FASA's TNG Officer's Manual

[Jag2112]

It may be out of date (heck, it came out in 1988) but I recently began re-reading and losing myself inside the great FASA TNG Officer's Manual. FASA manuals largely dealt with the TOS timeline, but this entry into the early world of TNG was really well done.

You can check it out online here: Link removed by moderator

Ah, the memories...

 

[Avro Arrow]

It may be out of date (heck, it came out in 1988) but I recently began re-reading and losing myself inside the great FASA TNG Officer's Manual. FASA manuals largely dealt with the TOS timeline, but this entry into the early world of TNG was really well done.

You can check it out online here: Link removed by moderator

Ah, the memories...

So, I'm not sure of the legalities here, with a corporation that doesn't really operate anymore (but still apparently exists and holds intellectual property rights, according to Wikipedia), and a work that was licensed at one time, but is no longer licensed and therefore cannot legally be sold by said company (as I understand it). But I assume it is still under copyright (in fact the back cover seems to indicate the copyright is held by Paramount, which definitely still exists and is active), so I have removed the link in your post as per our copyright/piracy rules.

Since you have the link to your site in your signature, presumably anyone who really wanted to find it still could, albeit with a bit more effort.

 

[Christopher]

I had that TNG manual, and I'd hardly call it well-done. It had some bizarre misinterpretations, like assuming Betazoids came from the planet Haven. It was about as accurate to TNG as the Gold Key comics were to TOS.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I love this, it's my all-time favourite tech manual. It's super imaginative and expands the TNG universe so much more than TV did. The Grand Alliance with the Klingons, a Madusan habitat on the Enterprise-D, the Ultra warp drive, the transcripts of Data's hearings, a massive photonic cannon operated by a guy using a VISOR as a targeting device. It's not very consistent with TNG post-season one, but I do wish TNG was more like it.

I had that TNG manual, and I'd hardly call it well-done. It had some bizarre misinterpretations, like assuming Betazoids came from the planet Haven. It was about as accurate to TNG as the Gold Key comics were to TOS.

You say that like it's a bad thing I'd compare it more to Ghost Ship, though. And I imagine they too only had a few scripts and a series bible to go by.

 

[Christopher]

I'd compare it more to Ghost Ship, though.

Except Ghost Ship felt authentic to the version of the series defined in the original writers' bible. The FASA manual just went off in its own bizarre directions that had no basis in the production itself and felt wrong even at the time.

And I imagine they too only had a few scripts and a series bible to go by.

If they'd read the bible, they'd know Betazoids were from Betazed, not Haven. I mean, good grief, the name "Betazed" is spoken repeatedly in "Haven" itself. That's such a profound error that it suggests they didn't consult any research materials at all, just winged it from their faded memories of watching the show.

 

[John Clark]

I remember picking up this a few years back. One of our (not so local) shops had all sorts of Trek related books that you just didn't seen anywhere else (before Amazon really started) so every few months, I'd nip down there and do a mass book (and occasional cd) raid

 

[Jedi Marso]

FASA was so deeply rooted in TOS that TNG had to be a shock to the system for the game's creative teams. I think they felt the urge to get going on TNG quickly because it was the latest, greatest thing in Trek, and they perceived a nice, profitable market for it. In the end, they were just too fast and got too many things wrong compared to where the show was actually going, and in the end it estranged FASA to the Trek establishment and cost them the license.

I was in college when this tech manual came out, and all my DnD and FASA stuff was boxed up in another state- I didn't have time to game in college. That said, I don't think I would have ever played FASA Trek in the TNG era. It just didn't interest me that much (still doesn't as a gaming milieu), and there was already too much great material for the TOS era, including the Ford-style Klingons which TNG absolutely wrecked with the new canon.

In any case, I'll always view this particular book as the one that shot FASA in the heart with regards to its Trek gaming license. It was the harbinger of doom, and the end of a magnificent era of game products.

 

[Christopher]

FASA was so deeply rooted in TOS that TNG had to be a shock to the system for the game's creative teams. I think they felt the urge to get going on TNG quickly because it was the latest, greatest thing in Trek, and they perceived a nice, profitable market for it. In the end, they were just too fast and got too many things wrong compared to where the show was actually going, and in the end it estranged FASA to the Trek establishment and cost them the license.

Exactly. It felt like they rushed it out and didn't really know what they were doing with regard to the TNG setting.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

FASA was so deeply rooted in TOS that TNG had to be a shock to the system for the game's creative teams. I think they felt the urge to get going on TNG quickly because it was the latest, greatest thing in Trek, and they perceived a nice, profitable market for it. In the end, they were just too fast and got too many things wrong compared to where the show was actually going, and in the end it estranged FASA to the Trek establishment and cost them the license.

