[Open] Star Trek Adventure Gaming

[Starbeard]

I'm thinking of running a short adventure for Star Trek Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, the first licensed Star Trek-themed RPG. The intent is to have the adventure dovetail into an open campaign, but I'm fine with players sitting in only for the duration of the adventure scenario.

Time frame and player count: I'm busy, so if there's interest we'll likely start in 2-3 weeks and run at a slower rate of 2-3 turns a week. Also, there will be some play testing of starship rules (see below). Ideally we'd have 6-8 players to fill all of the bridge officer roles, but we can begin with fewer if necessary, by using NPCs, doubling character roles or letting players control multiple characters.

Basic campaign idea: a short planetside adventure, which will (hopefully) launch into an open, 'career-focused' campaign in Star Fleet.

The game will begin with a simple adventure scenario, one of the three that were printed for the game (I'm not sure which one I'd like to run yet). All three options are basically learning and/or convention-style scenarios, intended to teach the game as much as get people into the spirit of things. If the adventure runs well and if there's enough interest to keep going for the long haul, we'll beam aboard and continue on from there.

Because characters are so easily created in STAGFF, for the long-term campaign I'm leaning very heavily on letting players roll up secondary cadet characters to run on the side, so that each player can have a little cast of 2-3 PCs. My thinking is that it will help with the inevitable situation where the communications officer is spending the entire adventure spinning in his chair while the rest of the gang are out getting cannibalized by alien hippies, and it will also give the players the opportunity to get invested in their PCs' rising careers. In STAGFF, a character's experience level and his rank in Star Fleet are the same thing, so promotion and career aspirations are a big aspect of campaign play. Who knows, maybe someone will even be promoted to captain his own ship, resulting in a spin-off game.

Play style: slower post rate; very open campaign style; a heavy reliance on random tables to recreate the weird and wonderful atmosphere of classic Star Trek.

Assuming we succesfully transition into a career-focused campaign, the specific adventures/mission assignments, locations, and unforeseen galactic events will be rolled up on STAGFF tables and interpreted by me to maximize the 'hexcrawl' feel of the whole thing. I might even throw in some of my favourite tables from D6 Star Wars, Universe and/or the donjon generators when I'm generating planets or adventure seeds.

Being a Star Fleet vessel, the officers are expected to obey orders. This means that the ship's actual mission during a particular tour is whatever Star Fleet decides it is (i.e., whatever gets rolled up). Maybe the crew get assigned to exploration like the Enterprise, or maybe they are handed to the tactical branch and go on regular patrols along the Romulan border looking for trouble. Or, maybe they get a year-long assignment escorting cargo ships in the most boring part of explored space, with whole months (even a PC promotion or two) between any notable encounters that have to play out in game. As galactic situations change, the ship's function will be reassigned, as well. I'd really like to capture the feeling of the Star Fleet Technical Manual—that is, of short pointillistic bursts of excitement that are otherwise framed by an overarching sense of drudgery that would come from a career in Star Fleet—but without actually having to spend time role-playing the drudgery part.

Inspiration and universe: strictly pre-movies Star Trek; everything else will emerge during and as a result of what happens in the game.

My inspiration will come almost exclusively from classic Trek pre-1978 (TOS, comics, cartoon and the various Star Fleet Manuals). Anything from The Motion Picture on is likely to be completely and unceremoniously ignored by me; not because I dislike newer Star Trek, but because I want to keep the weird science fantasy and militarized utopian feel of the series and Technical Manual. It also conveniently avoids the need to explain canonical discrepancies, and gives me a way of keeping the PCs in the dark about certain things like how a Klingon might be expected to react to a given situation.

I'll probably borrow a few general things from the Star Fleet Universe, especially Klingon and Romulan social structure, but otherwise I'd like to start with the assumption that anything that isn't part of the pre-movie era is a completely blank slate.

One Potentially Major Caveat: We'll be testing some home made rules for starship encounters.

