OT: I have entered BIZARRO WORLD

"It am an international crisis! Quick, Bizarro President! Go to sleep!"

In BIZARRO WORLD, California native Robert "Groknard" Saint John stays home during the weekend of July 23-26. His wife, Barbe, goes to the completely sold-out San Diego Comic-Con. It must be BIZARRO WORLD (or the Mirror Universe), because in our universe, Barbe hates comics, science fiction, movies, Star Trek, San Diego, gaming and crowds.

But she does love, LOVE, The Mighty Boosh. And apparently BBC Worldwide are bringing creator / stars Julian Barratt (Howard Moon) and Noel Fielding (Vince Noir) along with co-stars Michael Fielding (Naboo), Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil) and Dave Brown (Bollo) to Comic-Con. She must be there. So, against all odds, we managed to score her a ticket this evening on eBay through SDCC's official last minute auction.

Oh sure, Russell T. Davies, David Tennant, Julie Gardner and Euros Lyn from Doctor Who are going to be there. John Barrowman and Eve Myles from Torchwood? There. Star Trek's J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman? Yep, but they're there for Fringe. Apparently Star Trek won't have an offcial presence at SDCC this year. Maybe.

But this is BIZARRO WORLD, and as such, I don't care. Really. Of course, now Barbe has to find a hotel room for under $1000 in San Diego County. HAH!

Come with me now on a journey through time and space...... To the world of The Mighty Boosh....



And from my absolute favorite episode, Nanageddon, with my favorite characters, Saboo and Tony Harrison of the Board of Shaman...

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OT: Review of Star Trek Countdown TPB

As I mentioned a few days ago, I managed to hit the lottery and get my copy of the Star Trek: Countdown trade paperback (TPB) very early from Amazon, despite the fact that the final issue of the comic book (Issue #4) won't hit streets until next week, and the TPB won't be out until April 7th (or 29th, depending on who you ask). Personally I would have preferred to win a real lottery, but that's no reflection of my opinion of Countdown itself. I skipped the comics as I always do these days, preferring to wait for the collected versions to be released. It's often less expensive (as it was in this case) and sometimes you get extras (as you do here, I suspect).

This will be a spoiler-light review, as so few have even seen the concluding Issue #4 yet. As quick background to tell you where I'm coming from (I don't think I've ever spelled it out here before), I'm a fan of most things Star Trek. I love the Original Series, but love most of the new shows as well. I thought TNG was great, DS9 was brilliant, and I even enjoyed Enterprise. Voyager? Not so much. I didn't think it was bad, I just never found it engaging. I love most of the films; Wrath of Khan is my favorite, with Undiscovered Country a close second. Nemesis was an unforgiveable mess. As for the upcoming JJ Abrams film, I'm thrilled about it. The casting looks great, what I know of the storyline sounds fun and respectful of Trek, the trailers have made my heart leap, and I even like the new Enterprise design. I have a few concerns, but I'm really open-minded about it. I generally don't read Trek novels or comic books. It's been said I have an interest in Trek RPGs. So, with my creds out of the way, here's my review.

Star Trek: Countdown is a prequel of sorts to the upcoming film, but takes place completely in the post-Nemesis Next Gen timeframe (Stardate 64333.4, or 2387, 8 years after Nemesis). Countdown is really the story of a Romulan named Nero, a hardworking family man who captains a mining vessel. After barely avoiding a stellar catastrophe, he returns to Romulus with a warning of the pending doom that threatens the entire Romulan Empire. When his fears are rejected, he decides to take on a mission to save his world with the help of some unlikely (and familiar) allies from the Federation. But events will not go as planned, great losses will be incurred, and a villain intent on utter vengeance will rise from the ashes.

