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Star Trek Pen and Paper RPGs

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited April 2012 in Ten Forward
Hello all,

As some of you might have figured out I am a lover of Star Trek pen and paper RPGs or sims as I and the people around me use to call them. For 7 closing on 8 years I have been playing these games going from terribad English and extreme cases of Super hero syndrome, to becoming a good simmer if I may say so myself and a CO myself.

For me it has always been a necessity a place where I could loose some of my imagination and crate something in an other world. However this is not why I am writing this topic.

I am writing this because I am saddened by the quality of the sims that is being displaced these days. I used to be able to join some sims and quite enjoy myself, but true quality sims seems to get fewer and fewer, to the point that I am only playing on 2 sims, 1 is my own and the other is even med core atm. It is not due the lack of searching, I have been looking in many places to find a quality spot, but haven't found any.

So I was wondering and wanted to ask to my fellow simmers out there: Is it just me, are my demands to high, am I looking in the wrong places or are quality sims this rare indeed?

All I want in a sim is this:
    Activity, I want joint post to be updated once a day not once a week. Quality balanced posting, stay within the reasonable limits of your character and the world of star trek. Good leadership, any sim is driven by the CO if he or she lacks than the sim will not work. People who have a clear line between IC and OOC, to often I seen people get mad at me OOC because my Character is mad at them IC.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    If you are interested in playing on a forum I run one here:

    http://forums.delphiforums.com/STRPG1/?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I know how you feel. I was trying to start a Friday the 13th Esq. RP and had some intrest. However when it started everyone disappeared. :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I played Star Trek RPG, and starfleet battles, back in the 80's. My primary toon is based off the character I had rolled out in that Time period. He looks much better than his original yellowing character sheet, stored in my attic with my other RPG characters and rulebooks.My second toon is based off an Imperial Mercenary I ran in an RPG called Travellers. Back in the 80's.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I loved the FASA rules way back in the day. It was a sad day when Paramount cut them loose.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Last Unicorn Games did a far better job than Fasa did.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I have most of the Last Unicorn series, but truth be told I never used it. The books are GORGEOUS but the rules are WAY too narrative for my taste. The same can be said for the Decipher rules. I'm an old school tabletop wargamer and I'm really only interested in TOS era gaming so I quite naturally preferred the FASA rules. The cooperative Starship Combat rules were AWESOME. I also loved the character generation system and the way they stepped out of the Star Trek comfort zone with supplements like Merchant Captains and Trader Princes.

    It's pretty much an issue of preference. If you prefer narrative storytelling, and I suppose that would include play by post or pbm, Last Unicorn is the way to go. If you prefer tabletop strategy a la Chainmail or Battletech go with FASA.

    Just FYI: The FASA core rules only cover the TOS era so if you want to run a more modern game you'll also want to get the STNG First Year Sourcebook and the Next Gen Officer's Manual. There's also a TON of next gen fan made material available.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    Last Unicorn Games was a joke to run, easiest system I've ever seen other than White Wolf or D20. Decipher is pretty simple too, just roll 2d6 add number, easy peasy.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    LOL. Don't mince words. What do you really think?

    There's a place for narrative gaming. It's not my cup of tea, but anything that gets people into role-playing is OK by me.

    I was never into GURPS. Too rules laden even for me. I don't need to know how far a character can pee so I never tried Prime Directive, but I'll wager someone out there loves it.

    It's all a matter of personal taste.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I'm not mincing words, it was said the game was too complicated I said it was easy. LUG all you did was roll a number of d6's equal to your stat, one of them was the drama die. You took the highest score and added it to your stat, compared it to the target number like any other game and bang, you either succeeded or you failed.

    DEcipher same thing only it was 2d6 and add it to the skill, d20, same thing.

    None of them are hard to run, but Fasa lacked a great deal of modern content for Star Trek making it weak in comparison.

    At least LUG and Decipher included TNG, DS9, and VOY as well as TOS
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    That might be because FASA lost their license during the first year of TNG. Paramount was mad because they were working out a deal with Bantam Books for a technical manual style book and Bantam pulled out when they saw the Starfleet Officers Guide.

    Did someone call Last Unicorn complicated? That's hard to believe. It was a deliberately simple system, definately not designed for the hardcore miniatures/game crowd.

    I'm not seeing that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    my bad I guess I just misread what you typed. I know they lost their license prior, that was why I said it was lacking compared to the others.

    Maybe had they kept the license it would have been good, but when all you have is Original Series stuff, it's not much fun.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    NP.

    Personally I'm only interested in TOS era gaming so FASA is perfect for me right out of the box, but if you want hardcore miniatures rules set in TNG era settings FASA is still your best choice. I don't know if you're familiar with Battletech but combat is very similar.

    All you need is the first year sourcebook for character generation and there's plenty of fan created material to cover all the various other backgrounds of ST.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I played Battletech years ago in junior high, can't really see how two mechs blowing each other to beans is good combat for people with phasers, but it has been a very long time since I played.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    They used the same movement point/opportunity action system. It was a little complicated for newbies...

    "What do you mean I'm getting shot at! It's MY turn!"

    But it created a really great tactical environment.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2012
    I duuno I found LUG Trek to be kinda difficult. Not so much skill use but rather the character generation process. I wish I could have gotten to the skill use but me and my crew never got past character creation. LOL
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