What's the best system for doing Star Trek?

[overgeeked]

And of course Far Trek just got a major update...

http://fartrekrpg.blogspot.com/

 

[fredlove]

Has anyone played Far Trek, either this updated edition or a previous one? I'd be interested to know how it plays.

 

[tireironmike]

I played in a Decipher/Coda Star Trek game before. Now a big fan of Character generation but once you get past that it flows very nicely if you are more into role play than roll play.

 

[Thunderfoot]

STAR TREK: The Role Playing by FASA - best, hands down....

It's based on the hard fought premise that you had to slog through life and the Academy and possibly a few crappy postings before getting to your current rank and position - the character creation is beyond belief and extremely detailed (and unlike Traveller (why is this a spelling error) the original edition you can't die during CC). By the time you pick up the dice and start playing, you have a life, a history and some amazing back story - as well as a fully fleshed out Star Fleet Officer.

As for Role Play - you had better have a dynamite administrator or things go slanty fast - and that's regardless of the system you use.

 

[aramis erak]

Traveller (why is this a spelling error)

1) Trademark... in the US you could not (in the 1970's) trademark common words in correct US spelling (which is traveler - one l).

2) Browser settings. The spellcheck is usually done by your browser, not the BBS. So, if your browser is set for US English, Traveller will ding as an error.

 

[GeekPunk]

Now, here's a thread that's grabbed my attention...

I'm currently working on a "Star Trek inspired" setting called ASTRO CORPS using Icons: Superpowered Roleplaying. It's definitely geared more toward The Original Series and The Animated Series. Characters are more along the lines of "Trained" as opposed to having powers, but the powers are working well for things along the lines of "Trek-like" equipment (phasers, communicators, transporters, tricorders, etc...) and alien beings. I'll be sure to share what I come up with.

 

[fjw70]

I think Edge of the Empire would work well for Star Trek.

 

[Unwise]

Personally I just love the d6 system for all high-tech combat-light settings. The main appeal is that all skills are covered by their broad catagories. You can specialise a bit, but everybody knows exactly what their skill in "reversing the polarity and causing a nutrino wave" is.

High-tech settings have too many instances where you need specific skills, having broad catagories to fall back on when the person does not have that skill is great. I can't imagine a Rolemaster style system in a high-tech environment. I like rules-light for high-tech.

Another option is to play up the exploration and problem solving nature of the setting by using PDQ (or FATE). I find people RP and problem solve more when their character sheet cannot be looked at to provide the answer.

PDQ Characters look like this:
Security Officer +2
Starfleet Academy Track and Field Champ +2
Natural Born Leader +4
Combat Medic Certification +2

When that is your character sheet, you have a well defined guy, but its up to you to decide how you can use those assets to solve the problem at hand. Many of my best games are in PDQ. Perfect for horror, diplomacy or investigation games when you don't want the rules to get in the way.

 

[fredlove]

I've been running a Star Trek campaign using the Last Unicorn Games system. Four sessions in, and I think everyone's having a pretty good time with it so far. After kicking the tires pretty thoroughly, I decided to put together all my thoughts on the system. You can read my full review here: http://treklug.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-review-of-lugs-icon-system-for-star.html

The short version: the system shows its age in a few ways, but its greatest strength is that the designers built it with a focus on telling Star Trek stories, which turns out to be the system's saving grace. As I said above, my group is definitely having a good time with it.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I think Edge of the Empire would work well for Star Trek.

I like this idea. I've not actually played EotE, but have been watching a few videos and giving it some thought. For SW I think I'd actually still prefer the D6 system, but for Star _Trek_ I think the mechanics of advantages and complications would work better for that setting than I think it would for SW. At least for the kind of games I think I'd lean towards in those respective settings.