How Does it compare?

[Capt. Chris]

Hello,

Since I am new here, I apologize if this has been asked before.

I just ordered the new rules and was wondering how they compare and contrast to Fasa's and Lug's systems ( I have both systems)?

Right now I currently use the icon system as my main one but am debating on switching over to coda.

[qerlin]

Blows the doors off of FASA -- but then again, I thought the FASA system manged to both suck and blow.

It's about on par with ICON, IMO. I like it better for the character creation, a little less on average task resolution, but the starship combat and narrator's guide are worth the price of admission...hell, I'd buy the NG for the starship rules ANYWAY -- they'll mesh with ICON with a little fiddling and run much smoother.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Its the only Trek game that hasn't given me a headache or made any of my players break out in a rash.

[qerlin]

Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic
Its the only Trek game that hasn't given me a headache or made any of my players break out in a rash.

The rash thing can be avoided if you don't rub the books all over your bare skin, dude....

[Darth Sarcastic]

I see you've experimented before then? A big warning then...DO NOT SMOKE THE FASA KLINGON BOOKS!! No hallucinations, you just start seeing things for what they really are...Presidents who are really still only Govenors, you don't buy that "...the economy is ok..." crap, and you can't seem to grasp how one phaser bank on the Enterprise-A has almost as many emmitters as the entire dorsal phaser arrays on the Enterprise-D.

I can't seem to find my FASA Romulan books...must be the cloaking technology...not the face, not the face!!

I had a netbook of DS9 somewhere...can't find it either...its being Defiant. If you didn't see that one coming then you deserve the theme song from Enterprise to be played to you ad infinitum ad nauseum.

[Capt. Chris]

Originally posted by qerlin
Blows the doors off of FASA -- but then again, I thought the FASA system manged to both suck and blow.

It's about on par with ICON, IMO. I like it better for the character creation, a little less on average task resolution, but the starship combat and narrator's guide are worth the price of admission...hell, I'd buy the NG for the starship rules ANYWAY -- they'll mesh with ICON with a little fiddling and run much smoother.

I like the Icon system much better myself than Fasa's.

What makes the Character creation better?

Why is the task resolution maybe not as good?

I am glad to hear that you can convert fairly easily.

[Greg Smith]

Pros:
Character creation is simplified form Icon. You have no pesky 'what if I get the same skill with differnet specialisations' table.

Characters have more cool stuff. Professional abilities and eliet professions are a very cool idea. They give the players something to want to spend their xps on and build their characters towards.

Task resolution is better IMHO. The target numbers have a better spread, the 'I have a one-in six chance of succeeding any difficult task' factor is gone. Courage points are better (especially when edges/prof. abilities are factored in). And the rolling is simplified - just a 2d6 plus skill, plus stat modifier.

The material in the NG about creating campaigns and writing adventures in excellent.

The starship combat is unique. Perhaps a little more abstract than I would like, but I can't wait to try it.

The creatures section is a very thorough and well thought out chapter. It covers everyting from shapeshifting salt-vampires to robots to giant space ameobas. I don't ususally use creatures in my Trek games, but this gave me bags of ideas.

The hazards chapter is cool covers everything from fire and falling to diseases and radiation.

The planets and star systems chapter includes an excellent section on stellar evolution. There is a random system/planet creation section akin to Traveller.


Cons:

Character creation requires a lot of flicking back and forth through the rulebook.

The Icon martial arts rules have gone completely.

There are a few minor errors that require clarification. The most serious being a difference in the Success levels table between the PG and the NG.

There should have been stats for a few common threat races: Borg, Jem'hadar, Vorta etc.

The starship maneuvers should have been in the PG, since the players will be selecting them.

All IMHO, of course.

[Karg]

Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic
I see you've experimented before then? A big warning then...DO NOT SMOKE THE FASA KLINGON BOOKS!! No hallucinations, you just start seeing things for what they really are...Presidents who are really still only Govenors, you don't buy that "...the economy is ok..." crap, and you can't seem to grasp how one phaser bank on the Enterprise-A has almost as many emmitters as the entire dorsal phaser arrays on the Enterprise-D.

I can't seem to find my FASA Romulan books...must be the cloaking technology...not the face, not the face!!

I had a netbook of DS9 somewhere...can't find it either...its being Defiant. If you didn't see that one coming then you deserve the theme song from Enterprise to be played to you ad infinitum ad nauseum.

Ok, Terrific Darth is off his Meds again!

[Greg Smith]

Originally posted by Karg


Ok, Terrific Darth is off his Meds again!

We need more silliness on the boards. These days all the talk seems to be of the ICC, the UN, Israel and other heavy stuff. Where's Styro, Rob Raets and Jedi Muldoon when you need them?

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Karg


Ok, Terrific Darth is off his Meds again!

No, this the side effects of my trying Vanilla Coke. It made me almost like watching Enterprise and American Idol. I've re-started my iv drip of Pepsi...makes Stargate more tolerable. I'd do more silliness, but my doctor told me to cut back.

As for Icon vs. FASA vs. CODA...I must say that I find myself refering back to alot of FASA stuff just because of its originality...even if it doesn't match up with Paramount...it used to. I never really got into the ICON stuff, character creation made me nuts (hence the Pepsi drip). Sure you can take the same skill 2x, but only on a day that begins with the letter 'T'...you can only add the full values together if your mother was born before 1946 or your siblings had an inner ear infection before the age of 7. It read like a game of Fizbin...(ok, name the episode and the crew).

