What is the status of Trek Role Playing Games?
- Thread starter Dayton3
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Cool I didn't know about a TNG or DS9 RPG. Can always use more good RPG material for the vault...
here's one still in operation..
When LUG closed its doors everything switched over to Decipher, but they are no longer focusing on it. I had heard that they were in the process of selling their exclusive rights to it to another firm because Decipher wants to focus on their other endevors. I have many of the books and use them for reference purposes.
Well, it's not d20, so that's one issue right off. The CODA system is actually fairly good, though the books are pretty off-putting both with their price and their heavy focus on the 'TNG' era.
I would actually recommend the ICON version of TOS (the one LUG put out), and then using FASA material to flesh out the TOS universe heavily.
I quite enjoyed the LUG books having two of them namely the Romulan and Vulcan sourcebooks; I have only a single Decipher one which is Aliens and thats a bit disappointing to me to be honest. Anyway LUG had some great material and when I read something about them, it was sad to learn that they had been bust for sometime and transferred to Decipher who in turn dont seem to have touched the Trek universe much.
Of course, you ignore that FASA is dead, and only one of the Trek developers works for its current successor. (And even he seems to only be doing prose nowadays; I don't recall seeing his name in any of the game books for a while.)
Of course, you ignore that FASA is dead, and only one of the Trek developers works for its current successor. (And even he seems to only be doing prose nowadays; I don't recall seeing his name in any of the game books for a while.)
who are you referring to?
and I believe that FASA still exists as a holder of intellectual property.
Blaine Lee Pardoe.
True, though they don't have that much IP left to administer; the "big guns" were been sold off to WizKids.
Well there must still be SOME people playing the old FASA game. I got 5 emails this week after posted my most recent model kit in the art forum, asking if I could make FASA RPG stats for it.
http://kitbash.net/scifi/ireland/Irelandclassfasa.pdf
http://kitbash.net/scifi/ireland/Irelandclassfasa.pdf
IIRC the major nail in the coffin for the FASA Trek was that Next Generation came out. Paramount then slapped a lot of restrictions on FASA as to what they could produce, as they were now producing a new weekly show, meaning that background could not be amended.
This put a cramper on the Star Fleet Marines supplement and the vast strategic combat game they were going to produce.
The Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator had the Excelsior being the top-end of the ship scale, whereas Next Gen ships just could not fit into it without major overhaul.
So, FASA was hamstrung as to what they could do, yet had to pay more for the licence. Not surprisingly, they told Paramount to take a running jump!!
Last Unicorn did a good system, but they made some serious blunders. First and foremost, they produced suppliments for TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY, but they were ALL full rulebooks, so if you wanted all of them, you had to basically buy the roleplaying game 4 times!! Miniatures were to be sold in box-sets rather than individually. Now, someone may need 3 Miranda Class ships, but who would need 3 Galaxy Class ships?? Then of course if you bought starfleet crew you had a Worf in each box!
I think then Decipher suffered because people were not willing to invest heavily in yet another Star Trek RPG, which could fall by the wayside once again.
Personally, I found the original FASA system the best. It was simple, fast-flowing, and easy - a pleasure to play and a pleasure to gamesmaster.
This put a cramper on the Star Fleet Marines supplement and the vast strategic combat game they were going to produce.
The Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator had the Excelsior being the top-end of the ship scale, whereas Next Gen ships just could not fit into it without major overhaul.
So, FASA was hamstrung as to what they could do, yet had to pay more for the licence. Not surprisingly, they told Paramount to take a running jump!!
Last Unicorn did a good system, but they made some serious blunders. First and foremost, they produced suppliments for TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY, but they were ALL full rulebooks, so if you wanted all of them, you had to basically buy the roleplaying game 4 times!! Miniatures were to be sold in box-sets rather than individually. Now, someone may need 3 Miranda Class ships, but who would need 3 Galaxy Class ships?? Then of course if you bought starfleet crew you had a Worf in each box!
I think then Decipher suffered because people were not willing to invest heavily in yet another Star Trek RPG, which could fall by the wayside once again.
Personally, I found the original FASA system the best. It was simple, fast-flowing, and easy - a pleasure to play and a pleasure to gamesmaster.
Technically, the Voyager book never came out.
Personally, though, I actually liked that approach. And given the extensive differences between the TNG and DS9 books (don't have the TOS one), I'm not convinced that setting books would've been much cheaper--maybe a $5 savings, at best. Plus, of course, you'd still have to actually buy the rulebook on top of that, meaning that if you only wanted to run one setting you'd actually be paying almost twice as much.
That's par for the course in the RPG industry, I'm afraid. At least you knew what you were getting; the D&D miniatures might as well be CCG cards with how they're distributed...
Technically, the Voyager book never came out.
Personally, though, I actually liked that approach. And given the extensive differences between the TNG and DS9 books (don't have the TOS one), I'm not convinced that setting books would've been much cheaper--maybe a $5 savings, at best. Plus, of course, you'd still have to actually buy the rulebook on top of that, meaning that if you only wanted to run one setting you'd actually be paying almost twice as much.
That's par for the course in the RPG industry, I'm afraid. At least you knew what you were getting; the D&D miniatures might as well be CCG cards with how they're distributed...
IIRC the sourcebooks did save a fair amount. Some of the other books such as the starchip book were designed to cover the whole eras, from Enterprise up to TNG.
Usually boxed sets of miniatures are ok, but when they stick a "One of a kind limited edition figure" in the box that'll you only ever need one of, it does create problems!
That's what I really hate about the new Star Wars RPG - it's designed to be supported by the Star Wars collectable miniatures line, which thanks to ebay at least you get to buy individuals that may be of more use. But, should you not have that option, then how many sets of boosters will you have to buy to get say a squadron of X-Wings, or a decent number of stormtroopers or clone troopers?
Ah--you're comparing it to Decipher, which isn't what I was trying to suggest as their alternative. But let's run with it.
A complete set of LUG core books (including Voyager and Enterprise) would've run $175 ($35 * 5). Each core book would have included a selection of era-appropriate aliens, starships, etc. But because of how Decipher's game is set up, you have to buy the books for each of those on top of the two rules books. So it's $60 for the core books, $35 for Starships, $35 for Aliens, and $25 for Creatures. And possibly $20 for the Starfleet Operations Manual, whose content can probably be found in the LUG core books, but we'll leave it out for argument's sake.
Decipher's game just cost you $155--$20 less than LUG, but you're also getting a less-complete game; it doesn't have the support that the DS9 LUG book did for non-Starfleet characters. Based on the price of SOM, that'd be at least $20--or the exact same price as LUG.
And if you wanted to omit one or more shows from LUG, you can, whereas Decipher requires a complete set of those five books to be as useful as one LUG book.
Sandpaper his uniform off & use him as a generic Klingon civilian?
Status of this Star Trek RPG: Coming Soon!
http://www.startrek-rpg.org
Note: This game will utilize the newly envisioned Star Trek, from the upcoming movie: Star Trek XI !
Then it can hardly be "coming soon", when your source material isn't out for another year!
