Animated Series

OK, so for those of you who have seen it, what did you think? And how do you incorproate it into your game (or not as the case may be).

From my own point of view, I tend to view it as a kids show, and one that was often quite tacky. That said, there were some truly good ideas in there, and some of the races were truly alien. Indeed, this is the main reason why I tend to try and incorporate some of the elements of TAS into the RPG. Some of those races were too good not to use them. The Kzinti, the Caitians, the Edoans, and the Phylosians to name but a few.

In my campaign, I used the Kzinti in a one of a kind inter-universal crossover episode. I like the Kzinti as written and did not want to alter them to put them permanently in our ST universe. We also decided against having them originate there as well.
My group uses Caitians and Edoans but so far only as NPCs.
Some TAS plots have made their way into the campaign as well. Tweaked a bit of course.:D

Yeah, I think the main problem with TAS is that it just isn't an adult show, and as a result it needs serious modification to actually work within a campaign.

Still, it was aimaginative, and tended to produce some quite alien races, which it has in its favour. For a more adult take o nthe episodes, it's worth reading Alan Dean Foster's Enterprise Logs, which were basically novelisations of the animated episodes.

I've seen one episode of the Animated Trek but, fortunately, it was the time travel one about the young Spock amd was quite good.

That said, about the only element I use from the series is the Caitians (being a fan of all things catgirl) and occasionally the Edoans.

I'm pretty much like the others - I like some of them, hate others, so I pick and choose the bits I do like. The fact that it doesn't seem to be official canon just makes that a lot easier!

Mind you I take that approach to Voyager and other stuff as well, so it's probably not saying much :)

I have only ever seen about 12 seconds of the crappy Tribble episode, so cannet really judge...

So far, like many others apparently, only the Caitians have made it to game, but then, they were also supported by some background characters in the movies too.

Yeah, apparently the makeup staff even referred to the cat-like guys in Voyage Home as Caitians. Though personally, I always thought the big orange-furred guy matched the look and description of a Kzinti much better than a Caitian. Whereas the catdancer from Final Frontier looked like the perfect Caitian.

Go figure :)

The problem with Trek actually calling a race the Kzinti would be that they'd need Niven's permission to do it, and they probably wouldn't get it.

The Slaver Weapon, the TAS episode which introduced them, was adapted for the series by Niven, from his story The Soft Weapon.

If you introduce the Kzinti to your campaign, do you also introduce the whole Known Space backstory? That's basically this: millions of years ago, the Slavers existed, and with their power of mental domination, they controlled the galaxy (at least). Eventually, one of their subject races (the tnunctipun, [not sure if I've spelled that right]) led a revolt which grew into a full fledged war. In that war, all life in the galaxy was destroyed; life had to evolve all over again. The Slavers had no respect for ptaavs (ptaav is their word for any race they can dominate), which made surrender or peace psychologically impossible for them.

The rule for cannon in my series is, "if it was seen on screen, it's cannon." Thus, TAS qualified. That said, it has some silly bits, so it's hardly ever referenced. I have had an extremely prominent Edoan NPC for a while, and there were catian PC and another Edoan PC years ago.

Well in my NG Series the 1st Officer is a Kzin.

In my TOS Series, The Cpt is a Kzin, The Comm Officer is a Caitian, And an old Helm Officer was an Edoan.



A Doomsday like any other Spoiler Alert


Also when we ran "A Doomsday like any other" , I made the Doomsday Machine a Slaver Artifact and had 2 Slavers in stasis in the control room

End spoiler alert


Star Fleet Battles goes into TAS terrotory a bit cause they have the Kzin as a Major Race. There is also a SFB Senario called "The Slaver Box" Where a Fed DD on route to a Starbase with a discovered Slaver Box "Finds" The location of another box (Through the 1st Box).

A Slaver Box is a Staisis Box that usually contains a Slaver Artifact in it. The Box detects the pressence of other boxes through interaction of the Staisis Field.

The Feds must find it in an asteroid field while a Kizinti DD that found out about it is also looking.

Karg

Quote:

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Originally posted by Fesarius
If you introduce the Kzinti to your campaign, do you also introduce the whole Known Space backstory? That's basically this: millions of years ago, the Slavers existed, and with their power of mental domination, they controlled the galaxy (at least). Eventually, one of their subject races (the tnunctipun, [not sure if I've spelled that right]) led a revolt which grew into a full fledged war. In that war, all life in the galaxy was destroyed; life had to evolve all over again. The Slavers had no respect for ptaavs (ptaav is their word for any race they can dominate), which made surrender or peace psychologically impossible for them.

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This is sort of the history I use for the Iconians. So much so that I intend to introduce the Slaver Boxes as Iconian artifacts :)

Overall I use the Tzenkethi as the Kzin
I use Caitians and Edoans for sure. Other than that though, not really big on TAS. Though I should watch them all again just to see what is worth stealing :)

Hey, hey, hey…come on now poeple; what ‘animated series’ was ever invented with adults in mind…besides ‘those’ ones:).

Seriously though, I watched the animated Trek, and for the most part liked it (heck, I even some on tape) for what it was (when watching it, one has to think of the time period it’s from). The animated series had a few good ideas:
The Huron Class automated/‘robot’ transport ship: until this ship was introduced, people were under the misnotion that ‘all Starfleet ship require a crew…’. This ship made it possible for O’Brian’s later complaint (about his choice of DS9 for assignment)‘…or an ‘unmanned’ transport…’. (paraphrasing; I don’t remember the exact quote)
Lt. M’ress/Ciatians in general: a great race, very different from most anything in Starfleet (though in personal view, ‘Regelians’ just don’t cut it). All in all; I run a Caitian NCP/PC as the CSO (and forth/fifth in command) in my campaign (female one at that), and a friend runs another Caitian as XO in his game (again, female…gee, I guess ‘catgirls’ really are popular:))
Edoains: Never did like Arak, something just so very…‘Jarjar’ about him:D
‘Life Support Belts’: Well, the concept probably looked good on paper (“we don’t want to draw those ‘suit’ things”), but in practice…well, the less said the better:)
‘Aquashuttle’: This little bute paved the way for the Delta Flyer to go underwater, so again, not a bad idea...

TAS, loved it...but I was of the age group at the time. I have incorperated several of the species into my game. The senior engineering chief (the enlisted type) is a caitian PC, we also have a nice Kizinti security officer PC (he's nice for his species, still rather...um...lets just say he has a high aggresion renown). Several other species from the show also are PC options in my game, but to date none have been used (just a little too alien I guess).

Well I managed to get a full set of the animated series, and I do think a TAS sourcebook would be quite useful. If, for nothing else, to have the TAS races to play with, and to have some decent background information on them.

A TAS Sourcebook will not be forthcoming from Decipher (Don has said Paramount does not consider the material canon, and I believe he said that's for legal reasons).

So, Cap'n, it sounds like you've got a project! :)

I think such a book could succeed as a fan project if it was written in such a way that it's pieces could be used individually; i.e. a little from column A and a little from column B. Speaking for myself, there are aspects of TAS that I don't like (life-support belts, for example), and aspects I do.

Me and my big mouth :D

But now that you mention it, it IS an idea. I might just give it a shot. Probably take me about a year though, at the speed I work :) Besides, I'll want to see the CODA stuff first as well.

As quoted by Modem
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gee, I guess ‘catgirls’ really are popular.
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As a long time catgirl fan I have to concur on that one.