Complete Newbie GM

Hello, everyone! I am a complete newbie to Star Trek RPGs, and I would like some advice on which version to buy. I wish to GM a Star Trek campaign. Here are some criteria which may make it easier to narrow down:

• Series/era: I’ve only ever really watched TOS, and that’s what I like. Just TOS, not even the movies, though TAS is okay too.
  
  
• Previous games I’ve GM’d: OD&D, AD&D 1e. I’ve played other RPGs, but my tastes lie somewhere between OD&D and AD&D. I like “rules-lite”, classes rather than skills, an emphasis on adventure not on character building, and general “old-school” feel. Familiar mechanics are a plus (ability scores of 3-18, for example) but not necessary.
  
  
• I envision a campaign very similar to the show. The PCs are Kirk, Spock, and the other bridge officers and medical staff of the Enterprise, or original characters in a similar situation.
  
  
• Adventures would emphasize landing parties exploring a “planet-of-the-week,” but not to the complete exclusion of on-board adventures or ship-to-ship space combat.
  
  
• Use of published modules/scenarios would be a major boon, as I don’t expect to have a lot of prep time. But ideally they would be modules with good/plentiful maps and not railroady story modules that tell you what will happen next.

These are the published Star Trek RPGs that I know of:

1. Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier
   Heritage Models
   1978
   
   
2. Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek
   Tsukuda Hobby
   1983
   
   
3. Star Trek: The Role Playing Game
   FASA
   1982
   
   
4. Prime Directive
   Task Force Games
   1993
   
   
5. Star Trek Roleplaying Game (ICON)
   Last Unicorn Games
   1998
   
   
6. Prime Directive (GURPS)
   Amarillo Design Bureau
   2002
   
   
7. Star Trek Roleplaying Game (CODA)
   Decipher
   2002
   
   
8. Prime Directive (d20)
   Amarillo Design Bureau
   2005

I have some ideas about which one(s) might be better for me, but I’m not ruling anything out. I want to hear what you have to say! Thanks.

I'm partial to the ICON version. They published an excellent TOS core rulebook which is the only book you absolutely have to have to run and play the game. And they absolutely nailed the feel of TOS adventures; it's one of those RPG books you can read for fun even if you never get to play the game.

The mechanics are rather different from D&D, but if you've played other systems you ought to catch on quick. It does involve a lot of in-game skills, but it also has classes and packages to guide you through the skill-building process. I find it's a good compromise between a class-less GURPS-type character build (which gives you very little guidance in character creation) and a class-centered D&D-type (which can force you to shoehorn your square character concept into a round character class - I hate that!).

If you want something more rules-lite than ICON, you could also check out Cortex. It's the same mechanics as the Serenity and BSG RPGs, but in a universal package. There's a few people posting good rules for a Trek adaptation of the system and I think it ought to be a good fit. www.cortexsystemrpg.org

Thanks. Although as a rule I am happy to homebrew, this time around I feel like having a printed book that is explicitly Star Trek for players and I to just delve into. (Prime Directive is close enough, it looks like.) So I’ll rule out Cortex for the time being, although I am familiar with the system (played in a Sovereign Stone campaign, and rolled up a character for Serenity but never got to use it).

ICON does sound like the most popular system around here, but I’d like to hear more opinions before delving deeper into it. Regards.

CODA is the only Trek RPG I have owned and I like it a lot. I haven't any real complaints about broken rules or not enough resources, although that is not to say I haven't had to make some tweaks... my small changes have only made my games better.

There is one complaint out there that I can say is true, character gen is kinda clunky due to the book layout. But, if you go to PGoodman13's website, you will find an excellent downloadable form to aid in chargen.

Good luck and have fun!

I have only ICON, but I love the system. You can either play it as is, but it is easy to modify it to your tastes once you get the basic formulas worked out. In addition, there are many netbooks available that can be used to add to flavor and feel to the game with some specializing in particular eras that haven't made it into the official books.

On the matter of ICON and CODA... I've noticed that both systems have their fans and detractors, and they seem to be rather evenly distributed around here.
I tend to favour CODA a tiny bit over ICON (mainly because of the dice system and starship combat rules), but in your case, ICON may be more suited, because of its TOS corebook (CODA goes to great lengths to be playable for every Trek series, so the part specific to TOS is then proportionally reduced). I tend also to like ICON combat rules better (especially for brawls, which should happen often if Kirk is a PC).
On the other hand, CODA has some (superficial, in my opinion, but not everyone agrees) similarities with D20, so it may seem easier to use with a D&D background.

