RPG Retro Review | Star Trek the Role-Playing Game 

The starship combat simulator is still a ton of fun and the thick color hex counters for the ships are remarkable, especially for the time it was produced. Add in the ship recognition manuals and construction manual and it's a fantastic stand-alone war game. Love it! The RPG was good, but to me the real genius of the RPG was making a coherent timeline out of the original series, the animated series, the first movies, and a dose of the novels. That's a serious triumph.

Ok I have to say, back in the day having a map that detailed would have been perfect for setting up your own games. Having the map can make it very cerebral. The content of rules and background were detailed, one would expect the map to be the same. Additionally, it was obviously created by fans. So many episodes to recreate, having the map makes that possible expanding into off set scenes or what if... what if the episode was dealt with differently.

The Star Trek RPG was incredibly well supported. The game itself was a little awkward but it captured the mood of TOS and the cartoon. Modiphius has done a good job of capturing the TNG era in its Star Trek game.

I never played this back then, and would like to see the starship combat, for that we got into Star Fleet Battles, the game you need to be an engineer to play.

Compared the Star Fleet Battles, this game was like a vacation. I played it a couple of times in different iterations. I remember using the away team using just a basic exploration adventure with some of those, i think Star Frontier aliens... Great game, and great memories because of it.

For us, 90 percent of the game was the extensive character creation. We had one guy who just got stuck at the Academy for his whole career 😂

Happy years in the mid 80s playing it. Long Live FASA Trek.

During lockdown I was the only one who stayed in my dorm and got really into watching Star Trek TOS while painting minis and bought the FASA 2nd edition, the starship simulator and the two deckplans. Haven't used the rpg yet but the starship game is quite fun

I've got a copy of the Star Trek Role Playing game printed in 1983. I remember playing a few times back in the day. I also have the Star Trek III Starship Combat game. That was well-loved and played many times. Good stuff. Great review.

Great video! To this day it’s still the best game for playing Star Trek. Everything else relied on gimmicks or had limited use of the IP. Or both. I think one thing about this version that doesn’t get talked about is that FASA Was able to use the license forever, because Paramont basically ignored it forever. Most IP games don’t have that luxury and it allowed them to develop a very deep set of support materials.

FASA Star Trek is one of my favourite "not D&D" RPGs. I have both this 1st edition and the Deluxe 2nd ed. with the newer Starship Combat Simulator. I've been printing FASA scale starships for it too! Great video as always!

Never had much interest in a Star Trek RPG, but I love Federation Commander, after watching this video i'm thinking if someone could manage to tie these 2 systems together it could be a hell of a lot of fun. Ive got a few friends that enjoy Star Trek, RPGs, and Federation Commander, I might need to give this some thought.

I don't expect it happen, but I'd love it if you took a look at Jovian Chronicles, a Gundam-inspired mecha TRRPG revolving around space, giant robots, politics, and the living the life of a youngster trying to navigate the galaxy.

After I watched your review, I found a complete copy of the boxed set. I picked it up for AU$90! It was being sold by Lifeline Australia on eBay. All thanks to your review reminding me of this classic version of the Star Trek Role-Playing Game. Thanks, mate.

Awesome video! Thanks for the shout out and upcoming review of my new Dark Wizard Games Village on the Borderlands module!

I bought the original box set of the FASA Star Trek RPG at a sci-fi/fantasy convention the first weekend in April 1983. It was one of the first RPGs I played and only the second RPG that I GM'd (the first being Champions 1st edition). I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the materials well researched and very good source material. I bought a lot the supplements including the Enterprise deck plans, the Starship Combat simulator, races, and several adventure modules. I ran it a little for my high school buddies but it really took off after I went to college and ran it there. Both groups made horrible mistakes with the first published adventure, The Vanished. The caveat is like you mentioned: this is not meant to be a shoot-em-up RPG; it is more cerebral and requires more diplomacy. I found some of the rules very laborious and clunky, like the movement/Action Point system but I enjoyed the well-thought out character creation and percentile skill system.

EXCELLENT!! I just came across this, and I actually requested it a while back! Can't wait to finally see it! This game brings back so many memories from college!!! I still think it's one of the best RPG systems around.