Short spoiler-free review: STC is a pleasant, fairly compelling story with wonderful art by David Messina. The TPB includes 5 pages of character sketches by the artist (example left) that may not be included in Issue #4, which alone may make it worth picking up the TPB. Despite being intended as a direct prequel to the film, STC stands very well on its own right up to the non-cliffhanger ending. The best aspect of it is the "passing of the torch" feel because of the inclusion of many well-loved characters, undoing some damage inflicted by Nemesis. I found the quality of both the character art and the space battles to be exceptional, the best I've ever seen in a Trek comic. I can't judge how well it succeeds as a prequel at this point, but the story and some specifics in it do raise some questions about some pre-conceptions fans (including myself) have about the movie storyline. The series is let down, however, but some plot-holes and grade school science fiction that I sincerely hope are not going to creep into the film itself.

Some light spoilers follow, so if you want to be surprised, stop reading now.

I've seen some criticisms leveled at Messina's character art, but I found it to be very good. I'd buy more Trek comics if the quality of the art and story were as good as this. His renderings of Spock, in particular, are just excellent. If I have any criticism about the art, it's that the few female characters in the book all seem to suffer from BBS (Big Boob Syndrome). It's bad enough that there is really only one female character of consequence in the story, but the rest are just eye candy for the boys. The character sketch section in the back and Giovanna Niro's cover are wonderful.

As I indicated above, I thought the story was better than average. Despite the number of cameos (Spock, Data, Picard, Geordi, Worf, Remans and even a bit of Kirk), they didn't feel forced. It's good to see how the characters have moved up over the years, though there's really no time for development of anyone except Nero himself and, to some extent, Spock. The quiet moments are the best. Unfortunately, I feel that the story and Nero's progression is really let down by the contrived cataclysm of the Hobus system supernova. It's never explained how the explosion could possibly endanger Romulus so quickly, let alone Vulcan and the Federation, let alone the whole damn galaxy. And when Spock tells the Vulcan council, "It threatens the entire Universe," without any further explanation, it just goes from bad science fiction to stupid. It's like the danger keeps being exaggerated every few pages, to the point where you expect someone to say, "Even God Himself will disappear from Existence." Hopefully this is the conceit of writers Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, because I'd hate to see Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who provided the story itself) put this kind of crap science fiction into Star Trek. I also have to wonder about what seemed to me to be a big plot hole, specifically that if the danger to Romulus was so immediate, why in the world would Nero have left his family there?

But those are the only big weaknesses that jumped out at me. The fourth part does contain a (near death?) surprise that is left a bit unresolved, but I was impressed by how self-contained the story was because of the conclusion. Countdown could lead directly into the movie, or standalone on its own. It does seem to raise some questions about what I thought I had gleaned from the trailers and bits of gossip that have been discussed over the past year. For example if, in fact, we did see a glimpse of Nero in chains with Klingon captors in one of the early trailers, it's hard to reconcile that with the events of the comic. It's also difficult for me to guess how some of the background elements (Nero's fall, the destruction of Romulus, the Borgified Nerada, decalithium and red matter) will be incorporated into the movie without depending on the backstory presented in the book. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Taken as a whole, however, and as a way to distract myself from my own personal countdown to the movie (as my mother said today, "May can't come fast enough!"), STC TPB is a great little read, well worth the price. I wouldn't be at all disappointed to see the same team do more projects of this kind, as long as they do a little reading about basic science and astronomy first.

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OT: Goodbye San Francisco

Apparently the destruction of San Francisco is a good way to market the upcoming Star Trek film. At least Spain thinks so. Sheesh! First they take away the Starfleet Construction Yards, and now this. And what did we ever do to Spain?

Anyway, here is one (left, click for larger) of the many European posters now showing up online for the new movie. TrekMovie.com has four or five very different versions up today, really gorgeous stuff.

It just occured to me that I think this is the 3rd or 4th time the Golden Gate Bridge has been used in a Star Trek movie poster. No wonder I ended up here!

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OT: Star Trek Countdown TPB

Apparently I'm the only person in the world who actually got this today. Through some twist of the space-time continuum, UPS delivered my Amazon pre-order of the trade paperback version of IDW's Star Trek: Countdown, the collected version of issues 1-4. Two weeks early. Before Issue #4 has even been released.

