SCE - some nice ideas...

[Scarecrow]

I've been reading SCE book three which compiles several stories - noteably the Riddled Post which is actually a really neat little investigative adventure that would work really well as a short one-off adventure. It also has a few rather cool excuses for stopping the players using shortcuts and solving the mystery too quickly.
It's not the best writing in the world but it's readable and I recommend it for GMs. I'm hoping the other stories will prove equally as inspiring.

Crow

[Sundowner]

The basic idea for the SCE is a great one for a roleplaying background, as it gies you a variety of crewmembers and situations, very free flowing. The stories have been a little hit and miss as they're written by so many different people, i've liked a lot of them, but there are a few i didn't like.

The concept is a good one though, one i'm using in my series along with the Hazard team idea. I've mixed the two and i'm in the process of transferring them to the first starfleet outpost in the gamma quadrant.

Sundowner

[ComaBoy]

It's my sense that engineers can be particularly good PCs as they have a lot of potential for games involving mysteries and action.

[Sundowner]

IMHO, engineers & doctors make the best characters, they're the ones who have to figure out problems all the time before they fix it.

Mystery and action are the staple diet for most games i feel, the more mystery the better

Sundowner

[Scarecrow]

Yes, that was what I enjoyed about the 'Riddled Post'. It wasn't brilliantly written, but it felt like a game session. A group of characters arrive at an outpost to find everyone dead and large holes in everything including the corpses even though the shields around the base were active at the time of the attack. Now they have to figure out what the hell happened. I liked the reason why the personel logs gave no information or clues. I like the way they couldn't just beam back and forth willy-nilly too.

As for SCE as a whole. I like the idea of using a Binar. It'd be interesting to learn more about them. I like the fact that they've also lifted 'Pattie' from the animated series. It's nice to see an alien that has more going on than just a bumpy forehead.
The other characters feel a little two dimensional and samey but then I have only read 1 story so far to be fair.
Something else I like is the fact that they are collections of short stories rather than whole novels. They feel more like TV episodes as opposed to novels which feel like full length features.

Crow

[Sundowner]

'Animated Series' ???

When did that come about???

I never really though of it that way, the stories do read a little like eps, but yes, pattie is a good character, and one of the later stories focuses entirely on pattie and a trip home she takes, the stories aren't just about the problems, there's a lot about the people as well, their backgrounds get looked into as well in a few.

All in all, personally i give the SCE a definite thumbs up, i've only found a couple i didn't like, well written, and excellent source material, enough to keep me going for a year or two

Sundowner

[Scarecrow]

Originally posted by Sundowner
'Animated Series' ???

When did that come about???

er... this one:

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_main.html

Pattie is based on an alien that appeared in the episode 'Jihad'

[Scarecrow]

Thinking about it, it'd be nice if someone did a Trek Computer game a bit like SCE that involved more puzzle and mystery solving. There have been quite a deluge of Starship combat and first-person shooter games but none of them have really appealed to me.

Way back when, I remember there was a TOS anniversary point and click adventure and also a TNG one, 'A Final Unity'. Both of which I enjoyed immensely.

I was tempted by Bridge Commander when it came out because of the character interaction but at the end of the day it's really only just starship combat and I'm just not a button basher =)

Crow

[Sundowner]

Originally posted by Scarecrow
er... this one:

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_main.html

Pattie is based on an alien that appeared in the episode 'Jihad'

Oh!, the old TOS animations, i thought there was something more recent, i don't remember pattie, guess i should'a watched them a little more

Thinking about it, it'd be nice if someone did a Trek Computer game a bit like SCE that involved more puzzle and mystery solving. There have been quite a deluge of Starship combat and first-person shooter games but none of them have really appealed to me.

There was an old game, long, long ago, that attempted to be a bit more than just another shoot 'em up, but i can't recall its name right now, it ran on my brothers old win 3.11 PC.

But i agree, all i can seem to find lately is shoot em's, a few more adventure types would be nice.

Sundowner

[Mitchell]

Star Trek: Klingon.

Star Trek: Borg.

Too Star Trek Interactive Story games. Borg was hard as HECK, especially since my computer was not very good.

I still have Borg, I think.

Big problem, though. IT DOESN'T RUN ON XP!