The first time I remember seeing that AP system was in GDWs Snapshot! , a Traveler adjacent board game.

You know what's awesome about sci/fi TTRPGs? You can pull from any Sci/fi setting and drop it into your universe. Just like with fantasy rpgs. Mine is a Star-wars analog without the War and politics and Emperor. Star Fleet is presented as a private corporation that explores for habitable planets and handles migration and imports needed resources to settlers. Sometimes security is contracted though there are other groups who will provide this service like the Republic. A Star-Wars Republic analog and the Free Alliance of Planets ( FAP ), for colonies that want to outsource their government to a proven effective and efficient, though totalitarian management company. they are an Empire analog. These analogs are easily recognized by players and let me use Star-Wars minies when called for. Does Star-track have a 28mm game? But this is mostly background as my game is run as a Traveller Far Trader game. The "Empire" and "Star Fleet" just serve as space police with different jurisdictions.

Thank you for another great video! You may wish to take a trip up to Ticonderoga NY. There is a Star Trek set tour there. The owner took the original plans from Paramount and built a very accurate replica of all of the ship sets. You even get to sit in the Captain’s chair!

Also, I love Star Trek. As far as the older series go (TOS to enterprise) TNG has always been my favorite. And it's nice to know that you're a fellow trekkie as well. I look forward to your next review. Game on!

The staggered initiative sounds like they ended up using in Battletech. My father has a copy of this, but we never played it when I was young.

Cool This is a game I would like to play. Ya boot camp for me was in 1987, oh the good old days

I'm happily surprised to see so many comments on this video. First Edition has its problems, but 2nd edition did not fix any and made things more complicated with several missed opportunities.

I have some version of that game. I also have the Last Unicorn Games, Decipher and current Modiphius rules.

Thanks for the heart, Captcorajus and thanks to whoever for the like. I promise not to get stuck in a time loop with the thanks from now on.

Great vid, Cap. I picked it up in the 80s during that era, pre-tng. I ran another session way later - the team had to rescue a cardassian defector behind enemy lines.

I ordered a couple troll Game On shirts about a month ago. Still waiting on the 2nd shirt to ship, though. I think I'll need to contact t-spring. First shirt is awesome, though!

I had this along with a couple starship supplement as well as the Klingon supplement. Never really got to play it as a kid as it was a little much for me and my friend. Instead we just played Starfleet Battles to get our starship combat fix.

Great vid as always. I love this game. I was overseas when it came out and did not purchase it until years later, but then I pretty much bought everything FASA released for Star Trek RPG books as well as a number of the miniature packs.

what you're missing with this, is it was back up for FASA's big project- Star Fleet Battles which was a ship to ship wargame. that was their big deal so of course that bled into their RPG

I was a Star Trek fan, but a bigger Star Wars fan at the time, so never tried out this game. Several of my friends and I in high school did play the tactical space simulator add on to the game and had fun with that, but by that point the WEG D6 Star Wars game was out and we played a lot of that.

This one of my go to games back in the day and I absolutely loved it Currently trying to get my kids into it.

Looks like a really great old school RPG.

Omg you are bringing back some Memories Captain!!! 😊

I still have my FASA Star Trek stuff, though it is a bit worse for wear.

Great video, the Star Trek RPG looks neat! I used to have Traveler and it was so confusing! Thanks for the shout out and upcoming review of my new Dark Wizard Games Village on the Borderlands module!

Captain, I’m and original series and animated series fan too, not that I don’t like all the other offerings. I was unaware that this game existed and would love to try it out with my group if our 1e DnD campaign fatigues us. Great view as always.

Thanks! Another interesting review - much appreciated.

I have a feeling someone at interplay a fan of the FASA Star Trek RPG when they made the first fallout game combat system. Fallout originally started as a licensed GURPS game before becoming its own IP. The action point system reminds me of fallout 1 and 2 turn based combat system.

Captain that was a very good concise description and explanation of the Star Trek RPG. I was particularly impressed since you had to describe the role-playing game mechanics, unlike when you do most dungeons & dragons reviews.