The countdown to the motion picture event of 2009 begins here, in the exclusive comics prequel to Star Trek, the upcoming blockbuster film from Paramount Pictures! JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman present the origin of Nero, the mysterious Romulan who will ultimately threaten the survival of the entire universe.

I suspect Nero himself had something to do with me getting this. Forbidding events have been set in motion. I already feel time changing. I sense that... that... the Starfleet Construction Yards are moving from my own backyard here in San Francisco to... to... Iowa. Oh, dear. Things will never be the same.

Oh, and yeah, it's a really great read!!

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Here's to You, Gary

Just a brief post to note that which I wasn't around to acknowledge a year ago today, the passing of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. Like so many of us, D&D had a profound effect on my life in 1978, and was the gateway to whole other ways of enjoying life and downtime. It fired my imagination and was actually my entry to the fantasy genre as a whole.

I was never actually a huge fan of D&D itself, but I might never have discovered other RPGs such as The Fantasy Trip, Tunnels & Trolls, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller and (of course!) Star Trek if not for that Holmes Basic D&D set. I was so "hardcore SF" (for a snotty 13 year old) that I might also have missed the works of Tolkien, Leiber, Howard, Lovecraft and others had it not been for D&D. It was also my portal to other hobbies such as painting miniatures and contributed to my artistic and writing talents that were developing at the time.

I actually "left the hobby" long ago, or rather took a place far on the sidelines by the mid-80s. It was only the hubbub over the pending release of 4E that really made me take a closer look at the hobby again. And it was shortly after I "came home" that Gary died. Fortunately, I've seen his spirit live on and grow through the old school renaissance, a place in the hobby where I feel quite comfortable. Sure, much has evolved since then and I find myself as enamored with games such as CthulhuTech, Thousand Suns, Hot War and Mongoose's Traveller as I do Swords & Wizardry and Spellcraft & Swordplay. And (of course!) Star Trek RPGs, old and new.

But, for me, it all goes back to those after school and endless summer sessions of Dungeons & Dragons, and that all started with Gary & TSR.

So here's to you, Gary. Thanks -- far too belated -- for everything!

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WonderCon Day 1 Report

Back from Day One at WonderCon here in San Francisco. The streets surrounding the Moscone Center have Star Trek movie posters (like these, left) hanging from the street lights! Really impressive crowd for the first day, too.

Paramount was giving away the 4 posters pictured here, so I grabbed one of each. That was about it for my Star Trek haul. Didn't see any merchandise associated with the new film other than issues of the prequel comic series Star Trek: Countdown. I'm holding off on that until the compilation is released in April or May. Classic toys seemed all the rage in the Dealers' Room, though. Trek is definitely generating some excitement again.

A number of TV and movie personalities were there doing autographs. I was surprised when I saw Gary Lockwood (Gary Mitchell) at one of the booths! Then in the west of the Dealers' Room were a number of other personalities, many who'd appeared in Trek including Pamelyn Ferdin (child star of the 60s and 70s who was Mary in "And the Children Shall Lead"), Michelle Scarabelli (TNG "In Theory"), Bobby Clark (the Gorn!), super yummy (and still super yummy!) BarBara Luna (TOS "Mirror, Mirror"), Chase Masterson (DS9's Leeta), Malachi Throne and Sean Kenney (both in TOS "The Cage"), and more. I'm not an autograph person, but...

I did pick up the lush hardback of the Mouse Guard RPG and artist David Petersen not only autographed it, but sketched me a little mouse inside as well! I'm not at all familiar with Luke Crane's Burning Wheel rules system, but I've heard nothing but good things about the game, the price was right and the autograph was a plus.

Went to the The Once & Future Trek panel, and although only Daren Dochterman and TrekMovie's Tony Pascale were able to make it, there was a good turnout for the panel. Didn't learn anything new but it's always nice to attach a face to a name. Both were very funny and well-informed, and the crowd was mostly positive about the future of Trek (and not just the movie). People definitely still care, no matter what Voyager did (hahahaha). The guys showed some fun Trek clips including Star Trek Knights of the Round Table, a commercial for UK's National Power/Powergen featuring Shatner and Doohan in character, and what looked to be an anti-drugs PSA from the 70s built as a mashup of clips from Trek The Animated Series. At least I think it was for real, but I can't find it online, nor any reference to it... maybe it was just a fan mashup.

