The Game
Ah, FASA’s Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game. This was one of my very first RPGs, bought for my by my Mammaw and Pappaw. I have been a Star Trek fan as long as I can remember, there are pictures of me as a toddler with a Spock uniform t-shirt, and I had the awesome light and sound Enterprise toy from the Motion Picture release. OF COURSE I had to have the Star Trek RPG once I realized one existed.
Trek, like the Star Wars RPG, didn’t have nearly as much canon to feed from back in 1986-7, when I first started playing this heavily. We had the original series, animated series, Star Trek feature films through Search for Spock, with Voyage Home coming out shortly after I got the game, and some novels. We had the Franz Josef Technical Manual, and a lot of fan-produced stuff like the Star Fleet Officer Requirements, and Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise, etc.
My edition was actually the second FASA had created, and it came in two formats in the US. There was the boxed set I received first, which contained three books. The Cadet’s Orientation Sourcebook had basic Trek knowledge. The Star Fleet Officer’s Manual was the character generation rules, and the Game Operations Manual the GM’s guide. The Deluxe Boxed Set contained the starship combat game with maps and counters, and a set of deckplans of a Constitution-class ship and a Klingon D-7.
I fell in love with this game. I’d already gotten a taste of Traveller, and despite using d100 instead of 2d6, there was a lot of Traveller in this game. A lifepath character gen model, where each character went through the Academy step by step, a way to randomly create planets and star systems, and a tactical combat system that was perhaps a bit crunchier than Star Trek needed, with action points and square grid maps, just like Traveller’s Snapshot! Game.
The starship combat game had some great ideas. It could be played as a standalone game, or in role-playing mode where each player had a “control panel” in front of them with which do fulfill their role as a member of the crew. The engineer had chits to keep track of engine power, the navigator had a shield control panel, the helmsman had the helm and weapons. It was a pretty cool experience. So, let’s go back to those thrilling stardates of yesteryear and see how a character could be whipped up in FASA Trek.
The Character
FASA Trek has a variation on the Lifepath-type character creation in that your character goes through Starfleet Academy, graduates, then potentially has tours of duty under their belt before the game starts. But unlike Traveller, where there is a risk of injury/death and your final rank is randomly determined, and Cyberpunk where the lifepath gives explicit events that occur, FASA Trek has no chance of death, you choose your final rank and position, and no explicit events are rolled or generated.
The first thing to do is determine Attributes, which are Strength, Endurance, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, Luck, and Psionic Potential. The first five are 3D10+40, with 40 being human average, the assumption being that Starfleet Officers are above average across the board. The final two are rolled as percentile dice. After generating these numbers, two things will modify them- racial modifiers, and bonus points. Racial modifiers are the biological factors of the Star Trek races, Vulcans are stronger, Caitians are faster, Andorians have more Endurance.
While we're at it, in the basic rules you can play an Andorian, Caitian, Edoan, Human, Tellarite, or Vulcan. The races we saw in TOS and the Animated Series. So, let's roll our stats:
- STR: 47
- END: 66
- INT: 59
- DEX: 57
- CHA: 64
- LUC: 63
- PSI: 25
So, the stats are all above average save for Strength and Psionic Potential, with Dexterity being dead average. I think this character is going to be a Caitian helm officer, working to become a Captain. Rolling for Bonus Points, 1D100/2, yields 82/2=41 points. No more than 30 points can go into any one attribute, and no attribute can go over 99. Oh, and PSI can't be adjusted this way. So, applying the Caitian bonuses to DEX and CHA, and penalties to END, LUC, and PSI, plus Bonus Points, our stats now look like this:
- STR: 47 + 0 + 3 = 50
- END: 66 + (-5) + 9 = 70
- INT: 59 + 0 + 11 = 70
- DEX: 57 + 20 + 0 = 77
- CHA: 64 + 5 + 2 = 71
- LUC: 63 + (-10) + 17 = 70
- PSI: 25 + (-30) = 01
So, not a psychic. At all. But fast, smart, charismatic and lucky. Just like a swashbuckling helmscat should be. Now we fill out some derived stats. Inaction Save is 20, this is the saving throw you get when your character cannot act. Unconscious Threshold is the number at which you pass out, it defaults to 5. Wound heal is END/20 rounded down per day of rest. Fatigue heal is END/10 rounded down per 30 minutes of rest. Max Op End is Endurance-damage the character has taken. Current Op End is Max Op End minus fatigue damage. Thus, a character will tend to fall unconscious before dying unless hit with an instantly deadly attack.
Next step is to figure out what our Caitian knew before joining the Academy. To do this, we get skills from the Background Skills List, 7 to be precise, since the number is determined by INT/10 round down. They must be chosen half and half from the Educational Background Skills, and Personal Development Skills. Each skill we choose will get a rating of 1D10. 10 is considered a competent skill, with 40 being professional, just for the sake of comparison.
