Star Trek Lives... at Origins 2009!

First off, if I'd had half a brain in my head these past few weeks, this should have been a post previewing the Origins Game Fair held last week (June 24-28) in my hometown of Columbus, OH at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. As it happens, it never occurred to me to even check the schedule until it was over, probably because I was bummed that I couldn't afford to go (and Gen Con still looks just as unlikely).

Post-con reports this week have been pretty much the same: attendance seemed slightly down compared to previous years, it didn't help that Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and Games Workshop didn't exhibit, but overall it was a great show for gaming. As someone who deals with tradeshows in the tech field, I have to tell you that shows this past year have been down at least a third, and I hear Origins didn't have anywhere near that kind of drop. Congratulations to the Game Manufacturers Association for that.

It looks like Origins 2009 was packed with fun for Trek gamers. First off, a big round of applause to Steve Cole and the folks at Amarillo Design Bureau for a great presence at the show, and for running Star Fleet Universe new player demos for all 5 days. Best way to introduce new players to the hobby. In fact, it sounds like it was a full plate for SFU players throughout the show with Federation & Empire (the strategic game of the SFU) games run upstairs, Federation Commander and Star Fleet Battles games and tournaments, and seminars and "The Sing-A-Long" (the company briefing). Here is a picture album that Bill Stec has posted to Photobucket.

And here are some tidbits from friend, Groknard reader and fellow Cardinal (Class of '86), Lee Hanna (thanks Lee!):

• F&E was rocking... 23 bodies at 4 tables, the room was definitely full
• Played in the "Errant Wind" game (General War delayed, Romulans and Klingons gang up on Federation; 4 turns played)
• Attended the Company briefing (aka the Sing-A-Long) and the F&E Seminar. Came away impressed with the continued openness by ADB's officers. Missed the SFB Tactics and FC seminars. A number of seminars were podcasted, so you can hear for yourself with more to come
• Little coverage and no play of the Prime Directive RPGs during the con :(
• ADB's sales were higher YOY in May 2009 than May 2008 and June's sales were double, perhaps due to the new Star Trek film?

(side note: great blog entry yesterday at Troll in the Corner regarding memories of the old Star Fleet Battles)

Also popular at Origins this year was the other venerable Star Trek wargame, FASA's Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. Chris Norton organized no less than four games of STSTCS in Hall D during the show based on Klingon vs IKS and Klingon vs Federation scenarios.

And here's one I wished I'd been in on: Ken Burnside's (Ad Astra Games) Squadron Strike with the scenario When Universes Collide - Babylon 5 vs Star Trek! I need to get me the SSDs for that and give the Star Trek universe a shot in a true 3D simulation game... In Valen's Name!

But it wasn't all miniatures and ConSims at Origins 2009. Prime Directive may have decided to skip the show (a shame, btw, considering that the new D20 Modern version rocks), but there was no lack (or variety!) of Star Trek role-playing games going on at the con. Tara Lydick of Blue Hen Gamers club, for instance, ran a LUG game called Which Came First? - "When the crew of the USS Blackhorse discover a new star system, can they successfully negotiate their way out of their strangest first?"

CODA games aplenty too! Patrick Goodman and I were talking on the phone the other day and he'd heard that his CODA Star Trek RPG Support Site came up in conversations during the show. Between the movie, a complete Trek game system for $35, and efforts like Patrick's, CODA has definitely proven itself to be the little Trek RPG that could. As for CODA games at Origins...

• Kevin Hake of Crimson Hand Gamers ran two games: Ports of Call, in which the USS Gryphon patrols the infamous Triangle, and Ports of Intrigue, where the crew goes undercover to investigate New Sahara... is it a black market or something more sinister?
• Kris Chester and Brandon Perdue also ran two CODA games: The Lost Colony, a TNG scenario, and The Treason Sharply, in which players could join the crew of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and gain honor in the hunt for a traitor to the Empire.

Last but not least was a FUDGE homebrew sponsored by Grey Ghost Press and organized by Gordon Cooper called The Monument. In this TOS-based scenario, a science vessel investigating the ruins of a lost civilization has disappeared... and there are reports of Klingon activity in the sector.

Not too shabby a showing for Trek at all. I'm definitely going to try to make it to next year's Origins (June 23-27, 2010) and I may have a couple of my own games to run as well (more on that later). In the meantime, Gen Con Indy 2009 is just 40 days away, and I see a few Trek games on deck. Hmmm... what is "Directive 7731"?

