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Old 01-10-2012, 04:39 PM   #41
BaronVonStevie
 
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

ha! back in the saddle. just graduated college and I've got time to kill. Time to drag the old star trek project out of mothballs and give it a go again. I did, for the record, actually run an entire "season" of trek last summer and it was a big hit. I've been asked about doing a season two since then, but couldn't find the time. Now it's time to streamline things and try it again. Watching a lot of star trek by the way with the books out. Undiscovered country and Wrath of Khan are really good for starship combat mechanics.

So... let's boldly go, shall we?
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Old 01-10-2012, 05:17 PM   #42
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

Quote:
Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie View Post
So... let's boldly go, shall we?
Allow me to plug my Star Trek campaign (see the link in my sig below). It's set in the non-J.J. TOS era, but you might find some of it useful.

Is any of your stuff available for me to check out online?
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Old 01-10-2012, 08:22 PM   #43
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Is any of your stuff available for me to check out online?
Not yet. Besides, what I'm looking to do is start from the ground up. Thus far I've posted a few racial templates here. I have more on my computer, but I'm currently in the middle of moving also. I'll be posting here and testing starship combat rules in the meantime.

Quote:
I am totally ripping off your racial and training packages. I am paring them down a bit since I am using Wildcard skills in my game. Just wanted to say thanks and keep up the good work. :)

(I agree that to make Vulcans canonically strong would be broken. I think the package you presented is good, though the hysterical strength idea is neat, and would explain Nero's flipped out attack strength.)
Yeah in Abrams' trek, they make it a point to show how strong Vulcans and Romulans are. In TOS, there are examples of Spock showing great strength and examples of Spock being as strong as humans. Same with Romulans (Kirk handles Romulans easily in hand to hand during the Enterprise Incident) and Klingons (the barfight in Trouble with Tribbles and all the fighting in Day of the Dove should be your example). I perfer to give bonuses to strength among the common Trek species as color. That's the only point where I break from JJ's (and some of the expanded universe) canon and I do so purely to make the game more fun. I would hate for someone to, for example, ask to play a Vulcan and have to tell them "sorry, Vulcans cost 180 points"

Last edited by BaronVonStevie; 01-10-2012 at 08:37 PM.
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Old 01-10-2012, 08:32 PM   #44
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Quote:
I was wondering what you are doing for Starships.
I'm looking at GURPS, GURPS: Prime Directive, Decipher's Star Trek RPG, and Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG for starship combat rules. I'm cherry picking around and looking for what works. I'm watching certain episodes of TOS and, as I said earlier, mainly Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country. A hit location and effects table and a better system for deflector shields are my first priorities. I also want to come up with a system where power failure factors in. There are certain style issues that I have with how those four games I mentioned run space combat. Sometimes they're in the right ball park. Starship combat in Star Trek should be pretty brutal stuff.. I don't get the right sense of chaos and danger from any of the previous systems I've seen.
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Old 01-10-2012, 11:39 PM   #45
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

If your players don't mind actual wargames, you could do worse than check out Federation Commander from ADB or Star Fleet:ACTA by Mongoose.

FedCom is very similiar to the old FASAtrek ship combat system (but is an actual wargame), plays fast, and is easily modded for RPG stuff. Yeah, its based off SFB, but it dumps 99% of the tedious stuff that made playing SFB painful.

ACTA doesn't have energy tracking, and is more of a squadron/fleet game, but it IS brutal, and is easily adaptable for an RPG game.
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Old 01-11-2012, 05:01 AM   #46
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In TOS, there are examples of Spock showing great strength and examples of Spock being as strong as humans. Same with Romulans (Kirk handles Romulans easily in hand to hand during the Enterprise Incident)
That's probably not equal strength so much as Kirk's super awesome Space Karate - 25 skill.

In "This Side of Paradise" (IIRC), Kirk baits Spock in order to free him from the influence of the plant spores. In this fight Spock is denting the wall metal of the Enterprise (that stuff takes Scotty a while to cut through with a phaser in other episodes). Kirk takes a few such blows... But this would be a good use of the hysterical strength build, instead of making Spock always strong.
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Old 01-11-2012, 11:38 AM   #47
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

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Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie View Post
I perfer to give bonuses to strength among the common Trek species as color. That's the only point where I break from JJ's (and some of the expanded universe) canon and I do so purely to make the game more fun. I would hate for someone to, for example, ask to play a Vulcan and have to tell them "sorry, Vulcans cost 180 points"
My Vulcans have 3x human strength and only cost 50 points. How did I do it?
  • My Vulcans don't automatically have Mind Meld (15 pts). They have at least Telepath Talent: +1 (5 points) though.
  • My Vulcans don't automatically have Vulcan Neck Pinch (30+ pts because I made Pressure Secrets a prerequisite, which requires Trained By A Master, which costs 30 points).
  • My Vulcans do have -24 points worth of disadvantages, including a -10 Vulnerability to nitrous oxide (which is canon if you consider the animated series canon, which many people don't).
  • My Vulcans' "17" Strength (=3x human) is done using 14 Strength plus three levels of Lifting Strength (because Luther says it gives a "more realistic damage-strength ratio").
In short, I cheated.