We pick up
- Computer Operation 8
- Language: Galacta 3
- Trivia: Federation Adventure Fiction 7
- Carousing 3
- Gaming, Wargames 1
- Sports: Caitian Football 9
- Leadership 9
Next, we attend the Academy, and pick up a TON of skills that form the basic core of an Academy education. The Academic Curriculum, Space Sciences Curriculum, and Officer Training Curriculum all go onto the character sheet. We do get a few choices, so here's what got picked. Life Science- Ecology. Physical Science- Mathematics. Planetary Science- Meteorology. Two Space Sciences, Astrogation and Astronautics. For Language we'll keep studying Galacta. Galacta is the English we hear when we watch Star Trek, the standard Federation language.
Now we get to select some electives, five of them to be exact, and each one comes in at 10. Our Caitian is a bit of a party... erm... animal. So we'll grab Carousing, Gaming, Sports, Streetwise, and Trivia, honing things they have already started studying. Advanced Study is next, a number of D10s may be added to skills already learned equal to INT/10 (round down) +5. So for our young cadet, it's 12. We bump up some skills related to being a leader, communicating without a Universal Translator, and being a member of the Academy's Caitian Football Team.
Now we go on to branch school. Helmsman branch school is pretty straightforward, qualifications in Starship Combat Strategy/Tactics, Sensors, Weaponry Technology, and Warp Drive Technology. A full 40 point "professional" rating in Helm Operation and Weaponry Operation. We get more electives, and more advanced training. Two things our brash young helmsman does not yet know and wishes to are shuttle piloting, and small unit tactics. 1D10 in each. 5 more skills may be improved, plus two more for Branch School skills. All of it is D10 points. We go with Leadership, Marksmanship, Unarmed Combat, Fed Culture/History, and Fed Law, all on the theory that they'll be useful to a potential Captain someday. For Branch School we add both dice to Starship Combat Strategy/Tactics, as our hero is an adventure fiction buff, and fancies themselves a furry Horatio Hornblower.
Now it's time to go on the Cadet Cruise. With a LUC of 70 and INT of 70, we get a 20 point bonus on the roll to see what our Cadet Cruise assignment is. The most prestigious is an assignment to a Constitution-class cruiser in Galaxy Exploration Command. The other possibilities in descending order of prestige and desirability are any other Galaxy Exploration Command vessel, Military Operations Command, Colonial Operations Command, and finally Merchant Marine Command. And the dice say... Galaxy Exploration Command, but not aboard one of the Connies.
Cadet Cruise results - bonuses for LUC, and for Exploration Command, plus dice, equal a result of... oh, no. Rolled a double 0. Even with the modifiers, that's not a passing grade. So we have to repeat the Cadet Cruise procedure, with a penalty for having failed this one. Guess we partied too hard and didn't study enough. The second Cruise is with Military Operations Command, probably aboard a Frigate or Destroyer. 07 this time, -10 for MilOpsCom, -10 for LUC, and +10 for a failed previous cruise adjusts to 01. Passed with High Honors, and assigned immediately as a Lieutenant (jg)! Guess the second time was the charm, eh? Oh, and repeating the Cadet Cruise means 1D10 to Streetwise or Carousing.
Now, here is where I quibble with FASA Trek a bit. If the character is destined to become a Department Head, they go straight to that school in this process. In my mind, that happens after the character has done a tour or two on an actual vessel. Likewise, if the character is destined to be a qualified commander, someone who is a watchstander and can legally hold the deck and the conn in Naval parlance, do that school next. Again, this would come later in a character's career, but for generation purposes, we do it now. I guess it doesn't really make that big a difference, but I'd personally prefer to do it more in the order in which it occurs, but FASA Trek is more concerned with the end result than how a character got there in a procedural fashion.
Department Head School comes with Administration at 40, Computer Operation at 15, and Leadership at 20. This is followed by more Advanced Training, 7 more D10s of it. We bump up Shuttle Pilot, Helm Ops, Weapon Ops, and Starship Combat. Now we're on to Command School. Fed Culture/History goes up 5, Fed Law, Negotiation/Diplomacy, and Leadership go up 10, and Starship Combat Strategy/Tactics goes up by 40. Advanced Training happens again, with 7 more D10s. We raise Negotiation/Diplomacy, Instruction, Shuttle Pilot, and Trivia.
Now we figure out our career experience. First, we determine how many tours our character has served, and then how long each tour was. Then we determine what assignments those tours were, and how well rated our character was by their superiors. One quibble, while there is a bonus for graduating with High Honors for figuring out that first post-Academy assignment, there's no adjustment for the promotion that comes with it. In essence, the promotion to Lieutenant (jg) is not taken into account when looking at how many tours of duty it took to get to wherever the character is going. But, we're doing these characters by the book, so we'll just go with it.
Crap, 10. That means our character has served a base of 5 (1D10/2 round down) tours of duty. Adjust that by -1 for INT 60+, another -1 for LUC 60+, +1 for Department Head, and we get 4 tours. First tour assignment? We get bonuses for LUC and for graduating High Honors. The dice say... Colonial Operations Command. What a craptastic job for a graduate with High Honors, but OK. Needs of the Service and all. Officer Efficiency Report comes out "As Expected." So that was 2 years flying colony transports. Not too exciting. 1 skill gets improved for 2 years, so our hero reads more adventure fiction.
