Star Trek RPGs
Someone on Quora had inquired if there were a Star Trek RPG like AD&D (not sure if they meant AD&D in particular, or just used that as a generic stand-in for RPG).
In response this was just a roundup of all the Star Trek RPGs I could think of.
More official games I'm aware of:
Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (FASA) - It’s been a long time since I saw this book. My recollection was that it was very much unlike D&D and had a relatively unusual initiative system that was clever but a bit complicated. Printed in the early 1980s, so it predates Next Generation and everything after.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-playing Game (Last Unicorn Games) - Seems to have published quite a bit in the late 1990s, just before Decipher picked up the license.
Star Trek Roleplaying Game (Decipher) - A game using the “CODA” system. This came out in the D&D 3rd edition era, and has some clear influences from D&D 3E. However, it also differs quite a bit (like rolling 3d6 instead of a d20, and developing character backgrounds in stages). In general not a bad system.
Star Trek Adventures (Modiphius) - This is the only one still in print as far as I know. This I actually haven’t looked into very closely. However, there is a free quickstart guide you can take a look at to learn more.
Prime Directive - I was aware that there was a spin-off Star Fleet Battles wargame that started with the Star Trek universe but eventually evolved in a different direction. However, I didn’t realize that game had an RPG spinoff as well. As John Rudd pointed out, this is the Prime Directive RPG, which used several systems over the years.
Games that are less official include:
Star Explorer - Apparently a 1982 homage to Star Trek. Seems to be described as a hybrid of board game and RPG. Don’t know much else about it.
Starships & Spacemen (1E) - I don’t know much about this edition, except that it came out in 1978.
Starships & Spacemen (2E) - This is a new edition, published by a different company. Not sure if it is compatible with the old edition. However, it is compatible with the Mutant Future RPG (a Gamma World semi-clone) and the Labyrinth Lord RPG (which is a B/X D&D clone). So this is somewhat close to AD&D compatible, but not exactly.
Five Year Mission - A supplement to run more Star Trek-like games using the White Star RPG rules. White Star is derived from the Swords & Wizardry White Box rules, which in turn are a clone of the original D&D “White Box” edition.
So Five Year Mission is sort of compatible with AD&D. Although, to be honest, AD&D has a significant amount more complexity and nuance than the early D&D editions this supplement is derived from.
Lasers & Feelings - This is a free, very rules-lite, one page game. Maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek too. Or as serious as you want it to be. Also has a semi-related song.
- Galactic Hinterlands - This is my own (not yet play-tested) work. A hack of Lasers & Feelings. Moderately more detailed and somewhat less whimsical.
Now we come to the less polished, more legally dubious fan works:
Strange New Worlds - An unofficial supplement for using the Apocalypse World game mechanics (a.k.a. Apocalypse Engine / Powered by the Apocalypse)
Far Trek - A free, unofficial, neat medium/small game using a 3d6 + traits vs. target number system.
Where No Man Has Gone Before - A free, unofficial Star Trek game. This game is something like 47 pages long, which is kind of ironic because it seems to be derived from the Microlite20 (M20) system. Microlite20 was an attempt to make a version of D&D 3rd Ed. only a couple pages long.
You're missing the Star Trek game by Last Unicorn Games. That line ran from 1998-2000. It had some good supplements.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing it out. Not sure how I'd not heard of thst one before. For their apparently short run they seem to have put out a lot of stuff. Apparently S.John Ross wrote some stuff for this game line that never got published before they lost the license.
DeleteAlso, oddly, someone has posted a parenthetical rant on Wikipedia about not getting adequate credit for their contribution to the game's development.
A friend of mine and I used to play the Decipher Star Trek collectible card game when we were in high school. It's probably more similar to a board game than it is to an RPG, although I did think that the rules helped you do Star-Trek-like things. From your overview here, it sounds like a few of the available options would not particularly facilitate running a game that FEELS like Star Trek.
ReplyDeleteI believe you're right about not facilitating a game that feels like Star Trek. But then again, it's tough to tell since I really think Star Trek feels like very different things to different people.
DeleteEach series sometimes shifted tone or focus, sometimes between individual episodes.
And even within myself at different times, I've found myself focusing on different aspects of it that I enjoyed.
One thing I remember thinking was really cool as a teen was the rationale behind the technology, and some of the technical aspects of the show. And dreaming about the feel of what it would be like to work in this huge, intricate machine, that's both immensely powerful compared to a modern aircraft carrier and tiny in the scope of the universe.
But that feeling is not really what the show almost ever focused on. Often it was about a discovery, or a mystery, or a social situation, or diplomacy, or some other problem of the week. Aside from a couple snippets now and then, I don't think there was a lot of reveling in the "place-ness" of the ship. It seems like that kind of thing would be more difficult to convey or appeal to a more limited audience.
I suspect that RPGs have similar limitations of focus. Maybe some go general and try to paint major elements of the setting in a few broad strokes (e.g. Lasers & Feelings). While others go more technical, detailing dice mechanics related to specific technologies or ship capabilities, but potentially losing the feel of a typical episode in the process.