It is interesting to see how my and BaronVonStevie's Vulcan's compare to each other. I would say most differences can be ascribed to personal preferences in campaign setting/style. If I had to find fault, I would say that his Vulcan Neck Pinch is too cheap. However, if he allows phaser stun to work as per canon, i.e. all but guaranteed to work, then it probably needs to be cheap.

I look forward to more templates and martial arts styles, BaronVonStevie.

Last edited by Captain Joy; 04-27-2013 at 06:33 PM.
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Old 01-11-2012, 05:12 PM   #48
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

If we want Vulcans to be strong and affordable, we're going to have to take a few liberties... We might be able to bring down the cost of the ST, but let's come up with some points too.

On the issue of Vulcan emotions, maybe include all the mental disadvantages they would have without their logical discipline, with a mitigator of periodic meditation to suppress them...

Vulcan Emotions [-15]
Bad Temper, Berserk, Bloodlust, Jealousy, Paranoia
Mitigator, Weekly Meditation, Surak's disciplines, -70%

I listed it with the Monthly treatment value rather than weekly, because you can administer your treatment yourself and you don't need a Pharmacy. A mitigator like this may not pass the RAW (not sure) due to that, but it seems like a good compromise.

Part 2 is bringing down the cost of the ST, Maybe something based on Pact? A GM Pact to "Only use ST bonuses when In genre" Spock never throws someone across the room when a nerve pinch will do, a punch is just so primitive! That still leaves the debate of what "In Genre" means exactly, and what it's value should be, but hopefully this is a good notion for helping solve the conundrum.
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Old 01-12-2012, 03:36 AM   #49
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

While Vulcans are stronger than humans I don't think there is much about them that suggests they should get the full extra HPs for the extra strength. High HT and FP yes, but they don't carry that extra strength around with the extra mass HPs usually entail. Maybe reduced HPs, or just have extra lifting and striking strength... and yes, Vulcans don't usually go around showing off that extra strength.

Romulans (until the current film) I don't think were ever shown with extra strength, so you had to come to the strange conclusion that logic apparently made you stronger. Definitely a good change for the film.

Klingons didn't really demonstrate any extra strength in the original series. Maybe more aggression, but I am fairly sure their expansionism was claimed to be down to being resource poor (like the later Cardassians). I wouldn't disagree with extra strength from their TNG depiction onwards, but not by much... a large part of it could be to be due to a focus on martial activities, rather than an innate racial bonus.
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Old 01-12-2012, 06:58 AM   #50
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Default Re: my "GURPS: Star Trek" game

Quote:
Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker View Post
On the issue of Vulcan emotions, maybe include all the mental disadvantages they would have without their logical discipline, with a mitigator of periodic meditation to suppress them...

Vulcan Emotions [-15]
Bad Temper, Berserk, Bloodlust, Jealousy, Paranoia
Mitigator, Weekly Meditation, Surak's disciplines, -70%

I listed it with the Monthly treatment value rather than weekly, because you can administer your treatment yourself and you don't need a Pharmacy. A mitigator like this may not pass the RAW (not sure) due to that, but it seems like a good compromise.
This is a fantastic idea and I consider your use of mitigator to be completely RAW.

I'd like to model the gradual deterioration that would occur if a Vulcan were to stop meditating. I.e. I don't want the full effect of the mental disadvantage(s) to take effect the instant he misses a meditation session. To that end:
  1. -2 Bad Temper (15) (-5 points, Mitigator (daily meditation: -60%)
  2. -3.5 Bad Temper (12) (-10 points, Mitigator (weekly meditation: -65%)
  3. -4.5 Bad Temper (9) (-15 points, Mitigator (monthly meditation: -70%)
You could imagine the above as three stages of deterioration.

My question is, what should this actually cost? Certainly not the sum of all three. Maybe just the value of the most expensive one, the other two stages being considered 0 points features?

I am aware that -4.5 (and -3.5) should be rounded to -4 (and -3). I am aware that mental disadvantages in addition to and/or instead of Bad Temper might be more appropriate for Vulcans. Let's table that for now. What I'm wondering about is the fair point cost to charge for this specific example. Extrapolating this example to include the cost of additional and/or different mental disadvantages should then be trivial.
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