New LUG Game Discussion

[LUGTrekGM]

I'm a LUGTrek referee, looking for players to start a new campaign, either by open RPG on a weekly night, or by some kind of turn based post via a forums setup.

Anyone who has something to offer, join in a discussion here, maybe we can get something going soon.

[JALU3]

The great thing about this forum is that we are sitting on TONS of information and ideas just here on this board.

So lets start with the basics

1) Era
2) Setting
3) General Feel

On these I say DW to Post DW, Starship or Base, Peacekeeping to exploration.

Now as for my idea. I have been working on the Gambier Bay Class and besides some billetting tweeks I believe it is a good platform. Although it is combat oriented with the proper load of runabouts, rather then majority fighters . . . it can serve as a good platform to carry out regional exploration and defense.

This, IMHO, would be perfect to start a small group . . . it has opertunities for the PCs to work alone, without additional support . . . or aboard ship as part of the workings as a whole . . . or the occassional space battle.

The DW to Post DW era leaves alot to the imagination, and has alot of onscreen and text support. Besides the front there are areas that would be delegated to crews that may not have as much experience as would normally be required during peacetime. Or . . . following the conflict we can explore through gaming . . . how a reconstruction setting might look like.

[LUGTrekGM]

I saw that you were looking to expand your skills as a GM, in that other thread.

And the details you have put into that ship writeup of the Gambier Bay Class are quite exrtensive, to put it mildly.

Would this be something you would want to run as GM?

How about Post-Dominion War Exploration, aboard that ship?

I'm not all up on DS9 all that much, (I might have seen 3 episodes, total, not that I didn't enjoy it, but I just was involved in other things when it was on) but I can read some of the episode guides I have. It might not have the feel you are looking for, though. I've never ran a carrier series.

Usually, I run stuff in the Original Series or TOS Movie Era, a light ot heavy cruiser, and most of my support (like LCARS Stuff, uniformed crew pics, etc) reflect that. I'd be much more confident with a movie era setup, myself, as GM. But if people were forgiving, I'd give it a shot, if people wanted something else.

As a player, I would enjoy anything.

I'm working on expanding the current, small geocities website that I have set up in the past, doing a sector and such, set in the movie era.

[JALU3]

I saw that you were looking to expand your skills as a GM, in that other thread.

And the details you have put into that ship writeup of the Gambier Bay Class are quite exrtensive, to put it mildly.

Would this be something you would want to run as GM?

I am thinking once the ball gets rolling we can start changing GMs within the group every couple episodes or so

How about Post-Dominion War Exploration, aboard that ship?

As stated before, it's a possibility . . . A carrier, by its nature is multi-purpose . . . just depends on how you load the 'air wing'. Or if you want to go a little more to the extreme . . . you can convert a % of the hanger space to science labs and equipment.

[LUGTrekGM]

So what are your thoughts? Bridge crew A and pilots Crew B?

I'm not opposed to something like a fighter wing series, just wondering how it will fit, especially with scheduling of episodes or storyline.

Thus a story might be going to planet X, events in space for crew A.

Then the pilots go out and probe, patrol or attack, with crew B, in a follow on.

The first thing that comes to me is since it's a carrier and fighters squardons, etc, seems like it's leading to a military solution / campaign, pretty much all the time, unless there is a "Use the fighters for scouting / wide range nevbula scanning / etc." type scenarios.


Seems to me like it will be hard to keep all of that together as a group with connected scenes, AS A GROUP. unless it is run as either two different, but closely connected games, or run via a forums only.

When I have run a regular "Bridge crew" ship in the past, it was a problem with the Medical section always being seperate, so that in a mediacal emergency or something similar on the ship or in thew scenario, the medical section ended up taking nearly equal time "On-Screen" so it became doc / bridge / doc / bridge, which left the 4 or 5 bridge crew splitting time equally with the doc's scenes, thus each character was getting 1/5 th on screen time, while the doc was getting half on-screen time. And in episodes where there was no medical "Something or other" going on, there was zero for the doctor to do, except go along as "First Aid" escort.

So, how would you plan to integrate the fighter wing stories? This is why I have never run a carrier-based series in the past. When I did it like this with a Star Wars game, it was ALL fighter squadron, narrow focus "Blow Stuff Up / patrol / small to medium fleet battle" scenarios. Given the nature of online or turn based gaming, that would be pretty taxing to write, I would think.

