FASA's Star Trek RPG

[Ed_Laprade]

Had it, liked it, but didn't get to play it much. The longest Trek game I played in, we were Klingons. Now that was a ton of fun!

 

[Stormonu]

Strange, I had it (same boxed set) and I hated it. It was good for information, but I hated the rules. As I recall, it was a % system - roll your skill or less on d%. If I recall correctly, it was common to have characters with 80% or better in starting skills/abilities.

On the flip side, I very much liked the starship combat simulator. Star Fleet battles was too heady for me, FASA's version I really enjoyed - though I made the big mistake when I started that I didn't realize ships can't fire while cloaked (it's not stated in the rules anywhere, and I'd only seen ST I-IV and part of Next Gen's first season at the time).

I think in the end I like Last Unicorn/Decipher's version far better. Though I haven't tried any ship-to-ship combat with those rules.

 

[MerricB]

It was the basis for their Doctor Who RPG, which I ran several sessions of (and enjoyed). I had a copy of the Star Trek RPG, though I never played it, but I don't know what's happened to it. I still have the Doctor Who one, though!

Cheers!

 

[Erekose]

FASA Star Trek RPG is probably my favourite version of Star Trek as a RPG - although that could be coloured by my strong preference for the TOS (including ST1-6 films) - the mechanics were quite loose but that suited the type of game we played. I have a dim recollection that a version of starship combat was supposed to exist(?) or be written(?) that was more RPG than the tactical simulator (which was great for what it was but had a definitely different feel to it) - did that ever happen or am I misremembering???

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I don't know the details of the ship to ship combat system but I like the idea that each player has their own specific station that can affect the combat in different ways. When we played SW Saga most recently, combats for the non-pilot, non-gunner characters were pretty boring.

 

[Nagol]

I don't know the details of the ship to ship combat system but I like the idea that each player has their own specific station that can affect the combat in different ways. When we played SW Saga most recently, combats for the non-pilot, non-gunner characters was pretty boring.

The one I'm remembering is from 1st edtion not the boxed set.

Certan stations like the Captain and Engineering are generally much more useful if the player has appropriate skills. Other stations like the Captain and Science are situationally useful if the character has the appropriate abilities. Yes, I've listed the Captain role twice -- it was pretty pivotal to have a good player playing a skilled/lucky captain.

It was somewhat amusing to see how the individual stations interpreted the captain's orders. It was somewhat frustrating to watch the player of our ship's engineer struggle with power allocation when a few of us had much better optimisation skills. We developed a few templates for her like "turtle" -- max shield limited movement, "rabbit" -- max movement decent shield no weaponry, and "leopard" - max movement, ok weaponry limited shield. That helped the captain and the engineer communicate.

"Engineering, I need a rabbit with at least one phasor!"

It was a good attempt to emulate the show and give the players a role for ship combat, but roles were hardly balanced in activity or usefulness.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

It was a good attempt to emulate the show and give the players a role for ship combat, but roles were hardly balanced in activity or usefulness.

Ah. When you say "balanced in activity" do you mean some roles did the same thing or nothing on their turns? In SWSE we had "Engineering" options but they were generally limited and repetitive, which made space combats not very engaging for the co-pilot.

 

[Nagol]

From a 30-year old memory,

The captain didn't have a station per se, he provided overall direction.

Engineering controlled power allocation to systems.

Helm controlled ship movement based on power assigned to movement and captain's orders. I think it also controlled weapon fire.

*edit* so those three roles had something to do all the time.

Science ran sensors which were situationally useful.

Communications ran communicaions -- also situationally useful.

So the captain barked orders and the stations responded as they understood them. I was second in command and Science officer, but had a substantially better Ship Tactics skill than the captain. It was interesting that ship-to-ship combat became more effective when the captain couldn't come to the bridge!

"Sir! Two klingon ships are approaching at flank speed! Should I inform the captain?"

"No. Let him sleep until we know their intentions."

"But, sir! Their shields are up and weapons are charging!"

"Oh in that case, it's too late to bother the captain isn't it? Red Alert! Besides I prefer to live through the encounter, don't you? Strike that from the log, Yeoman!"

 

[Morrus]

It was somewhat amusing to see how the individual stations interpreted the captain's orders. It was somewhat frustrating to watch the player of our ship's engineer struggle with power allocation when a few of us had much better optimisation skills. We developed a few templates for her like "turtle" -- max shield limited movement, "rabbit" -- max movement decent shield no weaponry, and "leopard" - max movement, ok weaponry limited shield. That helped the captain and the engineer communicate.

"Engineering, I need a rabbit with at least one phasor!"

I think that's a perfectly viable way to handle it. In the show, they'd use things like "Attack Pattern Delta" or what-have-you which served the same function. You're just using more colourful names!

 

[Nagol]

The tactical shortcut talk had a value.

More valuable for the situation were the photo-statted pre-filled energy allocation templates. That way the player only had to consider the required variation, if any.