Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier & Starfleet Voyages

[Sheliak Bob]

Heya!
As some sort of overcompensation for my hatred of the NuTrek reboot on the way, I've developed an inexplicable urge to revert to the very oldest of old school Trek rpg's in existence, Heritage's ancient "Star Trek Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier" and hopefully the unofficial revised version in "Starfleet Voyages".
I own a copy of STAGITFF, bought off the shelf when it first came out.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to dig it up--yet.
I am still hard at work tearing up the apartment in search of it, but in the meantime I have to wonder--does anyone has a scanned copy of it--or of Starfleet Voyages? (If not, I will definitely be scanning mine--as soon as it decloaks and I lay hands on it--and will be more than happy to share it.)

I don't own a copy of "Starfleet Voyages"--which I refused to buy at the time because it was "Unofficial"--GAH! Stoopid youngling that I was!
I will be hunting for one through all the usual collector channels.

Mind you, I'd chuck the plan to use either of 'em if I could get my hands on a copy of the translation of that Japanese Enterprise game!

So, other than trying to mooch, cajole, or eventually trade for scans, does anyone have any memories, stories, or ideas for seriously retro Trek gaming?

[K.G. Carlson]

Well, I'm using the "latest" rules set, but I've been doing some retro-Trek gaming, and while I might have flexed continuity a bit I've kept it pretty well on track.

I ran a Starfleet mini-campaign set in the years 2241-2245; since theres no holodecks just yet, I used the solar system as the training grounds. The PCs used a Daedalus-class ship, the USS Drake for their extraplanetary excursions. I borrowed the plot of the novel Collision Course for the "senior year" action. I also noted the invention of the duotronic circuit and the "advanced" Class I starships scheduled to go into service in 2245 (from the Starfleet Technical Manual).

Upon graduation, the PCs shipped out aboard the USS Enterprise under Capt Robert April in an adventure loosely based on the novel Final Frontier.

A year later, the players (still crewing under April) are the first to arrive at Tarsus IV after Kodos' madcap notions of preserving the best and brightest. Some elements borrowed from Collision Course, and they meet the only onscreen survivors of the massacre: Tom Leighton, Kevin Riley and James T. Kirk.

Fast forward another year, and the players are delivering a small survey ship to the planet Faramond when they are jumped by those cold blooded killers the Sharks from the flashback portions of Best Destiny.

We've hit a major time warp, and the next time we play it will be 2251. I've told the players to come up with a couple of years worth of offscreen character development before they are reunited aboard another ship. After three more adventures they'll be getting their own ship to command...just in time for the Four Years War!

So, I guess you could say I've been delving into some old school Trek. Its been going great so far.

[redwood973]

Sorry, Sheliak Bob. Don't mean to hijack, but I'm not familiar with STAGITFF or Starfleet Voyages. Are these FASA things?

[mechascorpio]

STAGFF was the first Trek RPG from Heritage Models, published in 1978. It was based on (and written by the same guy, Michael Scott Kurtick) Space Patrol from Gamescience (1977). Michael Scott continued to refine and republish the rules in various forms over the years, specifically as Gamescience's Star Patrol (a 1981 box set) and finally as Starfleet Voyages by Terra Games Company (Scott himself, I think) in 1982. SV is very much the same as STAGFF combined with Gamescience's Star Fleet Battle Manual.

Only STAGFF was officially licensed through Paramount. The others are filled to the rim with Trek references, but SV is the most blatant "violator":



I'm covering all these games in-depth on my blog, but this link is a good place to start as it covers anything written by MSK.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

That cover is adorable.

[mechascorpio]

That cover is adorable.

Isn't it just? When I first got this and saw it, I burst out laughing. Then I realized I actually knew the artist! She used to do illustrations for my Doctor Who fanzine back in the early 80s!

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Isn't it just? When I first got this and saw it, I burst out laughing. Then I realized I actually knew the artist! She used to do illustrations for my Doctor Who fanzine back in the early 80s!

Nice! What's her name?

[mechascorpio]

Cheryl Duvall (I think I have the spelling right). She was really active in fandom for Doctor Who, Blake's 7, and Star Trek back in the day. I think she did a cover for our fanzine, but I haven't even pulled that box out in 20 years!

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Was it a gaming fanzine or just a... um... zine-zine?

