Making Trek fun for semi-non-Trekkers?

[Markraven]

Okay, myself and my players are not what you would call Trekkies.

We have seen most of the movies, pretty universally dislike the Kirk Series and all hate the Voyager series...liking and occasionally watch (for the most part) the Picard, DS9 and Enterprise series.

We are all long-time RPGrs and thought about trying out Trek...

...so how do I as a GM make "playing in Trek" interesting yet still keep the themes and feeling of the series and "universe" in the game? (I want it to feel like Trek, not like a trek'd out Star Wars, Battlestar G or Babylon 5 game.)

How do my players do the same for their side of the GM screen?

Thanks for your help!

[Dan Stack]

Moved to Narrator's forum.

[Alex Pryde]

Okay, one thing I do for 'theme' issues is I have a copy of the Star Trek Encyclopedia to look things up. However, I also have one overwhelming policy about canon and theme: Its MY game.

And here's how I justify it. Star Trek (the series) is a story told by the characters in the story. Thus, the way they tell the story (what you watch on TV) may not be the way it actually happened. Thus, I don't worry too much on keeping details EXACTLY the same as the series. So what if my ship uses tri-lithum carbon to reinforce the phase coils and the Defiant and Enterprise use something different?

Okay, now onto feel of the story. The books provide excellent advice for this depending on your desires and time frame... and your preference for canon. I cut out several episodes that I don't like and even two entire series. Take a guess which...

Finally, HOW to make it fun for the non-Trekkers. I had a similar problem with my fiancee (will be my wife, Saturday) when she started gaming with me and my friends. I helped her construct a character that would interest her. Granted I know her better than you might know your players. But help them build their character around things they enjoy. She happens to be a psych major and thus, we made her a counselor character. Basically, find what they want and go from there.

Fun is what's important. If you and your players enjoy your story, does it matter if it has more of a Babylon 5 or a Battlestarr G feel to it. Besides, B5 and DS9 have some similarities (no flames please). And Battlestarr and Voyager have some minor similarities...

So, I won't worry about it... just enjoy your game.

[qerlin]

Actually, I 'babylonized' the Trek universe for the campaign I'm running. I'm not a huge trek fan, niether are the other players on board now. Only one guy is a Trekkie; this was supposed to be a mini-campaign for him...3 year later it's still going strong.

As Alex said, don't get too wrapped up on canon. I like a tight universe, so I explained differences this way: we're not int eh same quantum timeline as the shows are. Things are mostly the same, but subtly different. TOS was a 'TV show' about the heroic Kirk; the movies were the actuality -- a great, but very flawed commander. Most of TNG happened, as did DS9. Voyager was never heard from again. Enterprise...? Happened, but was 200 years ago. How much of what happened 200 years ago directly impacts you?

The first thing I did was try to flesh out the stuff the shows never have: namely the Federation. I used the late Soviet Union as a template -- bloated, over-reaching, and broke from the multiple conflicts with the Borg and DOminion. I went for post DS9 so I could do whatever I wanted (not a prob, though, if no one's really a fan...) I fleshed out the political processes and made local and Fed politics show up in the background constantly. Not every race and person gets along, nor should they. Racism, sexism, and other 'isms are a fact of life, no matter how much nerf you wrap around the world; use it to make neat characters and situations.

I made Starfleet more realistic. Although lenient by today's military standards, there would still be much more discipline and hierarchical rigidity than seen in the shows. And there would be the commensurate amount of bureaucratic b.s. and stupidity. Talk to a servicemember to add the unbelievable amounts of true idiocy...particularly from Starfleet Command. Have fun with it; it can make for great adventures or to slow down characters slamming through an adventure too quickly. "Whadya mean we have to recall all the teams at this critical venure for a safety briefing?" "Starfleet Comand mandated it; some cadet puke just smacked a shuttlecraft into an asteroid and we have to look like we're doing something about it to the politicians..."

I made the technology more realistic: no more rewire [enter hardware] to make a [enter hardware] or create a [enter technobabble]. Communicators communicate. They can do a few other things, but they would involve receiving or transmitting signals...not blowing s**t up. And leave the friggin' deflector dish alone! And have stuff break down...I mean real stuff, like the toilet mains on deck 12 or what have you...

Build 'em good characters they'd be interested in, then transpose into the Trek millieu. That oughta get them at least interested in trying it. Then hit them with your new improved Trek universe...

[Lt. Dade]

Hi there,

I've run Trek games with lots of less-than-Trekkers and the best advice I can give (and this is good advice) is make the episode an interesting conundrum and adventure first, then make it a good Trek adventure. That is, have your game focus on the characters, on their ship and their lives, and keep your focus much smaller than other folks might tell you. Charting your game's relationships with the other shows is folly. Your non-Trekkers don't care.

