As me and my co-players have never played Traveller before (we play Savage Worlds, which can handle sci-fi very well) and we don't want to learn new system, can the new Prime Directive book still be useful to us? I am a fan of Star Trek and I would like to get cool advice/information/fluff on how to run a ST game.
Prime Directive as system neutral source book?
- Thread starter jux
- Start date
I would be incline to Say: Yes and No.
The PD core book would definitively help you by providing background information, History, Race, ships, weapon, etc. that could be integrated in your game (keeping in mind that prime Directive is closer to the Oeriginal Star Trek Serie with Kirk).
However, I'm not sure how easy the conversion would be Though. Traveller is a d6 system and it might be tough to convert. What might help would be to look at the D20 or GURPS 4th Ed. version. They might be easier to convert and provide more material.
The PD core book would definitively help you by providing background information, History, Race, ships, weapon, etc. that could be integrated in your game (keeping in mind that prime Directive is closer to the Oeriginal Star Trek Serie with Kirk).
However, I'm not sure how easy the conversion would be Though. Traveller is a d6 system and it might be tough to convert. What might help would be to look at the D20 or GURPS 4th Ed. version. They might be easier to convert and provide more material.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Conversion over to Savage Worlds will be the key no matter which PD book you get. Stuff you can make use of will be the maps of the federation and various empires border it, and the skill list. Hopefully, Savage Worlds has similar space and skill rules in its Space book.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Boneguard said:
Savage Worlds is closer to Serenity with its die mechanic. GURPS is too crunchy. Mongoose Traveller is crunch-lite. Traveller 20 is D20 (some people love the D20). GURPS and Mongoose both have point-buy CharGen like Savage Worlds does. I don't know if T20 uses stock D20 CharGen or something more Traveller-ish. The PD source material and skills/careers will be the same though. I don't know if SW has classes or not. I love that MgT is a class-less RPG, and that point-buy is optional.
Actually I am not interested about converting much mechanics. Like Gygax said - roll the dice just hear the sound they make. What I want is fluff, story, plots, background, adventure seeds, inspirational art, etc ... that you don't get from the TV series. The original series is fine ... I'd play it in the re-make edition anyway 
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Prime Directive is not exactly Star Trek from the '60s or from the cartoons. There was a split in the universe around 1973, party due to Franz Joseph and the S.T.A.R. folks at SDSU that were trying to get a Star Trek show on TV again. Long story short, a book called the Starfleet Technical Manual was published. From that book, the Starfleet Universe was created. That universe was a more military version of the UFP (see Dreadnought-class ships from 1973-1975 era). Starfleet Battles is set in that universe. And so is Prime Directive. The universe has nothing to do with later Star Trek movies and TV shows.jux said:Actually I am not interested about converting much mechanics. Like Gygax said - roll the dice just hear the sound they make. What I want is fluff, story, plots, background, adventure seeds, inspirational art, etc ... that you don't get from the TV series. The original series is fine ... I'd play it in the re-make edition anyway
If you are a fan of the old SFTM book (order on Amazon), then you absolutely have to get the PD book.
Greg Smith
Mongoose
jux said:Actually I am not interested about converting much mechanics. Like Gygax said - roll the dice just hear the sound they make. What I want is fluff, story, plots, background, adventure seeds, inspirational art, etc ... that you don't get from the TV series. The original series is fine ... I'd play it in the re-make edition anyway
Then might I suggest either FASA Trek (which had loads of adventures) or Last Unicorn's version. Both are quite old now, but they may be a better fit for TV/Movie Trek than Prime Directive in terms of fluff. Of course, you will have to find them on ebay or second hand.
The background fluff is the same for PD:GURPS and PD
20, and these were greatly expanded from what was in PD version one. There's a core rulebook that has a bunch of general fluff, and then books for Feds, Klingons, and Romulan each of which do waaay in-depth with all sorts of fluff for each empire.
As some have mentioned, the general history diverged from the show, but a lot of the fluff is more-or-less the same as ST:TOS / ST:TAS (not so much for ST:TNG and not at all for ST:E).