But wait! There's more.....

Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 6/25/09

I'm a little confused about what makes up this week's auction, so you may want to message the seller in advance for clarification. It's listed as DS9 RPG, the Next Gen RPG, The narrators guide, and the box set of The romulan Expansion, "the Path of D'ehra".

Based on the photos, I'm pretty sure it's Last Unicorn's 1999 releases of Star Trek Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game, the DS9 Narrator's Toolkit by Christian Moore and The Way of D'Era: The Romulan Star Empire boxset by Ross Isaacs (I don't see the box in the pics, though). Also included seems to be Decipher's CODA system release of Star Trek Roleplaying Game Narrator's Guide from 2002.

The D'Era release alone is difficult and expensive to get, so if you can snatch this for $10 plus shipping, that's a great deal. But it's not a fraction as good as the material in the underrated DS9 books, so consider getting it for those!
--
EDIT 6/25/09: Also, check out this seller's $2 Buy It Now Star Trek FASA Modules!

But wait! There's more.....

More Homebrew Updates and Tidbits

So many updates and tidbits to share, so little time to put it into a cohesive format. But I don't want to delay and today is a holiday, so I'll get them out here.

First, this (left) should put to rest the question "How big is the new Enterprise??". It's really the best photo reference yet in which we can compare scales. The new Enterprise is 23 meters long and 5 meters tall. Let that be the end of it.

The new movie has certainly kicked up interest in Trek role-playing, big time. Google Trends indicates searches have nearly tripled over the past few months (as has my own traffic here), activity related to Trek old and new has really increased over at TrekRPG.net, there seem to be at least 3 new threads a week at RPGnet about Trek, and bidding has been somewhat fierce over on eBay for a number of Trek games and supplements, especially FASA (I curse whoever it was that outbid me on the Romulan Ship Recognition Manual last night, lol). It's a shame that there's no new game to take advantage of it, but it seems to me that it just doesn't matter right now. Interest seems to be evenly split between FASA, CODA and homebrews, which is really wonderful.

Speaking of homebrews, that series of posts seems to have been one of the most popular here at Groknard. As it happens, there are some updates worth mentioning (in no particular order):

- Mike Berkey's brilliant Microlite20 Where No Man Has Gone Before has been updated a few times. It's in Version 2.0, but he continues to update it occasionally (including today!), so bets to bookmark it.

- Jerry Cornelius of the Triplanetary and Jetan blogs has a compelling Trek TAS adaptation for R. Talsorian's Mekton Zeta.

- I don't even remember how I found this (right), but I dig it! DT Butchino's To Boldly Go... A True Trek Sourcebook for Star Trek TOS (PDF via Sendspace) for Green Ronin's True20 system. Great layout, tons of fluff and crunch.

- Bob Portnell has put out a call to those who would eventually like to playtest his EZFudge adaptation of Final Frontier. Drop him a line at nvdaydreamer (at) gmail (dot) com. Details at his blog.

- Speaking of EZ, fans of Atomic Sock Monkey Press' PDQ (Prose Descriptive Qualities) System should check out a series of blog posts in which a group uses it for their Trek adventure. The posts cover character creation, character descriptions, and the three gameplay recaps. RPGNow offers the updated PDQ# (PDQ Sharp), the basis of ASM's Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies RPG, for free.

- Although Adamant Entertainment has cancelled plans for their Mongoose Traveller sourcebook, Final Frontier, an effort to do a Trek homebrew for MgT has kicked up over at TrekRPGnet. Please jump in if you'd like to assist in this effort.

- Also at TrekRPGnet, CODA stats for the crew of the new Star Trek film and a call for submissions for a CODA Klingon Sourcebook is underway.

- At RPGnet, an effort to map out Trek for Troll Lord Games' StarSIEGE: Event Horizon, itself adapted from their Castles & Crusades d20-like re-imagining of OD&D.

- Again at RPGnet, running a Star Trek game using Cubicle 7's FATE-based Starblazer Adventures.

