Old fashioned pen and paper face to face role playing!

[malchya]

Does anyone ever play the above mentioned "old school" games any more? I admit that I started running FASA Star Trek: the Role Playing Game way back in '83 when it first came out and loved it. I followed the FASA 'verse for as long as it was published, loving a lot of the material (John M. Ford's Klingons, the Triangle, the Star Ship Tactical Combat Simulator and several of the modules), finding the bulk of it entertaining and loathing a couple of later products (those dealing with TNG). I ran it off and on for quite a while, then life took me to a far and distant land where gamers only wanted to play fantasy (Alaska).

I'm back in the lower 48 (about as "low" as the 48 get; Florida) and would really love to start a new campaign of "good old fashioned pen and paper face to face role playing." But interest just doesn't seem to be out there.

So, does anyone else still play? Or even want to? I'm curious.

 

[DrCorby]

I was given a boxed set of the original FASA Star Trek roleplaying game, then bought some supplements as they came out and caught my interest. But I never had a group that wanted to play. We mostly played D&D (1st ed) with house rules.

I'm getting ready to start a new 3rd Edition D&D campaign for my daughters. So, yes, there are still people playing pen and paper face-to-face RPGs. Unfortunately, not Star Trek. But maybe I can interest them in giving it a shot...

 

[Pauln6]

I've been playing in the same face to face D&D game for over 21 years. We have upgraded characters from 1e to 2e to 3e and now to 4e. Only two of us were there at the beginning (in fact I was at uni for the first year so technically it's a 22 year campaign). However, some of the older players moved away and we still occasionally play online via Maptools. It's feasible that eventually that's how all our play will be conducted with perhaps a meet up for a massive game twice a year.

I always wanted to play a Star Trek game with Kirk and co from the movie era but none of my local gamers fancied it (they are too bloodthirsty). I'm building and lighting a Polar Lights TMP Enterprise and I bought a load of 25m Citadel TMP lead figurines which I intend to customise (head swaps to create more characters that were seen in the Rec Deck scene) and paint. I'm hoping to end up with about 50 crewmen eventually! I bought the Thousand Suns game and test-created examples of the main characters from the movies.

I'll be ready when you are!

 

[malchya]

Only two replies? Man, pen and paper gaming really is a thing of the past. As I said on another Star Trek related board; I can envision a time when I and a couple of my old gaming friends are sitting in our rockers on the front porch of the old folk's home playing FASA Star Trek while the staff stand around texting to one another about the "old fogeys playing their antiquated and rather quaint primitive games." Sigh....

 

[Nerroth]

You might have more luck if you pop over to one of ADB's boards (the Discus-based BBS or the newer forum) or perhaps Mongoose Publishing's forum; if you are willing to take a side-step towards any of the Prime Directive books, that is.

At the moment, Prime Directive is available in GURPS 4th edtion and D20 Modern flavours; plus Mongoose will be releasing a version based on the Traveller RPG system either later this year or early next year.

 

[klingonmaquis]

Around here in Alabama, we have plenty of pencil and paper dice chuckers. Even have some new folks joining in. One of the games we plan on running is a mix of Trek games the Fasa Klingon materials especially. Check with local gaming/comic shops and see if they have a bulletin board for posting wanting to start or join in on games.

 

[Lorthos]

I was given a boxed set of the original FASA Star Trek roleplaying game, then bought some supplements as they came out and caught my interest. But I never had a group that wanted to play. We mostly played D&D (1st ed) with house rules.

I'm getting ready to start a new 3rd Edition D&D campaign for my daughters. So, yes, there are still people playing pen and paper face-to-face RPGs. Unfortunately, not Star Trek. But maybe I can interest them in giving it a shot...

I'd love to play trek D&D

 

[malchya]

I admit I've considered Prime Directive. I played SFB way back in the dark ages (70's) when I also played things like France:1940, Luftwaffe, Fury in the West and etc. The issue was one of flow; the game simply dragged on and that is not how I envision Star Trek combat. Plus I find combat one of the less interesting aspects of Star Trek (though it is usually what interests me the most in other RPG settings. Curious, that).