Thanks.

JOGGING WITH GEORGE IS BAD ASS

You didn't get a pair of 20-sided d10 in your purchase? No worries. They were all different colors, very sharp edges.

I was a big starfleet battle fan

FASA starship designs!

I actually think that the Star Trek universe and style is better suited for roleplay than Star Wars. But sadly my friends never liked Trek like I did, so this was a non-starter. I can also do without the wargame style space combat that you also see in some more modern sci-fi games. It is almost like "now we put this roleplay game aside and take out this boardgame" to run a space battle.

Jogging with George Takei, Oh My.....

the original star trek intro is phrased "To boldly go where no (MAN) has gone before. you said no (ONE)..that's next generation.

No index? That is a highly-altered pdf you have been showing. Page 3 of the actual paper book: "Table of Contents", full page replete with detailed listings. Plus a glossary of terms, an overall logical layout that proceeds from topic to topic in a well-ordered manner. At the time, no one was printing color interiors, so black and white is par for the course. That there are so many photos is highly uncommon and as compared to inserted artwork in any other game systems, this rule book is bursting with content to delight any Trek fan. Page layout is standard two column, par for the course. Spelling errors are fully attributed to the sub-5 month development-to-release schedule. A herculean effort, at the least. I think you say you can forgive 1st edition typos, it also sounds like you say you can't. John Wheeler's 2nd edition introduced their own typos, errors and missed opportunities.

Good job, Captcorajus. Too bad about the style and presentation scores, But, hey, at least value was a critical hit, and you were forgiven even with the lower scores. Good for you running or jogging with George. It must feel like a role-playing game, because you need stamina to keep up his him. Usually when it comes to Patriotism, Military, Politics, Celebrity News or Social Stuff I will tell someone that I can't hold up my end of the conversation, but I'm willing to listen. So, I don't want to mislead you into thinking I know a lot on those topics, but that being said, just as a fellow human being I appreciate you attending basic training for our Country. I never had done so myself and I respect you for it. Besides loyalty to Country, you just tried to help out your fellow man or citizens. I can't claim that honor. Thank you.

I would love to play this but my players just are not that...well, they just aren't there. Sounds amazing though!

I have never liked Star trek but I at least know that the video will be interesting. 😊

FASA Trek, but as Klingons!!

FASA books are known for their terrible binding. I have numerous Shadowrun and Battletech books that started falling apart almost immediately after buying them.

Great review, thanks. Ugh, I got this game years ago and never ran it, as I just hated the action point system -- felt like it instantly removed me from the role playing and became just mechanical. But maybe I should've given it more of a chance. There was a great independent version of a Trek RPG called "Far Trek" which I think you can still download somewhere...

Thanks for the like to whomever.

I just found out this exists. Now I want to play it. Thanks! (Hopefully the modern editions are good. Because hopefully they're a lot more accessible with sturdier rule books. I've no interest in going through eBay). Also, didn't you say the last video you were going to do a module called dreams of the red wizards? (I don't remember the name exactly). What happened with that?

How would you compare it to Prime Directive and the fasa Doctor Who system?

I can't imagine having to run 2 miles right now...

