New Star Trek RPG

[WSmith]

Whoa! Matt, that is fantasic. A starship battle system that is based of the skill checks and not spaitial relations sounds like a great idea for any space game. Reminds me a little of the old traveller games I used to play.

I have little interest in ST too. I am waiting for the LOTR RPG, and like to follow the ST news to find out about the coda system. It looks good, except for, I have never been a fan of "flaws" but that is just me.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hm. In Startrek, it really makes sense to avoid minis and so on. Before Startrek DS9 (especially the Defiant) or Voyager appeared, tactical movement was rare. The ships are big and seemed not really maneuverable. And the weapons can fire in any direction, if neccessary, so, why bother?

 

[King_Stannis]

Hm. In Startrek, it really makes sense to avoid minis and so on. Before Startrek DS9 (especially the Defiant) or Voyager appeared, tactical movement was rare. The ships are big and seemed not really maneuverable. And the weapons can fire in any direction, if neccessary, so, why bother?

that's true but for one exception - star trek II: TWoK....the final battle of that movie was nothng BUT tactical movement.

 

[El_Gringo]

Coda looks a lot like d20. It has the same 6 ability scores (though named differently), saving throws (they added one), and task resolution system (Roll a die and add modifiers). They have classes (called professions) and multiclassing. Different species have favored professions. There are also prestige class equivalents. While most of these rules have already been done before by other systems, Coda is nothing more than the d20 system changed around slightly enough to bypass licensing hassles.

 

[mmu1]

Hmm... Interesting, but only if used for a campaign where you get to stick it to the Federation... Can't imagine a worse fate than having to play a character that needs to follow the <shudder> Prime Directive and has to let all his enemies shoot first

I can't stand sci-fi where humans somehow manage to to shake off the thousands of years of nice, healthy violent tendencies and become the galactic UN peacekeepers

 

[mattcolville]

Whoa! Matt, that is fantasic. A starship battle system that is based of the skill checks and not spaitial relations sounds like a great idea for any space game. Reminds me a little of the old traveller games I used to play.

It's an RPG solution. We had a tactical game, and I read it and commented that I didn't understand why, up until ships start shooting at each other, everything I see and do is from my character's point of view. Then, when it's time for starship combat, we leave our characters behind (and, in my opinion, the idea that we're playing an RPG) and all stand around the table pushing one little ship around a hexmap. I thought we should *stay* with out characters and have them actually issuing orders and making skill checks.

Plus I want a lot from a tactical wargame and there just wasn't room to do everything I'd expect to see in one chapter of an RPG. The new, non-spatial, extremely-crunchy, rules are shorter.

Originally posted by WSmith I have little interest in ST too. I am waiting for the LOTR RPG, and like to follow the ST news to find out about the coda system. It looks good, except for, I have never been a fan of "flaws" but that is just me. [/B]

Some systems *force* you to take flaws, ours doesn't. But you get a reward if you take a flaw.

All I can say is; keep an open mind about Star Trek. This RPG is the first to cover 4 series' and all the movies in one game. It doesn't presume anything about your campaign. You can play a group of Klingon Pirates in the Original Series era, or a group of diplomats on a Bab5 type station in the DS9 era.

I came to work at LUG because of Dune. Trek was something I was a casual fan of. Working there for 5 years, I've come to love Trek and genuinely feel it's the best Sci-Fi gaming setting out there now. The thing that really pushed me over the edge, was the Encyclopedia. You'd be *astonished* at how much cooler Trek is when all it's people and events and tech are divorced from the bad dialog and plots that surrounded some of them.

 

[mattcolville]

Hmm... Interesting, but only if used for a campaign where you get to stick it to the Federation... Can't imagine a worse fate than having to play a character that needs to follow the <shudder> Prime Directive and has to let all his enemies shoot first

I can't stand sci-fi where humans somehow manage to to shake off the thousands of years of nice, healthy violent tendencies and become the galactic UN peacekeepers

You should watch DS9. There's a great scene in one episode where Sisko, the Federation commander of a non-Federation station, gets in a heated argument with an Admiral on Earth. He cuts off the communication and complains to one of his aides; "From where they sit, they look out their window and all they see is Utopia. They have no idea what's going on out here."

Besides, TOS was pretty bad-ass. You're really complaining about NextGen, I think.

 

[mattcolville]

Coda looks a lot like d20.

That's true. Mind you, I thought d20 looked a lot like Earthdawn and Ars Magica.

It has the same 6 ability scores (though named differently), saving throws (they added one), and task resolution system (Roll a die and add modifiers). They have classes (called professions) and multiclassing. Different species have favored professions. There are also prestige class equivalents. While most of these rules have already been done before by other systems,

Yeah but you just described about 20% of the rules. Oh yeah, and *every RPG ever* has Task Resolution. CODA is *much simpler* than d20, especially in combat. And one thing cannot be much simpler than another thing and still be the same thing.

Coda is nothing more than the d20 system changed around slightly enough to bypass licensing hassles.

This is just nonsense. No conscious decision or effort was made to make the game *just like d20*. Each of the designers enjoyed bits of 3E and hated other bits, while feeling the same way about dozens of other RPGs. Well, except Ken Hite. He thinks BRP is pretty much perfect.

I sat in every design meeting and at each stage we debated everything for hours. What are the stats going to be, how many do we need, are we going to have reactions, what are they going to be. Besides, there's no stat in D&D for 'perception' and we have no equivalent for 'wisdom.'

Things that ended up looking like d20 did so only because we also happen to like many of the RPG elements that d20 stole from other games.

 

[Randolpho]

Damn, I must be out of the loop. When did Decipher pick up the Lord of the Rings RPG license? I was so hoping it would be d20!

 

[El_Gringo]

This is just nonsense. No conscious decision or effort was made to make the game *just like d20*. Each of the designers enjoyed bits of 3E and hated other bits, while feeling the same way about dozens of other RPGs. Well, except Ken Hite. He thinks BRP is pretty much perfect.

I sat in every design meeting and at each stage we debated everything for hours. What are the stats going to be, how many do we need, are we going to have reactions, what are they going to be. Besides, there's no stat in D&D for 'perception' and we have no equivalent for 'wisdom.'

Things that ended up looking like d20 did so only because we also happen to like many of the RPG elements that d20 stole from other games.

Wisdom=Perception. It serves the same purpose in both games. Favored classes...er, professions for different races, or species. Prestige professions. Come on! Coda also has saving throws, something D&D created. While I'm sure there was no intention of making the system just like d20, it looks pretty obvious that a lot of notes were taken from the D&D PHB.