So what happens when your favorite game becomes too embroiled in corporate politics that the line becomes less important than the license? Well those people who played Star Trek by Last Unicorn games know the answer all too well. As last unicorn was coming into their own it was bought out by a very license hungry Wizards of the Coast, placing a freeze (and eventual dropping) of several highly anticipated works (the Klingons boxed set for one!) And threatened to place the game squarely in the fold of the D20 juggernaut. However Paramount wisely pulled the license from WOTC/LUG and once WOTC laid off the entire staff of LUG they were hired by Decipher (the card game company) to work on a new RPG (being that they had just bought the RPG license to the Star Trek universe) While Decipher had been well known in the CCG world (for it’s well done licensed games such as Trek, and Star Wars) it is a veritable unknown in the field of RPGs, while granted they had a staff of old pros working on a project that they were intimately familiar with, this was still a new branching out for them, so after what seemed like an eternity, Decipher released their first game in their Star Trek line. The question is how does it stand up to the high bar set by its predecessor?
Well firstly let’s get to the good. The book itself is simply beautiful, offering a nice look with full color photos throughout its hardback design. On top of this, it changes one of the biggest conventions in all trek role-play. In every Trek Game that has hit the market before, the core book focuses on the idea of playing a Starfleet officer. The new game uses a much more flexible profession system allowing you to create a much more varied environment within the massive Trek universe. While it is completely feasible to play an all Starfleet crew, it is just as possible to play a Klingon war band, or a group of free traders or Bajoran freedom fighters. The new system also sport an easier character creation system that places a lot less focus on specializations, and a more realistic curve between success and failure (more on this later) One other nice thing is that the game is fairly easy to convert from LUG allowing the massive pile of LUG trek supplements sitting in your closet to be used once again!
As for the bad, the game has forgotten several key race options. Bolians, Andorians, Telleraites as well as Romulans were kinda forgotten in the core book. However, they did not forget Ocampa and Telaxian (both of which are from the delta quadrant and therefore as likely to show up in a standard campaign as Jedi knights!) While this was most likely done to satiate the fans of Voyager it is pretty useless unless you intend to run a similar scenario (as in being thrown into the delta quadrant!) The book is also plagued by a rather funky layout, which is very nonstandard making finding rules on first skim a bitch!
And As for the ugly, just look at the character sheet a jumbled mass of unprintable material, which looks kinda slick but way too busy!
Now as for the system itself, the game is a very simple system based loosely off of some of the esthetics of D20 but I need to make it absolutely clear that it isn’t D20 but rather based on similar principles. For example there is now a to hit roll (called defenses similar to AC or Defenses in SWd20) there are also a new set of sub stats (called reactions) which is similar to the saving throws concept. And the base mechanics are based on stat bonus skill bonus (if applicable) 2d6. If you get boxcars you get to roll an additional d6 adding it to the total. The damage system however is exactly like the original LUG trek system (for those of you unfamiliar it is similar to white wolf in it’s idea of health levels!) The old renown system has been streamlined down to a single number (as opposed to being comprised of elements), which I think is a mixed blessing. I kind of enjoyed the ability to see what a character would be known for, but it is less paperwork, and overall easier. Another change comes in the radical reworking of experience, while it now is more similar to the d20 esthetic, (being that an average game should yield a greater deal of XP) the game has no levels, but rather after you acquire 1000 XP you can cash it in for various types of improvements (called picks) which allow you to customize your character’s improvements, (honestly something D20 folks should look into!!!)
All in all you gain some you lose some, but it is definitely worth the price of admission. It represents a good middle ground for between LUG star Trek and the D20 model, making conversion either way rather easy. Also being that it will be the only Trek game receiving support (except perhaps GURPS Prime Directive which is not 100% trek per say) and it’s a hoot to play allowing you to do more than just the ship and span any era of Trek from Pre Starfleet to Post Voyager. So get your phasers and prepare to maximum warp!
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