Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 7/8/09

This could be a killer deal for someone. 10 of Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek The Roleplaying Game books, currently at $5.50 (plus lots of shipping!).

- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Core Game Book (LUG 25000, 1998)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Narrator's Toolkit (LUG 25001, 1998)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Player's Guide (LUG 25002, 1999)
- The Price of Freedom - The United Federation of Planets Sourcebook (LUG 25100, 1999)
- The First Line - Starfleet Intelligence Handbook (LUG 25101, 1998)
- The Way of Kolinahr - The Vulcans (LUG 25103, 1998)
- Planetary Adventures - Federation Space Volume 1 (LUG 25301, 1999)
- The Way of D'era - The Romulan Star Empire Boxed Set (LUG 25500, 1999)
- Star Trek: The Original Series - Core Game Book (LUG 45000, 1999)
- All Our Yesterdays - The Time Travel Sourcebook (LUG 15002, 1999)

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Looking Back 10 Years Ago

Just a quick entry here, because the meat is elsewhere. I ran across an entry from the SF Gaming column of RPGnet, a June 1999 interview that James Maliszewski (of Rogue Games and Grognardia fame) did with Ross A. Isaacs, author, designer and line editor of so much of the Last Unicorn Games and Decipher Star Trek role-playing games. I think Ross is at Eden Studios these days. I think. Actually, I'm not sure what's going on with Eden these days.

From the interview:

"Star Trek, as an RPG, must create new material to remain viable. The great thing is that Paramount understands this, and actually looks forward to seeing what we come up with."

*sigh*

"In the coming months, you'll learn about the Federation's Merchant Marines, Starfleet's organization, Starfleet Intelligence, Vulcan's dark past, where Mount Seleya is located, Risan history, Tellarite cities, and all about Romulan culture and space. Next year, we're going to tackle the Tholians, the Klingons and Cardassians. Will you see "original" material? Heck ya!"

*double sigh*

Anyway, check out the full Isaacs interview, a great blast from the past. And when you're done with that, check out James' inteview with author/developer Kenneth Hite from the same period.

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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!
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EDIT 6/25/09: Also, check out this seller's $2 Buy It Now Star Trek FASA Modules!

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Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 5/27/09

This (link to eBay) -- a box set of Last Unicorn's Star Trek Away Team Miniatures -- was going to be auction of the week... until it went to $70 in less than a day in a bidding war between two bidders, with over 4 days left. Crazy! Two months ago, they'd be lucky to get $20 for it. Oh well... (EDIT 5/28: WTH?!?! Nevermind, back down to $10).

That's okay. Get a load of this lot (left)! Nine books from Last Unicorn Games' Trek RPGs:

• STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION CORE GAME BOOK
• PLAYER'S GUIDE
• THE PRICE OF FREEDOM - THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS SOURCEBOOK
• PLANETARY ADVENTURES: Vol. 1 FEDERATION SPACE
• THE WAY OF KOLINAHR - THE VULCANS
• HOLODECK ADVENTURES
• DEEP SPACE NINE CORE GAME BOOK
• RAIDERS, RENEGADES, AND ROGUES
• ALL OUR YESTERDAYS: THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE TIME TRAVEL SOURCEBOOK

That's enough to keep you busy for years!

Still, you should pick this up while your at it: LUG's Star Trek Roleplaying Game TOS Core Series Book. Now we're talkin'.

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LUG 25600 - Federation Away Team Miniatures

Manufacturer: Last Unicorn Games

Set #: 25600

Scale: 28mm

Year: 1998

MSRP: $19.99

Contents: Boxed set (8" x 6" x 1.5") containing 7 pewter miniatures (detailed below) packed in foam; no inserts

Additional Notes: Although the Memory Alpha Wiki quotes the package as saying 25mm, that text is not on the box. The figures measure 28mm from top of base to eye level.

Each figure is marked on the bottom with some variation of copyrights for both Paramount and Last Unicorn (ex: © paramount, © 1998 paramount, © lug, etc.)

This was the only set of minatures released by Last Unicorn Games for the Star Trek Roleplaying Game. I can't find any indication that any other were announced in print. I've read that starship miniatures were said to be forthcoming, perhaps related to the announced (but also unreleased) ENGAGE! Starship Mission Simulator: Battle of Wolf 359 set (#65000, $35, due 9/99) listed in the back of some of the books.