I purchased a shrink wrapped version of the game with the original cover art, but I never got a any of the charts nor diagrams you're displaying here, and it was the FASA game, not the earlier purple planet box art version. You really needed good bright players to have a session. I had a friend who was pretty bright and street savvy, but he had issues with some of the science oriented clues. He just couldn't get into the non hack-n-slash mode of play, which made it challenging administering an adventure for him. I got the basic rules, a book of charts and tables, but no deck plans and no other graphics and no counters. I was used to administering Traveller adventures, but even so I have him and others plenty of targets to phaser. As for adventures ... I did not know FASA had published so many. I purchased an update for ST3, but no other supps. Especially since the local game store didn't stock a lot of STRPG stuff. I spent a lot of money for two 2d20s, two game books and a few character sheets. Seeing your vid makes me angry that I spent top dollar on a game that gave me a fraction of what you got. I was a huge ST fan up through the 70s and 80s until Star Trek the Next Generation hit the fan. Klingons and Romulans had their psychologies switched, you could no longer fight other starships at FTL velocities, and the show itself was dumbed down many shades to make it more accessible to children and older audiences who were more ordinary folks than the bright audience that original ST fans predominantly tended to be. Note all the martial arts moves that Kirk and other character executed. Then note the lack of fisticuffs in TNG, along with the purely laughable episode of Riker fighting his father in "the ultimate development of the martial arts". The list just goes on and on. Original Trek dealt with smart bad guys who often had psychiatric issues; psychopaths and megalomaniacs. Everything with Picard and gang was not plot driven, but designed to be family therapy episodes. How insulting. I don't watch Trek anymore, and never will again, but I did have high hopes for this game, but feel that I got screwed after watching this video. And yes, I did SFB, but there I found a lot of meta gamers ... and boy was it agitating. I just don't understand why I could never get a straight generic vanilla flavored gaming group, and why the sociologists changed Star Trek's fundamentals so much to the point of it being unrecognizable. And why it seemed like I was the only one who saw the fundamental changes ... and why people still watch the garbage that is anything that came after the original series and its feature films. I just don't get it. I really don't. I don't do Trek anymore, but wish that there was an over ruling licensing manager like Lucas used to have to keep the setting consistent. But I guess that's asking for too much ... to hell with Berman and Braga; "This ain't your father's Star Trek!" No kidding.

1st edition is best for TOS/TAS. 2nd edition is better for the first six movies. For any other trek series, look for other RPG systems! FASA Trek rules DO NOT translate to other eras at all for the tech disparity alone.

1:34 At least you didn't have a clinically insane middle eastern mother who thought that all of Star Trek was devil worship, and called up my friends to tell them not to play any games with me, especially Star Trek games (RPGs, SFB, etc.) and others because of her beliefs.:

I believe that’s “where no man has gone before” you didn’t really have to sanitize it did you?

This might be a strange question but can someone with average intelligence play this game?

