplements at hand if I wanted to inject something else.

If I didn't like GURPS, I'd pull it together out of Classic Traveller or BRP.

I liked FASATrek but it worked strictly in the narrow scope it was made for. I liked LUGTrek but man, it could go off the rails at the blink of an eye. Never really liked DECTrek, set phazer to boom and let the system do the work.

In the end, the best I could do was with a home brewed, diceless token driven system that allowed the group to form the setting.

Now, note, the above are not an attempt at empirical statement of truth, merely my experiences (which seemed like what you were after).

I think Primetime Adventures is ideal for Star Trek but you didn't have that one so I'd go with Decipher's game for rules and incorporate Last Unicorn's fluff and GM's advice.

I most certainly wouldn't use GURPS, but that's just not my cup of tea.

I think any new trek game would need its own unique ruleset made secially to cater to the style of game the creators want to present, so none of the above is my vote.

I liked the presentation and core rules of FASATrek (and all the books).
LUGTrek has some excellent supplements and the books looked great, the system had some problems after a time.
Never saw the need for DecTrek and wasn't thinking of running Trek at the time.
Like Prime Directive and the SFB 'verse lots, really really really really wish somebody would write D6 Prime Directive. Honor Harrington RPG (D6 Legends+) has potential in the meantime but alas it too is not out.

So I voted FASATrek. Major changes I used was replace the combat AP rules with CoC combat and play the ship battles either with FASA's ship game or a Full Thrust homebrew.

Settingwise: take stuff from SFB/PD, the early comic books and novels, LUGTrek (especially the Andorian book), and Enterprise. Set in the Triangle and use that starbase from the recent book series. :pundit:

Prime Directive seems, if anything, even more appropriate since the movie's universe-reboot.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;358184Prime Directive seems, if anything, even more appropriate since the movie's universe-reboot.

RPGPundit

Its closer, yeah.

 To do the version that I'm doing I used Prime Directive GURPS as a guideline - but I still had to strip out all of the StarFleetBattles/Task Force Games rerefences.

For character creation I re-did the old FASA charGen usig the 3D standard of GURPS. Took some doing and I'm still working on it some.

IF, and its a big if we have a session with lots of ship to shiop combat  I might use the boardgame and tactics part of the old FASA game , but use the character & skills part of GURPS 4/e.


- Ed C.

Well, i liked most parts of LUG's rules and flavor, but i think our group will try to do a Savage Worlds conversion, the only part i'm really worried about is the ship combat.

Edit: So i'm not voting atm, but will wait until we're finished and have done a playtest...

Pardon my English, it's degrading...

You are missing Traveller in your poll options. That is the system I would go with, if I liked Star Trek and there was no official RPG. My opinion is shamefully biased, I admit.

I know someone has done a PDF fan supplement for Star Trek, with a detailed career path for federation navy characters. I cannot remember where I saw it; it might still be floating around the internet.

It's not officially licensed, but I like the Microlite20 adaption Where No Man Has Gone Before a lot. This would also be the most likely for me to run, especially as it puts a lot of effort into reviving the cheese of TOS without turning it directly into a parody.

Prime Directive is completely recognizable as Trek--and familiarity is the best thing about Trek--but its less sterile, more adventurous, more suitable for gaming. I love the original, but I voted for GURPS, again for familiarity.

Well ...my group still has one or two sessions left with STAR TREK as a setting then we switch to INFINITE WORLDS.

GURPS 4/e is what I have been using to adapt the Abrams-verse to an RPG campaign.

Right now planning some kind of cliffhangher or "Big Moment" for the last session of the mini-campaign.


- Ed C.

I had fasa's trek when I was a kid, it was Ok.

I had the original PD when I was into SFB and it was more of a wargame with people as ships instead of a RPG. I liked the "hold in check" rule.

Basically I say get a good toolkit and make your own trek game. The most important thing is to establish a list of "This didn't happen in this trek universe" which would weed out some of the things that would be fatal inconsistencies in a RPG universe, so, for example, the ep with the platonians and getting super telekinetic powers from an injection never happened. (Plato's stepchildren. It never happened in any trek setting I run.)

A big decision with a trek RPG is do you want a ship combat simulator or not?

In general I'm not big on licensed trek game as generally everything there has to be approved and such by a team of paramount lawyers. (Pardon me while I go wash my hands for typing that last part.)

As I recall the fasa trek game ended when fasa tired of having to have every trek related article approved by paramount's legal squad, having things delayed for weeks or months until the shysters got to it, having to have it revised on some lawyer's whim, etc. I seem to recall they eventually just released a book without paramount's approval after having it delayed nearly a year by paramount, paramount pulled their trek license and fasa heaved a sigh of relief to be free of it.

I'd rather have a game system and setting written by gamers, not corporate execs and lawyers. if the holders of a license let the RPG company do it their way, fine. If they want to second guess, review and revise it with  copyright lawyers and studio execs, frag it.