Looking for a Star Trek RPG

[Lord Herman]

Hi there,

Being an RPGer and a trekkie, I'd love to do some Star Trek roleplaying. So I'm looking for a good system. So far, I've only found Decipher's Star Trek RPG. Another option would be adapting the Star Trek setting to d20.

So... does anyone play Decipher's Trek game? Or know a good Star Trek adaptation for d20? Or any other systems? What are your experiences with them? Does Star Trek work well as an RPG setting? And should I brush up on my Borg species designations before I start DMing?

[Matthew]

GURPs Star Trek?

[Tao Scientist]

If you like the Original Series timeframe, Prime Directive. The setting is based on the Star Fleet Universe (developed from Star Fleet Battles). It does not include later timeframes such as ST:TNG. This RPG currently comes in GURPS and d20 flavors, with other game engines (i.e., d6, Hero) in development.

[Lord Herman]

I prefer the TNG (or rather, DS9/Voyager/TNG movies) timeframe. I was planning to set my game directly after the events of Nemesis.

[Matthew]

Try this link: Star Trek RPGs

[Neek]

There is also a system devised by Last Unicorn games, which came out with a series of material shortly before they were bought out. The gaming system they devised is pretty intuitive, and character creation's much more of a snap than in D&D. It's a decent d6-based system, if you can find it that is.

[TSGames]

ST:TNG is very good RPG, but very easy to break(I broke the game with my very first character!), and as such the emphasis is more on roleplaying than actual combat. All that said, it would be very neat to see it adapted to a D20, but it would be very difficult to do since the entire system seems to rest on only rolling a d6.

[clarkvalentine]

Decipher's Coda system is pretty neat, if easily powergamed. I never used it for Trek, but played a bit of Lord of the Rings using it - I like it a lot. Any D&D or d20 gamer will be pretty comfortable with it quickly - very similar mechanics in many ways.

It doesn't take a genius munchkin to break a Trek game; anyone can do it with moderately creative use of the transporter and replicator. The trick is for the players to really buy into it and play within the spirit of the setting rather than the letter of the rules.

[Fhaolan]

I've seen various attempts at a Star Trek RPG from Gamescience, FASA, Last Unicorn, Decipher, Armadillo, and I have even taken a look at the GURPS: Prime Directive thing.

Basically, Star Trek makes a pretty poor RPG if what you are looking for is crunchy-type game. The more rules, and the more complex the rules, the less like Star Trek it becomes. That's because, like most TV shows, the ship moves at the speed of plot. The characters are good enough shots to complete the plot, or bad enough that they don't ruin the plot. Whatever it takes. Putting all sorts of crunchy rules around that forces things in directions that just aren't Star Trek.

Personally, I liked the FASA ruleset for Star Trek. Or, I'd go a completely different direction and try something like 'TV Adventures'. I haven't gotten a copy of that ruleset yet, but it purports to model TV-type dramas in a way that you can create a Star Trek-like experience. It may also be complete BS. Don't know, haven't gotten my copy yet. :)

[clarkvalentine]

Or, I'd go a completely different direction and try something like 'TV Adventures'. I haven't gotten a copy of that ruleset yet, but it purports to model TV-type dramas in a way that you can create a Star Trek-like experience.

I'd also be tempted to say Dogs in the Vineyard, but Prime Time Adventures would rock for Star Trek.

[Lord Herman]

I've taken a look at the Decipher Star Trek RPG, and so far, I like what I see. The CODA system looks like d20 without the exponential power increase, and there's a lot of fluff in the books. I like fluff.

I'm not too worried about powergaming loopholes in a system, as long as it's basically solid. Anyone trying to find mechanical exploits in my game soon finds himself at the business end of falling rocks.

[DeathQuaker]

If you didn't mind coming up with the ship and alien stats, Star Trek would be relatively easy enough to do with D20 Future. The existing base and Advanced Classes would work fine (Picard: Smart Charismatic Field Officer; Quark: Charismatic Swindler; Torres: Tough Smart Engineer). And a lot of the spaceship stats could probably be easily tweaked to represent Star Trek ships.

[SpiderBrigade]

A friend of mine is homebrewing a d20 modern/future variant for trek-universe games. Note that I said trek-universe. The point the Fhaolan makes is an excellent one - you're not going to have much success duplicating the feel of the show with most game systems. Even the heroic bent of a D&D-type game has too much potential for bad rolls=instant death. This is especially true if you make any attempt to model the technical specifications of phasers. Those things are lethal. If it weren't for the plot-driven nature of the show, a typical phasers-on-kill fight would have very few survivors.

So yeah, his game is going to be some kind of post-DS9 grim and gritty setting, I think. Still fun for trek fans, but it's not the shows. At all.

[JellyPooga]

I have toyed with the idea of a Star Trek RPG. As I already own the GURPS basic ruleset, all I'd have to do is go and buy some of the Star Trek fluff (encyclopedias, technical manuals, etc, maybe a novel or two, couple of series' to study, etc.) and go form there.

Having said that, unless you plan on having a relatively 'high-level' game where you're all Starfleet officers in comand of a ship (or some-such), it's not going to be a lot different from any other standard sci-fi game (and, it follows, easy to adapt from another game - I mean, 'Hand Laser' isn't so different form 'Phaser' when it comes down to it really is it?)