Star Trek
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Game Product Reviews
Core Game System
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This game has made it very tempting to return to running my Star Trek
campaign. I like the rules: they are fast paced. Action moves quickly,
character creation is quick and easy. I like their Starship Combat system,
it really captures the "feel" of Star Trek starship combat, and most
importantly, it RESOLVES QUICKLY. Unlike the infamous "Starfleet Battles"
system. I highly recommend this game, although I have a definite reservation
that the DS9, Voyager, and Old Series have separate core systems.
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GM Screen: Narrator's Toolkit
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Unlike the Babylon 5 GM screen, the Star Trek GM screen comes with some
meaty info. Again, having all the charts in one place is almost required: The
core game system has them spread throughout the book. But the Narrator's
Toolkit has some good stuff in addition. In particular, the "index card" system of
structuring scenes, which allows you to mix and match the main plot and
sublots, is interesting. A mini-adventure is also included, as well as
the many GM hints that you were expecting from this product.
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Adventure Module: A Fragile Peace
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This is a very good adventure module. The reason is because there is
a lot to it. There are four adventures, each of which is a full adventure
with detail, complexity, and interesting NPCs. Better yet, each adventure
is part of a larger campaign! And word has it that the campaign will be
extended in future products. I wish more gaming companies published
campaigns like this one instead of mere one shot adventures.
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Suppliment: The United Federation of Planets
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There were some things I liked about this product and some things I was
less thrilled with. First off, they provide plenty of information about
the many other organizations in the Federation beyond Starfleet. More importantly,
they have many new overlays, allowing you to quickly create PCs and NPCs from
those organizations.
This book had the stats for the ST:TNG crew! This was very good to see,
and I'm glad to say that I like how they've written up these old friends.
There were new starship stats included with this book, but there were some
problems here in my eyes. I think there were some inconsistencies here with what
we have seen in the show. However, they did have the stats for the Enterprise-E,
which went a significant way towards redeeming this section.
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Miniatures: Federation Away Team
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These miniatures are of very fine quality. The box doesn't say anywhere
how many are included, so I'll tell you that there are seven. Unfortunately,
four of the figuires seem to represent only two characters! That is to say,
there are two figuires that represent a near identical bajoran woman with a tricorder,
just in different poses; and two figuires that represent a near identical security
officer, just in different poses. Since you can't see what you're getting
before buying, let me tell you what is included:
- Worf with a phaser and a stern expression.
- A male andorian with a tricorder and toolkit.
- A female officer with phaser.
- The same female officer with phaser in a different pose.
- A male alien wth a phaser rifle.
- A female Bajoran with tricorder.
- The same female Bajoran with tricorder in a different pose.
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Suppliment: The Starfleet Intelligence Manual
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Lots and lots of setting information but less gaming stats in this book.
The most interesting section was the "Intelligence Dossiers" which described
many interesting shady characters. Of vital importance was information on
how to crossover your regular characters to an intelligence campaign.
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Suppliment: The Vulcans
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This book was long on history and background info but short on gaming
stats. I would like to see stats for prominent vulcan NPCs. At least there
was overlays, technological items, and maps. It might also be interesting
to have a short campaign or one-shot adventure set in the time of Vulcan exploration
before they encountered humans and founded the Federation.
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