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Ok, just wondering with the plethora of systems which one do you use, and why? I use the Decipher system because it is easy to use, seemingly quick, and I like the support that it recieved while it was out - and the starship combat which I use some additions to.
Woo Hoo ! I brought the results up to 125% !!! ICON MUST rule ! :D
I like ICON best all around (with some exceptions of course) for my tastes.
I see the good parts of the other systems (and they do all have them, from FASA on) as being adaptable to improve some of the ICON flaws.
Call me jaded or hard-headed or such but Decipher just had a little too much similarity to D20 for my liking.
I didn't relish the prospect of "Prestige Classes Manual 3,614: Starfleet in 2265 and a half" or "Special Abilities manual 1,243: Ferengi" assuming the game line had lived on. I realize sales and such would indicate a lot of people do like D20 and similar systems, its just not to my taste.
To each their own.
Icon is still one of the best systems I know. It is fast, balanced and easy to learn. I very much dislike level-based systems, especially for Sci-Fi settings, therefore I don't like the character rules of CODA, although the starship rules are very good.
ICON is my current choice, but i have had good experiences with CODA as well.
I think my biggest problem with the CODA book is the players guide, which takes character creation to seven-levels of more complication than it needs. If it wasn't for the kick-ass cheat sheet that someone did, it would drive me insane.
Of course, both systems are very close together, the classes issue in CODA is no more of a barrier than the classes in ICON, but I have been accused of ignorance several times - and I don't play that much d20 material.
Back to compatibility, I believe that Worlds would plug into ICON with little effort, and if you change a few DN's across, you are good to go with most of the material. The fluff in both games is excellent.
However, I still prefer ICON - it is what I used in the past, and since CODA is younger - it is too be feared. Like the kids I throw beer bottles at playing in the backyard... ;)
Brian K
Currently when I run Trek I use my own Savage Worlds homebrew. I've played all the other systems and ran my longest campaign using Icon. I ran Coda once, I think. I may have liked it better if I used it more. Savage Worlds suits me at the moment because I can knock up characters in five minutes flat. I have a soft spot for all the systems produced so far and will no doubt pick up whichever system comes next :)
Renny
Hello Renny
Would you mind throwing up a sample savage worlds trek character? I would like to see one.
Thanks
- I also would buy whatever system comes out next - I am that type of gaming whore. Ask Queeg or Dan G.
I use none of the ones listed.I use FASA.Tryed to do a CODA,but my players didn't want to switch.
Why are there only 5 listed? : P
Not that I've been playing much Trek these past years, but I mostly like CODA, with ICON having nice ideas. Actually, I played most of my games with ICON, and they went on indefinite hiatus soon after switching to CODA.
So I voted both :)
I love CODA die system and starship rules, and I like ICON renown rules and personal combat system.
Still with ICON, a smidgeon of Homebrew, and a slathering of Spacedock.
I will give it a shot in any system right now.
You know prehaps the new Social Groups might be a way to tag user with which Star Trek Game System they use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian K
I'll throw up one as well.
Savage Worlds Vulcans
Strength- d8
Smarts- d6
Edge- Hard to kill
Cautious (Minor Flaw)
Pacifist (Minor Flaw)
Quirk – Logical (Minor Flaw)
Quirk – Elitism (Minor Flaw)
Quirk – Humorless (Minor Flaw)
Edge – Vulcan Nerve Pinch: Touch attack to the neck which causes unconsciousness for 1d6 hrs
Edge – Mind Meld: Mental probe of another’s mind that requires contact.
Vulcan Science Officer
Agility- d6
Smarts- d10
Spirit- d6
Strength- d8
Vigor- d6
Pace- 6
Parry- 4
Toughness- 5
Charisma- 0
Skills
Fighting d4
Investigation d6
Knowledge (Computers) d6
Knowledge (Electronics) d4
Knowledge (Science) d10
Notice d6
Piloting d4
Repair d4
Shooting d4
Edge - Science Officer. Adds +2 to all science rolls. Each career in starfleet would get a similar edge geared for them in my game. It would be free.