You could also try FASA. I've never played it nor read any books about it (and I don't know if it's easy to find them), but after all, it was created when the only Trek series around was TOS, so it may perfectly fit with the kind of games you intend to run (who need rules that can encompass Constitution-refits, Galaxy and Intrepid classes if you intend to play only with a plain NCC-1701 ship anyway ?). But as I said, I can't give you any other advice on this system, as I don't know anything else about it (but that's not the case for everyone here).

The FASA Star Trek RPG is basically what I would have gone to by default. I don’t have any actual exposure to it other than just it being around for most of my life as “the” Star Trek RPG. Just in terms of amount of support material it’s gotta be the heavyweight, no? There have got to be more opinions about it out there...

I snatched up a copy of the original Heritage Models RPG on eBay and am waiting to see it. I know not to expect too much from it, but I am definitely intrigued. Regards.

The biggest problem with FASA is the lack of advantages/disadvantages or traits to individualize a PC. I personally think the Action Point mechanism is a bit clunky, but it isn't insurmountable.

My personal experience is limited to FASA, LUG and Coda. My personal favorite is the Coda system. It works for me because A) I actually LIKE d20 systems (just not too fond of WOTC) and B) if you want starship combat this is the system for you! Not since the glory days of Star Wars revised and expanded d6 has vehicle combat emulated the genre without an avalanche of minutae to simulate "realism."

We all have different tastes, and if you are not into the d20 feel mechanics you might like ICON or FASA better. Just my 2 cents.

So no love for Prime Directive?

I sort of get the sense that everyone would really like to see a d6 Prime Directive, but the existing systems as such don’t excite anyone. (Well, that’s my feeling.) The other issue of course is that the Star Fleet Universe is based on TOS and TAS only, but as I said, that is exactly what I am going for.

Since I’m going for a “retro” game, I’m thinking a good purchase would be the Star Fleet Technical Manual and Star Trek Blueprints made by Franz Joseph in the ’70s. I will share more thoughts as they come to me! Regards.

No love for PD here. I'm not even sure if it should be considered Star Trek. More like ,modern US with advanced technology. Even the cover of PD, where they are phasering the native kind of shows the difference in tone.

And just how close can it be to TOS when phasers can't disintegrate anything, and hit more like pistols.

I seem to recall that one of the sample scenarios in PD included Romulan zombies...

I like the original PD. The system has alot of similarities to ICON to be honest. But they only ever published 2 adventures and one of those came with a GM screen if I recall. I think in all honesty FASA would be a good choice for you. There is an abundance of adventures and they are all set in the TOS era. The rules are simple and strightforeward. Any racial abilities you want to throw in can be simple role playing aspects or simple bonuses to a skill. It would get my vote. The only downside is starship combat. And they are available as pdf's in a number of places.

The simulator is fun as a tactical game but it is hazardous to PC health if used for the rpg. So you would have to come up with something on your own which is fine as if you are trying to recreate the show it's more of a storytelling aspect than agame mechanic I found. The CODA starship combat is the best of the bunch but you'd have to retrofit it onto the FASA system somehow.

I was REALLY looking foreward to D6 PD but that appears to be vaporware to be honest.

Ok, that's my take on things...:cool:

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I would probably have to see an example of how starship combat is handled in some of these RPGs in order to at all understand how it might be handled. I don’t anticipate it being a major aspect of the campaign, but something has to be in place just in case. I’m leery of a wargame sort of setup which seems to me it usually assumes each player controls one or more vessels. What happens when all the players are aboard a single vessel? It would be the GM vs the Captain, with everyone else being irrelevant? (Possibly the Second Officer, since the Captain and First Officer have beamed onto the planet and left him in charge, heh!) This seems an aspect where Battlestar Galactica would be more exciting, since every PC could be flying his own Viper.

With regard to hand phasers, what do you do with the fact that you can be disintegrated with a single hit, even if only “a nick on the arm”? Coming from OD&D where trading blows is an essential part of the drama of the game, I don’t like that the instant a hand phaser is drawn, it leads to instant surrender or death. Granted, this meant a lot of fist fights on the show, which is great, but how do the players or the GM resist pulling hand phasers whenever they want to have their way?