20, and these were greatly expanded from what was in PD version one. There's a core rulebook that has a bunch of general fluff, and then books for Feds, Klingons, and Romulan each of which do waaay in-depth with all sorts of fluff for each empire.As some have mentioned, the general history diverged from the show, but a lot of the fluff is more-or-less the same as ST:TOS / ST:TAS (not so much for ST:TNG and not at all for ST:E).
It looks like the OP knows this, but those unfamiliar with Savage Worlds might not: there isn't really going to be a formulaic, mechanical rules conversion from any of these systems into SW. So there's nothing to choose between or worry about there.
The question then becomes what version has the best GMing advice and most extensive setting material. Which... this thread still leaves me puzzled on. (I don't know myself.) Any decisive suggestions? Anyone seen Mongoose's draft and know if its worth waiting for, as a system-neutral resource?
The question then becomes what version has the best GMing advice and most extensive setting material. Which... this thread still leaves me puzzled on. (I don't know myself.) Any decisive suggestions? Anyone seen Mongoose's draft and know if its worth waiting for, as a system-neutral resource?
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Saladman said:
GMing advise? Non existent. As for setting, the PD books have the same fluff in them depending on the layout of the book and how many pages they could fit in after the game rules (each version builds on the previous fluff, so maybe Traveller's will have some new stuff in it). The fluff can be removed anyway and ST:TNG stuff thrown in for a game.
Sgt_G said:The background fluff is the same for PD:GURPS and PD
That's why I mentionned PD:d20 or PD:GURPS. On top of the Corebook (Which traveller will have soon) The 3 main factions already have their own sourcebook under these 2 systems...and GURPS also have a extra book (Module Prime Alpha) that collect a lot of rules and stuff and has a lot of detail for the Hydran.
ShawnDriscoll said:
Impossible.
Although it would be interesting, they won't be able to do so due to copyright.
As ShawnDriscoll mentionned earlier, there was a split. PD is allowed to used stuff from 'before' the split but anything that came 'after' is off limit. So anything from most ST movies, ST:TNG, ST
S9, ST:V and ST:E cannot legally be added to the PD game.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
??? You're saying GMs can't use fluff from other sources for their game sessions?Boneguard said:
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
PD books don't even mention Star Trek if I recall.
Indeed they do not. That's part of the copyright impossibility I mentionned above.ShawnDriscoll said:
In the Starfleet forum, I had -unknowingly- mentioned 2 races from the Star Trek franchise that I wanted to convert to PD. That had to take it off as it was infringing copyright...they were not mad at me and I still have the email they sent me to explain the situation.
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Looking at my GURPS Federation now. That's interesting. A sourcebook mentioning '60s Star Trek. From TV to RPG. That's the fork in the timeline that Franz Joseph and others used to create the Starfleet Universe origin from.
We can mention ST in our books so as to tell folks that it ISN'T strictly ST, but rather the Star Fleet Universe. By our contract with Paramount, we cannot do (and that means allowing on the forums) any TNG or later supporting materials. No Borg, no Cardassians. Our Klingons are the TOS Klingons. However, we have a bunch of new empires and new species -- we just have to be careful not to do look-alikes: no Sporgs that fly around in cubes forcing empires to join them. Out of courtesy we also don't support cross-IP efforts, so no Daleks or Drazi (green or purple).
The GURPS PD book has a lot of information in it.
The PD20M (Prime Directive that is compatible with d20 Modern) is also good for some career paths.
The sourcebooks for PD20M (and GURPS Federation) were all re-edited to make some of the weapons data more consistent.
You can find out some about the Star Fleet Universe with the FREE download of Introduction to the Star Fleet Universe: Prime Directive and Roleplaying (http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB8000).
The GURPS PD book has a lot of information in it.
The PD20M (Prime Directive that is compatible with d20 Modern) is also good for some career paths.
The sourcebooks for PD20M (and GURPS Federation) were all re-edited to make some of the weapons data more consistent.
You can find out some about the Star Fleet Universe with the FREE download of Introduction to the Star Fleet Universe: Prime Directive and Roleplaying (http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB8000).
Greg Smith
Mongoose
If you can find it, The Last Unicorn Original Series Narrator's Toolkit has some of the best advice for running a Trek game.
This one: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series_-_Narrator%27s_Toolkit
This one: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series_-_Narrator%27s_Toolkit
