My GURPS Star Trek(ish) Campaign

[LoneWolf23k]

So, inspired by the now famous “Federal Space” thread by Shadowjack, I’ve decided to throw my head in and try my hand at custom-designing my own derivative Star Trek campaign setting, using GURPS as the system. Because my usual gaming group and I tried the 2d20 Star Trek Adventures system, and honestly, we didn’t really like it.

I’ve always been more of a d20-based and GURPS systems fan, honestly, I feel GURPS would work best for this project of mine.

I also don’t plan on making a 1-to-1 conversion of Star Trek TNG. I’m using the GURPS Prime Directive sourcebook as the baseline for this conversion, so I’m going to be taking a lot of stuff from that book, bringing the lore more in line with Alpha and Beta Trek canon, and updating stuff to TNG.

And then I’m going to veer out of canon territory, modifying the lore, such as adding more AIs and Robots to the setting, and maybe a bit of light bio-tech, although the Federation is still mostly against creating augment clades. I’m also adding new species from GURPS and other RPG sources, as well as from other sci-fi sources. I plan on integrating Mass Effect’s Citadel species, and Halo’s Covenant, for example, as well as both the Protogen and Vader-San Synth species.

So, stated design goals for this project:
-Create a wide range of inexpensive racial templates. Or just adapt racial templates made by others for quickness. I want to go as simple as I can for these racial templates, to avoid point bloat and design indecision.

-Decide between two options for Starfleet Character Creation; one is just to use the occupational Starfleet templates from Prime Directive. Second is to take the Basic Action Template from GURPS Action 4: Specialists, and create Specialist Templates for various Starfleet skill packages. There is definitely room for Wildcard Skills. Starfleet Science Officer protagonists most certainly have Science! to represent their wide range of scientific talents.

-Convert/Adapt Star Trek technology into GURPS terms, or find good equivalent tech from GURPS Ultra-Tech.

-Convert various Trek ships into GURPS Starship terms. Fortunately, GURPS Prime Directive (revised) has some examples I can work off of.

-Flesh out my personal vision for how this version of Star Trek works; history, culture, biology of certain established and new races, etc. For example, I plan on making my Klingons more a mix of TOS and Prime Directive’s near-human Klingons with TNG’s own Klingons, minus some of the more ridiculous “redundant organ” concepts that was introduced. And give the Klingons a warrior race culture that makes a bit more sense.

Other setting changes I’m planning on:
-Psionics is more integrated into the setting; Starfleet has an actual Psi-Division, while psionic talents are not unknown among other civilizations: The Cardassian Obsidian Order is rumored to employ numerous telepaths, while the Klingons basically treat their own Psions as revered wizard-priests.

-Starfleet Security consists of the MACOs (most likely built using the Star Fleet Marine template from Prime Directive), with green uniforms, serving as Ship Security as well as ground troops. Forget Red Shirts, the cliche here is that Green Shirts tend to have risky jobs.

That’s it for this intro post. I plan on posting again when I have something more constructive to share. And like Shadowjack, I may make a few comics as part of my worldbuilding as well.

Live Long and Prosper!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

-Convert various Trek ships into GURPS Starship terms.!

Um "Gurps Starships" is ambiguous. "Gurps Traveller:Starships" was/is a thing but seems an unlikely source for you. "Gurps Spaceships" is the most current tool for making ships for Gurps and in the example ships in several boks there are several that are probably meant to be Trek-types with the serial numbers filed off. Spaceships is a little low resolution so it can be hard to be sure.

In Spaceships you will find a note about settings where the "Cosmic" switch ahs been flipped on. This greatly increases the power of energy weapons whiel raising Force screens byt a proportioate amount but gnerally not increasing armor. This is useful when screens are everythign defesively and armor or even hull toughness is seldom mentiioned.

Star Trek is one of those settings. It's energy weaposn are hugely destructive and its' shields the only thing that stops them. As a curiosity note the Disintegrators from UT. Those are meant to model TOS Phasers and msut use Cosmic power cells. If you divided teir damage by 10 and used regular power cells their damge would be much more in line with other weapons.