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Originally Posted by Falconer

Thanks for all the thoughts.

I would probably have to see an example of how starship combat is handled in some of these RPGs in order to at all understand how it might be handled. I don’t anticipate it being a major aspect of the campaign, but something has to be in place just in case. I’m leery of a wargame sort of setup which seems to me it usually assumes each player controls one or more vessels. What happens when all the players are aboard a single vessel? It would be the GM vs the Captain, with everyone else being irrelevant? (Possibly the Second Officer, since the Captain and First Officer have beamed onto the planet and left him in charge, heh!) This seems an aspect where Battlestar Galactica would be more exciting, since every PC could be flying his own Viper.

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FASA, ICON and CODA all have rules for having mutiple player characters running a ship the way they do in the series, with players manning the helm, sensors, engineering and so forth.

If you are winging it, make sure to give the PCs task to do, and run the battle according to how they perform on those tasks. For example, if shield operator rolls to see how well the shields soaked the damage, a helmsman will roll to maneuver the ship, helm or tactical roll to fire weapons and so on.

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Originally Posted by Falconer

With regard to hand phasers, what do you do with the fact that you can be disintegrated with a single hit, even if only “a nick on the arm”? Coming from OD&D where trading blows is an essential part of the drama of the game, I don’t like that the instant a hand phaser is drawn, it leads to instant surrender or death. Granted, this meant a lot of fist fights on the show, which is great, but how do the players or the GM resist pulling hand phasers whenever they want to have their way?

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Welcome to Star Trek. It isn't OD&D, and if you have your heart set on running a half dozen battles each game session, you're in the wrong game. In Trek you probably won't see phasers get used all that often. Kirk and Compnay don't get into a phaser battle each week.

That said, there are some ways of mitigating their lethality:

1) Phasers are rarely set on disintegrate. It uses a lot of power and is usually overkill. It also could leave a PC up on charges if the use of deadly force couldn't be justified.

2) Phasers do have a stun setting. It is almost as good for taking people down, and allows the capture of and later interrogation of prisoners.


3) FASA Trek had a LUC roll that was made when someone was about to be disintegrated. If the character made the roll they were only grazed and took some damage instead of being vaporized.

4) ICON and CODA Trek have courage points that characters can spend to adjust die rolls. These tend to reduce the chances of a PC or important NPC getting vaporized.

5) A big lifesaver is to use tactics. Real world weapons main and kill regularly, and soldiers, police and other combatants in the real world act accordingly. Things like dining behind cover and taking aimed shots make a big difference. I once ran a FASA game where the PCs got into a phaser fight with Klingons, and got slaughtered. After the battle, I asked them what they thought went wrong, and they had no idea. THen I asked one of the players, who was a marine in real life to view the situation as if everyone was armed with M-16's and AJK-47's instead of phasers and disruptors. Immedialty he ntoiced how all the PCs were standing out in the open, rather than using the doorways and corridors for cover. I reran the battle and the PCs trashed the Klingons.

On a similar note, things like "charging the archers" are suicidal outside of D&D.

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Originally Posted by Falconer

With regard to hand phasers, what do you do with the fact that you can be disintegrated with a single hit, even if only “a nick on the arm”?

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The FASA mechanic is if a PC is hit, they may roll their LUC. If they succeed, then the hit is only a graze while a graze becomes a miss. However, a graze by a phaser set on disintegrate still does substantial damage, which is usually still enough to knock the PC out in a single hit.

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Originally Posted by Falconer

Coming from OD&D where trading blows is an essential part of the drama of the game, I don’t like that the instant a hand phaser is drawn, it leads to instant surrender or death.

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Part of leaving hack and slash systems is to leave behind the hack and slash style of play. In realistic systems, wounds hurt, incapacitate, or kill. You no longer can stand and trade wounds. You have to use tactics, cover, and strike from ambush whenever possible or expect losses.

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Originally Posted by Falconer

Granted, this meant a lot of fist fights on the show, which is great, but how do the players or the GM resist pulling hand phasers whenever they want to have their way?

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Have the bad guys pull them as well. If PCs start loading up on hand carrier turbo phasers to blast the NPCs as a first option. Then word gets out and the bad guys will do the same. However, for Starfleet PCs the mechanic comes in the form of regulations and courts martial for excessive violence.

