Star Trek Games

[Raistlin]

My wife and I were watching First Contact last night, and she asked me why there aren’t more Star Trek MUSHes out there, or really, any at all. I didn’t have a good answer for her.

I’ve thought about running a Star Trek game in the past, but I was always held back by the assumption that they just aren’t popular. So here’s my question to everyone: would you play at a Star Trek MUSH? Or do you know anyone who would?

I’ve searched through other forums for posts about Star Trek games, and the only real complaint I keep seeing is the dreaded report writing requirement. Which seems ridiculous to me, especially when RP logs exist and can serve the same purpose.

So, assuming there’s no mandatory report writing, what would stop you from playing on a Star Trek game?

My dream game would probably be set during the TNG era, maybe in that sweet spot where it overlapped with DS9. I’d place it in a region of space where the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Empire all meet. Somewhere largely unexplored. The centerpiece would be a space station jointly run by all three powers, who’ve entered an uneasy alliance to explore this new frontier.

Most of the RP would happen on the station, but there’d be ships available for exploration missions too. That’s just one concept, though. I figured I’d throw it out there for anyone who wants a more concrete idea of what this could look like.

Anyway, I love Star Trek and would love to see a MUSH dedicated to it. Just curious why there don’t seem to be any active ones out there.

[MisterBoring]

I have no clue why there aren’t any Star Trek MUSHes out there. I know it’s really popular in the PBP / PBEM world, and there are dozens of Star Trek Bridge Crew / Artemis Bridge Simulator groups out there.

I wouldn’t play on one though, and it wouldn’t surprise me if my reason why is the reason there aren’t any of them already. I believe that Star Trek tells a really solid story about the primary crew of a starship (or station in DS9’s case) and trying to expand that story to a wider group of characters loses a lot of the Star Trek charm for me.

[Jennkryst]

@Raistlin I wouldn’t make reports mandatory, maybe treat them like Arx Journals? Or scenes can start in media res with a log voice over giving a brief setup (although technically, the log overview means it isnt in media res, but nya, nya I say!)

Questions are mostly ‘Spaaaaaaace Code?!?’ and ‘What rules?’ Star Trek Adventures is the latest and doesn’t have XP progression, more milestone, as Modephius do, so catchup is easy, ‘anyone with X or lower major milestones, gain a major, anyone with more, gain a minor milestone instead’. Admittedly, I haven’t looked at the 2nd edition yet.

@MisterBoring said in Star Trek Games:

really solid story about the primary crew of a starship

Probably a factor. Sure, the Modephius rules include ‘we dont need the doctor for this mission but dont want the player to feel left out… lets roll up a temporary PC called Chief O’Brien to come along’, but a MU will have probably have a person playing that character. (This could be a neat way to fill out a roster, though, so keep roster game in mind. Can also give people having an opportunity to play guest of the week NPCs).

Tangentially important to point out the entire point of Lower Decks is that we don’t focus on the primary crew, and it has given us some of the finest Trek in decades.

[Raistlin]

RE: Code & System

Not much, if any, real thought has gone into this, so the answer to those questions doesn’t really exist.

However, I am a fan of the Modiphius Star Trek Adventures, and I’ve actually coded up a system for it in Ares. So, I’d have that out of the box.

As for the space code, there would likely be none. Just regular RP rooms and whatnot using the Ares scene system.

That’s if I did it anyway.

[Faraday]

@Jennkryst said in Star Trek Games:

Tangentially important to point out the entire point of Lower Decks is that we don’t focus on the primary crew, and it has given us some of the finest Trek in decades.

True, but that’s - what, one show out of a dozen that went that route? The default Trek would play like a FC-driven game, with the department heads as coveted positions and everyone else feeling like second fiddle. That was also how the old-school Trek games I tried felt, and why I believe they were never as popular as some of the other genres.

I certainly think it’s possible to make a game that worked differently, but you’d have to deliberately make game design choices to break that mold.

The other challenge is figuring out what people actually do. Like, say I’m a junior Engineering crewman. What is my RP about?

[Raistlin]

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

Challenge is figuring out what people actually do. Like, say I’m a junior Engineering crewman. What is my RP about?