STAGFF never had any starship rules written for it, so I'll need to playtest my own rules. If you want to play, you'll have to be willing to switch over to playtest mode during the first few starship encounters (I'm quite keen on feedback and input/ideas too, by the way).

I hope the starship rules combine the need for crew cooperation (like FASA Star Trek) with the ability to do all the important bits of technobabble (like in Star Fleet Battles), but do so in a simple and straightforward fashion that uses as many concepts already in STAGFF as possible.

Any takers?

[max_vale]

I'm interested.....one potential problem....I don't have (in fact, I've never even heard of) this particular game/rule-set. How much of a problem/hassle will this be? Is this something I can obtain fairly cheaply on e-bay or is it simple enough for you to post the basics and just tell us what to roll or if you want to do all the rolling?

[Starbeard]

It's not a problem at all. It's actually a very simple and bare rules set. Most tasks involve rolling a number of D6s (usually 3D6) and trying to get under your trait, like GURPS. Ranged combat is really the only main difference, and for that you roll 1D6, using a little table to see what number you need to hit. Character creation is basically just rolling your stats and picking/rolling what type of officer you are.

The rules system were largely a revision of Space Patrol (1977), and it also later got revised and expanded again into Star Patrol ('81) and finally Starfleet Voyages ('82). The final version is supposed to be the definitive ruleset with all the bells and whistles, but unfortunately I've never been able to see a copy.

There's a subforum for the Space Patrol family of games on the Old School Star Trek Role-Playing forum, with some links to reviews and all that. Most of the reviews online are several years old and so don't say much more than complain about the poor organization of the rules.

[Starbeard]

I've run the game once before. No one had any experience with it, I spent about 5 minutes explaining the general character stats, and then just explained the rules a bit as we went along. It was absolutely not a problem.

[ybn1197]

I'm interested.....one potential problem....I don't have (in fact, I've never even heard of) this particular game/rule-set. How much of a problem/hassle will this be? Is this something I can obtain fairly cheaply on e-bay or is it simple enough for you to post the basics and just tell us what to roll or if you want to do all the rolling?

I found one copy on eBay in fair condition that was going for $120.00. A quick search on Google showed me a copy in less than 4 listings. Got me as interested. I've been a trekkie for a long time.

[rredmond]

The rules system were largely a revision of Space Patrol (1977), and it also later got revised and expanded again into Star Patrol ('81) and finally Starfleet Voyages ('82). The final version is supposed to be the definitive ruleset with all the bells and whistles, but unfortunately I've never been able to see a copy.

I think I have a PDF that looks like it's Copyright 1978. About 38 pages of rules.
I'm guessing this is the first edition mayhap?

[tooleychris]

Dang. Was really hoping you were going with FASA... been thinking of doing something similar for awhile.

[Starbeard]

I think I have a PDF that looks like it's Copyright 1978. About 38 pages of rules.
I'm guessing this is the first edition mayhap?

That would be the one. There was only one edition of the STAGFF version of the rules, but in Different Worlds #18 there's an article that adds quite a bit of rules content, including all of the career-oriented stuff (for instance, you could roll up a cadet who's trained in planetology but ended up assigned to the graveyard shift ordnance crew of a Ptolemy-class tug ship—not a very gripping role, to be honest). Also, in DW #4 there's an adventure scenario ('Kirk on Karit 2'), which also includes a pretty basic but fun system for members of the crew falling in love with the NPCs they encounter. I'm hoping we can get some good mileage out of that one.

Dang. Was really hoping you were going with FASA... been thinking of doing something similar for awhile.

I hear you. FASA is still my number one Star Trek RPG, but I felt like Trekking with a twist this time. I've only run a one-shot adventure with this rules set, and I really enjoyed it, so I thought it'd shame not to try the game out with its campaign-oriented bells and whistles from the Different Worlds article. But hey, if you want to run FASA, I'll play

Speaking of FASA, I've been collecting some fleets of the old Game Science and FASA starship miniatures with a few guys in my wargaming club, so we can play Star Fleet Battles/A Call to Arms Starfleet and FASA Trek.

