Post by Falconer on Sept 9, 2010 21:41:40 GMT -5
Was it a natural progression for D&D to progress out of Chainmail rather than for D&D to come onto the scene out of nowhere? In a sense, I think of a D&D session as one possible type of activity that could take place in a “Chainmail world”. Of course, it could be viewed the other way around, with Chainmail mass combats taking place in a D&D world, but I think the other way around makes more sense. The more microcosmic activity (D&D adventures) take place within the context of the more macrocosmic activity (the larger political landscape). Chainmail Fantasy Supplement actually set the base assumptions for D&D—the concept of heroes and wizards and monsters and spells and troop types and all that. So, obviously you could just play a wargame or just play a RPG by itself, but you wouldn’t try to treat either one as if it encompassed every possible type of activity in the world, right? Like, you wouldn’t use D&D rules to play out vast geopolitical struggles and wars, because it was designed from a first-person perspective for a party of basically cooperating PCs (one man per player essentially).
Okay, so, setting aside the actual way that Prime Directive was implemented, doesn’t it make sense for a Star Trek RPG to basically grow out of Star Fleet Battles? (It could be Star Fleet Battle Manual or whatever, if you prefer, but bear with me for the sake of the argument.) I’m thinking, of course, mostly about very early SFB before it got too bloated and too inbred and created its own very warlike timeline and too many empires, etc. But nevertheless, there is something attractive about using a “universe” where some of the basic technical assumptions are already nailed down for you, so you’re not just completely “making it up as you go to fit the story”. You want some sort of framework, so when you upgrade that warp drive or add such-and-such a new weapon, it actually means a concrete goal has been achieved and a tangible improvement will be seen.
One thing that is brilliant about D&D is that it basically uses Middle-earth as its default world. Yeah, yeah, I know there is plenty to quibble about that, but it’s true. Any newbie player can sit down at the table and immediately groks the basic gist of it when they are rolling up a character. That said, the basic activity that you partake in, in either Chainmail or D&D, does not resemble the arc of a Tolkien story. Bits of each resemble bits of Tolkien, but that’s not the point.
In the same way, I want to use Star Trek as the default world in a Sci-Fi RPG, for exactly the same reason. The players would automatically grok what to do with communicators and hand phasers and transporters and alien babes and klingons. That said, I am more and more leaning towards the idea that neither the RPG nor the wargame, together or separate, needs to actually resemble a Star Trek story, let alone cover the entire potential of TOS and the movies.
Is any of this making sense? It’s kind of flow-of-consciousness as I try to sort out the “Star Trek RPG problem” in my head. Suffice it to say, for now, Star Fleet Battles is a priority because it feels to me like mastery of it will make the world come alive, and the RPG can follow. The RPG would then start real small, like the Millenium Falcon but even smaller (I would say Serenity but it would have to have some sort of guns), a crew of PCs-only, exploring a single system (again like Firefly, but I’m thinking more along the lines of the Rigel System as we've discussed in the past). Over time they could improve their ship and eventually get a new one, recruit NPCs, and ultimately maybe someday captain a Heavy Cruiser. But the game would have to develop to that level naturally.
Maybe this is basic stuff for everyone else and they've figured it out already. In the past I was too stuck on adhering to the Star Trek episode forumla right from the get-go, and I think at least initially that is too artificial.
Hmmmmm.
Okay, so, setting aside the actual way that Prime Directive was implemented, doesn’t it make sense for a Star Trek RPG to basically grow out of Star Fleet Battles? (It could be Star Fleet Battle Manual or whatever, if you prefer, but bear with me for the sake of the argument.) I’m thinking, of course, mostly about very early SFB before it got too bloated and too inbred and created its own very warlike timeline and too many empires, etc. But nevertheless, there is something attractive about using a “universe” where some of the basic technical assumptions are already nailed down for you, so you’re not just completely “making it up as you go to fit the story”. You want some sort of framework, so when you upgrade that warp drive or add such-and-such a new weapon, it actually means a concrete goal has been achieved and a tangible improvement will be seen.
One thing that is brilliant about D&D is that it basically uses Middle-earth as its default world. Yeah, yeah, I know there is plenty to quibble about that, but it’s true. Any newbie player can sit down at the table and immediately groks the basic gist of it when they are rolling up a character. That said, the basic activity that you partake in, in either Chainmail or D&D, does not resemble the arc of a Tolkien story. Bits of each resemble bits of Tolkien, but that’s not the point.
In the same way, I want to use Star Trek as the default world in a Sci-Fi RPG, for exactly the same reason. The players would automatically grok what to do with communicators and hand phasers and transporters and alien babes and klingons. That said, I am more and more leaning towards the idea that neither the RPG nor the wargame, together or separate, needs to actually resemble a Star Trek story, let alone cover the entire potential of TOS and the movies.
Is any of this making sense? It’s kind of flow-of-consciousness as I try to sort out the “Star Trek RPG problem” in my head. Suffice it to say, for now, Star Fleet Battles is a priority because it feels to me like mastery of it will make the world come alive, and the RPG can follow. The RPG would then start real small, like the Millenium Falcon but even smaller (I would say Serenity but it would have to have some sort of guns), a crew of PCs-only, exploring a single system (again like Firefly, but I’m thinking more along the lines of the Rigel System as we've discussed in the past). Over time they could improve their ship and eventually get a new one, recruit NPCs, and ultimately maybe someday captain a Heavy Cruiser. But the game would have to develop to that level naturally.
Maybe this is basic stuff for everyone else and they've figured it out already. In the past I was too stuck on adhering to the Star Trek episode forumla right from the get-go, and I think at least initially that is too artificial.
Hmmmmm.
