One Small Step Toward the Final Frontier

A tip of the hat to the real heroes amongst us...

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

Trek and The Great RPG Debate

I had no intention whatsoever on weighing in on this week's Great RPG Industry Debate (short version: "The RPG Industry is Dying and the Enemy is Us" vs "No, You're Just Full of Shit") for two reasons. First, it seems like this comes up every year. Is it always right before Gen Con? Second, I'm annoyed that all of this seems to have sprung from a discussion about Poor Editing in RPGs, and the contention that we should all just suck it up and accept that because The RPG Industry is Dying has now been overshadowed.

Wait, don't go!!! This post isn't what you think. It is not my take on the whole thing. Rather, I just wanted to point to a related piece of wisdom that seems extremely relevant to Trek tabletop RPGs in particular. Over at Trollsmyth there is a post in response to The Debate entitled Supply, Demand, and the Teetering RPG Industry. Note this set of excerpts (emphasis mine):

Even if everything he says is true, it doesn't matter. Why? Because there is a huge number of kids out there reading, writing, and yes, even roleplaying right now...

...But you'll notice I mention nothing about games. Regular readers know what I'm talking about: fanfic and free-form roleplay. It's easy to laugh and dismiss this sort of thing (just as RPGs were laughed at and dismissed in my youth, when they weren't being blamed for suicide and devil worship), but here are a bunch of kids so desperate for roleplay that they have built websites and software and communities to facilitate their play. They've done it all on their own...

...The future is now, and these kids have already, on their own, created the roleplaying experience he's talking about. While they don't yet incorporate things like augmented reality, they take full advantage of cellphone texting and similar echnologies that are available today. That, ladies and gents, is all set to be the roleplaying of tomorrow, and it's got no interest in your rulebooks, dice, or character sheets, thank you very much.

Just last night I had written the following to a friend:

You know, it's not even the endless debates over The Movie that has me down. It's seeming disinterest from those who would rather ponder the effects of the 18 available hand-phaser settings or debate why System X sucks and System Y rules.

And then they wonder why the vast majority of Trek fans decided to forego dice completely and just "sim" on internet boards. Or did they even notice?

I've started a project and every day I just keep thinking of cooler stuff to add to it. It could become pretty big, but now I'm at the point of asking myself whether or not it's worth it. It may only be of interest to a dozen people. I don't really want to do another Enterprise-like project if there's no audience.

Anyway, back to writing and pondering on this. Go check out that link.

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

Regarding Groknard's Auction of the Week

So I just realized that something may have gotten lost or misunderstood over the course of time regarding my "Auction of the Week". I'm a bit embarrassed now that I've realized it.

AotW is not something I've won. Ghod knows, I don't need much more of anything!

AotW is for you, the readers. It's a current running auction (when I post it) and I try only to list things that have at least 4 days left. It's also not an auction where I'm the Seller (maybe someday, but I'll be clear about that), not sponsored by eBay or the Seller in any way, and I generally only list things that look like they're a good value. I will never bid against you on anything I post for AotW. If there's nothing good that week, I'll skip it or maybe post something later in the week.

Sorry for any misunderstanding. It wasn't until tonight that I realized that some readers may have thought this was "This is what I won this week on eBay!" No no no no. The wife would kill me.

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

Trek RPG Auction of the Week - 7/15/09

This week we've got a FASA Star Trek The Role Playing Game 2nd Edition lot, most from around 1987, that looks like the perfect way to jump whole-hog into the system. Starts off with the 2E box set (2001D) that includes the three core rulebooks and the Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator (rules, master control book, map and counters). Looks like it's got everything except the dice (two 20-sided, numbered 0-9 twice; you can just use D10 with 0-9). Also included:

- (2002) The Klingons (Second Edition)
- (2301) Klingons Ship Recognition Manual (Second Edition)
- (2302) Federation Ship Recognition Manual(Second Edition)
- (2303) Romulan Ship Recognition Manual
- (2204) Ship Construction Manual (Second Edition)
- (2225) The White Flame Starship Combat Scenario Pack from 1988
- (2227) Star Trek: The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook from 1989

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

Star Trek TOS, Storytelling and Timelessness

Wonderful post over on James Maliszewski's GROGNARDIA today about why Star Trek TOS still holds up today, in large part due to its approach to storytelling:

"Watching Star Trek, I am continually struck by the fact that it's never about itself. Each episode is simply a science fiction adventure story, with little or no connection to anything that comes before or after."

His post comes at a perfect time for me. I've already spent too many days wrestling with canon on (secret project), which is precisely the point. Time to move on and focus on what matters.

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

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.....

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)

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