NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9717748" data-attributes="member: 7052563">Task Force Games did actually have a license for Star Trek material, but it only included the Original Series, the Animated Series, and some ancillary materials like the Star Fleet Technical Manual.  It did not include anything from the films or Next Generation and its spinoffs, so over time there was considerable divergence between the main canon and what came to be called the Star Fleet Universe, which also included the Starfleet Command computer games and some other products.  So no serial numbers needed to be filed off, but the SFU gradually became its own separate world.  Amarillo Design Bureau took over the game in the late 90’s and it is still available as SFB On-Line and as a POD product, although I have no idea how many people still play anymore.  I played this game a lot in high school with my AD&D group and an older guy (college age) who had most of the products and expansions available at the time (early 90’s).  We used a few house rules to speed things up as SFB had a reputation for being very complex even by wargaming standards.  We played a variety of scenarios but never tried to run the sprawling campaign that modeled a massive general war between an Alliance led by the United Federation of Planets and a rival Coalition including the Klingons and Romulans. The Fed Alliance included the Gorn Confederation (based on the reptilian alien from iconic TOS episode “Arena”), the Kzinti Hegemony (aggressive cat people from the excellent TAS episode “Slaver Weapon” by SF author Larry Niven), and the Hydran Kingdom (squat methane-breathing monarchist aliens).  The Klingon and Romulan Coalition included the Lyran Star Empire (yet more aggressive cat people who of course hate the other aggressive cat people <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😁" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png" title="Beaming face with smiling eyes    :grin:" data-shortname=":grin:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />).  There were also non-aligned forces including Orion pirates, an enclave of Tholians (isolationist silicon-based aliens from the TOS episode “The Tholian Web”), the breakaway Lyran Democratic Republic, an Interstellar Concordium of peace-loving species who tried to stop the General War by force (“I’m starting a war for peace...”), and formidable invaders from the Andromeda Galaxy who could only be defeated by the combined efforts of all sides.  According to SFB lore the UFP-Gorn alliance is the only one in the game based not on strategic convenience but on mutual respect and shared values.  It was established after an unfortunate first contact that involved “two young captains who fired first, and faced embarrassing questions later” - quite a contrast with the weird stuff that the Strange New Worlds series has done with the Gorn (I am surprised Ridley Scott has not lawyered up and sued them for ripping off Alien!).</blockquote>

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