Interesting. I picked up the explorer's edition for the game, and have mixed feelings about it.
I never thought it would catch the feeling of Trek as well as the other systems have.
As for FASA Trek, I found a box full of old books for this. It was like coming home to an old friend ;)
I'm another of those that have stuck with and continue to use the FASA system.
You know, that might just work, he says, going to the Social Groups section of his Control panel and joining one....Quote:
Originally Posted by spshu
(Oh, and I'm primarily a CODA guy with very fond memories of FASA.)
I'm a FASA guy too. I've pretty much butchered the rules over the years, but fundamentally it's still FASA for me.
Not at allQuote:
Originally Posted by Brian K
Lt Sean Lochard - Wild Card
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigour d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d6, Investigation d4, Knowledge (Navigation) d6, Knowledge (Starship Tactics) d4, Notice d6, Piloting d6, Repair d4, Shooting d6, Survival d6
Pace: 6 Parry: 5 Charisma: 0 Toughness: 5
Edges: Starfleet Officer: Conn, Level Headed
Hindrances: Cautious, Junior Officer.
This is one of the characters from the scenario "Stopping At The Beast", which was published in the LUG Star Trek RPG narrators guide. I ran this game a couple of months ago and it went very well.
Savage Worlds can handle Star Trek as well as most other things. I limit the number of bennies (hero points) to one per session per character to keep things more "real". I also don't allow the Adventure deck, which gives you one off special abilities.
Here's my take on an Andorian out of interest;
Andorians
The Andorians come from a clan based society in which the dual of honour, the Ushaan, was introduced to end centuries of clan wars. Their ice bound homeworld has bred a hardy race who were instrumental in the founding of the Federation, despite a previously volatile relationship with the Vulcans.
Special Abilities
Code of Ushaan: An Andorian will seek recompense for any perceived slight against himself, his clan or his family through, the Ushaan. This is a ritualised form of personal combat. In effect, the Andorians start play with the Vengeful (Minor) hindrance.
Frigid Homeworld: The Andorian homeworld is largely icebound. Andorians gain a +2 to resist the effects of cold.
Loyal: The Andorians come from a rigidly clan based society and loyalty to their clan, family and shipmates is deeply ingrained. Andorians begin play with the Loyal hindrance.
Resilient: Andorians are unusually hardy and start the game with a d6 in Vigor.
Special Sense: The Andorian antennae serve to grant the members of this race a kind of “extra” sense. Andorians receive +2 to all notice rolls involving hearing. This ability is lost if the antennae are damaged in any way.
Renny
Nice take on the Vulcans, by the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by IceGiant
Renny
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renny
Thank you kindly. And you on Andorians.
Just wanted to point out that I like the LUG and Decipher system's fine but as I have to struggle to get my guys to play Star Trek, it makes more sense to use Savage Worlds which is pretty much our regular system so that we can get on with playing adventures rather than spending time learning a new system, and that applies to me as the GM as well.
If you're interested in seeing more of the conversion you can find it here.
Savage Star Trek
These wikipages are not well organised at the moment but i'm hoping to organise things better in the next week so please check back.
Renny
I have an irrational loathing of systems that use more than one die type.
Well, that's certainly your perogative but I agree it's irrational :)Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
Renny
Yeah, I don't know–I guess I just hate those moments of dicebag-fishing. Or needing a huge-ass dicebag at all, really. Older games like CoC are worst for this, cause you show up with two d10s in your pocket and then someone needs a d6.Quote:
Originally Posted by Renny
I want a d24.
I use ICON material but adapted the mechanics to FUDGE.
Gotta love, ICON. I use some other systems as source material for ideas, but they all end up converted to ICON.