Three more tours to go. The next one is in... Galaxy Exploration Command! The tour lasts 2 years, and we get an OER of and adjusted 01! Outstanding! 1D10 of skill goes into Starship Helm Operation as we boldly go where no man has gone before. (I know, it's "no one" these days, and I agree with that terminology change completely, but this is a TOS character.) Next assignment, Galaxy Exploration Command again. 3 years. OER... As Expected. Another D10 in skills, let's go with Astrogation. Final tour... Military Operations Command, 2 years. OER "As Expected." One more D10, this time in Negotiation/Diplomacy. Thanks to Intelligence and Luck, we finish off with 4 more D10s. That 71 in Combat Strategy/Tactics looks tantalizingly close to "Expert" 80, or even "Acknowledged Leader" 96+. Let's see if we can get to that point...8 and 9. 17 more points takes the 71 to 88. Another 8, so 96. "Acknowledged Leader." We'll add the last D10 to Federation Culture/History and posit that this character has become an officer who writes papers about famous battles for the Starfleet version of "Proceedings."
We figure out combat stats next. Bare hand damage is 1D10 based on a 50 STR. To-Hit numbers are an average of DEX and the skills involved. So, To-Hit Modern is 52. To-Hit, HTH, is 49. Action Points - 12, based on DEX.
Now, this character is ready to play - a full Lieutenant who is a trained department head and qualified watchstander.
The Character
M'rron was never a well-behaved child. He was constantly getting into mischief, reading translations of the adventure tales of a dozen worlds and imagining himself a hero. He excelled in sports, captain of his secondary school's team upon graduation, and received an appointment to Starfleet Academy on Earth. M'rron loved the Terrans, but hated the way they pronounced his name as most of them were unable to trill their "r" sounds. His leadership potential and passion for the more bellicose parts of history were apparent to his instructors, and although Starfleet's primary mission is one of exploration and diplomacy, the Klingons, Romulans, and Orion pirates meant a competent ship fighter was always welcome somewhere in the Fleet.
His fascination with starship battles earned him the ire of more dove-ish professors, and he failed his first cadet cruise in Exploration Command for being too quick to seek a military solution to problems. During a second Cadet Cruise, M'rron was assigned to Military Operations Command, and showed a natural talent for the high-speed ballet of "Tin Can" combat in simulated destroyer-on-destroyer battles with the Klingons. Receiving the highest marks possible and graduation at the rank of Lieutenant (jg), M'rron looked forward to a career of adventure on the borders of Federation space, keeping the peace and maybe blunting the occasional Klingon scouting action. This was not to be as his nemesis instructor moved to a job in Operations and saw to it that the young Lieutenant was assigned the most boring job possible as far from the Klingon border as possible. The transfer to Galaxy Exploration Command couldn't come soon enough!
Once posted to an exploratory cruiser, M'rron started to see the wisdom of his Andorian captain. Andorians were known for their martial traditions, but the skipper was thoughtful, diplomatic, and slow to call for battlestations. This was a major influence on M'rron as he detached from his ship at the end of two years to attend Department Head school and Command School, at his Captain's recommendation after an "outstanding" tour of duty. M'rron returned to his ship qualified to command the department, but had to wait for the Chief Helmsman billet to open up. Growing weary of waiting for the officer ahead of him to move on, he applied for a transfer and was granted a post as XO of a Larson-class Destroyer along the Romulan border. This tour went well, but M'rron found that he actually missed exploratory duty, and once his promotion to full Lieutenant was confirmed, transferred back to the Invincible as Chief Helmsman now that his former senior had moved on to Starbase duty.
M'rron is now a published writer, penning papers for Starfleet about modern starship combat tactics, and is up for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Rumor has it Military Operations Command wants him as a Destroyer skipper, but M'rron himself is hoping for a shot at a cruiser command exploring strange, new worlds.
My Thoughts
So, here we have a FASA Trek character, ready to go. I love this game, it was one of my first non-D&D games that I was extremely passionate about. I was a Trek fan since I was a wee nipper, and playing Trek was just amazing. Sure, Traveller could do everything FASA Trek could, but FASA Trek was designed to emulate Star Trek, specifically. I snagged every book I could for it, and the ship recognition manuals became something of a bible for us in deciding what Trek looked like, ship-wise. Remember at this point, Trek IV had not quite come out yet, and no TNG. All we had was things like the Franz Josef Star Fleet Technical Manual, Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, and these RPG books.
In hindsight, there are warts. Too many skills, too specific in their uses. The combat system was very crunchy and tactical, which I don't mind, but it's a bit odd for a Trek-based game. The percentile system felt odd given 40 was "professional" and 10 was supposed to be good enough for most non-emergency situations.
All that aside, though, this is still one of my favorite games. And until the publication of Star Trek Adventures, it was my go-to rules set for this game world. There have been many other Trek RPGs, but I kept going back to this one until I got the hang of STA. We're going to look at that game next to compare the character gen rules.
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