I guess I’ve never had this problem, I can always find something to do if I have willing RP partners. For a junior engineering crewman, I’d see these options:

• Jump into whatever active plots are happening
• Find some available people and do “Star Trek-y” things; take a shuttle out to explore an anomaly, run some training scenarios, tackle an engineering problem that’s cropped up
• Social RP at Ten Forward

As for feeling like second fiddle, that’s one of the things I really like about Star Trek Adventures. Everyone is built from the same point pool, so everyone feels like a real part of the crew rather than just backup.

And honestly, it’s totally canon for junior officers to step up. We see ensigns on away teams and covering bridge positions all the time in the shows. Having lower-ranking characters take on bigger roles isn’t breaking the mold, it’s perfectly in line with how Star Trek actually works.

[Jennkryst]

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

Like, say I’m a junior Engineering crewman. What is my RP about?

Hobbies. You’re in a classical quartet or jazz band that puts on shows at the bar… or do a Doctoro Picardo and recreate old opera houses to do… opera. Go fill up the biofilters on the fuck simulator holodeck with your inceedibly inappropriate hologram girlfriend. Build a racing shuttle. Write holonovels. Save humanity by completing a Q test. Do weird yoga. Invent silly sports. Have sex with a ghost. Visit Risa. Have sex with a ghost on Risa in a holodeck. Do unofficial war crimes.

Maybe you’re on duty. Every time an alert happens, system diagnostics are run, go go go! Even when there isnt an alert, you still need to run regular diagnostics to make sure that the ~~ LCARS is properly filled with rocks so there is debris when it dramatically overloads~~ self-sealing steam bolts are properly bolted in place. Go crawl through the Jefferies Tubes to replace the bio-conduit before it catches the flu from alien cheese. Realize it’s the wrong tube when you meet Jeffrey Combs. Get sent on an away mission.

There is a whole chart, for roll d20 to [science] the [device] for [techbobabble].

There are a lot of options out there.

Edit: Yellow in TNG is also where temporal enforcement lives, so be a time cop when you get too many tachyons, or whatever the current wibbly-wobbly technobabble of the week uses.

[Pavel]

@Raistlin said in Star Trek Games:

what would stop you from playing on a Star Trek game?

Other people, generally.

[Faraday]

@Jennkryst said in Star Trek Games:

There is a whole chart, for roll d20 to [science] the [device] for [techbobabble].

@Raistlin said in Star Trek Games:

Find some available people and do “Star Trek-y” things; take a shuttle out to explore an anomaly, run some training scenarios, tackle an engineering problem that’s cropped up

Those aren’t the kinds of things that make Trek interesting, though. A team can’t just take a shuttle out, get some readings, and then go home. An engineer can’t just throw technobabble at a broken drive. That would be really boring to RP.

Stuff has to happen. There have to be stakes. The drive needs to be fixed in time to get the ship away from some threat. The anomaly has to put the crew in peril somehow.

Some players can generate those stories for themselves, sure, but many (most?) are going to need it handed to them. It’s much harder to craft engaging stories like that for a random assortment of characters from disparate departments than it is for a fixed group of series regulars + the occasional guest star/redshirt.

[MisterBoring]

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

Stuff has to happen. There have to be stakes. The drive needs to be fixed in time to get the ship away from some threat. The anomaly has to put the crew in peril somehow.

I think this might actually lead to more problems for a MU.

Assuming a game focuses on a single ship or station, and the majority of players are playing that ship or station’s crew, any problem that puts the crew in peril puts most of the playerbase in peril. And it’s been my experience that if a PC is in peril, that PC’s player would like their character to have some hand in thwarting that peril. And if only 5-6 PCs in the whole game get to thwart that peril, it leaves an untold number of PCs just standing in the wings waiting for their chance. I think lack of spotlight would build up way quicker on a Star Trek MU than any other for that reason.

[Faraday]

@MisterBoring “The crew” in that example could just be the crew of the shuttle, not necessarily the entire crew. But yes, you’re right about the general problem. My point is just that there needs to be something more going on besides just “Ensign Bob technobabbles the broken thing”, and players on the whole are not great at driving stuff like that (in my experience).

[Raistlin]

I think this conversation is largely over with everyone’s opinions stated, but I did want to address how I would handle the various scenarios people mentioned if I were actually playing a character in this situation.

I’m making some assumptions here, including that staff supports player-driven RP. Honestly, I wouldn’t be on a game that didn’t.

