Please note: This is not a product review. The Style and Substance ratings do not apply. Please disregard them.
Years ago, I wrote a review of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game from Last Unicorn Games. That review was written without having really played the game. I had purchased the book based solely on the license, and wrote the review blind. It wasn’t just a capsule review, it was an expression of joy. I would get to co-write and direct my very own Star Trek series with a cast and crew of my closest friends. To be honest, that idea still appeals to me.
(This is all fair warning, by the way. I think I’ve given myself enough time to settle down and rationally consider my feelings on the new Star Trek roleplaying game coming from Decipher. At the same time, however, I have been randomly announcing my enthusiasm for the new game to anyone I think might play it with me. In other words, I may only think this preview is rational. It could actually be the giddy ramblings of a biased fan-boy. Watch your step.)
Two years after I bought the Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game (ST:TNG RPG), I attended GenCon courtesy of Last Unicorn Games and Wizards of the Coast as a demonstrator. I ran a variety of Star Trek adventures for a variety of good folks and met some of the finest game designers and game fans its possible to meet. This preview will not detail the climate or circumstances of the Star Trek license affair which became known to us fans that year. Suffice to say, the license for Star Trek roleplaying games moved strangely from Last Unicorn Games to Decipher, a company with no roleplaying game designers.
This year, Decipher announced who they hired to build their new Star Trek game: the trusty crew of Last Unicorn Games. As a fan-boy, this was like watching Starfleet comission the Enterprise-A in Trek IV: The One with the Whales. As an industry junkie, I saw a smart move on Decipher’s part. I base this decision both the reactions of the dedicated Last Unicorn fans at TrekRPG.net, who could torpedo a step-sister product, and on what I’ve seen first-hand of the new Star Trek: Role Playing Game.
Decipher gurus were taking their new game out for a little cruise at GenCon this year, and I hitched a ride. Between the Lord of the Rings video screen and the stage where, I guess, card-gaming stars make their appearances, a pair of little folding tables were situated with just enough room for curious gamers to bang their knees and knock miniatures over. It was like the Star Trek RPG (and its Rings cousin) was hidden away as a second-string product. That’s a shame. It could be hidden away as a secret weapon.
”It’s like D20, but it’s different.”
The more I played Last Unicorn’s Star Trek game, the more I felt confined by the Icon system. Everything with strong, but rigid; logical, but inflexible. To be clear, I delighted in the convention games I ran, the one-shots I played with my friends. At the same time, though, I dreaded a campaign and the work it would require. It felt to me that the more I played the game, the further it slipped away from my idea of a Star Trek game: a fascinating adventure.
I won’t deconstruct the previous Star Trek game except to say how the new game seems ready to surpass it. Decipher (West, is it?) was in a precarious spot when designing their new game. Too far one way, and they remake their old game, losing the strange opportunity afforded them by the licensing mayhem. Too far the other way, and they would be making the D20 game much-(much-much-)debated across the Internet as a travesty against Trek. Instead, they flew a course down the middle and made a game that works in all the ways D20 does and all the ways Icon did. It’s as if Decipher added the distinctiveness of those two systems to their own.
So, the new Trek game has character levels, but not classes. Characters have plenty of illustrative and individualized skills, but they don’t need them just to wave a tricorder around. They have races and professions, abilities something like feats that change the permutations of play in clean and interesting ways, and they have detailed backgrounds without having to paint them point-by-point.
Task resolution is just like D20, which is to say it is like any of a hundred other games. Players roll dice, whose totals are added with character traits and compared against a target number. Anything which the setting or story or anything else should have an effect on can be illustrated with a simple modifier, which is the magic notion that makes D&D 3rd Edition, as well as this new Trek game, so valuable to role-players. Modifiers allow players and gamemasters to impact the game mechanics cleanly and effortlessly without removing the thrilling factor of chance. That is, this simple die-and-modifier system means that your intriguing, dynamic game won’t get in the way of your roleplaying. I like that.
Character creation seems like it will have all the charms of the Icon version, wherein you develop your character’s past and it’s reflected by his gameplay abilities. What’s even better is that character advancement works in stages too, so it’s sort of like the character creation process never ends. This is a lovely feature of D20, and it’s a lovely feature in this game, too. Manageable character progression is important for a Trek game because, really, few players will be starting their games with rookie characters.
Equipment and environment are all modeled with modifiers in this new game, and it’s no small feature. As Ross Issacs, game designer and (judging by the Decipher booth) babe magnet, described a phaser as a wand of sleep spells, and that’s exactly how it should be. The technology of the Star Trek universe works to facilitate storytelling, through either its presence or its absense. Key cards, magic items and health boxes should do the same thing in games, traditionally. They are the point on which everything turns. It makes sense for tricorders and transporters to work the same way in a roleplaying game, the intersection of these media. Get the magic key and you will be able to clear the level. Get the phased-polaron inverter and you’ll have a 4 bonus to your skill check.
I don’t want to be so long-winded here, but I’m very serious. This simple point, which is just a minor shift in thinking from the Icon system, is integral to what I feel is the success of this new game. It doesn’t get in the way of your Star Trek stories. Whereas the Icon system was logical, this new system is intuitive. Use it bare-bones, or get in up to your elbows.
”So she can fly. But is she pretty?”
The Decipher RPG crew is largely based in Los Angeles, with the exception of unofficial Internet spokesman Steve Long. I have a brother who lives in LA, and I have to say I agree with Mr. Long. Splendid place to visit, but …
Anyway, as Los Angelinos, the RPG blokes at Decipher seem to surround themselves with beautiful things: southern California, black-shirted booth babes, and the new rulebook. The Okudagram page decorations look better, more genuine, than before. With Decipher’s graphics-experience to draw on, the few book images I saw looked noticeably crisper and brighter. One full page image of the Defiant with overlapping specifications and Starfleet computer borders made me shriek with glee. Inwardly. I saw only a few sample pages, but I was impressed.
Since the new game does not focus on any one particular era, the upcoming core rulebook has hundreds of hours of Trek images to draw on. That suggests a gorgeous book, but it also sets a pretty high standard of expectation for the fans. Especially now that I’ve said it. I can only assume that Decipher will take advantage of their opportunity as they have with their card games.
”Boldly go … but where?”
This new game could be the biggest thing this fall since Enterprise. That is, if it actually exists …
I was told to expect the book prior (perhaps months prior) to Christmas of this year, but I have found little evidence of the project’s existence on the Decipher website. I have seen no real marketing endeavours. I have only been compelled to buy the book because I sought out the game and played it. It is for this reason that I share what I know with you, dear reader.
Still, I don’t recommend anymore that people buy a game they haven’t played. I don’t want you to take my word for it. I want you to see the book and play the game before you buy. I want you to put my Starfleet dreams to shame and build a crew of Cardassian, Klingon, and Breen ex-patriots scouring the quadrant for Iconian relics. I want everyone to know how excited I am for a new Star Trek game and how great my campaign is going to be.
So much for being rational.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)