As I sat watching Star Trek on Sunday, I was struck with a strong (but familiar) thought: “damn, I really want to run a campaign set in this. ”
About 4 years back now, I tried starting up a Star Trek campaign using d20 Modern/d20 Future and a few house rules (mainly for playable races). I even made up a spiffy, spiral-bound handout (one of the benefits of working for Kinko’s at the time) that included the background on the ship the players would be serving on, the extra rules, the time period, and so on. There were at least two players that were very excited about the prospect, but then I heard from the other potential players that they felt a bit intimidated… they weren’t as fanatical, and afraid that their lack of Trek knowledge would show through, especially to the players who were more into it. That didn’t end up being the reason I didn’t run the campaign (real life issues would see to that), but it stuck in my mind as being a problem with a Star Trek campaign, and one that could now be fixed by setting it in the “new” ST universe.
Years before that, in my college days, I was heavily involved in a large Play by Email/Play by IRC Star Trek organization, specifically handling things in various Romulan games. (And I count that time as the geekiest thing I’ve ever done, which is really saying something). I enjoyed being able to determine the direction of an entire galactic power via what happened in the games. Plus it had the sandbox feel of being able to develop new ships, new technologies, new alliances, and so forth. Only it too demonstrated what I consider a problem in trying to run a Star Trek RPG.
Let’s look at TNG for an example. You have a “party” in the main cast- Picard as Captain, Data as Science/Conn, Worf as Tactical and later Security, Geordi as Engineer, etc. Each one has a specific role in the area they cover, and in any kind of, say, episodic crisis situation, you can count on them to cover that area, in addition to their own personal issues that happen to come up. Perfect recipe for adventuring, right?
Only, many of those things are difficult to relate in the context of an actual roleplaying game. Scanning for life signs might involve a die roll, but isn’t anything else involved. Same with scientific scans and whatnot. There’s not much in the way of decision making or creativity in that aspect of things. Unfortunately, the same can often be said of Engineering, which should be more about coming up with crazy solutions to problems in true Scotty-esque fashion: the players just don’t have enough information about how “actual” starships work to be able to do more than some rudimentary miracle working. This is all on top of the usual RPG issues of non-clustered parties spotlight sharing and whatnot.
There are plenty of solutions to this problem, and one that I’m not alone in recognizing: the Star Trek MMO specifically talks about having mini-game/puzzles for science and engineering officers to do. One thing that I’ve been tempted to try also tackles another solution at the same time: the Captain.
What if the GM were the Captain, and when the GM’s attention is on a particular player or group, it’s because the Captain had asked for a status report? When weapons are fired, it’s because the Captain ordered it? Away teams… well, depends if the Captain is a Kirk or Picard, I suppose, but could work either way. That makes it so the spotlight is on the players doing the acting, and there’s no quibbling over who gets to be the Captain. There’s also immediate feedback when doing science scans or engineering tasks, and possibly some more back and forth. It doesn’t entirely address my issue, but might provide enough of a framework to keep things flowing. Or it might get really annoying! I’m not sure.
As usual, the point is somewhat moot since I wouldn’t be running this theoretical game for a while, unless it’s a playtest one-shot. Still, any time a movie compels me to make a campaign about it, it gets bonus points from me (even if I did already want to do something similar).
Who would be the red shirt?
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Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! My doctor still stands ready to serve!
On a less crazy note, I’m always surprised at the significantly smaller RPG player base for a science fiction games than for fantasy. I understand DnD is the mega giant in RPGs. And there are many many smaller but successful fantasy and Sci-fi games out there, but none with the power of DnD. Does this seem odd to anyone else?
I am a fantasy fan, but I’m much more a sci-fi boy.
Not that odd, actually, Dark Young.
Sci-Fi presents things that are beyond current tech, but most of those things are theoretically possible, or at least close to it, given appropriate advancement. At the bare minimum, they’re presented to sound plausible through ample use of technobabble.
But in fantasy, we get the truly fantastic. Things that we know definitively to not be possible. And we get to do these things.
This is, similarly, why I think many DMs dislike Psionics in their D&D games. Theoretically, it might happen one day.
I’m not sure I agree with Graham. It’s definitely a great point/observation and it may be true, but I think it might be a simple case of what got there first is most popular. D&D for all intents and purposes started the hobby, so it’s pretty natural for it to consistently have a larger audience.
I blogged about Star Trek a few weeks ago and how I really like the universe/setting but find the various faults (many of which you mention here) rather difficult to overcome. We’ve attempted it several times over the years — the last being with the LUG ruleset — and each time the games have basically fallen apart due to a lack of tension. I think that’s the true problem with trying to construct a campaign. Regardless, I still have visions of one day pulling another game together.
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I half-solved the problem presented by Dave here establishing that the PCs, no matter their ranks, are part of the Away Team: in my Star Trek game, none of the “main NPC cast” goes out on off-ship missions: this is for a specialized team of officers and crew members trained exclusively to be the Away Team (not very dissimilar to the homonym videogame).
Another thing that I determined is that the tech guy character must be played by the player that is a computer engineer in real-life, and the science guy has to be played by the player who likes fringe science stuff. To avoid freezing the players in set characters, the ship (the USS Thunderbird) has two Away Teams, the Bravo Team and the Alpha Team, and each player has two PCs (one on each team). After each mission is presented by the First Officer, the players are left to decide which of their characters will go on that particular venture.
One of my players, for example, made a Betazoid Diplomat and a Klingon Weapons Officer to choose from. And he has much, much fun smacking his own forehead after realizing half-way through the session that he chose the wrong PC for that mission!
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