This Bud's for Them - 6 Months

Today marks the 6-month anniversary of Groknard, and according to my stats I'm about to hit Unique Visitor #10,000. 25% of you come back again and again, and average visits per day have gone from about 20 in January to 100 last month. I expected it to take a dip after the premiere of the film in May, but that hasn't happened yet.

The most popular pages have been about turning a keychain into new Enterprise starship gaming miniature, the Heritage Star Trek Miniatures Masterlist, and -- the most popular by far -- the rundown of many of the great fan created ("homebrewed") Trek RPG adaptions done over the years.

Other than "star trek rpg" or "groknard", the most popular search terms are "star trek miniatures", "prime directive rpg", and some variation of searches like "icon coda conversion" or "fasa coda conversion". That's self-selecting, though, as people are only going to follow the link if they think they're going to find what they were looking for here. Strangley, the least searched term was "close-up vince noir badges". Probably my wife, the Boosh fan.

And where do you all come from? Here's a selection over a period of a few days:


Trek roleplaying in Kazakhstan? Not so big. I'll do what I can to change that. But I'm always impressed to see from where almost all over the world readers are coming.

In my first post on Groknard, I wrote:

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? ... 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.

Although it's true that I have a great collection of Trek games and miniatures, the sad fact is that I haven't actually been able to play the games all that much, especially recently. I certainly enjoy the collecting, the reading, the daydreaming, the blogging and the occasional related creative endeavor. But games are meant to be played and I wish I got to do more of that. When the FASA game came out, my old group (in Columbus, Ohio) had mostly gone its way, and attempts to put together a new regular group in the 80s never came together for me. I only got to play a few FASA RPG sessions, though I had a bit more luck with the Tactical Combat Simulator game. By the time the LUG and Decipher games came out, I was new to California and very preoccupied with work. Although I liked the games and longed to play them, there was something about the RPG community on the internets in a number of places that rubbed me the wrong way. As a result, I wasn't "there" while some of the best fan work was taking place.

Over the past few weeks, I've really wanted to take a moment to give credit where credit is really due, because I'm standing on the shoulders of a lot of giants. This blog simply wouldn't exist without the fine work of so many who have come before me, pointed me in the right direction, helped fill in the blanks, and fought the good fight whenever it seems that gaming in the universe of Star Trek is a lost proposition.

I'll never be able to know or remember everyone, and there are dozens and dozens of gaming professionals who have done so much over the decades. But "this Bud" is for the fans and those who weren't necessarily full-time professionals who have documented and/or created so much more in Trek gaming than ever showed up at the FLGS. My apologies in advance for any ommissions, misunderstandings or misattributions, which I'll be happy to correct or see posted in the comments:

• Mark of Xon Gaming for The FASA Star Trek Starship Combat and RPG Support site, the best single site documenting the Trek games of FASA, and probably the best of its kind.
• Lee "Fasafan" Wood for his contributions to that site, as well as the Morena Shipyards Yahoo Group and his invaluable, in-depth Star Trek RPG Magazine Article Compilation.
• Joe "UFC465537" Homoki of the Guardian of Forever site and its Yahoo Group, who has kept an archive of FASA campaigns and written some exception rules extensions such as Boarding Actions II and Starship Combat II.
• SF RPG writer extraordinaire Jonathan M. Thompson of Battlefield Press who, despite being a pro (and the author of the excellent Prime Directive d20 Modern) spends a good amount of time composing fan gaming material for Trek and more, and (IMO) doing more than its publisher to promote the PD system both in general and as a legit alternative for Trek gaming.
• Crimson... you know who you are, you know what you did, and.... THANKS!
• Owen Oulton whose Memory ICON site has been such an invaluable resource for the Last Unicorn Games system for so long.
• Brad "Sub-Odeon" Torgersen who built and maintains the fantastic (deep breath) Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator On-Line Database & Archive and its associated forum. It's hard to believe that STSTCS (one of my favorite tabletop games ever) still holds up so well after all these years, and Sub-Odeon has kept it a living, breathing game. Thanks!
• Speaking of STSTCS, Jason Robinson the genius behind the Windows PC game version of STSTCS, which I find so entertaining and an astounding feat for one person.
• Bill "Graylingnator" for his STSTCS contributions, including his Tactical Combat Simulator site and the wonderful Battlehawks Scenario Pack.
• Bob Portnell, the oft-mentioned (here) "King of Star Trek Homebrews"
• A big tip of the hat to Michael "Scotty" Scott, the Grandfather of Trek RPGs, period! Not only did he create Heritage's STAGFF, but he still actively games in the Trek universe today.
• Magnus Lundgren, current proprietor of The Star Trek Role-Playing Network, or TrekRPGNet, originally created in 1998 by Don Mappin as "an independent repository of information for the then-recently-released Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG by Last Unicorn Games". Thanks to Don for creating that haven and keeping it going through all of the transitions and more, and thanks to Magnus for keeping it alive for all Trek RPGs today.
• Vance, whose Jaynz Ships of the Fleet image gallery and toolkits have allowed and inspired so many folks to create the starship of their dreams for their games.
• Patrick Goodman, whose invaluable CODA Star Trek RPG Support Page for the Decipher game acts as a collective resource for nearly everything related to it, with more great things to come. "Tilting at Windmills" , indeed!
• Matthew "GandalfOfBorg" Kearns' successful and extensive webzine Beyond The Final Frontier: The Unofficial Star Trek RPG Magazine, also hosted at Patrick's site.
• To all of those unsung heroes who have tirelessly documented over 30 years of Star Trek tabletop gaming on Wikipedia and Memory Alpha, and are correct more often than not ;)
• Finally, props to James Maliszewski (Grognardia) and Jeff Rients (Gameblog) who obviously set the standard for RPG blogging and served as my inspiration for creating Groknard in the first place.

