The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Star Trek line of role-playing products by Last Unicorn Games was just beginning its "Expanded Universe" series of sourcebooks when the company lost their license to produce Star Trek material. The Expanded Universe was going to cover topics relevant to every Star Trek game, such as starship construction and the Mirror Universe. All Our Yesterdays was "the time travel sourcebook" for use with every Star Trek role-playing game.

Over the years, Star Trek has told a lot of time travel stories, with a lot of different approaches to the material. Stories of adventure, romance, and comedy have all taken Starfleet officers through the fourth dimension. That's a lot for one sourcebook to tackle. Can it be done?

The Material

All Our Yesterdays covers time travel issues from every Star Trek series and all applicable feature films with various levels of detail. Basic issues of temporal mechanics, from time travel paradoxes to notions of branching linear time, are covered in a comfortable voice accessible to any reader. Adventure hooks, analyses of previous incidents (some from the television shows), dossiers on alien races with time travel capabilities, and examinations of time travel technology and procedures are all presented in a tone consistent with the Star Trek universe.

The authors of Last Unicorn Games (LUG) have had an uncommon approach to writing their role-playing sourcebooks. Rather than writing neutrally to an audience that may or may not have been located in the Star Trek universe, LUG writers frequently oscillate between writing about the game universe as if it had happened around them and writing directly to game Narrators and players. All Our Yesterdays is no different. Chapters relating to concerns within the fictional game universe (such as "A History of Time Travel") take a bureaucratic tone, as if they were reports written to Starfleet Command. Information concerned more with the craft of developing time travel adventures and characters have a more conversational tone with a sense of experience. Moreso than other game designers, LUG authors write sourcebooks on very specific topics in a very specific universe. This sometimes results in whole chapters on topics of no concern to some campaigns. In other cases, such as this book, it results in storytelling and gameplay advice targeting the specific problems which are likely to surface when role-playing a time travel story in the Star Trek universe. That's a narrow point to write on.

A large portion of All Our Yesterdays is concerned with the Department of Temporal Investigations (DTI), an organization within the United Federation of Planets that is concerned with identifying, explaining, and (sometimes) correcting incidents of temporal tampering. Here is another example of the above behavior. In the case of this reviewer, the majority of information regarding the DTI is not likely to see use in actualy play. The organization appeared in a single episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and was not endearingly represented therein. They are glorified in this sourcebook, but the damage is already done. I don't want to play a DTI series or agent. If you do, all you need is here.

Plenty of suggestions for including time travel in an otherwise-ordinary Star Trek campaign are sprinkled throughout the book. These are all very effective and an important feature of the book's quality. These go beyond adventure hooks to guidelines, warnings, and fixes to campaign problems which could arise through temporal travel. All of this information is of great use to any Narrator interested in even a single time travel story for their series, but is likely too Trek-centric for some other role-playing games.

The Mechanics

All Our Yesterdays is mostly concerned with storytelling and theoretical issues, but there are a good number of new mechanical elements, from starships and technology to characters and creatures. Still, the focus is clearly on the DTI.

Rules are provided for making DTI agents as player or non-player characters. These rules are typical of LUG's fun creation method and allow for quite a bit of flexibility. New Advantages and Disadvantages covering features relevent to time travelers, as well as new skills and psionic abilities, make the mechanical expansions significant. Notes are also included for utilizing existing mechanics and characters in time travel scenarios.

Game mechanics feel somewhat trimmed down in terms of alien races and technology. This seems like the result of cramming: there is a lot of information to fit into 126 pages. Everything from Romulan timeships to the wicked Krenim temporal incursion gunship are presented, as well as time travel motivations for Tholians, Cardassians, Humans, and other groups from the past and future. Most of this information is somewhat useful, but abrupt. You can't please everybody all the time.

Presentation

The book is 128 pages, softcover, with black and white illustrations throughout. Alien races, technology, and some action is represented. Some of this art is good, some of it isn't, and quite a bit of it is hokey, but it is all on-topic and all interesting on some level.

Were there phasers at the Kennedy assassination? Could a Ferengi make off with the "Mona Lisa?" What caused the USS Ares to destroy a copy of itself from another time? The art provides a whole other set of adventure hooks, be they comedies or thrillers.

The whole book is presented with a starfield border and iconic Star Trek images as a background. All of these are blue. Really, really blue. Within the border image is a Star Trek timeline detailing momentous occasions. Some are from the vaults of Star Trek lore and some are new to the book. Some cover incidents of time travel, some are just concerned with historical events of importance to time travelers. The whole of the timeline is enormous, running along the left border of the layout for 120 pages. It's a good feature.

The book's cover is a computerized collection of images from three Star Trek series and a stylized streaking cloud backdrop. Most noticeably, the cover sports a great feature: the title. All Our Yesterdays? That's a great title.