Its good to know that not everyone has abandoned the hobby regardless of which system they prefer.

 

[Nerroth]

Prime Directive does not equal Star Fleet Battles (or Federation Commander, or A Call to Arms: Star Fleet, or...)

Yes, the tactical games do have their focus mainly on combat; but PD, as an RPG, has no obligation to follow suit. The original, and now defunct, edition of Prime Directive (referred to these days as PD1) was somewhat straitjacketed into the idea of playing as a Prime Team (a jack-of-all-trades elite unit); but the current editions are far more accommodating in terms of which careers, civilian or military, they provide support for.

And you don't need to dig out any of the tactical games to run a PD campaign, either.

 

[Davros]

Does anyone ever play the above mentioned "old school" games any more?

Yes, in fact if the only games somebody plays are computer or video games I don't consider them as being a gamer.

 

[Destructor]

Does anyone ever play the above mentioned "old school" games any more?

Yes, in fact if the only games somebody plays are computer or video games I don't consider them as being a gamer.

Ugh. Spare me peoples made up "categories" to make themselves feel special. I'm as big a pen-and-paper RPGer as you're likely to meet, but the word 'gamer' clearly includes people who play computer games. The word you're thinking of is 'RPGer' or 'roleplayer'.

Anyway, back to the OT: I did once get involved in a Star Trek RPG, but I was more interested in the TNG era than the TOS era at the time so it didn't stick. I really used to enjoy the old sourcebooks, though!

The great thing about RPG is that you can use ANY system to run a game if you put enough elbow-grease in. The 'Smallville' system springs to mind as a great system applied to a poor franchise. With a little tweaking it'd work great as a Star Trek RPG system. Very surprised Paramount doesn't have someone running with this license (FFG would do a great job I am sure).

 

[SilentP]

I would be interested in doing a Star Trek RPG of some form, but since I'm not so much of a fan of the SFU/alternate continuity (at least from what I've seen of it), if only because I came to Star Trek through the 24th Century stuff, so it wouldn't feel the same

I suppose I could try and look at those books though and see how easy it would be to convert it to the continuities me and my group are familiar with.

 

[CaptainStoner]

I rekindled my interest last winter. The hobby has dwindled considerably since the mid 80's when I got started, when D&D was practically mainstream. In later years, Gygax sometimes noted that the audience for (A)D&D was cut in half with every new edition, which is something I know I observed when the 2nd came out. About half of us bought it.
The old club goes on, though. Instead of weekly gatherings, its monthly, and with less gamers. There is no D&D being played at all; the fantasy genre is monopolized by the Pathfinder game, so if 3E mechanics are not to your liking, you're out of luck. That's how it went down for me. I never thought that 1st/2nd edition AD&D would be considered "fast", but compared to the interminably slow, minatures-driven 3rd/4th, the old games are a Ferrari.
If there were a good, old-school DM running the new systems, it might be different. But from my perspective, the new editions were derived from the input of munchkins, especially the 4th edition with its horrendous concept of "game balance".
There are typically 3-4 tables of Pathfinder going at these events, and the role-playing aspect is heavily diminished by rules minutia and staring at miniatures. DM's seem to have forgotten how to keep a game flowing, or engage anything other than the tactical side of the game. It's a snore.
But, it is good to see the hobby still alive. A lot of gamers prefer those mechanics, so Pathfinder is a blessing for keeping "D&D" in print. One of the longest running conventions, "Council of Five Nations", is held every October by this local wargaming club, the Schenectady Wargamer's Association, which I'm planning on attending. There will be over 100 games of various genres, from classic miniatures battles to various RPG's.

 

[DrCorby]

Did anyone play any games based on the Last Unicorn rules? The rulebooks looked gorgeous, but they were waaaaay too expensive for my budget at the time. I've never known anyone who used these rules, so I've always wondered how the gameplay was...