Conversely you can "trekify" other UT enrgy weapons by multiplying their damage and using Cosmic cells. want to give Klingons "Sonic disruptors" but not leave them outclassed? Flip the Cosmic switch on them and add FTL tot hem too.

[LoneWolf23k]

Dang Typos! I meant "Gurps Spaceships", building with that ruleset, sorry for the confusion.

[Megileree]

Just wondered if you're familiar with Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew ? I, similarly, have recently wanted to move from the 2D20 game to GURPS and had a go at redoing the player characters using that supplement; I haven't had a chance to run it yet though. Would love to see some more Action 4 templates though as that's my favourite GURPS book.

[LoneWolf23k]

Originally Posted by Megileree

Just wondered if you're familiar with Template Toolkit 3: Starship Crew ? I, similarly, have recently wanted to move from the 2D20 game to GURPS and had a go at redoing the player characters using that supplement; I haven't had a chance to run it yet though. Would love to see some more Action 4 templates though as that's my favourite GURPS book.

I actually do have that book, thanks for mentioning it. It does mention that adding the Legendary and Omnicompetent lenses does lead to something that's basically "GURPS Action in Space."

[David Johnston2]

You know of course that the TL 12^ Palomar Class on page 12 of Spaceships 5 is the Enterprise D while the TL 12^ Intrepid Class from Spaceships 3 represents a smaller cruiser. The Eclipse Class is a Klingon battlecruiser.

[Phantasm]

I came up with something for the Miranda-class Light Cruiser (the Reliant from ST2:Wrath of Khan) some time ago, with different stats for the TOS/TAS/numbered movies era and TNG/DS9/Voy/un-numbered movies/STO era. Hope they help.

[Pursuivant]

This is a fairly common topic.

This is my summary of high value information for a "trek-like" campaign not specifically based on GURPS Prime Directive.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=183216

[LoneWolf23k]

So, I've done a basic Campaign Plan based on the old Planning Sheet from GURPS Space 3rd edition. It's not entirely complete, but I've managed to get down some basics for the campaign:

Space Campaign Plan
GM: Rom Lonewolf Date: 2022
Campaign Name: Star Trek Resolution v2 (based off my original attempt at a Star Trek game)
Campaign Type: Strange New Worlds (space exploration campaign)

Campaign's Starting Year: 2400, (after the Dominion War.)

Rate game time passes: tbd

Known Alien Races: Known species from Star Trek Lore as of end of Dominion War, plus some species from GURPS Aliens and others.

Campaign's Base World: Earth, in Sector 01, at the heart of Federation Space

Frequency of “Good” Worlds: tbd

Is Exploration still going on? Yes

Where? Area of space called the Shackleton Expanse, near the borders of Klingon and Romulan space.

Campaign Political Background:

Name/type of Stellar State: United Federation of Planets (Representative Democracy/Federation)

Control Rating: 3 (Moderate)

Brief description of the state and its neighbors: The U.F.P. is a multiracial union of sovereign worlds, united in a desire for peaceful coexistence and exploration. Its neighbors include the Klingon Empire (Feudal Empire), Romulan Star Empire (Imperium), Cardassian Union (Oligarchy), Gorn Hegemony (Federation), and Kzinti Hegemony (Empire)

Brief description of the political/economic situation: The Federation is a highly equity-focused socialist democracy, balancing a free market with a social umbrella to ensure no one is below the poverty line.

Campaign's Tech Level: 11, with Emergent Superscience

TL Details: The Federation has access to Antimatter Generators (although it uses a Solar Dyson Swarm for most civil power use), Duotronic Computers (effectively Quantum Computers), Gravity Manipulation Technology, Force Fields, Holograms, and both Transporters and Replicators.

FTL communications speed, range and availability: FTL Radio (aka Subspace Communicators) is relatively fast, but dependent on “repeater” beacons, and there is still some lag between very large distances. As a result, it is mostly used for important Starfleet communications, emergency signals, and official Federation News Broadcasts.

Medical Technology: Genetic engineering is highly restricted, with laws against radical modification of sapient species (as well as uplifting non-sapient creatures), and strong regulations on cloning. Cybernetics are available, but most people settle for simple prosthetics; extensive body modification is rare and controversial, as are neural implants. Braintaping is unknown in the Federation.


