Homebrewed Star Trek RPG Adaptations (Part 1)

One of the more interesting aspects about Star Trek as a role-playing game is how many times it's been "homebrewed" -- adapted for another existing system by players -- despite the fact that there have been nearly a dozen versions of Trek RPGs (for the purposes of this post, I'm including the "not Treks"). To illustrate, here's a list:

• Space Patrol (Gamescience, 1977)
• Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier (Heritage, 1978)
• Starships & Spacemen (FGU, 1978)
• Star Patrol (Gamescience, 1981)
• Starfleet Voyages (Terra Games Company, 1982)
• Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (FASA, 1982)
• Enterprise - Role Play Game in Star Trek (Tsukuda Hobby, 1983)
• Prime Directive (1) (Task Force Games, 1993)
• Star Trek Role Playing Game(s) (Last Unicorn Games (1998, 1999)
• Star Trek Roleplaying Game (Decipher, 2002)
• Prime Directive (various systems) (Amarillo Design Bureau, 2004 - present)

Yes, one can argue about whether or not my list includes games that are "really" Star Trek, but that's not my point. For over 30 years, at almost any point during that time, one could go out and buy an RPG that was (or obviously tried to emulate) Star Trek, and it probably gave you stats for Klingons.

Nevertheless, there are few other settings that seem to inspire so many homebrews. In fact, I started this blog as a side-effect of re-reading through my own collection as research for my own homebrew, an adaptation of the early TOS years (around Stardate 1500, 2266 AD) for Rogue Games' Thousand Suns. Sometime during that research, I came across a poll that asked Trek RPGers, "Which System Do You Use?" I think it was TrekRPG Forums, but heck if I can find it now! Fortunately, I copied and pasted the results:

CODA.....25...39.1%
ICON......24...37.5%
GURPS.....2.....3.1%
D20..........3.....4.7%
Home......10...15.6%

It's a bit hard to take a poll that didn't include FASA too seriously (and, yes, it's still played and even updated by folks such as Rob Bocchino, as evidenced by his site and other sites still dedicated to it). But, again, not my point. Regardless of the fact that there are already systems out there, over 15% still prefer to roll their own. Why is that? Speaking for myself:

• I like the challenge;
• I like my system of choice (TS's 12° system has a killer way of resolving Tests, especially its use of Resolve for non-combat confrontations);
• I find the other systems to be either too complex for such a cinematic, brains-over-brawn setting like Star Trek, or too dated to support some of the enhancements found in games today;
• I feel that most of the other systems spent way too much time on combat, technology and minutiae such as starship construction. Sure, these aspects can be ignored to some extent, but those decisions end up creeping into other portions of the game (skills, starship combat, task resolution) at the expense of things I feel are more important to Star Trek (exploration, moral conundrums, action rather than combat).

In the end, I might end up with a game that only I want to play. Then again, I'm one of those heathens that actually thinks it's okay to want to roleplay Kirk, Spock and McCoy. And that's one of the wonderful things about Star Trek as a setting: it's many things to many people. Some are very much into the starship combat aspect. There are those that want to play Starfleet Marines, Section 31 or Prime Teams for a more action oriented game. Others want to be free traders or Klingons in the Trek universe. Some want to struggle with a conflict between the Prime Directive and a First Contact situation. There are lots of SF RPGs that claim to be this broad, but I feel that only Star Trek has truly developed support (in both the games and the canon itself) for all of these approaches. Whether or not that's a good thing is a topic for another day.

I did my first Trek homebrew in the summer of 1981. I had a distinct talent at the time for falling in love with games that were doomed to obscurity *. Neither Dungeons & Dragons or Traveller inspired me much after the first few years. For fantasy I gravitated toward Metgaming's The Fantasy Trip system (Melee, Wizard, In the Labyrinth), Steve Jackson's precursor to GURPS. In 1981, Universe was released as SPI's answer to science fiction role-playing games. TFT gave me the crunch, some articles from Space Gamer and Interplay magazines gave me sci-fi technology, and Universe provided inspiration for skills, exploration and aliens. With a pen and a legal pad I set forth creating my first homebrew, which I think had FEDERATION scrawled at the top.

* to be fair, I fell hard for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, too, so it's not like I have a curse or anything

By the end of that summer, my friends and I sat down to play my adventure. It had something to do with the Enterprise finding itself trapped in a void, a castle, robot guardians and probably had more than a passing resemblance to the Doctor Who story "Warriors' Gate". I don't recall the specifics, but I don't think it went well. Sadly, the legal pad is long gone, its pages stored in the Universe box which went in one of many yard sales I've had over the years. I've since recovered Universe, but if you happen to come across those yellow pages, please contact me.

Coming up in Part 2: a look at various Trek homebrews from over the years with links to those that are available