 

[malchya]

I picked up one at a used book store just because. I never had the chance to run it, but the layout and system seemed quite "main stream modern." I was not at all pleased with the rank system as it did not allow a P.C. to command a ship. I'm an old grognard, so it never really threatened my allegiance to FASA.

 

[Rocketeer]

I used to play the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator. I have some of the material from it and the role-playing game in digital form. My persona in STARFLEET International is modeled after a character I created.

I also used to play a lot of Star Frontiers (TSR) and still have a lot of material for it.

 

[malchya]

I received a copy of Prime Directive in the mail yesterday. I was quite excited to open the box and examine the game. I liked a great deal of the art and the overall product was quite professional in layout and design. Then I started reading it. I can't say anything against the rule system; it seems (upon reading, anyway - playing may be a different story) like a workable and playable system. But the divergences from Trek inherent in the SFB universe are too much for even my revisionist tastes! Fighters? Have I wandered into Star Wars by mistake? "Prime Teams?" "Prime Central?" At least FASA made an effort to stay true to the source material! And the introduction to "Prime Teams" read like the ultimate Fanwank! Not, I'm afraid, my cup of tea.

 

[Nerroth]

Which version of PD did you get, GURPS or D20M?

One thing to bear in mind is that the whole fighter thing is something that campaigns set in the Middle Years (the era of the "five-year mission") or earlier can, for the most part, happily ignore. At that time, only the Hydrans had their Stinger fighters; and in their case, their fleet was intended from the outset to have a hybrid carrier doctrine. However, since the Hydran Kingdom is off on the far side of the Klingon Empire to the Federation (as shown here), there's no particular need to go there if one doesn't find that particular empire appealing.

Generally, the setting is closest to the source material in the era of the Middle Years (approximately Y120-Y160, give or take; the encounter at Talos IV happens in Y142, while the "five-year mission" was in Y154-159). There is an Early Years era, but since ADB's contract does not allow for material lifted from Star Trek: Enterprise, they have their own take on what Vulcan, Andorian and other pre-Star Fleet ships looked (and flew) like. Not least since some of the Y-material came out before STE even aired.

Plus there is no particular reason one has to even bother with Prime Teams at all; there are plenty of alternate military and civilian careers to pursue instead.


But of course, there are a lot of inherent differences from the Franchise by the very nature of its license (which on the one hand limits the material it can take from Paramount sources, but on the other allows for plenty of new material to be added in); those changes inevitably turn it into something that's not for everyone.

 

[malchya]

I actually picked up the 1st edition of Prime Directive. I've run GURPS for years, ever since the first Man to Man rules came out in fact, but I've never made the upgrade to the new edition and lost my 3rd edition rules during the move down from Alaska. So I am currently GURPS less. (And, in honesty, after running a steady diet of GURPS Japan for almost four years, I'm kind of burned out on the system.) I am most emphatically not a fan of WotC or the D20 system. (When I play AD&D I still run 1st edition! I'm a crusty old grognard.)

I know, as a long time GM (since 1979 and my first copy of Boot Hill!) that no rule is set in stone. There was just something about the presentation of the "Prime Teams" and "Prime Central" that left a bad taste in my mind. And the backstory of the founding of Prime Central struck me as a gratuitous Fanwank of the first order. But I'm not giving up on it. I'll finish the book and happily run the (edited for content) setting if I find players.

And I love the inclusion of the Kzinti.

 

[Nerroth]

I should note that the old 1st edition is no longer supported; and that it was much more focused on Prime Teams than the current editions. (That very issue was one thing they tried to address with the current versions, by fleshing out a wider range of career choices.)

If GURPS and D20M don't work for you, would Mongoose Traveller be better? (That version will be on the way later this year or early in 2012.)

Where did you get a copy of PD1, by the way? It's not that easy to find nowadays...