- GURPS and GURPS PD fans take note: Steve Jackson Games recently released the latest PDF from David Pulver's excellent GURPS Spaceship series, GURPS Spaceships 3: Warships and Space Pirate, which includes the "Intrepid Class Frontier Cruiser" which seems an awful lot like the Enterprise, and the stealthy "Eclipse-Class Battle Cruiser" which could possibly pass for a Klingon D-7 K'tinga class cruiser. Just sayin'...

- Speaking of GURPS Prime Directive, two threads over at the SJG forums about adapting the new Trek film to GURPS PD.

- Not necessarily Trek related, but Jason of Elf Lair Games has mentioned on his new blog that he's planning a science fantasy/space opera game (a "settingless toolkit") called Twelve Parsecs™. I absolutely love Elf Lair's Spellcraft & Swordplay, and you know what I'll be thinking about doing with this when it's released. It's still some time away, but I wish ELG best of luck as they get started on all these great endeavors. An Old-School Renaissance Space Opera game... yippee!

- Again, how did I find this? Bridge Crew by James Mullen over at the 1KM1KT collection of free rpg games, which is described as "a simple, narrativist style RPG of cheesy space opera, very much in the mode of a certain well known, heavily franchised TV show". I usually run from anything that says "narrativist", but there are a few interesting ideas worth mining here.

- You already know about the supremely cool Star Trek Miniature Maker, don't you?

- Remember my translation for Tsukuda Hobby's Enterprise Star Trek RPG from 1983? I was told awhile back that it ended up online. No biggie, glad to know it's out there and I can't be held responsible for distributing it! Anyway, I ran across it over at Scribd. Thank you, Vina, whoever you are. It even got a comment in Japanese: "This is a good translation. Thank you." Phew! I even found a copy of my Mothra vs Godzilla boardgame translation at Scribd. What next? My grade school book reports?

- And speaking of my projects, I have actually decided to postpone my TOS adaptation for Thousand Suns. Instead I will be doing one based on the new film. Why? Two reasons. One, as these posts make clear, there are already tons of options for playing TOS. I'll get to it, but there's just no rush. Second, I want to play in this new sandbox, both as a writer and as a player. "I like this ship! It's exciting!" There's a lot of freedom there, whether it be in deck plans for the new Enterprise, the backstory of events leading up to and following the Kelvin incident, and mapping out what could happen next. Thousand Suns is still the perfect choice to do so, so that won't change.

- Following that, there will be two, possibly three projects. One (or two) is a Trek game based on a wholly original system I've been working on, one that takes an approach similar to my beloved The Fantasy Trip games like Melee (1977) and combines that with elements similar to the RPG portions of starship combat of the FASA system and the exploration themes in boardgames such as FGU's Star Explorer (1982) and West End Games' Star Trek The Adventure Game (1985). I've already started writing it, though I'm hashing out some high-level details about how many books and how to break it down. I think it's going to be pretty different from much of what's out there, and I wouldn't categorize it strictly as an RPG. It's much more of an "adventure game" that will either have broad appeal... or no appeal at all! Nevertheless, I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's going to be the Star Trek game I've always wanted. I'll keep readers updated and, as I said, I also plan on returning to TSFF. All of these projects will benefit from each other.

That's all for now!

EDIT 5/27: Adam reminds me below that Owen Oulton of Memory Icon has been busy posting updates to his Rising Sun Campaign for LUG's Star Trek RPG. Of special note are new additions such as a full-color map of the infamous Triangle boardering Federation, Romulan and Klingon space, and Starbase T-1. Be sure to check out the extensive deckplans for the SS Rising Sun itself!

But wait! There's more.....

The Shape of Things to Come

I've previously mentioned Patrick Goodman's invaluable CODA Support Site which, along with the TrekRPGNet Forums, has kept Decipher's Star Trek Roleplaying Game the most current and relevant of the Trek RPGs. Patrick and contributors to his CODA site have been pumping out a lot of great new material over the past few months and last night, he gave us another preview of a project he's been working on: Starships of the Star Fleet Technical Manual.

Last month he gave us a look at the cover (JPG) and a single page for the Constitution Class (PDF). Last night, as a gift to the community for his birthday, he previewed the starship (PDF) that IMHO best defines my nostalgia for Franz Joseph's wonderful book.

I won't say anymore so as not to spoil the surprise. Just note that there are two pages, and Patrick is working hard to finish the project by May 8th (to coincide with the release of the film). Thanks, Patrick, and Happy Birthday!

But wait! There's more.....