To all of them and to you, my readers, my respect and thanks. I love this subejct, and I love sharing it with you. As the title indicates, "This Bud's for them". And you.

And now, I'm going to go drink it!

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

New Enterprise MSD - Almost Done

...getting there. Its been a productive holiday weekend!

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

I'm Not Dead Yet

Apologies for the extreme slow-down in posts. I've taken on some extra work in real life and we just brought in a new chihuahua puppy to foster. Last week was a sleepless mess, but everything's slowly getting back into some kind of rhythm. Should be back to normal posting by the end of the week.

In the meantime, I have been working on some Trek stuff, specifically the schematics that I mentioned last month and some work for Patrick's Starships of the Star Fleet Technical Manual project. Here's a tiny glimpse (left, click for another view) of how that deckplan of the new Enterprise is coming (yes, I totally re-started it from scratch). Should be done by end of the month. Takes a loonnnggg time to draw all those pipes in engineering.

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

The Wisdom of Uncle Bear (via Vulcan Stev)

Over at Vulcan Stev's Database, guest columnist Uncle Bear (Berin Kinsman, "Father figure of the RPG bloggers") has written a fine series of posts about Gaming in the Universe of Star Trek, a coolection of "generic, all-eras, any mechanics advice on what I think a good Trek game needs". Very highly recommended reading if you haven't stumbled upon it already.

Part 1 - How I’d Run a Star Trek Game covers the structure he suggests for a ship and a crew, and the way he’d organize adventures.

Part 2 - Starship Combat Made Easy covers how to make ship-to-ship combat involve all the players at the table without having to bust out battle mats and miniatures. (yep!)

Part 3 - Star Trek Worldbuilding discusses culture-building for alien races encountered by the Federation.

And Uncle Bear's favored choices for a system in which to run Star Trek?
1. Primetime Adventures
2. Traveller
3. Savage Worlds

Big thanks to Stev and Uncle bear for sharing!

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.....

Inspiration

I just came across a reference to the blog of John Eaves, a longtime production illustrator for many of the Trek series and films (including the latest). It's a remarkable blog in which he posts daily concept sketches for starships he's designed for Trek properties over the years, along with the occasional surprise (left, from 1964) of what inspires him.

I've always found the work of concept artists and production illustrators very inspiring myself. I got my own start in illustration (not my primary career) in 1977 by carefully studying and copying pre-production illustrations such as those of Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie for Star Wars, and the drawings of Franz Joseph for his Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual. My bookshelves are still loaded with The Art of __(insert your favorite blockbuster here)__ and names of futurists such as Syd Mead, Doug Chiang, John Berkey and Iain McCaig. In another life, I would have been one of them, but I'll have to be satisfied with deriving motivation from their works. The process of conceptualization and what didn't get used is often more fascinating than what ended up onscreen.

If you're ever searching for inspiration for that next starship encounter or some strange new worlds for your own game take a look at sites such as Eaves' Eavesdropping with Johnny and, another one of my favorites, the Concept Ships blog (warning, super image heavy) and let your imagination go.

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

Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 3/29/09

I didn't come across anything particulary thrilling this weekend and was about to skip Auction of the Week altogether, then it occurred to me that there was something no Trek RPG GM should be without:

Star Trek: Sound Effects from the Original TV Soundtrack
Performers: Jack Finlay, Douglas Grindstaff and Joseph Sorokin
Label: GNP Crescendo Records
Catalog #: GNPD 8010
Running Time: 39:47
Release Date: 1988
# of Tracks: 69

Now, no one likes a GM who spends all there time playing with the laptop ("Wait, you're going through the door? Hold on, I've got a sound effect for that..."), but there are some nice long loops on here such as "Enterprise Bridge Sequence" and "Alien Planet Surface" that should be irresistable (and low maintenance) for a session. Toss in a "Red Alert" and a "Transporter Energize", and you're all set. I've linked to one going for $6.99 with free shipping that expires on Tuesday, but there are a number of them up for auction at any given time, and no reason that you'd ever have to pay much more than $10 for it used. Energize!

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

Hey you, don't watch this! Watch that!

Phew! What a week. I'm going to slow down just a bit because I've got some more stuff coming, and need to do a little more reading than writing. I'm going to begin a new series of articles here on Groknard on the subject of homebrewed Trek RPGs, need to kick back and work on my Prime Directive RPG reviews, and it's about time to get my piece on the Star Fleet Battle Manual together for Star Trek Games. Actually, now that I read that, I need to do more reading and writing than posting. But there's a few things already queued up, so you may not even notice.

In the meantime, Adam at the East Coast branch of GroknardoCorp is starting a new series which I'm really looking forward to. He's taking on the subject of advice for running Trek RPGs -- The Undiscovered Country - Gaming The Final Frontier -- over at his Barking Alien blog. His timing is perfect as I'm getting ready to get all philosophical on the subject myself, so I foresee some back and forth between our blogs in the near future (in a good way!).

So while I'm sitting back with a chihuahua and some books in my lap, get over there, read it and bookmark it!

EDIT: First part of the series is up, a really great start (he says as he digs around for that old issue of Dragon that has an article he didn't know about....)

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.....

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

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