Anyway, that's my Day 1. I'll report back on Day 2 tomorrow with impressions following the big Paramount panel in the Main Hall!

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OT: WonderCon (and Trek!) in San Francisco

Taking the day off of work to start my 3 day weekend at WonderCon 2009 here in San Francisco! I'll have to get an early start because, after all, it's a whole 4 blocks away from where I live.

I like WonderCon. It's like San Diego Comic-Con... without the oppressive crowds and lines. No wonder (ha) because it's operated by the same group.

I'll definitely be swinging by the Dealer's Room, and Room 106 to check out the games, but I don't expect to catch much more than some game of Magic: The Gathering or D&D 4E. Maybe I'll finally get to see Monsterpocalypse in action. I need to start getting my own act together to run some games this year (Thousand Suns for sure, and maybe Enterprise with Heritage figures!)

Ooh, speaking of which #1: Rogue Games has just announced the release of Thousand Suns: Transmissions from Piper. I pre-ordered my hard copy from IPR last night and downloaded the PDF. Gonna load it up on the tineee eeeeePC and check it out during slow times at the con this weekend. Seems like I've been looking forward to this for ages. Hard to believe TS has only been out for a year. Really need to get back to work on TS: Final Frontier...

Ooh, speaking of which #2: I've finally finished translating every last word of Enterprise. 60 pages and 25,000 words. Phew. Looks really nice though. I'm having two copies professionally printed for myself, at which point one will be hermetically sealed along with my copy of the game itself for my Trek RPG collection, and the other to actually use for the game I hope to eventually throw together and run. Maybe at EndGame in Oakland, maybe this year at Gen Con (if I can actually afford it, if I still have a job!). I'm still concerned by the more-than-sneaking suspicion that I'm absolutely the only person in the world that is actually interested in this game I keep writing about. Plus, it's not the most, um, sophisticated RPG in the world. Still, it's one thing to have the game, and another to actually know it. If nothing else, it was a great Japanese translation exercise, I've probably doubled or tripled my time. The Tsukuda Trek wargames should go much faster. And maybe I can make this my next job, should it get to that point (anyone hiring for Japanese-to-English translation of obscure Japanese tabletop games from the 80s???).

Where was I?

Oh, right, WonderCon. Anyway, if you're in the area, there's some great Trek stuff in the program this weekend. At 3:30pm on Friday, The Once & Future Trek! with "Treksperts" Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise), Daren Dochterman (ST: TMP Special Edition), Steve Melching (Clone Wars... ummm), comedian Mary Forest (???), and one of my favorite online people, Anthony Pascale of TrekMovie.com. Definitely going just to hear people argue about nacelles and such. Saturday at 2:00 will be the Paramount Pictures Star Trek Panel for the 2009 film, with sneak peak footage (YAH!) and perhaps a surprise guest or two? And Sunday at 2:00pm is the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Q&A. I've never actually seen this show, but Summer Glau and Shirley Manson of my favorite band, Garbage, are going to be there. Yum. Then I take the ladies out for dinner. Then my wife kicks me out of the house. But what a way to go.

Anyway, if you're there, keep an eye out for me. I'll be the one dressed as an Orion Slave Girl. This is San Francisco, after all.

Just kidding.

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OT: Rogue Games' Thousand Suns Contest

(excuse the plug, but other than my 11th Anniversary with the lovely Barbe, this is the best thing to happen to me so far this year... my first publication within the RPG industry!)

Winners announced in Rogue Games' Inaugural Thousand Suns Artists and Writers Contest
(Chicago, IL) - February 2, 2009. Rogue Games announces winners to Inaugural Contest

The Rogues of Rogue Games are pleased to announce that Robert Saint John and Gabriel Brouillard are the winners in the Inaugural Thousand Suns Artists and Writers Contest. Their winning entries will appear in a forthcoming Thousand Suns supplement scheduled for release in August 2009.

