Star Trek Games
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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.
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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.
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@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.
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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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.
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@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?
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@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.
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@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 simulatorholodeck 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.
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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@Raistlin said in Star Trek Games:
what would stop you from playing on a Star Trek game?
Other people, generally.
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@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.
