What Would/Have You Used for Trek?

[Fenris-77]

I think Gumshoe would do a good job of emulating how 'discoveries' work on any of the various ST shows, for sure. Hmm. Thanks for adding another game to my queue.

 

[aramis erak]

I want to run a short Star Trek game inspired more by Lower Decks and The Orville than TNG or Discovery. I like the Modiphius game a lot but it's a little heavy for what I have in mind.

What systems have you used successfully to run Trek style space opera?

In rough order oldest on top
FASA STRPG (both editions)
Starships & Spacemen (FGU)
Classic Traveller
MegaTraveller
Prime Directive 1E
A homebrewed system derived from FASA STRPG but with very different mechanics of play (d6 dicepool by difficulty for skill or less; Skill ranges from 0 to about 20, with a few characters having up to a 30.)
GURPS (once, one session, it sucked badly... using the SFU Grime Directive)
LUG TNG/DS9 (combined)
Decipher Trek (1 demo, 3 session 0's that failed to get to session 1)
STA playtest
STA release (Yes, it's different enough that I consider it separate from the initial playtest)

My favorite is PD1E, but it's technically emulating a Tri-Vid show inside an alternate Trek Universe...
My second favorite is LUG-Trek, but I missed a lot of the books. (If Paramount were to offer the whole as a bundle through HumbleBundle or Bundle of Holding at under $50, either directly or via Modiphius, I'd buy it. And run it again.)
Third favorite is STA... I've got almost all of the STA materials. They're very good, but don't work well for many of my players.
S&S ties with STA, but I no longer think of S&S as being Trek; instead, it's about equally different from TOS as The Orville ... and in a direction different than TNG and Post-TNG trek.

I would NOT consider using Traveller (any edition) again for Trek.

 

[MGibster]

Prime Directive 1E

For those who don't know, Prime Directive based on the universe of Starfleet Battles. SFB is a table top ship combat game created in the late 1970s that somehow acquired the rights to base a game off the original series and the cartoon series. At that point, the SFB diverges from the main Trek universe and things are a bit different. I never played PD, but I used to play SFB like hell in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

[Haplo781]

Cortex Prime.

The answer to 'how do I emulate my favorite show with a rules-lite system " is always Cortex Prime.

 

[overgeeked]

I want to run a short Star Trek game inspired more by Lower Decks and The Orville than TNG or Discovery. I like the Modiphius game a lot but it's a little heavy for what I have in mind.

What systems have you used successfully to run Trek style space opera?

Lasers & Feelings is the obvious answer. There's also Far Trek and Where No Man Has Gone Before. Risus is amazing. Fate Accelerated and Fate Condensed work, too.

 

[Rogerd1]

Shadow of the Demon Lord would work, with the various Novice, Expert paths wtc.

Savage Worlds would be a good choice.

You could use 5e, and pick up Dark Matter.

 

[Reynard]

Shadow of the Demon Lord would work, with the various Novice, Expert paths wtc.

 

[Fenris-77]

I feel like SotDL would require some, um, extra work.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’ve used Prime Directive and Traveller. PD worked better for feel.

Paranoia! played straight and not for laughs could work. So might something like the original Star Frontiers.

These days, I’d probably use PD again or use a toolbox system like HERO or M&M1Ed. GURPS could do it, I’m sure, but its inherent grittiness would need some tweaking.

Dragonstar or StarFinder could do the job, too.

 

[ThrorII]

I would suggest Where No Man Has Gone Before or preferably its derivative Far Trek.

WNMHGB is a d20 microlite game while Far Trek is one step removed from microlite, using a 3d6 resolution. They are explicitly for a 1960's Star Trek themed game. Both are free/independent publishers.

There are four stats, three classes (red shirt, blue shirt, gold shirt), skills and traits/feats.

It is a little tongue in cheek (one of the talents is "ripped shirt", you get a bonus to one combat that session if you declare your shirt is ripped; another talent is "red shirt" - if your character dies, he is replaced next scene with another character with EXACTLY the same stats, skills, talents, but a different name). You can run a game that feels like 1960s Trek.