Heritage Star Trek and Different Worlds

With the exception of a very few more miniatures sets, this post will wrap up my coverage of Heritage Models and Star Trek adventure gaming. Frankly, I'm surprised I've managed to get this many words out of the subject. At this rate, it may take me 4 years to cover FASA!

As I detailed in my two part review of Star Trek Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, the game's biggest weaknesses were that a) it didn't feel like Star Trek, despite all the name-dropping, and; b) there are virtually no rules covering themes of exploration, character building, starships and starship combat. In the age before the Internet, it would require some fan-written works published in a magazine called Different Worlds.

Different Worlds began publication in 1979, amongst other adventure gaming magazines at the time such as The Space Gamer, Dragon, White Dwarf, Journal of the Travellers Aid Society and, shortly after, Ares. Despite the fact that it was published by Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest), it remained remarkably independent in its focus on fantasy, sci-fi and horror games regardless of publisher, thanks in no small part to the vision of its editor Tadashi Ehara. It's also the only gaming magazine I remember that had a wonderful industry gossip column, "A Letter from Gigi". For someone like myself who was 15 years old at the time, it was really the only way I knew who was who working for whom on what way back when. Did I mention there was no Internet yet?

In Issue #4 (Aug/Sept 1979, above) DW published "A Star Trek Scenario Report: Kirk On Karit 2" by Emmet F. Milestone. The three-page tongue-in-cheek article is a little bit review of STAGFF, some background on the one-shot adventure the author created to run at DunDraCon IV, and special rules he created for STAGFF.

Kirk has Spock run a survey scan of the space surrounding Karit II. The sensors show the presence of a Klingon scout and an entirely alien vessel which appears to be a derelict from its utter silence on all the EM bands. Kirk decides that investigation of the geological disturbances has top priority, so he leaves Scotty in charge of the Enterprise and beams down to the planetary surface with Spock, McCoy, Lt. Uhura, and four security guards. The landing party materializes in front of the only entrance to a huge white dome.

As the people of the starship accustom themselves to the new environment of Karit II, the great double doors of the dome burst open and a group of figures comes flying from within. Three giant humanoid insects are obviously pursuing the lead entity, an orange floroid resembling a carrot, all using jump harnesses. The insects open fire with their disruptors and scorch the plant-man, who dives for cover.

The insectoids, it turns out, are Dreenoi from the 1974 sci-fi miniatures game Starguard (a game which still lives today!). Milestone provides STAGFF statistics for Dreenoi Warriors and Brain Bugs as well as the carrot of Karit II, Karitan Alpha. The noble crew of the Enterprise must infiltrate the mysterious dome, fighting off Dreenoi and Klingons, and repair a machine before the planet destroys itself. And along the way, Kirk may have to seduce a female Klingon lieutenant. In order to pull this off, Milestone created two additional mechanics for STAGFF, "Falling in Love" and "Making a Pass", noting that "Kirk never has luck in love, and can't add his Luck modifier" to his scores as a result.

In Issue #18 (January 1982, right) DW published the more serious and useful "Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier" by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh, one of the most prolific writers of gaming articles at the time (see Jeff Rients' Gameblog for two posts about the late, great Mr. Crabaugh). The article almost accomplished more in its six pages than STAGFF did in its 30+ pages. How much?

Written to supplement Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier role-playing rules, this variant covers a wide range of topics including Experience, Skills, Aging, Salaries, Price Lists, The Referee 's Role, Chain of Command, and World Generation.

Not only that, but Crabaugh included tables for determining crew member species, rank, bonuses and skills, type of starship, warp speeds, department assignment, tech levels and about a hundred more pieces of equipment. In short, Crabaugh single-handedly managed to take STAGFF and transform it into a role-playing game, one worthy of campaigns rather than one shot, landing party dungeon crawls. It's an amazing achievement, eclipsed only by the fact that FASA's Star Trek The Role Playing Game would come out later that same year.

In fact, I would go so far to say that STAGFF combined with Crabaugh's "Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier" resulted in the first true Star Trek role-playing game as we know it.

Things coming up on Groknard: FGU's Starships & Spacemen, ADB's Prime Directive series yesterday and today, more FASA and Citadel miniatures, another surprise, two hybrid "role-playing boardgames" and -- in two weeks! -- my inevitable reviews of the new Star Trek film and its CD score by Michael Giacchino. Today, however, I'm off to EndGame in Oakland for their 6th Annual EndGame Auction!

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

White Dwarf #18, Citadel and the TMP game

I'd actually planned on covering this in a few weeks once I had wrapped up my series on Heritage's Trek game, but the item in question just came up on eBay and it's rare, so this will double as Auction of the Week (link to eBay listing for White Dwarf #18, left).

White Dwarf is the insanely old UK magazine dedicated to science fiction and fantasy wargames, miniatures and role-playing games. It started its run in 1977 and is still going today, although its focus has been almost exclusively on publisher Games Workshop's own gaming products since the mid-80s.

