A New Prime directive: GURPS

[ds9guy]

Have you folks heard that Armadillo and steve jackson games are collaborating on a new version of the Prime Directive RPG. Its going to be based on the GURPS rules and be supposrted by severeal sourcebooks to be released after the main book.

Sounds interesting. The only problems I foresee are that 1. the initial Prime Directive game was horrible game wise and 2. the Star Fleet Battles universe diverges from Paramount "canon" a great deal.

I would imagine that developing the rules for a GURPS release would have fixed the first problems both in game mechanics and in conception. I'm not sure GMs could do about #2 and using the books if they didin't plan in the Star Fleet Battles universe. Read everyhting with a grain of salt I guess.

Any thoughts?

Monty

[AslanC]

I was a first round playtester... it seems very interesting.

I am looking forward to the actual release.

[EliasVaughn]

As much as I love GURPS, the SFB-vurse is so repugnant to me that I consider the vomit that rises within me at mere mention of Prime Directive too good to be shed on that product.

[lyjobu]

I ran a Starfleet/ Marquis adventure using gurps for about a year and a half.
We did Character Creation along the lines of the old fasa system, and I converted phasers and whatever equip. we needed. The only source mayerial we used was The main Gurps book, and whatever Trek knowledge each player brought to the table.
Without a doubt, the best campaign I ran. I would like to pick it up again, BUT a.) I moved to the East Coast and b.) Only one pc survived without going to jail somewhere, or somewhen...

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Hugh Casey]

I think that the great thing here is that this will give a jumping off point for the GM that wants to create GURPSTREK, for the GM that likes GURPS and TREK...even if they aren't fond of SFB or PD.

You know, like me...

[AslanC]

I never used the SFB UNiverse, it was just too silly. War, war, war, war... BUt I did like the Prime Team idea and I ran that for over 2 years. It was a lot fo fun and the players really, really enjoyed themselves.

[Atlirith]

Our group has used elements of Star Fleet Battles in our trek campaigns for years, especially the various alien races they developed. Remember, for quite a while, Prime Directive was the "only" trek game in town, and SFB's has been around for, well, a real long time now. Think of it as a well developed alternate reality.

It reminds me of that episode where the Enterprise comes across an alternate Enterprise that has been fighting (and losing) against the Borg for years and years, or the one where the Federation and Klingons were at war, and the Federation was losing. The later episode (the one with earlier "lost" enterprise?) especially reminded me of the tone of SFB and Prime Directive, even the uniforms were more militant, Starfleet were warriors first and not explorers...

Remember too that Prime Directive was a RPG based on a tabletop wargame; not a RPG that includes ship combat. Those SFB computer games have sold quite well, and are considered by many to be the best Trek related games released in many a year -- which is likely why SJG agreed to publish GURPS: Trek in the first place -- there's quite a few people whose first experience with Trek gaming were those SFB computer games, not the LUG or Decipher games, and those people are expecting a more militant, battle orientated Trek universe.

Personally I look forward to any kind of Trek rpg, I really don't see GURPS: Trek cutting into Decipher Trek sales, and I look forward to the conversion notes people here create for the systems...till later.

[Dan Stack]

-Dan

[REG]

Originally posted by Atlirith

Remember too that Prime Directive was a RPG based on a tabletop wargame; not a RPG that includes ship combat.

Hehehe. Just so long they don't use the 32-impulse rules on resolving character combat. Then again, I'm not a big fan of role-playing in the heavily war-oriented universe that is SFB. But I do like the ship designs.

[Eric R.]

Granted, the SFB universe is conflict intense due to the fact it was originally a simple, hehe thats funny in retrospective, naval simulation of starship combat. Its "timeline" serving only to place its indivdiual scenarios into a setting. Steve Coles original concept for Prime Directive did not help much either in this reguards being limited to the combat action of the prime teams, (though the Uprising advanture has some merit for development into a well rounded Romulan spy/political episode). But the concept this time around is a lot more well conceived and open to other fields. Soon stories of Merchants, Diplomats and other non traditional SFB personages will balance things out at last. Now a group can actually attempt to play charcters in the SFB universe who try to live up to the Federation ideals going against the grain of this otherwise dark and forboding alternative universe.

[Imagus]

Originally posted by ds9guy
Have you folks heard that Armadillo and steve jackson games are collaborating on a new version of the Prime Directive RPG. Its going to be based on the GURPS rules and be supposrted by severeal sourcebooks to be released after the main book.

"Armadillo" ?! Amarillo, methinks

It's very real. It's not a joint project, ADB are designing it, and SJG are licensing the GURPS engine to them. I understand SJG get final approval on the product. Due for release in the next few weeks, with a string of supplements following.

Originally posted by ds9guy
Sounds interesting. The only problems I foresee are that 1. the initial Prime Directive game was horrible game wise and 2. the Star Fleet Battles universe diverges from Paramount "canon" a great deal.

I would imagine that developing the rules for a GURPS release would have fixed the first problems both in game mechanics and in conception. I'm not sure GMs could do about #2 and using the books if they didin't plan in the Star Fleet Battles universe. Read everyhting with a grain of salt I guess.

Different system, so not a problem ruleswise...

I understand this game also takes the focus of the game away from the Prime Teams and even allows the creation of "gasp!" civilian characters.

ADB's license is extremely limited, arising out of a fudge worked out with Paramount to rationalise SFB's complicated license of a license of a license origins! They can use vessels and races from the TOS series, along with some from the movies, and their own expanded universe. They can't use anything from TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise (all of which conflict with their own setting anyway) nor can they use characters or most events (Kirk, Spock, the V'Ger Probe). Effectively this has been determined by what they have already used.

I do get the impression that ADB see it competing with CodaTrek, but I think the two will co-exist fairly peacefully! After all, their marketing is almost as good as Decipher's...

Personally, I shall be mining it for ideas for my CodaTrek game

One potential problem is inter-system confusion. The first announced supplement for GPD is GURPS Klingons - can anyone spot the potential confusion? I'm just waiting for the lawsuits to start flying...

[ds9guy]

oops typo on the amarillo thingy..

I never played GURPS. How is the game structured (percentile, d6, etc)? Is it simple or complicated?

I was interested in it as another choice should my group decide that the Decipher system isn't for them.

I'm not really intere4sted in the Star Fleet battles universe but I am interested in how they do their rules when the book coems out and what campaign info or adventure ideas I might be able to gleam from them.

cheers,

Monty

[AllenS]

GURPS is a system with a lot of breadth, but it is not (imo) a complicated system. There are a lot of rules, but a lot of them can be disregarded. If you want to get a look at the basics of the system, go here:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/


A 32 page version of the GURPS rules in PDF format. You can actually play a lot of decent games with just this, and it will describe the game better than I can.

As far as GURPS Prime Directive goes, you basically just need the Basic Set and maybe Compendium 1. GURPS Space 3rd edition is an awesome sourcebook, as are the Ultra-Tech books, but not really neccesary.

Allen

[Eric R.]

You wont need the Basic Set, in fact no other Gurps product will be required just like the World War II System which has a copy of the Gurps lite with additions for the modern setting. The Same will go for Prime Directive.