[Starbeard]

If the idea of a campaign is too time consuming, but there's still interest in doing a short one-off adventure, then I'm more than happy to stick to that. I will be able to handle all the rules without problems, but I will make sure that the rules get into everyone's hands one way or another.

The adventure module will have only 1-2 locations and play out more or less like an episode of Star Trek—a bit of combat, a bit of alien weirdness, some strange enigmatic device whose properties are discovered only too late, and (hopefully) a narrow escape made available by one of the officer's well-placed logical arguments and another officer's fearsome right hook.

After that, I'm willing to keep playing with anyone who's into it, or we can disperse and do something else.

[tooleychris]

Do we get red shirt cannon fodder? LOL.

[Starbeard]

Of course! Combat can be just deadly enough that you'll probably want a red shirt or two with you. When I ran it at the table before the group had 2 red shirts they collectively controlled during combat, which was all sorts of fun. They were arguing over who got to use the red shirt as a meat shield.

[DadsAngry]

Beam me aboard Mr. Starbeard. I'm in.

[Starbeard]

That's great! If max_vale is still interested, then once we get 1-2 more players I'll put in a request to get the game set up.

[max_vale]

Sorry....been couped up in the house due to snow the past couple of days; with a sick wife and a hyper 4 year old....doesn't leave much time for the ol' internet gaming!

I'm at work now...and ironically, it's more relaxing! I'm definitely in! I'm up for the Helmsman/Navigator position if it's chosen.... if it's assigned during character creation/randomly; then I'll take whatever the dice say!

-Max

[rredmond]

Slower post rate... love the original series... chance to be Scotty, the only person powerful enough to wear a red shirt and not be killed... argh!! I'm in! I'll make time for this game, but I'm not sure I'll go past the one shot. I want to DM another 1E game here soon, but I'll hold off to ensure I have time to play this one.

Fair warning, even though I love TOS, I haven't played a Sci Fi RPG practically ever. I've played maybe one SciFi PbP a while ago, I don't even remember the system. I know I played Star Frontiers, but that was 25 years ago or more, probably closer to 30. And I'm a social worker, not an engineer or a computer type guy , that being said, if y'all are willing to bear with my inexperience, I'm so in!

--Ron--

[max_vale]

Yes, I must stress that I'm much more of a "-Fiction" than "Science" guy when it comes to "Science Fiction"....

History major type; so a lot of "Physics X and big-science-words-Y" will go RIGHT over my head!

[rredmond]

Awesome! Max and I are in the same boat... as well as the same area of the country apparently!

I think the last sci fi game I played folks knew the physics and science of everything so well... I felt like a bit of a dunce in that game. I mean moreso than normal!
--Ron--

[max_vale]

I got the same feeling the last time I played a Super Heroes game.....I'm just thinking; "Cool, we can fly or shoot lasers out of our eyes or pull up trees out of the ground and use 'em like clubs!".....and meanwhile the other players are all talking about; "Okay, so if I can create hard-light; that means I can utilize Photons to do blah-blah-blah"; or "Well, if my character is strong enough to bench press 100 tons; then clearly she can put X amount of force-per-square-something-or-other against a point; which would clearly cause X to happen.....thus rendering the mighty villain's 10 story tall mechanical nightmare machine a useless ball of scrap"......while I just sat there and blinked and had to fight the compulsion to talk at great length about how much I know about World War 2 just to feel like I belonged in the same room.

All in all though.....it made for a really dull game, in my experience. Sometimes....ignorance is Bliss!

[Starbeard]

Brilliant, I think we have enough players now. I'm PM everyone who expressed interest to confirm and then I'll get the forum set up.

[Starbeard]

And don't worry about the science, this is TOS Star Trek, where aliens are people painted funny colours and stardates are tossed about with zero consistency. Technobabble is highly encouraged (and will probably be rewarded with bonuses to skill rolls), but never should it actually make any sense.