Rather than tap into the Trek universe, tap into the Trek voice. Morality plays, sci-fi adventure tales, and character-driven exploratory fiction are what Trek is about. Do that in a way that engages your players and grabs their personal interests and they'll come to develop an interest in the show (maybe) and pick up as much Trek lore as they like. Don't try and sell them Trek. Boil things down (Trek is all about this) and then give your players all the essential information they need in their adventure. I advise against having an encylopedia at the table because it empowers the one who knows it best and overwhelms everyone else. Pictures are fine, but as with any game, you should give the players everything they need to play with in the adventure.

The Trek universe is designed to make storytelling easy, so make it easy on your players, too. The Trek universe isn't built to appeal to Trekkers, it's built to appeal to the American viewing public. Your job isn't to make your players (or you) into Trekkers, it's to have a good time. Each Trek show carves out a space for itself. Do the same. Next Generation was designed to be understandable and captivating to anyone who tuned in for one episode. Do that.

When your players decide they want to rent Trek DVDs for more ideas or to log more hours in the setting, then it's going well. If they think they need to rent Trek DVDs before the game to understand the setting or make sense of the game, then it's not going well.

word,
Will

[bilbosmaug]

I made it more Bablyon 5 too

The Minbari now take the place of the Vulcans/Romulans they now look like green Geonosisians from Attack of the Clones with webbed feet and the raised skull cap

The Bajora=birds

The Cardasians=spiders

Trills=cats

Binars=plants

The founders are dark red

Andorii are blue see through crystal centuars with antenaee divided mane and dent in middle of their faces

mmm...Londo step right up!
their planet and animals are combo of Hoth and Centaur

Klingons look like the Thing from Marvel bald with two ponytails and vandyke beard tails

jemhader look like Attack of the Clones cloners

I also have Wookies and Tatoine

I wish I could DRAW

I use B5 history for Star 22nd and 23rd century history. Also "Starfleet Year One"

I also use the "Blue Planet RPG" for the Eugenics War/World War III also Shatner's "Avenger" and "Federation"

Lastly I make everything look like Minimates dolls (Dolls darn it not action figures!)

[Owen E Oulton]

Doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of Trek left in the game, though. More like "semi-non-Trek" for semi-non-Trekkers.

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
Doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of Trek left in the game, though. More like "semi-non-Trek" for semi-non-Trekkers.

I gotta agree with Owen here (I know, I know, Satan and I have a hockey game later).

Now I am the last person to criticize changes of Canon, but when it goes too far it really does stop being Trek IMHO... YMMV

[Karg]

Ditto

[Antonsb214]

I always thought that the stories in Star Trek were almost universal. The thing that made them different was Star Trek's take on human potential and very optimistic. Star Trek, I thought, was always trying to show humans at their best, rising to the occasion and overcoming the challenge put before them. The different races tended to show distinct facets of humanity, this was even the case with the TOS crew and especially of the three main characters. Spock was all Logic, McCoy was humanity and emotion, and Kirk was the focal point, a mixture of both. So if you Babylonize your campaign too much, it stops being Trek and starts being B5 in different uniforms.
We like to keep as close to what we see on TV and make it our own campaign at the same time. Starfleet doesn't go rogue except for some extreme cases. Watch "The Wounded", and Starfleet is very efficient thanks to certain races that are just good at that, but there is the occasional boondoggle, and that's were the stories get interesting, and occasionally there's some shooting. We set our game in the 2340's, so the ship was a Constellation-class and later an Ambassador-class. This time frame is a little fuzzy so I had a lot of room to experiment with storylines, my players ended up with some battles in the Cardassian wars and skirmishes with the Tholians, oh what fun.
A couple of them didn't even like the TOS, or hadn't seen much of it, but they were big Star Wars fans. I just had to explain to them that Trek was a little different. Now they're both big TNG fans and like the movies.
Boy I'm really starting to ramble and babble.
Well, to sum up (I think), just make the stories interesting and keep it fun and it won't matter if the players are Trekkers or not.

[TookyG]

My gaming group consists of no REAL trekkers. And I love it! I can either fudge a reason why their sensors can't detect X and none of them would speak up and tell me the episode that contradicts what I just said.

[Steele1701]

All are intresting comments, but what it boils down to is what you and your players like. Some people like to mix and match different universes or just plain create their own. I guess it depends on how "real" you want the game to be. The Star Trek was never meant to be looked at to close, so it is not going to be reality in any sense of the word. Personally when I run the Star Trek game I am working on I will probably rewrite some history myself to make the universe mine but I hope to keep the feel and the fun of the Star Trek universe.