Here are the miniatures, with my best guess as to who is who (as listed on the box), based on what they're carrying (click for larger images):

Security Chief; Security Personnel (1 of 2); Lt. Commander Worf; Science Specialist

Security Personnel (2 of 2); Medical Technician; Science Officer

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LUG Treks - The Lost and Untaken

Next to the FASA system, my favorite of the Trek RPG systems out there was that of Last Unicorn Games. Although its ICON system was a bit unusual, the rules were presented clearly and had a simplicity that the other games lacked, in my opinion. And it really feels like Star Trek. Some may disagree with their approach -- that is, releasing separate core books for TOS, TNG and DS9, leading to duplication and making it expensive to be a completist -- but when I compare it to Decipher's one-size-fits-all approach, I think LUG came out ahead.

Unfortunately, the strategy backfired when LUG was cut down in its prime in 2000 by its own finances, the Wizards of the Coast acquisition, and the subsequent granting of the Trek license to Decipher. As a result, a number of key parts of the Star Trek universe that were planned to be detailed by LUG never saw publication.

Thanks be to the Prophets for the Internet.

If you're a long-time LUG fan and player, you probably already know about the "lost" LUGTrek material. But if you're new to the hobby or just now picking up the books from eBay or online retailers, you'll want to check into these sites that have additional resources available for the game, and give you a glimpse of nearly half of the books that never saw the light of day*. Regardless of your favored system, these sites are well worth bookmarking and checking out.

Untaken Treks: The Unpublished LUGtrek Work of S. John Ross - SJR is one of the best writers and designers in the RPG industry. He's contributed to GURPS, WOTC and others, and for LUG wrote the fantastic Star Trek: The Original Series - Narrator's Toolkit and co-authored Among the Clans: The Andorians and others. Untaken Treks is the collection of his unpublished material for the LUGTrek RPG, and features draft excerpts from books such as Final Frontiers: The Star Trek Films, Sky Princes of Orion, The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor, The Starfleet Exploration Handbook: To Boldly Go and more.

Steve Kenson's Star Trek: The Lost Episodes - Despite his insanely long CV, Steve is probably best known for Green Ronin Publishing's d20 superhero game Mutants and Masterminds and the True20 roleplaying system. As part of the LUG writers pool, he was a contributor to the DS9 Roleplaying Game, Planetary Adventures 1, and the box-sets The Way of D'era and Starfleet Academy. The Lost Episodes features his unpublished contributions to The Cardassian Union: Iron and Ash, The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor, The Starfleet Security Handbook, and Through a Glass Darkly: The Mirror Universe and more.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't point out Owen Oulton's wonderful Memory Icon, part of his Adventure Gaming in the Star Trek Universe website. Here he hosts the Official Last Unicorn Games support materials, official errata, and many fan creations. Perhaps most notable is SpaceDock! by Steve Long (HERO Games), a collection of rules and resources based on what was planned to be part of the books The Starfleet Starship Construction and Ship Recognition Manuals. Despite the dissolution of LUG, Steve kept working on the texts, and the end result is an incredibly complete and professional set of PDFs -- hundreds of pages that cover nearly everything from TOS to the Dominion War, all for free.

For a "dead system" LUG's Star Trek Roleplaying Game has more life and depth to it than many living, breathing RPGs... all thanks to the talents and contributions of these generous individuals.

* According to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, Last Unicorn had planned the following books:

• Final Frontiers: The Star Trek Films
• The Star Trek Guide to Parallel Planets: Hodgkin's Law
• The Klingon Empire: Blood and Honor
• Operation Stormbird: The Neutral Zone Campaign Vol. 2
• The Starfleet Exploration Handbook: To Boldly Go
• The Starfleet Security Handbook
• Call of the Prophets: The Bajorans
• Dominion War: The Fires of Armageddon
• Merchants & Traders: The Latinum Main
• The Cardassian Union: Iron and Ash
• Through a Glass Darkly: The Mirror Universe
• The Starfleet Starship Construction Manual Vol. 1: Spacedock
• The Starfleet Starship Recognition Manual Vol. 1: The Ships of Starfleet
• The Borg
• Deep Space Nine Player's Guide
• The Orion Syndicate
• The Rigel System
• The Dominion Companion
• Star Trek: Voyager Core Game Book
• Sky Princes of Orion

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Trek Miniatures, Scale and Alternate Options

I took a huge new batch of photos of my miniatures today for future posts, and thought this would be a good opportunity to address the issue of scale between the different lines. It'll also be the first glimpse of some rarely seen miniatures other than those of Heritage, FASA and Citadel and I'll be showing more of these in the future.