The number of responses and quality of submissions to the contest overwhelmed the Rogues, and they are currently contemplating another contest of this type.

The Rogues thank all who entered.

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New Star Trek Games... No RPG

TrekMovie.com today posted an article about the mass of licensed Trek junk merchandise about to be dumped upon the unsuspecting public in anticipation of JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie. Oh dear, it looks like The Phantom Menace all over again (hint: wait two years... folks on eBay won't be able to give it away!).

Not surprising is the sheer amount of licenses issued solely to Trek tabletop gaming: more Trek Monopoly, UNO, the Scene It DVD boardgame, a trivia game, Scrabble and -- of course -- Star Trek Magic 8 Ball (FTW?!?!). Okay, I guess that is surprising after all.

What else is surprising? No Star Trek Roleplaying Game, for either the classic series or the new movie universe. Decipher lost the license a little over a year ago and at the moment no one has the license. A little bird over on theRPGSite Forums says that inquiries have, in fact, recently been made but apparently CBS Consumer Products is not interested at this time.

Which is very sad, and makes Mr. Spock cry. It's no secret that Decipher and Last Unicorn Games faced two big problems when doing their respective versions of a Trek RPG. One, neither company was very good at running its business, regardless of the burdens of the Trek license. Two, both were releasing Trek RPGs at a time of "Trek Burnout". When even fans were turning their backs on the shows and films coming out of Paramount, it's hard to imagine the associated merchandise doing much better. Admittedly I've never seen the books of any of these companies, but I'd find it hard to imagine that FASA was able to do Trek for such a long time and with a wealth of material if they weren't doing so as a going concern.

Different times, of course, and there are some who question whether or not Star Trek is even suitable for tabletop roleplaying in this day and age. That seems to be a debate that comes up every once in awhile over on RPGnet and other places. My opinion: given the right timing, the right business approach and a well-developed game, there's no reason that a Star Trek RPG couldn't be a critical and popular success all over again.

In the meantime, we can always continue with what's already out there, and even "roll our own" for our favorite RPG system (see my 2MB preview version of Final Frontier, the Trek adaptation for the Thousand Suns RPG that I've been working on lately). I have to admit, though, that there would be nothing like strolling into my FLGS and finding a brand spanking new official "Star Trek RPG Core Rules" game on the shelf and a rack of minis right next to it.

There's always hope. And until then, there's Star Trek Magic 8 Ball.

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OT: Playmates Star Trek Movie Toys Revealed

At TrekMovie.com, the first big look at Playmates' figures, toys and playsets for the upcoming Star Trek film. Very cool, if only for the best glimpse yet of the uniforms, the bridge, the communicator and so on.

After all, that picture up there is mini-me getting his Mego Star Trek Bridge Playset, circa 1975. Don't think I'll be collecting any of it this time around, though. Okay, maybe the ship.

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Context

Following last night's rather snarky post about Starfleet Voyages, it occurred to me that I should make a post regarding the games I'm discussing, and context.

First, the context of time. Most of what I'm discussing here are products from 1977 - 1982. The quality of games and their design, components, layout, and artwork varied wildly during this period. The desktop publishing revolution had barely started and few companies at the time had the resources to publish product anything close to what we see today. Frankly, I find that part of the charm of all of these games. They feel more personal, blemishes and all. Typos and outright rules issues were inevitable, and there was no internet community to provide and share real-time feedback. And errata? Pfft. If it existed, you had to hope it would get published in a magazine you happened to read, or send a SASE off in the hopes of getting one. And game mechanics at the time could be, in comparison to today, fairly primitive and/or complex. Games seem much more elegant these days in some respects, but the beauty of many of these old games is how much freedom there was for players to fill in the blanks. Heck, the very nature of RPGs and what made good roleplaying was still being defined and emerging from its wargame roots.