1. I log on and put out a call on the OOC channels looking for players who want to RP.
2. I contact those folks and tell them their characters receive orders to report to Shuttle Bay 1.
3. My character briefs them on a subspace anomaly that needs investigation. Should be routine sensor sweeps, but in Star Trek, it’s never routine.
4. It’s not routine! The anomaly starts interfering with our warp core as we approach, meaning someone has to recalibrate the deflector array while another crew member pilots us to safety.
5. We get dramatic RP with various characters contributing - someone pilots the shuttle, someone works the sensors to analyze the phenomenon, someone reroutes power to compensate for the interference.
6. They make it back to the ship or station with their data, and now have something to debrief senior officers on and discuss in Ten Forward, setting up future RP hooks.

This small, initial scene could lead to all sorts of future RP opportunities. Engineering could discover that the anomaly is affecting the station’s reactors, a strange illness could develop affecting either the away team or other crew members, etc.

For me, I just don’t buy into the “there’d be nothing to do unless you’re a senior officer” belief. If you want RP, you can find RP. Star Trek has always been about the crew working together to solve problems, and there’s no reason a MUSH can’t capture that same collaborative spirit.

[Jennkryst]

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

Stuff has to happen. There have to be stakes.

This isn’t Trek-specific, it’s literally every MUSH ever.

Some players can be those three people on Voyager who never volunteer for any away missions and just do the social rp. Or be a Dabo Girl on DS9. It’s fine.

[Pavel]

@Raistlin said in Star Trek Games:

For me, I just don’t buy into the “there’d be nothing to do unless you’re a senior officer” belief

Historically, that has been the case. So you, or whoever is running this game, would have to prove otherwise. If you’re playing Crewman A. Nonymous you better not be anywhere besides a jeffreys tube and not getting in the way of the person we especially chose to play Lieutenant Commander Action “Buzz” Heroguy.

[Jennkryst]

@Pavel said in Star Trek Games:

If you’re playing Crewman A. Nonymous you better not be anywhere besides a jeffreys tube and not getting in the way of the person we especially chose to play Lieutenant Commander Action “Buzz” Heroguy.

Gentle reminder Harry Kim spent 7 years in the Delta Quadrant with a single pip, and while he may have manned the engineering console on the bridge, he was never a department head. He’s an ensign. There were five people on the ship with a lower rank - Nelix, Kes, Seven of Nine, Naomi Wildman, and Miral Paris (and technically the Maquis, but they got whole uniforms and pips to reflect their Maquis ranks, it’s fine).

And he still got up to some wacky shenanigans.

[Pavel]

@Jennkryst said in Star Trek Games:

There were five people on the ship with a lower rank

Gentle reminder that I’m talking about the enlisted crew, who constituted the vast majority of the ship’s complement and generally didn’t get to go on wacky adventures. I’m also, more pertinently, talking about past games that have existed not one of the TV shows, where people who weren’t lucky/connected/whatever enough to get a senior position didn’t get to have wacky shenanigans anywhere near as often as The Main Cast. So please don’t “gentle reminder” your way through ignoring my experience.

If you want your game like Lower Decks, focus on those people. If you want it like TNG, focus on those people. Yes, players can run shit, but staff run the game and set the tone; so if you’re focusing on telling a story about The Senior Officers that’s who people will want to be and will feel left out if they can’t.

[Faraday]

@Pavel said in Star Trek Games:

So please don’t “gentle reminder” your way through ignoring my experience.

100%. I’ve played on (and run) tons of military games, and the rank divide has always caused issues. There are ways around it, but it needs to be acknowledged and planned for.

@Pavel said in Star Trek Games:

Gentle reminder that I’m talking about the enlisted crew, who constituted the vast majority of the ship’s complement and generally didn’t get to go on wacky adventures.

Yeah, one of the things that always bugged me about Trek is that more of the wacky adventures rationally should have involved the enlisted crew. It’s a Hollywood-ism to always have the heads of departments doing everything, but that mentality also pervaded the Trek games I tried through the years.

Then again, Trek has always been weird about its handling of officers/enlisted. At one point in the 60’s, Roddenberry even insisted that Starfleet had no enlisted ranks at all. (This is seemingly contradicted not only by simple logic but also by various characters throughout Trek canon.)

