Star Trek Roleplaying Game

[Jodee Bouman]

StarTrek: The Role Playing Game is set in the Star Trek universe before Star Trek: The Next Generation. Most player characters are members of Starfleet engaged in space exploration missions. They typically hold senior posts on a starship bridge and visit alien planets as part of landing parties.

The game's depiction of the Klingons, the result of work by science fiction author John M. Ford,[4] differs from later canon. Ford's Klingons not only appear in the supplement The Klingons for the game, but also in his Star Trek novel The Final Reflection, which is told almost entirely from a Klingon perspective. Ford designed his Klingon society to provide a logical basis for the actions and statements of onscreen Klingons in the original TV series, as well as the differing appearance of the Klingons in the original series and those in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the only movie featuring Klingons to have been released when the novel and game supplement were first published). They are guided by a philosophy expressed in their Klingonaase language as komerex tel khesterex, roughly translated as 'that which is not growing is dying'; komerex, referring to any structure growing and expanding its control over its surroundings, is also their word for their empire (komerex Klingon). This leads to a belief that the proper role of species not part of a komerex is to serve those that are, and the Klingons have subjugated many of these servitor species (kuve) in their conquests. The philosophy also motivates their actions on a personal scale, with individuals engaging in schemes and intrigues to enhance their personal power and that of their extended family, and generates traditions like starship officers being promoted as a result of assassinating their superiors.

The Klingons seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or "Imperial Klingons", are the original natives of the Klingon homeworld Klinzhai. The ones seen in the TV series are "human-fusion" Klingons, a result of genetic engineering combining the DNA of humans and Imperial Klingons into a hybrid better able to work in environments occupied by humans and thought to better understand them (for purposes of fighting them). Romulan-fusion Klingons also exist (Ford's Klingons contacted the Romulans before humans) and possibly other hybrids (such as with the Orions, whose space abuts both the Empire and the Federation).

Ford's Klingons (at least those serving in their space fleet) believe that when they die they will serve in a "Black Fleet" in the afterlife. Given the fact that few stars are visible at night on most of Klinzhai due to cloud cover, they have a mystical reverence for "the naked stars" and believe they remember acts of courage performed under them.

In contrast, the Klingons in Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent TV series, as well as the later movies, have a culture and traditions based more on a cross between the vikings and Japanese Samurai (or, rather, Western imaginations of them), focused on personal and familial honor and placing value on sacrificing their lives for the causes they serve. The canonical Klingon Empire is governed by the High Council, led by a chancellor, instead of an emperor. Their language, tlhIngan Hol, is different from Ford's Klingonaase, and their homeworld is Kronos (Qo'noS in Klingon). Until Star Trek: Enterprise, there was no canonical explanation for the differing appearance of Klingons in the original TV series compared to the movies and The Next Generation. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", the matter was joked about but left unexplained; in the Enterprise episodes "Affliction" and "Divergence", it is explained as an infection caused by an attempt to infuse Klingons with the DNA of Khan Noonien Singh (a variation of the human-fusion idea).

When the game was published, the only filmed material featuring the Romulans were the two Original Series episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Enterprise Incident". FASA's Romulans are the descendants of prehistoric Vulcans transplanted to the planet Romulus by the species known as the Preservers (mentioned in the TOS episode "The Paradise Syndrome"). Before developing interstellar travel, Romulan science concluded they were not native to their planet, leading to a social and religious goal of building a "Road to the Stars" to find the "gods" that placed them there, leading to the establishment of the Romulan Star Empire.

The Romulans are one of the Federation's chief antagonists in Star Trek: The Next Generation, featured in many episodes, and a canon explanation of their origin is given in that series. They are the descendants of Vulcans who did not agree with Surak's doctrines of logic and emotional suppression, instead choosing to leave Vulcan and travel through vast distances of space to their new home on Romulus. A similar concept was used by Diane Duane in Spock's World and the Rihannsu series of novels.

The game supplement Trader Captains and Merchant Princes, first published in 1983, introduced "the Triangle", a lawless area wedged between the space occupied by the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire.

This lawless area was popular with players as it allowed them to escape the strict parameters of a military campaign.[citation needed] Most campaigns with civilian or non-Starfleet characters are based entirely or in part within the Triangle.

The game introduces a number of starship classes not based on those seen in the series, though many of them borrow from the starship design standards set in the original TV series and first two movies: Federation ships have saucer sections and outboard engine nacelles, Klingon ships have a primary hull with a command section at the end of a long boom, and Romulan ships look like birds.

The Mission-class transport, a shuttle-style, warp-capable ship designed for small crews and short missions, is similar to the small, long-range, shuttle-style runabouts introduced in later Star Trek series. The FASA Mission-class transport predates it by more than a decade.

The stardates in the original series are arbitrarily assigned but tend to be larger for episodes produced later in the series' run. FASA's game introduces the notion of reference stardates based on Gregorian dates, similar to a standard fan practice for constructing stardates. A date in or after the year 2000 in year 2XYZ, month MM, day DD becomes Stardate X/YZMM.DD. For example, FASA set the date of the detonation of the Genesis device in Star Trek II as Stardate 2/2206.20, corresponding to June 20, 2222. Dates before 2000 use negative numbers before the slash.

Supplements to the basic game introduce players to the rudiments of the Romulan and Klingon languages. Neither language, as expressed in the game, is the same as later depictions in the Star Trek series.

Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game is a skill-based system in which character skills are determined by time spent in previous service.[2] The rules cover character creation, familiar characters from the series, Vulcan telepathics, weapons and equipment, personal and spaceship combat, and encountering new civilizations.[2] The boxed set includes three introductory scenarios and an 80-page pull-apart book of Enterprise deck plans.[2]

FASA had previously written supplements for GDW's Traveller, an association which influenced the early structure of the Star Trek game, particularly in character generation.[citation needed]

The rulebooks also provides systems for governing personal combat and exploration of space and planes, and the first edition provides rules for combat between starships; the second edition moves the starship combat rules into a separate board game. Supplements provide additional rules for characters in the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire, interplanetary trade and commerce, starship design, and campaigns focusing on other non-Starfleet players.

Each planet in the game's atlas has a code that - coupled with the character's merchant skill and some luck - allow players to buy and trade across the galaxy. A ship's carrying capacity is not based on tonnage but on volume. There are also rules on buying and selling stock on the Federation stock market.

Players have the option of playing almost any humanoid species introduced in the original Star Trek TV series, the animated series, or the first four movies. These include Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, Orions, Klingons, and Romulans. Two other species introduced in the animated series, Caitians and Edosians[dead link], can also be played.

Players use dice rolls on various tables to determine skills acquired before joining Starfleet, and then those gained by their shipboard assignment (helm operations, sciences, medical, communications, etc.) during tours of duty, which also leads to increases in rank before determining their final posting for the start of play. Later supplements allow players to generate Starfleet Intelligence agents, Klingon and Romulan military personnel, Orion pirates, and civilian merchants.

Game statistics are provided for principal characters in the Star Trek TV series (Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, etc.), allowing players to play those roles instead of generating their own characters.

The Captain determines the strategy, the Engineer is responsible for power management and allocation to different systems such as weapons and shields, the Helmsman for firing weapons, the Navigator for managing deflector shields, and the Communications Officer for damage control.

FASA later developed that system into a more complex standalone game, the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, similar to a tabletop wargame. During a role-playing session, if the adventure calls for a space battle, players have the option of using this standalone game to determine the outcome of the battle.

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