Another thing that helps is to put PCs in situations where they can't use their advanced technology to solve their problems. For example, if they are on a low tech world protected under the Prime Directive, then the characters can't whip out their phasers and need to find other solutions.

I once ran a game along these lines, where the group got into considerable trouble. They were on a planet with dinosaurs, and were using their phasers to defend themselves from the local predators. Part way through the adventure the group discovered the native temple and realized that the Trodoon-like dinosaurs were actually a sapient species, and the characters had, albeit unknowingly, been violating the Prime Directive left and right.

Lots of good food for thought, there. I’ll be back with more questions and ideas. :-) Thanks!

The "phasers on maximum" threat is one my friends always joked about for years of watching the show, long before we starting RPing Trek.

I don't know how other systems handle things, but in the Coda system the higher settings use up a lot of charges and with my campaigns set in the 23rd century that means maybe five high power shots before the phaser is empty.

As for NPCs, the settings I use as GM don't need to get above 6 or 7. Those do enough damage to knock a PC to death's doorstep. Smart PCs escape or surrender at that point.

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Originally Posted by K.G. Carlson

The "phasers on maximum" threat is one my friends always joked about for years of watching the show, long before we starting RPing Trek.

I don't know how other systems handle things, but in the Coda system the higher settings use up a lot of charges and with my campaigns set in the 23rd century that means maybe five high power shots before the phaser is empty.

As for NPCs, the settings I use as GM don't need to get above 6 or 7. Those do enough damage to knock a PC to death's doorstep. Smart PCs escape or surrender at that point.

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When I was running a campaign during the Dominion War, the group were captured while on a diplomatic mission to meet with a Gorn ambassador. One of the PCs got trapped in a room, but had a phaser, and set it to disintegrate to get out of the cell, but forgot to set it back on stun after.

When the PCs stormed the bridge to try and rescue the Gorn ambassador, the PC shot, and inadvertently disintegrated, the Founder who had been holding the Gorn hostage.:eek:

My experience with Star Trek RP is practically non-existent, but that won't stop me from opining! :-D

FASA sounds like the best fit for your description. It's starship combat actually does have a role for everybody on the bridge. And it's TOS and movie-era, but you can ignore the movie-era details. The most important factor is that it is the only one I know of that has adventures. FASA printed dozens of adventures. I haven't seen any adventures from LUG or Decipher.

LUG is well liked by many. I actually own the rulebook but have only skimmed it and never used it. This may be a good second choice because of strong community love. Still I haven't seen any adventures for it.

Decipher is not on my recommendation list. As someone with the same experience as you (but with years of D&D 3E as well), I want nothing like the d20 system near my table any more. And it has the worst support and least published adventures from what I know.

Prime Directive don't know about other than the premise and wikipedia. It seems to have the wrong focus from your description and doesn't fit with my idea of Trek.

GURPS PD will likely be the same but with different mechanics. GURPS is popular with a lot of material published and the system isn't bad from my friends talking about it, but I don't like universal RPGs in general.

My two recommendations you've actually shot down as they have no published Trek rules/material. I'd suggest Savage Worlds. It's quite popular, easy to pick up, and very good for the pulpy "he's a HERO not just a protagonist" style of story (the HERO is going to win, it's just a question of by how much and what method). I'm playing in my first SW game and I like the mechanics, but character creation is awkward and slow IMO and I find I don't really like the pulpy side (I don't want my character's success to be virtually guaranteed). My other suggestion would be to pick up West End Games' Star Wars RPG (out of print) and adapt it to Star Trek. That's one of the best RPGs ever and is awesomely cinematic. The plus side is that when you aren't playing Trek you can play Star Wars! In both of these cases you'd have to do much work as GM to create the equipment, any skill changes/restrictions, new races for Trek, etc. Not to mention having ZERO published Trek adventures. But to me that wouldn't matter as they're both great games and more readily available than FASA which would be my choice from the official games.

And if you are a complete masochist, you can do the unthinkable (that I once thought of doing but perhaps wisely avoided): adapt OD&D/AD&D to Trek (ie, create classes to represent the roles in Trek). :-D

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Originally Posted by tonyg

When the PCs stormed the bridge to try and rescue the Gorn ambassador, the PC shot, and inadvertently disintegrated, the Founder who had been holding the Gorn hostage.:eek:

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While probably not the best solution to the problem, I'm having a hard time finding the down side to greasing a Founder.

