Complete Newbie GM

[Pericles]

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”?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

[tonyg]

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.

[Falconer]

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

[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.

[tonyg]

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.

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.

[Alex]

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

[Pericles]

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.

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

[PGoodman13]

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

[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?).

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. :-)

[PGoodman13]

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?).

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.

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

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.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

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

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

[Pericles]

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

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?

[tonyg]

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

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."

[tonyg]

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

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.

[Pericles]

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."

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.