Favorite Eps vs. most role-playing potential?

[thedungeondelver]

In no particular order, my favorite episodes of the original series are:

Bread and Circuses
Day of the Dove
Arena
The Doomsday Machine
Balance of Terror
A Taste of Armageddon

I think Bread and Circuses, Day of the Dove, and A Taste of Armageddon probably have the most potential as group-based RP scenarios. Anyone else have any favorites they'd pontificate on?

...

And, to kind of flip the coin, did anyone ever play any memorable published FASA ST:RPG scenarios that were as good as TV episodes?

[Falconer]

These aren’t my favorites (maybe I’ll post those later), but lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Friday’s Child and A Private Little War. I like the whole Federation/Klingon Cold War playing itself out on more primitive planets. I like the kligat weapon from the former, and of course who could forget the mugato from the latter!

[rflowers]

Not necessarily favorite episodes, but I think these would make good RPG scenarios:

"The Galileo Seven" - shuttle-craft is downed while on a mission; the crew must fight off hostile inhabitants while trying to make repairs, or at least contact with the ship. Seven is even a good number for a party!

"Shore Leave" - weird goings-on while R-n-R-ing on a mysterious planet.

"The Devil in the Dark" - the landing party must find out what is killing the crew of an important mining facility.

There are any good number of scenarios. Probably the best "show-2-game" translations involve landing parties & a bit of a mystery. Not to say very good scenarios couldn't be played out right on the ship.

[Falconer]

Yeah, I was thinking on the whole of a sort of “planet-of-the-week” format, however that may grow wearying, and so it should probably be broken up with other types of scenarios, as in the show. Some great episodes take place solely aboard the Enterprise; some episodes involve travel to multiple planets.

[Falconer]

Just rewatched The Trouble with Tribbles. Besides being just a really fun episode, there’s lots of interesting setup here which I think can be used to good effect in a game. Basically, it has to do with the fallout of the Treaty of Organia (from Errand of Mercy), and the disputed space between Klingons and Federation, and how Deep Space Station K-7 figures into it.

[coffee]

Yeah, The Trouble with Tribbles is one of my favorites, too.

Another one is A Piece of the Action. Partly because of the gangsters, but partly because of the basic storyline: You have to clean up after these other guys.

The roleplaying possibilities are near endless.

[Falconer]

Another one I love is The Enterprise Incident. In it, Kirk and Spock use every underhanded trick in the book—espionage, deceit, seduction, disguise, infiltration, theft—in a successful attempt to get ahead in a technology race against the Romulans. I love it, because in many episodes the crew is simply reacting to a situation in which they find themselves; however, in this episode the plot is 100% driven by the “PCs”. In fact, this is possibly the most D&Dish scenario presented in TOS—it’s a dungeon raid. The cloaking device functions the same as the treasure or magical item that a D&D party needs to get ahead. This came to mind in the “Money” thread, where it has been established that though money exists it is not something that motivates the crew. Well, tech sure does. Regards.

[chgowiz]

I'm definitely in agreement on the Doomsday Machine - talk about a classic puzzle and a "run away, run away" situation!

I'm going back and forth on "City on the Edge of Forever". There's a part of me that loathes, absolutely LOATHES time travel scenarios. And yet, this episode was so near and dear to many of the simple human messages that Roddenberry wanted to project through Star Trek that I think it really could be well done with a good GM.

[Falconer]

I don’t loathe time travel. I think it’s fun as long as it’s controlled and contained (which the Guardian of Forever is good for), and as long as the consequences of changing history are dealt with to some degree but not too overbearingly. The TAS episode Yesteryear is one of the better examples, I think. Assignment: Earth has a ridiculous premise and I prefer to ignore it (if you know it was meant to be a pilot for a new series, it makes sense, but it’s still contrived).

[thedungeondelver]

The Enterprise Incident is one of the most role-playing game like episodes of ST ever! Love that one.

I wish I could nominate All Our Yesterdays, but alas, it breaks the cardinal rule: don't split the party!

[vulcanridr]

Dec 30, 2009 21:42:35 GMT -5 rflowers said:

"The Devil in the Dark" - the landing party must find out what is killing the crew of an important mining facility.

The thing I remember about this scenario was that the landing party was Kirk, Spock, and about 20 red-shirts. I remember saying "Uh oh, this is going to be a bloodbath..."

[Grendelwulf]

From The Original Series:

A Taste of Armegeddon - Two planets conduct a war by computer (RPG twist - they have implemented a computer virus into a nearby Federation colony's computer system which then experiences random life support & other major system shutdowns. Can the crew intercede in time to save the colony?)

Arena - Can't we all just get along? Maybe not...

Journey to Babel - prevent/solve a murder mystery AND try not to set off a diplomatic incident!

Mirror, Mirror - The landing party comes face-to-face with a universe of evil doppelgangers (RPG twist - there are so many possibilities here: straight crossover like TOS, maybe they journey over and meet themselves, have to ally themselves with the Mirror Empire's enemies like Klingons, etc)

The Ultimate Computer - (RPG Twist - whether on a starship, or better still on a planet controlling the inhabitant's daily lives...hmm, this could be a ST version of the game "Paranoia")

*Oops, sorry. Some of these were mentioned already...*

..and let us no forget The Animated Series...

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth - A mysterious being threatens to destroy the crew if they are unable to solve an ancient puzzle

One of Our Planets is Missing - The crew encounters a giant cloud creature that feeds on the energy of the planets that lie in its path. Hmm, I wonder how many habitable planets lie in its way? A good twist would be if one of the planets it is heading for has a religious prophecy foretelling its own doom by their "God". Should the crew intervene? How can they leave a whole planet to die? How fine a line is the Prime Directive?

The Magicks of Megas-tu - On this planet, magic and witchcraft are quite normal. Yes, D&D in space...

The Eye of the Beholder - The disappearance of a scientific team lures the crew to investigate an abandoned starship. They beam down to discover a group of twenty foot slugs with intelligent capacities far beyond their own. The team is captured to be made part of a zoo collection.

Ciao!
Grendelwulf

[Grendelwulf]

Dec 30, 2009 18:25:28 GMT -5 thedungeondelver said:

And, to kind of flip the coin, did anyone ever play any memorable published FASA ST:RPG scenarios that were as good as TV episodes?

I once ran a variation of the Defiant-like adventure which came with the FASA box. I combined it with abit of plot from 2010: Space Odyssey II. The Defiant was spinning end-over-end around this gas giant and the player's had to investigate. Some greater alien intelligence was at work (and also responsible for the spatial interphase), and it was up to the crew to make contact.

Of course, some Orion pirates showed up to make it abit more interesting...

Ciao!
Grendelwulf