In early 1979, GW helped form the spinoff company Citadel Miniatures, which itself partnered with Ral Partha miniatures here in the States for manufacturing and distribution. Citadel released miniatures based on a number of licensed properties including games such as Traveller, D&D and RuneQuest, and other media properties such as my beloved Doctor Who, Judge Dredd and, in 1980, Star Trek. Specifically, miniatures based on the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As I have with the Heritage, FASA and other Trek minis, I'll be covering that range in more detail soon.

In a move somewhat similar to that of Heritage, White Dwarf published a 4-page article in its April/May 1980 issue (#18) called "Star Trek The Motion Picture - Rules for Adventures in the Final Frontier" by GW/WD regulars Tony Yates (artist, AD&D Field Folio) and Steve Jackson (no, not that one, but rather the WD Editor and co-founder of GW, who probably is long tired of disclaimers like this after his name). The article consisted of about a page-and-a-half of actual rules, a game scenario, a map of the Enterprise Main Bridge (TOS version) that was obviously traced directly from Franz Joseph's Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, and a one page "Alien Descriptions & Painting Guide".

As you've probably guessed, the article is not so much a detailed game as it is an incentive to run out and purchase the Citadel miniatures. "These are an introductory set of adventure rules for Star Trek games," the article begins. "They serve as a basis for conducting role-playing games and tabletop battles with miniature figures. Two people may normally play, one playing Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise crew, the other playing the enemy." It encourages readers to expand upon the rules and submit their ideas and further scenarios to White Dwarf, but I'm not aware that anything further was published.

The game requires three 6-sided dice and a pair of 20-sided percentage dice (in those days, 20-sided dice usually numbered 0-9, twice), and a ruler to determine movement, range, line-of-sight and so on. Each character has two stats: Ability Factor and Combat Factor of 3-18, checked by rolling under using a D20 and a D6 (the D6 is used to determine whether to add "10" to the result of the D20, i.e. was the result a "4" or a "14"). AF is used to determine success on pretty much any plausible action that is not combat, such as a repair, a translation or an alien special power. For the sake of comparison:

Admiral Kirk: AF 18, CF 17
Mr. Spock: AF 17, CF 18
Rand: AF 14, CF 11
Klingon Leader: AF 16, CF 16

Ah, and to think that I used to admire The Fantasy Trip for getting away with 3 stats!

Other rules detail the Turn Sequence, Movement, Combat ("Remember that Starfleet Regulations also require that all phasers carried by Strfleet personnel must be set to stun only at all times except in extreme circumstances or when firing at inanimate objects"), Close Combat and the Hero's Roll (basically a saving roll against death for elite characters, which apparently does not include Chekov).

The scenario, "A Guided Tour" has the Enterprise crew in drydock, giving a tour to the wide variety of alien miniatures available from your local Citadel dealer. While on the bridge, the Klingon representative gets a little too nosy about the computer system, is confronted, pulls a weapon, and action/hilarity ensues. Some aliens will ally with the Federation, some with the Klingons, and others will be neutral unless a dice roll says they're not. The Klingons win when they kill Kirk, Decker or Spock, thus changing history and preventing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

The article closes with a list of the miniatures, their game stats and a very simple painting guide that has as about much detail as the game itself. In short, it's not much of a miniatures game, and even less of a role-playing game (even for the time), but it probably squeezes about one evening of fun into its 4 pages. The highlight of the issue is actually a cool 6-page D&D adventure, "The Halls of Tizun Thane" by Albie Fiore that's much better than the Trek game.

If you collect or intend to collect the Citadel miniatures, the magazine is a worthy companion to your collection, especially if you can nab it in the Auction of the Week for $3 plus shipping. If nothing else, magazines from this time period are a great trip down memory lane, sometimes just for the advertisements and new game announcements (like TSR's Top Secret) and reviews.

There is also a full page ad for Citadel Miniatures Ltd near the front of the magazine, prominently featuring an advertisement for the STTMP 25mm miniatures range, and listing the figures (noting that each pack was 50p, and contained two different poses/figures even though Kirk actually had a 3rd variant):

ST1 Captain Kirk
ST2 Mr. Spock (right, painted by Mark Dixon)
ST3 Dr. "Bones" Mccoy
ST4 Scotty & Chekov
ST5 Sulu & Willard Decker
ST6 Uhura & Christine Chapel
ST7 Ilia & Janice Rand
ST8 Enterprise Crew
ST9 Security Guards
ST10 Vulcans
ST11 Deltans
ST12 Klingons
ST13 Aaamazzarites
ST14 Kazarites
ST15 Betalgeusians
ST16 Arcturians
ST17 Zaranites
ST18 K'normians
ST19 Rigellians
ST20 Rhaandrites
ST21 Shamin Priests
ST22 Megarites
ST23 Saurians
ST24 Andoreans

Note - It does not list the four 54mm miniatures that were released in 1980, which I include here just for reference:

ST5401 Captain Kirk Seated at Helm
ST5402 Mister Spock
ST5403 Ilia in Deltan Leisure Dress
ST5404 Klingon raider with Laser Pistol

Again, I'll be covering as many of the figures as I can at a later date. In the meantime, you can check out the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki for a nearly complete reference on the range.

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