I know Star Trek isn’t RL, but just for reference/scope, a US aircraft carrier would have ~3000 enlisted crew and ~200 officers. So even the most junior Ensign is still in the top 6% of personnel, rank-wise. Lower Decks seems to contradict that conclusion, so who even knows.

[Pavel]

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

100%. I’ve played on (and run) tons of military games, and the rank divide has always caused issues.

At least in my experience, also, senior ranks (or senior positions, or whatever shiny thing gets the story) are often like Jedi in older Star Wars games. If you’re not friends with staff, you’re not getting it. You get to be set dressing, at best, for other people who had the good sense to be friends with those in charge.

Not always, obviously, but it’s probably the clearest and most blatant way folks have historically shown favouritism.

[Jennkryst]

@Pavel said in Star Trek Games:

staff run the game and set the tone

So we agree that…

@Jennkryst said in Star Trek Games:

This isn’t Trek-specific, it’s literally every MUSH ever.

I’m not saying it’s never been a problem, I’m throwing out ideas to try and prevent it from becoming one, while also pointing at shows to go ‘see? Its viable!’ Ask lower rank people what their IC career goals are, that’s how 1 pips get assigned to bridge duty.

@Faraday said in Star Trek Games:

I know Star Trek isn’t RL, but just for reference/scope, a US aircraft carrier would have ~3000 enlisted crew and ~200 officers.

Memory Alpha lists THE D as having 1,000 people aboard, including family members and so on. Voyager had… a variable number, but lists 141 as the usual compliment. As always, you can scale down because the computer can follow verbal commands, but we also see problems that could easily be handled by a fully coordinated crew just wreck a ship with people only on the bridge.

While 1st/2nd/3rd class crewmen and NCOs exist (can you tell I can’t remember proper titles or rank structure?), you have significantly less need to balloon the crew compliment with people who haven’t gone to the Academy yet… doubly so in Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism where the poors don’t have to sign up for a chance to crawl out of the bottom rung of capitalist hell.

For Voyager’s crew, Memory Alpha lists 60 people with the rank of Crewman, as opposed to an officers rank (this includes Maquis with provisional ranks). So depending on crew size, you could have half or even more being officers. I dunno. I only counted ‘crewman’ on my fingers, I didn’t check civillians or figure out how many if each rank were around. Mlstly because the list includes people whose names are only ever seen on an LCARS.

Also! As a starbase was mentioned, you can consider different ships, different crews of department heads if you go that route, but still give the lower rank folks time to shine, if people want to play them. It all circles back to ‘staff makes plot, or endorses PRPs so other people can ST things for whomever.’

[Sammich]

My Mother and a couple of my sisters spent many years playing a Star Trek PBEM game (It was called the FGN I think) and I’m trying to remember what their experience was.

As far as I can remember, there really were only (or mainly) officers. Heads of department and then their 2ic. Like Chief Medical Officer and then Assistant Chief Medical Officer? Might not have been that nomenclature exactly but that was kinda the vibe. Obviously that doesn’t make for particularly large crews, but they had multiple ships and stations and stuff. The game runners basically managed the entire federation I guess and gave ships missions and stuff, and then the players mostly just did things with their crew. They could transfer to another ship or station in the fleet, and if you wanted to play with your friends they’d be as accommodating as they could.

Also like, I’m fairly sure there were people who were just like “I wanna be the wise bartender on the ship” and so they could do that if they wanted. But yeah, basically it handled having a lot of people by having a lot of ships rather than just jamming everyone into one. The ships would sometimes be on missions together or whatever, but also often were just doing their own thing in the galaxy, and one ship that got sassy with the romulans over here might cause problems for another ship who is trying to deal with some romulans over there, like it was a shared galaxy even if you didn’t necessary interact with everyone else in it regularly. In theory you got to have your ‘limited Star Trek ensemble cast on a ship’ adventures, while also being part of a much larger group of people also going on adventures?

Would that work as a MU? Would ‘real Star Trek stories’ be able to be told? Would it even be practical to try place many different ships and stations all doing different things asynchronously into some sort of coherent universal timeline?

I don’t really know. But I do know a ton of Star Trek fans had a ton of fun playing a PBEM game a couple decades ago, and I thought maybe a tiny bit of info on how they did things (even if maybe it’s not exactly the type of thing that we’re talking about wanting here?) might be helpful to someone. Or at least stand as evidence that you can do something with it, somehow.