Analysis

All Our Yesterdays is not all things to all people. The advice on time travel effects in science fiction role-playing games may be of value to any gamer, but most of the material is specific to the Star Trek universe (as a Star Trek sourcebook must be). If you're a Star Trek gamer, you might consider this a core book when considering your own series. The best advice I can give to any interested fans is to pick up the book. Page through it. It's an honest book. It's as good as it looks. If you find something to use in those pages, you'll find more in there too.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook
Author: S. Kenson, J. Kiley, S.J. Ross, S.S. Long, Ken Hite (Developer) Category: game Company/Publisher: Last Unicorn Games Line: The Star Trek Roleplaying Game Cost: $20.00 Page count: 128 ISBN: 0-671-04016-2 SKU: 15002 Capsule Review by Will Hindmarch on 11/30/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Historical Far Future Space	The Star Trek line of role-playing products by Last Unicorn Games was just beginning its "Expanded Universe" series of sourcebooks when the company lost their license to produce Star Trek material. The Expanded Universe was going to cover topics relevant to every Star Trek game, such as starship construction and the Mirror Universe. All Our Yesterdays was "the time travel sourcebook" for use with every Star Trek role-playing game. Over the years, Star Trek has told a lot of time travel stories, with a lot of different approaches to the material. Stories of adventure, romance, and comedy have all taken Starfleet officers through the fourth dimension. That's a lot for one sourcebook to tackle. Can it be done? The Material All Our Yesterdays covers time travel issues from every Star Trek series and all applicable feature films with various levels of detail. Basic issues of temporal mechanics, from time travel paradoxes to notions of branching linear time, are covered in a comfortable voice accessible to any reader. Adventure hooks, analyses of previous incidents (some from the television shows), dossiers on alien races with time travel capabilities, and examinations of time travel technology and procedures are all presented in a tone consistent with the Star Trek universe. The authors of Last Unicorn Games (LUG) have had an uncommon approach to writing their role-playing sourcebooks. Rather than writing neutrally to an audience that may or may not have been located in the Star Trek universe, LUG writers frequently oscillate between writing about the game universe as if it had happened around them and writing directly to game Narrators and players. All Our Yesterdays is no different. Chapters relating to concerns within the fictional game universe (such as "A History of Time Travel") take a bureaucratic tone, as if they were reports written to Starfleet Command. Information concerned more with the craft of developing time travel adventures and characters have a more conversational tone with a sense of experience. Moreso than other game designers, LUG authors write sourcebooks on very specific topics in a very specific universe. This sometimes results in whole chapters on topics of no concern to some campaigns. In other cases, such as this book, it results in storytelling and gameplay advice targeting the specific problems which are likely to surface when role-playing a time travel story in the Star Trek universe. That's a narrow point to write on. A large portion of All Our Yesterdays is concerned with the Department of Temporal Investigations (DTI), an organization within the United Federation of Planets that is concerned with identifying, explaining, and (sometimes) correcting incidents of temporal tampering. Here is another example of the above behavior. In the case of this reviewer, the majority of information regarding the DTI is not likely to see use in actualy play. The organization appeared in a single episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and was not endearingly represented therein. They are glorified in this sourcebook, but the damage is already done. I don't want to play a DTI series or agent. If you do, all you need is here. Plenty of suggestions for including time travel in an otherwise-ordinary Star Trek campaign are sprinkled throughout the book. These are all very effective and an important feature of the book's quality. These go beyond adventure hooks to guidelines, warnings, and fixes to campaign problems which could arise through temporal travel. All of this information is of great use to any Narrator interested in even a single time travel story for their series, but is likely too Trek-centric for some other role-playing games. The Mechanics All Our Yesterdays is mostly concerned with storytelling and theoretical issues, but there are a good number of new mechanical elements, from starships and technology to characters and creatures. Still, the focus is clearly on the DTI. Rules are provided for making DTI agents as player or non-player characters. These rules are typical of LUG's fun creation method and allow for quite a bit of flexibility. New Advantages and Disadvantages covering features relevent to time travelers, as well as new skills and psionic abilities, make the mechanical expansions significant. Notes are also included for utilizing existing mechanics and characters in time travel scenarios. Game mechanics feel somewhat trimmed down in terms of alien races and technology. This seems like the result of cramming: there is a lot of information to fit into 126 pages. Everything from Romulan timeships to the wicked Krenim temporal incursion gunship are presented, as well as time travel motivations for Tholians, Cardassians, Humans, and other groups from the past and future. Most of this information is somewhat useful, but abrupt. You can't please everybody all the time. Presentation The book is 128 pages, softcover, with black and white illustrations throughout. Alien races, technology, and some action is represented. Some of this art is good, some of it isn't, and quite a bit of it is hokey, but it is all on-topic and all interesting on some level. Were there phasers at the Kennedy assassination? Could a Ferengi make off with the "Mona Lisa?" What caused the USS Ares to destroy a copy of itself from another time? The art provides a whole other set of adventure hooks, be they comedies or thrillers. The whole book is presented with a starfield border and iconic Star Trek images as a background. All of these are blue. Really, really blue. Within the border image is a Star Trek timeline detailing momentous occasions. Some are from the vaults of Star Trek lore and some are new to the book. Some cover incidents of time travel, some are just concerned with historical events of importance to time travelers. The whole of the timeline is enormous, running along the left border of the layout for 120 pages. It's a good feature. The book's cover is a computerized collection of images from three Star Trek series and a stylized streaking cloud backdrop. Most noticeably, the cover sports a great feature: the title. All Our Yesterdays? That's a great title. Analysis All Our Yesterdays is not all things to all people. The advice on time travel effects in science fiction role-playing games may be of value to any gamer, but most of the material is specific to the Star Trek universe (as a Star Trek sourcebook must be). If you're a Star Trek gamer, you might consider this a core book when considering your own series. The best advice I can give to any interested fans is to pick up the book. Page through it. It's an honest book. It's as good as it looks. If you find something to use in those pages, you'll find more in there too. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook