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In the Past I have run 3 Star trek campaigns, Two FASA, One a GURPS conversion.
In all the Games, I had never got it going past 2 sessions, the Players would fall into a Drooling Trek Geekdom and start goofing off. Other GM's out there... How long has your Campaigns lasted? How did you keep your group from swaying from the Genre?
Or is the Star Trek RPG really only good for one shots?
Dregg
Tune your Minds to Black and White, and take a trip into the "PULP ERA"
http://chapter-13.net
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Moving to Narrator's Forum.
AKA Breschau of Livonia (mainly rpg forums)
Gaming blog 19thlevel
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The current campaign I have has lasted for about two years.
It sounds to me as if your players are not particularly interested in playing ST with the same characters. The genre can be run for quite a while, but you need to catch their attention some way. If they begin to goof off then present them with some extreme action. They may be interested in a more hack & slash D&D styled campaign.
"The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all."
-Joan Robinson, economist
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Two years. And most of the players don't even like Star Trek.
I originally started as a mini-campaign: a planned 4-6 month story arc that wound up lasting the first year. The characters and the storyline interested them enough that we stuck with it & most really like the game now.
It sounds like these guys aren't really interested. If they are, however, then lay down ground rules. Ours were 1) no freakin' kids! 2) no technobabble beyond what was necessary for the technology. 3) no rewiring the freakin' deflector dish or anything else outside of the general confines of what it does. 4) no time travel.
I then bolstered it by trying to make Starfleet, the UFP, and other organizations function more 'real-world' -- Starfleet is a primarily military organization and I added he bureaucratic nonsense and other elements of idiocy one experiences when one wears boots. The UFP is a socialist or communist government; it has its own little problems, especially since it's not a direct representative government at the Federation level -- I based it off a combination of the proposed EU and the Soviet Union, post-Afghanistan (we were playing post DS9). If the universe feels more real, I think the players that are Trek skeptical are more likely to enjoy it.
My input.
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
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About 45 minutes is my average.
Then again all my players have read every issue of "Knights of the Dinner Table". So taking a standard mission and making it a "Blues Brothers" movie is the norm.
I have recently found that if I make the consequences (and sometimes the difficulty numbers) high cost, then they shy away from trying to rewire the deflector dish (to get Showtime) or to alter the warp drive (into a motion-wave cannon). And of course reminding them that if they tamper with (place device name here) and they fumble or miss the TN, then its thier fault the ship blew up...always seems to help.
The other thing I find that works...make one of them (your players) make up a campaign for you to play in, then do the same stuff that they do to you. It usually works.
"The door opens and..."
"I phaser whoever comes through the door!!"
"It was the Federation President..."
"I call dibs on his kewl robes of state..."
{{GRAND SIGH/OY VEY}}
-Darth Sarcastic
Darth Sarcastic
"Shall I goto 'Red Alert' sir? It does mean changing the lightbulb." - Kryten, Red Dwarf
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That might work too...
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
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My problem is that the game dissolves into everyone digging into thier trek knowledge, They understand my word is final, but that gets chalanged way too much. Comedy also ensues and then it just crumbles. The Players i spreak of are excellent players for anything else, but run Star Trek and it's like the Spring break game. Mayhap it's the time period I run things in... I use Post Star trek 6/ Pre Next gen time frame.... the players don't know whether they are coming or going as far a tech.
Memorible Moments do happen, like the Captain who kept hitting his ensignia to communicate with others....
At this point in the universe, it was still only a Pin.
Dregg
Tune your Minds to Black and White, and take a trip into the "PULP ERA"
http://chapter-13.net
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I thought of other ways to keep your players focused on the game. Not only offer to give them extra XP, offer them money.
"$1 for every time I don't have to ask you to stop screwing (un-nesecarily) with the warp drive."
Threaten them with bodily harm.
"Next time you alter the main deflector to get the porn channel I'm stabbing you in the hand."
Treat them like 4 year olds.
"When calling for a phaser strike, use your 'indoor' voice."
"These are the things I think about when I'm sitting at home and the power goes out." - George Carlin
"These are the kind of thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools." - George Carlin
-Darth Sarcastic
Darth Sarcastic
"Shall I goto 'Red Alert' sir? It does mean changing the lightbulb." - Kryten, Red Dwarf
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LOL!Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic
[
"When calling for a phaser strike, use your 'indoor' voice."
"[/B]
Ok that made my Day!
But don't GM's have to take that tone?
Dregg
Tune your Minds to Black and White, and take a trip into the "PULP ERA"
http://chapter-13.net
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I usually run most of my games in that tone. Ever have to lead your players through common logic?Originally posted by Ravenspoe
But don't GM's have to take that tone?
"Bob, if you light the TNT and then stuff it in the sack of cash...what will happen when the TNT goes off?"
"Burnt Money?"
"Very good."
-Darth Sarcastic
Darth Sarcastic
"Shall I goto 'Red Alert' sir? It does mean changing the lightbulb." - Kryten, Red Dwarf
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"Next time you alter the main deflector to get the porn channel..."
And the problem with this is..?
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
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Ok, you got me on that one. But altering the warp drive into a motion-wave cannon (crossing sci-fi verses) is a definite no-no.Originally posted by qerlin
"Next time you alter the main deflector to get the porn channel..."
And the problem with this is..?
-Darth Sarcastic
Darth Sarcastic
"Shall I goto 'Red Alert' sir? It does mean changing the lightbulb." - Kryten, Red Dwarf
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Longest running Trek game I had was about 3 years. Me and my co-GM were the most knowledgeable players Trek-wise, and most of the other players were either casual fans, or just were in it for the gaming. We never had any problems with players doing strange stuff like you've described above.
Without implying insult, part if it might be a maturity issue. The players had a pretty solid understanding of Trek tech and knowing what could and could not be accomplished, and they knew enough from the TV series not to screw around with existing tech.
Meaning, it would never have occurred to any of them to attempt to rewire the deflector dish other than to help solve whatever plot was going on.
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Again to Quote Voltaire
"and i say 'bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish.'
'that's the way we do things, lad, we're making s**t up as we wish.'
the klingons and the romulans, they pose no threat to us
cuz if we find we're in a bind, we just make some s**t up "
Tune your Minds to Black and White, and take a trip into the "PULP ERA"
http://chapter-13.net
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I'll have to reread my Voltaire...
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
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