Blast From The Past: Star Trek The Next Generation RPG

Space, the final frontier...

If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of Star Trek. I grew up on The Next Generation, loved Deep Space Nine, and watched Voyager. I've seen every movie made. I've even tried to watch Enterprise. Which was harder to tolerate than the Animated Series until the last two seasons. I haven’t seen too much of the newer series, except the first season of Discovery.

Yeah, I'm a fan.

And there's been quite a few attempts to bring the setting into the tabletop gaming world. Some have been more successful than others. I talked about the Star Fleet Battles universe a while back but today I’m going to talk about something a little more recent. That doesn’t mean current, however.

In the late 1990s, a company called Last Unicorn Games got the license to make RPGs based on the Star Trek universe, and created games for The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine. They were going to release one for Voyager but something happened with Decipher getting the license (which makes sense as they were the ones who had been producing the CCG) and the book was never released. Even though they didn’t have the license for long, they did produce a lot of books for TNG and DS9.

The system used for this game is very dramatic and story-driven, rather than the cold hard mechanics of GURPS or d20 system. Instead, you have a very simple system based around die pools of d6s. The Narrator (as the GM is called) picks a difficulty and you roll dice equal to the stat associated with the skill and then add your skill level to the highest die rolled. So, if you make a 3d6 test, get a 3,2,4; you would add the four to your skill level to see if you succeed. It reminds me of Deadlands, which had come out not long before this game. You also need to have a “drama die” which a different color than the rest of the dice rolled, as it can help or hurt you. Now, when it comes to initiative, things get wonky. You would roll initiative based on the skill you’re probably going to use, like unarmed combat for a fist fight, phasers if you’re going to shoot it out, but I can see problems already. People can change their minds as the round progresses or people can try to power game by using one skill for the initiative roll and then “changing their mind” when it comes to the combat roll. There is a way to change it up but it isn’t much better. 

When you make your character, the first thing you do is pick a “Template” which is really your character’s race. It gives you your stats (Fitness, Coordination, Presence, and Psi, which all have Edges associated with them) as well as some basic skills and typical Advantages and Disadvantages. There’s the more common Star Trek races in the core book; you’ve got your classic Vulcans, Tellerites, Andorians, and Humans, and the common ones in the TNG era of Betazoid, Bolians, and, then the Centaurians, which are a common part of “beta cannon” from the books and comics. Once you get your Template figured out, then you get to pick an Overlay. The Overlay is your character’s occupation and training, things like Science, Command, Security, Operations, and so on. They even have one for Ship’s Councilor. All of these will give you more skills and maybe some more Advantages. Once those are done, you do your character’s Background. The TNG book assumes that you will be playing a Star Fleet officer, so it’s all about your days at the Academy and tours of duty. These can be picked or you can spend some points to build your own. With that all out of the way, you’re pretty much done. There’s some math you have to do but you’re ready to go. Now, if you want to play a non-Federation character, you’re going to need the DS9 core book, which I will be getting to soon.

But, what else does this game do? Well, if you’re going to play Star Trek, you have to be ready for some space ships shooting at each other and the like, so there’s rules for that, too. Like many other games that include space ships (and especially Star Trek stuff), you have to manage power for the ship, dedicating percentages to weapons, engines, life support, and all that other technobabble you’ve heard when consoles start exploding on the bridge. If you want to play the bridge crew of a Star Fleet vessel, your group can pull it off, with everyone having something to do. The captain can make support rolls, the poor sap at Ops directs power, Tactical can shoot, the Helm officer makes rolls to move the ship, etc. If you are going to do this, you want to have a good group that’s worked together before and can handle disputes, as well as working on a plan each turn. I do think this is can be cool, with the right people. Besides, if you’re going to be Star Fleet officers, you want a star ship. And that means you have to get into a fight.

In the core book, there’s an overview of the major races, locations, and some monsters you can use. In addition to stuff we’ve seen in the show, there’s some from “beta canon” or the books and comics that have been made, as well as some stuff they wanted to throw in.

All in all, this captures the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s about noble Star Fleet officers going around the galaxy, exploring strange new worlds and encountering new civilizations. It’s not perfect but it does a fair job of what they set out to do. If it had been given more time, I think it would have been much bigger. They explored the Romulans in a boxed set, something that hasn’t been done too many times before, as well as some source books for the Andorians, Vulcans, a boxed set for the Klingons, books with new planets to explore, and even a source book for Section 31.

If you like this one, let me know. I have several source books, including some that were released as PDFs by one of the creators. And, yeah, Deep Space Nine will be soon, promise.