And in honor of Bill's birthday (Happy 78th, Mr. Shatner!... not that he's a regular reader of Groknard) I'll kick it off with this, to the left. Here are 6 officially licensed Star Trek miniatures of Captain James T. Kirk (click for a larger closeup). In back is Heritage Models' 1978 75mm Collector Figure of Kirk (Heritage #1600). In the front, from left to right, is Heritage's 25mm Kirk (1604A), Citadel's 1980 25mm Captain Kirk Pose 1 (ST1), FASA's 1983 25mm Admiral Kirk from the Wrath of Khan Collector Series box (3001), USAopoly's pewter Kirk token from the 2000 boardgame Star Trek Limited Edition Monopoly, and the very rare Kirk token from the 1999 Italian boardgame by Ultimo Avamposto, Star Trek Adventure: Serie Classica.

Here's a close-up without Mega-Kirk (click for larger):

The Star Trek Limited Edition Monopoly tokens are really nice sculpts and I'll be posting all 8 from that game, as well as the Star Trek: The Next Generation version of the game soon. The nice thing is that they're somewhat easier to find than the miniatures from the 70s and 80s. As you can see (below), they're out of scale with 25mm figures, but pretty close to 28mm/30mm heroic scale. If you get these, then you can throw in monsters and Orion slave girls from other miniature lines. Although I had seen pics of the Monopoly Trek tokens, I couldn't find a single reference to measurements or comparative scale anywhere. Now I'll save you the trouble. Good for RPGs? I think so.


If you're looking for some 25mm miniatures for your Trek games, but you don't want to spend an arm and a leg, check out the MegaMiniatures "Bridge Crew" lead-free pewter line (PDF Catalog) of Trek-like figures and accessories. Very affordable and great sculpts that are easily modified and painted to look very close to either TOS or TNG eras. Here's one, on the far right. I think it's also a good illustration of the fact that "25mm" doesn't really tell you whether or not miniatures from different lines and manufacturers are really going to mesh well together. From foot-to-eye, MegaMinis are 28mm. Heritage and FASA minis are 25mm from foot-to-eye. Citadel Trek figures are more like 25mm from foot-to-top of head, and look stockier.

Transporters are always breaking down, so be sure your games have a shuttle available. Here's Monopoly Spock and Heritage Spock flanked by 3.5" long Galileo shuttles that aren't in perfect scale for the figures, but close enough and suitable for the game table. The shuttle on the left was one of Playmate's Innerspace series of micro ships, and the one on the right is the more easily obtained Johnny Lightning version. Don't get the Japanese Furuta import, it's barely 2 1/4" inches long.

One last one for today, for fans of TNG who probably feel somewhat left out on my blog, but shouldn't. I love the newer shows (Voyager not so much), and just haven't gotten to the LUG and Decipher eras yet. Here's Worf, one from LUG's one and only box set of miniatures for Star Trek The Next Generation Roleplaying Game, the 1998 Federation Away Team Miniatures (# 25600), along with the Worf token from Parker Brother's 1998 Star Trek: The Next Generation Collector's Edition Monopoly. More from that set later (does Wil Wheaton know he has his own mini???).

I hope this has helped some of you looking to start collecting and adding miniatures to your Star Trek RPG sessions. Look for more photos and details from all these lines over the next few months. In the meantime, coming up next, a look at years of homebrewed Star Trek RPGs adaptations for systems such as GURPS, Simply Roleplaying! and more.

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Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 2/8/09

One of the best Trek RPG supplements ever written, so good it influenced one of the series (Enterprise). Sadly, the only supplement (other than The Narrator's Toolkit) released by Last Unicorn Games for its TOS version of Star Trek Roleplaying Game. A useful resource for any of the Trek systems for one of the more neglected species of the Trek universe.

Star Trek RPG Last Unicorn Games Among the Clans - The Andorians




by the incomparable S. John Ross, with Steven S. Long and Adam Dickstein.

Shows up less and less on eBay these days. For complete details, check out the Memory Alpha wiki entry on this great book.

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