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Why aren't Star Wars and Star Trek dominating the RPG market?
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<blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 1663524" data-attributes="member: 20741"><p>I am a little surprised by this thread. Maybe it's just me, but I think that the vast majority of the posters here have never GM'd a Star Trek game, so there are some obvious points that are eluding discussion.</p><p></p><p>First - it has nothing to do with the system. LUG (Last Unicorn Games) had an excellent Start Trek RPG. It was hardcover, good artwork, with a flexible rule system that worked well. There were a large number of products available for it and I bought them all. I was a major fan of LUG.</p><p></p><p>Wizards of the Coast bought LUG and Paramount pulled the license and Decipher bought it. It has languished ever since. (This sucked a lot at the time and I am still bitter about it).</p><p></p><p>It is not about the rules system. LUG Trek was a VERY playable rules system.</p><p></p><p>The problem with maintaining a Star Trek game is two fold:</p><p></p><p>#1 - The Players: The organization of StarFleet can place some players in "charge" of other players. It is the military, after all. Having to take orders from another player in game does not jibe with the democratic urges of many younger players. </p><p></p><p>Over time, this can become an issue and some players hate it (younger players hated it in Birthright too). Mature players deal with it a lot better then younger ones - but there is no disputing the fact that there are some players who chafe at the restrictions of StarFleet. That said, this is a minor problem in comparison to point #2, however</p><p></p><p>#2 - It is DAMNED difficult to run a Sci-Fi game, especially one like Star Trek on a weekly basis. The reason is pretty simple: it is ALWAYS a story based game which requires thorough preparation. You don't "adlib" a story arc in Star Trek. An "episodic" approach to Trek requires the GM of the game to work out the story and craft it well before hand. It needs rich personalities, good settings, a compelling plot. And it needs that **every time you run it**, without fail. You cannot use random encounters and combat as a mini-game to paper over these holes as you do in an FRPG.</p><p></p><p>None of this sounds like a tall order to any of you right now. It certainly didn't to me. I had a whole canoe full of ideas when I started my Trek campaign...and we played through a lot of them.</p><p></p><p>But for a bi-weekly game, it gets to be a lot of work. You soon realize the little random encounters and diversions you use out of habit in a FRPG to spice things up and paper over the holes are missing in a starship based game.</p><p></p><p>It's not that you can't work around the problems that this sort of setting throws at you. You can. But to do so is a lot of work - a lot MORE work than running a FRPG.</p><p></p><p>So Star Trek campaigns die not because players don't want to play them, but because most GMs have difficulty in keeping it interesting on a weekly basis without spending 3-4 hours of prep for every 1 hour of play. Like any campaign you come to as a fresh thing - a GMs enthusiasm at the beginning will smooth that over for the first half-dozen sessions or so...but then the task starts to become daunting. And it starts to become a whole lot more like work and a whole lot less like fun.</p><p></p><p>So why isn't Star Trek ruling the roost? Because many younger players don't like being told what to do by other players, and most of all, because it is a lot of work for any GM to keep interesting on a weekly basis when compared to a FRPG.</p><p></p><p>While problem #1 can be made to go away in Star Wars, problem #2 persists in both genres.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steel_Wind, post: 1663524, member: 20741"] I am a little surprised by this thread. Maybe it's just me, but I think that the vast majority of the posters here have never GM'd a Star Trek game, so there are some obvious points that are eluding discussion. First - it has nothing to do with the system. LUG (Last Unicorn Games) had an excellent Start Trek RPG. It was hardcover, good artwork, with a flexible rule system that worked well. There were a large number of products available for it and I bought them all. I was a major fan of LUG. Wizards of the Coast bought LUG and Paramount pulled the license and Decipher bought it. It has languished ever since. (This sucked a lot at the time and I am still bitter about it). It is not about the rules system. LUG Trek was a VERY playable rules system. The problem with maintaining a Star Trek game is two fold: #1 - The Players: The organization of StarFleet can place some players in "charge" of other players. It is the military, after all. Having to take orders from another player in game does not jibe with the democratic urges of many younger players. Over time, this can become an issue and some players hate it (younger players hated it in Birthright too). Mature players deal with it a lot better then younger ones - but there is no disputing the fact that there are some players who chafe at the restrictions of StarFleet. That said, this is a minor problem in comparison to point #2, however #2 - It is DAMNED difficult to run a Sci-Fi game, especially one like Star Trek on a weekly basis. The reason is pretty simple: it is ALWAYS a story based game which requires thorough preparation. You don't "adlib" a story arc in Star Trek. An "episodic" approach to Trek requires the GM of the game to work out the story and craft it well before hand. It needs rich personalities, good settings, a compelling plot. And it needs that **every time you run it**, without fail. You cannot use random encounters and combat as a mini-game to paper over these holes as you do in an FRPG. None of this sounds like a tall order to any of you right now. It certainly didn't to me. I had a whole canoe full of ideas when I started my Trek campaign...and we played through a lot of them. But for a bi-weekly game, it gets to be a lot of work. You soon realize the little random encounters and diversions you use out of habit in a FRPG to spice things up and paper over the holes are missing in a starship based game. It's not that you can't work around the problems that this sort of setting throws at you. You can. But to do so is a lot of work - a lot MORE work than running a FRPG. So Star Trek campaigns die not because players don't want to play them, but because most GMs have difficulty in keeping it interesting on a weekly basis without spending 3-4 hours of prep for every 1 hour of play. Like any campaign you come to as a fresh thing - a GMs enthusiasm at the beginning will smooth that over for the first half-dozen sessions or so...but then the task starts to become daunting. And it starts to become a whole lot more like work and a whole lot less like fun. So why isn't Star Trek ruling the roost? Because many younger players don't like being told what to do by other players, and most of all, because it is a lot of work for any GM to keep interesting on a weekly basis when compared to a FRPG. While problem #1 can be made to go away in Star Wars, problem #2 persists in both genres. [/QUOTE]
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