Starship Rules:

FTL Drive Type: Warp Drives Speed: Using the Warp Speed charts from GURPS Prime Directive. Standard Warp speed (Warp 7) is of 18.7 Parsecs per Day. Starfleet-level Starships are capable of “Dash” speeds of up to 9.9, for 469.80 Parsecs/Day, but only for limited bursts.

Fuel: Warp engines use deuterium as fuel, contained in deuterium tanks. Starships have bussard collectors that can extract deuterium from interstellar particles, but can also replenish their tanks of purified deuterium from starbases and other refueling facilities.

Ease of FTL navigation: Simple Astrogation checks.

FTL Engineering Skill Difficulty: Daily Engineering (Starships)/TL11 checks to keep Warp Drives functioning. Checks at -4 are required after all uses of Dash speeds to prevent damage to the Drive.

Obstacles to FTL travel: Space-Time Anomalies, Tholian System Webs

Time effects of FTL travel: warp drives prevent major relativity effects.

FTL side/error effects, special notes: section to be filled


STL Drove Type: Impulse Engines (Fusion “Torch”)

Speed: Full Impulse is approximately ¼ the speed of light (167,000,000 mph or 74,770 km/s.)

Fuel: Impulse engines also use Deuterium, like Warp engines.

Ease of STL navigation: Astrogation for plotting courses, Piloting (Starship) for maneuvering through obstacles.

STL Engineering Skill Difficulty: Engineering (Starship)/TL11 required daily. Checks needed after uses of Full Impulse for over an hour.

STL side/error effects, special notes: tbd


Power Plant Type: Antimatter Reactor Engineering Skill Difficulty: Standard Engineering (Starships)/TL 11 checks daily.

Fuel: Deuterium; as with Warp Drives.


Usual/Allowable Weaponry and Shields: Phasers (Beam Weapons) and Photon Torpedoes (Missiles); Regular Shielding.


Player Character Information

PC Races (or human subtypes allowed): Various Federation species, plus new alien species.

Base wealth for PCs: Average Starting social levels for PC's: Rank 3-4

Languages the PC's will need: Federation Standard

Especially useful/useless character types: The Occupational Templates from Template Tookit 3: Starship Crew are the best baseline here, at least for a traditional Star Trek “Crew of the Enterprise” setting.

For a GURPS Action game set in Trek, possibly using the “Prime Team” format from Prime Directive, we use the rules from GURPS Action 4: Specialists, with the added sci-fi “Military Spacer” Skillset from Pyramid Vol 3 Issue 112 as a core baseline.


Especially appropriate/inappropriate professions: Not doing a Lower Decks game at this time, nor anything resembling civilian/support staff.

Advantages and skills useful in this campaign:


Advantages and skills useless in this campaign: Anything involving Magic and the Occult.


Disadvantages discouraged in this campaign: No disadvantages that would disqualify you from serving in Starfleet. While radically inhuman biochemistry (such as being Ammonia-based life) isn’t completely banned, most Starfleet species hail from M-Class worlds, with relatively Earth-like carbon-based chemistry.


Appropriate Patrons (and base value): For Prime Teams, the Starship they are usually assigned to counts as a fairly powerful organization, for a base cost of [15 points].

Appropriate Enemies (and base value): Space Pirates (medium-sized groups) [-20 pts]; Nosey Federation Polticians or Journalists [From -1 to -5]


Special Disciplines available in this campaign:
Magic? No Magic

Psionics? Yes, but primarily telepathy, E.S.P. and Telekinesis, but at low levels at the start.

Rule Variants:

This is mostly a foundation for where I'm going with this campaign building. I will go into more details about other aspects of the setting, such as an in-depth examination of Transporter and Replicator tech, as well as a look at the Federation and Starfleet as I envision them for this game.

[dataweaver]

Are you sure you want Teleporters in the setting? The Orville shows you can do a decent Trekish series without them.

If you do want something like that, you still may want to avoid using unrestricted teleporters. Perhaps require a teleport to go from pads to pads, for example; no beaming down to the middle of a wilderness, or onto an enemy ship's bridge. Maybe even don't do it as teleporting, per se; but some sort of portals: link up a pair of “travel doors”, step through, and you're at your destination.