G2P - Lasers & Feelings

G2P (“Games 2 Play”) is a semi-regular segment from GM Chris, and is devoted to showcasing the rare, the unusual, the crazy, the Indie, and (only very occasionally) the wildly popular in the tabletop RPG world. Games that you either didn’t know existed, games that you should try out as soon as you can, games that will make you laugh or hang your jaw in wonder at their amazeballs glory. In other words: games to play. This episode…

When I first met the woman who was soon to be my *My Lovely Wife, I discovered and fell in love with her nerdy passions – many of which matched my own. But one big differentiator between my own geekdoms and *MLW’s was the four letters behind the word “Star”. I’ve always loved Star TREK (how can you not?) but Star WARS was always my preferred galactic adventure. Not so for MLW. While she loved lightsabers and black-helmeted Sith Lords, they couldn’t compare to the heroics of Kirk’s double-fisted back-punches and Picard’s bald-headed (and quite sexy, per MLW) dramatic persona.

There’s something to be said for Star Trek. It defined a generation (as much as Star Wars did) and remains a highly popular (if hotly disputed) fandom. For many roleplayers, it’s thus a natural inclination to set phasers to stun and roll some dice. Alas, the attempts at a Star Trek RPG have been… in a word… “lacking”.

Let’s be frank. They’ve sucked.

Though some will surely disagree with me, I’ve found all editions of licensed Star Trek RPGs to have some serious problems; from the original game produced by FASA in ’82, through Last Unicorn’s just awful post-TOS games, up to Decipher’s flawed 2002 attempt (panned by fans and critics alike). What’s going on? Why can’t the industry seem to bring the RPG love to this much beloved property?

Ship graphic — Published under CC License, One Seven Design

In my own continuing mission to explore strange new RPGs, to seek out new games and new mechanics, to boldly go where no gamer has gone before… I come to a fairly popular Indie title that is actually hailed by both critics and fans. A game so free-form, so narrative, so utterly divergent from every Trek RPG – and honestly, most every other RPG of any type – that it succeeds where others fail. It’s not a licensed Star Trek product, and neither the game nor the designers represent it as such, or even make mention of the IP. So please don’t misunderstand – this is NOT a Star Trek RPG. But it IS an RPG that is created out of a clear love of Star Trek and other cheese-tastic sci-fi shows and films from the 60s and 70s. It’s an RPG that gives me my Trek fix, and it’s called Lasers & Feelings.

Created by mastermind John Harper, whose name you might recognize as the creator of the recently funded (for almost $180,000) “Blades in the Dark” Kickstarter campaign, Lasers & Feelings is one of John’s earlier titles; and like so many produced by his production house, One Seven Design, it is a FREE game. That’s right. Free. One Seven has been the leader in the clubhouse for the “free”/“pay-as-you-want” RPG model; and his over $2,000 a month Patreon contributions do lend some credence to the concept. John has done work on Talislanta, Bootleggers, and World of Dungeons – but is probably best known for his free “pocket RPGs” like the critically hailed Lady Blackbird and GHOST/ECHO.

But Lasers & Feelings is possibly the best known and most commonly played of these pocket RPGs (at least, from my own convention experience), and remains a game that can be thrown down at a moment’s notice. Little to no prep time. Less than 1 minute to create a character. And, oh yeah, the entire RPG is one page long. Not “front and back”. One. Single. Page. Long.

Let me let that sink in for a moment.

L&F Full RPG — Published under CC License, One Seven Design

What is Lasers & Feelings? Inspired by the nerd-tastic song from The Doubleclicks, Lasers & Feelings is a simple narrative RPG that captures the tongue-in-cheek feel of a crew of futuristic explorers battling strange occurrences in unexplored space, resolving personal conflicts between the crew, and dealing with sexy green aliens and amorphous energy entities. And (like all of Harper’s personal work) is beautifully designed; both graphically and mechanically.

Each player takes the role of a member of the Consortium who are crewing an interstellar scout ship, the RAPTOR. The ship’s captain is currently recovering in a medical pod after being overcome by the strange psychic entity known as Something Else, and the crew must fend for themselves.