[LUGTrekGM]

Modify the above with the idea that you have runabouts, rather than dedicated fighters. I missed that in the overall scheme.

So if it is less dedicated fighters, that might work out better, figuring a 80 / 20 split in episodes. Still seems to me that you will need different crews, though.

[JALU3]

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

During the Dominion War . . . the Air Wing embarked upon the Carrier . . . will be mostly Fighters . . . as they serve a defensive/offense multiplier. However, as the Dominion War starts to fade away into history . . . and as direct hostilities become less off the focus . . . would it still make sense to continue to carry an all fighter Air Wing complement? That is the great things about Carriers . . . the nature of the adjustable Air Wing make up allows a Carrier to be everything from a Sector Patrol platform . . . to a long range exploration platform. They have a strong defensive suite, and powerful long range sensor systems.

As far as make up of the assignments of the PCs . . . I prefer to assign the PCs all to one area of the ship. That is . . . if they are are more flight/exploration oriented I would assign them to work in one of the Carrier Pods. Within said carrier pod is a Squadron, and respective support elements (medical, engineering, logistics, etc.). And if they are more interested in playing a crew based game . . . they can be assigned amoungst the rest of the crew . . . with the flight operations serving as a colorful background.

[JALU3]

LUGTrekGM if you wish to run this campaign, by all means, run with the general idea. I would like to play under someone with your experience, if you want to help me GM, that's fine was well.

[LUGTrekGM]

Well, to be honest, right now, I am still rebuilding / updating the website I will be using to run an OpenRPG Films Era Campaign set in 2291.

http://www.geocities.com/renegadegamer/index.html

The plan is to launch it on or about 4 May, Thursday nights, using OpenRPG, LUG Trek Rules.

I have posted the game to RPG Registry, seeking 5 players.
<a href="http://www.rpgregistry.com/gameinfo.php?GAME_ID=6101" target="_top">
<img src="http://www.rpgregistry.com/images/mybutton.jpg"></a>

I have posted the game to my regular LUGTrek site on Yahoo! Groups, so perhaps some players from past years' games might join. I have not talked to any of them in over a year, though:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LUGTrek/

Here's the Ship Pic I am using:

USS Majestic NCC-21900
http://www.landofetarnon.net/Majestic-Colorsmall.jpg

Here's the Master System Display I will be using:

http://www.landofetarnon.net/Majestic-msd.jpg

Obviously, this is a non-canon fan-ship.

Both are kitbashes to look half Movie Era, sort of Transwarp style in development, and sort of Pre-Next Generation, cobbled together from a few ships on the net, plus also screencaps from StarTrek Starship Creator (from Simon & Scuster Interactive) and modified some for my purposes, using Paint Shop Pro 5.

The Character Slots look like this, so far:

CO: PC Capt. V'lor [Position Closed]
XO: GM
Sci: PC [Open]
Eng: PC [Open]
Doc: GM
Comm: GM
Sec: PC Optional [Open]
Helm: PC [Open]
Nav: PC [Open]


This week, I am writing the backstory, and making sector maps and such for it, along with updating and cleaning up the astrogation database from games I have run since 2003.


If you need players for yours, name what position(s) you need, I'll generate a character for your game.

I have Admiral Reliant's old ST: TNG LUG Trek chargen program, that I updated with some of the FASA races that I submitted here long ago, that were not accepted, along with some of the skills.

Really, I want to rewrite what he did, using QuickBasic, as there are some bugs in it. I tried to contact him last year, but his email bounces. Once that is done, I will post it on trek-rpg.net, or on my own webspace, for all to use. That should take a week, or two.

I'd also like to do some kind of conversion/adaptation of the Decipher ship's rules, converted to LUG, but I am still elarning the Decipher system.

[Edited 18 APR 7:32 EST]

[Nene_Richards]

Sounds interesting, Captain Position.

I do have a Q though, maybe I missed it but where is the Christopher Pike Medal?

Maybe I am blind, but it is one of the few official medals we all know about.

http://www.geocities.com/renegadegamer/SFAwards.html

[LUGTrekGM]

Back when Next Gen by LUG was printed, It had listed the Christopher Pike Medal of Honor, and another medal called the Medal of Honor, as two seperate awards.

There was also some business where some awards, like Prentares Ribbons, could only be awarded to officers.

Both of these didn't make sense to me.

