The Inside Scoop on Gaming

There have been a lot of games in the past few years based on existing television series and movies, and most of them have been disappointing. The Babylon 5 role playing game is perhaps the worst offender of them all. I actually went to the demo of that disaster at GenCon 96 and recall being horrified by its terrible dice system (you have to color some sides of your dice to get the game to work!). Worse, the way characters were created was equally unappealing, and they didn't even have space combat! This was a great disappointment for me since B5 is my all time science fiction series.

When I heard that Last Unicorn Games was going to be producing the new Star Trek: Next Generation Game last year, I was not especially thrilled. I knew they did the Dune card game, which was a complicated mess. It wasn't very long at the Dune demo before I got disgusted and walked away. Despite my reservations, I decided to try the Star Trek: Next Generation game anyway. Hey, it wasn't like I wouldn't like the game's concept or universe.

At first look, the game is an impressive sight. It is full color end to end and has mostly photos rather than art. The art that does exist is not the best in the business, but it is above average. When diving into the system, I was at first fearful that it was going to be like Shadowrun's massive d6-driven menagerie of a system, which this new game resembled slightly. But, once learned it, I discovered it not only worked, it worked well!

The character creation method is the most complicated thing in the game and can take an hour or more to accomplish. In fact, when I first saw the words "templates" and "overlays" used in conjunction with "character creation," I got a little worried. It sounded mighty complicated to me, and I have enough complexity in my life already. I don't need to be playing games that make me work especially hard to get results. Once again, this game surprised me. The templates and overlays are nothing more than a series of easy to follow creation steps.

Once your characters are made, you are ready to play (which is pretty obvious, but I thought I ought to point that out anyway--you never know). Game play is the extremely easy. To resolve any action--whether it is in combat or using a skill--you roll the appropriate number of dice equal to the attribute that skill is based on. This done, you take your highest number and discard the rest. Next add this single number to the skill's level. The result needs to meet or beat a target number, which is provided by the game's judge. There is one minor addition to this: the drama die. This die comes into play if it comes up as a one or six. A one means that the action performed might have gone critically bad, while a six means it was done especially well (dramatically so). So much for that. (Space combat is relatively simple as well, but it does involve a bit more than this.)

Now a look at the game's problems. After playing several time, I must ask who put this book together? The pretty charts and graphs needed to for combat and character creation are scattered among the book's willy nilly. If you are a game judge (called the Narrator in this game), you'll want to invest in bookmarks before attempting a combat sequence, and might want two books on hand for space combat. Although the game's page layouts look good, placement of information is really pathetic. The other major problem with the game is the races you can choose to play. You can play an Andorian (who never appear in any post-Star Trek Original Series episodes or movies), but you can't play a Klingon! This forced me to make a Betazoid security officer instead of a Klingon ship's counselor. Oh, you can probably make up the templates and overlays for whatever race you desire, but that would take a lot of time. Fortunately, the problem with the placement of charts and graphs can easily be corrected in the second edition, while there can be little doubt Klingons will appear in the forthcoming Deep Space Nine game.

I must congratulate the game creators for an overall spectacular effort.

Oh, one more thing. Many gamers have complained the price of the main source book is exorbitantly high. The answer to this cost is simple: four color printing (that is, full color) is extremely costly, even more so for a hard cover book. This makes me wonder if Last Unicorn Games is even making much of a profit or if Paramount subsidized this cost somewhat. If the players want a lower cost product, they will have to live with black and white or two colors instead.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Star Trek: the Next Generation Role Playing Game
Author: Various Category: game Company/Publisher: Last Unicorn Games Cost: $35.00 Page count: 288 Playtest Review by Mark Strecker on 03/25/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction	There have been a lot of games in the past few years based on existing television series and movies, and most of them have been disappointing. The Babylon 5 role playing game is perhaps the worst offender of them all. I actually went to the demo of that disaster at GenCon 96 and recall being horrified by its terrible dice system (you have to color some sides of your dice to get the game to work!). Worse, the way characters were created was equally unappealing, and they didn't even have space combat! This was a great disappointment for me since B5 is my all time science fiction series. When I heard that Last Unicorn Games was going to be producing the new Star Trek: Next Generation Game last year, I was not especially thrilled. I knew they did the Dune card game, which was a complicated mess. It wasn't very long at the Dune demo before I got disgusted and walked away. Despite my reservations, I decided to try the Star Trek: Next Generation game anyway. Hey, it wasn't like I wouldn't like the game's concept or universe. At first look, the game is an impressive sight. It is full color end to end and has mostly photos rather than art. The art that does exist is not the best in the business, but it is above average. When diving into the system, I was at first fearful that it was going to be like Shadowrun's massive d6-driven menagerie of a system, which this new game resembled slightly. But, once learned it, I discovered it not only worked, it worked well! The character creation method is the most complicated thing in the game and can take an hour or more to accomplish. In fact, when I first saw the words "templates" and "overlays" used in conjunction with "character creation," I got a little worried. It sounded mighty complicated to me, and I have enough complexity in my life already. I don't need to be playing games that make me work especially hard to get results. Once again, this game surprised me. The templates and overlays are nothing more than a series of easy to follow creation steps. Once your characters are made, you are ready to play (which is pretty obvious, but I thought I ought to point that out anyway--you never know). Game play is the extremely easy. To resolve any action--whether it is in combat or using a skill--you roll the appropriate number of dice equal to the attribute that skill is based on. This done, you take your highest number and discard the rest. Next add this single number to the skill's level. The result needs to meet or beat a target number, which is provided by the game's judge. There is one minor addition to this: the drama die. This die comes into play if it comes up as a one or six. A one means that the action performed might have gone critically bad, while a six means it was done especially well (dramatically so). So much for that. (Space combat is relatively simple as well, but it does involve a bit more than this.) Now a look at the game's problems. After playing several time, I must ask who put this book together? The pretty charts and graphs needed to for combat and character creation are scattered among the book's willy nilly. If you are a game judge (called the Narrator in this game), you'll want to invest in bookmarks before attempting a combat sequence, and might want two books on hand for space combat. Although the game's page layouts look good, placement of information is really pathetic. The other major problem with the game is the races you can choose to play. You can play an Andorian (who never appear in any post-Star Trek Original Series episodes or movies), but you can't play a Klingon! This forced me to make a Betazoid security officer instead of a Klingon ship's counselor. Oh, you can probably make up the templates and overlays for whatever race you desire, but that would take a lot of time. Fortunately, the problem with the placement of charts and graphs can easily be corrected in the second edition, while there can be little doubt Klingons will appear in the forthcoming Deep Space Nine game. I must congratulate the game creators for an overall spectacular effort. Oh, one more thing. Many gamers have complained the price of the main source book is exorbitantly high. The answer to this cost is simple: four color printing (that is, full color) is extremely costly, even more so for a hard cover book. This makes me wonder if Last Unicorn Games is even making much of a profit or if Paramount subsidized this cost somewhat. If the players want a lower cost product, they will have to live with black and white or two colors instead. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Star Trek: the Next Generation Role Playing Game