So, what gets mechanics?

[robertfisher]

Sorry if this is the inappropriate place or duplicates another thread. I didn’t see one.

OD&D has—by my reckoning—mechanics for combat, magic, exploration (searching, hearing, etc.) and little else. Everything eles is left for the referee to just make rulings on.

So, what should a old school Star Trek game have mechanics for?

[rsaintjohn]

Personal combat, investigation (perhaps the same as exploration), negotiation (something covering everything from diplomacy to a battle of wits, perhaps even psionics), possibly "mechanical" repair and maybe a system for starship combat. This last one I would think would not be a re-invention of SFB or TCS, but rather how a starship's features connect to characters' abilities.

[coffee]

Negotiation?

What kind of mechanics did you have in mind? I'm not sure if I'd want to have that sort of thing reduced to a die roll. Your mileage may vary, of course, but what I've seen in such games is that the player stacks as many modifiers as possible and then rolls his d20. But no actual roleplaying takes place.

And that would be a damned shame in a Star Trek game.

On the other hand, if you have some negotiation mechanics that actually foster roleplaying, then I'm all ears...

[rsaintjohn]

It very much depends on what abilities would make it into a game, but the examples that come to mind would be based on how CHA and/or Alignment is used. How (for instance) does Kirk seduce the Regent's daughter into helping him free Spock and McCoy? If he tries to bluff a Romulan Commander into standing down based on the Corbomite ruse, would it succeed, and to what degree? If the PC is in a situation trying to mediate a dispute between two opposing sides, how do their abilties affect whether they succeed or fail?

I'm not so much trying to make a case for roll vs role, but rather pointing out that encounters involving diplomacy, bluffing, battles of will, convincing and so on are just as common in Star Trek as physical combat. It's the kind of thing that would distinguish a Trek game from D&D.

I agree that it is the kind of thing that can entirely be handled through roleplaying. But a mechanic provides the opportunity for uncertainty that could make the session more interesting and more Trek like (did Kirk really seduce the girl? Was the ambassador unconvinced, but plays along to bide time?).

[coffee]

Good, that's the angle I was hoping you were going for. I agree, some kind of mechanic makes it more fun (and, for some of us, makes such encounters possible at all).