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A lot of Star Trek RPGs have been published over the years. This obscure product, published by Heritage Miniatures, was the first. Very few people even know that this game exists; most assume the first "official" Star Trek RPG was put out by FASA in the early 1980s. Looking through the rules, though, one can understand why it was so quickly abandoned and forgotten.

The game had a bare-bones look. The cover (which you can view here) showed a big purple gas giant; if you covered the logo you'd have no reason to think it was a Star Trek game. There was no interior artwork, just text and a pair of maps. Considering the quality of 1970s RPG artwork, though, this may have been a good thing.

The rules were directly adapted from Space Patrol, reviewed earlier in RPGnet. To recap:

Each character had six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma, Luck and Mentality, with scores on a 3-18 scale.
Melee combat was resolved by having the attacker roll 1-6D6, and adding Strength and Dexterity modifiers, while having the defender roll 1D6 and adding Luck modifiers. In Star Trek, players also added their characters' "Hand-to-Hand Class" to both attack and defense rolls. Damage was equal to the difference between these rolls.
Ranged combat was resolved in much the same fashion, although the attacker also had to make a to-hit roll on 1D6 before he could inflict damage. This roll had to be less than a hit number, which depended on range and the attacker's Dexterity.

In Star Trek these rules were presented in two sections, one for the "Basic Game" and another for the "Advanced Game." In the basic game, players adopted roles such as Kirk, Spock and McCoy from the TV show, instead of rolling up their own characters. Melee combat was restricted to hand-to-hand fighting, and initiative was determined by comparing Dexterity scores.

Players designed their own characters in the advanced game. This was done by rolling 3D6 for each attribute and modifying the rolls if the character was an alien. (Vulcans, for example, added 3 to Strength and Mentality, 4 to Constitution and 2 to Dexterity.) Some aliens automatically received psionic powers -- Vulcans, for instance, had limited telepathy -- while other races had a small chance of receiving them. There were no rules for previous experience, in fact there were no experience rules at all! (The rules say a character's Hand-to-Hand Class would improve with experience, but no rules were provided, so it was left up to GM fiat.)

The game offered an extensive equipment list, and devoted a couple pages to standard Star Trek aliens (plus Larry Niven's Kzin), giving each alien a couple lines of text; tables for randomly-generated aliens were also provided. Finally, two scenarios were written up, one for the basic and another for the advanced game. In the basic scenario, characters were forced to land in a strange canyon in search of dilithium crystals; the canyon was filled with monsters, radioactive rocks and other hazards. In the advanced scenario, a group of Klingons or Kzinti (GM's choice) discovered a Slaver outpost, and the PCs were sent in to intercept them. The outpost was full of the usual monsters and traps, along with some cool gadgets. Both scenarios, in fact, were little more than high-tech dungeon crawls, which admittedly was standard for all RPGs of the era.

Ultimately, the problem with the Star Trek game was that it bore little resemblance to the Star Trek series. It gave combat statistics for Trek's characters and aliens, but offered no background material, no starship combat rules, and the combat-heavy scenarios looked nothing like Star Trek episodes. Still, this game may be of historical interest, and if you decide to stat up original series characters for a D20 game, you may use the stats in this booklet as a starting point.

Star Trek
Star Trek Capsule Review by Matt Stevens on 18/02/03 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average) The granddady of Star Trek RPGs, locked in the attic all these years. Product: Star Trek Author: Michael Scott Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Heritage Models Line: Cost: Page count: 40 Year published: 1978 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Matt Stevens on 18/02/03 Genre tags: Science Fiction Far Future	A lot of Star Trek RPGs have been published over the years. This obscure product, published by Heritage Miniatures, was the first. Very few people even know that this game exists; most assume the first "official" Star Trek RPG was put out by FASA in the early 1980s. Looking through the rules, though, one can understand why it was so quickly abandoned and forgotten. The game had a bare-bones look. The cover (which you can view here) showed a big purple gas giant; if you covered the logo you'd have no reason to think it was a Star Trek game. There was no interior artwork, just text and a pair of maps. Considering the quality of 1970s RPG artwork, though, this may have been a good thing. The rules were directly adapted from Space Patrol, reviewed earlier in RPGnet. To recap: Each character had six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma, Luck and Mentality, with scores on a 3-18 scale. Melee combat was resolved by having the attacker roll 1-6D6, and adding Strength and Dexterity modifiers, while having the defender roll 1D6 and adding Luck modifiers. In Star Trek, players also added their characters' "Hand-to-Hand Class" to both attack and defense rolls. Damage was equal to the difference between these rolls. Ranged combat was resolved in much the same fashion, although the attacker also had to make a to-hit roll on 1D6 before he could inflict damage. This roll had to be less than a hit number, which depended on range and the attacker's Dexterity. In Star Trek these rules were presented in two sections, one for the "Basic Game" and another for the "Advanced Game." In the basic game, players adopted roles such as Kirk, Spock and McCoy from the TV show, instead of rolling up their own characters. Melee combat was restricted to hand-to-hand fighting, and initiative was determined by comparing Dexterity scores. Players designed their own characters in the advanced game. This was done by rolling 3D6 for each attribute and modifying the rolls if the character was an alien. (Vulcans, for example, added 3 to Strength and Mentality, 4 to Constitution and 2 to Dexterity.) Some aliens automatically received psionic powers -- Vulcans, for instance, had limited telepathy -- while other races had a small chance of receiving them. There were no rules for previous experience, in fact there were no experience rules at all! (The rules say a character's Hand-to-Hand Class would improve with experience, but no rules were provided, so it was left up to GM fiat.) The game offered an extensive equipment list, and devoted a couple pages to standard Star Trek aliens (plus Larry Niven's Kzin), giving each alien a couple lines of text; tables for randomly-generated aliens were also provided. Finally, two scenarios were written up, one for the basic and another for the advanced game. In the basic scenario, characters were forced to land in a strange canyon in search of dilithium crystals; the canyon was filled with monsters, radioactive rocks and other hazards. In the advanced scenario, a group of Klingons or Kzinti (GM's choice) discovered a Slaver outpost, and the PCs were sent in to intercept them. The outpost was full of the usual monsters and traps, along with some cool gadgets. Both scenarios, in fact, were little more than high-tech dungeon crawls, which admittedly was standard for all RPGs of the era. Ultimately, the problem with the Star Trek game was that it bore little resemblance to the Star Trek series. It gave combat statistics for Trek's characters and aliens, but offered no background material, no starship combat rules, and the combat-heavy scenarios looked nothing like Star Trek episodes. Still, this game may be of historical interest, and if you decide to stat up original series characters for a D20 game, you may use the stats in this booklet as a starting point.