Get an Entire Trek RPG for $35

Well, sure, you can pick up one of the original FASA boxes on eBay for about $10 these days, but that really only gives you enough to run and play Trek games in the TOS timeline (not that there's anything wrong with it). What if Voyager is the way you roll? What if you want to compare, say, the Mugato! to the Malgorian of Bajor? What are the stats for Species 8472? Then Decipher's Star Trek Roleplaying Game based on their CODA system may be for you. And there's probably never a better time to pick it up -- all of it!

6 hardcover books and a Narrator Screen were released from 2002 - 2003, and apparently they've entered the mysterious void known as remaindered stock. Probably the best deal on teh Interwebs is that to be found at Hill's Wholesale Gaming, where they're offering the entire lot for $35 plus shipping. Just need one or two? $6 each. Considering the MSRP for the books was about $25 each when they came out... well, you do the math. My brain is tired today.

Here's what's available:

• Star Trek Roleplaying Game Player's Guide (2002) DCR 900


• Star Trek Roleplaying Game Narrator's Guide (2002) DCR 901


• Star Trek Narrator's Screen (2003) DCR 103339


• Starfleet Operations Manual (2003) DCR 103525


• Starships (2003) DCR 103527


• Aliens (2003) DCR 103604


• Creatures (2003) DCR 103607

By the way, when creating the image above, I inadvertently included included Worlds which, along with Mirror Universe: Through a Glass Darkly, was not published, but only released as a PDF in 2005, and now long gone. Don't expect to get it with your order!

To be clear, I'm really not fond of the mechanics of the CODA system, which is really similar to the d20 approach but using 2D6 for resolution. I also prefer the "era specific" approach of other games as I feel that different eras are going to be played differently. Finally, the errata was out of control to the point where I'd say it was nearly unplayable out of the box (see below). But at this price they're certainly worth it just as an awesome resource, especially if you're building your own Trek campaign for your favorite system. The fluff is excellent, the advice for gamemasters is considered and well-written and it's a helluva lot less expensive than tracking down an equivalent amount of the LUG releases. And they look reelly purty, too.

Also, I'm not pimpin' for Hill's Wholesale Gaming. In fact, I had a bit of difficulty with them on eBay when they had a very difficult time just filling an order correctly. Twice. It all worked out in the end, and you can look at their eBay profile to see that they're generally fine to deal with; but be aware that they're high volume and possibly a little prone to error or slowness at times (the books, once I got them, were immaculate). Great place to go right now for Decipher's Lord of the Rings RPG and Mongoose's Babylon 5 RPG, Conan RPG, the Starship Troopers Miniatures Game and the Starship Troopers RPG. They, too, have gone beyond the Rim...

If you do decide to hop on board the CODA express, get yourself right over to Patrick Goodman's CODA Support Site where you'll find a wealth of great resources for CODA Trek including an ICON to CODA conversion guide, extensive errata for a number of the books, character generation aids, 10 issues of the Beyond the Final Frontier netzine, and more. Patrick's done the Trek RPG community a real service by keeping this stuff available, plus he's been adding a great deal of new material over the past few months, with more to come (including one eBook that's going to be fantastic!). Bookmark it.

But wait! There's more.....

The Nail in Decipher Trek's Coffin?

(Note from Robert: Credit to Taliesen at the TrekRPGNet forum for posting the link to this story and adding some verification to it. Very sad. No wonder CBS doesn't have faith in dealing with any potential licensees for a Trek RPG right now. Not to get all political, but it's thieves like this that have helped dump our economy where it is now. It's thieves like this that do damage to the RPG industry and its reputation. It's thieves like this that left books unpublished and writers unpaid. What a winner.)

Norfolk man pleads guilty to embezzling more than $1.5m

By Michelle Washington, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 10, 2009

As vice president of finance for Decipher Inc., Rick Eddleman controlled every aspect of the company's money.

His brother-in-law, Warren Holland, had founded the Norfolk-based company in 1983. It quickly took off, producing and selling a line of collectible and role-playing card games such as "How to Host a Murder," "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars."

Holland hired Eddleman to work part time on Decipher's computer systems. By the end of 1992, Holland asked Eddleman to become vice president of finances for the company.

Prosecutors say Eddleman embezzled more than $1.5 million from the company over nine years.


Click here for the rest of the story...

But wait! There's more.....