draxil

Been considering running a Star Trek RPG, partly to please my wife and partly for a change of scene. Being a GURPS-head I naturally ordered "GURPS: prime directive" without really giving it much thought. This it turns out, was a mistake!

Firstly, although licenced GURPS, Prime Directive isn't an SJ games product. So the basic rules are sound, but I don't like some of the holes in their trek specific sections. However this isn't even close to the biggest problem.

The prime directive games (which come in a kaleidoscope of rules systems) are based in the universe of star fleet battles. This game (which holds a long term Trek licence) was created waaaay back when the most up-to-date Trek was the Original Series was the up-to-date star trek, and it looked like nothing else would ever be released. To keep things interesting they added their own content to the setting.

Then new Trek came along.. And.. They ignored it. And indeed continued to develop their parallel universe.

Turns out a lot of the Trek games (such as the Star Trek version of "call to arms") are set in this parallel universe. The differences seem subtle at first, a few invented races some different history, a more millitaristic feel, some terminology picked up from the wargame mechanics...

For the wargames these changes probably don't matter, but honestly for a Trek RPG it changes the atmosphere enough that you may as well call it Traveller! An authentic Trek could be found using GURPS Ultratech + Space & the existing Trek fluff to roll your own game.

There are other Trek RPGs, none of which are still alive. I initially wrote these off as probably having tinpot rules, but the last two licencees involved Kenneth Hite, a decent game designer, so may well be worth a look.

Or I might go, the ultra-tech/space route, or do something else entirely.

If you are considering a Trek game I'd strongly advise against any of the Prime Directive games. The tag line says it all "Roleplaying in the StarFleet universe!", see how that sentence seems naggingly wrong? The whole book is like that.

This is funny:



Always a tricky thing as a GM making players feel threatened enough to act, and safe enough that you don't just slay them all randomly. I didn't kill anybody in my last Unhallowed, well apart from possibly lordstorm's character who was last seen plummeting from a zeppelin..

After seven sessions of running my unhallowed metropolis game I'm now a hair's breadth away from the stage where all my characters have met at least one other PC. My main ambition to have a scene where all the PCs are in the same room at the same time at some point before the end of the game!

The worst offender has been bobtfish who actually went to the lengths of sending one of his lacky NPCs to go and pretend to be him whilst he hid in the cupboard, in order to avoid actually meeting anyone. It's only a botched stealth roll which has put him in a position where meeting someone at the start of next session is now unavoidable [I hope]!

For those playing in kr0n's Mage game, I am using my old amber journal to chronicle events in this game. See amber_captain.

Took some time out tonight and zipped down to Clapham South for a little light D&D with totally random internet people. Was really good fun, and of course gave me my RPG methodone that I've been missing since leaving the big M.

It's now official that when I get back from FIB I'll be working bloody miles away. Tomorrow will be my last day of short-walk (grumble, grumble).

The countdown to FIB is now definatly ticking. I need to:

• Spend lots of time being nice to the kr0n (as I'm buggering off for 8 days without her).
  
• Get some more bloody tent pegs..
  
• Get some euros...
  
• Get hidiously drunk (or else the getting hidiously drunk in Benicassim will come as too much of a shock to the system).
  
• Go do a days work...
  
• Get convenience food for the kr0n, so she doesn't just starve for a week
  
• Take Jen, screwy & wiggi to the the three kings.
  
• Wreak some kind of revenge on solidcat for being smug and furry.
  

So it's going to be busy.. I guess I should start off by getting some sleep. Hmmm....... Unlikely.