I was under the impression that FASA's license didn't actually have cover TNG (or Paramount claimed it didn't), and they bypassed the approvals process entirely and shoved the sourcebook out the door.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I was under the impression that FASA's license didn't actually have cover TNG (or Paramount claimed it didn't), and they bypassed the approvals process entirely and shoved the sourcebook out the door.

That could very well be. I'm not sharp on the details of how the license was lost, only that this sourcebook was a major factor.

 

[Christopher]

I was under the impression that FASA's license didn't actually have cover TNG (or Paramount claimed it didn't), and they bypassed the approvals process entirely and shoved the sourcebook out the door.

Hmm, sounds familiar. If they didn't put it through approvals, that would explain why they got so much wrong.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I had that TNG manual, and I'd hardly call it well-done. It had some bizarre misinterpretations, like assuming Betazoids came from the planet Haven. It was about as accurate to TNG as the Gold Key comics were to TOS.

Indeed. This was the straw that broke the Star Trek Office camel's back. After several battles with the Star Trek Office over their RPG materials, FASA managed to slip this one into publication without Richard Arnold's sign-off. FASA lost its license soon after. Their advertised "ST V Sourcebook", a followup to their ST IV volume, was never published.

 

[publiusr]

FASA's Triangle region was a great idea.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Indeed. This was the straw that broke the Star Trek Office camel's back. After several battles with the Star Trek Office over their RPG materials, FASA managed to slip this one into publication without Richard Arnold's sign-off. FASA lost its license soon after. Their advertised "ST V Sourcebook", a followup to their ST IV volume, was never published.

Ohhhhhh I wonder how much of it was written/illustrated and who has the materials for it now?

 

[TheAlmanac]

Their advertised "ST V Sourcebook", a followup to their ST IV volume, was never published.

It would've been interesting to see FASA's take on Nimbus III and the denizens of Paradise City.

 

[Steve Roby]

It's funny, I remember a lot of the same things people are mentioning here, like Arnold being peeved about the manual, but I don't remember how I heard about all that. Conversations with the local game shop owners? In 1987-88 I wasn't online yet. Maybe I heard a lot of this after the fact. Anyway. Richard Arnold didn't shut FASA Trek down immediately. The end was near but not quite there. FASA had time to issue that First Year Sourcebook in 1989, a year after the Officer's Manual was published.

Quoting my old website about the First Year Sourcebook... "One of the last FASA Trek publications, this is the Paramount-approved Next Generation supplement. Unlike the Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual, this is relatively short, game-oriented, and full of disclaimers (for example, on page 3, 'Some materials in this book were created expressly for Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, and may be invalidated by later episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.') There's less canon-violating material here, but there's less of almost everything; this is roughly half the length of the first Next Generation role playing book."

Gosh, it was fun collecting that FASA stuff back in the day, though. I never played the game but I read most of the books, and I liked some of the creative things they did, like Spacelanes: The Magazine of Interstellar Trade, which came with the Trader Captains and Merchant Princes book, and the way they developed the Triangle area.

 

[drt]

Gosh, it was fun collecting that FASA stuff back in the day, though. I never played the game but I read most of the books, and I liked some of the creative things they did, like Spacelanes: The Magazine of Interstellar Trade, which came with the Trader Captains and Merchant Princes book, and the way they developed the Triangle area.

I always really liked the FASA worldbuilding. Before TNG came along and changed everything, it was the final evolution of the original TOS/TAS ideas mixed with a little bit of 80s movies and a lot of 70s fanon.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I always really liked the FASA worldbuilding. Before TNG came along and changed everything, it was the final evolution of the original TOS/TAS ideas mixed with a little bit of 80s movies and a lot of 70s fanon.

They borrowed a good bit from the novel-verse too. Ford Klingons and Diane Duane's Rihannsu (The Romulans) being the two biggies.

 

[Donald G]

They borrowed a good bit from the novel-verse too. Ford Klingons and Diane Duane's Rihannsu (The Romulans) being the two biggies.

FASA's Romulans are different from Diane Duane's Rihannsu. FASA's Romulans call themselves in their own language "Rom'lnz," their home planet is "Rom'lasz," it's companion which the Federation calls Remus is "Rav's" in the FASA game, and their language is called "Rom'lesta."

Duane's Rihannsu terminology is nowhere to be found in FASA's Romulan sourcebook.
John M. Ford, however, is credited as being part of the game design team for FASA's Klingon supplement and Ford was apparently working on both the game and THE FINAL REFLECTION at roughly the same time.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Hmm.

I thought I remembered seeing her stuff in The Romulans expansion. I think I might still have it; I need to go back and take a look.