* My Star Trek gaming group has always preferred the FASA 2nd edition version, but we're not fans of J.J. Abrams Star Trek. So, in the game we've ignored everything that's come out after Star Trek Nemesis and the Star Trek Enterprise tv series except "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and "Star Trek: Picard". Our campaign is called *Star* *Trek* *The* *Lost* *Era* *Campaign.* It takes place aboard the *USS* *Enterprise* *NCC-1701-B* Excelsior-class battleship explorer in the year *2328* - *Stardate:* *15187.5.* From 2314 to 2335 the stardate time progression rate(TPR) is 250 stardate units per year. We don't use "Reference Stardates". * We just say that Reference Stardates are used by U.E.S.P.A.(United Earth Space Probe Agency), the "Merchant Marines" and basically any United Earth ship with the designation "SS"(which stands for "Space Ship") that is technically *not* a "starship", as opposed to "USS"(which stands for "United Starfleet Starship"). Our Gamemaster uses the Spock dialog and music at the end of "Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan" whenever we complete what he calls "The Pre-titles Sequence". The Gamemaster will also coordinate with the player running the Captain, to come up with his "Captain's Log, Stardate Dialog". * We have one Gamemaster, and 4 players. Each player has a character tree of 3 characters, because in this game, if you only have 1 character, if your character dies, you may be out of the game for a long time as you frantically try to write up another one while the game is in session. We will typically vote to see who will be the Captain, First Officer and so forth. At least, 1 of our characters will be a member of the bridge crew. One of our characters will be a science officer of some type(medical officers also fall under this category, they *are* scientists after all). * Also, bear in mind that a Tactical Officer *is* a type of Security Guard Officer, and falls under that department/division. Being a Tactical Officer has a lot to do with the security of the ship. Tactical Officers can also sometimes serve as Security Guard Officers for Landing Party/Away Team missions. All 4 of us have a Tactical Officer/Security Guard character, each one responsible for 1 of the 4 fire arcs of the ship(whether your talking about phasers, photon torpedoes, shields, or tracker beams). Our Gamemaster tries to rotate us every game session so that all 4 of us get an equal amount of action with the ship's weapons. Where it stands right now, *Player* *#1's* characters are: the *Captain,* a *Science* *Officer* and a *Tactical/Security* *Officer.* * Then, *Player* *#2's* characters are: the *First* *Officer* (Executive Officer), the *Chief* *Medical* *Officer* (Chief Surgeon), and a *Tactical/Security* *Officer.* Then, *Player* *#3's* characters are: the *Chief* *Science* *Officer,* the *Chief* *Flight* *Control* *Officer* (Helm specialist), and a *Tactical/Security* *Officer.* Finally, *Player* *#4's* characters are: the *Chief* *Engineering* *Officer,* the *Chief* *Tactical/Security* *Officer,* and a *Science* *Officer.* That always *seems* to be the fairest way to even it up. * Our Gamemaster will almost always run: the "Chief Operations Management Officer", a "Flight Control Officer"(Navigation specialist), other "Science Officers"(of various specializations), the "Chief Communications Officer", the "Chief Mission Operations Officer", the "Engineering Officers", the "Medical Officers"(doctors of various specializations), the "Chief Environmental Systems Officer", the "Chief Transporter Officer"(Transporter Chief), the "Chief Supply Officer", the "Nurses" and the "Head Nurse", the "Yeomen" and the "Ship's Counselor"(Science Officer: Psychology Specialist). * Then what we do, is we roll a 20 sider, to see what order we get to choose our characters Race or Species in, and we just go around the table in order of who rolled highest, and so on. This way, we don't have to listen to: "Hey! I wanted to run the Ferengi dammit!" lol. Another reason why each player has a character tree, is because, in this game, sometimes the action is going to be taking place on the bridge for hours, and at other times all the action is taking place down on the planet surface for hours, still at other times the action could be taking place at both locales simultaneously. A character tree is a way to almost ensure that at least one of your characters is going to be present wherever the current action is taking place, and will most likely be able to join in the fun. * Gamers who play this game, and didn't follow these simple guidelines, probably gave a very poor review of this game, but if you play it, following these simple steps, it can not only make it more lively and a lot of fun, but it can make it feel like Star Trek 100%. Let the first 1-3 game sessions be nothing but character write ups. For starship combat and battles, we use the *Star* *Trek* *Starship* *Tactical* *Combat* *Simulator* boxed set. The first actual gaming session for us was "The Kobayashi Maru", and we didn't even know it. He called it something else, and changed it up a bit, but it was *still* a no-win scenario believe me lol. * We also have a 2nd campaign. We call it *Star* *Trek* *The* *Next* *Generation* *Era* *Campaign.* It takes place in *2387* - *Stardate:* *64595.0.* Eight years after "Star Trek Nemesis". Picard is the Commander-In-Chief of the *United* *Starfleet* *of* *the* *United* *Federation* *of* *Planets.* "Captain Kirk" is the commander of the *USS* *Belle* *Reve* *NCC-80105* Luna-class medium cruiser explorer(starting with the novel "Star Trek Ashes of Eden". Ending with "Star Trek Captain's Glory"). * Also, "Noonien Soong" becomes Data(as per the novel called - Star Trek The Next Generation: Cold Equations "The Persistence of Memory"), and is promoted to the rank of "Captain", where he is given command of the *USS* *Enterprise* *NCC-1701-E* Sovereign-class tactical command cruiser(as per the "Star Trek Countdown" 4 issue comic book mini-series). "Captain Scott" has died 4 years prior while in command of the *USS* *Challenger* *NCC-71099* Galaxy-class super cruiser(as per the novel called "Star Trek Indistinguishable from Magic"). * However, "Captain Troi"(Riker) is still in command of the *USS* *Titan* *NCC-80102* Luna-class medium cruiser explorer(starting with the novel "Star Trek Taking Wing"). *Our* ship, is the *USS* *Odyssey* *NCC-71832* Galaxy X-class dreadnought cruiser explorer. We use the Last Unicorn rules for this campaign. Star Trek at its best, was when you were at the edge of understanding, having a very unique experience, and well beyond where anyone has gone..............before..................(cue the music)🖖