Second, the context of Star Trek itself. We had only syndication and a fading memory of the animated series. The Motion Picture didn't come out until December 1979. For awhile, we weren't even sure there would be another movie. The Bantam original novels were still few and far between. There was no Next Generation. There was no canon. And Star Wars was kind of overshadowing Trek anyway, and in the process redefining licensing, merchandising and the concept of franchise. Again, there was a lot of freedom, and designers and publishers were taking advantage of it in ways they couldn't today.

Finally, the context of my sense of humor. If I come off as sarcastic about these games at times, it's only through the eyes of a smartass 43 year old. When I was 13 I wasn't nearly as critical, at least not about games. My friends and I just took whatever we were given, ran with it and had fun. Although I pretty much knew something was seriously wrong about THAC0. The truth is that I pretty much love every one of them, no matter how rough they might be. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this blog.

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled program... Space Patrol!

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Welcome!

"Explain yourself, Mr. Scott!"

So, what's this all about?

About two months ago, I started work on a conversion of the original Star Trek series for my favorite game of 2008, Rogue Games' Thousand Suns by James Maliszewski. When it comes to RPGs, Star Trek seems to be the place Where Everyone Has Gone Before, yet here we are in 2009 with no official licensed version. I began to wonder about all of the Trek RPGs I'd missed or skipped over the years, and started to do research. What worked? What didn't? What was really good and could be adopted into my project?

As I dug deeper into boxes in the closet and searches on the web, I started finding all sorts of things I'd never known before on the subject. I made one tremendous find earlier this week that, to my surprise, didn't seem to be documented virtually anywhere. At that point I realized that I needed to start writing this stuff down.

And what better way to do that than to create a blog around it? Sure, I could wiki it (and still might), but I'd rather have a discussion about it with readers... if any! I'll admit this blog is strongly inspired by James' Grognardia, which I've found to be a great way to reminisce about "the good old days" through adult eyes. My hope is that I'll learn even more about this subject through that discussion.

What to look forward to? Right now, my intention is to focus primarily on Star Trek RPGs -- both licensed and those with the serial numbers filed off -- from the 70s and early 80s. We'll start off with Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier (Heritage, 1978) and its later expansion in Chaosium's Different Worlds magazine. There's a lot of interesting material that came out between that and Star Trek The Roleplaying Game (FASA, 1982). I haven't decided yet if I'll really go much beyond the 1st Edition of FASA's STRPG. By the time 2nd Edition came out, the game was a certified hit which changed both the industry and Trek itself. Its history, as well as that of the game material of Last Unicorn Games (1998) and Decipher (2002) is fairly well documented and still easily available, so chances are I'll only discuss them in passing or in the context of the older games.

Other material I'll be reviewing are the not-Treks, Space Patrol (Gamescience, 1977), Starships & Spacemen (FGU, 1978) and Starfleet Voyages (Terra Games, 1982). These were the systems that friends and I used back in the day to roleplay Trek, or at least to try.

Every once in awhile, I may take a break from purely RPG-related matters to talk about other types of games or related material such as one of the main inspirations to the genre, Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual, the first Trek-ish wargame Star Fleet Battle Manual (Gamescience/Lou Zocchi, 1977), magazines from the period, generic supplements such as the Spacefarers Guide to Planets Sector One (Phoenix Enterprises, 1979), the mini-game Star Explorer (FGU, 1982) and even a look at a little known Japanese SF consim, Star Trek: The Invasion of Klingon Empire (Tsukuda Hobby, 1982). I probably won't be talking much about the Star Fleet Universe of Task Force and ADB, again because they're so well-documented elsewhere.

And to spice things up, I'll occasionally drop in images and the occasional topic related to the Star Trek 25mm figure miniatures of Heritage, Citadel and FASA, as they were often tied to the games themselves.

So I hope you'll find this entertaining, and hope you'll come back. Oh, and speaking of pictures, here's a peek at that "tremendous find" I mentioned earlier, from 1983... more to come!

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