Lately I’ve been in a Star Trek mood. Consequently, I bought the complete series of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD –oh yeah, I also just bought the Original Series the other day. And being a serious gamer, I picked up a few books of the latest Star Trek RPG by Decipher. True, it was published in 2002, but as far as I know, it’s the latest version of a pen and paper Star Trek RPG. And I really wanted to play!
To start off playing the game, a GM–called a “Narrator”–needs Star Trek Roleplaying Game: Player’s Guide and Star Trek Roleplaying Game: Narrator’s Guide. This review will be only about the Player’s Guide.
Layout and Art
The cover of the book shows Captain Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway. Awkwardly, Captain Archer is not on the cover. Not sure why, but maybe they had something against a guy whose series flopped. However, never fear, Archer fans, his name is mentioned in the book!
Regardless, the cover does give a sense of hope; hope of a better future and you too can be a part of it. Open the book and the layout brings the viewer into the Next Generation. It sometimes feels and looks like you’re looking at a PADD (Personal Access Display Device). Furthering the mood, there are pictures of popular characters and still shots from the various series and movies that capture the essence of each chapter and section of the book. And speaking of mood, the character sheet is gorgeous–perhaps the best looking character sheet I’ve ever seen. It looks just like a PADD entry! But on the downside it uses a ton of ink, mostly black. So I had a PDF of the character sheet, which you can find online, and paid to have it printed on one piece of paper, both sides for 75 cents. However, if you still don’t want to dish out that much money for a character sheet, don’t fret. There are printer friendly character sheets online, as well. After looking at the character sheet, your players should be pretty excited about making a character.
Character Creation
Character creation is broken down into ten steps. To start, the player should think about their character concept. Is the character a Starship officer, rogue, merchant, or a diplomat? A player character need not be restricted to Starfleet officer only. However, the Narrator can restrict choices to whatever fits his or her campaign. Next the player chooses a species. There are ten species to choose from. Many of the basic species (e.g., Humans, Vulcans, Ferengi, and Klingon) are covered here; however, more choices can be found in other books. The next various steps involve making choices that help flesh out a background for the character. Players will be choosing development packages that come with skills, edges, and sometimes flaws. Attributes are decided either by rolling 2d6 nine times and choosing the highest six or assigning numbers (10, 9, 7, 7, 5, 4) to each attribute and spreading out an additional eight points. As you might imagine, character creation can take some time. But all is not lost, if you want to make a quick character there are several character templates to choose from. And if you want to add a little uniqueness to the character, you can simply swap a few traits for others.
The Game Rules
Most of the game rules are covered in the Player’s Guide. Really, if you’re strapped for cash, all you really need is this book in order to play. However, there are no rules for starship combat here. If you want those rules–which might be a must for your space opera–you can find them in the Star Trek Roleplaying Game: Narrator’s Guide.
The mechanics in the game are pretty simple and straight forward. Simply roll 2d6 and add attribute or skill modifiers along with any situation modifiers to reach a Target Number. If you reach the target number you succeed and if you exceed the target number by five or ten your character does extra well. There is also the “Natural Twelve” factor. If you roll a Natural Twelve, you get to roll an additional d6 until you stop rolling sixes–all rolls are cumulative. The setup might be a little old school, but I like it. It’s easy to explain to players and there are no tricky dice dances that need be remembered.
Star Trek Background
The Player’s Guide also works well at covering the Star Trek universe basics. It has the universe’s history starting as far back as 10 billion years ago to 2375. Furthermore, after the history chapter, there is a chapter dedicated to the Federation. If you’re unfamiliar with Star Trek or want to brush up on it, this read can be quite enjoyable.
Recommendations?
Star Trek Roleplaying Game: Player’s Guide is not a perfect RPG book. The book lacks organization which can make looking up rules a bit difficult (sticky notes might be helpful). However, the index does come in handy and there are some cheat sheets online to make one’s life easier. Furthermore, like all games that come out, there are typos throughout the book. Nothing too detrimental, and again there are resources out there, like an errata online. Would I recommend the game? Yes and no. I think the game is fantastic! But I like Star Trek, fun character creation, and straight forward game rules. However, unfortunately, Decipher hasn’t released a new book since 2007 and has no further plans for their Star Trek RPG. With that said, the used books out there are getting pretty pricey. And it would suck to buy several books for a high price, only to find out that another company is publishing a new Star Trek RPG…
Adam Lee
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