Well, frankly Icon is the first place I go to for source material as the line was so coherent. That and the Spacedock PDFs are solid gold and Steve Long should have received some sort of award for them :)
I like the Decipher Aliens book as well and the way in which Aliens are described there makes it a lot better starting place for conversion to Savage Worlds as it uses the same method of edges and hindrances to describe the races.
But Icon is still my favourite. I ran my longest campaign with it and still think it holds up well. Coda was not a bad system but the books are frankly too disorganised for me to get much use out of them, certainly the Players Guide, anyway. The problem I have is that I generally only get to run my ST games as one or two week fill ins, and it makes much better sense to use Savage Worlds, which we are all very familiar with, than to try and get everyone up to speed for Icon only to play something else the week after.
Renny
I currently use ICON, and have previously run FASA 1st and 2nd edition, as well as a homebrew using modified Twilight 2K rules. I have GURPS PD, but no plans to use it, and have a playtest copy of CO(no, we aren't D20)DA. I've been running a game since FASA originally came out and have most of what they put out, as well as everything LUG put out except the TNG Narrator's Toolkit. If someone brings out a new version which isn't D20 (as opposed to with the serial numbers filed down) I'll look at it, but since I'm not on a fixed income, I'll be a hard sell. I have enough stuff to run forever.
I've run ICON and CODA (the latter since the playtest), but am now working on creating a version of the game using Tri-Stat dX...
So far (still in the preliminary stages), it's shaping up pretty well.
I've run FASA and ICON, and while I hav3 not run CODA Trek, have/am running CODA LOTR.
Overall, I prefer ICON, although there are a few things in CODA that I like, such as maneuvers in starship combat.
As a player it was LUG but CODA wasn't out yet. I run CODA now but use a lot of material from LUG like all the Romulan stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
Wow,
That would pretty much cover over 90% of the RPGs produced. Quite a few good games caught in the net too.
Part of it comes from being in a group that rarely touches multipolyhedral games, aside from D&D. Heroquest, nWoD, GUMSHOE, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyg
The dicebag-fumbling gets annoying once you're unused to it.
A good many of my favorite RPgs are "mulitpolyhedral". Ahtough some only use 2 differernt type of dice.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
We always just take a setof dice out and use that, and seem to avoid "die bag fumbling". Not that it doesn't stop "die fumbling"-rolling off the table.
FOr me the thing I find annoying are "monopolyhedral" RPGs that have people roll an unwieldy amount of dice. I think it is too slow and cumbersome to roll, say 17d10 and sort through the results.
Note, I'm not taking something like roll 2d6, 3d6, percentile dice and so forth, but the games that have people rolling handfuls of dice.
I'm one of the odd ones that loves doing that. Star Wars d6 is one of my favorite systems and I love the pool of dice.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyg
I can't think of that many dicepool games. There's d6, Storyteller, LUG... what else?Quote:
Originally Posted by IceGiant
Over the edge, and L5R comes to mind. I7m sure that there are a few other we missed.I don't mind the concept as long as you usually don't have to roll more than, say, a half dozen dice at any time. It shouldn't be a Challenging task in real life just to roll the dice for attempting a Challenging task in a game.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
I like the d6 system , too. Generally the number of dice rolled was under 10 dice, and they were all D6s. THe cubed shaped d6 is better suited for rolling handfuls. We used to use a set of small dice and didn't have to go chancing dice on the floor much more often than normal.Quote:
Originally Posted by IceGiant
Yeah, it's a hassle, especially when I'm just rerolling the same die.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyg
I use Unisystem, from WitchCraft, Buffy etc.
Tchau!
I've been playing Star Trek RPG campaigns since 1982 and while FASA holds a very special place in my heart, ICON is the best system I've seen for Trek. Aside for being simple and easy to use the writers and designers just 'got it' better then most of the others.
Well, except for that not starting out as the bridge crew thing...;)
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Barking Alien
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