Must go now and forge a deadly alliance with K.A.D.D. (Klingons Against Dippy Deaths) and the Association for a cleaner Alpha-Quadrant.

[Sea Tyger]

Oh, puh-leeze...

Original Crew. "A Piece of the Action."

You don't give us old Trekkies enough credit, Darth. That Pepsi drip is making you slow. You gotta go with a Dr. Pepper infusion...

To keep this on topic, I'm extremely impressed with the Coda system. I still liked FASA better when Icon came out, although I got most of the LUG books because the information was more in line with established canon (which I had become more concerned with in the 90s).

FASA character creation was pretty unwieldy, but if you used the proper modifiers in game play, the system worked well (except for Action Points....makes me wonder if Darth was involved with that one... ).

Darth's rather...colorful...explanation of Icon character creation was pretty accurate (although he's sometimes too cunning to be understood). I didn't like all of the extra little rules you had to follow (if x, then y; if y, then z; if z, then you're hosed ) just to figure out what skill levels you had...and forced specializations were just too much. I'd much rather make each specialization a separate skill in that case.

The Coda system uses a familiar element in modern games...the (skill level + attribute mod + die roll) vs. target number skill resolution system that effectively dominates the industry now. Character creation is not difficult once you get used to the somewhat confusing layout.

It's definitely worth switchin to Coda, IMO. I wouldn't be converting my old FASA characters if I didn't think so.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
Oh, puh-leeze...

Original Crew. "A Piece of the Action."

You don't give us old Trekkies enough credit, Darth. That Pepsi drip is making you slow. You gotta go with a Dr. Pepper infusion...

Dr. Pepper tastes like gasoline to me. To each his own I guess...especially if you cut the Pepsi with Oreos.

I am an old Trekkie Sea. Been watching it since 1970...the grandfolks let my older brother watch it and I'd sit and watch with him. Being only six months old at the time I had no problem with William Shatner's acting and wondered why only Spock had the cool ears. Of course once I saw phasers fire I was hooked...and kind of mad they didn't just phaser everybody they met...I didn't know about diplomacy then. Of course when TNG came out I knew about diplomacy but still wondered why they didn't phaser everyone they met...not everyone Picard met was cool...but that's another story.

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
FASA character creation was pretty unwieldy, but if you used the proper modifiers in game play, the system worked well (except for Action Points....makes me wonder if Darth was involved with that one... ).

Darth's rather...colorful...explanation of Icon character creation was pretty accurate (although he's sometimes too cunning to be understood).

Well as far as AP's go, I used them my own way...they were the number of actions a person could commit to in one round. Certain things cost more to do than others. Didn't care for the AP system that much, but I found uses for it.

FASA's character creation system wasn't THAT bad...if you followed the steps. Although it didn't have the choices you have in CODA...this is true enough.

"I have a cunning plan my lord...." - Baldric, Blackadder I-V

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
The Coda system uses a familiar element in modern games...the (skill level + attribute mod + die roll) vs. target number skill resolution system that effectively dominates the industry now. Character creation is not difficult once you get used to the somewhat confusing layout.

It's definitely worth switchin to Coda, IMO. I wouldn't be converting my old FASA characters if I didn't think so.

You are correct sir.

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic


Dr. Pepper tastes like gasoline to me.

Well, that is part of the appeal, you know. Excuse me while I pop open a Vanilla Coke and experience a couple of hallucinations.

I am an old Trekkie Sea. Been watching it since 1970...the grandfolks let my older brother watch it and I'd sit and watch with him. Being only six months old at the time I had no problem with William Shatner's acting and wondered why only Spock had the cool ears.

About the same here....I had my Enterprise Bridge playset and all of the action figures before I even remember watching the show (mid 70s).

Well as far as AP's go, I used them my own way...they were the number of actions a person could commit to in one round. Certain things cost more to do than others. Didn't care for the AP system that much, but I found uses for it.

FASA's character creation system wasn't THAT bad...if you followed the steps. Although it didn't have the choices you have in CODA...this is true enough.

I simply got tired of dealing with APs, and simply ignored in lieu of a more cinematic approach (okay, tell me what you want to do and I'll tell you if you can get it done in this round ).

I actually preferred FASA's character creation to Icon's, although I was happy to see that they followed roughly the same progression (Academy, Cadet Cruise, various tours),

[Capt. Chris]

thanks for the info, it was very helpful. I too am an older Trekkie who began my watching in the 70's, went to see the first Star Trek movie (the scary thing is my whole family went) and began with the Fasa Rpg just as the 2nd edition came out, and has been a happy little Trekker ever since.

With all these good review for the Coda system, I hope that my books arrive very very soon.

though I liked FASA, I have retired their books (except for the D7 decklans) for the LUG ones and hopefully as Coda books begin to come out switch to them as long as the system is a good as I have been told.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger


....I had my Enterprise Bridge playset and all of the action figures before I even remember watching the show (mid 70s).

You had the Bridge playset? Lucky you...we had most of the action figures (I was always told it wouldn't appear manly to have an Uhura figure...or something like that). I actually learned to role play with the old MEGO figures because I wasn't allowed to handle them...even the ones that were mine...sibling stupidity and all that rot. "Well Scotty kicks the Klingon in the...I'm not old enough to say THAT word...."

Our figures were on some sort of extended away mission...I think that's because we also managed to lose the little communicatiors and other things they came with. Now you can only get these guys on Ebay for too much money. Oh well.