Heritage Models and Terra Games were the first roleplaying companies to have the Star Trek license, which they used to make ‘Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier’ and ‘Starfleet Voyages’, respectively. These two games are largely forgotten, mostly because they weren’t that good. They weren’t BAD, just… made in the 70’s.

I’ve lumped these two games together as both companies were owned by the same man, a Michael Scott.

Neither game is particularly expensive on the second-hand market, when they do appear on the second-hand market, but their values are as novelty pieces.

The FASA Star Trek game is probably the most well-known out of all the Star Trek RPGs, with good reason. For one thing, the system itself is pretty solid (covered here: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/4607523/), with everything well-researched, with quite a bit of fanon laid on, which I’ll get back to.

Another great bit about FASA’s Star Trek is that they were the first to acknowledge that maybe playing the goody-two-shoes Federation wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so they decided to expand the possibilities for players…

FASA released a number of expansions, allowing PCs to play other factions In the Star Trek universe; Romulans, Orions, regular space pirates, you could play them all. They even gave you a whole system to play around in: The Triangle! And, of course, there were Klingons...

You remember what I said about the "fanon"?

Well, Roddenberry didn't like what FASA were doing with Klingons. They were explaining away stuff he didn't really want mentioning. There were other reasons, but the Klingon stuff is what people consider to be the main bone of contention.

FASA had the license long enough to publish two TNG books, considered by some as a last "up yours" to Paramount, who quickly pulled the license.

The Star Trek license sat around until 1993, when it was given to Task Force Games. Unfortunately, TFG didn't really have anything that they could "fit" the license into. All they could do was make a weird game centred on "Prime Directive Teams", troubleshooters for the Federation. It wasn't good, and the company folded soon after.

The company, license and all, fell into the hands of Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. They quickly realised they had no idea what to do with something like Star Trek - they were a wargaming company, but Trek doesn't lend itself well to that genre - so they did what was probably the best thing; they sold it to companies that wouldn't screw it up.

GURPS and d20 Modern are currently the only two systems that have been given the license by ADB. There've been talks of West End Games getting involved, but they remain talks.

The next license-holders were Last Unicorn Games, who really went to town. They started off with the two hottest iterations of the setting - TNG and DS9 - and built entire sourcebooks for the two (TNG was a straight-forward "play as Federation", whereas DS9 wisely decided to borrow FASA's ideas, and have a setting where players could make less scrupulous characters).

They also had a series of sourcebooks with information on whole species for players and GMs alike to delve into, not unlike White Wolf's clanbooks.

A series of books based on the original series was published, and a Voyager rulebook was in the works - along with a Klingon sourcebook - but LUG was bought by Wizards of the Coast, and Paramount once more had to revoke their licence.

Paramount then decided to give the Star Trek license to Decipher Inc., making them one of the few companies to own both the Star Trek and Star Wars licenses.

Fortunately for Decipher, they also had many people previously from Last Unicorn Games, whose work was invaluable.

I haven't played it, but I've heard it plays pretty similarly to d&d, except you have roll 2d6 to resolve actions. Also, as you can see, they decided to take a more uniform approach to the license, allowing GMs to run games from any era, without having to shell out for extra sourcebooks.

As of yet, Paramount have gone four years without taking yet another chance on a Star Trek RPG. Then again, with the reboot movies and a new board game coming out soon, who can say what tomorrow will bring for the final frontier?

Oh, and here are a bunch of download links. You're welcome:

http://www.mediafire.com/?39tcsh8biwbbc

And if you're stuck as to what to run, why not "borrow" something from here?

http://www.mediafire.com/?mcfrur1rkv63k
http://www.mediafire.com/?k6ktfgs3il0nm

bump

Thanks OP.

>>15689428

Five Star Thread - great writing, solid research.

Why I will never leave /tg/

Huh. HUH.

I knew some of this stuff existed, but Trek role-playing never held a lot of appeal for the usual gang of gamers I played and GMed for.

At this point, I feel like Trek has been done to death, and while I liked the reboot, I'd much rather do tabletop Mass Effect.

Still, Klingons on a hostile "deathworld" would be a blast I think.

>>15689574

Didn't TFG have the Star Trek *wargaming* license, for Star Fleet Battles?

>play Mongoose Traveller
>use optional Warp Drive rule
>????
>redshirts strewn about the landscape like so many leaves