Since I was on active duty, I am of the mind that the government of the Federation (more or less a direct extension of the US), would not supercede the Medal of Honor, and name it for some individual, since no other medals are that way, at least in my spin on Star Trek, since the precursors to the Federation were set up before Pike was born.

Thus the "Pike" is the Medal of Honor, such that it is called the "Pike" unofficially, in the same way that the "Medal of Honor" is often (inaccurately) referred to as the "Congressional Medal of Honor" in films, and such.

Having went that route, I looked up a list of the actual decorations used by the US Navy, took some ideas from it, and thus those ribbons came out of that list.

[Nene_Richards]

Back when Next Gen by LUG was printed, It had listed the Christopher Pike Medal of Honor, and another medal called the Medal of Honor, as two seperate awards.

There was also some business where some awards, like Prentares Ribbons, could only be awarded to officers.

Both of these didn't make sense to me.

Since I was on active duty, I am of the mind that the government of the Federation (more or less a direct extension of the US), would not supercede the Medal of Honor, and name it for some individual, since no other medals are that way, at least in my spin on Star Trek, since the precursors to the Federation were set up before Pike was born.

Thus the "Pike" is the Medal of Honor, such that it is called the "Pike" unofficially, in the same way that the "Medal of Honor" is often (inaccurately) referred to as the "Congressional Medal of Honor" in films, and such.

Having went that route, I looked up a list of the actual decorations used by the US Navy, took some ideas from it, and thus those ribbons came out of that list.

Thank you for answering that. I was curious what happened to the Medal and in your game it is just the Medal of Honor. Thanks.

[Sea Tyger]

Just as a mild caution to your thought process, GM, remember that the Federation is a true meritocracy, and, thus, shouldn't exactly mimic how our republic government operates.

Personally, I prefer to have canon awards (i.e., stuff named in the series) supercede a non-canon equivalent. But, since they're just good RP stuff, it doesn't really matter one way or another.

[LUGTrekGM]

So noted, shipmate.

Yeah, for me, that is a change in my specific campaign because it's an issue with me that I feel there was not enough respect given to those who have been awarded the "Medal of Honor" such that game designers are now naming it for a fictional character, from a science fiction setting.

No character in my games has earned it as a decoration, in game, nor likely will they, unless something drastic in the level of self-sacrifice, and heroism changes in a scenario.

Sure, the "Pike" is within the setting itself, and their business as setting and game designers, but it sort of implies, well, to me at least, that they felt that Christopher Pike was somehow better than real people that have died or been crippled in combat.

Though, that's just the way they did it with Paramount and later LUG. Other games call it something else entirely, or have their own awards and medals systems.

But personally, I am against this whole "Christopher Pike Medal of Honor" business, mostly from the point of view of a military veteran.

I myself was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal, and if in the Star Trek RPG (Any version) they called it the McCoy Humanitarian Service Medal or something, hey, I'd be okay with it.

But to me the Medal of Honor is, and should be, something, oh near Holy, I guess.

For certain, many who have recieved it, did so from the grave. I am not in that caliber of heroism, by any means. I did my job, and tried to be a 4.0 sailor, every day, as a Torpedoman.

Since each GM is empowered to spin their own game their way, that's something I wanted to do, and thus made it happen.

It's not canon, certainly.

Neither is my game, in a few areas. My ships of the fleet, for example, derive from FASA, and certainly my sectors are based on old FASA maps. Now that Mandel's Star Charts is out, wow, all of my stuff is way off.

My own Star Base 10, I had it that it took 7 months to get there. Mandel has it 2 sectors away from Sol.

But, I started with Fasa, when it was the only source of maps, pretty much, except for Strategic Designs Inc., and back in those days, nobody matched anybody for any kind of cartography.

But the point you make is certainly correct, and I thank you for making it.

[LUGTrekGM]

Just finished the Tango Sector Map that my upcoming campaign will be using.

http://www.landofetarnon.net/TangoSectorPrint.jpg

It printed out very nicely on 8 1/2 X 11 glossy photo paper, a few minutes ago.

Moving on to adjacent sectors, for a few days, for some scenario wiggle room, then I will start mapping individual systems in Tango Sector, along with the system writeups, hopefully by the end of this weekend, then start generating NPCs.

Some potential players are asking my to run it using Decipher. We'll see. For now, I am more comfortable with LUG, and I like it's skills breakdown and character generation a lot more.