[mechascorpio]

The Doctor Who fanzine? Oh, it was just a fanzine with Doctor Who fan fiction, fan art, a few articles. The DW RPG hadn't even come out yet, IIRC,

I think I'm showing my age (43). I don't think anyone does homemade, offset printed fanzines for TV shows and movies anymore. That's funny. It would have been so much easier to do then what we do now with home computers and desktop publishing, but that's probably just about the time that fanzines like ours became obsolete. Well, that and the pre-internet CompuServe, AOL and Prodigy.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I think I'm showing my age (43). I don't think anyone does homemade, offset printed fanzines for TV shows and movies anymore. That's funny. It would have been so much easier to do then what we do now with home computers and desktop publishing, but that's probably just about the time that fanzines like ours became obsolete. Well, that and the pre-internet CompuServe, AOL and Prodigy.

Not that zines aren't still being produced; I try to get out to the local fair (Canzine) every year and it's usually packed. It's just that it's mostly first-run media being self-published, instead of disseminating responses and analysis.

[Sheliak Bob]

Well, I'm using the "latest" rules set, but I've been doing some retro-Trek gaming, and while I might have flexed continuity a bit I've kept it pretty well on track.

I ran a Starfleet mini-campaign set in the years 2241-2245; since theres no holodecks just yet, I used the solar system as the training grounds. The PCs used a Daedalus-class ship, the USS Drake for their extraplanetary excursions. I borrowed the plot of the novel Collision Course for the "senior year" action. I also noted the invention of the duotronic circuit and the "advanced" Class I starships scheduled to go into service in 2245 (from the Starfleet Technical Manual).

Upon graduation, the PCs shipped out aboard the USS Enterprise under Capt Robert April in an adventure loosely based on the novel Final Frontier.

A year later, the players (still crewing under April) are the first to arrive at Tarsus IV after Kodos' madcap notions of preserving the best and brightest. Some elements borrowed from Collision Course, and they meet the only onscreen survivors of the massacre: Tom Leighton, Kevin Riley and James T. Kirk.

Fast forward another year, and the players are delivering a small survey ship to the planet Faramond when they are jumped by those cold blooded killers the Sharks from the flashback portions of Best Destiny.

We've hit a major time warp, and the next time we play it will be 2251. I've told the players to come up with a couple of years worth of offscreen character development before they are reunited aboard another ship. After three more adventures they'll be getting their own ship to command...just in time for the Four Years War!

So, I guess you could say I've been delving into some old school Trek. Its been going great so far.

Wow! Sounds like a great game! I've been planning a Daedalus-Class game for a couple of months now and, having just finished Best Destiny myself, I was thinking of using Capt. April and crew for the STAGFF game, if it ever came together. The STAGFF game, if I ever run it, will probably be very TAS-oriented. Probably out of nostalgia and as an excuse to run out and buy the dvd boxset.

[Sheliak Bob]

Fanzines!!
Man. That's a topic in and of itself. I was a fanzine junkie back in the day. (Betraying my own age--47) I still wax mildly nostalgic for Kraith, and Nu Ormenal, and Rick Endres stuff and...well. Just about everything but K/S. Even read more than my share of that when desparate for a Trek fix.
Oh yeah, and that Tholian story series, was it "Intersection" or something similarly "Inter-"ish?
Fanzines always had a charm that I just don't find in internet fanfic. Hell, it's not even the same reading fanzine era stories online. I don't know exactly why that is.

I think I met Cheryl Duvall once at a con. Fanzines were fun, because they gave every fan who wanted to take a shot at it a chance to become an SF fan-celebrity.

Aah! Good times!

[RaconteurX]

I ran a very successful campaign using STAGFF and the article from Different Worlds which expanded upon STAGFF's very basic framework. It ran for about a year before we changed to the just-published FASA rules. Not long after that, Wrath of Khan hit the screens and everyone wanted into my game. I had three separate Star Trek groups at one point, maybe fifteen players in all, and many would drop in for "guest appearances" at other groups' sessions when for some reason they couldn't attend their main group's. And yes, they all served on the same ship. Sessions could get... very busy. And yes, there were sessions when all my players were on hand. No idea how I juggled them all, but everyone raved endlessly about how much they loved the campaign(s) so I must have been doing something right.

[mechascorpio]

Mind you, I'd chuck the plan to use either of 'em if I could get my hands on a copy of the translation of that Japanese Enterprise game!

So, other than trying to mooch, cajole, or eventually trade for scans, does anyone have any memories, stories, or ideas for seriously retro Trek gaming?

You'd probably find some of these resources on Scribd to be very helpful, certainly of interest.