Creating a character involves picking a style (anything will work, with examples like “Alien”, “Android”, “Intrepid”, or “Hot-Shot”) and a role (again, anything will work, but examples include “Doctor”, “Pilot”, or “Scientist”). The combination of the two creates the crux of your character’s personality and job: the “Sexy Doctor” or the “Intrepid Envoy” or the “Android Engineer”.

Following this, each player picks their Number (2 to 5). The number represents how they tend to attack problems and resolve situations. A higher number means the character leans more on LASERS (technology; science; cold rationality; calm, precise action). A lower number means the character leans more on FEELINGS (intuition; diplomacy; seduction; wild, passionate action). To be clear – combat and fighting are not domain of LASERS. Nor is negotiation and speech-making the domain of FEELINGS. The two polarities of character leanings represent how a character is likely to deal with any problem that comes their way. Kirk would likely be a 2, rushing into passionate action and trusting his gut, whether fighting an alien entity or seducing a green-skinned lady. Spock would be a 5. Definitely a 5. Even technical work can run the gamut. Geordi is an engineer who uses intuition, while Data is one who uses careful precision. A character’s Number is integral to their success at resolving actions (which we’ll come to).

Finally, each character chooses a quick few-word Goal (like “Meet sexy aliens”, “Shoot bad guys”, or “Solve weird space mysteries”) to drive them, and makes up a “cool space adventure name”. Players start with identical equipment, which include a Consortium uniform, a phase pistol, and a “super-sweet space-phone-camera-communicator-scanner thing (with universal translator)”.

In the likely less than half a minute it has taken each player to jot down these pertinent details of their heroes, the GM will likely have created an adventure with a few hooks, possibly using the quick adventure seed generator that is included in the game. Players can also quickly create their ship, the “RAPTOR”, by adding a couple of strengths the ship has (such as “Nimble” or “Well Armed”) and one problem it has (such as “Fuel Hog” or “Only One Medical Pod” – which sucks, since the captain is in it…)

Then, it’s time for daring space adventure! Doing things in Lasers & Feelings is pretty simple. All you needs is a few d6s. When a player wants to accomplish something risky, he and GM decide what the action and successful outcome will be, and how the player is going to tackle the problem: with LASERS or with FEELINGS. Once ready, the player grabs a 1d6. If they’re prepared, they grab another +1d6. And if they’re somehow an expert on the problem (this is where style and role come into play), then they grab another +1d6. Then they roll, and compare each die result to their Number.

If it’s a LASERS roll, each result under your Number is a success. If it’s a FEELINGS roll, each result over your Number is a success. The number of successes you generate determines how well you succeed (with complication or without). There’s also another rather cute rule. If one of your dice rolls your number exactly, then you get “Laser Feelings”. You get to ask the GM a question, and they will give you an honest answer. Then you may choose to reroll.

That’s it. That’s honestly it.

And it is the most fun I’ve had playing in a pick-up game in years. No minis, no maps, no hit points, no glossary of conditions and terminology. Just raw narrative roleplaying where the power is put into the players’ hands to deal with insane situations put forth by the GM. And the game also provides excellent GM advice in a slap-yourself-simple paragraph or two of how to run this game well.

This is not a Star Trek RPG. But it’s the best Star Trek RPG I’ve ever played in. The fast, creative action, the player-controlled narrative, and the elegantly simple “Number” concept represent the personality diffusion and fun that embodies the genre, and can handle most any situation. Honestly, the system is simple enough (some might say, ironically, robust enough) to handle alternate settings or virtually any campaign concept where the players and GM are looking for something quick, versatile, and highly narrative. If you haven’t already downloaded Lasers & Feelings (again, it’s FREE), then please do. Take a read at a brilliantly designed master-course in simple RPG creation and sacrificing the complex for simple fun. Then get it on the table. NOW. You’ll be glad you did.

Lasers & Feelings can be found at One Seven Design’s website. For free. (Can I say that enough?)

Peace, Love, and Good Gaming – GMC

(All names, references, and pictures presented in this article were created by One Seven Design and are publicly available at http://onesevendesign.com. Lasers & Feelings is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) License, all rights reserved by their respective owners. This article is a media work of review and publicity, and is in no way intended to share intellectual property or copyrighted material outside the scope of media review.)