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Originally Posted by Alex

FASA sounds like the best fit for your description. It's starship combat actually does have a role for everybody on the bridge. And it's TOS and movie-era, but you can ignore the movie-era details. The most important factor is that it is the only one I know of that has adventures. FASA printed dozens of adventures. I haven't seen any adventures from LUG or Decipher.

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They actually published a few (four, to be exact), but they're all 24th century. They can all be found on my site (address/link in my sig).

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LUG is well liked by many. I actually own the rulebook but have only skimmed it and never used it. This may be a good second choice because of strong community love. Still I haven't seen any adventures for it.

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I don't think they're "official" Last Unicorn adventures, but there's a boatload of them at Memory ICON, Owen Oulton's excellent ICON support site. I don't have the link handy.

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Decipher is not on my recommendation list. As someone with the same experience as you (but with years of D&D 3E as well), I want nothing like the d20 system near my table any more. And it has the worst support and least published adventures from what I know.

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Decipher is at the top of my recommendation list, but it's a personal taste issue. To me, it's the system that's grabbed hold of the feel, fit, and finish of Trek in its various incarnations the best.

And I'll try not to take the "worst support" remark personally. :)

I checked Wikipedia and they have a list of all LUG Trek and Decipher Trek products. There does not seem to be a single official adventure. Although that may not be complete, as Patrick claims those 4 on his page are official (Patrick, are they legally released and did they see print?).

That least-supported comment was based on the volume of works published and the area of coverage. I've seen the Decipher books in stores before it went out of print and I didn't personally like the game based on a book store reading (probably two half hour standing sessions with the book). No disrespect to former employees or contributors of LUG or Decipher. Remember, I started with the open disclaimer I've got practically no actual experience here, I'm just opinionated. :-)

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Originally Posted by Alex

I checked Wikipedia and they have a list of all LUG Trek and Decipher Trek products. There does not seem to be a single official adventure. Although that may not be complete, as Patrick claims those 4 on his page are official (Patrick, are they legally released and did they see print?).

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They were legally released on Decipher's website as PDF-only freebies. Several more had been allegedly written but never saw the light of day. I've been hoping the authors might send them to me for posting, but so far...nada.

But yes, to answer your question, they were officially and legally released.

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That least-supported comment was based on the volume of works published and the area of coverage.

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Dude, you're preaching to the choir here. My remark was made solely tongue-in-cheek. In terms of official support from the producing company...oh, yeah, Decipher Trek sucked ass.

I just happen to be the one keeping that particular flame alive with my support site. I hate thinking of anything that I do as being "the worst" of anything.

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Originally Posted by Pericles

While probably not the best solution to the problem, I'm having a hard time finding the down side to greasing a Founder.

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Man, only one shot? The Martok Founder took a whole roomful of guys to kill.

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Man, only one shot? The Martok Founder took a whole roomful of guys to kill.

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But in the Mirror Universe, Bashir greased Mirror Odo with a single shot. Maybe it has to do with the age of the Founder, the older they are, the tougher they are?

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Originally Posted by Pericles

While probably not the best solution to the problem, I'm having a hard time finding the down side to greasing a Founder.

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The downside was that the founder was using the Gorn Ambassador as a shield. The PCs thought, "What the heck, if I stun the Gorn Ambassador, he'll forgive me as long as I succeed in rescuing him."

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Man, only one shot? The Martok Founder took a whole roomful of guys to kill.

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Well, the founder was suffering from that illness that was wiping them all out at the time. Plus this was set at a high setting to get through a security door.

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Originally Posted by tonyg

The downside was that the founder was using the Gorn Ambassador as a shield. The PCs thought, "What the heck, if I stun the Gorn Ambassador, he'll forgive me as long as I succeed in rescuing him."

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Ah well that's a completely different story, the fact the ambassador was in the way wasn't clear in the first post. Yeah, looks like dude has some 'splainin' to do.

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Originally Posted by Pericles

Ah well that's a completely different story, the fact the ambassador was in the way wasn't clear in the first post. Yeah, looks like dude has some 'splainin' to do.

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The really cool bit was next week DS9 has a mention about the Gorn deciding to remain neutral in the Dominion War. All my players blamed "Mr. Disintergrate."